Too nice to walk around alone

Paris is beautiful, but I don't like walking around this city alone. Visitors and guests welcome :)

Being Cheesy over Chessy

Chessy is a French suburb just located 30km outside of Paris, famous for its location of EuroDisney. However, every time I see a sign or reference to this town, I can't help but giggle because I always think I'm reading the word "Cheesy". Faites attention to the two S's and don't mistake them for two E's! "That town of Chessy is sooo cheesy!", I cleverly think to myself.

I mentioned over lunch one day last week my discovery of Chessy and how this makes me chuckle to one local friend who works as a teacher at the French language school where I stayed temporarily this month. She and some of my other European friends who were there at the table did not know what being "cheesy" meant. I and another American resident at the school (from Arkansas) just had to explain as best as we could in French.

-"Well, it's like when you make jokes that are funny, but only to yourself. Like really bad jokes or something. You say in American English 'Oh, that's sooo cheesy!'"

They were wanting an example.

I said, "Well, I'll give you an example. Me, I'm VERY cheesy. (Then I start to think about what would a French person might consider cheesy). Like, when I made my first trip to the foodstore here in Massy a few weeks ago and then took a picture of all the things I bought, to commemorate my first grocery store trip and show what food here is like."

-"Oh, ok!," said my French teacher-friend. "Now I get it! Yeah, that's very cheesy!"

Another memorable moment in language exchange:

My one Swiss-German friend, whose French is better than her English, was happy to learn a new English expression, "cheesy". Earlier this week when I made reference to joke she told me on her Facebook page, she replied back saying "that is sooo cheesy! :)" Later on last week I told her about how I stumbled upon another funny town name when I saw the signage for the nearby suburb of "Chilly-Mazarin." (Pronounced "sheely-mazarahn"). I giggled about it with the same "cheesy" American friend when I glanced at her and said in English "I wonder if it's really cold there!" I was dying about it. My Swiss friend saw me and her having a good laugh about it (sometimes, when you're in a foreign country, levity is necessary in order to not go crazy) and wanted to know what the big deal was.

(My Swiss friend, in French) "Does Chilly mean like 'whoa man, chill, relax'?", doing gesture as if she were smoking some illicit substance which I will not name here.

-(Me, laughing) "Well, yeah, it can mean that, but 'chilly' in English also means like really, really cold. (doing shivering movement). So that's why I said in the town of Chilly-Mazarin, it's not too too cold there right now."

Ah, the amusement :)

Paris in the Springtime...

The streets of Massy are very quiet today. It is a Monday afternoon. It is 60 degrees outside and sunny. It is gorgeous outside! Springtime has well arrived!

This past weekend I celebrated Easter Sunday in Paris. Even though France is very secular, the Monday after Easter Sunday is observed as a national holiday. In fact, most of the holidays for which business and schools in France take off are based on Catholic observances, such as the Assumption of Mary (Aug.15). So practically everything - businesses, stores and public transportation services - are closed for today. It was odd walking to Lidl today on a Monday afternoon to buy bread only to then see the doors closed. Lidl is a popular German foodstore chain here in France, kind of like Aldi. Not like in the US where stores like WalMart and Target are open 24-7 and you can go there practically anytime you need to.
But, I'm adjusting. I'm adjusting myself to things just not being open as long during the day as in the States and plan ahead more. All public schools are closed, too, with many students having 2 weeks off from school. That's a lot of vacation for spring!
In this way I realize how American I am. I love to work, I love to be busy, and sometimes it's a little hard for me to not be productive. I want to produce and get things done. I have a hard time just sitting down for a few hours and reading or enjoying the scenery, which is something many people in France are so good at doing, whether at a cafe or in a park or lingering over a meal. I was checking ads today for apartments in Paris. One of the contacts I called for a studio in the 15th arrondissement today told me she was "en province" (i.e. out of the city in another region of France) and would not be able to show me the studio until later on this week and will call me tomorrow evening. "Pas de soucis! Pas de probleme!", I told her.

It is springtime in Paris. And everything is starting to look so lovely. The days are getting longer. The light of dusk - that magic hour between the late afternoon and sunset - makes everything it falls upon sunkissed. The flowers which are blooming everywhere...I should just enjoy Paris in the springtime!