rainy day thoughts

Last night I saw an amazing film, La vie des autres, (The Lives of Others) which was in German with French subtitles. I'm proud to say that I understood almost everything even though my eyes were tired by the end. The movie is set in the 1980's in East Germany and told the story of a couple being spied on by a man who begins to sympathize with them, communism, etc. It really was great, and only 3.50 euro because of a special spring cinema thing that was going on until yesterday. The movie won the Oscar for best foreign language film this year by the way.

I'd like to take a moment and talk about my language professor, Pierre (of course his name is Pierre). He is quite a character, he wears the same thing EVERY class: a grey worn out pullover and beige corduroy pants. He looks like a little French schoolboy and I bet when he was young (he grew up in Paris) he carried his books in one of those leather straps like Pinnocchio. He loves to engage us in discussion about anything at all a) because he probably doesn't ever have anyone else to talk to and b) it gives us practice speaking French of course. I think he knows English fairly well, as he is a fan of American movies/literature, and he'll randomly throw out an English phrase but in an intense French accent, such as my favorite, "what ze hell are yhou talkhing about?" I love it and want to record it.

I found a great new supermarket where I often buy my lunch, called Champion. It has the same prepackaged sandwiches as my other favorite, Monoprix, but it's much cheaper. For instance, today I purchased a chicken sandwich, a pack of almonds, a Coca Cola Light (with which I'm in love, it tastes much better than in the States), and a mini chocolate mousse/yogurt thing all for 5 euro. Usually at a sandwich stand/shop it's 5 euro for the sandwich alone! The other day at Champion I got a sandwich, the same chocolate mousse thing, and a bottle of water for less than 3 euro. They have some great-looking pasta salads and regular salads that I can't wait to try. The only bad thing is that the only Champion I know of is near the ISA office, which is about 20 minutes on the metro from my apartment.

Tonight we have a rendez-vous with the ISA personnel at the Tour Eiffel at 5:30 pm to go up to the top (for free, as opposed to not free like usual), although it's semi-rainy and I hope that it's not too foggy to see like the last time I was up there. Also I secretly get really scared going up since it really is very high but I must go. My current focus is getting a plane ticket for Josh to come here the last week of April. It's stressful because the prices keep changing, etc. but I have been able to find several affordable hotels in Paris which is good for my ever-high blood pressure level. I can't wait until April because once spring break comes, I don't have much more planning-type things to worry about, and then after that Mom and Sam will visit in May. I also plan to visit dear friend Beth in Vienna sometime in the month of May which I am tres excited about. Oh, and I downloaded the movie Borat today.