S'UP?!DATE

OK - how about a real entry, huh? alriiiiiiiiiiiiight.

this year: same city, same collèges, same apartment, same room (YES!!), different roommates. there's kanika from jaipur, india who is 22 and tania from omsk, russia is 23. i speak mostly english with kanika and french only with tania. it's good. i've met a lot of cool people from all over and i already have a feeling that this year has the potential to be even better than the last...

i'm taking an art class once a month with a friend, laura, who was also an assistant last year. we didn't meet until this year. she lives in rouen, too. just done the street actually. we're both going to be working on pieces with gouache. i'm probably going to do some kind of landscape or something on an old kitchen cabinet door i salvaged last year. i'm not thaaaaaat into landscapes but i want to make something i can use to decorate my bare walls and leave behind for the pleasure of future assistants. that is, if it turns out to be pleasing at all! but i am really looking forward to the class.

classes are fine. instead of doing the 2 week period of observation like the other assistants, i just started teaching right away. not much to report on the kiddies yet since a lot of them are the same students i had last year and we're still working on all the 'getting to know you/beginning of the year' stuff. after 2 weeks of teaching, peppered with days off due to strikes and assistant meetings, i had the vacances de la toussaint - a 2 week autumn break. it must be nice to be french all the time...thankfully, everything worked out in terms of people's schedules and me receiving my salary advance on time *phew* and i was able to take a trip to madrid as i had originally hoped to during the fall break. the best part was - meg and pat being there as my awesome tour guides/hosts AND halloween falling on the sunday during my stay!! i'm sure some a ya are like, who dey? meg and pat are good friends of mine from chicago (meaghan is a former roomie) and they are gf and bf living in madrid teaching english like meeeeeee! except they teach mostly adults who aren't as easily influenced by colorful, shiny stickers.

anyway, MADRID. madrid is pretty cool. it wasn't what i had imagined a spanish city to look like but it was lovely (maybe i had barcelona or southern spain in mind?). my trip wasn't really about doing touristy things, it was about seeing my friends and celebrating halloween, a holiday which the french largely ignore. tragic, i know. our costumes were just one step above covering ourselves with white sheets and calling ourselves ghosts but pickins' were slim and not many people dress up over the age of 4.

the gato negro, witch and pumpkin
*photo courtesy of Pete Moss

i had a great time - it was a perfect mini-vacay. the weather was rainy the first 2 days, living in normandy that didn't phase me a bit, and the last 3 days were sunny and comfortable. we ate so much good food, caught up, watched movies, shopped, drank plenty of vino pinto, laughed a lot, walked all over the city, took daily siestas like true spaniards and saw tons of cool stuff. see photos (more on facebook):

1st night - dinner at a tapas restaurant with sandy floors

a parade we came across

my first time eating ethiopian food - yum!

catedral de la almudena

inside catedral de la almudena

my favorite purchase

if you ever get to Spain, i would definitely recommend a stop in Madrid! muchos gracias, m+p!

and, finally, let us close with this entry's installment of...

Life Lessons with Lauryn: How to Make Ugly Shit Uglier

so, i got really sick of the ugly table in my room and wanted to do something to make it more attractive. last year it bugged the hell out of me too but of course i didn't do anything about it.

the table before (in tania's room)

buying a new one was out of the question. painting it? no way, it's metal and plastic. and a tablecloth would not only be old ladyish it would also be covered in grease stains, whiteout marks, pen scribbles, crumbs and wine rings in no time. after considering my other options (few), i decided to go with a gorgeous faux burl look - a look only discount store contact paper could truly create. to the 2€ store i went! and i covered that desk in 2 rolls of the finest faux burl wood print paper 4€ could buy. upon finishing, i quickly realized...it looked AWFUL. of course it did. then my roommate confirmed it. so i desperately set out in search of a solution. strangely enough, i found myself back at the 2€ store buying more faux wooden contact paper, only this time, a plainer wood grain with a reddish hue. i wondered aloud if i was crazy but i knew i would be even crazier not to try. and ladies and gentlemen, in all of its kitschy tackiness...

a close up of grain that would make the 
redwood forest envious

the finished product

i'm sure most of you are grimacing right now but you shoulda seen what it first looked like. trust me, unpainted particle board and plywood would've been cuter. but now, from a far distance without your glasses on, it almost appears to be real wood and even slightly matches my bed frame and nightstand. it's grown on me. just like a tree! and now i'm going to make like one and LEAF.

salut!!

erykah badu covers muddy waters' "mannish boy" in new H&M advert

 

had no clue that was erykah badu!! not bad, right? she's great. now those jeans are another story...

aaand here we are again...

aahhh! so much time has elapsed since my last post BUT if you're reading this then you already know that i'm back in france and very happy to be back in rouen. i don't have time to do a proper entry right now but i did want to post  s o m e t h i n g  just so you know i haven't forgotten!!

a remix of a song by a group i'm really liking at the moment.

Dragonette - Easy (Fabian remix)

for the 2nd year in a row, i'm missing my favorite season in chicago. fall makes me so nostalgic...

i saw a quote from the poem below on the window of a store in the centre commercial here in rouen. the autumnal theme made me smile so i looked it up and found the rest of it. simple, short and sweet. enjoy.

Les feuilles mortes

Tombent, tombent les feuilles rousses,
J’entends la pluie sur la mousse.

Tombent, tombent les feuilles molles,
J’entends le vent qui s’envole.

Tombent, tombent les feuilles d’or,
J’entends l’été qui s’endort.

Tombent, tombent les feuilles mortes,
J’entends l’hiver à ma porte.

-Pernette CHAPONNIÈRE

 

i got it, you got it?

a funny story from class...

so, a couple of weeks ago i had my 4è (8th grade) class and i'm not sure how we got on the subject but the word 'surnom' came up. what does that word look like? it looks like 'surname', right? especially since 'nom' can be translated as 'name'. well, i wanted to make it clear to them that 'surnom' means 'nickname' and not 'surname' or 'last name'...and then i asked the class if anyone had a nickname. no one really said anything but one rather bold girl who chitchats ALL the time but speaks english quite well said, 'what's your surnom, miss?' and i said, 'my nickname is lolo.' and to my surprise, all the kids in the class burst out laughing. and i'm like, 'what? WHAT?!' so rachel and her friend grab my erasable markers and start writing I <3 LOLOS and drawing pictures of boobs and boobs shaped like hearts all over the board while the class is cracking up. i didn't really get it and when i asked them what 'lolos' meant they said it meant 'boobs' but i thought, oh this has gotta be their own 4è slang, of course 'lolos' doesn't mean 'boobs'. they probably made it up or something. and yes, i let my students take my markers AND laugh at me. i'm going for the 'your teacher is your friend approach' rather than just being a cranky bitch. i know, it's hard. but i think it's working.
ANYWAY. sure enough, last saturday night at the movies, i happened to catch the word 'boobs' translated for the french subtitles as 'lolos'. and if that's not proof enough for you, there's always this:

yah, so i'm 1 boob, i guess. how about that, huh?

the SAG awards: nothing saggy here!

not a fan of hers either but how good is that alexander mcqueen dress?? yah...

and pssssss! sandra, honey. your husband is the french word for 'a shower'. 

A BIG OL' FREAKIN' SHOWER. a whole bag of 'em even.

News - Kelly Osbourne Dyes Her Hair Lavender! - Style & Beauty - UsMagazine.com

don't like kelly osbourne and don't think i could pull it off, but i love this!
News - Kelly Osbourne Dyes Her Hair Lavender! - Style & Beauty - UsMagazine.com

FÉVRIER 2010

i apologize for the lapse between posts here however i hope my last riveting entry on lamb's lettuce kept you satiated until this moment.

so, what have i been doing? WELL I'LL TELL YOU!

the first week of february was filled with anticipation and preparation for my special guest, my boyfriend MAD Jr.!! the day he flew in, i took the train to Charles de Gaulle and after waiting for each other in different parts of the airport, without cellphones, we finally found each other and then the adventure began!

we made our way to our SMALL but cute rented apartment in the 18th arrondissement. unfortunately, we both forgot to take pictures but you can check out the stock photos at the bottom of the page on the rental agency website here. paris was COLD and snowy but fun - old to me but new to my beau (paris, that is). favorites included: the jewish quarter, the top of the arc de triomphe, centre pompidou and the catacombs. see photos (fyi, most of these photos are already on facebook or picasa).

me enjoying a delicious falafel in the jewish quarter. yes, i shared.

on top of the arc de triomphe. MAN was it cold!!

panorama from the top of the arc de triomphe that i made.

next, it was on to brussels. we stayed in a double at a hostel just outside of the city center. brussels was equally as cold and i found the city itself to be a lot different than i imagined but we still made the most of it. we only spent one FULL day there but we liked: the musical instrument museum, the chocolate museum, belgian waffles, thai food for dinner (another cuisine i had missed!) and delirium café/belgian BEERS.

 

thai food! i ate that flower p.s.

mai tai or your tai? MINE! *sluuuurp*

seeing double at the delirium café.

 

don't leave this baby alone with chocolate belgian waffles.

we outgrew brussels rather quickly and made our way to amsterdam. holland - the land of my foremothers! we really enjoyed the 'venice of the north'. they are so many favorites to name: the anne frank house (best museum), dutch pancakes (best sweet treat), the hash, marijuana and hemp museum, the heineken brewery tour, the jewish history museum, etc. etc. take a look!

outside our hotel in Rembrandt Sqaure...

inside our hotel room!

the 'portuguese' synagogue.

  

the weed museum.

 

dutch pancakes = SOOO good! even better when ya got a coupon - HEYOOO!!

the heineken experience.

after amsterdam, we ran into some issues with the train getting back to paris (train crash in brussels) but made it back to rouen just fine. once back in rouen, we agreed it was time to relax a little and savor our remaining time together in this lovely little medieval town. i introduced mike to the main characters in my life's story here and taught him important things like how to drink cider in public at noon:

 

it was a picnic, ok? so that made it acceptable. 

but i had to wine and dine him a little more than that. he's got preeetty high standards. here is a picture of us before going out to the world renowned restuarant, La Couronne.

 it wa$ deliciou$! hehe

all in all, we both agreed that the vacation was a complete success. if i left something out that you'd like to hear about, please leave a comment!

mon dieu! i can't believe it's march already and as if by magic the weather in rouen has changed drastically. even if rainy (hey, it's spring! ...and it's normandy), le temps seems to have done a complete 180°. fingers crossed, that is! that shy little bitch sun has been showing her face more and more around these parts, the days are noticeably longer and with temperatures in the mid 40s-50s° F every day, i can't complain! so far it's been a refreshing change because as much as i love haute-normandie, the relentless cold, wet, grey dreariness was starting to get to me. now it's only sometimes wet, grey and dreary!

ALSO! if i haven't already mentioned how incredibly EXCITED i am about coming home to the prospect of two adorable, little babies - let me tell you again!! i am SO HAPPY for my cousins kimmy and todd and their spouses, ben and kelley, respectively. when i get back the babies will practically already be born (almost) and i will have a new lil' cousin on each side of the family. what's even better: one's a boy and the other will be a girl! the best of both worlds!! WOO WOO congrats grads you guys!

go be fruitful and multiply! jkjk ciao for now.

salad gr33ns

do my posts keep getting dumber and dumber or am i having an alimentary awakening here??

i❦ mâche !

arugula ain't got shit on you, honey!!

colonel mustard, in the billiard room, with the D.O.Y.L.E.

remember

us

?

i'm sure sam does. we drank our milk in reusable welch's jelly glasses like these, probably the only way our parents could get us to drink milk at all! isn't that an ingenious way to recycle? dunno 'bout brother, but the line of dinosaur characters was my favorite. apparently these kinds of cups are collectibles now! i'm always interested and sometimes amazed at what people collect...

a while ago, i was cruising the aisles of the local grocery store and came across the many shelves of MUSTARD. the french seem to use it fairly regularly in salads, with hard boiled eggs, and with other stuff that i'm forgetting right now, etc. i never really cared for mustard before, and i don't eat many things that require a yellow dollop, but the mustard in france is different. although it all seems to taste the same to me, and it's strong, i like it. and ketchup? i have nothing against ketchup. hell - i've been known to eat a hawt dawg bun with just ketchup (warmed up. duhz!) but everyone likes ketchup. who cares?

so at the supermarket i thought to myself: dear french mustard, i may have done you and your american cousins wrong in the past but i'm sorry. why don't you come over to my fridge and we can get to know each other better? i then reached for a container but recoiled. why do all these jars look familiar? after a second it hit me - all of these jars we use as drinking glasses at home in our apt. WHAT'S THAT?! do the french do the SAME THING with MUSTARD CONTAINERS that the americans do with WELCH'S JELLY JARS?!?! why, yes they do! and true to french form, they do it just a liiiiiiitle bit classier than we do. why? well,

1) it's mustard. not jelly. of the two condiments, who's more chic? that's right.
and
2) THE MUSTARD IS PACKAGED IN REUSABLE STEMWARE!!!!! can you believe that?! i mean, c'mon, that's posh as fuck!

see for yourself!!

 

oohhh. doesn't match the napkins, does it? 

the girls from the supper club will never have you back if you make such a faux pas!

sparkling lemonade, anyone?

yah, i consider that last one stemware, too. but see what i mean?! there are a ton of other brands, colors and glass choices, too! WOW.

OK - now that that's out of my system, i really meant to post a word or two about the guest who will be paying me a visit in exactly 9 days from the present. he asked that i not use his real name for fear of defamation, so we'll call him Damien Olivier Yannick LeRoi-Édouard (D.O.Y.L.E.). this D.O.Y.L.E. character (see recent snapshot) will be arriving in Paris on Tuesday next with a suitcase full of hope and a carry-on packed with dreams. you see, he's never been to the City of Lights before and with my twinkling tealight of French and touristic wisdom, i hope to be his guide.
then it's on to Brussels, Belgium for chocolate, beer and frites! all diets aside, folks, this is going to be one gluttonous gastronomic adventure.
afterwards, we'll make our way to a little town called Amsterdam. we will see lots of things there.
and finally, the last stop is my adopted French hometown in Haute-Normandie - Rouen. here we will spend the bulk of our time (5 days), hobnobbing and merrymaking all over this medieval hot spot. it's going to be a gas! i'm looking forward to introducing this little gem of a guy to my friends in Rouen and to France in general. LOOK OUT!!

check back soon for updates with photos. until then...XOXO

Spice Girls Musical "Viva Forever" to Hit Stage - ABC News

OH. MY. GAAWWWD.
Spice Girls Musical "Viva Forever" to Hit Stage - ABC News
this gives me hope that someday i will be whole again...

i promise to post more about MY life pour la prochaine fois but i just haven't had the time or the material.

ok, let's get a group together for the 'spice girls musical outing 2k12/13-ish'!! alright:
1. Lauryn
etc.
who can drive? because chances are in 2-3 years i still won't have a car. true.

who else wants to join up?! c'mon gang, this war ain't gonna fight itself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

get at me!

Marc Jacobs receives French honour | ELLEuk.com

Marc Jacobs receives French honour | ELLEuk.com

cool, non?

birthday goodness

premièrement, i want to thank each of you for the happy birthday wishes!! after the way the holidays (and much of my holiday break) went, i certainly wasn't getting my hopes up about anything. in lots of different ways so many of you remembered me on my 'special day' and it really mattered. so thanks a lot, merci beaucoup or as my dad likes to say - mercy bucket. ☺

my 24th birthday was great. started the day off on saturday by sleeping in a little bit. then i made some coffee, threw my coat on and ran down the street for an almond croissant but GASP! they had none. so, to console myself, i bought a pépito AAAND a lil' tarte au chocolat (add that to the pastry list) which was on sale. after that, i came home and opened my presents. please see photo. hey! i barely got christmas presents, let me be excited about something!!

featured in this photograph are fabulous gifts from my roommate, a teacher, my wonderful aunt and godfather, my fairy godmother AND belated (not his fault) christmas presents from my boyfriend!! other gifts received after the photo op but deserve mentioning: AN AWESOME 2010 mr. winkle calendar from my parents, a box full o' goodies from ohno!nmp and a generous donation to the Horvats Against A Broke Ass Lauryn fund. so many happy surprises! little did i know there were more in store! OH BOY!

next, my roommate megan and i went to the gym for a little workout. while she went home to shower, i stopped at the laundromat to wash my comforter which had a really weird smell to it all of a sudden, kind of like formaldehyde...i've washed the duvet cover before and i swear i wash my sheets on a regular basis! anyway, got that taken care of. so i came home and showered, had some nummies and then megan and i ventured out into rouen's commercial center to take advantage of LES SOLDES. twice annually france has a nationwide sale and one of them happens to take place in january. how fortuitous for us! so megan, kinzie and i fought through the crowds and were able to scoop up some good deals, the best for me being a pair of black flats with an ankle strap for €11.97 marked down from €39.97. YOU KNOW I LOVE TO $AV€!!!!!!!! apparently the deals keep getting better and better each week for 4 or 5 weeks but of course the selection isn't as good. but who cares!!

after shopping for a bit, we came home and started to get ready to go out. megan shared some wine and logan and lisa joined us for a viewing of my personal favorite, 3 Candles and a Christening. there was a lot of laughing, so i think they liked it!! for those who don't know about this chef-d'oeuvre, it's a home video of the joint parties of my 3rd birthday, my brother's baptism and a chicago bear's game shot and narrated by my fantastic fairy godmother. oscar material, i'm tellin' ya!

then kinzie, megan and i went out for indian food and topped it off by sharing a bottle of muscador on the way to boite à bieres - yes, dear readers, the very bar where the BlindTest took place a few months ago! we started off with a tequila shot and as more friends showed up a shot of calvados and some wine and beers in giraffes ----> were thrown in there, too. one of my younger (british) teachers also came. we shut down the bar and all and all it was a goodnight.

BUT if you think that sounds great, nothing really compares to what the 7th grade girls at english club did for me. yesterday, about 20 girls who come regularly to the club showed up with wrapped presents, cards, CHOCOLATE CAKE that one of them baked herself, orange soda, plates, cups, etc. it was INCREDIBLE. i mean, i can't believe these girls actually took the time to plan and to do all that!! and that they were willing to spend their money on me?! i had an idea that they might be planning something when they asked what i wanted for my birthday but i told them they should save their money and all i wanted was smiles on their faces in my class. i didn't expect that at all! i was really moved by how much they cared based on what they wrote in their cards and how they tried to explain to me why they bought the gifts they did. they were so sweet, although i have to admit, some of their gifts were pretty funny. for instance, the I ♥ ME earrings as well as the hard-boiled egg holder in the form of a donkey. haha! oh...

thanks again, everyone, for thinking of me. really.

LOVE!

ℒ

NOT french-related

saw this on CNN.com and wanted to share. this guy knows what's up!

4 da foodies & gourmand(e)s!

i feel lucky to live in a country that values slow food. if you aren't familiar with the term, here's a definition i found on www.slowfood.com:

"Slow Food is good, clean and fair food. We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work".
*NEWCOMER'S BOOK CLUB PLUG!* if this topic interests you, read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.

YES, fast food restaurants, giant supermarkets and processed meats exist here - so do TONS of fair trade and organic products at the local market (not just Whole Foods) for really reasonable prices. having said that, being a vegetarian in france, and probably the rest of europe...except maybe london, still makes me feel a little like a freak. it presents a lot of challenges for me when i attempt to see myself through the eyes of a french person. what kinds of challenges? well, i won't list them all but i'm sure you can imagine a few...

if you're a vegetarian strictly for animal rights and welfare reasons then france might be a place where you can eat carnivorously more or less guilt-free...if you know where to buy! and you really don't have to look too far. for example, at the marché de la place saint-marc every week in Rouen or at la fête du ventre (festival of the belly - see photo) that also took place in Rouen a while ago, you can actually engage vendors in a conversation about the product(s) they're selling and receive an informed answer. 9 times out of 10, these vendors represent family owned and operated businesses. although i personally did not, i'm sure you could ask these merchants what practices they used to raise, feed, keep, slaughter, etc. their livestock. and they'll know, too, because they do it OLD SCHOOL. no, i don't mean old school like horse-drawn plows and wool underwear i mean old school in that when it comes to what they do, they have a lot more knowledge, devotion and sense of tradition than joyce, the deli lady over at jewel on 55th and plainfield. yes, they might look at you kinda funny when you ask how they made death to their merchandise, but trust me, these are the folks that can give you the answers. and once you've got your answers, you can make your decisions. but, who knows? maybe they are just bashing heads in with a hammer and doing their fair share of polluting, only on a smaller scale. but they're not running corporate slaughterhouses - aaaaand that opens up an entirely new can of worms.
...have you found something else to do yet?

for me, being vegetarian has a lot more depth to it so i'm not craving some "guilt-free french veal" right now. but, i think what i brought up still bears mentioning because it's something i've thought a lot about.

although it's often difficult to find vegetarian options in restaurants, it is NOT impossible. it helps that almost every establishment serving food in france will display a menu outside for passersby to consider. usually i know what i'm getting myself into. the one exception i've been forced to make while dining out is allowing meat, seafood and poultry-based stocks and broths back into my diet. that doesn't mean i'm going to order la bisque de homard (lobster bisque) and eat around the lobster, it just means i've accepted the fact that whatever vegetarian alternative the restaurant offers will only be vegetarian in the sense that there is a physical absence of an animal on the plate. chances are, the vegetarian option du jour (if there is one) was cooked in fish sauce or beef bouillon or chicken stock. thankfully, i can not afford to eat out that often.

cooking at home is a totally different story! i have found this is a much cheaper and simpler solution to restaurant eating as i can prepare almost any dish i want according to my own rules. chez moi, i use only bouillon aux légumes (vegetable bouillon) and stick to my normal lacto-ovo diet. right now, i'm trying to teach myself to like la croûte (the rind) of french cheeses. normally, i cut it off which is appalling to some. it tastes like wet twigs and leaves!! i HAVE found that the better the cheese, the more tolerable the rind. but if you know my spending habits then...well, let's just say this lesson is slow-going.

i'd like to close with a list of french pastries i've tried so far and some yummy photos:

-le croissant (of course! you all know what that looks like.)

-le croissant aux amandes <-- SO GOOD! flaky like a croissant, covered in almonds with a sweet almond paste in the middle. DAMN.
-les macarons hard to describe. not a fan, but praliné is aiiiiiight. they come in hundreds of flavors and colors. very chewy.

-le pepito a.k.a. la brioche suisse aux pépites de chocolat. basically like a long, rectangular croissant (but chewier and less flaky!) with some sort of very light, sweet glaze in the middle with little chocolate chips baked inside it. YUM!!

-le pain au chocolat differently shaped but just like a croissant. see the chocolate baked in the middle? mmm...

-le pain au raisin raisins baked on top of a roll with a sweet paste in the middle.

-le chausson aux pommes like a little apple pie with a filling thicker than apple sauce in the middle. a little messy to eat and walk with!

-le paris-brest a donut convered in powdered sugar and slivered almonds with a sugary, chocolate cream in the middle. a little too rich and sweet for my taste.

-la bûche de noël. a chocolate cake or ice cream cake layer rolled up and decorated with sugary figurines and foliage to trick people into thinking it's a real log. cheeky devils!!

and now some photos that i actually took for your viewing pleasure:

La Couronne, anyone? Julie & Julia?

the top. this baby been around since 1345!!

some animal guests for la fête.

for more photos from la fête du ventre, go here.

peas ☮ & carrots, y'all!