Une Maison pour appeler nous propres

(A home to call our own)

Ensuite beaucoup d'heures et de semaines (after many hours and weeks) of searching we have booked our apartment! This was hardly a facile (easy) process envolving spread sheets, rounds of rating, rescanning websites ever other jour (day), countless trimming sessions, to only lose deux (two) apartments ensuite (after) having settled on them to people with faster depositits.  Sure the process started out lots of fun but let moi vous di (me tell you), as anyone who as apartment shopped online knows, they all look the same eprès les  trente premiers (after the first thirty).  At one time I believe there was cinquante - cinq (55) options to be considered.  Je (I) would like to say it was just cutting form there, mais (but) there was not a round of cuts that didn't included the addition of deux ou trois (two or three) more options.

As nous (we) were getting down to a half dozen options nous started giving them nicknames so it was easy to keep them straight.  There was divan vert, moderne, et (green couch, modern, and) southwestern.  Très (very) odd to find a southwestern themed appartement in Paris, mais je veux un (but I want a) paris themed apartment in North Carolina, so je guess not all that weird.  Back to the point, the nickname of the apartment we are renting, Très Petit Cuisine (Tiny Kitchen).  Actually the translation is "very little kitchen", je ne sais pas (I don't know) tiny.

Le appartement est très petit cuisine (The apartment is tiny kitchen) as tu (you) can see from the pictures, there isn't much of a cuisine (kitchen) just un table, un évier (a sink), et deux (and two) burners.  Which means un été sans (a summer without) baking.  Mais qui (But who) really needs to bake when tu as (you have) a french boulangerie (bakery) down la rue (the road).  Il a (it has) the most amazing view, though sadly no balcony.  Un grand (a big) plus is a pull out couch for all of our visitors.

Ici est nous petit cuisine.  (This is our tiny kitchen)  Ils y a deux (It has two) burners et no oven or toaster oven.  Lack of oven seemed to be fairly standard in parisian apartments but lack of even a toaster oven will be an adventure.

This is nous salle de séjour (our living room). Tu (you) can see la chaise et table (la chair and table)  (from the kitchen photo) for size reference.  Il y a un chambra (There is a bedroom) separate from the living room, il ne pas (just not) photo worthy.

Et c'est le vue de la salle de séjour. (And this is the view from the living room) Such shame there is no balcony et un douce vue (but a sweet view). 

Nous will be living in le cinquième (the 5th) which is apparently still the hip place to live according to mon (my) uncited sources.

Can't wait to post mon (my) own pictures of it!

Tonight's Picture:

Cette cuisine ne fera pas des croissants.

Previous Picture:
The man's house floats up in the sky.

Le Cinéma Français

(The French Cinema)

Ma maman (my mom) has been très (very) supportive on my pursuit to learn français, as elle a (she has) of most choses dans ma vie (things in my life).  In fact it probably kills her that elle ne peut pas (she can not) spell and grammer check these posts as elle a (she has), wether asked or not, anything j'ai (I have) put out in the world.  Une des choses qu'elle a faites pour aider (one of the things she has done to help) is give me movies in français, either a movie je sais (I know) that has a français option or an actually français movie.  

Then elle (she) will ask moi si je les ai regard observés (me if I have watched them).  Well Mom, je (I) watched "UP" la nuit dernière (last night).  I believe this was an Pâques (Easter) or Valentine's Day present from ma maman (my mom).  "Up" holds a special place in mon coeur (my heart), Daniel et je (and I) went to see it on notre deuxième anniversaire (on our second anniversary) et j'ai pleuré (I cried) at the end of the love story comme une fille (like a girl).

So la nuit dernière j'ai pleuré comme une fille (so last night I cried like a girl) again.  Though that might be where the similarities terminer (ended).   I caught extremely peite de la français (little of the french).  Je certainly enjoyed the movie, but honestly j'ai lu l'anglais (I read the english) subtitles a lot.  It was not a complete lost, certains mots (some words) were understood, there may have even been una phrase au deux ( a sentence or two) that made it though mon (my) clumsy oreille (ear).  Daniel summed up the whole experience quite well "It was so rapide (fast)".  This was meant as mots de confort (words of comfort) mais je ne regarde pas (but I did not see) them as such.

Moi: Everyone is going to parlent (speak) that fast.
Daniel: Non, ils vant savoir que tu n'êtes pas (No,they will know you are not ) a (lots of hopping around to avoid saying) "good" french speaker et ills vont parler lentement pour tu (and they will speak slowly to you).

J'ai (I had) flashes of sales clerks taking 10 seconds to say each mot (word) at deafening levels at me, like ever bad "American speaks to foreigner" scene in a movie and did not feel better.

Guess I will be playing the DVD a few more times.

Tonight's Picture:

La maison de l'homme flotte vers la haut dans le ciel.

Pervious Picture:

A little grey kitten visited our house one night.

Miss you

I miss my blog.  Looking at my last entry which is about 10 weeks ago and sporadic for several months before that, I am disappointed.  Life got very busy last semester which was great but made it hard for me to balance all my work and home life (hobbies).  Work has stopped being as much of an issue, I am teaching one class twice a week but other than that I don't have much going on in the work front.  I miss the working a lot, I seem to know how to keep myself busy and productive when I have a job but less so when I have my own time.  And you could say there is the learning french, the blog, the story on etsy, and all these things are true.  I have found once there has been a considerable stretch away from an activity I find it hard to jump back on board.  So I frenched today for the first time in probably a month and a half, and today I posted on line though as I am sure you will notice not in french.

The trip is less than 5 months away and is feeling a bit daunting and trying to reexcite myself is hard work. The french does not come as freely as it did a mere 6 months ago.  But the tickets are booked, the apartment is selected (almost) and I have craved a big adventure since before I can remember, so we are going.  I guess I just might be a little scared.

So maybe I will post tomorrow, or maybe the next day.  I can't depend on Daniel to hold my hand the entire time. What a mistake to never have allowed myself the opportunity to experience a new country by my self occasional.

Time seems to move so much faster than when I was little.

Jusqu'á ce que nous nous réunissons de nouveau (Until we meet again).