The Land of Squee

If ever I had had a first date that went as well as my first day of class at my new language school did today, I would be typing this as a married woman.

First, the way they do stuff. They will do ANYTHING to get you into a class that's suitable for your schedule and your French level (they also teach English and two other languages--I think Spanish and Arabic maybe?) Also, new students are welcome to drop in every Monday. Your tenure will be one or three months, but it seems easy to extend it. You can enroll for whichever days are easiest for you. Classes are held daily, but each day stands alone, so you don't have the impression you're missing anything. You know what else that means? There's NO HOMEWORK.

In my situation they actually were awesome enough to bump me up another level, meaning for the first time in my nine plus years of studying French, I know what it's like to find something CHALLENGING. They put me into the highest level, C2, and I find I can keep up with the other kids just fine. In fact, I'm a little ahead of a few of them. I think I would test as C1 or even B2 on a bad day. For the first time, the worksheet had questions I couldn't answer. I was delighted to leave them blank and wait for the professor to fill us in. I learned more today than I'd learned in the past... well, in any given week of my entire French education. We learned modern, useful terminology. We discussed climate change and now I know that "effet de serre" means greenhouse effect. I know that "couche" means layer as well as a hundred other things, which came in handy a few hours later when I heard people on the news reference "une couche de neige" (a layer of snow). I learned three uses for "planter": to plant something, to stand someone up/leave them in a lurch, or (in the case of a computer) to stop working. I used it in the second sense this evening as I told the mom about escourting one of the kids home from school. I learned that "allumé" not only means on, but it also means "crazy" if you're referring to a person. It goes on.

The best part? Is the professor. He's so hip he has difficulty seeing over his pelvis. He's so cool you could keep a side of meat inside him for months. He was funny and warm and so smart and easy to listen to. He engaged everyone, he didn't judge the late kids, he harumphed around the room fussing over the heater, he made great jokes, and I literally sat through the whole class with a smile on my face.

The best thing? Is that there are only seven people in my class.

In short, if you are in Paris for any reason, especially as an au pair, I HIGHLY recommend Campus Langues.

I have been to Institut Parisien and, despite my being enrolled there and paying full price, they refused to put me into a class that worked with my au pair schedule and I was forced to be thirty minutes late every day. Even when I started to enroll for a second semester they refused to guarantee me a place in the later class. Plus, even though I was supposed to be in a higher level course I felt that the class was obnoxiously uneven and I was often frustrated and found myself doodling while the professor explained basic concepts to other students. I considered moving to France Langue, which most au pairs seem to love, but when I arrived the trimester had already begun and there was no more room for me in one of the classes, so they shrugged and said sorry.

When I wandered in Campus Langues a month after the "trimester" had begun, they went out of their way to make sure I could enroll there.

Class with them is every day of the week (except Wednesday when I have to stay home with the kids) and I don't even mind losing my free time while the kids are at school. I don't mind at all. I'm excited to go back and to finally, FINALLY learn one of the few subjects that makes me happy.

 If my visa paperwork gets finished in time I'll be back in Paris on August 25th.

 

We skyped but their mic wasn't working so I just waved and all the children waved and giggled and rolled around on each other and showed off.  The oldest boy stole the keyboard from his dad and told me he likes handball.  They want the daughter to learn piano.  Then the tiny one started poking his face up into the camera and then the oldest one typed "Salut!" and tried to blame it on his dad and his dad shook his head and pointed at the kid and the kid made a face omg.

AUGUST

25TH

I got my laptop fixed! My real laptop, not the teeny slow one!  I got my laptop fixed and I just got to reintroduce myself to my ITUNES which means ALL THE MUSIC I HAVE THAT ISN'T ABOUT MOR and and and and I am ROCKING OUT right now to No Good Deed Goes Unpunished and there's ABBA and Ke$ha and Jekyll & Hyde and it's just... THERE IS MORE TO LIFE AND I'M GONNA BE OKAY



ALSO



THE SIMS



I GOT THE SIMS BACK THE SIMS THE SIMS



I AM GONNA HAVE TO MAKE ME A MAKTAV SIM



Omg and like.  I love everything right now.  I haven't been this happy since I left Toulouse.



Also, I think in my book it should be a rock opera version of Dangerous Liaisons.  I am seriously thinking about calling it Les Liaisons DangeROCK or something equally ridiculous.  Valmont is a crazy glittery Italian, he has unnecessary amounts of UST with Chevalier Danceny because they rewrote the plot a little for the musical, and also Valmont's servant dude Azolan was on a reality show ten years ago and I'm his only fangirl.  Y/Y??



OMG WENN LIEBE IN DIR IST I LOVE ALL THE THINGS I NEED TO DANCE AROUND AND PRETEND TO BE HERBERT NOW WHILE MY SIMS GAME UPDATES AHHHHHHHHHHH



LIGHT



THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

GREAT. BECAUSE I DIDN'T LOVE FLORENT MOTHE ENOUGH ALREADY.

I don't think I can even focus enough to tell the whole story.

( But I will give it a try )

I literally, actually grinned all the way home.  I tried to stop several times on the métro, once at St-Lazare, and a few times on the train, but a few minutes later I always realised I was grinning again.

Sunday may have been Mikelangelo Loconte's birthday, but I doubt he enjoyed it more than I did. 

My new stagedoor buddies, Amsterdam and Strasbourg, had informed me that there's prime stagedooring action around 12:30, three hours before matinées, and had invited me to come along.  I'd witnessed Yamin mingling casually with fans once before a matinée, so I believed it.  I decided that, even though I had no ticket, I would come stagedoor with them, then try to amuse myself for a while, then return to ask how the show went and whether anything special happened for Mikele's birthday.

Well, I got a late start (as always) and didn't end up getting to the stagedoor until almost 2. I know, I'm an epic failure.  I found the girls pretty quickly and asked if I had missed anyone imflortant important.  They said no--well, wait, yeah, Nuno was here.

NUNO. WHAT.

They were like, yeah, he was chatting with us and tried to spell something in German but totally failed and we got these pictures and look at the note he wrote us!

NUNO. COME ON NUNO. WHAT IS THIS.

Anyway, we lurked for a while and I asked how last night's show went, since they had seen both the matinée and the evening understudy-fest.  Their expressions immediately darkened.  Apparently, IT MANAGED TO GET WORSE.  We commiserated for a while and complained about how lackluster it had been.  They told me that Mikele was messing up his lines last night and Merwan somehow had EVEN LESS ENERGY.  Apparently that's possible.  Then they commented on how excited they were to see the show today.

We stood around the stage door for a long time.  The girls got a picture with Marjolaine and with that one dancer Louran had said was hot during Saturday's curtain call.

And then everyone started freaking out.  Apparently, a certain birthday boy had just arrived.  The whole crowd lurched off to one side, squealing and passing up presents and generally being fangirls.  The three of us hung back, because quite frankly we've all been converted to Team Flo.

Remember a few entries ago when I said "No one can make me choose between Mikele and Flo"?  I was wrong.  Florent Mothe can.  He is magical.

And speaking of Team Flo, I glanced up at one point just in time to see a familiar jacket and furry hat slip through the crowd of screaming Mikele fangirls and tiptoe into the stage door.  Florent Mothe is apparently a genius who somehow perfectly timed his arrival so that everyone would be distracted by Mikele and nobody would notice him sneaking in behind them.  When I saw him my mouth went "HEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYY that's Flo" because apparently members of the cast appearing before me in a crowd makes me lose control of my speech.  This was backed up later.

Then we hung around a little longer and watched Mikele basically collect presents from fans until his arms were full, stagger into the stage door, drop all the presents unceremoniously on the ground, and then come back out for more.  It was a little bit hilarious. However, if I had given him the one present that he accidentally dropped and then just kicked through the door, I would have been really hurt.  He wasn't taking photos or bisous-ing people or anything.  He was basically plucking presents out of the crowd like he was in a gift orchard. 

Well.  That was not a very satisfying stagedoor experience.  It did not correct the Merwan-induced pity party I had been hosting for the past twenty-four hours.  So I decided to see if I could get in to see the show.

I got up to the ticket window and the nice lady informed me that there was basically one ticket price left--forty-nine euros.

FORTY-NINE EUROS??? I AM TOO POOR FOR THIS.  I told her I needed to think and stepped off to one side.  And then I said to myself, can I really imagine walking out of this theatre right now, standing around in the cold for two and a half hours, and then hearing all about the show I missed from the girls?  No.  No I can not.  But can I really afford this?

And then I decided I am not going to Austria this month.  I am sorry, Máté Kamarás and Tanz der Vampire, but you are not as appealing as Mozart l'Opéra Rock and Mikelangeflo.  You lose.  Maybe next semester?

So I bought the ticket.

I REGRET NOTHING. The show was so good I could barely breathe.



( Extremely detailed review FULL of videos )

So as soon as I heard Mikele's "We lahv yooo!" I took off to the stage door.  Even though I had nothing to sign.

 I had an okay spot at the barricade, but then I saw my stagedoor buddies and let this really pushy kid take my spot so I could go squee with them.

( Stage door stories )

So that is basically the end of the tale.  I am so incredibly happy I could explode.  That was the best use of fifty euros I can think of.  And Austria?  I'm guessing it'll still be there next semester.

ETA: Instead of studying for my oral exam I elected to stagger around my room with a water bottle wearing my flowy black sweater, re-enacting Flo's Victime de ma victoire with my iTunes.  I think that was time well spent.  Anyway, off to fail a test!

I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO RELATE THIS BECAUSE IT'S ONLY BEEN AN HOUR AND AND AND.

OH MY GOD SO GLOVES.

OKAY OKAY LET ME TRY TO CALM DOWN. I CAN'T BREATHE.

Alright alright alright alright so.

( Chérie. Thank you. )

You win this round, Mikelangelo Loconte.  Now I just need an excuse to go back again.  Either Friday or Tuesday.  I haven't decided yet.

In a few short hours I am going to go find misatheredpanda and we are going to make Paris a little bit cooler with our antics.

MOST IMPORTANTLY she got us front row centre balcony seats to see Mozart l'Opéra Rock tomorrow... ON OPENING NIGHT. :DD

Last time we were in Paris together (with josiana , of course) we performed Les Mis almost in its entirety on the RER C and at Versailles (alarming a bunch of schoolchildren), managed to successfully create a potential Les Mis/Repo crossover (the mechanics of which I have completely forgotten), wondered what would inspire Montparnasse to wear a flower in his butthole, and found out what an opercule was.  Or did we?

SHORT STORY SHORTER I am super stoked.

You saw how my day started this morning.

NOW LOOK HOW IT ENDED.



Plus I got the Englishman's phone number.  He and his brother are coming over Sunday to carve pumpkins.  Unless we can't find pumpkins, in which case we'll carve whatever fruit we end up buying.