Clear Pavements

You ever notice when its raining how glossy and reflective the tar on the ground gets? You can see up when looking down. It rained it Paris today. I really liked it even though it was cold and wet, two things I do not like. Don't know why. Just in the mood for a rainy day.

It's Katherine's birthday. Yay! Mine is coming soon, hitting the 20s. Wow. It may seem young to a lot of people, but for a 19 year old, there are no longer 1's in front of the last number. Beginning of adulthood.

Anyhow last week was uneventful, lots of paper writing. Finished them, but not satisfied with either. Really, this study abroad thing has done terrible things to my writing skills. Went to Canal St. Martin and a little square by it last week with Katherine. Gorgeous. I love Paris. Can I tell you? Have I told you?

That's it. Why is Paris so amazing to me? She wants me to succeed. Know why Paris is a she? Because she has a bad week of the month. Every month.

Last weekend was World's Fair, can't say anything about it because I didn't go. Womp. Was writing my paper. Nothing eventful as far as going out last weekend, but Sunday we went to Auvers-sur-Oise and Giverny for a museum class trip. I really didn't want to go. But, it was really beautiful. Went to see where Van Gogh died, places he painted and his grave. Then we went to Monet's gardens and house, saw some places where he painted his pictures, and also his grave.

So, the pictures won't load. So no pictures for today. Success! Today it works.
Monet's gardens. Gorgeous as usual.

Probably my favorite picture of the trip. I have about 150 pictures. I think two will suffice. Ha.

This week is starting off pretty well. No class tomorrow. Score. Boy? Questionable. Katherine's birthday outing. Done. Excited, a little. Oh, and most importantly grocery shopping.

Trying to make a documentary. Hopelessly failing.

Girls Night.

So, it's been a while since I've posted. Nothing new. Just fun, really.

Learned that I cannot take annoying people at all when hot [like sweating, hot], stressed, or just really, in general. Also learned that I am a complete and utter bitch. As well as the fact that I like to blind myself from the truth, a lot in my life.

Anyhow, good news. This weekend was overall a success. Saturday hung out with Hoolie and Iwan and Manuel. Good night. I think I have to call him Friday. Sunday had an another amazing excursion of food with Hoolie at Tricotin in Chinatown. Did some food shopping. Success! Monday, had hookah with Liv and Faustyna [finally]. It was a great night. A hookah, and 3 pots of mint tea for 10 euros? Fabulous. Tuesday, went to Moose for Mike's last night although it was pretty boring. Womp. Got to chat with my ladies and met Liv's friend. I've already forgotten his name. Oh well. Today is Wednesday. Met Faustyna for lunch at 12. Had Gyros at the Invalides park. Took the bus to Hotel de Ville. Failed at vintage shopping. Ran into Charlie, realized how much of an asshole he is. Got ice cream. Succeeded in mainstream shopping then went home. Found that I am going to die this weekend because of the Giverny trip. Didn't get any work done. Got a call from Kat. Going to dinner with the ladies! Tex-Mex for dinner in the Bastille, Amorino gelato for dessert, jammage and chillage at mi casa or rather, mon appartement. So great. Love the ladies because they know my kind of music and understand my obsession. Never had this kind of connection before. Through music and appreciation of black people, I mean.

I don't mean to force music on people, I understand and accept your stylings, but doesn't mean I have to like it. All I ask is that you try to feel the emotion in the songs I'm asking you to hear. Soul music. Even gospel music. Even though it's about God, I'm not exactly a firm believer in religion, but the music draws me in. Really. Listen and feel it. I don't know. Something about their passion makes me want to sing.

Now it's 1am. Haven't finished my German paper, haven't started my 10pg museum research paper, haven't written my 3pg film review for Ilha das Floras, haven't read for our in class test, haven't written my hw for French. Epic fail.

Success in life, fail in school. I guess there's a balance for everything. But I feel there's more fail than success. My life sucks sometimes.

Successes.

So, it's been a few good weeks. I can't lie. I know this will leave me as soon as I return to New York, but I'm enjoying life as it is.

Today, I went on campus, found out that I can, in fact, not go to Disney [although I didn't really wanna go in the first place] and hung out with my girl Hoolie. We got some Thai food, a macaron for dessert and shopped around. I bought a baller white blazer and some hot boots that I've always wanted. I think I'm in this phase where I love shopping. I need to stop. It's bad. But...I'm not going to yet.. =) Went to film some guy at this doll shop for Hoolie's project. It was kinda scary and he wasn't very cooperative. Oh well. Success in filming. Although it's not my project, I was pretty happy for her. Went to meet up with Bree to talk. Finally sorted things out and I'm pretty happy about that. We shopped around, walked around, got gelato, THEN dinner, then chilled at the open space in front of Hotel de Ville. Gelato is life. Although I wish I got some after dinner. For dinner, we went to this Moroccan place on Rue Victoria. It was really good. Huge portion for 15 euros. Totally could not finish so I wasted food. Boo me. But now I know where to go for some Moroccan. Walked behind this Australian couple, they were pretty funny and nice. Didn't know much French, but we taught them some dirty words. It was an entertaining 10 minutes. It's midnight now and I was supposed to have written a paper by now, but I don't mind. It was a successful day and I'm happy about it.

Tomorrow I plan on starting my museum papers, go to the park, and rage all night, then pass out at Hoolies. It's going to be a great time. I think. I hope. Right now, I don't ever think I want to leave Paris. Fuck.

Printemps à Paris

Alors, il fait beau aujourd'hui. C'est soleillé et j'ai pas de choses à faire. Puits...je fait des choses, mais je veux pas les faire. Plus tard, j'irai faire du shopping avec Katherine et Gabby [girl from class.] Je peux pas attendre!

I think I should talk to some people more. New life, new ways. Should be writing a paper. Going to do it now, I think.

So, update. Came back from shopping. Went to the Marais with Kat, Gabby, and Janelle. The pros, Janelle and Kat, brought us to the vintage shops to find some nice junk. Unfortunately, I failed in finding anything that I absolutely liked, or found things that were unfortunately, not my size. Therefore, fail. But, after went to a few shoe shops to buy some flats. Success! Kat got hit on in the Marais because apparently, in Paris, wearing shorts without tights means you's a ho. So, fail on her part.

On the other hand, weather was amazing today. About 70 degrees. The sunset was beautiful--one of the reasons as to why lower building work in a city. Took a bus home. Watched some videos. Didn't do any homework. No motivation. Great. Failblog.

Saint Malo by Day, Paris by Night

New adventure. Yay! Less money, booooo. Anyhow, took an Easter trip to Saint Malo this weekend [Brittany, for those who don't know] with Kat, Sofia, Zivile, and Rose. Left at 630am arrived around 1030. Not bad. Took a nice walk down some random road, everything was still closed. Okay. Checked in with Kat, waited for the other girls. Check. Then went to breakfast.
Galette and Coffee. Mmmm. Also had a dark chocolate/banana crepe. BEST crepe I've ever had. Ever. Ever. Ever. I'm so craving it right now. After brunch, decided to walk off the 1000 calories we ate during brunch, so we went for a walk. Stumbled across a beautiful little alcove/way to the beach and decided to film my video project there. Kat and I stopped while the girls went on. Filming this weekend was great. I expect best location prize if there ever is one. Got a little lost, ended up hiking, which was AMAZING, saw this kind of view, but better...and then went to the old city. It began to pour so we jumped in a cafe and had teatime. I'm so getting into this cafe culture. Still raining, we decided to walk on top of the walls around the fort [old city], but it began raining harder. Ran into another restaurant and had mussels. It was amazing. My entire weekend revolved around food. It's probably the best way to plan a weekend. We decided to go home and get some work done, but Zivile, Sofia, and Rose had nothing to do so they watched a movie. We chilled. It was exciting. Next day headed to Mont Saint Michel, an hour and a half outside of St Malo.Gorgeous, huh? Really touristy, glad we didn't stay there. But we filmed here too. Corridors and bright green. Amazing. Started to rain here, too. I thought the tide would come in and we wouldn't be able to get out. See, this place here, has only one way in and one way out. This road gets covered during high tide and whoever is on this little piece of land, can't escape until the tide goes down. Crazy huh? There's also only 72 people who actually live in this city. Gossip city. But, overall. Pretty amazing.

Headed back to Saint Malo, went to the beach because it got so beautiful and went rock climbing. For free! Well, we went on the rocks and decided to climb to the other side of the beach. Pretty badass.Got hungry. This hike/adventure was about an hour/hour and a half or so. We were also lugging our bags and camera equipment. Went to this little place called "Les Chiens de Guet" [The dogs of Guet] and had the best meal of our trip there. Steak with potatoes, kir breton, and crème brulée for a mere 23 euros. So. Good. We decided to go to the casino after, but without our passports we were rejected. Fail. Wanted to win some money to spend on more food. Oh well. Took a walk home. Did some more work. Sleep.

Last day. Woke up. Got ready. Got caught by the building manager for sleeping 5 girls in a 4 person room. Had to lug all our baggage and film equipment around for the day. Didn't find the flea market that was supposed to be open. Rejected by 2 creperies because our baggage took up too much space during lunch hour. Only success was filming. Yes. Had another teatime. Had another crepe. Another galette. Left for Paris. Trainride was crowded. Everyone was coming back from their Easter vacation. Got some work done. I have roughly 48 seconds for my video. Out of 3:50. Fuck. Had dinner with Katherine. Found that the place we wanted to go was closin, and the place we ate at was extremely touristy and expensive. Fail. Tried to find gelato after dinner. Got to the place, they were closed. Fail. Katherine got myberry [Pinkberry] and got yelled at a queen for not having a euro because he didn't have one to give back to her. Fail. Found a gelateria after getting myberry. Fail. Decided to walk around and found great bars that we later figured out were for gay men. Fail. Overall, a fail day. S'all good though. I hope to have a better day tomorrow. Great weekend. Happy Easter.