fuji sama no pazuru

So, I just finished a half hour Wii Fit Workout, and now I am all sweaty and gross. It's funny how playing a video game can make you sweaty and gross. Although I don't know if we can really call Wii Fit a video game. But there are some parts of it that are very fun.

I also had a job interview today. And granted - it is a job that will take me one hour a week and pay me 15€ for that hour, so I don't know if we can call it a real job. But that doesn't change the fact that I had to interview for it. And I was all nervous, but I think I did really well despite that. For those of you wondering, it's a job giving a private English lesson to a 9 year old. Like I said, I think it went really well, and the family was in awe over my fantastic French speaking skills (which, I know, will help me in no way, shape, or form at teaching English), but I don't think it was enough to actually get me the job. Because I told them that there is a possibility that I will be leaving next February, and I think they want someone a little more long term than that. Oh well. It's probably best if I don't get it, given that it's a whole 45 minute or more commute to get there.


In other news, I finished the puzzle that I started working on before I became distracted by the impossipuzzle. It's so beautiful, isn't it? And it was so so so so SO much easier. It was like floating on clouds, working on it, as opposed to yanking out teeth (which is how it was to do the impossipuzzle). I can't wait to go see Mount Fuji next year when I will be living in Japan for a few months (fingers crossed for me on that one).


This weekend is a three day weekend, and I am very excited about it. This weekend, I will watch tv then read then sleep. Kondono shuumatsu, watashi wa terebi o mite hon o yonde nemasu.
Okay, I just needed to say that because I know how to say it in Japanese! YAY! I am so psyched about how much I love my Japanese classes. I think that, when finished with my present book in progess aka book number two, my third book will have to take place in Japan. Which means that I will DEFINITELY have to move there some day.

Oh, also, I finally got around to reading Tara Duncan, which has been on my bookshelf for ages, and I just finished this morning a book that I FINALLY got around to reading and that enormously exceeded my expectations:

Tara Duncan: Les Sortceliers - Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian
**** (4)
First of all, WHAT kind of last name is Audoin-Mamikonian. I can't help but wonder if she made it up. Secondly, this book is adorable! It took me a little while to get into it, because in the beginning I couldn't help non-stop comparing it to Harry Potter. This was hard not to do because there are just so many similarities. But the fact is that, while Tara Duncan is a French female Harry Potter, she is also someone else entirely. And in the end I became captivated by her and her friends and their adventures, and I'm looking forward to reading about the next of her adventures. Unfortunately for those who don't read French, though, it hasn't yet been translated to English. Or at least not that I can find.

Ransom My Heart - Mia Thermopolis with help from Meg Cabot
***** (5)
I should have expected that this book exceed my expectations, given that it was written by Meg Cabot. But still, it's a ROMANCE novel. And I couldn't really except to L<3VE a ROMANCE novel. But I managed to get past the rare and occasional "lewd" scene and love this romance novel. The story was so good, and it was amazing how Meg made it seem as if it really was written by Mia. There were parts that were just so cute and touching, and I totally fell for the characters. This is a romance for teens while not being a teen romance. If that makes sense.

The end.

Impossipuzzle

I have a three day weekend coming up - or, rather, I guess I am in it now, given then I am finished work for today, and tomorrow is the day off. During the three day weekend, Guillaume is going to Annecy, of all places, for Guilhem's bachelor party, and so I was planning on working the weekend away and finishing the previously mentioned impossipuzzle that I started with Alex and Janet when they were here.



But it looks like that will no longer be necessary. The thing is done. It looks like it should have been easier than it actually was. Even the white pieces in the hand looked black and grey like all the others when not in the hand.

Anyhow, it is done, and now Smallville awaits me.

Les visiteurs

So I have been meaning to update this for AGES, but somehow laziness always wins out over good intentions (or blog updating intentions, at least, if we can call them good). I can't help but wonder if anyone will actually ever read my blog anymore or think to read it anymore, given that I am SO bad at keeping it updated. But I mean, I have books to read and Smallville, Cardcaptor Sakura, Death Note, Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, the Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Privileged to watch. Not to mention Japanese homework to work on and Nintendo DS and Wii to play. Oh and, of course, my job. How can I forget about that? As you can all tell, I am a VERY busy person.

Now, though, I want to write about what a GREAT time I had with Alex here with his girlfriend Janet and then with my mother, grandmother, and sister here.
It was SO good to have them all here, and I am still super sad that they are no longer here.


Alex and Janet arrived on Friday, and I got to hang out with them most of Friday and all of Saturday. It was so good to catch up - and I'm so excited that he's moving away from icky Boston and back to fantabulous New York City where he will be interning in a hospital.



When Mom, Kristen, and Grandma all arrived on Sunday morning, we ate some cupcakes (oishii desu!!!!) and then headed over to Versailles. I thought I had never been, but it all seemed so familiar when I got there, and Kristen informed me that we did, indeed, go to Versailles when we came to France in high school.



On Monday morning, we (= me, Mom, Kristen, and Grandma without Alex and Janet) left super early for Annecy, which is a small fairy-tale-esque city situated right in the heart of the French Alps and at the edge of Provence.




We unfortunately had to walk up a huge hill to get to where we were stay, but it was worth it for the adorable little gite we stayed in and the view of Annecy's castle right next door. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday there, and it was a GREAT vacation! We cooked delicious vegan food, and Mom, Kristen, and Grandma ate crepes every day. On Tuesday morning there was the Annecy market, so we bought juice and olive oil and cheese (not for me, bien sur!) and soup (vegan, ohhh yeah!) and had a lovely lunch sitting in the sun by the river. There was a very persistent bird that sat by us eating the cheese that Mom, Krist, and Grandma threw at him but that wanted nothing to do with the bread.

(I know that this picture is the wrong way, but I can't get Guillaume's computer to do anything about it, so it will have to be changed later)
After lunch, we spent time by the lake and went shopping and met up with my friend Lauren, who was living there at the time. Kristen was going to be having a fake patio party, so we tried on dresses.

Kristen, Audrey, Grandma, Mom, and Lauren in faux patio party dresses

On Wednesday, we had a lazy morning and then spent some more time shopping (and I discovered that Zara actually does sell fairly cheap clothes that I would actually be interested in wearing - shocking!!) and then got fantastic (but unfortunately expensive) massages. It felt so nice to be pampered. Night times there were also super fun - we played games like MASH and wrote lists of questions that everyone had to answer. We learned lots of fun facts about everyone - for example, I learned that Mom's favorite singer is Phil Collins with Peter Cetera (ohhh yeah!) coming in second. And And that Kristen hates having water in her face. And lots of interesting facts about Grandma (that I'm not sure she would appreciate me posting in my blog) as well.



We got back to Paris late on Wednesday night, and Alex and Janet had cooked us a delicious dinner. They had worked on the impossipuzzle while we were gone. I had started this thing a while ago, and I only managed to get some of the border done and a very little bit of the inside. Almost all of the pieces look and are shaped exactly the same. They made some progress - they completed the border and some of the inside. I have been working on it since.

Then I unfortunately had to go to work super early on Thursday. Krist, Mom, and Grammers went to Pere Lachaise, and then when I got home we all had a pilates lesson together. Grandma does yoga, so she was a little nervous about trying out the pilates, but I think she loved it in the end. Afterwars we spent some time in a little outdoor market, where Mom bought a delicious smelling lavender sachet and Grandma tried on these fantastic bendy necklaces (there seems to be no picture :-( ) and Kristen and I tried on lovely hats. Then we got some delicious starbucks vegan mint hot chocolate. Mieum!


Sadly, Kristen then had to leave on Friday right when I got home from work. :-( So we sent Kristen off and then headed over to les Champs-Elysees. We saw l'arc de triomphe and walked down the street that has all of the haute couture stores on it (Mom has these pictures, and I unfortunately don't have them yet). We saw la place de la concorde and les tuileries and then I left Mom and Grandma to explore the Louvres while I went home and cooked us dinner.

On Saturday, Grandma was unfortunately not feeling so well, so she stayed home and rested while Mom and I explored St-Michel and Notre Dame and l'hotel de Ville and le Marais went tourist shopping. We somehow managed to run out of time before heading over to the Eiffel Tower, as we had to get back quickly to go have dinner with Guillaume's parents. It was, of course, delicious, and Guillaume's dad happened to have just put on Phil Collins, which we now know to be Mom's favorite. On our way back, we had to do a quick drive by of the Eiffel Tower so Mom could get out, as she had never seen it before, and you can't come to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower:

Anyhow, this is getting ridiculously long, so I guess that's it. Mom and Grandma left Sunday morning, and I was sad. The end.

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month, and I have decided to celebrate! I am therefore trying to write a novel of at least 50,000 words by the end of November. Right now, I am at 11,903. I've been trying to tell everyone, so as to motivate myself to actually do it. If people are expecting a novel from me, then a novel I have to give them, right?
Wish me luck!!!!

In other news, I finally finished the puzzle that I was talking about a while ago. I actually finished it a few weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to take a picture. It was actually way harder than it looks. The plan was to glue it together - given how long it took me, I don't think I'm going to want to do it again. Unfortunately, though, two of the pieces are missing. :-( Sadness!

One last thing, and I know that I said there would be no politics, but I just have this one last thing to say. I got an e-mail saying that what I wrote about war in my last entry made it seem as if I voted for McCain out of ignorance. I would just like to say that, even if I had been 100% against McCain's ideas about the war and loved Obama's ideas, I STILL would have voted for McCain. Because for me, there was SO much more to it than that, and, perhaps bizarrely to a lot of you, the war was a the bottom of my list of most important issues this time around.

I've Got the Whole World in My Hands

This is a puzzle I did a little while ago. I LOVE puzzles! Especially 3-D ones!!!! But not especially the one I am doing now, which is really cool, but I'm about 20 pieces away from the end, and I just can't seem to get it done. All of the pieces look EXACTLY the same. :-( Boo!