• was not at the Gare du Nord -- bleary-eyed and half-asleep this morning at the ungodly hour of 6am -- to leave for England with 70 squirrelly nine-year-olds. Score.  It might've been cool to have a free trip to England (although having to herd children around might've been LESS cool); but I ended up having to cancel (which they were pissed about) at the last moment for school obligations...
  
• went to class
• went to the library, which lamely was CLOSED >:o
• worked on orgo nonetheless
• ate delicious food
• noodled around for far too long on the internet. Old habits die hard
• took a concentrated cranberry-gunk capsule for...a maybe bladder infection.  Jogger's hematuria?  Why am I posting this here.
• drank a million liters of caffeine-free tea, accordingly followed by a million trips to the loo.
  

• run.  Even though I probably shouldn't.  I am addicted
• make lunch for my friends!
• begin packing, synonymous to The Dread Of Celia
• stuuuuuddddddddddddddy and finish that effing paper
• ask my mom to schedule: dental appt., and an appt. for some bonding time between my hair and my hair lady Jenica. It has been faaaaaar too long.
• email M. Leduc, call M. Tranchier, email Mme Woisard, text Santarpia, possibly swing by Secretariat for Phys Humaine
• CALL PSU FOR CLASSES AAAAGH -- calc, stats, orgo
  
• email Reed profs for...prof overrides so I can actually have a fall schedule -- physics, bio sem, biochem, bio section, IP
  
• send postcards to OMSI people to make nice and butter them up to give me a job during the cadaver exhibit.  Haaaaaa
• go to sleep at a reasonable hour

• French
• languages
• choir and piano. Art -- making and beholding
  
• MY FRIENDS!  Dany, Xavier, Greg, Gwen, Pauline, Deborah, Frédérique, Mouloud, Ilannah, Shoshannah, Alexie, Naima, Erica, Hondjack, Alden, Louis-Germain, Mohamed, Enoch, Raphael (Lepeu and Lalou), Kelou, Forum Etudiant kids, the Temime family, the Lepeu family, Solensi directors, everyone at choir......and everyone back in the States, of course
• being responsibility-free! (Ha! When is that...)
• summer! Food! Fresh fruit!
• research!
• being a bio dork
• Reed! Portland! PARIS!
• you

• study study study: organic chemistry final!  Agghh, the death of Celia.  Perhaps this should go under the "stress" heading.  At least I have ample time for hard-core review.
  
• write papers for neuroscience class and clinical psych; study for neuroscience final.  I did surprisingly well on last test for how much I'd studied; I could possibly score even higher (hehhhhhhhh) if I decided to study more.  The truly satisfying thing about grades of late is that (and I know self-comparison to others is TERRIBLE) despite being American and not having classes in my native tongue, my work and grasp of the material is still somehow above par. 
  

• Baked white fish (very lean, and I don't know the name of it because it's in French!) w/ tomatoes, onions, olive oil, basil & oregano
• Green bean salad
• Spiced baked sweet potato wedges
• Artisan multi-grain bread
• Steamed veggies, grilled eggplant and bell peppers with olive oil drizzled on top
• Dessert -- pineapple, kiwi, muscat grapes; plus, some people brought Turkish Delight and Parisian macaroons!
• Endless amount of wine. Haha.  How French

-Clean room
-Organize yet again: class crap and English teaching mat'ls
-Take back those books to zee library, pay that f%^&*ing fine for having them out past due-date
-Laundry
-EXERCISE!  It's been eons since I last did a nice long run; plus, my dumbbells are sad I haven't used them for so long, and frankly so is my tummy, which I can FEEL is not as toned from lack of crunches as of late
-Studystudystudystudystudy -- which is a separate to-do list on its own

Applications Up Nearly 100 Percent at Reed College Since 2001: Reed Class of 2011 chosen from a record pool of 3,363 applications.

****

Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, is an undergraduate institution of the liberal arts and sciences dedicated to sustaining the highest intellectual standards in the country. With an enrollment of about 1,360 students, Reed ranks third in the undergraduate origins of Ph.D.s in the United States and second in the number of Rhodes Scholars from a liberal arts college (31 since 1915). For more information, visit web.reed.edu.

Yesterday I had my first Physiologie Humaine class (at 8:30 am on a Saturday! Boo! However: Being ready at 8:30 a.m. means the rest of the day’s MINE to seize to the max…whereas otherwise I might very well only lounge about in PJs all day and/or possibly go running). It was the only thing I could fit into my schedule; what I really wanted, en fin de compte, was Cellular Biology, but of course that was not meant to be. Butbutbutbutbut! It turns out that the class I have now JUST so happens to be very neuroscience-y! We had a review of the Nernst equation as it relates to trans-membrane diffusion and active transport of molecules and ions; action potentials, eeeeeeet cetera. I think it should be cool, and I actually excitedly anticipate sitting in the library up to my neck in books on the subject. (Herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.)

Then, I did a ten-mile run, but not before chilling for a bit with Mme Koné, the cleaning lady. She’s from Côte d’Ivoire, and somehow I think life as a cleaning lady in Paris with a two-year-old daughter, and three kids back home, cannot possibly be as glamorous as Christine’s or Norlwenn’s or my…very pampered life. Social inequality booooootttttttthhhheeeeers me. In actuality (and for this reason, to a degree), she is the only one for whom I bought holiday gifts this past Christmastime (it was actually for her daughter). Yeah, I bought little trinkets and so on for host mom & host sis, and something for Mom/Dad/Jacob for Chanukah…but they were all kind of little things. It just makes me feel good to be…good to other people. I make her food, too, like plum compote and tea. So in any case, she invited me to Côte d’Ivoire to stay with her family! Ahhhhhhhhh. Haha. It made my day. In all likelihood, of course, it’ll never happen (although I would KILL to go to Africa), but it is just the invitation in and of itself that made me happy.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum, okay, that’s it. Here are some photos from my Saturday evening pub outing with French friends, plus photos from the Egyptian Treasures exhibition at the Grand Palais that I went to with a dif French friend.

(Wheeeeeeeeee! French friends! ;)

XOXO, Célia

I reviewed the syllabus of the Reed organic chemistry class and… the amount of stuff they cover over the course of the year is, in fact, what we (in France) did in one semester.  So not only was this organic chemistry in a different language but at twice the pace!  Brilliant.  Oh well, whatever, I validated the subject and now am taking the “Year Three” course; tant mieux, je suppose, que j’aurai davantage de connaissance (ou, théoretiquement, au moins). 

In other news, I am quite happy with my class selection for second semester.  Although…I would’ve liked to fit French composition in there to really improve my French.  I feel I haven’t been actively attempting to enhance my vocabulary and handle on grammar, which kind of bothers me, since I’ll have spent a year with only marginal upgrades to my command de la langue française.  It probably doesn’t help that I am blogging in English.  Or thinking in English.  Ahhhhhhh. 

Thursday was My Moment of Misanthropy.  I had to deal with annoying French Administration again for class registration (reeeeeeeally draining) and afterward, when a scruffy, disheveled-looking guy on the corner asked me for money, I asked him what kind of food he liked & said I’d run and get it for him in the adjacent Monoprix.  Normally it’s “beggars can’t be choosers,” no?  No!  Not in France.  He proceeded to insult my French, but not before demanding money in lieu of food first.  The gall!  Here I was trying to do something nice for someone…

At this point, with my frustration meter already off the scales from the Bureaucracy Bitches, I was 2 nanoseconds away from doing something rash.  But, I responded that I don’t like giving money, and that it’s too bad he doesn’t want free food, and have a good day, goodbye.  Normally beggars on the street break my heart, which is why I invite them for food sometimes, but now…donno.  I think that if I ever have a lot of money, I will give it to really constructive programs, such as education, OMSI and various other museums, research, the arts.  Keep people from even getting to the point of being on the street corner, instead of giving food and money without really fixing the problem.  Of course, everyone needs to eat, but I’ve actually talked to a lot of homeless people and the problem runs much deeper than that. 

Anyway.  Bygones.

SPEAKING of education: Friday was FAR-more Fantastic (okay, I’ll stop with dorky capitalized alliterations now!).  I get yet more vacation (don’t ask me how this works; probably, by the end of August, I will have actually worked less than HALF the time I got paid for), but Friday was the last day before the nice, long two-week break from… well, not teaching.  Um.

Anyway, the lesson plan I’d prepared ended up working really well, and THEN, at the end of the day, one of the girls came up and said “Célia! Je te souhaite des très bonnes vacances!” and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek in the French tradition.  Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!  I was beaming all day after that. 

Okay, that’s about it, except that I’m really itching to do some hardcore traveling once April gets here…so I need to get started on planning that.

All for now!
Ta.

• 4 toilet seats have broken (I don't even want to know how; my host mom isn't fat or anything, so...)
  
• the kitchen light has gone kaput, and it's not just a bulb issue
  
• the washing machine has broken (and been replaced)
• the dishwasher has broken (and not been replaced...but for the better, because it didn't really wash dishes anyway)
• Host Mom's computer has gone to the shop
• the mailbox key hole has been damaged...by none other than Host Mom for some reason I was too incredulous to really pay attention to when she was telling me
• the bathroom apparently has developed a leak, for which there are gazillion (if not superfluous) buckets lying around on the apartment-way stairs, placed there by some neighbor as a subtle reminder that she wants it fixed ASAP
• I'm certain there is more, but you get the idea.  Basically, stuff here just doesn't like to stay unbroken.  Makes me want to lock away my laptop / iPod / camera / other valuables for fear of Host Mom's Touch of Death (I feel so sacrilegious terming it as such, but you know).