my so called french life

while i am writing this, Madame Alloucherie is taking a shower and singing to the radio (a french 80s song) it is very cute, especially considering i do not know what she is singing. but soon i will since i'm in a french songs class!

The best thing about not understanding a lot of french dialogue from an observer's point of view is that I can imagine what they are saying due to the universality of emotions, responses, and body language. This is especially obvious on the bus, when people are inquiring whether the driver can make an extra stop somewhere, the person becomes very involved in what the driver is saying as if it's life or death, they stand very close to the driver, anticipating his response, and he usually consents. It's also pretty obvious with children, whining and asking to do something and hearing a clear "Non" and of course then the child gets worked up and upset and you figure it's probably something pretty trivial that they seem to think will make or break them. I remember those days...

My friend and I often make fun of the french people, with little things that they do, such as their concern with fashion over reality of weather "of course they would rather wear a little dress and a short jacket than be warm, and the 3 inch heals when all of their streets are cobblestone" Of course when i lived in the suburbs I could get away with that, driving everywhere and going to a specific destination, but this sometimes is ridiculous!

But moving to Minneapolis, having my only source of transportation being my feet, I became more of a "fashion realist". And I prefer the look of classically being put together, or thrown together in a bohemian sense but a fa way that does not appear as if I take hours to primp every morning, because it has become more of a waste of time recently. The fashion in (uptown) minneapolis is a little more "grunge" that what's in style here. Here they wear a lot of black and many people have little black leather jackets, and everyone has awesome boots. I want a pair more than you know. I may very well come back with a some. This is one of the two times a year there are sales in France, so.... vive la france!

What else? I took my first excursion yesterday, to the Cote d'azure. There are daytrips every Saturday to local places in the region. This week was Monaco, it is independent of France (Princesse Grace Kelly) they have their own government, in Monte Carlo which was very swanky; there was a beautiful casino, many high end fashion boutiques; yves saint laurent, chanel, dior, etc and ridiculously expensive cars driving around. Very rich people definitely retire and decide to live there. And we took a driving tour through Nice, right on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. On our way to these places, we drove past Cannes, where the international film festival is held every year!