chillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. my hair looks the exact same. its really not that different.

wes, will you stop doing your search engine optimization on this blog. I don’t need it to be number 1 on google. this is personal. I would rather this be only for my friends and family. I really know you are excited about this new world of blogging. Maybe ill start another one with my little tid bits but I really just want this blog to be a way of correspondence rather than a highly visited site on google. love ya brother!

CHILLL

by the way, just spent the weekend in prague. really cool city. very very different than what I have seen in western europe. i think I am preferring this area of europe a little more than Paris. Paris was great and I had a wonderful time there but there is so much more in europe than just Paris. and apparently, Paris is very unique in France. the rest of France is nothing like Paris.

Budapest has been great so far. I really haven’t seen too much yet but our adventure in Budapest commences tomorrow! WOOOOO WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

OH we DID go to a traditonal turkish bath. It was awesome. I have never felt so refreshed and calm. I really needed someting to ease my nerves after being in Paris for 5 weeks and traveling.

I keep getting sudden bursts of excitement about what I am doing and my life right now. I can’t tell you how extraordinarily blessed I feel. I am 21 doing and seeing all these incredible things. It has been such an eye opener in so many different ways. It has made me realize how limitless my options are. the world is mine if I want it to be.

basically I’m constantly giddy over here.

Hope all is well with you in the states!

much love and hugs from BUDAPEST!! (its INSANE that i am in Budapest right now, I love it!!)

today is my last day in Paris. I woke up early and started some laundry because I still have two more weeks of living out of a suitcase in my future.

Ashley and I are meeting for lunch and then buying our tickets to Nice for when we get back from Budapest. And then we are going to do a little bit of last minute shopping! the big sales in Paris started yesterday! They are getting rid of all of their summer inventory. Which seems a little odd since its not even July yet. Better for us!!

Tonight we are all going out for dinner one last time.

I really didn’t expect to be this sad about leaving. But I have some adventures ahead! I will also be able to bring back all of these experiences.

today was my last day of finals.

My art class went to the Picasso Museum. We were there for 2 1/2 hours and I saw TWO pieces of Picasso’s art. We did our final presentations in the cafe at the museum and I had to come to my Cinema class directly after the presentations. I was really interested in the first four to five presentations but my attention went to getting in the best position to recieve the most sunlight. Of course I was still listening but then as the presentations went on, the later the presentation the more shy the person, the softer their voice, the less interesting… I tried to pay attention but I was overtaken by sitting in a park in the Picasso Museum on a beautiful day on one of my last days in Paris.

I did my presentatin on Salvador Dali and his hilarious sense of humor… I was laughing while telling the stories of him but my audience seemed to think his paranoia was something to be sad about. I guess they are right. Some would say he was mentally ill, I think he was a comic genius!!

I brought the book of his Interview in Time magazine to show the class. My initial idea was to wear a fake Dali Mustache and bring 25 more so that everyone in the class could wear one during my presentation. I also thought about bringing a pale of milk to stick my foot in while giving my presentation. This is something he was known to do while lecturing at the Sorbonne. I felt it would have been approiate yet a little inappropriate at the same time.

I just finished my Cinema final. It wasn’t too hard. I wanted to buy some of the DVDs we watched in class and bring them back to America to share with everyone but I found out that the DVDs here won’t work in America and they only have French subtitles. so bummer, but maybe I can find them on Amazon.Com

I really can’t believe how fast the time as passed. I am just now getting into the swing of things here and I have to leave! I am not going to lie, I am excited to be back home. But only because I know I am going to be home soon. I do miss everyone! I have some pretty exciting adventures on my plate for the next two weeks. I am going to Budapest and Prague and then Nice if we can find a cheap enough means of getting there. AH!

Well I have to go back to class now, we are watching a movie. All though, techinally, I do not have to be there I still am going to watch it because a) all the movies was have watched have been great and b) out of respect to my teacher!

bisous!

I will comment back on your comments when I have more time….. I didn’t even know I could do that!

Ciao!

today i went to the park and took in some sun for about an hour. I brought my lunch with me which was a banana, petite bagutte with herb cheese, cholocate cookies and a 7-up. I also brought a bottle of water because it was so hot. I listened to my ipod and watched all the paris locals meet up with their friends and spend an afternoon in the park. There were so many tots there today too! it must have been something like Mother’s day out.

I am waiting on Ashley to finish laundry and then I think we are going to go shopping or at least walk around town. So I have had some time to kill… I have three postcards I need to send out so I decided to walk up to the post office next to my dorms

On my way, I was stopped by a friendly looking lady and she explained to me she was from a magazine and wanted to interview me for her magazine and take my picture. Usually I would be walk away but I trusted her.

She asked me where I was from and what I was studying and how I liked studying abroad. Then the photographer took my picture. He had that well known Justice cross on his helmet and I asked him he liked Justice, “uh…. yeah, they are some of my friends…..” Then I told him I wrote an article for a Magazine in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He stopped taking pictures for a second and said he only knew Tulsa from a Beatles song… Get Back. I was telling him that most people I meet from Paris only know Oklahoma from the Friend’s season when Chandler gets transfered to Tulsa. He humored me for a second and then, in the most polite way, told me to hush because he was trying to take my picture.

ANYWAY, the magazine is only published in France and they probably won’t even use my interview. I tend to get shy and stumble when I am put on the spot. But maybe, if they do, They will send me a link to the magazine!

I can’t believe I only have 2 more days here!

bisous!

david guetta is BMOC in Paris

Yesterday for class we went to Père-Lachaise Cemetery. 

This is probably the most famous cemetry in the world, at least the most visited. Our teacher said its the Louvre of cemetries.  It is really almost like its own city. There are street names and “good” and “bad” areas to be buried in. Only the VERY wealthy or famous are able to afford to be buried here. Some Parisians actually talk about what “view” they want in the cemetry. Ridiculous, right? What in the WORLD do they think they are going to be looking at? 

apparently, people who think they are vampires hang out there at this cemetry at night. And there is a community of cats that live in the cemetry as well. My teacher got so excited when we would see a cat….. I think shes a cat lady. she wears these cat earings EVERY day, her planner is a cat planner, and she always makes a small and subtle reference to cats in every single class. but thats great for her! cats make her happy, its her jam!

It was bulit by Napolean Bonparte in 1804 because of the health hazards caused by the traditonal form of burial….. I don’t really want to think about it, but…. if you didn’t know, Paris is built around a river and on marshy land… GROSS.

The Tombstones were very beautiful though. There was a lot of stain class and sculptures. This might sound a little creepy, but the graveyard was actually pretty.

Jim Morrison, Chopin, Oscar Wilde are some of the famous names laid to rest here.

Jim Morrison’s grave has caused a lot of problems and headache for the families of other people who are buried there. Jim’s tombstone is constantly being vandalized as well as the surrounding tombstones. Vistors to his gravesite have put arrows on tombstones all over the cemetry pointing to his paticular grave site. After a while, people started to make the arrows point in opposite directions.

Chopin’s gravesite…. When I came home I listened to the ONE Chopin song in my Itunes.  Nocturne in F Sharp, I think.

People from all over the world LOVE Oscar Wilde. All of those little dots on his tomb are kisses. Seeing his tombstone and learning just a little bit about his life made me want to read one of his books. He was hilarious. His very last words were, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go”

We also saw memorials of people who died in concentration camps during WWII.  Allthough seeing these memorials were saddening and the memories are unfortunate, It made me a little bit more proud to be an American. Anerica may have some faults (but who doesn’t?), at least we didnt willfully colaborate with Nazi Germany like France did.  We came over and took care of business! BUT there were some honorable people who fought in the French Resistance, which we saw the memorials of.

The cemetry was interesting only because it opened my eyes to more interesting things. Now I am excited to read a book by Oscar Wilde, listen to more Chopin and Jim Morrison, and be a litte bit more proud to be an American.

TODAY we are going to Fete de la Musique! Its an outdoor music festival all over Paris.

Happy Summer Soltice!

Bisous!

Thursday I went to the Salvador Dali exhibition in Montmarte. I had already seen a few of his paintings in other museums but I really didn’t know too much about him or his work.

He was was a very important surrealist artist in Paris, his paintings are so incredibly detailed and bizzare. His images are known to be not exactly as what they appear. Some people would say he was insane, but aren’t most artists a little crazy in their own right.

My favorite paintings of Dali were his illustrations of Alice in Wonderland, they were must brighter and lighter than some of his famous paintings. And plus, Alice in Wonderland is such a fun story to illustrate!

All though Dali was obviously very…. ecentric, maybe borderline insane, his sense of humor was rock solid.

I was laughing out loud by myself as I read an interview of Dali from Time Magazine. It was just a series of simple questions qsked by Philippe Halsman with hilarious one liners from Dali with pictures of him and his mustache. The interview is called Dali’s Mustache. I bought the book form of the interview. I think Ben would find it really funny, because he does love a good mustache.

“How do you celebrate Mother’s Day?”

The picture was the only response. 

Dali was not just a painted or sculpture, Dali designed clothes with Coco Chanel and Christian Dior as well as made movies with Alfred Hitchcock. He was set to make a movie with Walt Disney but it was never completed…. What if Dali HAD done a disney movie? I would LOVE to see that.

I can not believe I only have one more week in my program.

Yesterday we went to Centre Pompidou.

http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Accueil. Their website is really cool. You can look at over 6,000 pieces of art from their museum on line!

It is home to some of the most famous modern art. I saw pieces of art from Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix, Salvador Dali, Chagall, and Matisse among many other avant garde artists. I can’t remember my favorite artists unfortunatley.

I have no idea what this painting is

I did see this piece. It is Picasso, I am pretty sure.

this museum was really intersting to see.  The area of the museum were were was sponored by the house of Yves Saint Laurent. pretty fancy, right?

After class my friend, Tasha, and I walked around Les Halles and had lunch and a crepe…. Yes lunch AND a crepe. I have become addicted to crepes I think. If we go one or two days without a crepe, we start feining for one. Thank goodness my stay in Paris is almost over only for the sake of my figure….

Les Halles is known as “the belly of Paris”. It was developed by that “scoundrel” kind Philippe Auguste for merchants and wholesellers in 1183.  But in the 60’s the central marketplace was moved to another location but the square still remains. In the center, the Fountain de Innocents still remains. It it a meeting place for many locals.

(thank you to whoever I stole this picture from)

Les Halles is an intersting part of the City, not my favorite due to its high tourist population but it was still fun. There were more tattoo parlors in this area than in any other area of Paris. Shoe store after shoe store lined the area.  My friend really wanted to buy a gold pair of reeboks. We also joked about her getting a tatoo. Thank goodness I am not very convincing or else I think she might actually have got a tattoo.

Today we are going to the Salvador Dali museum in Montmarte!

bisous!

It seems like life has been pretty slow over here, all though in reality it hasn’t been.

This morning I went to the park across the street and read for a little while.  In a little bit I am going to go have lunch with Ashley and then go back to the park.

The weather is really pretty today. I am trying to get a suntan…. all though I am not seeing results in my attempts.

Wes, you will love this-

Saturday night we went to a White Party at Le Cab. It was pretty interesting. I went with Ashley, Tasha and Fabien. It was nothing like Wes’s White Party. Wes’s parties are way better. I mean I was in Paris at white party at one of the coolest clubs in Paris and I still thought wes’s party was better. So Kudos Wes! You now how to throw a party!

The RER, one of the subway lines in Paris is one strike. This is a little bit of an annoyance because I use the RER EVERYDAY. It stops right in front of my dorm and takes me directly to school. So instead of a small 10 minute journey to class It has become more or less a 30 minute trek.

There was also a strike at one of the Museums we went last week. Parisians LOVE to go on strike.

I am currently reading Seven Ages of Paris. Its tells the history of Paris starting from Ceasar and ends in 1969. I am currently only on the 1st age of Paris, the age of Philippe Auguste.

It is a really difficult book to read but I am enjoying it because now I know a little bit more about the history of these sites I am seeing all over Paris.

Do  you remember the blog I wrote about the area around the Bastille? It is the Marais area. It is known for its huge jewish population. In the book I am reading it talks about the way Philippe acquired the money to build all of these huge buildings was from taking the money from the jews. He caused a lot of problems for the jewish people, even exiling them out of Paris. But when they returned they settled in Marais.

Lunch time!

bissous!!

Here is a video which has footage of my New French Haircut:

after getting completely lost in the metro stations yesterday, I decided to get my haircut. I was in desperate need of a trim!

Natalie, one one of the directors of the program I am in gave me the name of a place where she got her hair cut. It was in the Bastille area. I have been in that area so much recently.

I walked in and in the most broken french said, “je voudrais un coiffure, s’il vous plait” the receptionist just stared and me while one of the stylists came over and asked if I needed someone to speak english. So he motion for the only english speaking girl to come over and talk to me. I didn’t have an appointment but they could get me in right away.

I had no idea what I wanted, not even how long I wanted to keep it. My hair was so damaged I was thinking about cutting a good portion of it off.

The girl took one look at my hair and new exactly what to do with it!

anyway, as I am writing this all down I realize how boring this blog is. I am just excited to have a cute new Parisian haircut. This is the first time my hair has actually looked good since I have been here.

blah blah blah…. I’ll try to put a picture up of it.