"Come wid us, we'll take you to a big house party!"

A couple nights ago while going to the second bar of the night. ( first being called TAPE..- Avery and her boyfriend were DJ'ing"...still our only friend) we headed to Triskols Pub. I dont know why we were there...where it was...who i was with. Baby Maddie face was in full effect. The bar was filled with so many friend cuties i dont even have the patience to write about all of them right now. any man that i have every dreamt about being my boyfriend/husband was in attendance. anyways...to skip to the juice. This was the night we met Victor ( Wolf) and Fraunk ( Frank...Frankie). They spoke very little english but ended up inviting us to the 20th district. Sophie wanted to go. But after a couple glasses of Patishe, Sophie wanted to go anywhere with anyone. I DID NOT want to go. Thanks to me...we were not killed, raped, mugged, stolen, whatever. For a moment Sophie thought we were still in Chicago and thought we should go " up stream to catch a cab." like fish. But clearly we are not, and in Paris you have to go to a designated point to catch a cab, like a bus stop. At this time it was 4 in the morning and all I wanted todo was eat or cry. We finally waved goodbye to Wolf and Frankie and got into our own cab.

 I dont think we will ever see Wolf or Frankie again. Im not sure if this is a good thing or bad. I miss them...so does Sophie. They were our friends for a moment and were gone with a flash..like most. 

MAC

pictures for post below...

MAC

4 days of orientation cut down into 2 paragraphs.

We started the morning off on the wrong foot. wrong foot being that we were awoken by the sound of a bobbcatt trying to either take us a way out of our beds because it was so close we could touch it. or because they are trying to put in a cobblestone road on our street in 2008. Like sophie said...it is our lot in life to live near construction. for the first few moments of waking we screamed and wondered why we were being punished. but anyways. with step by step directions in hand we headed to the metro ( Les Goblins) for our first trip without Donnacha. ( who was still sleeping during the construction...impossible.) 

We get out at our designated stop and somehow are lost. even with the directions. While looking at a street map a " cool girl ! " with black sunglasses and blonde hair approaches us. " Hey are you guys from CEA too?". Finally someone who speaks english! This is how we met Avery. She is our only friend in Paris/CEA. She's and upper east side manhattan girl w moviemaker ho goes to school in San Fransico and moved to Paris with her/ dj boyfriend. Sometimes she goes by her DJ name ' blonde pussycat'

Walking in a half hour late, we were given food and drank. Pictures were taken us and were not sure why because we still had to bring in more pictures to for an ID. What seemed for hours, we learned about the metro and cell phones. Everything else I zoned out on. All i could really think about was eating and going back to sleep. Lunch was free and a couple hours later we were given a free tour of paris...aka...sophie nap time. If I had to give any advice to CEA it would be, don't put jet lagged students on a tour bus of paris with comfy seats and with the most soothing voice as a tour guide. ( not donnacha) Tres Mal! 

much has happened in our 4 days of orientation which have all kind of meshed together in my brain. Here are the highlights:

" I like your blazer, whered you get it, whats da label"

" Dont call the emergency number if your roommate has run off with Jean-Luc"

" Dont speak to anyone on the metro."

"Look down at all times."

" No one is allowed to sleep in the apartment." - Oops.

" No one is allowed to be in the apartment when your not there." - Oops

We half of one of the orientation days to go shopping and explore. ( Vahdio on the way.)- ( Dont worry Dad, we didnt miss anything important. We went the next day to talk to the lady about it.)

MAC 

 

MAC

da truth

Maddie and i should have our own reality tv show.  that's all i have to say.

SMB

The apartment

after maddie and i were picked up from the airport, we were brought to our school for a bit and then dropped off at our apartment.  In our case, actually, we were dropped off down the road because there is construction happening all along our street--this is just our lot in life.  

so we stumbled along the rock road-- i had to take breaks walking because i was laughing so hard that i couldn't grip my baby hands hand enough to pull my suitcases.  Our apartment is super cute.  There is a picture of one of our windows.  I am still learning how to use blogspot, so i cannot yet control where in my post my pics go.  oopz.  

here are some more pics of the apartment.  spiral staircase, ugly couch that i screamed when i saw, and the end result of me and maddie uncovering the couch and feeling quite at home in our little place.

ooohhh um maddie just informed me that i must hurry, because we are supposed to go out tonight to meet our friends in bastille.   it is 10:30 at night here, or shall I say, 22h30, which is weird, considering my computer still says its 3:37 pm.  Minnesota holla!!! 

more to come!

SMB

MC Hampster Pants

Bonjour! It's taken us a few days to get this bad boy up and running.  Mais, voila!  Here it is.  A few american days ago, madeline a. e. cerceo got on a plane in chicago.  She crossed the seas for le premier fois in her life.  Sophie got on a plane in Minneapolis, and met a french garcon who taught her to solve a rubix cube.  while maddie ate "white rice with green goop" (chicken) and  sat next to an old homme who was "wearing striped socks, and was reading a newspaper that, you know, was in a language i've never seen before, like, i can't tell you how many "z"s there were in the title, that looked a little something like this:

     lkdjflaksdjflaksjcmxkzzzzaijxoiajxxxzzz"

sophie had recieved an invitation for them to go skiing in the french alps.  at lest someone was productive.  omg jk, ok? ok.

in amsterdam (or, as we say, "hampsterdeeeyammn!") i heard a crickety goblin voice whisper my name behind me.  et voila, it was madeline.  i had often imagined us reuniting in hampsterville screaming and hugging and laughing, but, as it turns out, jet lag prevents you from doing this.  i was like "oh, hey.  what's up" (in a horse-like tone).  i was not looking and/or feeling too hot myself (see pic above.)  

then we boarded the plane to france...... and there was NO TURNING BACK

SMB