Oh Hello, December.

I didn't want anyone to think I was dead, so I figured now that I am FREE from any academic obligations, I should finally update my poor bloggy.

Yes, today was the day I turned in the 20 page paper on Denmark's social model that has been driving me crazy for the last week. I also just finished taking 3 exams. But it's all over now, thank goodness, and the only thing I have to think seriously about for the next week is packing and getting to Charles de Gaulle in time to catch my flight. In the meantime, I can let my brain melt into mush and just go around, museum-hopping, shopping for Christmas presents, and sampling my fair share in French pastries before I am shipped back to the land of the chili dog.

But my life lately has been terribly boring, I've just been studying, so I will hearken back to our class trip to Strasbourg that we took the week before Thanksgiving.

Strasbourg is located in the sometimes German, currently French region of Alsace. The city became a symbol of France and Germany's friendship forged by the 1951 European Coal & Steel Community, which later grew into the European Economic Community, which grew into to the European Community, which finally became the European Union in 1992. The Franco-German alliance is the basically the glue that keeps Europe together.

Strasbourg is home to the European Parliament, which is the only directly elected institution of the EU, and to the Council of Europe, which is NOT part of the EU, but actually the oldest organization working towards European Integration, founded in 1949 with its main focus on human rights, after the great human rights injustices of the Second World War had occurred. The Council of Europe includes member states who are not interested in joining the EU, like Switzerland and Russia, organizes the European Convention on Human Rights, and is home to the European Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe.

One cool thing was that we sat in during a European Parliamentary session on the state of Greece and Ireland and got to hear the President of the Commission and former prime minister of Portugal, José Manuel Barroso, defend my two native lands (some parliamentarians were throwing around the idea of reinstating the drachma and the Irish pound) in flawless English and French (he was also to cool to wear a headset that translated the proceedings into six official languages). Also present was the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, who has been lampooned for his lack of stage presence.

Which reminds me of one of my favorite photographs:

Poor Rompuy! :( But really, this explains a lot about the European Union.

Also in Strasbourg is the FAMOUS Strasbourg Christmas Market.

It's supposed to look a lil' something like this:


Unfortunately, our trip was booked for just a few days before the Christmas market opened, so it looked a little less...put together. Place was a mess. But I'm sure it's very pretty once assembled!

I still managed to find gingerbread, soft pretzels, and vin chaud (hot wine), so I was satisfied.

Probably the most memorable experience of the trip was ending our night in Strasbourg in this rundown karaoke lounge that looked like a stripper bar. We loud Americans took over the place and sang Billy Joel's The Piano Man, thoroughly amusing and perhaps mentally and emotionally scarring the Strasbourgians. My solo was the best verse, the one that starts "It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday". We then had to leave and take the little tram that closes at midnight or so back to our hotel, so we only stayed for one song, but man, it was worth it. We rocked that place.

Waffles in Brussels and Souflees in Paris

I'll be in Spain a week from now, which means it's almost Toussaint, which means it's almost December, which means I'm almost home. Time flies, I tell ya.

Welllll, let me give you a quick rundown on what's happening in Gay Payree and elsewhere.

Monday, a friend and I went to Père LaChaise, a large cemetery in East Paris filled with the bodies of the rich and famous. We hobnobbed with Oscar Wilde, Molière, and Jim Morrison. I'll try to get some pictures from her to put up so you can see my pretty face, as well as the beautiful fall colors. That day was so gorgeous, and the light in the cemetery was just perfect. Paris doesn't do fall very well in general, so that beautiful day soothed my ache for my favorite season back home. It's constantly rainy and cold here, and nobody jumps in piles of leaves, or carves pumpkins, or drinks hot apple cider, or goes apple picking, or goes for a hayride, or dresses up for Halloween. Thanksgiving is going to be ROUGH, you guys. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm supposed to embrace cultural differences with open arms, but when those differences mean I can't have Papou's cranberry sauce, naturally I get a bit rowdy.

Early Tuesday morning I took a truly amazing (technology we don't have at home (yet) blows my mind) 1.5 hour high speed train ride to Brussels, city of chocolate and waffles and capital of Europe. It was a cute city, nothing compared to Paris, but what can you do. Belgium is kind of the Canada of Europe. What are these Beligians all about? No one really knows. All we can tell about them is that they have 2 official languages, and make waffles (which coincidentally go along great with maple syrup).

To add to the oddness of the Belgians, one of the main attractions is a fountain of a little boy taking a whiz. It's called "Manneken Pis", or literally, little man piss in Dutch. I refused to go see it, because that is basically the silliest thing ever. Why would I go out of my way to watch a little pudgy baby pee? I don't need to go all the way to Belgium to see that! French parents don't change diapers, they just let their babies go to the bathroom on the sidewalk. I've seen it far too many times.

We visited the European Commission and the Council of Europe, gained some knowledge, and I got some free EU goodies. All in all a successful field trip, even if I ignored one of Belgium's national treasures.

Now I'm back in Paris, fresh off a visit to the Opera Garnier and a cooking class. The cooking class was fun times, y'all. My friend and I figured it would be us and a bunch of 50 year old ladies, and we were totally right. Our chef, Emmanuel, was laid-back and unpretentious and helped us make cheese and chocolate souffles along with a salad. There was also wine, so, score. Emmanuel clearly loved all the adoring attention he got from the ladies, but who can blame him. Everyone was moaning with pleasure or in the throws of ecstasy after tasting their chocolate souffle (***OMG LOL, There is just something *special* about chocolate, right ladiezzz??? ;-)***), so I guess he does have the right to be appreciated as well. Thanks, Emmanuel. You rock my world.

Oh yes, and everyone is on strike again! Which means lousy mail service, and a crowded sweaty metro, with only a few trains running. Blahhhh. My absentee ballot better get to the states in time!

Bon Week-End, everyone! Now off to start on my piles of papers....