Something is wrong with the French (Part Un)

I returned from my long weekend trip to Paris this past Sunday night, and for the last 48 hours since my plane landed back in Deutschland, I have been trying to wrap my head around exactly everything that took place. All in all, my brain can only come to the same, simple conclusion: There's something definitely wrong with the French.

Now don't get me wrong, I did find Paris to be beyond beautiful, and even with its sometimes dirtiness, it still seemed to be able to present itself as elegant. But then again, I guess they same can be said for the French people too. I didn't really have any expectations going in, other than I would probably be amazed by their wealth of culture, (and not to mention their price-tags), and I also knew they had a reputation for coming across as rude. But with all that, I knew I would be in for a nice time regardless. I left the Köln-Bonn Flughafen (airport) at 6:30pm after a slight 20 minute delay. The flight itself only took about 50 minutes until I had landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where I was going to be met by Jessica, the other Au Pair that I went to high school with. After some slight confusion over where each other were, we were able to find each other and then headed off for the Metro to take us into Paris. The plan was to take the Metro into the city, change to an RER (which is another train system connecting Paris, whereas the Metro is pretty much just the Subway) which would bring us to her suburb and then put my stuff in the house, and then head back out into the city to meet up with some of her friends and catch a late dinner. After doing all that and chatting for a about an hour at her house, Jessica and I headed back towards the RER to take us into central Paris where we could meet up with the others. We met up near the Panthéon and sat outside at a small cafe. It was close to 10pm, so we were pretty much the only occupied table at the place. We all decided what we wanted to drink and eat and placed our order (or rather, we told Jessica who was able to tell the waiter in French). Along with our order, Jessica's American friend that also lives in Paris, Tina, decided that we should order a plate of Foie Gras as well, considering it is a traditional "French" item. It was (to the best of my knowledge) the first time I had every tried it. Tina and Jessica and Jessica's other American friend, Jennifer, (who also lives in Paris-working with the same company as Tina) all took the first few bites and commented about how it was pretty good. So I decided I would obviously try it as well, I mean, hello, I was in Paris, France! So I smeared some on the small piece of toasted bread it came with and bit into it. For those of you who don't know what it is, and didn't take the time to click on the convenient link I added, it basically is a duck or goose's liver that has been force fed (according to the standards of French law that actually governs it) to be extra fatty. It is then made into almost like a spreadable butter consistency. Okay. So after I tried it, I ate it all and said that it wasn't bad (obviously lying/trying to be polite). So go ahead and call me an "un-cultured" American, but whatever, I don't know who anyone thinks they are kidding when they say that like that shit. It's gross. The best way I could describe it, and I am being 100% honest here; is that it seriously tasted as if someone was able to turn the smell of wet dogs into a creamy-butter like spread and then smear it on toast. For real. I definitely enjoy really well-prepared and nice meals, and can appreciate the art of cooking, but I also am not one that is going to sit here and say I like something(okay, well, I did do that at the actual table..) just because it's considered a delicacy or whatever by the French. Screw those guys. You can have your wet dog butter, and I'll gladly stick with the German cuisine of wursts and beer.
After finishing up with dinner and paying our bill (my first hint at the Parisian prices: I had a nice garlic, olive oil and basil pasta dish that was 10 Euro, and oh cool, my beer.. which was probably only about 16oz or so was EIGHT EURO! Almost the entire price of my actual meal! And um, I live in Germany, where the beer is cheap and obviously the best in the world, and to be charged 8 Euro for a crappy beer just made me want to punch the waiter), it was pretty late and we all decided to call it a night and head our separate ways. Jessica and I made it back to her house, and stayed up until about 4 in the morning just talking/venting etc. about our experiences of living in Europe as an Au Pair. The next day we slept in (thank god!) and then headed out towards La Défense, which is the main business and economic district of Paris. There we walked into the nearby shopping area (pretty much looked like a much more crowded version of a typical US mall) to go to a bakery to pick up some lunch. Once we had our food and drinks, and after warding off the women that would come up with their children and say in English "will you buy him food? he's so hungry".. blah blah blah.. (take your fake sob story to gullible tourists lady), we headed back out into the perfect weather to sit on the steps of the Grande Arche (a large square like building in the heart of the La Défense district that lines up perfectly with a view of the Arc de Triomphe in the distance. We sat there and ate and talked some more. It was so nice to see a familiar face from Ohio that was going through a lot of the same things I am. I definitely think I talked more with Jessica in those 4 and 1/2 days, than I have my entire time living here in Germany. Seriously.
After we finally decided to move on, we took the metro to famous Champs-Élysées. This is the main street of Paris, which is home to tons of restaurants and cafes, theaters and of course, all the designer boutiques. While walking past the giant corner store of Louis Vuitton, I noticed a long line wrapping around the building. That's right ladies and gentlemen, tourists from around the world were actually waiting in about a 2 hour line just to go into a store and spend ridiculous amounts of money on handbags that have an ugly design on them. Incredible. After romping up the Champs-Élysées we came to the famous Arc de Triomphe with the giant auto round-about going around it (my mother would have a panic attack just looking at this thing, I am sure). I asked Jess how many "lanes" there were going around the Arc and she said roughly about 8 or so, but of course, nothing is marked. Cars just honk and point and drive. It really is completely lawless. Jessica even told me about how her host dad had explained to her that apparently years ago, insurance companies all over France stopped insuring the area. So if you are in an accident on this crazy round-about, tough shit, it's coming out of your pocket. After admiring the Arc for a bit we decided to walk back up the Champs-Élysées the way we came and find a nice cafe to have an espresso (sooo French of me, no?) We found one on a smaller street off the main one so that it would be over-crowed, and also wouldn't have the "tourists prices". We each had an espresso and again just sat and talked for about 2 hours about life and our experiences. It was a very nice, french moment :)
At this point it was getting later, and Jess and I had realized that we were pretty hungry. We then left on a quest to find a delicious, but not super expensive dinner. We got on the Metro again to head to a different part of town, where Jessica said we would have incredible views of the Eiffel Tower. We came out of the metro stop to a nice intersection which overlooked a long stretch of grass with the impressive Eiffel Tower behind it. It was about dusk at this point, so the tower was now lit up with it's golden accent lights, and looked absolutely stunning. It's such a surreal feeling looking at the Eiffel Tower for the first time. I mean, here is this famous structure-maybe the most recognizable in the world-that I have seen countless times in books and movies, and there it is. Standing with all its glory right in front of me. Absolutely breathtaking. After standing there for a few moments to let me take it in, we were back to our mission to fill our stomachs. We walked a little bit away from metro stop that we came out of, to again, try to get away from the places that cater to tourists, and therefore are less quality and higher prices. (Jessica again told me that her host dad had explained to her that it's a big problem in Paris especially, that restaurants etc. rip off tourists by having higher prices, but serving them sub-par food because they don't think they'll know the difference, whereas if it was tried on a local, they would be able to tell that the quality is lacking. So rude.). We finally settled on a small cafe life place and ordered our meal. We ate and then, staying in French tradition, ordered espresso for afterward. We hung around a little but longer until it was almost 11 or so, and decided we should get back to the metro to get a train home. Once again, we took the Metro to the RER and then the RER to the suburb of Paris that Jessica lives. We arrived home close to midnight. That night we again stayed up late just talking. I can't even begin to describe how nice it was to just have good old fashioned 'girl talk' again, with someone that knew the same things I was going through, and not to mention someone from Columbus. We ended up talking until about 4 in the morning when we realized we definitely needed to go to bed.
We slept in on Friday morning, which was fantastic! We didn't really have much of a plan for the day, and so we decided to take the trains back into Paris and just walk around some more. We had to be back at the house by no later than 6 or so, so that we could both be ready and back in Paris by 8 to meet up with Jessica's friends again to board our "party boat" for the night. First we headed for the grand cathedral Notre Dame. We looked around, took a lot of pictures (although we didn't go in, because the line to get inside was UNBELIEVABLE. Probably a good 2-3 hour wait, and with out tight schedule, we just didn't have that kind of time), and then decided it was time for some lunch and Jessica really wanted to take me to this famous falafel place located in the Marais District. We found ourselves in the heart of the beautiful Marais District and quickly found the L'As du Falafel that Jessica had been talking about. It looked like it was about to start raining so we opted to sit down and eat inside instead of just taking it to go. We went in and I was immediately greeted by countless pictures of musician Lenny Kravitz. I asked Jess what that was all about and she said that apparently Kravitz had dubbed this place "best falafel in the world" and visits every time he is in Paris. So they have tons of his pictures everywhere. If you ask me, it was a bit on the creepy side, but whateves.

**Part Deux and Trois located in September (I know, I suck at life).

Au Revoir Allemagne!

Bonjour les lecteurs! Aujourd'hui je pars pour la France! ...okay, let's be for real. I don't know ANY french.. other than how to say "Je m'appelle Megan" (My name is Megan), or of course Oui (yes), merci (thank you) and of course Lauren Holmes' and my favorite: "Bonjour, Bonjour, Bonjour... OHMYGOD!" (to see where this brilliant line originates, do yourself the giant favor and buy (not rent) the amazing film "Passport to Paris" staring the Olsen Twins. Oscar worthy for sure.

But back to the main objective of this post... I'm flying to Paris tonight!!!! My plane leaves the Köln/Bonn airport at 6:10pm and I arrive in Paris only an hour and 5 minutes later at 7:15, where I will then meet up with Jessica. I'm seriously really excited now that the day is finally here, although I feel as if it still hasn't sunken in all the way--a feeling in which I am sure won't go away until I am on the plane. I'm also really excited to just be around a familiar face :) As for tonight, I don't think we'll do much other than grab a drink or something.. but tomorrow I believe I will be going to the Louvre! My date with the Mona Lisa is finally here ;) Besides visiting the Louvre, and of course, the Eiffel Tower, there isn't a whole lot of "tourist things" I have planned. Come to think about, I'll want to see the Arc de Triomphe, and maybe Notre Dame.. and oh yeah, if there is time, I would love to venture outside of Paris and visit the Palace of Versailles.. hmm.. well looking back over that list, I guess I do have a number of "tourist things" plans. ^^

So, this will probably be my last post until I return back to Bonn on Sunday evening. So until then, Au revoir et les meilleurs souhaits! xoxo MegLett

Bücher!

Good morning readers :) Today is Sunday, July 18th, which means I've already had a day and 1/2 all to myself to try and re-charge. (Not too mention the fact that in these past 32 hours or so, I have been trying to wrap my head around the idea that I will be in the City of Lights, PARIS!, in 3 days! Incredible..) But really, I don't have a whole lot to talk about, but wanted to come by with the book recommendations. I have always loved to read, and now that I find myself out of school, I have had much more time to read a number of books. My current pace since I have been here in Germany has been about one book a month. The last book I read in a couple of weeks and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery/thriller, but also finds themselves to be somewhat of a WWII history buff. The book is called The Arms Maker of Berlin (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard) by Dan Fesperman, and I found it to be a great novel--especially since I started reading it on my way to Berlin and had become familiar with many of the locations spoken of throughout the pages. All in all, a good read.

After finishing that, I immediately had my eye out for the worldwide best seller, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Vintage) by the late Stieg Larsson of Sweden. I had seen this book and it's sequels in book stores a few times before, but never gave it much thought, until I was on the hunt for my next read. I headed to the large bookstore in Bonn, Bouvier, to try and get my hands on a copy. After walking down the stairs to the section of English language books (I believe this book would be to complex and difficult for my to try and read in German), I quickly found the 2nd and 3rd books of the series. However, the first one was no where to be found. About a day or so before I officially finishing The Arms Maker of Berlin, I was talking to Bertus about how I was on the hunt to get the first book of this wildly popular "Millennium Trilogy", but had yet to be able to get my hands on it. Well, Bertus being Bertus, surprised me a couple days later with my very own English copy that he had ordered on Amazon for me. How sweet is he? ;) So, I've had the book for about a week now, and am well on my way to be finishing it in the next few days or so. Very good book with extremely intriguing plot. Just from what I have read so far, I highly recommend it. Especially to my fellow book lover, Granny: I feel as if both of the books mentioned in this post are both something that I think you specifically would enjoy :)

So with all this being said, I'm going to get back to my book. Maybe walk to the nearby Rheinaue park to read. Happy reading everyone! xoxo MegLett

**Note: And no, the title of this post is (sadly) not a tribute to my mom's bf Bob, although he is one helluva American, but in fact the German word for "books" ^^

Drained.

Today is Friday, which means the weekend, which means I have the next 2 days to myself. And honestly, they couldn't have come at a better time. For the past couple weeks, with this past week being especially so, I have just felt completely drained in every way one could be. I feel as if I desperately need a vacation. And not a vacation in the sense that I feel like I need to go somewhere or do something special, but more in the sense that I just need time off. Luckily, I leave for Paris next week for a long weekend, but even that doesn't feel like a vacation--because it's not. It's just a long weekend. I just feel as if I need time, like minimum a week, to have totally to myself to do whatever I want and to most importantly: NOT DO ANY DISHES! (I'm not joking when I say I spend at least 1-2 hours a day just washing dishes..) I don't want to come off as complaining, because I am an Au Pair, and it's what I signed up for. But the aspect that I wasn't really prepared for, is the fact that at the end of every day, even when I am done with looking after Emilian, and the cleaning and laundry and everything that goes with it, I still live where I work, and this has proven to be the most difficult. When I am having a bad day or something, when I finally have my alone time, I am still in my "workplace" essentially. Which doesn't exactly have that sense of leaving work behind to go home and relax and do what you want. Because most of the time when I am done with "work" and I come down the stairs to my room, I feel guilty that I am not helping if I can hear Emilian crying, or when I hear Lisa cooking or something. It's hard for me to 100% relax, and therefore, I feel as if a vacation of some sort is desperately needed. But I don't see it happening any time soon. With that all being said, I'm going to go shower and maybe lay in bed and read some more from my new book that Bertus bought me--I'll be back to post about my current reads soon ;) Back again soon.
xoxo
Megan

Öffnen Sie die Fenster!

Okay, first and foremost, I suppose I have to mention last nights disappointing game. This is probably the post where many of you who have been following my blog (or if you are a Spanish fan), are excepting me to eat my previous words. Well, let me go ahead and re-assure you that hell will freeze over before I do so. Have we met before? My name's Megan Osgood, and I'm one helluva model American, which naturally means I don't apologize. And I'm never wrong. No matter what. So with that being said, Spain still sucks and Germany's still #1! Yeahhhhhh!

But now on to my more main objective with today's blog. I thought it was fitting to write about my experiences with the hot summer weather here in Germany at the same time that almost all of the North/Eastern United States is roasting in the midst of a ridiculous heat wave (so I've read). So first off, in the past week the temperature outside has been hovering around the mid to high 80s to low 90s F. However, I would never guess it when compared to what I know of the "lower 90s" in Ohio. First off, there is none of the dreaded humidity here. Which is amazing btw. Sure it might be 90 degrees outside (32 C), but it's not like back in the States where you walk outside and pretty much choke on the moisture in the air. That is definitely one aspect of life in Ohio I don't miss. But that is not to say it doesn't get hot as balls here. The other day got up to around 98 degrees (remember us?) and it was definitely hot. Now add that with the fact that no one has/uses air conditioning in Europe except for big businesses, and it's easy to understand that trying to sleep at night = disgusting. But what I truly don't understand is the way people deal with the heat here. I completely am aware and understand that on the extremely hot days, like the one just mentioned, that is in fact smarter to close the house up to not allow for the hot, dry air to come in. But what I don't get, is on days when it is much nicer out, say in the mid to low 80s and certainly when in the 70s, the house is never opened up to allow the refreshing air in. Zum Beispiel: one day last week (before the gross hot air arrived) it was a perfect day; sunny, about 85 degrees give-or-take, with an amazingly nice breeze. It's the kind of day where if I were back on Southwold Court and the weather was the exact same, all of the windows in my house would be wide open and an amazing breeze of cool air would be rushing throughout the house during the day. My idea of a perfect day. However, that is not the case here and I don't understand why. On a cooler day when I would expect all the windows to be open and the amazing fresh air allowed in, the house is still completely shut up as if it were one of the 95+ days. The house was easily warmer inside than it was outside. It was awful. When I had gone around and opened some of the windows, to my surprise I had found that when re-entering the room some minutes later, they had been shut again, all except for the lone back door. I seriously don't understand. At one point on a day exactly like that (i.e. perfect in every way and a perfect open window day, at least in my head) all the windows were again closed except for the rear door. It was pretty sweaty in the house and at one point while I was sitting at the kitchen table feeding Emilian, Lisa came by and opened the large window by the kitchen table that looks out onto the driveway. She opened it to hand something to Kai or whatever. As SOON as she open that window, a rush of cool amazing air breezed in and it felt amazing. I said out-loud "oh my god, that feels so good". Moments later, Lisa closed it back up and walked away. I honestly sat there in shock. It is just one aspect I am 100% baffled by. And when I take my daily walks with Emilian I make sure to scope out other houses to determine if it's like this everywhere or just at our house. From what I have seen, it's everywhere. Do. Not. Get.

Today is another day where it is gorgeous out. Sunny, only about 75 degrees and an awesome breeze. And oh, look at that, as I sit here on the couch I can see 4 windows + the back door. All of which are currently closed except for the door being cracked. Man, I wish the windows were open....

Los Gehts Deutschland!

Okay, sorry it has been taking me so long to fully update about my Berlin trip. I find that when I finally have free time to update my blog, I am often tired and don't feel like making my brain work hard enough to write it all out ;) But, do not fret, I have returned! And returned with AMAZING news!

If you haven't been watching the World Cup at all, which is quite possible, considering most of you that are reading this (anyone?) are probably Americans, and therefore don't have the passion for the World Cup like the rest of the world does. Well, let me bring you up to speed with what has been happening. Last week in the Quarter-Finals of play, the Netherlands faced off against Brazil and stunned most of the world, and ruined many brackets by knocking off the Brazilians, who many thought would win it all. After this game, we saw Ghana, the last remaining African nation, take on Uruguay. This game was actually pretty exciting and went down to a penalty shoot out (thanks mostly to the Uruguay player, Luis Suarez ,who literally took one for the team and used his hand to repel what would have been a game-winning goal by Ghana. He got a red card and will miss the next game, but this action caused the would be goal to now become a 11 meter penalty kick, which always meant there would be a possibility the Ghana player would miss it. And what do you know? He did. Brilliant. If this guy doesn't become a hero back in Uruguay then I don't know who will.) This game ended with a 4-2 score thanks to shoot-out with Uruguay advancing. The following day, Saturday, was the big day. Besides the Spain vs. Paraguay game that would take place later that night (***yawwwwwnnnnn***), it was the day of destiny, when the Deutsche Nationalmannschaft would take on the 'on a roll' Argentinians with the famous Diego Maradona at their helm. I would be lying if I were to say that at the time, I wasn't nervous about this game. Sure, my beloved Germans had just come off a 4-1 win over the Three Lions of England, but Argentina had looked strong up to this point in the tournament and many people were expected them to make a run for it all. It was expected to be a tough match, with the Argentinians being the favorites. Well, Auf Wiedersehen bitches! Germany once again cleaned house and annihilated a completely stunned Argentina squad. It was incredible. I was in the city with Bertus and a bunch of his friends for the game, and it was definitely exciting. VIER zu NULL! I love it! After the win we all headed toward the nearby Bertha von Suttner Platz (which I always call Bertus von Sunna) to celebrate with the masses. Everyone had migrated there with their flags and banners and horns and die Polizei had even come to peacefully shut down the street so that we could all party. At one point I grabbed my wallet, looked at Bertus and said "I have a plan!" and disappeared into the crowd. I ran across the street through the people to a small convenient store and loaded my purse with as many German beers I could hold, paid and then ran back to where everyone was to start handing out the Kölsch. He never said it, but I am pretty sure Bertus seemed pretty surprised and proud of me for this action. But then again, he never saw me during my years in Morgantown. ;) It was really fun and we stayed there for an hour or two before we decided to head home.



Later that night in was another of the Cup's Snoozefest, in what has turned out to be how Spain has somehow managed to win all their games. Spain beat Paraguay at the last minute to move on to the Semi-Finals. I'm sorry, but I think the Spanish are extremely over-rated in this World Cup. Yes, I am aware they have amazing players, and yes they won the EuroCup 2 years ago, but in this World Cup I'm completely unimpressed and definitely un-entertained with how they have been playing. Screw them. So tonight marks the first night of Semi-Final play with Uruguay vs. Netherlands. I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that the Dutch are going to win this one easily. Tomorrow my Germans play the Spanish in a re-match of the EuroCup 08 final (where the Spainish won). But if Deutschland keeps playing lights out fußball like they have been, and the Spainish keep playing their 'bore the crowd to tears' soccer, than I think I'm going to be attending another party in the streets come tomorrow (Wednesday) night. I hope everyone back home will be watching the game and cheering on Germany! (Obviously!) And mom, you better have the Deutsche Fahne waving outside 8829 Southwold Ct. proudly! Los Gehts Deutschland!!! :)
xoxox MegLett

PS-Travis: mom told me last night that during the Argentina game you were rooting AGAINST the Germans! SO rude. ;)