I know I just left everyone hanging by the seat of their pants (haha really bad pun right there, moving on) with the skirt thing, so I ll clarify what I mean

In public schools, especially the ones in tough(er) neighborhoods, skirts are associated with being a slut. And relating this back to overall French culture, wearing a skirt while going out at night, means that there will be more catcalls and more annoying, disgusting guys bugging you. Even on the metro, I ve noticed that there aren't that many women who wear skirts or dresses and the ones that do, wear tights or leggings with it. Even shorts aren't very common here, but when worn, are always worn with leggings underneath. This has a large part to do with how the men here perceive and treat the women. When they wear clothing that is more revealing, they have to deal with more catcalls and harassment.

Now, translating this back to the states culture, what kind of clothing does 90 percent of the population wear when going out at night? Yea, I don't even have to say it, cause everyone knows. Its something that is completely taken for granted there. Here, if you wear something like that, people view it as you having ASKED to be bothered. Guys actually have told police, according to what I've heard, that it was the woman's fault, because of what she was wearing.

I never realized quite how sexist France(well, Paris) was until I heard this. And granted, I don't want to generalize a whole city, so I won't. But it def. has changed my perspective.

As I said in my last post, I have been cooking! I m making a quiche right now(completely on my own!) and I hope it turns out well, but I had lots of fun mixing spinach, bacon, squash and onions together!

The weather here has turned dreary, its cold and overcast. So, what better way to spend the day than to go shopping! I went to Layfette, which is the biggest shopping store in Paris. It makes me think of a miniature Westfield Mall in SF and only min. because it's actually several buildings and ONE store. It has this beautiful ceiling and is completely overwhelming. There is a sale going on right now(which is rare, Europe doesn't know the word sale besides 2 times out of the year, when the government actually mandates that stuff needs to go on sale) so it was crazy. And overpriced. Or at least to my naive eyes. I have several missions while I m here, the two most important ones are to buy boots(cause all i have are tennis shoes) and a heavy coat(all I have is a rain coat and my favorite coat that I got at UO that you at SF know well). So, I need to find those two things before the weather REALLY turns and I freeze my Cally ass off. Cause I m already complaining about the weather, and at this school, everyone is from the east coast except me. I am the only Californian, which means people have problems relating to my hate of all the is below freezing temperatures.

But, getting back to my mission. I looked at Chatlet, which is basically a mall, and most were rather cheap looking shoes that were going for over 80 euro. Layfette had beautiful shoes, many shoes, that completely overwhelmed me. However, everytime I looked at the price tag, I wanted to cry. To buy a good pair of boots was over 200 euros. :X :X

Granted, the sale was going on. But the idea of still dropping 140 euro made me cry inside. So, I am taking the stubborn, there has GOT to be a secret sale/really cheap shoe that I love somewhere in Paris. Right?

I stubbornly continued on to the other merchandise. I ve really have only gone to H and M since I ve been here and the other mall, where as said, not only the shoes, but just about everything that I saw wasn't that great of quality. It was cheap, but not worth buying. This store had so many cute things, but everything was soo expensive. I need to keep exploring, but I can't decide if this is just Paris or Europe, or if I m not looking in the right places. There is a new store that opened that is supposed to be the Japanese version of American Apparel(but cheaper) but the line to get in was around corner and I decided I didn't care enough and could always try next week. All in all, an exercise in frustration.

The good news--I booked my tickets to Munich, Austria and Zurich!! I m so excited, I ve never been to any of those places. Next to book are hostels and then we can plan what we are going to do. We are going by train for all of the way and planning it all out step by step. I m so excited to speak German(0r what's left of it, as I ve started to mix it in with French)

Next weekend is Belgium. We are going to Bruges and Brussels. This might be where I ll be studying abroad for second semester, and I've never been here before either. I hope I like it, if not, I might have a problem.

The last couple weeks have been so busy, its so nice just to sit. Last weekend was Nuit Blanche, which is when certain ard. are lit up the entire night. For example, Luxembourg gardens had a giant disco ball suspended above, and lights were reflected off of it, thus making the entire garden look like a night sky. Music was playing every where and people were just strolling around. My friends and I went all night, until at 4 40 we decided it was time to go home. Except the Night bus stopped running and the Metro, doesn't start running til 5 30. I didn't get home til 6 15. It was a very interesting night as well as an exhausting one. I'd say something I v decided I hate about Paris is the severe lack of public bathrooms. I don't know how many times that night one of us were running around trying to find one/begging restaurants to let us in.

ANd on that wonderful note, I am off to eat my quiche. Tootles!

As life gets crazy and why I m not wearing skirts

I haven't written here in a while. I had 3 midterms last week and a presentation, and this week I had an expose, 2 presentations and an interview. This week, I have an essay. Which I should be working on, but instead, I spent from when I got home (6 30 to now 11 23) talking with my awesome host family, made dinner and made meringue with my host father. All the while successfully avoiding doing all of the other homework waiting for me. But, I don't care (okay, I ll be honest, I care a bit) but I m choosing not to do it. It will be there tomorrow. Tonight, was totally worth it. I have started to write down all of the recipes I m learning, in the past two days, I learned how to make pudding and meringue, which are easy and absolutely amazing to eat afterwards( of course, its full of surgar and eggs. How much better can it get?). I also learned how to make pasta sauce. And, this is all from scratch.

I m going to have to keep this short, cause it is late and I have class tomorrow(but I can see the light woooo!) and just wanted to say, that I will write more about my life sometime this week. Hopefully.

Something interesting I've learned about France is their school system. They have public and private schools, but unlike the states, it seems like most students go to private schools. I thought this was really odd, because in Germany, almost EVERYONE goes to public schools. Here, they seem to have a lot of problems with the public schools, from the students, to teachers, to the goals and limits. So, parents send their kids to private. But, private isn't expensive like it is in the states, well this is all relative, but its not the same price tag. Instead, what can make it expensive is the lunch(apparently, either you go home for lunch OR you have to eat the schools) and the books. What a surprise. They have the same thing with constant new editions of books coming out, where mysteriously, the only thing that ever changes is the page numbers. Hmmm...

Anyway, it seems like a lot of students in the public schools are from the banlieues, which I want to call the slums, but its not exactly that. Its the suburbs, and some are better than others. They get divided up my race and nationalities, and like the states, these tend to be the tough neighborhoods. We watched a movie called Neuilly sa mere(Neuilly Your Mother) which plays on this. Neuilly is where the current president of France is from (Sarkozy) and its about a kid from the banlieues who goes to live there. We actually are watching a movie called La Journee de la Jupe tomorrow, which will further go into this topic and also on the fact that in France, to wear a dress or skirt means one can be considered a slut! Crazy right? But its late, I ll explain that later.