6 truths about Paris

I remember before I came to Paris, I was reading every study abroad article about France and what it was like and what you may encounter. I used to treasure them like they were gold and now after spending two months in France, it was all lies!

Okay, maybe not all of it, but people have definitely left out important and, often not, interesting information about this city in their books.

So I figured, why not try to share them with you guys.

1. If you don't go to a program where it's all French 100% of the time, then chances are you are not going to learn as much French as you thought you were going to. I'm studying abroad in a program where my classes are in English and only 1 class is French. I would have loved to join the other programs where you have to sign a contract to ONLY speak French, but unfortunately I didn't qualify in the requirements. I have however improved my French, but because the people I hang out with like to speak only English, in the end, I still suck at making proper sentences. In my head, I am amazing! But once my mouth opens, it is nothing close to what I wanted to say.

2. The metro is absolutely easy to master. The beauty about Paris is that they have an amazing metro system that puts the US to shame. I can hop on a random train and know that I will eventually get home. Plus their maps on every station and every tunnel is so clear. It's kind of hard not to get lost. It may seem intimidating at first, but trust me, after awhile you realize you had nothing to worry about. You know, until one of the stations shuts down and everyone starts to panic.

Japan isn't the only country in the world where the train can get this full.

3. Women are ridiculous here in terms of shoes. They like to wear heels no matter what and let me tell you, I've tried wearing some for a night out and I will not be doing that again for a very long time. The sidewalks can be a mix of cobblestones and cement so they can trap your heels and cause sudden death. Last week it snowed and they still decided to wear heels in this weather, even if they had to shuffle everywhere. Who are you trying to impress?! Tell me! Who?!

4. Speaking of snow, Paris doesn't know how to react to it when it does come. Very rarely will you get snow that sticks and last week, I swear, Paris had a coronary when it happened. Metro's were slow. Sidewalks were slippery. People were in constant chaos. Okay, not really, but the transportation was not happening that day. And you know what the funny thing was? It all melted the next day.

C'mon son. This ain't Chicago.

But it does like to hail over here.

And you think I'm playing, right? 

5. Moving on from snow, the weather here is bipolar. It can be 30 degrees Fahrenheit one week and the next we are in the 60s. It may rain for a period and then the sun will appear for a good hour, only to disappear once again. If you're studying abroad in the Spring, remember there is still the Winter period before you actually get to the good weather. So don't listen to anyone who tells you to not bring any sweaters and long sleeved shirts. They are liars! Bring every piece of warm clothing you own because even if it's not that cold outside, it definitely will be inside. Electricity is very expensive in Paris, so where ever you end up living in, the heater will most likely be turned down very low where you end up sleeping in a hoodie, sweatpants, and socks. Oh, and bring an umbrella! No seriously, just do it.

6. Everything is expensive. A couple of French people even say that Paris is ridiculously expensive for no apparent reason. I absolutely agree. Considering that my USD has to change into euros, I became broke increasingly fast; especially when I remembered that I don't come from a family that lives in a castle and owns 10 cars. That was a reality check.

But then again:

Now I'm not telling you all of this to complain (okay maybe a little bit), but I thought these would have been nice things to know before I got here. Paris is still a wonderful city and I am still amazed that I made it here. I have definitely grown a lot during my stay here and this trip will forever be ingrained in my head. Paris has increased my passion to travel some more and I may take up on that feeling next year when I will be getting ready to graduate college.

Week 3 in France

I figured now would be a good time as any to start writing about my adventures in Paris. I've been neglecting my poor blog ever since I arrived in Paris 3 weeks ago.

It's been a world wind of experiences since I arrived here. It was a rough start the day I landed into Paris. My flight was delayed due to the snow storm that was passing through Europe. I was changed to 3 airlines just to make sure I would arrive in time for my program. I lost my phone in the taxi that dropped me off in front of my home-stay and I had no idea how to communicate to anyone at all.

But since then, things have definitely gotten a lot better. I met some great people in my program, been traveling throughout Paris a lot, mastered the metro, and been visiting conversation exchange events every week!

I've been to Chartres and Versailles, saw the Notre Dame church, and have been to the Louvre.

These are the gates to the royal apartments in Versailles

This is one of the hallways inside the apartments. Can you believe that they painted the ceilings like that?

Overall, I've been pretty busy getting to know Paris and it's history.

I'll do my best to update on all the things that I've experienced and learned in this amazing adventure of mine!

Of new paths and open doors

 

As I look at my calendar, it is officially January 15. In as little as 5 days from now, I will take my 45 minute drive to my international airport to France. I will arrive there anxious and nervous for my 8 hour flight to an unknown destination surrounded by unknown people. The language that I have spent many nights dreaming about and months studying will be all around me and I can't do nothing but hope that it will all not sound as gibberish.

I am worried about the host family that I will be spending with every day and night for the next 3 and half months. I am worried about the people labeling me as a dumb American. But what I am most worried about is the goal that I have set myself for the duration of my whole trip.

I have made a promise as soon as I entered foot into that airport to speak as much French as I can. If I ever want to reach fluency by the time I return back to the states then it's going to be time for me swallow my fear and accept the mistakes that I am sure is bound to happen. 

I have seen family members who have migrated into the States without a lick of English in those many bags of theirs and have managed to learn it even as they suffered criticism just because they were hispanic. People have judged them as stupid and nothing but problems, but I see them as inspiration. If they can stand up against the anger against their own race then I can stand up to accept the challenge in learning a language in just half a year.

In as little as 5 days, I will be heading to France. I will experience so many emotions, but I know the experience will be worth it. It will be like starting Freshman year of college of over again. I will be alone. I will have various days of good and bad, but at least I know after all of this,  I will be totally worth it. 

Tomber and Italki

It's been a few days since I posted anything on here and, to tell you the truth, I have no idea what I did since then. It's all a blur for me....oh well. Monday is here once again and I guess it's back to work on studying French.

Today I got an email from french.about.com on the many expressons of tomber. It's a lot....I mean a lot of uses for it. Maybe one day, I'll remember them all.

The verb tomber literally means to fall.

An example of that would be:

Goofy est toujour tomber. Goofy is always falling.
(Btw, that was a sentence of my own creation. Hopefully, it's grammatically correct...)

But tomber is not only used in that context. It can also be used in many, many ways.


Some meanings of tomber:

• to fall (over, down)
• to happen
• (familiar) to be/get busted/nicked
• (day) to end
• (fever) to drop
• (fabric) to hang
• (mustache) to droop
• (noise) to drop, fall away
• (number) to fall, drop
• (shoulders) to slope
• (wind) to die down, abate

Expressions of tomber:

tomber à/dans l'eau

to fall into the water

tomber amoureux de quelqu'un

to fall in love with someone

tomber bien bas (figurative)

to sink really low

tomber dans

to become, take to, lapse/fall into

tomber dans la marmite (familiar)

to fall under the spell, become passionate (about)

tomber dans le domaine public

to be in the public domain/out of copyright

tomber dans le panneau (informal)

to fall for it, be gullible

tomber dans le piège

to fall into a trap, be trapped

tomber dans les pommes (informal)

to faint, pass out

tomber dans l'excès inverse

to go to the opposite extreme

tomber de

to fall from/out of/off

tomber de la lune (figurative)

to have dropped in from another planet

tomber dessus

to happen/show up unexpectedly

tomber de (tout) son haut

to crash to the ground, fall headlong

tomber du ciel

to be a godsend, heaven-sent

tomber du haut

to fall from a height/(figurative) to come down with a bump

tomber d'un excés dans un autre

to go from one extreme to another

tomber juste

to be correct, to hit the nail on the head

tomber le même jour

to fall/occur on the same day

tomber par terre

to fall to the ground

tomber sur

to come around to, light upon; to run/bump into; to come across/upon

bien tomber

to occur at the right time; to be lucky

faire tomber

to knock down, over; to drop; to bring down

laisser tomber

to drop; to let down, abandon, leave in the lurch

mal tomber

to occur at the wrong time; to be unlucky

se laisser tomber dans un fauteuil

to drop into an armchair

ça tombe bien

that's fortunate/convenient

ça tombe à point/pic (informal)

that's perfect timing

ça ne pouvait pas mieux tomber

it couldn't come/happen at a better time

l'eau tombe en cascades

water is cascading down

et il a fallu que ça tombe sur moi! (ironic)

it (just) had to be me!

la foudre est tombée

lightening struck

il est tombé sur la tête (informal)

he's got a screw loose, he must have been dropped on his head as a child

il les tombe toutes

he's a real ladykiller

il m'est tombé sur le dos/paletot/râble (familiar)

he laid into me, went for me

il nous est tombé dessus

he showed up unexpectedly

il tombe de la neige

it's snowing

il tombe quelques gouttes

it's sprinkling/spiting (with rain)

laisse tomber! (informal)

forget it, let it go, never mind

la maladie, ça peut vous tomber dessus n'importe quand

you can fall ill any time

la nouvelle vient de tomber à l'instant

the news has just broken

la nuit tombe

night is falling/it's getting back

quand la solitude vous tombe dessus...

when you suddenly find yourself alone...

une quantité de problèmes leur est tombée dessus

they had a whole series of problems

qu'est-ce qu'il tombe! (informal)

it's pouring/coming down in buckets/ tipping it down!

un téléfax vient de tomber

a fax has just come through


...And you thought I was kidding, huh?

To also make up for not posting for a few days, I have some good news for those who are serious in not learning only French, but for any other language that they are currently learning.

I currently follow Benny the Irish Polyglot and he's always doing some crazy new challenge for him to either learn a new language or improve on one he knows. He's just amazing!!

Well, he currently talked about how he uses italki to practice conversing Arabic. I checked it out and basically it's a great way to get a partner and practice each other speaking the language you are currently learning. He talks more in dept on his page about it as he has been using it for almost a year and has actually met with the CEO of italki. 

Since I know English and Spanish, I can practice conversing Spanish and English with them and practice my French. 

I'm going to slowly try it out because I'm very paranoid over things like that, especially when I don't know the person at all. You have to be careful who you meet.

But if someone who is already familiar with italki, I would love to hear your input on it. 

Until next time...

Le Mot du Jour: GAB

Sorry that I'm posting today's mot du jour so late, but it's been a long day over here in the East Coast. It started snowing today and I wouldn't have minded that if it wasn't for the wind slapping my face constantly. It's seriously cold outside!

Le mot du Jour est GAB. It's an abbreviation for Guichet Automatique de Banque. It means ATM/cash dispenser.

The sample sentence french.about.com give is:

• Les GAB sont trés commode. ATM's are very convenient.

Le GAB is also related to the word un guichet which means store window, counter, box office. It is also related to the world un guichetier which means counter clerk. 

Can I just say that this word is going to be so useful when I go abroad?!

Le Mot du Jour: Parier

Today's word of the day is parier.

It means to bet/to wager

Here are the sample sentences french.about.com gave:

1. Je te parie qu'il sera en retard. I bet he'll be late. 
2. As-tu jamais parié sur un cheval? Have you ever bet on a horse? 
3. Elles sont fatiguées, je parie. I bet they're tired; They're tired, I'd wager.

On a side note, today I was talking to my friend who is learning Japanese and he has this app on his iPad called Skritter. It looked really cool because it gave him sentences in Japanese to read in Kanji and then he had to answer it in Kanji by writing the characters on the screen. You can create your dictionary as well because you can put in vocabulary words you don't know and do vocabulary drills.

He told me he was basically obsessed with it and that he studied at least an hour a day with it. It looked like it really worked too. This will be really great when I begin to learn Japanese next year. I want to apply for the Japan Exchange and Teaching (J.E.T.) program, but even if I don't get accepted into the program, I would still love to learn Japanese. It's such an intense and rewarding language.

For those who want to work in the business/economic industry, knowing some Japanese (even French) is very beneficial because they are one of the top countries in the business field (among other things).

I tried to find out if they had a French version. So far, no luck. I am in the search of trying to find an app equivalent to it for the iPod/iPhone since I don't have an iPad (although I really, really want one). 

Hopefully, I'll find something!

Until next time!

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!! YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Mot du Jour

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a website that was willing to give me all the French practice in the world. Actually, Monsieur recommended it a few weeks ago, but I never really checked it out until now.

The website is called french.about.com and it has endless lists of resources. From proficiency tests to French slang vocabularies. You can even sign up for a newsletter where Laura K. Lawless (a writer for the page) gives you daily exercises to improve your French.

I, obviously, have signed up for it and I get the mot du jour (word of the day) link along with other tips and exercises.

My mot du jour is klaxonner and it means to honk/beep/toot one's horn

It also comes with sample sentences so you can see how it is used. I am going to write daily words here along with their sample sentences and at the end of the week a list of all the vocabulary words that I learned. Hopefully, that will help me remember the words. 

I think I am also going to buy a pocket notebook to put them in, just so I can look back on them whenever I want. It will be a great way to write sentences along with their definitions, so I don't forget how to use them.

Before I forget the sample sentences they gave me were:

1. Quand vous arriverez, ne klaxonnez pas; je préfère que vous sonniez à la porte. When you arrive, don't beep your horn; I'd prefer it if you rang the doorbell.
2. Pourquoi les gens doivent-ils klaxonner quand ils voient bien c'est impossible de bouger? Why do people have to honk when they can see that it's impossible to move?

Hopefully this will help me out. Enjoy your Monday!