Douche bags, Totally Minnie, et un nouvel ordi

The beloved Ghetto Rig

My comp died...finally. It became the pair of pants you just couldn't stitch up anymore. Poor Ghetto Rig shall rest in peace. Funny thing is it was holding up ok, then it said it needed to be reset to take care of updates. Ok, whatever, I did as much. When it went to restart, it...wouldn't.

I had to take it by Darty (thank god this time I at least knew where to go) and saw if they could do anything. The guy tinkered with it, and said there was nothing he could do. The hard drive finally bit the dust.

Nouvel Ordi

So 235€ later I walk out with the cheapest netbook I could find. It's a nice little machine, though it could use another gig of RAM and the French keyboard has taken some adjusting. It'll suffice though. Debating on getting a desktop for at home, and keeping the netbook for school, since it's a euro keyboard, it'll be a good deal for writing notes in class next year.

This week of break I have completely succeeded at finding the Totally Minnie special I watched religiously as a kid. I think I nearly wore the tape out that my mom had recorded it on when I was 4. It was nice seeing it again. Totally hoaky, totally 80's, but still adorable as hell! It was fun watching it for probably the first time in 20 years. XD Infatuations start young I'm telling you...

But anyway, onto the meat and potatoes of what I have to say.

I've had my fair share of experiences with jerks since getting here. Definitely a huge let down, as I think most American girls have this image in their head about what European guys are, and it's definitely better than your average American guy. And I have to say this: looks wise, your average Euro guy is just...WOW! Always well dressed, well groomed, and usually pretty good looking anyway. And no, they're probably not gay. Some are, but most aren't, so it's totally ok to look and drool while you're on the tram. haha!

Exhibit A:

Ok so I did the creeper thing. Yes, it's Gil Ofarim, BUT I see (well saw...not winter anymore) guys dressed like this ALL the time. He definitely looks the part of an average Euro guy, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that look. Kinda like Katy Perry's Ur So Gay, minus the fact the guy's a dickbag. Ok, maybe not QUITE that, but as the look isn't so common back home, I love seeing it here. Lucky me, Brandon kinda dresses that way anyhow (I think it kind of surprised him actually when I pointed out how his style is au pareil with what I see here).

So now that I am done praising physical appearances, all I have to say now is Euro guys are great, until they try to talk to you. Well, at least French guys. Save for the one drunk German Sibylle and I encountered, Germans are pretty rad. No comments from the peanut gallery on that one, s'il te plaît. I've had more MORONS try to hook up with me, get my phone number, ask me out, and on and on and on and on. Several idiots have tried to pick me up while I waited on the tram, a Georgian (the country, not the state) told me I was "the most beautiful American" he'd ever seen, after walking RIGHT UP next to me when I wasn't paying attention (creepy much?), I've heard twice "Hey you know who this guy is, right?" from guys trying to pick me up for their friends (I hope to God one set was drunk...they easily had 15 - 20 years on me), one guy who was lame enough to sign his name Fran6 (Francis...end of the name in French sounds like the pronunciation for 6) hit on me AND Melinda (oh how that still makes me laugh...gotta give him credit though he had a way with words), I've been ask "Mais, tu as envie de fair l'amour avec un français avant que tu rentres aux USA?" (But don't you want to make love with a French guy before you go back to the US?), I was picked up in the IMMIGRATION OFFICE of all places, been asked if I wanna fuck some guy after hanging out with a friend after a movie (we were both propositioned...in very BAD English might I add) I mean I've heard it ALL. And are they the well - dressed, courteous, good - looking French guys? No of course not. Because, you know, they're all taken, or have other priorities in life besides dating (which good for them, shows they have a good head on their shoulders). I mean not that it'd work anyway because, you know, in June I'm going home to Brandon, but that's beside the point. Point is, it's RIDICULOUS. Definitely not what I expected. I figured French guys would at least have a little more respect for women. I mean...it's France. Land of wine, romance, and culture. Hello, really want to seduce a girl, those are the three things you need. And no, not wine to get her drunk, but to show you're more sophisticated than the cheap beer guzzling rednecks I'm accustomed to trying to say something. Romance and culture go without saying any more.

The last 2 weeks, it's been absolutely insane. We're talking I've almost felt violated and one instance almost went to the Police.

The police one was just...disgusting. There was a moron who bugged me right around Christmas for a few days, but he was just annoying. Eventually I convinced him to shut up and leave me alone. And good to his word, not a peep since then. Well, I get a text a few weeks ago from some random number. I figured they just had a wrong number, bid them good day, think nothing of it. Few days later, I get another random text from the same number asking me if I'm a guy or a girl. I go on the defensive immediately (not to mention EVERYTHING he wrote was in slang...oh my god ANNOYING). I'm asking where they got the number, never actually said straight up I was a woman, but you could tell, and said to leave me alone.

His reply?

Send me a pic of...and I'll leave you alone.

THAT set me off. I swore in as many ways as I could think of in French and English, demanded he left me alone, I didn't want to talk, he needed to go away, I even suggested finding porn on the internet if he was so desperate.

Reply?

My comp is fucked up.

Me: Not my problem. Caisse - toi (fuck off)

THEN it gets even better. He tells me he's a lesbian and that it shouldn't bother me because we're both women so what's the big deal if I send a pic?

Yes, because that makes me want to send something like that...

By this point I'm texting French friends for advice, and if I can take this to the police, and if they consider it harassment. I was that fed up with this crap. And I finally told the loser if he didn't stop I would go to the police, and I would file a complaint since I had all the messages, and his phone number. Come to find out, it's a friend of the idiot from before Christmas. But now i have names and phone numbers so if anything happens again...there's a police station about 5 minutes from me.

So I calm down from that, and a few days later, I walk to Kehl with Melinda and Véronique, and whaddya know, as I'm waiting at Esplanade to meet Melinda and Véro, 2 guys use the "hey you know who he is right? he's a famous football player!" thing. Oh gee...

I won't elaborate, except Melinda and Véro showed up just in the nick of time and saved me from these assheads.

Fast forward to Friday. Oh this gets great.

I walked to the CAF office to wonder what the fuck the hold up is on me getting any assistance (I've been at this since December...partially my fault, but they've been a pain in the ass too). I didn't realize it was Good Friday, and EVERYTHING was closed. Oops, oh well, the office isn't far from me so it's not like I wasted a tram ticket or anything. I walked home, headed into my building, no big.

Half way up to the first floor, some idiot is following me trying to get my attention (I have my headphones in so I heard nothing). I finally noticed him and am looking at him like WTF do you want? His question? Do I have a cigarette? Oh my god, I wanted to smack him. I answer no. Then it's the normal spiel of questions: You live here? (no I just have a key because the administration thought it'd be funny to see if anyone asks that very question so they gave me one to see what would happen) You're a student? (no, I just like to make people THINK I am) What are you doing? Do you have time to chat?

Of course by the time he's asking if I can talk I'm so mad I didn't quite get the question. So I answered with "peut-être" (maybe). Still being standoffish mind you but he took it as a yes. So guess who invites himself to my room.

That pissed me off. So I'm walking to my room very angrily, he's trying to start conversation with me and I'm going oh yeah uh huh sure, and as we get to my room, I barely open the door wide enough to get myself in, and slam it and lock it in dipshit's face.

I swear, I've had some adventures with French men.

Anyway I had more I wanted to say but as this is already long enough. I'll add the other entry another time.