foreign exhaustion

it's just tiring existing sometimes. ive been realizing more and more that sometimes, i get tired because the whole day, i'm...listening. of course speaking, too. but even if i was prohibited to speak a word of french, i would still be listening to it. all day. and it wears on you! constantly thinking in a foreign language is not at all the same as the automatic english thoughts ive been contentedly having for the past twenty [nineteen? eighteen? when did i start thinking in english?] years.

of course, i could be feeling a bit tired lately due to all of the explorations. what i have done in the past 2 weeks:

museums-
Musee Rodin
Centre George Pompidou
Musee du Quai Branley
Musee Ganne, Barbizon

historic sites-
Chateau de Vincennes
St. Denis Basilica
Chateau de Fontainebleau
Barbizon
La Grande Arche/La Defense

good eats-
Laduree [macarons]
Pierre Hermé [more macarons]
Angelina [hot chocolate to die for]
nutella crepes [not anything unusual, BUT it was at this little stand, around 1am, where hannah and i got 2 for 1 because i told the guy it was her birthday the night before. score! so glad we finally got something free out of her birthday!

odd but great situations-
-teaching a 6-year-old french girl [eleanore] how to read in french. never thought i would be doing that.
-having a conversation about US economics with three men- one french, one italian, one turkish.
-giving a young french woman and her child instructions to get to the Luxembourg gardens. way to go, steph!
-receiving a call in which i get an offer to my top-choice internship, at 11pm, as im getting ready for bed!
-soirée on a boat- basically a big dance party with 100euro champagne bottles. ALL american/english music. ALL. and i dont think anyone else spoke english as a first language, if at all. but whatever. fun experience, to do once. didnt buy the champagne. did eat the free candy.
-biking through the former hunting grounds of Fontainebleau Forest, from Chateau de Fontainebleau to Barbizon. Probably one of my favorite adventures ever.
-going to the French International film festival for the Environment. I love film festivals. i love free things. THIS WAS FANTASTIC. ive seen 3 movies so far. i finally saw Food, Inc. which i had wanted to see for months back home, but never got around to it. so seeing it in france with french subtitles and for free...lets just say it was worth the wait. i also saw 'la ville au futur,' a french film about numbers and technology and how we are all being watched and all the underground systems in paris. it was cool because afterward, there was a Q/A session with the director and producer and, well, the audience didnt hesitate to critique their work! it was very academic of me.

so yeah, its a lot! especially with classes and work. there is only so much museuming one can do in a certain number of hours. best of all, everything ive visited is free! i should write a book- "frugal paris."

i dont know what to narrow-in on for this post. so much has happened, and ive been horrible at blogging because i havent had reliable internet. for some reason, the french do not see internet on the same level as air and water, as the US does. its really quite frustrating.

i have thought of some other names for this blog that i could have chosen, equally as accurate as the current name:

une année sans...
-a hairdryer
-really good music
-the gym
-home-cooked meals
-The Office
-the dollar
-cereal

im sure more will come up. for now, those are the ones that affect me most. [seriously though- no hairdryer! impressive, if you ask me.]