un enfant gâté

I'm a spoiled birthday brat. I had such a good day -- no work, sleeping in, some shopping with mumhead, fresh strawberries, playing with a cute dog, burritos, a sweet kindle for me to blow my savings on, banoffee pie and a hot date at the movies where we watched Ryan Gosling parade around without a shirt and brood tragically.

It was so good that I almost forgot about turning 26. And then I was all like..

Really though, I just wanted an excuse to post this cat. I love it.

je suis têtue. voilà.

I've been adventure-less since my last trip to Stockholm (so much for resolutions, eh) meaning that now I have to find other things to blog about. I guess I don't really have to, but well, since we're both already here...

Three years in a foreign country can change a person. Not me! I'm stubborn past the point of reason! So, two years after the first, I've made another list of things that I'll never find it in me to adapt to. 

1. Anytime someone dictates their phone number to me in French, I come to the pathetic realization that I still have difficulty counting above 70. Four-twenty-ten-eight, what kind of sadistic fool decided that this was the best approach to 98?? Elementary school-aged children will know where I'm coming from on this one (holla!).
2. The subjunctive continues to be the wretched and persistent thorn in my ability to speak properly.
3. Every time someone talks to me about a distance, I have to get out my phone to convert into feet or miles.
4. Same goes for kilos and pounds.
5. Conversely, celsius makes far more sense now than fahrenheit. Just deal with it.
6. I refuse to buy into the French notion of "salad." Apparently you can have a tomato salad here -- just tomatoes, nothing else. Where I'm from, that's a garnish. 
7. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to having to bisou people that I've just met and will probably never see again. 
8. I love cheese, but I've given up on ever coming around to fondue or raclette. It smells like feet!
9. This one should be really easy in principle, but saying bon appetit just before starting to eat with someone is something I can't do. Saying it makes me feel like a douchebag server at a restaurant and those days are behind me!
10. Accepting the French national sport of cutting in line. I can't even with this one.

To finish, here's a picture of the world's cutest dog:

you're welcome.

Hej!

Before going to Stockholm, I honestly didn't have a lot to go on as far as the culture/people/city/food etc (besides having watched this video which I'm telling you, you must watch because it's totally absurd and it turns out that slut is a legitimate word in Swedish). But here are a few thoughts I've collected about this wonderfully frigid city from a very short weekend there.

• The Swedes are a friendly and pleasant people, even in restaurants and shops. Articulating this makes me realize how poor the customer service is in France which makes me resent living here a little.
• In a pub, a decent pint of beer is about 59-69 Swedish kroner. 1 kroner = .12 euro. Thus, one beer is 7-8 euro (9-10 dollars). Ok so maybe France isn't so terrible.
• They have free, public skating rinks in the park!

• To say hello, the Swedish word is "hej," which to us sounds a little bit like an elongated "heyyyyyy." So, when you go into a shop, you're greeted with "heyyyyy" and you feel like the person behind the counter already knows you from somewhere. 
• Swedish people speak like well-mannered Americans.
• Did I mention shit was expensive?
• Something living under the Arizona sun did not teach me: walking outside in 19 degrees feels abrasively cold against your skin. It hurts. 
• Unanswered questions for future trips: what exactly is "Swedish" cuisine? 

More adventures (hopefully) to come!

à bientôt... slut.

on prend des week-ends à l'etranger.

January, in my opinion, is the most depressing month in the northern hemisphere. Christmas is over. The lights are down. It's just cold and grey and spring is at least three months away. So, I'm trying to take some preventative measures to keep my mind off the fact that I'll be wearing leggings under everything till March.

1. Actually reading the books the I buy from amazon. I'm finally finishing the second Game of Thrones book (four months after the fact...) and have just ordered the next in the series as well as The Hobbit because I'm thinking that seeing the movie first was probably a mistake. 
2. Cooking new things. Ok, I know was making dog sandwiches when I first arrived in France due in part to homesickness and in part to being and good-for-nothing lazy cook. But this year, I'm making an honest effort -- I made a decent pork tenderloin recently and despite the fact that the quality of the veg and potatoes suffered as a result of my obsessively checking to make sure I didn't overcook it, I think Jon appreciated it. I'm actually feeling a little more confident in the kitchen (thanks to you Nigella, you garlic-loving saucy broad). 
3. Travelling. You know what depresses me? I tell people back home that I live in France and their first question after "wait, are you kidding?" is generally "wow! you must travel all the time!" Yeah, I sure do. If by travel, you mean to Spain... I'm really good at visiting the Costa Brava in the summer months. And the truth of it is that there is so much goddamn awesomeness that's just a short plane ride away, I'm kind of ashamed of how little I've taken advantage of this. So, I'm doing it. Fuck it! I'm doing it!

Bring on the negative temperatures and too-cool-for-school Swedes! I'm going to spend a weekend like Lisbeth Salander -- by that I mean eating lots of sandwiches and drinking an inordinate amount of coffee.  JA!!!