Frustrations From a Sleepyhead

Hey there!

Today was a long day.

BEWARE: This post may be stranger than normal due to lack of mental alertness.

Last night it took me forever to fall asleep because my roomie (whom I adore) was still writing her paper and had the light on until an hour and a half after I went to bed at 11:30 pm. I really need to find an eye mask. My friend told me she has a felt one that doesn't slide off her face. An eye mask was something I should've thought to pack..wait..I did think to pack it! Then I decided it wasn't important.

Anyway, my alarm went off at 6:52 am and I unconsciously turned it off and woke up to my roommate's alarm at 7:00 am. All the public health students had morning classes today (on Wednesday's we usually get to sleep in because there is no French class on Wednesdays). Our class started at 8:00 am. Our guest speaker gave us a 7 minute break at 9:40 am and then we continued on until 12:15 pm. It was straight lecture..most of our classes are. We then had class with our entire program from 1:00 pm to 4:00. All the kids from my program are mentally dead today. Dinner was pretty quiet. We're all tired.

I'm doing my laundry right now. We have two washers and two dryers. The laundry room is located at the end of the second floor hallway, on the side of the boys rooms. So to get to it, you have to pass 6 boys rooms (it's the St. John's boys). I can always feel them looking at me when I walk past. It smells like deodorant, axe, and sweat over there. I had two loads. As I was putting my first load into the dryer, I heard music turn on- it was Soldier Boy blasting through some speakers- and it was really loud. I resisted the temptation to start dancing in the laundry room alone, just in case someone walked in suddenly. When I went back upstairs I walked past the speakers sitting on a chair in the doorway facing the hallway. The boys in that room toasted (don't ask me with what, we're not allowed to drink in the dorm) with the end of the song as I was walking past. When I went down a little later to switch loads, the music had switched to latin music. I smiled and resisted walking with some hip action.

This time there was another NU student in the laundry room. Now, I've had a few negative run-ins with her since being here. She isn't aware that they were negative interactions, nor do I think she knows who I am. But we have had brief conversations and she is very abrasive and rubs me the wrong way. In the laundry room she'd taken my clothes out of the washing machine and put them on top of the washer. They had to have been done for maybe 3 minutes, max. That didn't bother me too much because I've done it before to other people, but usually it's at least half an hour after their laundry has been done. I do understand however, that we have only 2 machines. What did bother me was the comment she made about the music.

In a mocking tone she said, "It's like a mexican fiesta down here." Then she added a snicker. Should this have bothered me? I don't know, from what I've heard come out of her mouth in the past, she seems to be exceedingly conceited. It seemed to me that this was a jab at the people living on that floor. It could also be that my feelings towards her cloud my judgement, and that I am simply assuming the worst. Nevertheless, it immediately reminded me of something that happened on "The Bachelorette" last season. On the episode, a guy named Roberto showed Ali how to salsa dance. One of the other men vying for Ali's attention said later to the camera (in a heavy southern accent) "I was a lil' upset dude I mean..Roberto did some.. hot-sauce dance or somethin'."

Comments like these bother me.

P.S. I just walked down there again to take out my last load from the dryer. I found my clothes on top of the dryer, and I found her just beginning to put her clothes into that dryer. Which means- they'd been done for maybe 30 seconds. When I looked at my clothes on the top of the machine she said "Are those yours? They felt a little wet.." Then I said "Yeah those are mine..hmm." Then as I seemed frustrated she said "I didn't touch them I swear." I responded "No worries, I understand."

But riddle me this: how would she know they were wet if she hadn't touched them?

I'll leave you with that as food for thought.

Love,

Hillary

Inside the Mind of Hillary Quinn Epperson

¡Buenas noches amigos y familia!

Tonight, I thought I'd give you a peek into my thoughts. I quite like being in my head, sometimes it's amusing up there.

This afternoon (after Indian food) I came back into my room and spent a short while working on my applications. Around dinner time I walked over to Bon Marché for some dinner to go, and then came back and rented Erin Brockovich on iTunes. I'd never seen it before, but in the movie (and this doesn't give anything away) Erin's youngest daughter says her first word.

I found myself wondering what my first word was. So of course, I texted my mom to ask her.

"First word: Duddin." She replies.

"No, my first real word." I said.

"I don't remember, I have to check your baby book."

"You don't remember?!"

"No."

I sighed and continued watching the movie. Half an hour later I got up to take my food out to the garbage. (To empty your trash in my dorm, you have to walk down the hall and into the main staircase where the larger garbage cans are). As I was walking down the hall, my mind returned to the 'my first word' dilemma.

"How can she not remember my first word!? I mean..who doesn't remember that? And how can I not already know it!? How can I fully know who I am without that piece of information!? It probably says 'Duddin' in the baby book too. Shoot. Well..if I grew up in an orphanage I guess I wouldn't know my first word. Yeah, like Anastatia. But wait..Anastatia was probably still living in the castle when she said her first word! And I bet her Grandmama remembers it. I bet even Demetri remembers it! He was living in the castle then! But wait..they're the same age..Demetri definitely doesn't remember it.

"Hillary...Demetri is a character in a cartoon. You should stop before this gets even more ridiculous." And then I giggled quietly to myself.

And there you have it! This is what it's like to be in my head.

Tune in next time!

Love always,

Hillary

It's A Small World After All

Hello Everybody!

Happy Saturday! I have some cool/funny pictures from yesterday's Versailles trip, but not that much to say about it. So this may be a skinnier post than usual. Oh! But I do have a little story to tell you. So here we go.

Yesterday I met several people from my program in the dorm lobby at 10:00 am and by 11:00 we were on the RER on our way to Château Versailles.

We were able to get in for free with our passport (we needed to show our visa) and our Sciences-Po student ID!

Before walking through the castle we checked out the gardens. I've been to Versailles before, but never in the gardens because last time I was here it was March and it was raining,.. and it was cold. On this day however, it was sunny and never strayed outside of 65 to 70 degrees.

We walked over to one side of the gardens, went down the steps, and found a bench to eat our lunches on next to the very tall hedges. In the picture below you can see the huge squares of water in the distance. I'm not sure if I should call it a pool or a lake..because it was neither and both of those things at the same time. What you can't see is that there were tons of people sitting on the grass, and it started from where I took this picture, all the way down to the end of the water.

We fed a few garden cats as we ate.

After spending a couple of hours wandering the gardens and eating food, we needed a nap.

On the grass that bordered the "pool-lake" there were groups of students and families hanging out all over the place. It was so cute! There were people sitting on the grass all over the place. They had boat rentals (for 11 euro..) and we saw a couple taking one out and paddling near the swans.

So here is where it gets interesting- apparently Versailles (back in the day) was a place where contemporary art was valued and displayed frequently. In keeping with the tradition, from 2007-2010 Versailles has been the home of a Japanese artist's exposition. It leaves in December. The art was all over the rooms we walked through, and the biggest one was outside in the garden. It was called Buddha something. The pieces were interesting, but I'm not a big fan of modern art. They were definitely cool to look at, but the setting sort of clashed with all of these crazy pieces. Especially once inside.

Here is another piece that was inside. This one is a tame example:

This one was called "Flower Monster:"

After we'd spent almost 6 hours at Versailles, we were all exhausted and ready to catch the train home.

Today! (Saturday):

For lunch today a few friends and I visited the Indian quarter!! We found a restaurant that looked good and ate there. I got my usual: Chicken Tikka Masala. Everyone agreed that the food tasted different than usual but that it was still good. I ate way too much and decided I need to do something light for dinner tonight.

In the metro on the way back I saw something that brightened my already good day:

HARRY POTTER POSTER!!! WOOOO.

Ok so..yesterday at Versailles this American guy with a big fancy camera asked me and my friend to take a picture for him in the hall of mirrors, and then he took a picture of us. We asked where each other was from, exchanged niceties, and then parted. As he walked away, I noticed that he has the same black Air-walk flip-flops that Tom has. I know because I helped Tom pick them out last summer on the Payless website. "Hm.." I thought "...that's funny." Today after Indian food I was on the metro, and I was staring at the floor as we made our next stop. I saw all the pairs of feet walk on, and one of them was wearing the same flip flops! I looked up, and it was the SAME GUY. He had the same huge camera and was taking pictures through the metro window. No way!!! What a small world. I took 3 stalker pictures of him, including one of just his feet. I don't know if he recognized me. I was standing right next to him speaking in English to another one of my friends, and he didn't seem to notice..even though I just saw him almost exactly 24 hours earlier.

Hahaha. What a small world!! I absolutely had to get documentation. Too bad I don't have a picture of him from Versailles.

Well, I'm about to go run and grab a LIGHT dinner. :-) Catch ya later!

Love,

Hillary

Lessons in Using a Mouse

Hey guys!

I took the GRE this morning, but it almost didn't happen.

My test was scheduled for 9:30 am this morning. They ask you to arrive half an hour early so I wanted to be there a little before 9:00 am. I got up at 7:45, ate breakfast, and left around 8:25. I had looked up the location of the testing center on google maps the night before, and it looked like it was right around the corner from the Louvre. Between my dorm and the Louvre there aren't any direct metro routes and it's only a half hour walk from my dorm, so I walked. At 5 minutes to 9:00 I turned the corner and found the address I was looking for. What I found there was a door- locked with a chain around the handles- and a sign that said "149 Rue St. Honoré." Below the sign was an arrow pointing to the right. The only thing on the right was a keypad for typing in a code. The correct code definitely wouldn't have unlocked the padlocked door, and there was no doorbell. I looked to the building on the right, and it was a fitness center. Then I thought, "uhm..maybe I'm at the wrong entrance..?" So I walked a bit farther on my left. The only thing in that direction was a big old church-like building. "Wait a minute!" There was a door in between these two buildings! This door was wide open... and it was full of dumpsters. I thought.."maybe I can sneak inside through this back entrance?" I peeked my head inside the garbage room but there weren't any doors. I pulled out my notebook and confirmed that I was at the right address. In my notebook I'd also written down the number of the test center, so I tried calling. I tried with a country code, I tried without a country code, I tried it with the area code, and I tried omitting one of the numbers in case I'd transcribed the number wrong, nothing worked.

I was starting to panic. I walked into the fitness center and, after asking the man there if he spoke english, asked if he knew of a testing center nearby. "Uh...Oh yes! Around the corner!" I walked around the corner (the way I'd come) and found two very big doors that led to a very fancy foyer. I found the right floor and was lead to the testing area. There was an office with lockers for bags and a computer screen with 12 videos monitoring each person at their computer. On the other side of the wall was a room full of computers. The GRE is a computerized test. There were already people in the room who were already taking various other tests (and maybe the GRE too). I sat down in front of the computer assigned to me completely ready to take the GRE. A screen popped up explaining that the GRE was a computerized test (just in case I hadn't figured that out already). First, it said, it would take me through a tutorial on how to use a mouse.

After explaining what a mouse was and where to find it on my desk, it taught me how to click. After clicking practice, I learned how to point and move my cursor. After that, it taught me how to scroll up and down. I also learned how to cut and paste, and how to type in a box. I learned how to delete, and how to highlight a row of text.

After the test I walked back to my dorm and stopped at Gap to buy a t-shirt. I also tried really hard to find a cute, loose, short dress to wear over tights. I stopped in 4 or 5 stores, but the only thing under 100 Euro was from Guess and A) I feel weird buying clothes over here from American companies (unless its a tee from Gap), and B) it didn't fit right. On my walk back I eyed an older couple who I pinned right away as being British. And by golly, they were! It was the blue blazer with the gold buttons on this older gentlemen that gave it away. If one is bored on the streets of a foreign country, I find it amusing to try to spot the Americans (or the Brits) and then walk near them to see if they're speaking english. The tricky part is spotting them from afar, because once you are anywhere close to them the combination of english being your first language, and the fact that Brits and especially Americans tend to be louder, means your ear will hear english from a mile away. Later I was wrong about an American girl who I thought was French, so I guess my score for today is back to zero.

Anyway that's been my day so far!

Catcha on the flip side! Love,

Hillary

"Please sir, may I have some more?"

Hello and good day boys and girls, the topic of today's post is the dining hall- sponsored by Oliver; the play that keeps on giving.

Let's start off by providing a little background. We pay 11 Euro (around $13.5) for each dinner here, and a few more for breakfast. Our meal plans, which are compulsory, are for breakfast and dinner Monday through Friday. Lunch we do on our own because we're usually at school then. Since we arrived here two weeks ago, the food quality has been poor at best. It has made the Northwestern dining halls look like paradise. There are rules here.

We choose two items from the following: a bowl of applesauce, a bowl of fruit cocktail from a can, an apple, an orange, a banana, and a square of cheese the size of a credit card. Then we get a main dish and we can opt for the vegetarian option, which last night was fried cheese. Sometimes there is a dessert to pick from as well. At the end of the line, if you already picked two things from the beginning, you can only pick one more thing, which is either a bowl of lettuce, a bowl of shredded cabbage, a bowl of diced tomatoes, a bowl of sliced cucumber, or a bowl of what looks like cous cous and chopped sausage. Or, if you only picked one item from the beginning of the line, you may pick two from the end.

Except that, for the past two weeks the rule was that you can have two from the start of the line, and two from the end, plus a dessert. Dinner is between 7:00 and 7:30 pm, and at 7:30 you must turn in your tray or the dining hall workers get angry. This is what happened yesterday:

I arrived downstairs in the dining hall at 6:50, and there were already 23 people in front of me, per usual. People wait downstairs way before 7:00 because they usually run out of food. (Tuesday night they served chicken and the vegetarian option was fish- a whole fish with the head and tail still on- so lots of people chose chicken instead. They ran out of chicken pretty quickly, so they served french fries, of course. Clearly, potatoes are the perfect alternative to chicken.) They opened the doors early- at 6:54- which is very, very unusual. I was excited! Maybe the phone calls from all the angry mothers really were paying off!

As I waited for my turn to get food, I looked at the night's meal. It looked alright. The desserts looked delicious, the salad/diced food at the end looked alright. I devised my plan, I would get one dessert, two fruits, the vegetarian main dish of rice, sauce, and fried cheese (the alternative was rice with chili con carne), then get the bowl of lettuce and the bowl of chopped tomatoes and make a legit salad.

First, I grabbed the desert option that looked the best; an apple tart thing the size of two credit cards. Then, I grabbed an orange and an apple. The North African woman behind the counter said something angrily in French and then said "DEUX!!" But, I had picked two! I wasn't understanding the problem, and before I knew it she had snatched the orange off of my tray and put it back in the fruit basket.

Alarmed, I continued on down the line. Another angry North African woman went to serve me the beef without even asking which one I preferred, so I quickly pointed to the beef and said "no!" She put the vegetarian option on my plate and handed it to me while arguing with the grad student who works here. Next, I picked up the bowl of lettuce and the bowl of chopped tomatoes. This time it was the North African man who was yelling at me..in french.

Again, I had picked too many things. The grad student, Luc, was standing right there. I asked him what the deal was, and he said he didn't know but it was best not to argue because they get really angry. "I know.." I replied. I sadly put the tomatoes back and unhappily took my seat (and I don't even like tomatoes, I just wanted to salvage this bowl of lettuce!).

Please sir, may I have some more?