i suppose you'll be wanting to know how amsterdam was.

this past weekend i left the stress of midterm exams and papers behind and went to amsterdam, where i met up with my darling Ian (writer of a rather impressive travel blog if i do say so myself, go check it out: http://fromafishbowl.blogspot.com/ he doesnt update frequently either, but his blog has the benefit that Ian, unlike me, is actually a writer).

since Ian and i share a passion for coffee, we spent the weekend sampling several types of coffee.
and because all that coffee made us hungry, we also got some chocolate waffles.


it was a very culturally enriching weekend. and now i am back in paris, where i have to take 2 more exams before running away to Finland.

3 months: an overview

here it is. the best way i've come up with to summarize my october, november, december, and beginning of january: a photograph of a handwritten flow chart. please excuse the franglais.


and yes, i know that is a very small photo. to see a bigger, more legible version, right click (or mac equivalent for us cool people) and select "open link in a new tab"

this is a flute

significantly thinner and also a big shorter than the standard baguette, this is called a flûte.

the trickiest words to pronounce in french

aren't french at all.


heineken (i've settled on "un ee-nuh-keeen s'il vous plaît")
café americano glacé grande (dont judge me)
milkshake (i'm surprised l'academic hasn't created a word for this yet)
wifi (ok this isnt tricky, its just funny. en france on dit "le weeee-feee")

"tu connais 'sex & the city?' "
-"comment???"
" sex an ze see-tee?"
-"ah oui! je l'aime bien!"

i blame globalization.

l'Ambassade Russe à Paris: take two

Today I had the oh-so-wonderful pleasure of going to the Russian Embassy in Paris for the second time. On Monday, after gathering all my documents and filling out forms, I took the metro to the 16è. I took a short walk to the embassy, getting lost a little on the way. It wasn't that hard to figure out that the ass-ugly cement building complete with 2 security guards with machine guns was the Russian embassy. It was just a little bit out of place in the very wealthy 16è. After nervously eying the security guards and their arms, I approached the gate to find the lovely sign photographed on the left. It says a bunch of stuff in Russian that I don't understand, and at the bottom: "Visa. Horaires: 9h-12h." Seeing as it was 2 o'clock by then, also known as 14h, I had no choice but to walk away disappointed. Since I had class all day Tuesday, I had to return this morning. This time, I arrived just before 10h so I'd be sure to get things taken care of. The consular services department is one big chaotic room with several windows and lines, none of which are clearly labeled. I looked for a line with the least Russian-looking people, and was relieved to find a window that said "visa-touriste" in very tiny font. The wait was actually quite quick- about 20 minutes. I was veryyyy nervous- I wasn't sure if my passport photos would be acceptable since I accidentally pressed the button for black&white when I took the pics in a booth at the Bastille metro station (oops), I also wasn't sure if my proof of insurance papers were sufficient. I didn't have a hotel confirmation either, since I'm staying with Megan, and I didn't have proof of airline tickets, since I wanted to wait until I was sure I could get a visa before making the purchase. I was also worried about my ability to understand the French of someone with a Russian accent. None of those things turned out to be an issue. The man behind the window was SOOO much nicer than the French visa-issuer in Los Angeles. Upon seeing my American passport he said he would speak English since his English is better than his French anyways. I'm all for language immersion, I'm very good about speaking French most of the time, but I have to say I was relieved. According to the rules of Russian tourist visas (which I have been researching on the internetz for the last week), you must apply for the visa in the country of your citizenship. However, they make an exception for people who have official residence permission in another country for at least 3 months. I assumed my 6month French visa would be sufficient, but it turns out I was supposed to actually have a residence card, which is something I don't have (and don't think I'm going to get). I explained that I was in the process of registering for my residence card, which apparently was an acceptable excuse. He then said that it generally takes 3 months for American citizens, but that they could do it for me there in France in 2 weeks. I later found out that this meant for a price- 98€ that is, or $140- which is damn fucking expensive, but hey, what can you do? Finally, I had to fill out a separate application form- because the form I had found on the internetz was apparently for everybody except American nationals. The American form was about 63 times more extensive and included questions about military service, scientific background, etc... understandable, of course. It also asked for names and addresses of the two most recent employers, parents, educational institutes. I didn't know any of these phone numbers, of course, but the boxes were too small for all of that information anyways, and the official didn't seem to mind that I left it out. After I paid my fee and signed over the rights to my first born child, I was told to come back in exactly 2 weeks to get my passport back, which should then be complete with my Russian tourist visa. Success!! I was out of the embassy by 11h, which makes 1 hour that I was there, also know as 33% of the time I spent at the French consulate in Los Angeles. Not to mention that the Russian man I dealt with was much more friendly and helpful than the French guy who works in LA (yeah, I think everyone studying in France who got their visa in LA knows who I'm talking about. Such a bitch!!)

As soon as I got home I bought my airline tickets to Saint Petersburg. My fall break plans are nice and finalized, and look like this:

Paris-> Helsinki-> Saint Petersburg-> Helsinki->Tallinn->Helsinki->Paris

In Helsinki I'll be visiting and staying with Barrett and his partner JN. Then to Petersburg for a few days to see Megan. When I get back to Helsinki Barrett, JN, one of their friends, and I are going on a short cruise to Tallinn, which is a port town in Estonia where we will stay overnight before going back to Helsinki. I'm leaving paris oct 23 and coming back nov 1. I know, I know - I'm going to freeze my ass off, seeing as how I'm California born-n-raised. Luckily, I bought a coat:

le cinéma à paris

here's a fun fact: paris has more cinemas per capita than any other place in the world. in addition to the big theaters with multiple locations, such as MK2, there are several tiny salles du ciné tucked away, sometimes so unassuming that you can walk right by without even noticing. these are most heavily concentrated in the quartier latin as well as the montparnasse area, but really all of the cool quartiers have cinés.

all of the major hollywood shit gets to france around the same time it comes out aux états unis. some delay, sure, but nothing major. but it gets so much better than that. the paris cinés have a rich collection of films from all over the world. and then of course, there are the reprises, old films being shown in theaters.

and how do you navigate this system of many, many theaters with literally dozens of films each week, showtimes changing with each day of the week and perhaps only one or two showings of a particular film in the city each week? Le pariscope, of course!




Pariscope is a pocket sized guide that comes out once a week- every Wednesday- which is generally the day that most new movies come out in France as well. It costs 0,40€ (or $0.60), and lists all of the salles du ciné in Paris by arrondisement, starting with of course the 1èr all the way to the 20è, plus a few choice suburbs. It lists all the films that are playing in Paris that week- new releases, reprises, and "autres films"...which is basically anything thats not a new release but not old enough to be considered a reprise. You'll also find out, along with the showtimes, whether the film is V.F. (version français) or V.O. (version originale). V.F. means that unless its actually a French film, the dialogue has been dubbed in French. Usually this is only for animated movies or shit like Harry Potter. V.O. means that that the film will be in its original language, whatever it may be, with French subtitles.

If you really know me, you'll know how film illiterate I am. Its quite tragic how few of the classics I've seen. I'm trying to expand my horizons, though, and I've been going to the ciné quite often here. I enjoy it for a number of reasons, including:

-somewhere comfy to sit for two hours
-I don't have to talk to anyone
-I don't have to LOOK at anyone (except the actors of course),
-whether its in French, or in English with subtitles, or in Spanish with Subtitles- its always good for improving my French ("oh.... so that's how you say faggot in french!")


While here, I have seen:

-Numéro 9
-Antichrist
-J'ai tué ma mère
-Mon voisin Totoro
-Tu n'ameras point
-Torch Song Trilogy
-Wendy & Lucy
-À la carte


Oh, and something even better? Sept 13-17 is a biannual tradition called La Rentrée du Cinéma, which means that for these four days, all movies are only 4€. yay!

La Rentrée

La Rentrée has come and passed. ça veut dire quoi? That now there are groups of 15 year olds wasting away the afternoon in the cafés smoking cigarettes.
The sad part? How easily I blend in. (not the smoking part. just that i look 15). The backpack doesn't help either, especially since most french universities don't start up again until October.

still not in the mood for racounting parisienne adventures

first of all... i dont know if racounting is a word. i guess the english verb is "to recount." the french verb is raconter. in any case, i choose franglais.

since i'm not in the mood for this racounting business, i will post some pictures. nope, they aren't pictures of me in paris. they're not even pictures of paris. they're pictures that my friend, dear charles mallison, took one hot summer day in los angeles that have recently been developed and scanned. woo.

that is, if i can get this to work. as you probably know, i have the technological prowess of a grandparent. except thats not exactly true, because my grandfather is actually great with technology considering he was born in ancient greece. let's see here....

i've never looked quite so... voluptuous... before in my life.

have doc martens. will kick ass.
this is my absolute favorite. it looks like a still from a really awesome indie movie.


meanwhile, i'm going through a "femininity crisis" of sorts...well, i have been for the past few months, but the acuteness of such process spiked last week. i may or may not write more about this here at a later date... i'm not sure that this thing that was supposed to be a travel blog is necessarily the audience for such musings. in any case (god i really use that phrase too often), this image seems fitting:

nanny nanny boo boo

france is good. france is great. france is not my home, however. in case you were wondering, the following is an incomplete list of things i miss.

-BROCCOLI. I. Want. Broccoli.
-getting super high and giggling the night away. alternatively, getting super high and lying on my bed, paralyzed, listening to music and convincing myself that although i have listened to the song in question at least three thousand times before, i am hearing a "level" of the song that i have never heard before. both are great. neither is happening here.
-cooking my own food. in particular, i want angel hair pasta with tomato sauce, broccoli, and crumbled "griller's vegan" morningstar veggie burger. i also miss living in a country where eating a vegan diet is possible. yes- i'm very sorry dear vegans, but this is really just out of the question for me while i'm here. i fully intend on resuming my veganism when i return to los angeles... eating non-vegan has made me feel all sorts of wack and icky. mais, c'est la vie.
-friends and loved ones. self explanatory.
-being read as queer. standards of normative gender expression vary from region to region, from culture to culture. by parisien standards, i don't look particularly gay. i am also always without partner. this lack of visibility, coupled with an appallingly high level of misogyny, has led me to receive much unwanted attention from men. i have also had to recalibrate my gaydar rather dramatically (granted, this is something that must always be done while traveling, even if you're simply relocating from southern california to northern), and it has been kind of challenging. i'm getting there, however, and i'm finally able to distinguish the true gouines with ease.
-driving. this one is a bit of a kicker. i really didn't expect that i would miss driving. but what can i say.... after two years of los angeles living, the city certainly rubbed off on me, and i think my car and i were finally entering a sort of intensely passionate [love/hate] romantic relationship. something thats nice about driving is that it provides one with a distinct personal space bubble. i think this is especially true for me, since i drive a vw bug, a car that is literally shaped like a bubble and makes me feel like i'm in a space ship when i drive it.

je ne voudrais qu'une baguette (i just want a baguette)...

well, my dear (nonexistant?) readers, here's a little parisienne compte du jour.

this afternoon i was released from my french grammar refresher course at 3:30, or to be absolutely precise, i suppose i should say 15h30. in any case, i spent the following 45 minutes doing facebook-y things in the school's computer lab, since the wifi connection at the hotel where usc is putting us up for a week just isn't strong enough to handle 14 of us trojan brats demanding our facebooks each moment of the day. after i had my daily dose of unabashed narcissism, aka checking my facebook, i realized that i was rather hungry. being that the exchange rate is atrocious and that i've inherited at least some part of german stinginess, i absolute detest spending my precious euros on overpriced food and drink. i've gotten in the habit of eating approxamitely one baguette per day, adorned with some slices of swiss cheese, gouda, strawberry jam, or generic brand chocolate-hazelnut spread. so i decided to stroll over to one of the many delicious boulangeries around the corner from my temporary domicile to purchase my delicious 85 [euro]cent stick of bread (oh and brief tangent: instead of putting the baguettes in bags here, they just wrap a piece of paper around the center, which is where you hold on to the bread. its quite cute).

as i entered the bakery, i heard two voices conversing in rather raised tones. there were no other customers in the bakery (being as 4:30 is a rather bizarre time to be buying your bread for the day, this is usually a morning affair, and pastries usually in the later evening), and there was no one behind the counter. i could vaguely see two figures in "the back" of the shop, but they couldn't see/didn't notice me. the small middle aged french woman of asian background who i have seen each time i have been to this particular bakery, whom i suspect is the owner, was yelling at a scrappy young possibly arab man as she was pulling bottled drinks out of a refridgerator and handing them to the man, who was replacing them in some sort of order that she deemed more proper. i can't remember word for word everything she said, but the point was that this kid fucked up and she was maaad about it. this went on for several minutes before she finally returned to the cash register. as she walked away from him, she screamed "si tu fais quelque chose, fais le bien!!" (if you do something, do it well!!).

as soon as she turned the corner and saw me, i suspected that she would take my order acting as if nothing was amiss, as if i hadn't heard a thing, even though we both knew that i had. i suppose that this would have been the american thing to do. instead, she began to speak to be about her troubles with this young man. she was pretty worked up and speaking very fast- i knew what she was talking about, but i couldn't really understand the words or phrases she was using, so i nodded along sympathetically while trying to let her know that i wanted a baguette normale, all the while hoping (as i always do) that i wouldn't blow my own cover and out myself as an americaine. at one particular pause i added "alors, c'est les garçons" ('well, thats boys for ya') to which she replied "je m'en fous les garçonas!" which basically means "I don't give a shit, boys!" but from what I understand has a slightly more vulgar connotation.

finally i managed to get my baguette and my 15 cents change, and to leave the bakery all in one piece without revealing my americannes, altogether amused by the incident.

...so maybe that wasn't a great story. but you know what? je m'en fous, ici c'est un blog!!

we've got cities to vist, trees we've yet to live in

oh gosh. if you know where this post's title is from, i'm reaaaally sorry to be so sappy, but i thought i'd reference some fellow queer tree huggers. if you don't know the reference, all the better ;).


at the moment, i really dont have the desire to write a long post because, well, its 2 am here, i'm a little tired, i've had some beer tonight, and most of all- i just don't really feel like it.

nonetheless, a quick update. i arrived in paris on sunday, all in one piece. my french skills have served me excellently. in fact, on tuesday some french people asked me for directions. i'm alive, safe and sound, having a pleasant time in the heat.

Last Day in LA

I guess it's time to say farewell (for now) to Los Angeles. Tomorrow I'm driving north where I'll stay for the next two weeks before I fly to Paris.

Just a few things:

-Moving SUCKS. A lot.
-It's been an interesting past 2 years, and I think I'm actually going to miss this city.

Elle va où?

o...

I'm notoriously bad at blogging or keeping up with any sort of journal type thing.
But I'm going to try. Why? Because when privileged white kids go to Europe, they keep travel blogs. It's a law. And I'm going to Europe for the next-almost-five-months, so here's my travel blog.

I'm leaving from San Francisco on August 16th. I'll be touching down in Washington, DC on January 1, 2010. For most of my trip, I'll be in Paris. Hence the URL of this blog, "emileeaparis." And yes, if you speak French you'll notice that it rhymes. That's 'a' as in à, of course, the preposition meaning 'in' or 'at,' and not actually just 'a' as in a, the third person singular form of the verb avoir, because that would mean that "emilee" has Paris. I definitely do not have Paris.

I will also be going to Normandy and Provence for weekend trips. Those are the only ones set in stone, but I also want to go to Strasbourg and hopefully all the way up to Helsinki to visit a pal. Since I'll be done with school by December 12, and have the next 19 days to run around and do whatever (as long as I schoot back to CDG by the 31st), I want to head south for the holidays and visit family in Greece and possibly go to Spain with a friend. I also want to visit a family friend who lives in the Moselle valley in Germany. And of course my Ian darling is spending the fall in Norwich, England so hopefully we'll meet up in London at some point.

If you have any suggestions of places in western Europe that you think I absolutely must visit, please share!