sidenote!

i also wanted to mention that i've started about 5 different drafts and i'll be publishing them as i get around to finishing them SO i apologize if my posts seem a little out of order at first but the information's still all good and relevant! hey, i'm new at this. thanx & BISOUS!
-the management

T!d8!tz of tR!V!4

if you know me you know i love me some triviaaaaa! who knows just about every jewish celebrity in hollywood today? NOT ME!! anywheres, here are some interesting facts i've learned since moving to france. some of you may be surprised by them and some, not so much.


1) prune yogurt EXISTS and it tastes great! pruuuuuune.

2) the students at collège fontenelle can see my roommates and i while we shower. allow me to explain. here's how our apartment building is laid out in relation to the school:

ok, so the huge building is collège fontenelle. the little building to the right of it is our apartment building, the blue windows indicate OUR apartment (on the french 2nd floor, the 3rd american floor). our bathroom is on the other side of the apartment building facing the red windows which indicate adolescent boys staring back at us. YES, there is a frosted glass window in our shower and yahhh i did wonder if that was bad placement on the part of the architect but i figured someone would've told us that the frosted glass was faulty and although you can't see out you can apparently see in. well, someone DID tell us this...after we had already become ruined women.
p.s. we put some tin foil up over the window for the time being. eh.

3) everyone wants to bum a cigarette off you in france, even bums. EVEN 8 YEAR OLDS. c'mon, wait 'til you're 11 like the rest of us!! no, but really, they'll ask.

4) this might be one of the coolest things i learned since moving to rouen. get ready for this! HEDGEHOGS. RUN. WILD. IN. THE. FORESTS. HERE!!!!! at least in the forests of mont-saint-aignan they do. one day a professor was driving me to his house to give his daughters their weekly private english lesson and he swerved suddenly around a magpie (une pie)
in the street. this didn't surprise me because french people drive like they're being chased but i also noticed that the magpie was picking at some roadkill. the prof told me it was probably a hedgehog (un hérisson)!! naturally, i was very shocked and saddened to hear that but then he told me, oh yes, that hedgehogs run WILD in the forests here along with wild boar and deer. wild boar?! this ain't lion king!! anyway, i plan on taking a trip to the forest soon and i will let you know how cool the animals are!

5) another awesome forest-related fact: if you happen to go mushroom picking in france (which i REALLY REALLY want to do!), you can take your treasures to the PHARMACIST and they'll be able to tell you which 'shrooms are edible and which are not. but But BUT, you need to know what you're doing or go with someone who does otherwise one poisonous shroom could contaminate the whole batch and then next thing you know all your friends from the mushroom picking party are dead.

6) ok, maybe i'm silly for not knowing this but in UK english they DON'T call the last letter of the alphabet the letter 'Z' (zee). they say the letter 'ZED'! i never ever knew this! i know that's how you pronounce the same letter in the french alphabet but...i'm i the only one who didn't know this??

7) power converters are GARBAGE. this was SO confusing to me before i left and caused me a lot of grief. turns out, i just didn't have my facts straight. U.S. voltage is 110, european voltage is between 220 and 240. check your appliances (as long as they aren't ancient) for the INPUT voltage range and if it can handle between 110 and 240 or more, then you're golden. all you need is an adapter. almost every single electrical appliance should have the voltage range printed on it, usually in very small print. if you plan on traveling a lot or staying in a european country for an extended period of time, get one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/TRIPP-SUPER6OMNI-German-Universal-Outlets/dp/B00063E98U

a really useful power strip w/ universal outlets and a europlug which means it should be safe to use throughout continental europe. it is quite a bit longer than the typical power strip but it works great! i would NOT recommend using a U.S. power strip w/ a converter or using a converter PERIOD. not only did it fry my straightener and make my hair dryer smell like burnt pizza, it caused my roommate's outlet to start smoking. i'm not really sure WHAT these converters are used for, even the ones marked for hair dryers and straighteners, so just leave 'em alone. buy new appliances in europe if you HAVE to HAVE them and most hotels have hair dryers in the rooms anyway.

in the spirit of halloween, i'll close with the xray of my lungs from OFII (Office Français de l'Immigration et de l'Insertion). i don't have tuberculosis OR scoliosis! ain't that swell?

i hope everyone has a FUN and happy halloween! be well.