Songer à Paris

I have Paris on the brain today.  I had a dream in French last night, for no apparent reason, and today I turned in an application for a summer research grant so I can spend some time in Paris this summer.  I'm going to England for sure, but I really want to go spend a few weeks in Paris after that, collecting data from second language learners.  So if I get the grant (and I guess my chances are somewhat decent, from what I hear), then it'll be time to actually buy plane tickets and train tickets and find a place to stay.

So tonight, just for fun, I was looking at places to stay in Paris.  There are websites for tourists, where people rent out their apartments over the summer for somewhat exorbitant amounts of money.  Cheaper than staying in a hotel every night, but not that much cheaper, really.  Then I decided to try searching in French, and I happened on a few websites for Parisians looking to sublet their apartments for a month or two or three at a time.  That is totally the way to go - you can find a perfectly nice place, in a great area, and there are lots more choices, for less money per month than you'd pay per week in a vacation rental.  The only weird thing about it is the idea of subletting from someone in a foreign country.  Subletting is kind of weird anyway, but doing it in a foreign country just seems... slightly extra weird.  But whatever, once I hear back from this research grant and get closer to actually going, I'll contact some people, and you can generally get a feel for people over email.  If anyone is creepy, I'll just not rent from them.  There are definitely enough places that I can afford to be somewhat choosy.  So how crazy-awesome is that??  Spending a few weeks in Paris in my own apartment!  Who knows if this will pan out, but for the moment, I'm fairly excited about the idea of spending some time in Paris again, over the summer, getting to explore some of the things I didn't get to last time.

I was just telling my mom on the phone yesterday - I'm excited about the idea of going back to France, because I feel way more laid back about it this time around.  I was so nervous about making mistakes with my French last time, and always trying to be perfect, and I just have a totally different attitude now. Part of this is having two people (two!) in my life now who I can speak French with, and even though my level of French is somewhat lower than it was the last time I was in France (having forgotten a fair number of words between then and now), I just feel more... accepting of myself.  Like, whatever, people make mistakes when they speak a foreign language, and no one cares.  And I always knew this on an intellectual level, but I feel like I truly accept it more now.  And it helps having actual friends/acquaintances that I can just have a normal conversation with in French, because then the focus is much more on communicating ideas rather than talking just for the sake of practicing a language, which is so artificial.  If you try to say something you actually want to say, and you mess it up, then your friends can tell you how you should actually say that, and you learn something from the experience.  It's way better.

Let's see, what else is new... I started research in a new preschool today.  This is definitely my favorite of the three preschools so far.  The people at this place are so laid back and fun.  It's totally my style.  They had a Fat Tuesday parade today, and all the kids wore the masks and beads they made, and marched around banging their drums they made out of oatmeal cartons while some awesome zydeco music played and everybody danced.  The research is a little more challenging there, because they don't have a dedicated research room, so I have to set up shop in the "dramatic play" room (which is where they keep all their dress up clothes and costumes and musical instruments and things for playing pretend).  There's no door to the room, so sound floats in from the hallway, and there's a little bathroom in there, so one kid had to come in and go potty while I was doing an experiment.  It's probably okay, but it makes me a little nervous with my reaction time measures - I have no idea what that microphone is picking up, I'm just trusting that it's not firing too often from the background noise.  When I tested it back at the beginning of this project, it seemed pretty good at only responding to very close noise.  But I'll have to go back and look at my numbers from today and see if they look reasonable, or if they're kind of all over the place.  Let's hope for the former.

Well, I think that's all I've got for now.  Time for some chamomile tea and bed.  Bonne nuit à tous et à toutes!