How To Table : Activism 101

THE BARE BASICS:

- Table (didn't see that coming, did you?)

* lightweight, folding-tables are the best

- Literature

* Know your stuff! If someone asks you a question about your literature, you shouldn't have to reread it. This doesn't mean that there won't be questions you don't know, but you should at least know what you're handing out...

* Have a variety of documents available and remember that your audience is varied!

* A lot of organizations make it really easy for activists to get literature, so just contact an organization pertinent to your cause and see if they can't help you out.

- Donation Can

- Paper & Pen

* to write down the names of other activists who want to get involved

- Permission

I know, I know getting permission to express yourself?? But to maintain a peaceful and effective stand, I recommend asking permission first. It is not difficult to do, all you need is at least 2 weeks before your event. Contact your local government or police office for more information. Make sure to ask what the conditions of your permit are, and what kind of equipment is prohibited.

THE REST:

• Posters preferably at least one with your group's name on it in huge letters :) Doesn't need to be perfect, but a poster is almost a must.
• Petitions
• Email List of folks who want to get involved. (See Paper & Pen above)
• Paperweights (which could be as easy as having more pens)
• Tablecloth
• TV: crappy is fine. TV's are large enough that they capture the attention of the masses quite easily, especially for veg activism. (A laptop can be substituted easily, since they are ubiquitous. However, the mere size of a TV makes it appealing. Save up for one of these bad boys if you can.
• Tent: Makes your tabling experience a lot more bearable, for you, in heat, rain, or shine. Trust me.
• Chairs: This goes along with the whole idea of making your tabling experience comfortable, but it may as well be in the necessary category if you're planning on tabling for several hours on end. Folding chairs, naturally.
• Items to Sell (proceeds can go to whatever cause you're tabling for, or for equipment for better tabling.) Ideas include: Pins, Stickers, Posters, Wristbands, Apparel with your Logo (can be made at a DIY/Printing store). I am personally a fan of the pins, because it allows your org to make $ as well as your movement to grow!
• Food! (Please consider making vegan food because (a) its harder to spoil, since there are no eggs, milk, meaty, whatever, in it (b) it's better for the environment (c) it tastes just as good, if not better. Naturally I'm speaking to people who *aren't* already vegan and/or tabling for veganism, haha.)
• Books Pertinent to Your Cause, to decorate the table & because then you just look smarter...

THINGS TO HAVE HANDY

1. tape
2. rope/cord
3. scissors
4. fat marker and/or sharpie
5. BandAids? Activists mean business ;)

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

• Deciding where to Table: Find a central location with a lot of foot traffic.
• If you have not already formed a group, search around for individuals with the same activist interests as you, and see if you can help out. Otherwise start your own group and work on gaining interested activists!
• Do not clutter your table too much
• Smiling is good
• Tabling with 2-3 people is more effective than tabling with one person.
• Take breaks if you get tired out.
• Hand people literature. Do not wait for them to ask for it. People can be hesitant and shy... put yourself out there!
• Tabling around specific events is VERY helpful. Petitions can also be effective.
• Get ready for assholes. They are everywhere, but they make everyone else look better. Also it allows you to become a much more hardy activist.

Roasted Beet-Tofu Burgers

Holy shit this looks delish:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/09/roasted-beet-tofu-burgers.html

stole the above pic from the site "FatFree Vegan." CHECK IT OUT!

VEGFEST: Samedi 26 Septembre

This picture hit me hard. It means: My Flesh Belongs to Me!

Notre stand de "Fourrure Torture"

(A group that has 3 campaigns: Anti-vivisection, Anti-fur, vegetarian (vegan) diet)

I had a conversation with a guy from Sénégal [in English, actually] and he was like, ' OK, so if I wanted to become vegetarian tomorrow i could? Nothing special? ' He was my success of the day. Woo! It was also quite practical to have an American/English-speaker, because seeing as there are so many tourists in Paris, there are many opportunities to speak English. Woo! Also, it's very helpful for me to hear all the arguments in French, so as to further my French. I feel like I'm making pretty good connections here so far ;)

In front of our stand

In front of the stand for the group "Lush"

No idea why they would put 74% Vegetalien (74% Vegan)... Same vegetarian/vegan debates as in the states, it seems. Weird. Their soaps looked pretty sweet-as though... (See below)

(Yes, those are soaps!)

Lots of badges, books, and vegan treats to be sold. VEGETARIAN SHOES even made an appearance and were selling shoes! Unfortunately the boots I wanted were already sold out. Fortunately they have a website.

Veg Mag, and they had DELICIOUS vegan goodies, including what seemed to be a pumpkin loaf.

Sweet.

Peta en France! (Not a very strong group in France, actually. I think that the Fondation Brigitte Bardot is the equivalent of Peta, with regards to its famousness and its use of sexism to convey its point.)

Another AR org in Paris: droits des animaux. They were selling some pretty wicked shirts, I must say:

Excellent stuff. I bought myself a t-shirt here, and oogled all the other goodies.

This guy on the left here was smart and bought a bunch of plain vests and had vegetarian propaganda put on the backs of them (unfortunately I failed to take a photo). Virtually an iron-on. Anyway, the vests also have very large pockets, making them perfect for flyering/brochure-handing-outing.

L214: An organization based upon the law that says that animals should not be killed except out of necessity. They have naturally taken this further and said that animals are not necessary for human consumption and nutrition. They are a traditionally welfarist organization and advertise the importance of cage-free eggs. (Not inherently bad, but this is where certain vegans would be turned off.)

Health Food Store... en France!

3 Health Food stores near me (3 within 6 blocks)

Lots of delicious things, and many vegan options. Seitan, tofu, croque tofu (several styles), and the vegan cheese here is so delicious. I bought the Seitan en tranches (see blue box in above photo), which I prepared with some tomato salad, and a creamy spinach dish. C'était délicieux!

Vegan Tabling Day Pics- Dimanche

Vegan.fr in the flesh. Vegan flesh, that is. (Yep that's me in the middle!)

Another stand.

Our stand

More from our stand

Pics from the VEGAN TABLING DAY on Sunday with the heated vegan/vegetarian discussion: At the top To my right = Marc, To my left = Françoise, I believe her name was?

Conference This Thursday: Anti-Vivisection

Flash Mob Alarme à la Bastille

This morning I went to a "Flash Mob Alarme" manif to raise awareness of environmental problems. Basically a bunch of people showed up and rang their alarm clocks and cellphones at 12:18 PM at the same time to make some noise and at the same time, people were calling their representatives and demanding that environmental concerns be taken into account with upcoming legislation.

FAWAFFLES?!

Um oh my god this deserves its own post:

FAWAFFLES.

http://www.veggie-wedgie.com/?p=976

i LOVE falafel, and i LOVE waffles, so this looks like one giant orgasm to me.

That is all.

[Accidentally Vegan] Moroccan Crêpes/Pancakes: Baghrir

VEGAN MOROCCAN CRÊPES*

This makes a thicker, bready-ish, crêpe with many small holes. It is delish with a bit of jam or fruit sauce (maybe some pineapple + arrowroot powder + sugar, heated on the stove until thick?). The traditional recipe calls for butter + honey, so I vote for vegan margarine + agave nectar!

1 bowl semolina (wiki)

1/2 bowl flour

baking powder (varies by region and by the size of the bowl, I'd say a teaspoon is more than enough. However, baking powder isn't a biggie.)

spoonful of sugar

small spoonful of salt

2 bowls of hot water

Mix and leave in fridge overnight (you can probably make it right away with American baking powder, but here they have to wait).

Pour into circles onto a lightly greased frying-pan. Cook to perfection. Again, these are not traditional French crêpes, these are more like a pancake/crêpe hybrid. They are pretty great, and one of my host dads, Samir just taught me how to make them.

*Written in neither metric nor english form, so as to make it a universal recipe. Bowl is a consistent bowl -- probably about ... 2- cups? just experiment -- this is what cooking is all about!

Sunday 20 Septembre: Journée de l'animal

Sunday -- la journée du patrimoine -- I spent approximately 6 hours tabling for veganism with an organization called "Vegan.fr" at a big gathering of AR orgs, centering around the sale of rescued cats and dogs. Vegan.fr is an abolitionist organisation, it is comprised of approximately 19 people, 7 of whom were at the actual event. It was very interesting to see the same divisions in the animal rights movement in France as in the states; the abolitionist/welfarist organizations do *not* get along very well. Seeing as I happened to stumble upon vegan.fr first, I did chill with them, but I fall somewhere between the abolitionist/welfarist argument. I honestly do not believe that the abolitionist approach will get people to consider veganism, even if it *is* the more moral approach (most of the people running these so called vegetarian organizations are vegan anyway). Maybe it's too capitalist of me to say, but I think it's all about numbers -- if there are 100 cows dying in the next ten minutes, I don't want to give those 100 cows solidarity by telling their exploiters that they deserve the absolute best and that we should treat them as equals, though I thoroughly believe it. I think that veganism is not an easy perspective to gain all at once, which is why so many vegans are vegetarians first -- it takes a bit to realize just how much consciousness these animals have. And once you stop eating meat, *then* it's much easier to question milk and cheese. Again, I *never* *ever* give people vegetarian recipes that include cheese and milk. I simply call my regime vegetarian so people don't tell me to fuck off. Once there are more vegetarians on the earth, then I think that the abolitionist movement can become stronger. Again, I am in no way saying we don't need exclusively vegan organizations, but my experience with this highly-exclusive, virtually purist vegan organization turned me off. Dressing in all black and bickering amongst other vegans just isn't making much sense to me. I understand those people who don't want to fight for bigger cages -- i am n0 fan of that. But advocating a vegetarian diet or a veg diet rather than bluntly saying GO VEGAN is fine. It's about numbers, it's about the movement, it's about change. Animals are dying every second, and we unfortunately all play into exploitation in small ways, so I am of the mindset that i do not support injustice in my personal life, and I advocate for justice. However, I do so as an activist, as a vegangelist, not as a philosopher. I have strong principles and philosophy about speciesism, but I do not want to be an unopened textbook, I want to be change.

Someone once told me "The only way you can attract bees is with... agave nectar." I think I want to make a shirt out of this.

http://cleda.over-blog.com/article-36189929.html

UPDATE: I just stumbled upon this article, and it seems quite appropriate: Tension between Vegans & Vegetarians

Saturday Mornings, Cookie Crumbs & Lingering Sleep-Deprivation

Restaurant Loving Hut

http://www.lovinghut.fr/

This is pretty great. A totally vegan resto (along with 2 others) in the meat-center of Paris! I think I may go AUJOURD'HUI!

I went to a health food store yesterday and found

- Nutritional Yeast

- TVP

- Almond Milk

- Soy milk (obvi)

- Rice milk

- Oat cream

- Quinoa milk

- Hazelnut milk!

And some vegan cookies. Which I have promptly consumed.

In other news, after emailing my life away to AR orgs in Paris, I finally got a connection! They're already having a tabling event this Sunday (with too many people -- 7 of their 19-person army of love). So I'm super pumped to take part in that! Gotta read my "Animal Liberation" in french. Makes me wish I had more time ...

Also, my program director recommended an internship/volunteership at the WWF. As far as I know, it's a pretty tame organization (ha! tame! I'm so funny.) and may actually go against veganism if it comes down to specifics. So. . . but i need a job! If anyone knows an AR organization that would like to offer help... I'm getting desperate!

Oh yesterday I made pancakes and it was a minor-fail, but they were still pretty damn tasty. Because of the conversion things, I ended up eyeballing a lot of stuff.. her's the recipe

VEGAN PANCAKES*

- 2 tsp (small... spoons?) baking powder**

- 1/2 tsp of cannelle (cinnamon, en français)

- 2-3 small spoons sugar (sugar added because i had no maple syrup to top my pancakes

- 1 3/4 cups flour - 2 cups flour (T65 in France. Flour for patisseries)

- 1.5 cups soy milk + 1 Tbls apple cider vinegar (put aside to let curdle for 5)

- 1.5 cups well-mashed banana

- Walnut pieces, approx 1/2-3/4 cup

- 1 Tbls sunflower oil (canola oil works better, I think).

Key to cooking is to taste your batter after you're done and add ingredients by taste!

Served with banana slices, cocoa powder & powdered sugar. (No one ever said these were health pancakes). If you don't have maple syrup like I did, consider making some mashed banana sauce -- add a pinch of soy milk or soy cream to your banana mush, and possibly some granulated sugar if you're feeling up for it to make a delicious topping.

*This recipe is much better when you add almond extract (1/4 tsp) and vanilla extract (1/2-1 tsp)

**baking powder in France is BIZARRE.

Oh and we just made some hummus. They have a food processor which is MUY helpful (I want one!) but can also be done by hand:

• some garlic cloves
• pinch(es) salt
• chick-peas, drained and rinsed
• well stirred tahini
• fresh lemon juice, or to taste
• hint of olive oil
• whatever else your heart desires

BEST DONE ACCORDING TO TASTE, but here is a recipe from Epicurious:

• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• two 1-pound 3-ounce cans chick-peas, drained and rinsed
• 2/3 cup well stirred tahini
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, or to taste
• 1/2 cup olive oil, or to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted lightly

• Accompaniment:Toasted Pita Thins

print a shopping list for this recipe

preparation

On a cutting board mince and mash the garlic to a paste with the salt. In a food processor purée the chick-peas with the garlic paste, the tahini, the lemon juice, 1/4 cup of the oil, and 1/2 cup water, scraping down the sides, until the hummus is smooth and add salt to taste. Add water, if necessary, to thin the hummus to the desired consistency and transfer the hummus to a bowl. In the food processor, cleaned, purée the remaining 1/4 cup oil with the parsley until the oil is bright green and the parsley is minced transfer the parsley oil to a small jar. The hummus and the parsley oil may be made 3 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Divide the hummus between shallow serving dishes and smooth the tops. Drizzle the hummus with the parsley oil and sprinkle it with the pine nuts. Serve the hummus with the pita.

Highlights: Aniseed Vegan Cake and YES MEN!

OK! I return.

The weekend à la campagne was great! I got to chill with the bébé and Ghislain's family (who still lives in this little town in the Lorraine region). He had apparently spoken to like everyone in advance so as to make sure everything was vegan. It's pretty convenient to have a vegetarian to speak for you because, well in France, it seems, vegetarianism is about as alien as veganism. We had some pretty delish food there though, i'm not gonna lie. Brussel sprouts were def at the top. (Sorry all my friends who wonder why I'm so obsessed with food. Go vegan, and your love for food shall blossom!)

We walked around the petite village and I got to see all the beautiful greenery. Saw a few pastures -- cows, and lambs, all of whom seemed to be beckoning for me to open zee gate. We ate fruit directly from the trees, and it was marvelous. Organic at its finest. It was beautiful, but also mighty quiet. (Said town has about 100 inhabitants, max. It's so isolated that the boulanger comes by car to sell bread to the town.)

After chilling with his family on Saturday and then staying at his sister's on Sunday for food (and so much wine! agh!), we headed home. Got in about 6:30pm, promenaded with my friend who lives in the same quartier, then had some delicious pumpkin-carroty soup made with a fresh pumpkin we had stolen from Ghislain's sister's house earlier that day.

MONDAY:

Mildly freaked out because my friend said classes WERE starting today (monday) at Paris 7, contrary to what a random woman in the Sociology Dept. said. So after a short-lived hour or two of concern, I figured out my stuff. (No class at Paris 7 until next week.) I went to Reid Hall, hung out with some friends, got some déjeuner (lunch), then sat in on a class I'm considering switching in to (namely L'idée du monstre, The idea of the monster). As an AR-person, I think analyzing animality and human fear of animality could be quite an engaging endeavor.

Speaking of AR, activism-withdrawal is seriously kicking me in the balls. I'm trying super hard to connect with orgs, but no one responds to my emails, and i've emailed dozens. Agh! Cracktivism.... Must have... orgs! (Oh well, i'll make my own activism.)

Another Highlight: More vegan cake is made! This time, slightly too dry because Ghislain didn't use soy milk or even anything to remplace les oeufs (eggs) -- you don't need it to actually cook it, but sometimes it helps create a nice texture if you add banana or apple sauce or tapioca or flax seed or the official egg-replacer (which i have yet to try). We threw some soy yoghurt on there and we were happy campers.

TUESDAY:

9h00-12h30 Orientation at Paris 7. Lots and lots of french. Met nice french folks. Got free crap, including a smoothie. (Random, I know.)

14h00-17h00 Run around quartier latin, finally cave in response to apparent caffeine addiction for a café ... in a café, of course. Watch people gorge themselves on shopping.

17h45-19h45 Globalization of sub-Saharan Africa Class. Prof gives us a paper and asks us to label all the African countries. Shame is felt.

19h45-20h00 People look at their watches a lot - class is supposed to be out, but this dude is pretty bavarde (chatty)

20h25 Ghislain calls me and asks where I am...

20h26 I entre dans la maison

20h30 Orgasmic food is consumed, including Samosas and Samir's famous Ramadan Moroccan soup. Oh and leftover vegan cake. I feel like I am going to vomit from all the deliciousness.

21h00 Samir has to leave for work because he got screwed over this week.

21h30 See Yes Men! for the first time, on French TV. Ghislain thinks they are genius. I tell him how we wanted to bring them to Vassar, and he is impressed. I also now remember Gene Baur raving about these dudes.

22h30 Watch TV show on the politique of La Gauche (the Left) in Germany and France.

23h00 Conversation with Ghislain about the mediocrity/shittiness of capitalism, but the difficulty in determining the most effective replacement on a large-scale.

C'est tout!

Oh here's a link on veg budgeting:

http://hungryhungryveganos.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/vegan-on-the-cheap/

Random Schtuffs

Today I woke up still feeling crappy (un peu enrhumé, one could say). I woke up, had my petit déjeuner with Ghislain (because Samir leaves early). Then the Nounou came in, and I left the room so he could properly explain to her that she was being ridiculous. (She no longer wants to take care of the other baby because she cries too much. What are babysitters for ? Just wondering. If it's not taking care of crying babies, I'm not sure what I've been doing...)

After that, I left at about 9:45 to catch my 10:30 emergency filling appointment, thinking that'd be MORE than enough time. But no. I walked in at 10:33 after rushing my ass off. Turns out it was literally on the OTHER side of Paris, namely the 8ème Arrondissement. When I got off the metro stop, i literally walked out onto the Arc du Triomphe, looking onto the Champs Élysées. (Life is tough!) The dentist was sketch as hell, but fortunately he spoke english very well. He only took cash (hence the sketch), but whatever. I no longer have a huge hole on the side of my face where a filling once was.

I had good intentions of meeting up with everyone, because today was their day to go into the 8ème Arrondissement luckily enough, but then I started feeling crappy and fevery and just wanted to go home. I went to Monoprix and bought myself some lunch (supermarkets = cheaper than cafés. By far!) and then I treated myself to a cadeau that I've been meaning to get for a while, namely an AR book in French. THe only one that can be found without being specially ordered was naturally Animal Liberation (La libération animale) by Peter Singer, which I have already begun to read.

I got home, fixed up my resumé to send off to AR orgs in France -- even though i'm not going to be officially hired anyway -- and tried to figure out more of my class stuff. (Honestly I'm LIVID with this program right now. So much stress and strain, and they don't help at all. In fact, the director has just been sending bitchy emails to me like i'm a 4 year old. And well, honestly, that's no fun.

I napped and chatted with some loverly folks online. I hid out in my room while Ghislain & Samir interviewed the new Nounou (babysitter). I don't think they cared for her too much, so they'll just still with the old one right now. Samir ultimately pulled me out from my room :) and we all had dinner (TONIGHT: delicious eggplant, peppers, rice with some salad and pain, of course. The french don't know how to live w/o pain.) Some yaourt de soja and some chocolat noir for dessert.

After dessert, Ghislain corrected my french exercise -- it was really funny. He like counted them all up and everything, and then gave it back to me like it was a graded assignment haha. Then we all played Baccalauriat (which is apparently like... Here's a letter. Now think of a fruit, a veggie, a city, country, profession, and object that begins with that letter). I played in French and Ghislain in english. Samir was in charge of the letters/falling asleep. I sucked, needless to say, and Ghislain invented a few words.

Tomorrow is the big day that we're off to the campagne to visit Ghislain's mother, so, pas d'Internet pour moi! Oh well. Soon enough. Anyway, I'm going to upload some images I thought were cool, leave me some feedbacks if you is being wanting to.

Permitted, but [only if] kept on a Leash...

FML I hate my french

Apparently my french sucks. A lot. I feel like it's not getting better unfortunately, because i become more and more aware of how awesome everyone else's french is -- everyone else being... well... The French. Hah.

I spent all morning trying to figure out my classes -- only to discover that the course lists hadn't even been made up yet. It's stressful because its all do-it-yourself and the actual study abroad program does virtually nothing to help you. No wait, scratch that. Completely nothing.

Ce soir is the réunion de cinéma at Reid Hall, so we're going to be watching a film of some sort, and i'll be missing the wondrous cooking skills of my pères d'accueil (host fathers). That's all for now. More later.

But I'm trying not to be American!

Seriously. These guys kick fucking ass.

For all my loyal followers of this post... I am sorry.

Dinner:

- Pizza bites (homemade, naturally) w/ mushrooms, spinach, capers and tomato sauce for me

- Salade aux noix et aux pommes (Salad w/ nuts & apples) w/ a nice homemade vinaigrette.

- Delicious Moroccan soup of noodles, lentils, tomatoes and a variety of veggies.

- hummus of champions (yes, champions.)

- i had no room left for the leftover orgasm chocolate vegan cake. you know the previous dishes were good when there's no more room for gateau végétal au chocolat.

So apparently my french accent sucks a lot, in spite of my french teachers... and I thought I had a pretty decent accent! Anyway, I keep speaking in French in places, and people respond in english -- even if i don't really hesitate in my shitty french. Ugh, my pride.

Ghislain was really nice and said that if I wanted to improve my french i should write like 5-10 sentences about my day each day and they should correct it. I thought that was pretty nice, considering that it's totally not their job.

Mardi à Paris: Lauren is a Lazy-Ass Obnoxious Blogger

Yeah until classes start, i think i'm gonna be an obnoxious blogger. So if you don't like that, don't check my blog. That easy! ;)

Ce matin: More moroccan crêpes... and almond butter! I honestly don't mean for this to be all about food, but delish is the name of the game here. I made myself lunch and was very dissatisfied. (And usually I am never dissapointed by cumin, nutritional yeast and broccoli, yet they failed me aujourd'I need to take my cooking skills up a notch here. I was going to surprise them with vegan cookies, but alas, they wrote on my sheet that i shouldn't use the stove when they're not there (fair enough, but but but.... ) All in due time.

Went to Paris VII today to try to figure out classes, ended up being in the wrong arrondissement entirely, showed up late to the meeting for orientation (which ended up being distancing and ridiculous anyway, so i left that early haha). Some of you readers are perhaps proud of my slothfulness. You know who you are.

When I went to the Bio shop, I was very happy to see vegan things (végétal) but it's interesting to note that there are proportionally fewer vegan things in bio/health food stores in France than in the U.S. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that there are very few vegetarians here? Mmm lots of work to be done.

Oh and veal and foie gras is everywhere. Not a stereotype! Some people were handing out foie gras SAMPLES at the winery near Bordeaux. SAMPLES! How can you hand out samples of that much cruelty?? Say what you will about "humane slaughter" but no one can win an argument saying that foie gras is humane. I will fight you to the death on that one.

ANYWAY.

Ghislain & Samir also invited me to join them this weekend to see Ghislain's mom in Lorraine. All weekend! I hope this means they like me because they are hella awesome. Also I'm missing out on the Musée d'Immigration because of them, soooo we better have some fun :)

Damn I am tired. No idea why. I spent most of the day either on the metro or in the park attempting to get WiFi. Oh and my cellphone is now broken - dunno why - so if any of you who have my france # are having trouble reaching me... Tant pis pour vous (Too bad for you) ;) Reach me via Skype.

I'm gonna go sleep now. Or buy some yarn with which to knit. (tricoter for you french-savvy folk)

P.S. That picture is the view from my window in the good ol' 12ème Arrondissement.

Premier Lundi à Paris: VWPP &

This morning Samir made Moroccan crêpes with jam. they were delish and the texture was fab. Also some pretty delicious almond biscottis that Ghislaim made yesterday. However, i'm still coming to terms with the fact that the French eat VERY LITTLE for le petit déjeuner (breakfast) and a LOAD for le dîner. After watching both of the dudes head out for work, one left in a suit. Schmancy-pants! Pfft and the homophobic woman at the VWPP said they were "unintellectual." Unintellectual my ass!

Today was the first day at Reid Hall -- we had some mediocre orientation (basically, don't dress like a prostitute on the metro after midnight and look at a map) after which we had lunch (they refused to provide me with a simply sandwich au crudités, crudités being the vegetables, so i went to the supermarché quite close to the school. And then I discovered a bio restaurant right there with loads of veg options! Unfortunately it was pretty pricey for my budget, so I turned down the deliciousness for a pretty tasty pre-made salad for a euro and a half.

After lugging home a huge ass package of luna bars (Thanks, Mom) and falling down a flight of stairs, I headed back off to the metro, where we took a nice boat ride on the Seine. On the subway, however, I ran into a pretty radical dude who was singing political songs and criticizing Sarkozy for being too rightist, and even singing against environmental destruction. It was honestly really awesome to hear, though most people shuddered, laughed, etc, and thought he was going to rape and/or rob them. I gave him a piece of money and he started talking to me WAY too fast, unfortunately for me, but I think he said something like "things are gonna change" and "you should sing too." That was nice to see. Maybe he said I should go fuck myself. The world may never know.

Now I'm back at my humble abode in the 12ième Arrondissement, about to go play with the bébé and see what's cooking for dinn-dinn. I hear the stovetop a-crackling. And the smell! Hopefully delicious things are a-happening over yonder...

Lauren in Paris!

Alrighty, so I know that I haven't been keeping up with this blog at all - thanks to the mediocre/non-existing internet at my host family's house in Bordeaux. Now i'm in Paris (*said with a French accent* Pah-reeeee) and just getting to know my host family.

My host family is a gay couple (Ghislain & Samir) with a pétit bébé that's 9 months old, and one of the two guys in a végétarien. It's pretty awesome. I shall take a picture of all 4 of us sometime soon. But not only is he a végétarian for health reasons, he totally gets the animal rights angle -- Apparently a Peta / KFC video pushed him over the edge! That and Babe. These guys love to take walks (which is good, because i've been eating a lot of pain (bread)), so we had a little promenade through this awesome parc really close to the apartment in the 12 Arrondissement. We saw THREE magasins bio (health food/organic food stores), yet somehow vegetarianism is only 1% of the population here (yes, vegetarianism! not even veganism, which is 'végétalien'). Saturday after I got here, I went for a long walk with Ghislain and the bébé Nathaniel and talked about the importance of animals and how people who abandon their animals are stupid. And then we talked about BABE the movie. It was a pretty great day.

These guys are super chill and since they have a baby they aren't really ridiculous about the strict long-dinner habit here, that is to say you can get up after an hour of dinner for a moment if need be (In Bordeaux it's a *minimum* of one hour for dinner. Usually more. Try that with broken french. Fun times.)

But the guys are great and yesterday they said that we should figure out a way to extend my plan so that I can eat more meals with them (the program says 3 meals/week, plus breakfast). But this is awesome news for me because this guys cook delicious things! Some of the things I've eaten:

- lots and lots of dates

- vegan almond biscottis

- carrottes Moroccains (carottes with a variety of spices, particularly cumin, with lemon zest!)

- Quinoa!!

- authentic Moroccan Couscous

- Homemade gazpacho

- vegan chocolate cake

- homemade bread

- homemade hummus (apparently not hard to make! lots cheaper, too.)

- plus lots and lots of other delicious carby things. (The french love their bready carbs!)

And yesterday I went to the Louvre! I'll have to upload a few pictures soon, but Paris is great thus far. Lovely weather and no tourists in my neighborhood!!

OK that's it for now, i'm off to Reid Hall for an orientation. And then a break and then boating on the Seine. Oh life is tough...