Little 500

It's too bad Regis can't be here for Little 500. Lance Armstrong called it the greatest college sports weekend, ever. It consists of a Women's Bike Race Friday evening, and the Men's Race on Saturday. My sorority's team is currently 5th out of 30 or so teams, and we hope to take home that trophy Friday night.

What else does Little 500 week consist of ? Lot's of drinking. I wish Regis could be here to see it. He thinks him and his friends go crazy in Paris, but he really has never seen American college students partying. I guess he'll have to wait until Graduation weekend when he'll be here to see me get my diploma! I'm taking him to the French Department Graduation Tea, the big ceremony, and my International Studies Major Brunch.

We'll see if he can really handle an American college weekend on jet lag.

On another note, his team won 1st place out of all of France for the 2007 Euromanager contest. They're flying to Macao on Saturday to participate in the World Finals. I was so hoping he would win because he's worked so hard, but now he has his sites set on winning the World competition, and I don't think I could take it if he gets dissapointed! I guess it'll be a test to see if I can keep him happy even if he doesn't win.

I also learned what a cache-sexe is today. Thrilling.

Still on track..

I've been missing for awhile! But it's only because I've been working so hard on my capstone project for my International Studies major. Here it is.. http://mypage.iu.edu/~bangrick . Uncompleted of course, but by next Wednesday it should be in at least the rough draft version!

I'm also getting more and more excited about returning to Paris this summer. I'm going to continue to update and expand my website and maybe try to get some advertisers! I also need to take a lot more personal pictures to add to the site, as it is I had to steal some pictures from Le Grand Vefour's website to visualize fine French dining.

This Saturday my mom is coming into town and we're going to go taste-test menu items and wine from the wine bar, Tutto Bene, where we're hosting my graduation/engagement party the day after my graduation. I also can't wait for Regis to get here. I know I just saw him (three weeks ago!!!) but I miss him already. And he'll actually be in my college town during the school year (at least the last day of it) so we'll be able to go out to dinner and the bars with all my friends.

The end of this semester is shaping up to be not too shabby, besides all the hard work. After next week it should be better.. but to get to the end of next week I have to finish my website, take a French essay exam on Proust, and do a 75 minute presentation on 3M. Mon dieu ca va etre dur.

Smashed flowers

Regis's reaction to my awful dream: Terry, c'est un nom de garcon, non? [Isn't Terry a guy's name?] .. obviously he missed the point.

Me: You sent me some smashed flowers, too.

Regis: [laughs for about 5 minutes] But I would never send you smashed flowers!

Typical.. because what I was most worried about after the dream was getting smashed flowers in the mail.

First nightmare?

Last night I had an awful dream. It was like I'd been punched in the gut, I may have actually been crying in my sleep. In my dream Regis stopped returning my calls and then my mom found some smashed roses and a card outside our house. The card related how he had met a 36-year old American girl named Terry who was a journalist, and she was ready to move in with him and start on his 4 year plan to change his life (I don't believe he has one at this point). Anyways, the gist was that he was leaving me and never wanted to speak to me again. It felt so real, too.

I think maybe this stemmed from when another French guy broke up with me suddenly during winter break one year, when we were still across the ocean from each other. I really did not see that one coming, even more so than I might possibly ever expect it from Regis! Anyways, I was glad to wake up and realize it was just a dream, but still, I can't wait till Regis is done with classes today so I can make sure he didn't meet a 36 yr old American named Terry the journalist.

Language Lessons

The days when Regis teaches me new words are always interesting. Today: flairing. His explanation: Haven't you seen the movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise? It's when he throws the glasses in the air, it's called flair...

As far as I knew, flair should bring to mind what you have to wear to work at TGI Friday's and the movie reference Office Space, not Cocktail. The movies French people come up with as references always crack me up.. granted, I'm sure Cocktail was big in it's day. I've only ever seen it playing in the background of Landsharks bar in Broadripple, Indiana. The bartender tried to copy Cruise and luckily my drink didn't land on the floor.

I got another language lesson, this evening. I walked into Noodle Town to pick up my Chicken Mai Fun (mmm.. I love that they give you enough for three meals for only $6.95) and had to wait for a few minutes. I was chatting away to Regis on my mobile in French, and one of the workers came out from behind the counter and said "You speaking English? What language?". I replied.. "It's French actually"... then the killer..

He asked me if I was French. I'll always go back to Noodle Town now. It's my sick guilty pleasure when people mistake me for being French, although it will most likely never be a French person who makes the mistake. Oh well, maybe after I've lived there a few years. Although I think I'll continue to get "Ecosse! Irlandais!" (Scottish, Irish) yelled at me oustide Centre Pompidou. Someone should tell those artists that yelling your nationality doesn't really make you want to get your portrait done. Yelling "Francaise!" at me would probably work better.

Anyways, my language lesson. After I hung up with Regis, I signed my receipt and my friend over at Noodle Town said "Merci!" then "Its thank you!". I mumbled "Merci a toi aussi" but it was so cute I was almost at a loss for words. Almost. ;)

Avocado tartare

9 days until I'm back living la vie parisienne.. if only for a week, it's better than nothing. I can't wait for our (Me + Regis) cooking lessons at Arômes et Saveurs (http://www.saveurs-aromes.com/). I believe we're going March 15th, my last evening in Paris.

The menu:

Tartare d'avocat au crabe et agrumes
Khoresh d'agneau à l'orange et aux pistaches
Crème de riz, sauce acidulée à l'hibiscus et gingembre

My translation:

Avocado tartare with crab and citrus fruit
Orange Persian lamb stew with pistachios
Creamed rice, sour hisbiscus and ginger sauce

Who knows if those are anywhere near correct, or what exactley they are.. but it should be fun getting taught how to make some delicious recipies and then getting to eat them, too. I hope Regis will wear his new apron I got him for Valentine's day, complete with pink hearts. The website does say, 'Bring your own apron!' I'll take a picture if I can manage to convince him..

Reason #457 to keep French fiance

One thing that's good about having a french lover is their readiness to correct and aid you in writing a French paper. Or just the warm, gooey feeling of having someone tell you "I barely had to correct anything, out of 7 pages there were only 3 sentences I had trouble completely understanding!" and "Wow, you're French has improved." and "I didn't even know you knew such complex words!"

While I am delighted at the appraisal of my french work, I'm slightly alarmed that my verbal skills must be so poor he couldn't imagine I knew the words I do! In my defense, its hard when you're thinking completely in French to come up with particulary intelligent words all the time, shouldn't it be good enough that I don't need to think about things before I say them in French anymore? I think so.

Overall, I think I have quite the advantage in my 400 level french class. If I ever have a question I can go right to the source. Although Regis's language skills are not exactley Proust, and much more inclined to coding C++, it gets me by. Just another reason to keep a Frencie around for the long run. ;)