Plane ticket refund?

It started with the tragic Asiana crash in San Francisco, continued with the Southwest Airlines crash from Texas to LGA, the Spanish train derailment, and now the Italian bus crash that just killed 39 people yesterday.

Summer Travel 2013 is looking positively dreadful and mysterious/bloody accidents keep piling up as my departure date looms ever closer. (this Friday) For this reason I have compiled a list of To Stay's and To Go's:

Reasons to Stay:
1. Visa madness. The prefecture has me by the knickers and twists violently every time I even suggest leaving.

2. French wine changes with altitude and increases in price over distance.

3. Mon français est déjà en train de s'emmerder. -- That's not even good French. It's already begun.

4. I don't wanna go down in flames over the Atlantic.

Reasons to Go:
1. It's been a year. I'd like to know if my little brothers have extra toes or tattoos yet.

2. The Sorbonne offers online classes.

3. I'm coming back sometime next year for the end of my masters anyway. -- Not au revoir yet, France!

4. I just found out Camembert cheese is legal to bring to the U.S.

And its subcategory: Reasons to Go and Then Stay Forever:
1. I don't wanna go down in flames in Nebraska. Thems a lot of flammable corn fields.

T-minus 5 days.

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The Sorbonne

I GOT ACCEPTED TO THE SORBONNE!!!!

It actually happened a few weeks ago but I was still doing paperwork for enrollment, solidifying my acceptance, up until two days ago. I got accepted to one of the most prestigious French universities, and the most internationally well known French university, in the second year of the Masters program. BOOM!

Technically, I have the level of an M1 (first year of Masters) but I argued my way into M2 of the International Studies, English Studies program for pretty obvious reasons - American, 4 year college degree, awesome French skillzz. I couldn't be more excited!

And to boot, the entire scholastic year costs 514 euros. Take that $60 K price tag of American masters programs!!

I don't know what I'm going to do afterward, or even how the year is going to go, writing an 80 paged thesis in French while in California half the time, but I'm optimistic. Already getting this far is an achievement in itself, and I'm choosing to celebrate before letting doomsday thoughts win over.

With any luck, I'll have a masters AND be published (to self-pub or to agent, that is the question) by this time next year.

VIVE LA FRANCE!!!

Hearts in Rouen, a love letter

to Rouen! My little city. I've spent the last ten months writing and perfecting my first novel, Hearts in Rouen.

Essentially a love letter to Rouen, Hearts in Rouen mixes elements that I love reading about in my favorite literature. Romance. Suspense. Mystery. Foreign culture. History. All with (to paraphrase the wish lists of so many agents) an engaging, unique voice that draws in the reader from page one. I love France and despite certain obnoxious parts of it (the préfecture, everything closing on Sundays/Mondays, HUGE taxes to support the amazing social welfare system here), when I sat down to write last November, the only subject that felt right was this country, this culture, this city.

Now that I've got my baby polished within an inch of its life, trying to find a home for it is my next objective. You know, along with moving back to California indefinitely, trying to smuggle as much Camembert in my luggage as physically possible, and finding a group of French friends with whom to keep up my language skills and/or drive me around since I won't have a car.

#todolist

Until then, stay tuned for publishing updates and maybe some excerpts from the book exclusively here on my blog.

Bisous!

Singing

#ThingsI'llMiss

"Why are we singing?!?" asked a friend, a newbie to the usual weekend ritual of drinking, discussing, burning wood pallets swiped from behind the local supermarket, then passing out legit 30 paged books of raucous drinking songs.

"I don't sing!" she protested. Oh, but you will.

The French are widely known for their jovial love of gathering in public or private to sing. Rugby matches. Football (soccer) matches. Weddings. Birthdays. Parties and kickbacks. Ain't no thang. Someone will know a seriously inappropriate song with eight layers of double entendres and teach the rest of the crowd. Or type them all up, then disperse them among friends and family for generations to come, like my circle of friends.

I once was watching a rugby match online with P-baby and the English commentator (English vs. France - WATCH OUT, another 100 years' war is bout to go down) remarked there was nothing more wonderful "than a jubilant, French crowd," who can always be expected to burst into communal song at some point. And it's true.

And it's never the national anthem, the Marseillaise, because after the fall of the Bastille, nationalism has been equated with the crazy, xenophobic right wing political party. It's always songs about a "baguette" and the fireman's "hose."

Some people aren't brought up to sing willy nilly, as evidenced by the newbie to the weekend pow wow, but if you come across a group of jubilant French people, get excited and warm up your vocal cords. You're about to witness a spontaneous cultural expression of joy.

Des choses à faire

A little under three weeks and I'll be boarding a plane to New York where I'll spend a few days with my fabulous married friends, then fly on home to California. To sun and surf and English.

In the mean time I'm stocking up on Camembert cheese. And trying to accomplish various dreams and long standing wishes.

Acceptance to the masters program at the celebrated Sorbonne university: Check!

Completion of my first novel based in France and utilizing my knowledge of the language and culture: Double check! (Gotta get it while the getting's good)

Getting published: Ummm... well about that. I'm working on self-publishing but putting my infant expression of love out there for the wolves to devour is terrifying and not exactly an easy undertaking to boot. There are ebook covers involved and wiley ebook cover designers to sift through. I have a few recommendations from friends and the almighty internet is helpful but who really knows where to start? Then there's the issue of choosing a market to publish in, Amazon the Monopolizer or smaller sites that still provide access to world markets, but less strategically good odds for authors.

If anyone knows of good ebook cover designers, feel free to leave a comment here :) Otherwise, I hope to have made a decision (ie: published) before I leave here the beginning of August.

Let the countdown begin! (again)