the lighting at the end of the show... woah... lighting designers out there gotts love this...
You

i view fo the back of the dress... how cute.
You

all the models at the end of the show.... how much fun was that?
You

my fave dress of the show... i love the color combo...
You

thee was a lot of looks like this with a trench coat and a cowboy hat and almost cowboy boots... kinda makes me feel at home...
You

more western chic i guess you could call it
You

the begining of the show... these models had a pretty complicated walking pattern (so much for straight lines?) they kept walking around those spheres and i kinda felt bad for them cause they must have felt like gerbals running around in circles...
You

a pic of the press core photographers look how many of them there are... talk about paparazzi!
You

OK, these models obviously have never walked in real cowboy boots before let me tell you!
You

look at all the people who were there! yay for fun fashionable people!
You

the runway... how cool is that?
You

Bethany and I in the standing section waiting for the fashion show to begin...
You

YAY for FASHION

So i went to a FASHION SHOW today... yes a real life paris fashion show... it was amazing! for designer Marithe Francois Girbaud... i will describe it in detail later but for now here are some pics... ttfn!

The mass exodus after the performance ended... I loved this view of the famous double staircase.
You

OK... so this theatre isn't really designed very well (which i don't understand... why are the hallways so large and magnificent but the actual auditorium is so small that you end up with seats that cannot even see the stage?wtf?) but I do have to say that the actual theatre is so manificently decorated in rococo/boroque style that i honestly looked more at the decor than the stage... well it was really a question of what i could see more of actually but you know...
You

another pic of the ceiling... one of the highlights of my day!
You

Yeah... this was my view at Don Giovanni at Opera Garnier...This is what happens when you get tickets at the last minute for closing night! i could maybe see 1/4 of the stage... so i kinda saw the show in theory, but I didn't really see all of the show... but I got a really good view of those tables and chairs on the stage left and i had an excellent view of the orchestra pit and the very animated timpani player. lol at least i had alerady seen the show before and it was all modern dress... so it wasn't like i was missing amazing costumes... but i loved the set which i snuck down during curtain call and saw it ... it was very modern and sleek and stylish...
You

The Amazing Chagall celing at the Opera Garnier... I could stare at it for hours...
You

I loved this Matisse near the end of the exhibit... especially this part of it.
You

I saw this Kandinsky and was in such awe... i love Kandinsky's work its so inspirational and his theories on color are amazing...
You

having fun in the mirror room at the Centre Pompidou
You

At Premiere Vision... those are all indiviual cubical showrooms for the companies to display and sell their fabrics to buyers... they actually didn't let us students into these cubicles because we aren't buying if you know what i mean...
You

such a fun place... at Premiere Vision spring/summer 2007
You

Pre Paris Fashion Week Fun

So, Paris Fashion Week is next week (or maybe the week after? don't quote me on that... but its darn soon ok...) and so i went to two things this week that were super exciting!! Last night I went to a presentation for this design trend forcasting company... it was actually more of a gallery display. It was all very high concept and well presented. I enjoyed the experience. It wasn’t just about fashion it was about design in general for all products for the 2007-2008 season… that’s two years from now… which it is kinda weird to think that they think so far ahead… that’s like me thinking about what I am going to eat for dinner two years from now. But I guess some people are born planners…

I thought some parts of it were extremely pretentious… but they played some really really awesome performance art pieces by the artist William Cobbing that I was totally in love with. It was a short film piece that was of these two people who had big chunks of clay for their heads and they were attached at the face where they were supposed to be “kissing” (hence the title of the piece was the Kiss). But throughout the make out session the people’s hands would take little pieces of the other person’s head and put it on their head and slowly they got closer together and became more and more like one piece of clay. It was really a beautiful poetic statement about relationships and love and I really liked it. And they also played some more of his short film/performance art that I really loved. In another, called “Demolition” a man had a head made of a solid concrete block… I kid u not… and he was attached to a wall that was built connecting to a building and his hands and body were free and just his head was attached… it was very surreal… so throughout the piece he had a pick and hammer and was breaking away pieces of the wall that attached him to the wall. It was like he was breaking free of all his roots and I loved the image of him bringing down the wall. It was my fave part of the night.

Then we also saw this film/slideshow presentation that was really interesting as well… where they would show images from mostly sculpture and then they would show fabric designs and color inspired by the sculpture and it was very very interesting to see how they interpreted it into fabric. It really shows how art and the lines that are incorporated into popular art are replicated into fashion… which I found inspirational actually.

Then today, we went on a field trip to something called Premiere Vision. It is the premier show in the world for fabric trends. All the fabric companies brought their latest and greatest fabrics to this show and it was amazing to see what is on the edge of textile design… like antibacterial fabric, and anti-uv fabric that protects you from harmful uv rays or even climatic fabric that controls the temperature of the fibre in order to protect the body form exterior climatic conditions. Dude, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. For true.

The best part was that in each section (the show was divided up into sections by types of fabric IE: casual wear, suitings, my fave was “fancy seduction”) they have exhibits set up to show the latest trends in each area. What was so cool about it was that they had each trend exhibit was set in these elaborate settings that were more like art installations or scenic designs!! It totally took me back to Jeff Thompson’s lectures in class about working for conferences designing displays… it really was almost like theatre except it was in of course a completely different context. I loved the imaginative sets and I wasn’t allowed to take pics but I snuck a few of my favorite one… don’t tell.

So I saw A TON of amazingly beautiful fabrics!! And I got to touch all of them (yay for being a tactile person…) I think it also helped me with my fabric identification skills and I saw all kinds of newly developed textiles which was cool and I thought it was a really cool once in a lifetime experience. I also bought a really interesting book called the “Cultural History of Fabric” (how fun is that? OK, you know you are a nerd when…)

So then after walking all around this GIANT (did I mention it was insanely large?) fabric trend show I met up with Bethany and Chantal and we did some thrift store shopping… ok so that rumor about Paris not having good second hand stores his totally false… you just have to look and since they are kinda small you also have to push a lot… second hand shopping is not for the faint of heart… or the claustrophobic. Bethany and I are talking about going to the Opera this weekend!! YAY FOR OPERA! I’ll let you know what we see and how it is… and the great thing about opera is that its never in English so I don’t have to worry about not being able to understand French!! YES! and tommorrow my goal is go explore the Centre Pompidou... more to come.

TTFN mate. I am “le tired”… I am going to go take a nap? (and then fire ze missles!)

one of the cool trend areas where i probably wasn't allowed to take pics but oh well!
You

cute little garden areas at Premiere Vision.
You

Look at how freaking huge this place was!! and i walked all of it thank you very much!
You

one of the sculptures at trend union
You

yeah that's a bunny with guns...
You

untitled one

I am feeling a little reminiscent today... this is for everyone at home:

"I don't know your face no more
Or feel your touch that I adore
I don't know your face no more
It's just a place, I'm looking for

We might as well be strangers in another town
We might as well be living in a different world
We might as well...

I don't know your thoughts these days
We're strangers in an empty space
I don't understand your heart
It's easier, to be apart

We might as well be strangers in another town
We might as well be living in another town
We might as well...
We might as well be strangers! Be strangers

For all I know of you now..... " - Keane

"I noticed tonight that the world has been turning
While I've been stood here, dithering around
Though I know I said I'd wait around 'til u need me
I have to go, I hate to let you down

But I can't stop now
I've got troubles of my own
'cause im short on time
Im lonely and I'm
Too tired to talk

I noticed tonight that the world has been turning
While I've been stuck here, withering away
Though I know I said I wouldn't leave you behind
But i have to go, it breaks my heart to say

That I can't stop now
I've got troubles of my own
'cause im short on time
Im lonely and I'm
Too tired to talk

Back home
I've got troubles of my own
And I can't slow down
For no one in town
And i cant stop now...

The motion keeps my heart from you." - Keane

OK, So I have been listening to a lot of Keane lately. I am sooo in love with their music... www.keanemusic.com

Every cloud really does have a silver lining... here is a pic of a rainbow i saw today on my way home from class...
You

YAY for Internet!

YAY!!!!!!! I HAVE BEEN CONNECTED TO THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY! I had to post in celebration! yay! I have the internet... I have the internet! yay for fun!

after two weeks being completely dissconnected from the world, we have been reunited. I love technology...

Everything (and nothing) happened...

OMG... Today they asked us if we wanted to dress for the upcoming Elie Saab Pret a Porter fashion show! i can't believe it I am going to have such an exciting experience in haute couture fashion as seeing up close backstage... the show is on March 5th... two days after my Bday! what an awesome presant! yay for Elie Saab... who tunrs out to be a very cool designer. not one i had really followed before but i was looking at his designs on the internet and i really like his work. very subtle use of color, beautiful detail and beautiful simple lines... i am so excitied!

So, in honor of the spirit of Parisians (who seem to have such a love and hate relationship with their city) I have compiled a list of things i love about Paris and things I hate:

LOVE:

The Musee D'Orsay (i think post impressionism in my new fave art movement),
French food(specifically confiture or jam, fab french cheese, the yogurts are amazingly smooth, amazing breads, the fresh fruits... i love to eat here its my new fave hobby...lol)
the Metro (so fast and convienient, i have to say I love it better than the bus cause the busses kind of make me car sick...),
European Dancers and their "unique" dance skills at the clubs here,
Boots (EVERYONE wears boots... I think they are so classic.)
Scarves So colorful and warm and gosh darn fun to wear.

HATE (ok just dislike i guess):

Rain and cloudy gloomy days (like mondays always get me down...)
The Cold... I guess this goes along with the first thing on my list but yeah its been pretty darn cold here (God Arizona sure spoils you to death with beautiful weather all the time!) and i have been wearing my long underwear all the time... yeah and i am not afraid to admit it... I wear Long Underwear like a loserface... he he he I have the last laugh because i am not cold all the time. Yes!
People who don't clean up after their dogs (ewww!I swear is it that difficult?)
A decent shower (i have this weird handle shower head thing and a bath just doesn't always cut it, luckily Europeans just kinda smell in generale... so i don't feel any pressure to be clean all the time... lol)
The Language Barrier (I am still feeling really "deer in the headlights" most of the time but i am trying really hard!)

I don't know but there is something just so fundamental about communicating that I always took for granted. I feel like there is this moment where i am reduced to a grunting and gesticulating idiot that takes me back to the day when language must have been created. I feel horribly inarticulate a lot... but i also find that french is a very restrictive language... there is only one way to say things right where as in english you can say something like 5 different ways and they are all correct. and french is all so formal and proper and fast! i am just at a point where i am still uncomfortable with it but I really love my french teacher Nolywen. She also works as an actress, at times i feel like she is more performing than teaching and this is helping me learn more I think. I like her class becuase it is just so darn entertaining... As Bethany would say... Life is just this exciting!

Vive La Francais!?!?!?

the Photo Incident

So, you know how i have been saying how cool people dress and how much i want to take pictures of ppl in the subways and stuff, but i am trying to be all stealth about it...

Ok so while at this club I see this dude standing near by with an Awesome tshirt on... it said "Les Straight Edge, Je Ne Comprend." which means in French "Straight Edge I just don't get it..." and i loved it so much I wanted to take a picture of it, cause hell why not? (I might have had a few pints of beer at this point...)

So I get out my Camera and try to be subtle about the fact that I am taking a pic of this dude (none of which actually turned out... what a bummer, it was such a funny shirt) but anyway so apparently I wasn't being very subtle cause this chic who was talking with the dude with the shirt came over to me and sadi something really really mean sounding to me in French... Something about trying to take photos of my friends...

SO MUCH FOR BEING STEALTH!

So yeah I tried to pull the whole "Je ne comprends" "Je ne parle Francais" and she was not buying it and then something weird happened she like pulled me over to her group of friends and started posing... i was ok... I was just trying to get a pic of the Band and of the Dancefloor... but she kept posing and like waiting for me to take their picture...?? i don;t know

So then I walk over the the crowd and take a pic of the band and then walk back to my group of friends and ignored the other girl...

So yeah, I think that this might be the end of my secret picture taking carear... he he hee... Maybe not... Oh well.

a pic of the band and the crazy dancefloor full of bad european dancers that i took as a diversion and a way to try to avoid the situation...
You

yeah... random drunk girls... why? i don't know?
You

another pic at this club of the dude with the shirt... so sad you can;t read his shirt!!
You

this pic didn't turn out... so sad!
You

Dans la Ville de Paris at nuit

Yay for fun... and goodtimes....

Last night was another night on the town in Paris! I went out with my new friend Sarah, hippie extrodinare, who goes to my school here in Paris (but is in the fine arts concentration (they call it Beux Arts, I like the name), and the night started out at the Musee D'Orsay. There was a free student night and se we walked around there for a while and it is such an amazing place, I am totally in love with it. I could seriously live there, ( I think that the French might have a problem with that but i think that something could be arranged...) and last night I saw the area devoted to the Paris Opera House for the first time. Complete with a minature model of the house and a complete set model of their production of 'La Traviata' which was extremely elaborate! Yes! I love it! i have to go visit it and take a tour...

Then after that we went with Sarah to meet her friends at a club for a free concert... yeah that was all the info that Sarah knew (and well an address of course) so we went to this address and it turns out to be a kind of punk rock club called Le Club. and so we go in and the dude asked us if we had an invitation, which we don't and Sarah says that we don't but they let us in anyway and this place is packed with punk rock/goth kids wearing so many spikes that one kid walked past me and snagged my sweater... I kid u not! if there weren't so many people sardined into one room i would have taken pics but it was totally impossible!

So the music wasn't really punk at all though, apparently it was a CD release party for this band called the Dresden Dolls... I actually liked the music I will have to download it (if I ever get internet of my own...) and so the band played like one song and then everyone left, and i am talking Mass Exodus. Luckily, Sarah found her friends who turned out to be super super nice and so we left the punk club and went to a what i would call a truly European club... LOL!

ok first the band consisted of a 'lead singer' who was consistantly SCREAMING into the mic and there was a dude playing trumpet and maybe a few other people playing guitar or drums... ok the music was BIZARRE, i would doubt it could really be CALLED music persay becuase it wasn't even harmonic! Think nails on a chalkboard. OK a band like this would definatly not hack it in the US... but it was funny... i laughed and the club itself was really really colorful with cool lighting and cool art on the walls... so that made us for it not to mention the mosh pit/dancefloor full of really awful european dancers that always provides hours of entertainment... how ppl were dancing to this awful music i do not know!

The people who we went to the club with (Sarah's friends) were really fun and laidback people. We ended up just drinking giant steins of beer standing around in this club talking and it was really nice. I was talking to this guy named Fabio (i am for true), from Italy, who was very interested in America and was in fact wearing a shirt that said Cleveland on it (little does he know that cleveland is in Ohio...? and OHIO = not cool) and i was telling him all about Texas and i showed him the Texas hand thing i learned at like age 4 (OK take your right hand and make a fist then hold out your index finger and thumb out to make an L and if you look at it... it is definatly the shape of the state of texas... doncha know! lol i know i am a nerd...) and he was very amused... and he was very interested in studying in the United States so i was talking to him about colleges and cities and stuff in the US. Then later I was talking to this Finnish dude (What is he finished with?? No Marta, he is FROM FINLAND... BTW people from Finland are called Finnish apprently some people has never heard this) but yeah this guy was really nice and we got to talking about Politics and we ended up having a really interesting conversation about the war and stuff... he asked me point blank what i thought about US Foreign Policy... that's kind of a loaded question. but it was really interesting to hear the European point of view on world issues, the EU and the war. I really wish i remembered his name... I am so bad with names... but yeah it was a pretty fun night all around minus the weirdass music... except for the following incident: the following pictures describe the situation...

here is a pic of the exterior of the shop... look how TINY it is for god's sake! I feel like it is the size of my apartment. But it is literally right across the street from Notre Dame Cathederal... incase anyone was interested in finding it for yourself... I know u are!
You

Ok, so its not just the sheer number of books in this store but its also the quality of reading material here just look at some of those titles... i am excitied!
You

Woah look at all those books!! inside Shakespeare and Co. the best bookstore ever!!
You

Another Rainy Day in Paradise?

And it was raining again in Paris today... I am pretty sure that rain has to happen and all but does it have to rain everyday?? Grrrrr... this is definatly not Arizona. *sigh*

So we had another run in with my fave waiter today... you know the one who called me fat and refused to bring me creme brulee... yeah so, Marta has a crush on him and everytime we walk by the cafe he waves to us from behind the bar. So Marta decides that we need to go back cause she wants to see him again... (oh the young... read about her obession on her blog http://whenaway.blogspot.com) and so after class we walk to the student cafeteria for dinner, and on the way to our fab cheap meal we pass by Le Royal (which is the name of the cafe where this dude works) and we could have walked on the other side of the street but that would have been extra steps and it has been a long day... so as we walk past and this dude is like two foot away from the window of course he sees us and waves to us and gestures for us to come in... and at this point I am pretty hungary and just want to go to eat my food and go home. But no... MARTA says that she wants to go inside and asks me to just have one glass of wine with her before we go to the cafeteria. So we go into the restaurant and the guy doesn't speak english well and we don't speak french well (yeah i had to do all the talking cause Marta just sat there and batted her eyelashes and so i had to attempt to converse and I am not even interested in the guy!)

This whole situation just makes me feel like the Language barrier is about four foot tall all around us like an invisable boundary that I keep trying to jump over, and instead i end up jumping and hitting it straight on and its just kinda counterproductive. But anyway thankfully there is a dude (who looks like he is all kinds of sketchy) who supposedly understands english and he attempts to act as a translator, which PS he doesn't speak good english at all so he really isn't much help to us... but we/I tell this dude that we are studying here in Paris, that we are fashion students and that we are living in the neighborhood. So, he gets the jist of it I think... And all the while we are drinking our vin blanc (or white wine) on an empty stomach, which is always a good idea, and needless to say we pay our bill and leave for the cafeteria a little embarrassed and a little tipsy... and i think we must have been pretty loud at dinner cause i am pretty sure people were staring at us... what? do they have a problem?

So i have found my FAVORITE BOOKSTORE ever here in Paris. It is called Shakespeare and Co. and let me tell you it is Amazing! it is like floor to ceiling books and it is not a big shop by any means, but it is choc full of really interesting books on any subject and really large section of English books (comparitively to other bookstores i have been to here with tiny sections with books in English *sigh*)... So this shop is so small that I literally felt like I had to always keep walking and can never stand still becuase people are always trying to get by you and there isn't enough space for two people to fit in the aisles of bookstore... but other than that I loved it. and there was a ton of books that I wanted to read but I ended up buying a really cool book about the lives and works of women artists throughout history (and why they were ignored...) and a book that was reccomended to me called "French or Foe?" which again is about the cultural differences btwn the US and France. I'll let u know how they are... oh PS I totally took pictures of this place so you all could see how amazing it is! (it kinda feels like the Fortress with all the books and reminds me of home *sniff**sniff* Don't u think it looks like the Fortress? gotta love it.)

Anyway and PS. my body HATES me. I am always soooo tired because I do sooooo much walking all the time and i am totally not used to it at all. So around like four or five pm my little legs poop out on me and I feel like a I need a nap. and this is my body's way of saying 'you bitch... let's go home! I am tired like woah!' and i hate that cause there is soooo much I want to see and i can't cause all i want to do is go home and nap... and then there is the SEVEN FLIGHTS OF STAIRS up to my apartment (and also the elevator which is so conveinent but also big enough for like one and only one person) I can't wait to go to the Musee D'Orsay on a day off and just sit there all day and sketch.

Bethany and I might also go to Venetian Carnivale in Venice next week... hopefully it will work out becuase it would be a once in a lifetime oppertunity to see something like that. Yay for fun!

Ok so I am making an effort to write shorter blogs hopefully it is working... i know my life can't be that interesting... So i am trying to make my blogs short and sweet so no one gets bored. whatevs. ttfn!

Isn't this picture kinda of poetic? I was walking in the Luxembourg Gardins (my Fave) and I saw these roses in the fountain, just kinda floating on the surface... Its makes you wonder how they got there, you know? who threw them in there? why did they throw them in there? unrequieted love? Anger? Passion? Um Yeah, i am DEFINATLY in theatre/the arts... i can't lie.
You

Yay its me in front of the Eiffel Tower! I felt like such a touriste taking this picture but it was fun as long as i don't do it all the time right?! Yay for Paris...
You

Julie, marta, Sari, Christine and I in front of the Eiffel Tower.
You

The Sculpture Garden at the Palais Royal. I don't know the story behind this (if there is one) but i would love to knwo why they chose this... it looks really neat against the classical architecture.
You

here is one of my fave pics of Notre Dame at dusk... I haven't had a chance to go inside yet but I will...
You

Ok, this milkshake does not bring all the boys to the yard... first of all it is definatly Vanilla and not chocolate... and not to mention it is TINY! *sigh* its ok, i was just a little sad about it as you can tell by the sad face...
You

Look at how busy this Mcdonalds is! did I miss something?? I can't get over it. we had to fight for a table! there are three floors... Could they possibly love the McWorld more than we do?? weirdness.
You

ok so i am also in love with this picture as well... so pretty. "Paris at Dusk" taken near Notre Dame over looking the Seine.
You

Julie and Marta drinking their milkshakes at the McDo we went to in Paris... I know I know its so un-French, so sue me!
You

Does anyone recognize this street? I swear it was in Amelie... which was filmed in Monmarte, doncha know!
You

Again in Monmarte... a corner Patisserie. So cute. I loved it. and you can kinda see how hilly it is in Monmarte... oh man my calfs were killing me!
You

This is just a doorway in Monmarte that i fell in love with...
You

As part of our orientation we went to Monmarte, the notoriously artistic northern part of the city and here is a pic of the Sacre Coeur... the Sacred Heart. I love how unusal the architecture is. It looks almost like an Arabian temple or something like it is almost our of place or something. it really stands out.
You

And yes they sell fish with the heads still on them... at the Port Royal Market... Ok, what I thought was kinda interesting about this market was it was way more about how the products were displayed then how much was actually being sold... its really an artform to them i guess. So that's why i took a lot of pics here cause it all looks so darn cool. i know i am such a nerd.
You

Some tasty looking pasteries at the same market... ok i don't know how the french do it... how can they possibly eat so much fattenign pastries all the freaking time?
You

Here are Marta and Julie and I at the Port Royal Market on a rare sunny day.
You

Aren't these flowers Beautiful?? This is one of the flower stalls at the Port Royal street market near my house. This picture makes me happy.
You

When in Rome... (or Paris I guess is more like it.)

So, I realized today that occasionally I totally forget where i am... Like I know that I am in Paris but I kinda think for some reason I am still in the US... becuase well all the stores and cafes play American songs (like gansta rap and i heard Patrick Swayze's She's Like the Wind again... ummm WHY? why did anyone ever let him sing a song? i hate this song and i don't know why anyone would play it for background store music... *vomit*) anyway, but yeah sometimes I feel like i am at home (minus the sunshine) and then I am in a store and I hear a dog barking or i see a car drive by and its a TINY smart car and I then i truely realize that I am in another country... Yeah France truely is another way of life.

and today is Valentine's Day... why do I feel like no one here really celebrates this holiday? But so Marta, Julie and Sari discovered this place called the student dining center... which is a fancy name for a student cafeteria... but i got an entire meal for like 3 Euro which is Freaking Amazing! in a city where everything is over 10 Euro for a meal (which is like 15 US Dollars! and EVERYTHING is expensive dude. Its amazing how high the cost of living is here... so YES I DID GO TO IKEA G, but its cause it the cheapest place around to get stuff for my apartment without spending alot on stuff that I probably won't even be able to take back with me... and besides the French say it 'Eh-Key-Ah' so its totally different than the American 'III-KEY-a'... its all in the pronounciation...)

But anyway we go to this cafeteria and I had a really good mozerella pizza and some salad and even, my fave, chocolate mousse. and the four of us were sitting at this table for six and so other people were coming in and sitting next to us... we were hoping some of the hot students we kept seeing would sit down and talk with us and there were a lot of them... but some older man sat down instead, which was fine. So we were kinda of wondering what we were eating becuase of course nothing was labeled... so it turns out he spoke english and we asked him what kind of veggies we were eating... more like Marta forked one of them and said, "Do you know what THIS is?" and he didn't know what they were called (I think it was leeks? maybe?) but he thought they were disgusting... so i guess no matter where you go cafeteria food sucks... no joke.

So after we finished eating we proceeded to check out the hot guys in the cafeteria... I swear the guy to girl ratio was like 5 guys:1 girl... so that was kinda fun and we were totally laughing and being obnoxious as usual... and then we kinda realized that the guy next to us is awfully close to us and Sari turns to the guy and is like, "Oh, can you understand everything we are saying?" (lol, OK lets just state the obvious...) and he kinda laughed... I don't think he was really paying attention... but he started talking to us and his name was Xavier and he works at an internet company (I wonder if he could have fixed my internet?? Hmmm....) He asked us since it was Valentine's Day if we were looking for boyfriends... which was cute. So anyway, as we get up to leave some dude totally makes little kissy noises at us as we leave... not cute. kinda creepy dude. oh well... it was an interesting meal... decent food for how CHEAP it was... and i thought it was an interesting experience... and we are definatly going back tommorrow... yay for fun (and hot guys! HOT BODIES!)

Yeah, and so somehthign that a ton of people I have met have said to me is, "Oh you are learning French? You should get yourself a French boyfriend!" and they say it just like that... like its the most original thing ever... which is sooo annoying... I mean why would i want to be in a realtionship with a man who is raised in a society that thinks that cheating on your signifcant other on a regular basis is a healthy realtionship...? I don't get it. not interested. thanks anyway... Maybe i am being to idealistic but loyality isn't a new thing... or maybe I am just bitter that I don't have a boyfriend on Valentine's day in the most romantic city in the world. oh well... I am over it.

I say this as i am eating the most expensive haggen daas choclate ice cream ever (8 euros... i kid u not!) and I am missing my BLUE BELL, the best ice cream EVER... *sigh* whatevs it is all worth it. ttfn!

Pictures and stuffy stuff

Hey Y'all... So i finally posted all the pics I have been meaning to post. hope you've enjoyed them... I'm sorry that they are terribly out of order. Hope that they still make sense. TTFN!

Madame Piccot came to talk to us about her work as a draper at Madame Gres's coutor house for 24 years.
You

My infamous chocolate mousse with Bethany (who is eating Creme Brulee) yes they do believe in dessert in France, and they do it very very well.
You

A picture out the window of the train as we realize that we are lost on the METRO going the totally wrong way! Oooops!
You

Marta on the lost RER train from hell
You

Julie and I smile as after we found the right train back to Paris. Yay for English!
You

the same dress on one of the students
You

A close up of the pleating on a Madame Gres orginal dress
You

A Madame Gres original sewn by Mdme Piccot
You

This is me being super cheesy and excitied about being in Paris... ok now i really feel like a tourist.
You

The view of the Val du Grace from my window.
You

Marta being 'the fountain' - n't ask you had to be there i guess.
You

me over looking the city of Paris...
You

Marta lost in thought.
You

A cool pic in a garden near chez moi... those are footprints in the cement and the way the sun was positioned in the sky you can see them really well cause the ground was wet... I thought it looked super cool... like those pictures you see of people's tracks in the sand on a beach. I am a nerd, i know.
You

the view out of my kitchen window.
You

The entry of my cute little French apartment.
You

The Val Du Grace near my apartment home away from home.
You

My friends Marta on the left and Julie on the right at the train station with our huge bags from IKEA that we had to carry home on the Metro! I swear we took ppl out who were in our way! lol
You

all of our IKEA bags... ok it got a little out of hand... what can ya do?
You

In the Jardin du Luxembourg on my first day in Paris *note the sunshine... this was the only day that they sun was shining for like a week after I got there...
You

My bed in my BEAUTIFUL apartment (post our trip to IKEA of course!)
You

Out and About in Paris

Anyway, what else has happened? I was accused of shoplifting in Bon Marche this week. We went there to buy some supplies for knitting (for our textiles class) and when we were leaving my bag set off the alarm and this security dude comes over and looks at me and then at my bag and then asked to see my bag and looked through it. Then he disappeared with it for a few mins and then gave it back to me and let me go. I guess there was a sensor or something that had to be demagnetized or something… kinda weird. But I do not shoplift thank you very much.

Then we started our orientation this week. And yesterday we went sketching at the Louvre for the afternoon (which was totally a lifelong dream of mine!) oh and PS we got a card because we are students that gives us FREE ADMISSION to the museum anytime we want! How freaking cool is that? I love it. Even though I am really also interested to go to the Musee D’Orsay and the Pompidou Center where the more modern art is I am also excited to see all that there is to see in the Louvre… my new home.

Today we went up to Monmarte, where they filmed Amelie, and it was Beautiful up there… We went shopping at the fabric stores there, which are very exciting!! its very hilly but the architecture is very very interesting and old fashioned looking. There is a lot of Art Nouveau touches to the buildings and I took a ton of pictures to post… still no internet connection of my own… next week they tell me… i'll wait untill I see it folks. Anyway, So we are walking back to the Metro station from Monmarte... and this perhaps intoxicated African man followed us down the street at a very close proximity and was screaming at us, "You f*cking white people, you white people are shit. I f*cking hate white people, fuck you, you are shit, F*ck you man, you white pieces of shit. White people are shit..." and was muttering this with very slurred words and certain emphases on the F word. We were a little scared by this understandably and we ducked into a souvenir shop for a few mins until he walked away... but it was weird... what did we do to you man? but what struck me as weird looking at the African men that I see over here is that they dress in exactly the same "Thug Life" attire that they wear in the states... Does that make me a racist? I don't know... but is true! I swear and I am obviously not afraid to say so.

Today, I did it... I broke down and had McDo (what the French the have nicknamed McDonalds) for dinner... **GASP** I know, I know... I DID not go all the way to France to have MCDONALDS!!! (i know, i know i am so ashamed!!! well actually not so much... I really enjoyed it...) I just needed some ::REAL:: food. Enough of this frou frou french bullcrap pretend food. I need real food, you know? I want GREASE and lots of it dude. So Marta, Julie and I went to the McDonalds on the Rue du Rivoli near the Louvre... and it looks like the McDonalds at home but oh yeah it was definatly THREE floors... holy crap... and the weirdest part is that they were all PACKED. Literally we had a hard time finding a table. I was shocked by how busy it was... and then when I ordered my food the line was super long and it took FOREVER to go to the register. OK, I always order a Chocolate Milkshake, Chicken McNuggets and French Fries. So, after I have waited far too long in line... I order (in French mind you, and Je voudrais le Chicken McNuggets is a totally akward statement... weirdness!) and the woman tells me that at this McDo they only have Vanilla and Strawberry milkshakes... *sigh* fine I will take Vanilla. whatever! and then they give me some sort of fake BBQ sauce for my 9 Chicken McNuggets and I take my tray of food upstairs to battle for a table to eat my food at.

Ok, so French McDonalds would just not hack it in the States. I have to say. The milkshake was *tiny* and the nine McNuggets was totally not enough and the fries were good (but it was not enough to make up for the non-chocolate milkshake.) Then the other thing that was weird, besides the amount of ppl in the fast food restaurant, was that I saw this dude eating a hamburger with a knife and fork... Who does that? I guess it is totally impossible for the French to eat informally... I mean is it against his religion to just pick it up with his hands and stuff it in his face? I guess so... So it was actually kind of amazingly nice to have a familiar meal for once. Where I know I am getting exactly what I want (well sort of...) I will go back to eating en francais tomorrow...

Another thing that I have noticed talking to Parisians and other people in our program (most of which have been in Paris for a while now... Some a year some a few months) Is that people either HATE or LOVE Paris. There is no inbetween. Some folks I have talked to say they hate Parisians, they are rude, judgemental and stuck up and that the men in Paris are totally weird and creepy and perverted. Some people i have talked to can't wait to leave Paris becuase they feel like the city is stifiling them and then they hate being judged... and then on the other hand is my friend Marta who says, "People are staring at me and I kinda like the attention..." little do they know they are just giving her an audience which doesn't help. Check out her blog at www.whenaway.blogspot.com.
It's such an interesting dichotomy, that people are so diametrically oppossed on this subject. why is that? I wonder what I will be by the end of this trip? Cause right now i am still kind of in awe of Paris and all its history and beauty and artistic fervor, hopefully at the end of this expereince I will feel the same way. A beintot mon amis...

Ambrosia and WAGG Dancemania

Hey Y'all!

The other day I was hanging out with Bethany and she invited me to go to a pot luck dinner for one of her friends, Tracy, who is leaving Paris (this past week was a holiday for students studying in Paris because their semester and finals just ended.) But anyway, so Bethany and I are trying to think of what to make to bring to the pot luck and the first thing that comes to mind was a salad, and then a fruit salad seemed easy and then I thought about Ambrosia fruit salad, and Bethany agreed that we should definately bring that. We went to the supermarche and bought strawberries, celementines, green grapes, kiwis and believe it or not they had canned pineapple chunks (or ananas in French), coconut yogurt, and marshmallows (or guillome as the French call them) and we took it over the Tracy’s apartment and washed all the fruit and cut it up and then mixed it together and it actually turned pretty good. (Normally I add sour cream sweetened with sugar and coconut flakes and sometimes pecans but I had a hard time finding these things in the Fanprix, that’s the name of the local super market… So I substituted coconut yogurt instead) At first the other guests at the party were a little unsure about it (Fresh fruit with marshmallows??? They asked, “Oui, C’est tres Americanne!” Yes Its very very American!) but they ended up really liking it and proceeded to eat it all up. I just thought it was super funny that the French people at this dinner party loved my grandma’s super southern fruit salad. (Paula Deen would be so proud.) He he hee. Southern food is truly universal I guess, it transcends all language barriers. Oh I wish I was in Dixie…

But the pot luck was a lot of fun. I got to eat some different foods there like I had tuna sushi for the first time and then I tried some Japanese pumpkin casarole, and I had an amazingly light Cabernet Saugvingon that I loved, and I don’t usually like red wine. But anyway I got the chance to meet a lot of people and they were all really nice, some were francophones but they did speak broken English with me and I attempted to speak broken French with them, luckily Bethany was there to help translate. It was really informal and fun.

Then the next night Bethany invited me to go out with her and a few friends to a club. OMG! It was the best! We met up with Bethany and Co. at WAGG in the St. Germain District, we took the last Metro train at like 12:15 to get there and when we finally got to the club we had to wait like 10 mins to get in the door. When we did the bouncers asked us if we were on the list and I am thinking: “oh shit, what list?’ So I remember hearing Bethany and Chantal talk about this dude named Jeune whom invited them to the party so I said “Of course we are. We are friends of Jeune.” And he asked for my name and said my name was Chantal and he was like, “Oh yeah I defiantly saw your name on the list go on in.” LOL. I was using all those skills I learned talking my way into Frat parties over the last few years. But anyway so we go into the club and we look for Bethany and I can’t find her anywhere and so we (yes Julie and Marta the Iowinions came with me, I forgot to mention that they let all three of us in…) and I run into Chantal! (he he hee the Real Chantal)! Who had just gotten there and she introduced me to the infamous Jeune, who I found out later owns a clothing store that sponsored/organized this party. So Jeune takes all four of us (Chantal, Marta Julie and I) up stairs to the VIP room (that had free drinks! Score!) So, we are surrounded by a group of people who are all speaking French and whom are supposedly dressed in clothes from Jeune’s store and who look more like they should be at a punk concert then a European techno club who are all babbling on in a language that the three of us don’t speak. I have never felt so American in my whole life.

Nightclubs, or Discoteques, are sooooo different over here then they are in the US… lol. They are the best! The people there are dressed in the funkiest clothing I have ever seen, with the best combinations of scarfs and ties and skirts and tights and legwarmers and colorful edgy clothing ever. I loved it all and I wanted to take copious amounts of pictures but unfortunately a camera didn’t go with my outfit… then the club was also really nice, small, but it defiantly had a bigger dance floor than Margarita Rocks (but there were a few skeezy looking guys around the edges of the dance floor so it felt a little more like home) and they played a strange mix of German techno, American pop (they definatley played the Donnas, lol) and classic eighties (Video Killed the Radio star and other choice hits that rock my world!) Because I guess the theme of this party was New Wave/1980’s party (which a lot of the people were kind of dressed retro now that I think of it…) and even the people who worked at the club were wearing matching outfits and a lot of cool looking make up a la Kiss front man Gene Simmons. The place was PACKED with people and you had to like push people to get though the crowds and sometimes people were really aggressive!! And I felt like I defiantly got pushed around a lot almost more like I was in a mosh pit or something! (more like an 80’s techno mosh pit if such things exist… I don’t really know…)

But the BEST part of the whole experience was watching the people DANCE. They are freaking HILARIOUS! Omg, I thought white people couldn’t dance but this experience totally proved to it me. Everyone dances totally uninhibited, which is a total change from the US! Where NO one actually dances! Except for the girls and a select few cool guys. But I always felt like people at the clubs in the US are afraid to really dance because they are afraid of what people will think of them I guess and that there is a lot of pressure to be a really good dancer. OK… that Obviously was not a problem here. The people were insanely bad dancers and it was very very entertaining to watch, and after a while you really loose your inhibitions and start dancing like them and its totally more fun that way. Let me tell you. And guys don’t come up to you and want to dance on you or anything, which I hate, (I just want to dance I don’t want some strange dude touching me.) So anyway I loved the experience! And I hope that I get to do it again soon! One of Bethany’s friends Sarah was saying at the end of the night that there aren’t a lot of extravagant parties like this one in Paris… So I was really glad we went! It was defiantly an experience… I just wish I had pictures to show for it. Next Time...

Why do i have issues sharing?

*sigh*

I don't know what I should do... So I have been living in this small apartment for about a week now in Paris and I really love my apartment. ok, it's definatly smaller than my room in Adelphi... but its nice and its in a nice neighborhood and its got a nice view... the people who live next door have a baby and are kinda noisey but they play a piano and sometimes a guitar and i love the music but also there is another huge detail... if I stay in my current apartment I will have to have a roomate... which the apartment is really too small to share an apartment with another person in my opinion.

So I told the housing people at my school that I wanted to live in a one person apartment and so there is another apartment I could move into that is *ahem* alot smaller than the one that I am currently living in. Its farther away from the school and from the train station... BUT if i live there then I can not have a roomate and have the apartment to myself.

The real problem is that i have fallen in love with my current apartment and the neighborhood that it is in and I don't really want to leave it. I'm already settled if you know what I mean. and I have it just the way that i like it... pooper! why do I have such problems sharing space? grr!! sometimes I wish i had grown up with like 10 brothers and sisters so i wasn't such a brat about my space. I just don't know if i want to walk the extra mile, so to speak, just to live in my own room/broomcloset... I am going to have to reassess my priorities about my living situation I guess... are my room and view worth sharing? that is the question.

I think that my living situation in a foriegn country is a big deal. you know what I mean? I don't want it to ruin the experience by having a bad roomate experience and for once i just wanted to live in my own room... i just don;t know which is the lesser of two evils i guess... any thoughts?

Paris avec Bethany

So yesterday I met up with Bethany!!! who rocks my socks! and it was so awesome to catch up with her and hear all about what she is up too. (and i have to say I was extremely impressed with how well she speaks french!) and so we ate at a cafe near her neighborhood and I finally got my Chocolate Mouse!! (I took a pic of it to show y'all cause it was so pretty) anyway, So I also got to meet one of Bethany's good friends here in Paris, Chantal (who is Canadian, and so nice and so interesting to talk with!) and i even meet her French boyfriend (this was news to me!! lol) Jerome and his friend Bruno, and then we all went out for a drink at an adorable little pub that looked like a mix between a library and a restaurant. And I even had an another truely French experience Bruno offered to drive me home in his Smart Car... which is the Smallest car that I have ever seen!! its basically two seats and well... not much else. It was fun, and it was supernice of him to offer to drive me home...he rocks.


But Anyway... Today I totally slept until 3pm... I have no idea why! I just didn't feel like getting up I guess... and I am kinda pissed at myself because today is the first Sunday of the Month which means you can get into any state museum for Free... and I totally woke up too late to go get lost in the Musee D'Orsay like I was Plannign on doing... oh well there's always next month... whatevs and now its only like 8:30 and i know i should be going to bed soon but no i am totally not tired. damn. my circadian rythms are totally off becuase i am still getting used to the freaking time change. I will probably just read until i fall asleep likei have been doing the past few days. I have been reading this interesting book about French culture which is called, "Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong" (Bonus Points to anyone who can name the musical that also has this song by this title in it... anyone??) and its really interesting becuase it talks about the French and the differences between our culture and theirs and why they do things the way they do. I really like that it explains why, cause out of the stack of books that I've read about the French in the past month or so not a lot explain the reason why the French are the way they are. And it also goes into detail about the French school system, the government, recent history and the political atompshere of France. It's totally fascenating - PS.

So I have decided that I need to sit and take pictures of the random people I see on the street in France and post them on here (again whenever my internet connection is fixed... ) because I have seen a lot of people on the street here with AMAZING style. Who wear different combinations of clothing that are totally unconventional and exciting! hopefully you will be as excited about them as I am. I freaking love people and meeting new people is so exciting.

Speaking of which... Our number has risen to four here for my program! yay! I have another new friend! Her name is Sarae, from Wisconson and she is Marta and Julie's third roomate. We are all going to IKEA tommorrow with one of our professors Anne to buy some things for our apartments, just to make it feel a little but more like home. Apparently the IKEA is in the suburbs of Paris so getting there promises to be another exciting adventure. (did I mention Bethany and I took the wrong train line and almost got lost again yesterday?? oh the RER is so confusing! why does it have to be so complex?? but i could say that about so many things in France I think... anyway) I hope all is well with you friends in the States. I miss y'all so much! I hope you all are having fun and i think of you often!

Bisou Bisou!
(that's what the French do when they say hi and goodbye its the double air kiss thing that we always joke of as being French... but they totally do it ALL the time! for serious. I have to get used to it. I am so used to hugging so its weird for me... I guess I just the miss human contact. oh well... its just different.)

Miss Adventures Part One

OK so today was my third day in Paris... and I still don't have the internet.... AHHH!

(sorry I am having withdrawls)

But I do have a fabulous apartment on the 7th floor of an apartment (and wow let me tell you that is a long way up... lucklily there is also an elevator... yay for modern conviencenes) in an apartment building exactly one min from my new school. I might be sharing it with someone else, but i feel like i am on a 'need to know' basis and i will find out I guess as more syudents in my program arrive. i was the only person here for my program when I arrived on wednesday morning! my apt wasn't even ready yet! So I am settling in well and i LOVE my apartment. (I can't lie i don't really want to share it, i hope that i don't get a roomate.) Its really cute and its pretty small (pictures coming soon pending internet connection... hmmmm) and its on the seventh floor (out of 8 floors) and i have a beautiful view of the Val Du Grace which is in between me and the school. The people who live next door also play the piano which I love because it fills the void of silence because there is no TV... i feel so disconnected... in so many ways!

But other than all that... I had quite a french-filled day today. It started out EARLY this mornign with me trying to figure out if the 24 hour clock starts over at 24 do you loose 2 hours? so instead of waking up at 5 was i really waking up at 7?? this was very confusing... So to find out i called the American Embassy and asked the woman who answered the phone what time it was in Paris and it turns out that the 24 hour clock sucks and i don't think i understand what happened to two hours of my day... where did they go?

Then I went to my first offical lecture today at the Paris American Academy. We (as in the three of us who are here for the program because orientation dosen't start until the 10th... and there are two more people who got here yesterday, Marta and Julie, from IOWA, who are super nice and have the best accents... ) heard a women who worked as head draper for Madame Gres in the 1980's and early 90's who told us (in French) in depth the Madame Gres method of pleating and making dresses which was very very interesting! and she was very nice and told us a lot of stories about the infamous Madame Gres and her fashion house in Paris. WOW (i also have pics but cannot post until alass I get internet connection)

Then I the merry three of (Julie, Marta and I) went on a little adventure I like to call the Paris Metro. Now I know my way around the Metro pretty well and so i lead the way down the metro. We decided to go shopping to buy Julie a coat... because it was COLD and there were snow flurries!! and so we went to Haussman Blvd where all the large dept stores are in Paris like Galleries Layfaette and Au Printemps and H&M! (oh salvation...) so there was copious hours of shopping, which was fun...

And after a long day of shopping we decended back down the stairwell to the Metro... and we get on the train that was going to back to home and so we are on this train for a while before we realize that we are going out of the city... in the suburbs!! and we were frightened... so the train isn't stopping at any of the stations and we can;t get off. omg where are we going right? and you get this overwhelming feeling of dread... help! help! help! so the train finally stops at the end of the line and we have to get off the train and we have no idea of where the heck we are. and there is all these numbers for the trains but none of them say where the trains are going (how unhelpful is that?) and so we are walking aimlessly around le gare and we encounter a bunch of people whom all don't speak english...

except for the following conversation:

ME: Excuse et moi madame, Parle vous Anglais?

RANDOMASS WOMAN: What?

ME: Parles vous Anglais? Do you speak English?

RANDOMASS WOMAN: Oh, no.

and she walked away.... So this woman doesn't speak English? 'What' is in the English language right?? *sigh* Lesson ONE: the French don't like to speak English... But we finally asked this well dressed young woman where the train going to Paris was and she out of the goodness of her heart took us to the platform. and we got back on the train going in the right direction this time... and we finally got back to the station we wanted to be at and so we decide that we are pretty darn hungery, ok Starving was more like it, and on the way back to our apartment from the station we look for a cafe to eat at...

So we stop at one Cafe and we go in and the man says that they are still open and he seats us at one table (after we ask to sit somewhere else and he tells us that the table is reserved for someone else) and he brings over the menu and says in VERY broken French that the restuarant was closing in a half an hour (which was only like 8:45... which is VERY EARLY for the French restaurant to close in Paris) and so if we were going to eat we would have to eat quickly... which kind of hinted to us to leave... so we did... but if the restaurant was closing in half an hour then how was the table we wanted to sit at reserved?? I think someone is lying... what a jerk.

So then we go to the next cafe down the road... and this very nice seeming man sat us and gave us le menu and we are having some trouble decoding it (with the help of a dictionary) and so he is very helpful to Marta and points out in the dictionary what things mean and he kind of ignores Julie and me until after Marta has ordered, and you could kind of tell he was annoyed with us because we didn't speak French well enough for him. So then we get our food and it is actually good food... but the portions are a little small (comparitivley to the US) and so we are sitll hungery for dessert... and when the waiter comes for the plates we tell him that we want desert, and i make the mistake of trying to order dessert for all of us. So he looks at us and then with an exasperated look on his face looks at the plates and says I quote:

"You eat all this and then want dessert too??"

So I get annoyed now at being called FAT and I say that we would like three desserts quite enfatically. Julie wanted the Chocolate Mousse, Marta wanted the Crepe Nutella and I wanted the Creme Brulee. so he comes back with the Chocolate Mousee and the Crepe Nutella and no Creme Brulee... I was very annoyed at this point. and then when we were done we literally saw the waiter go into the back and get his coat and walk out the door... so we are sitting there and we are looking at each other for like 15 mins when we decide that we were not getting a bill becuase our friendly waiter had left the building - Elvis style. So we get up and put on our coats and then we pick up our shopping bags to go pay at the front counter since we obviously were not getting a bill and then at that exact moment who walks in with his jacket on but our favorite waiter... with a look on his face like where are you going?? like we were going to freaking walk out without paying our bill. Grrrr! if he had brought us the bill and not LEFT then we wouldn't have had a problem. WTF!!! so we paid our bill and left said Cafe. SO in the future I intend to take my EURO elswhere TYVM. I think the kicker of the whole thing was that he never brought my creme brulee... what a bastard.

("there is no chicken salad on the menu!!!" is brought to mind... oh Sacks lunches with Mollie and Troy.... how i miss you!)

Note to self: Learn how to order in a French ASAP.

Marta and Julie ROCK - PS!!! I have friends! yay for fun!!

**going to bed now wishing I had eaten creme brulee**

What a bastard.