Couple of not necessarily related things:
 
1) I've started going to the cafe des langues in Nancy, where I met the first people to really make me feel welcome/included here. I mean the teachers I work with are nice, of course, but they have their own lives and are generally much older than me, and they tend to do things almost out of obligation I feel. The people at the cafe des langues are much more lively and animated, and for some reason have started including me in their group. I went for the first time last Thursday and was invited to someone's house for her birthday party on Saturday, and now it seems I'm actually becoming friends with them. It's such an incredible thing, and I'm so grateful for it. Plus, where else would you be able to meet people from Malaysia, Colombia, Romania, Brazil, Tunisia, Canada, and China all in the same hour?! Too cool. (Plus you learn interesting things, like the fact that "to make a move" in Malaysia actually means to leave a place, and not to hit on someone.)

2) Chivalry is such a funny thing, but it's certainly not dead. The Colombian guy from the cafe des langues was concerned about how I was planning to get back last night, and when another guy told him he was dropping me off he responded "oui, j'espere!" with a wide-eyed, extremely worried look on his face. Because, you know, I've never taken the tram alone past 10 haha. I'd like to say that I can take care of myself, but it was sweet of him nonetheless.

3) I think I got a pay raise. We're supposed to get exactly 770 euros after all the taxes and whatnot are taken out, but I've gotten around 20 euros more for December and now also January. Last month, I thought maybe it was just a Christmas/holiday thing, but perhaps not... It's such a good feeling! haha. Probably more so because it was unexpected (I did learn something in the evolution of human nature!), but still. So exciting!

4) Paperwork + France = one huge nightmare. You have different policies in different cities, some places need one thing while others don't, some people require you to get things translated officially and others take things you do yourself. There is so much inconsistency here it makes my head spin. I've sent my birth certificate in to the same organization 3 times, both a copy of the original written in English and one that I translated into French, and despite other people in my region having no problem just sending it in in English, they want me to order an original from the office in chicago, have it sent here, then get it officially translated before sending it to them for the fourth time. Ugh, WHY?! It's a freaking birth certificate; it's not really difficult to figure out what everything means even if it's written in English instead of French. I mean, if it was in Korean I would understand, but really, when you have "city" followed by Chicago, I'm fairly confident even a troisieme can figure it out.

5) I got locked out of my room last night. For some reason that I really cannot figure out, whoever's in charge of the keys here thought that it was a good idea to give me the key to my room but not to the building in which it's located. And he/she neglected to tell me that someone goes around and LOCKS THE DOORS at night. This confuses me for a number of reasons, the first of them being how could someone possibly lack that much foresight. But it's also confusing because I got back around midnight yesterday, and I've definitely come back later than that before and never had a problem. Despite the guy who let me in claiming that he locks the doors every night, I have never before seen it locked. Ever. It's also a door that only the people living in the private studios/apts here use (aka NOT students), so it's confusing to me as to why they would feel compelled to lock us in. Really, all I can say at this point is oh, France. Such an unsophisticated place for a country that was once one of the most powerful in the world. 

6) France has a great healthcare system. It was one of the things I was looking forward to most before I came here, especially after I managed to fracture my foot during the summer when I didn't have insurance. Sadly, I've heard some not so great things about the doctors here. I'll reserve actual judgment until I personally go see one, but I will say that I'm not really looking forward to it. Good health insurance isn't quite so appealing when the doctor can't figure out what's wrong with you.

7) Having so much free time can be terrible because I get bored easily, but on the other hand I've been able to finally watch a few movies that I've been meaning to see for a long time. I've watched quite a few embarrassing ones that I will not mention, but I've also been able to see Toy Story 3 (so good!), Megamind, The King's Speech, and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Sadly, I've also recently realized just how old Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are. That was a very unhappy moment. 

8) My computer started dying a few days ago. That was an even unhappier moment. Good thing I know how to do most of the basic things, because I don't even want to think about how long it would have taken to find a competent yet affordable technician and then actually get it fixed. I had to reformat it when downloading drivers failed, which is never fun, but it did fix everything and luckily I had thought ahead and brought the necessary CDs and an external hard drive. So I have a functioning computer once more, thank God. 

9) I'm thought to be relatively attractive here, and I really don't know how to respond to that. I'm sure part of it is just how direct people are in letting you know what they think, but it still makes me feel rather awkward to hear someone say "oh, you probably don't have problems with the hs boys because you're a jolie fille." I grew up being constantly reminded of my very unremarkable appearance, and while I understand that the hair and contacts did me a world of good, I'm just not used to hearing positive things about the way I look. (For those of you who don't know any Korean adults, let me just say that when they describe other people's children, they generally use one of two phrases. The first is "oh you're so pretty/handsome!" and the second is "oh, you look like you'd be good at school." Guess which one I heard as a kid? haha.)

And lastly,

10) I'm going to Amsterdam this weekend! I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back completely exhausted, because we're leaving on a bus at 1 am Saturday, then spending all day walking around the city before hopping (highly unlikely best case scenario) or crawling on all fours onto the bus at around midnight to come back to France. But I'm super excited to go!