Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Lobster for Christmas

What's the difference between a French Christmas and an American one?

(Besides the fact that they call it Noël and we call it Christmas.)

Liver paste for a starter and not cranberry sauce, raw oysters and huge lobsters as opposed to huge turkey and honey baked ham, Christmas cake from a famous bakery and not homemade pumpkin pie, and no mashed potatoes! Yeah, that is what is different.

Christmas was wonderful. It was so much better than I thought it would be. I had secretly been dreading the thought of spending another awkwardChristmass with another foreign family. However, I had also known that if I didn't spend it with someone who was happy then I would be unhappy for weeks afterwards.

So, I spent the day with Jb and his family and all I can say is that they are an awesome bunch of people. Even though I am pretty much unable to communicate with them in their own language, and I don't have any funny stories about the past like they do, I still felt like they wanted me to be included in the fun. They gave me presents for cripes sake! I wasn't expecting that at all. I felt kind of silly because all I had gotten for them was a box of chocolates. (They were really nice chocolates, but still if I had known, things would have been different!)

*Mental note to self: Don't believe Jb, next time he tells me that all I need to bring is chocolates.

There was so much chocolate given and received in the form of gifts that you could probably kill 25- 30 dogs with it. (If you were really mean, and or liked killing dogs. Which by the way I am not predisposed to doing, unless they are eating the chicken on my families farm, then I am.) Two huge, oh, wait let me make that, HUGE, jars of Nutella were given, as well as multiple boxes of various chocolate. Hmmm...I think perhaps the family has an addiction? I like them even more now.

Anywho, it was an awesome time and I am glad that I was able to spend it with such great people.

In other news:
Life is still good and I am glad that I am on vacation still. I have been sleeping till all hours of the day/afternoon, and I love it! He he he, sleep is great.
I talked to my Pop and two little sisters today on the phone as well as Mrs. Slattery and Colleen for a bit. I just kept babbling on and on, so I think perhaps they think I am insane, but I don't mind.
I also got a phone call from my very good friend Ewa this evening! I haven't heard her voice in 6-7 months so I was super surprised when she called me, out of the blue. Actually, I was even more surprised by the call 'cause I was in the bath. I didn'trecognizee her voice at first and she thought that was funny. I felt like a fool.
Nothing new there though, as I am almost daily participating in a situation of feeling not as smart as I usually do, because Jb is smarter than me and I find that is weird.
I got an invitationn from aunt Bethany to come out and see her and uncle Dave this summer when I am home in the states and I think that would be really fun to do. I feel fairly distant from all of my aunts and uncles, and cousins, and what have you. It will be nice to get to know a little more about the Krump blood.

I'm gonna go watch Ushuaïa with Jb now. Its a nature show kind of like a National Geographic type deal. Very cool if I do say so myself! It goes all over the world and into the most beautiful and exotic places.

By the way: Yes, I do realize that I have been a very bad blogger of late, but as there is no way that any of you can punish me for my lack of words, (as Nelson of The Simpsons says,) "Ha ha!"

P.s Thank you to all my many friends for visiting me here and saying hello. However, if another person who has been a real part of my past asks me if I remember them I am going to screem! Of course I remember you! As the saying goes: "Elephants never forget!" I'm glad you are doing ok Meg. Write me a real email sometime won't you?

Happy, belated, Christmas everybody! Have a wonderful New Year!

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Well, I am a human still, but that is cool.

Rohirrim
Rohirrim

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by

Two pictures I just stole from Bernadettes blog!


Bad Bernadette! How could you post them before you even sent them to me! Now I have had to steal them from your blog in order to put them on mine! The things I have to go through just to get pictures from people with digital cameras! Hrmph. I tell ya, hardship is not having a camera myself.





Anywho, here is a nice blurry one that Jb took of Bernadette and I being dramatic infront of my favorite tower. Yes, I see her every, single, day! But I still think she is beautiful!














Yeah, I think she has only bad pictures. Ha ha ha, we look pathetic! But there you go world! Now you know what Jb looks like. Bernadette and I decided that he kind of looks like a Bratz doll. after note, this picture was taken moments before I fell down the stairs in LaFayette Shopping centre. Stupid skirts!

Miss Fish

I think it is a she. Well, I want it to be a she anyways. I'm not sure what to name her yet. She is a medium sized fish and she is really a yellowy gold color, not an orangey/redish gold at all. A very pretty fish, if I do say so myself. I bought her last night and then took her with me to eat a crepe and watch a movie. Hey, I'm not weird, it's just that no one else was available for hang out time! My hungarian friends were babysitting, Jb was going to a different movie with other friends, Matt was studying... etc. And I really wanted to see the film before it left the theatre, so I went with my gold fish. By the by she didn't seem too scared of "The Exocism of Emily Rose",even though I was a bit freaked out. Well, it is just that I have seen too much is all, and the fact that I had to take the last train out of Paris by myself at 12:45 am just after seeing it didn't help my over active imagination/guilty conscience trip. Anywho, I was glad Miss Fish was with me, for the comfort of being able to be concerned about her. Transcending my fears and worrying about a fish... is that normal? I don't know.

If anyone has any suggestions for naming her, plaese share.

I was late for work this morning. Which sucks. Bad me. I dropped my phone in Paris and the battery popped out, so I had to reset the time and when I was doing that I forgot to reset my alarm, so I was late. I really need to check to see if my brain is logged on sometimes. It was only the first time, and Chelsea was here, so I hope that Lydie isn't going too be to upset with me when I see her tonight. Ugh. Nobody likes to be yelled at.

One more thing:

I actually got those Disneyland pics up now, they are just after errr...before my last post about Mel and Justin. I forgot to change the date from the saved date to the current date. My bad.

Have a happy fishy day!

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

A gold ring, a lone girl, a visitor or 5, and a gold fish.

Melissa Vanvorde and Justin Enfield are engaged!

Oh, soo cool! They are an awesome couple and I am happy for them both. I knew them both before they even liked each other. Individaully cool, but absolutely awesome as a couple. Their kids are going to have the best senses of humer ever!

So, I seem to be one of the few that escaped Ave Maria without getting engaged. Mwah ha ha ha! Wait, is that a good thing? I dunno, I suppose that if I was meant to love someone there then I would, so it must be a good thing, otherwise I would be in a bad situation. So, my being "Oh, soo single" is really a good thing, it just means that I still have to wait till "he" figures out what God wants.

*"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming"...Oops, I mean: waiting. Yes, that's better. "Just keep waiting, just keep waiting..."*

No big deal. I can handle being alone... As long as I have a friend or two to bide my time with. Wait, I guess that means that I can't really handle being alone. Noo! I am not one of those people am I? No, I can't be, because if I have a book, or a computer to interact with then I can be alone no problem. Ok. So, maybe I am a little bit of a needy person. But so what? Lots of people are. No big deal, right? I mean there are people that are worse than me. They are the clingy ones. Eeew gross: Clingons. :)

So, in other news: This past week has been pretty interesting.

Marissa M., dropped by last, Saturday night, no I mean the one before that, with two other Ave Florida girls. They stayed at my place on sat. night and left for Gaming again on Sunday morning. I enjoyed having them over. They took some good pictures, and I am still waiting for them to email some to me so that I can post 'em up here.

Last Friday, 4 days ago, Angels little sister, Bernadette, stopped by as well. At first it was kind of weird, because we had never really hung out before. I guess I was just expecting her to be like Angel, but of course she is her own being, and anyways how could the world have two Angels! It wouldn't be able to handle them. I turns out that we get along really well and she stayed till Sunday night; We had a few little adventures, thanks mostly to J.b., but I also had a small hand in it. For instance,at my urging, we sneaked/snook into The Louvre on Saturday evening just before it closed. Mona Lisa for free.

On Saturday afternoon, while dragging Bernadette with me, I met up with an old friend of mine from Ireland, Stephanie. She is French, but from the west, and she was in Paris to visit some of her other friends that have moved here. It was good to see her, we haven't seen each other in 6 months. However, she was very preoccupied, with finding a sweater for a party that she was attending that evening, so it wasn't exactly what I had hoped it would be. This is life. You miss someone and want to see them and then when you do they are to busy with other friends, or clothes, to really even talk.

This Sunday, the old nounou of the Delile family flew in from New York. It will be cool to finally meet her. We have talked on the phone a couple times, and IM more than a few times. She seems like a really cool girl. She is busy writing a paper for school right now, but maybe tomorrow we will hang out.

Yesterday I had a good day, but then a not so good evening with Laure, the youngest. I really need to work on figuring her out a little more. She was really just a little monster. I think Lydie was right, I should stop trying to use the reward system on her, it just doesn't work. She just gets even more upset. Blah! It always used to work for me when I was little.

Today I am typing out a list of songs that I think J.b. should download onto his iPod. That ipod is so cool, it is an invaluable part of our walking about. On the metro, Bernadette said that we were like Siamese twins joined at the ear. Which is funny, because it is true. What's really funny is when we start singing along and no one else can hear the song. We are such geeks.
I just tried to put some links in my side bar, but I failed. I will fix that tomorrow if I have the patience then. So, yeah life is still good, even though I didn't get a chance to buy a goldfish yet.

I really want a gold fish!

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Pictures from Disneyland Paris!

Ok, so beneath, in little groups, are some cool pictures of the stuff I got to see at Disneyland three weeks ago. Not all of them were taken by us, I downlaoded a few from the official sight. I wanted you to see what I got to see, but we didn't take enough pictures. In my opinion anyways. It was just that the kids and Lydie had been there a few times already, so it wasn't as much of a novelty for them as it was for me. Hence so few pictures.

Hope you like them though!



Heck yeah! Pirates of the Caribbean! Lydie told me it was the best one at the park, and it was so cool that we went through twice in a row!











A couple of Ladies being auctioned off by the pirates. Poor things.












Ooh, pretty shiny things! Look at all the riches!















(Now, think of different pirates.)

"Captain! Oh Captain look at me!"














Then, when you have his attention he ruins the photo with his hook. How just like a pirate!














Don't do it Wendy, Peter will save you!














Indians!














It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all...etc. etc.















Another famous figure I saw when I was there.



















This is Big Thunder mountain. It was a pretty cool ride.














Just a little sign that reminded me, in the middle of my day dreaming, that I was still in France. (Fastpass enter with ticket.)














This is Sleeping Beauty's catsle. Isn't it beautiful! It was real too, not Poly filler-ish.

One of the floats in the parade. It was really nice I got to wave to Mickey Mouse! I think Goofy, Pluto and Donald were in this one, but I am not sure.


Round and round the merry-go-round!
I was having fun, but it doesn't look like my horse was. It must be the giant pole they shoved through her back. I would probably make that face too if I had one through my back. By the way, the boy next to me is Thomas, the oldest of the three children I mind. And, I have to give props to Aurélie, the middle child, because she took this picture while riding her own horse backwards. Now that is talent!

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

The fulfillment of a childhood dream.

When I was a little girl, living in a suburb of Chicago, I remember one day when my father said that we were going to be touring the local pawn shops that day. There was a pin of some kind that one of my grandfathers had given to my mother a long time ago. It was definitely and antique and this was during one of those times when day was sick and we were seriously out of money. I remember that I was still the only girl in the family, but that I already had 5 brothers. It was before my mom got pregnant with Jubilee, my closest sister. I must have been about 71/2 or 8 years old. Way back when there were really only 3 things I could talk to my brothers about without the threat of getting picked on or pushed aside. We could talk about sports. Mainly baseball, because we were all of us in a league, but we could also talk about basketball. Because at that time Michael Jordan was still the hottest thing around and "Duh Bulls" were doing awesome. We could talk about Mom and dad and how unfair we thought they were, or how cool we thought they were and what kind of presents we thought we could convince them to buy us for Christmas. And we could talk about Disney Land.
I remember seeing how sad my father was that day as we drove around from pawn shop to pawn shop. I also remember what it was my 4 brothers and I were talking about: Disney Land. We all wanted to go so badly. I dreamed Disney dreams, slept in Mickey Mouse sheets, and every night when I saw the first star in the sky I would wish on it that I would be able to fly like Peter Pan. Back then we had one very tiny television, and my father was continually taking it away from us and hiding it so that we would go outside to play, because when we had it we watched Disney movies all day long.
He loved everything Disney too, and was happy that we loved them, but on that day, all of our cheerful dreaming aloud was really hurting him. He knew that we wanted to go there and he knew how much fun we could all have there, but he also, probably, knew that we would never be able to all go as a family. I can't remember exactly who asked it but one of us said 'Pop when can we go to Disney Land?' I was young, but I remember how he was struggling with the answer. He knew that we lived more on the dreams of tomorrow than in our lives of the day. He said that we would all go someday, but that he wasn't sure when. Then I said "But Pop, if we sell the silver thing we will be rich right!? Then we can go to Disney Land can't we?" He smiled at me and said something like 'Yes, if we get rich from selling the pin then we can go to Disney Land.' I was satisfied. I was happy that our days mission might lead to Disney Land. M
When my father stopped at another pawn shop, this one in Cicero, he told us this was the last one and that we could stay in the car if we wanted. Some of us stayed and some of us went. Jonathan, my immediate older brother, and I stayed in the car. We had both seen enough old stuff for the day. I remember what he said to me after dad had been gone for just a few minutes. "We're never going to all be able to go you know? Even if Pop gets a couple hundred bucks, which is a lot, we still can't go. We are one of those families that can never go. We're poor, Ooty, POOR, and there is no way that it will ever happen." When my father came back to the car I had stopped talking about Disney Land. A part of me had died that day. I don't hate Jon for saying it, but I do hate myself for believing him.

Last Friday I went to Disney Land Paris. I wept 3 silent tears as we drove through the gates. The first ride I went on was the Peter Pan one. I didn't spend 1 cent and I saw and did so much. So there Jon Bean! It doesn't matter if you have money or not Captain Hook still gives you a hug if you want one.

I will try to upload the pictures as soon as I figure out how.

After note: In my family we all have nick names. No one really goes by their given name. We always remember to introduce each other by our real names, but we hardly ever use them other wise.
The List of family given nick names:
Dad = Pop/Popper "P" the potomus/ and as we got older "Crazy Pete" behind his back.
Mom = Mom/Mammy/ and Pop calls her Muffin or sometimes Pernelli Muff
Nathan = Gump/Nate
David = Dave/Davie
Jonathan = Jon bean
Havilah = Ooty/Ooty Pie
Peter = Pider/Pi
Joseph = Joe bug
Jubilee = Juby/ Jub-jub/Jub a lub/Booby
Galadriel = Gelly/ Jelly belly

Thursday, December 01, 2005

I should be doing something better with my time!

Instead, currently I am in the process of memorizing the words to "L'Hymne De Nos Campagnes" by Tryo. It is in French, but JB lent the cd to me yesterday and said that I should learn the refrain, so I said that I would learn the whole song. Yeah, just watch me chew this bite. It's a cool song though and if I could make the sound byte thingy work I would post some of it for those of you in the States to hear. I suggest that you look it up if you have time. You can ask google to translate it for you if you want.

In other news:

I love the bath tub in the Deliles home. I can float in it, and if I want to add more hot water I can just use my toes to turn the nobs! The best tub ever.

I think I will dye my hair again, I will just go a bit darker. I thought I had gotten rid of the blonde in October, but the other day, in an elavator, I showed JB my drivers license. The picture had me with short dark hair, and he was surprised, "But your not blonde?" To which I replied that I am not blonde now either, just light brown. He said I was too blonde! Apparently I hadn't noticed but I had become blonde again. I guess the permanent color just kept fading so slowly that I didn't see it happening. Why won't the dark color stay in my hair! I'm gonna try to be my regular brunette self again soon. The dye is only 5 euro, so why not?

Today I added up how many of those tests I have taken on Tickle and I came to the number 122. Can you imagine how many hours I must have spent on that sight by now? I'm disgusted with myself! I have been taking them for 3 years now. (I dunno, some of theresults are funny.)If anyone wants to they can check out what I am like, according to Tickle. It tells you such things as my IQ, what type of secrets I keep burried, whether I am right brained or left, what my handwritting says about me, and other various things. Go for it people. I am done with Tickle now anyways, I don't like how much I have been on there lately, so I give you free reign to mess with my profile if you want, and even take weird tests yourself with my profile if you want. I'm gonna delete it in a month or so anyways. Here is the link for you: http://web.tickle.com/account/tests/ To sign in use havilah17 and maggie as the password.

Bonjour, Celine! Je suis étonné de voir votre note. Drôle! Jb indiquent à moi que votre sont une soeur très bonne. Je serai heureux de vous rencontrer. Merci de l'invitation. Peut-etre je vous vois dans Noël. (pour maintenant, il est très difficile d'ecrire en français!)

Hello to Kate Slattery as well! Crazyness that I get two notes from my friends big sisters on the same day. Good to hear from you! Mary told me about Ireland. I think that is an awesome opportunity for you. You know you are more than welcome to come visit France, and me, if you get some spare time and 20 euro for the flight! I have a spare bed and I could show you the little bit of this city that I do know.

I will now proceed to try and find a photo booth to get 4 pictures taken in order to give to la prefecture. I should get my long stay visa when I finish with this last part of the application. It will be really nice to finally have it. Gotta run!