i'm hoooooooooome

yeah, so we made it home in one piece... eventually.
we were supposed to leave the cite universitaire at like 6:15am, but i either slept through my alarm [like a rock] or it didn't go off, because i got woken up at 6:20am by somebody knocking on my door. X_X good thing i had packed like 98% of my stuff beforehand, so it took me only a couple minutes to get downstairs, but it was still awkward and i felt groggy and i don't think i left anything behind but augh who knows.
when we got to the airport [l'aeroporte charles de gaulle] it seriously took us like two hours just to check our bags. it was ridiculous. i have no idea why it took so long but the bag-checkers were really, really, really taking their time. so were the passport people, they only had one booth open for this gigantic mob of unorganized people barely in some sort of rope-fenced-line. people cutting in front of each other and everything, really rude. someone also was looking through my bag at security and they were just... working at turtle speed. is it really THAT hard to do your job at least somewhat efficiently? really? really really? if you're not good at working fast then don't get a job doing something that will possibly make people late and miss their plane, jesus chriiist.
anyway, one of the professors there was able to get the plane to be delayed [they wouldn't want to leave with 14 open seats], thankfully, for a half hour or so. so we did make it on time, but for a while it was really stressful because we thought we weren't, and how do you get a group of 14 people on the next plane, really? arr. but it worked out.
we were coach class again, the first class seats were kind of stupidly way too fancy and roomy and living-room like. luckies. oh well, we still got our own TVs and headphones and could watch our own movies. i watched mulan 8> and then played pokemon and went to sleep for a while.
it was interesting seeing good old connecticut trees again, and being surrounded by people who speak the same dialect of language as you, and being able to read signs again, etc. we left the airport at like 1:30pm but we didn't get home til like 4:30 D: traffic was awful, even though it wasn't even close to rush hour. bleh. i really missed traffic.... not. the metro might have been stinky but at least you got where you were going on time. it was never late. >:[
got to southern, said hello to dan [couldn't call my mom and tell her to pick me up so i had to get a ride from dan who was going to be there anyway]. i was hungry so we stopped at the diner and i got a veggie burger with CHEDDAR CHEESE and pickles and curly fries. and it was cheaper than what a tiny veggie burger with camembert on it [bleh] would have been in france. when people complain about prices of stuff here, they need to remember that its REALLY HARD to get a decent meal in europe for under €10 [$15]. so meh!

so, i'm home, then. just cleaning my room now. i'll be posting the rest of the literally 500 pictures i took eventually over time, as well as scanning and posting the better pieces from my sketchbook.

leaving tomorrow morning at six. ugh! bleh. don't want to.

yesterday some of us went to the rodin museum. very interesting, makes me want to try sculpting, just to see if it would come out ok. i did actually like camille claudel's work better, but i think they are both on the same level, just different.
after that i took the metro down to the bastille area, which i've been meaning to check out for a while now. it's pretty much the goth/punk/alt hangout of paris. they had many a goth store with corsets and lolita outfits and all that stuff. i would have gotten something, but €40 for a little dress wasn't really on my budget. they also had some alt music and manga/comic book stores there too. it was honestly really just about being there, having all of this awesome fashion i would have died for at 14, or mangas in japanese i'd died for at 15, or anything that was there. i only ended up getting something for €12 at a cute little specialty shop. it had cats all over it. supercute.
i ended up getting sick last night again, really not fun at all. i felt better by midday today, and good enough to eat dinner tonight. i had escargot! as an appetizer. and for the entree, mussels, oysters and clams, prawns and grey shrimps, and whelks. they served them with butter and lemon, and mayonnaise and vinegar with red onion bits in it. would have been nice to have cocktail sauce [of course], but they were different kinds of seafood for the most part anyway. whelks are weird and not very appetizing, but its good to know they're edible, i guess. one of the mussels had barnacles on it, and i saw the barnacle move right when they put it down.. not a play on movement. really. i poked it and it shrank back. definitely alive. which, needless to say, kind of freaked me out. at least i know it was fresh....

augh!

four more days left! well, three, considering the plane leaves paris at 10am on thursday. :( weh.

today was the last day in the louvre. right now i'm just working on finishing some assignments for class... i was hoping to fill up the sketchbook for class all the way by the end of the trip, but i still have maybe 2/5ths left to go. i'm thinking about scanning and posting images from it when i get back.

yesterday i went out via train and saw the cat park. it was... awesome. they had like. every kind of cat imaginable. not all of them were out, but 25/35 were visible. of course they were all sleeping, haha... what else do cats do during the day?

augh it's so hard to remember what happened this week so far.. sunday, cat park.. saturday.. umm. all i can remember is the evening -- we were going to go on a boat ride through the seine, but we got there too late, so we just watched some dancers perform on this like.. parkish.. area at night. they were really good at what they were doing, too.
friday i ended up going to the louvre alone to catch up on class; saw the assyrian and egyptian exhibits. they had a real mummy there, ahhh.

it's so ridiculously hot out today. the french have not embraced air conditioning in even the tiniest little bit. the metro/RER is a sauna. really gross.

can't think of anything else right now. i think we're having crepes for lunch tomorrow. i've been living off of curry ramen and pain au lait chocolat for the last five days or so... the only thing my stomach was friendly with for a while. i'm gonna miss those choco-pains... what a nummy breakfast.

oog

well, i should be in class right now... or on my way to the weekly fdinner each wednesday.... but alas, i must have caught some kind of stomach virus, because i was up at 6am yakking into the toilet... wonderful, i know. what's a trip to a foreign country without getting so sick you throw up? bleh. i can't do much else right now other than sleep, go online or play video games. i'm REALLY mad i'm missing dinner. livid. but what can you do...

so, have some pictures.


l-r t-b:
near some GIANT CRYSTAL rock things at the musee geologique or whatnot.
view of the eiffel tower at night. it's blue, people. it's blue.
monet's waterlilies at giverny.
a spotted tigerlily among other crazy flowers at the gardens at his house, giverny.
stream, at giverny. so clear, yet had lots of individual plants. no real pond scum. huh.
giverny is in normandy. apparently normandy=connecticut. with a bit more of the field thing going on.

going to giverny was yesterday; it was really good to get out of the city. the little towns are scattered and so, so small and quiet. his waterlily garden was so pretty and unfortunately packed with a lot of older touristy people with overly kitschy taste. inside his house was awesome, though. he must have had 100 or so japanese prints just covering his walls. and he had a thing for cats too, so a lot of them had cats in them. speaking of...
i'm going to see if anyone wants to come with me to the cat park sometime this weekend. it's a bit far -- 45min train ride or so -- outside the city. but seriously. it is a zoo for just cats. over 25 species, 120 cats... tigers, leopards, ocelots, servals, lynxes, you name it.

other than that haven't been doing much. went to the zoo on sunday; monday i don't think we did much, just a lot of drawing for class. saw some corot paintings and other landscapes; and went for a short walk around the city later at night with people, just to be there. tuesday, yesterday, giverny. today... hell. i am going out tomorrow no matter how i'm feeling. ARGH.

lazy

ughhh too lazy to make a good post... ever.. apparently.

here's a recap of the week.

monday: was bastille day. or july 14th, as they call it here [just like it's the 4th of july instead of independence day in the u.s.]. had a picnic on the grass park thing near the eiffel tower -- lots of cheese and wine, crackers, fruit, etc. one end of the 'green' had a concert and the other end had the eiffel tower, which at the end of the night was all lit up with gorgeous fireworks choreographed to music. it was really amazing. the eiffel tower is huge. really. it's massive. so many things here are just... massive. ack.

tuesday: went to chateau de versailles. lots and lots of gaudy-ass stuff. i really... really don't like how ridiculously overdone it all was, baroque and rococo and whatnot. it was really kind of disgusting. showed their spoil-ty. reminded me of paris hilton... annywayyyy. the gardens at versailles were also very large. they were the size of a small town, with this huge 'canal' which was basically a lake shaped like a cross. and some trees along the side -- enough to have a small forest. i did go wandering through it, but got stinging nettle'd. french ivy grew on the ground; snails covered the leaves. little weird red bugs on the trees. large mushroom. so interesting..

wednesday: i don't think we had class til 5. i know we went and saw the paintings of marie de medici's life by reubens. i think before that we just hit some stores and i bought some jeans because it's cold here and i only brought 2 pairs and i'm getting tired of wearing them. plus, they made my butt look good. sizing here is really... weird, i can't tell by looking at anything if it's going to fit me at all. most things have actually been too -small- for me. how, i don't know. also we went out for dinner later as a group. pretty much all the entrees i got were the not-best choices of the menu [i had salad served with my salad :|] but i got some nice cold stella artois from the tap. yay, beer.

thursday: another day in the louvre. this time sketching from the reubens paintings, then took a walking tour of northern/flemish renaissance art -- holbein, durer, rembrandt, more reubens, van dyke, etc. kind of ridiculous how much detail they put into stuff. otherwise an uneventful day -- i bought a charger for my DS, which meant i could play it, which is what i did pretty much all night. oh, we also went out for indian food -- which was amazing, i ate -everything- on my plate, and the appetizer, and some naan, and then other people's food. and these were not small portions. ousoifoj curry calamari ;;

friday: is today. we went to the musee marmottan monet this morning, which is basically the french version of the frick collection. except mostly impressionists. saw some paintings by berthe morisot, who i have just recently begun to appreciate and was surprised to see her paintings there. the subject matter seems too limited, but i love her technique and the subtlety in the expressions of the people in her paintings. also a bunch of monet but IMO he is overrated [like most superpopular artists]. later on went walking about and i had a sammich on potato bread with shrimp and tomatoes and mayonnaise which was delish... and ended up buying some new shoes. sneakers. hi-tops. with a zipper. yes. tonight i think we're going out for falafel. i haven't had it in a while, i sure hope it's good. mrr!

might be making a photo post sometime this weekend, so prepare yourself. D:

on random things

so tomorrow is bastille day. which is like the new years plus independence day of france, apparently. very much a big ado. i often heard helicopters and jetplanes going above this week. and there were lots of men in uniform. the french naval uniform is very.. traditional.. and sailory. it's kind of funny, to me at least. also, the army men are dressed in camoflauge, army boots and with AKs... and wearing berets. so french.

last night i went to a club on a boat for about ten minutes. clubs are not my thing. but the whole boat thing was neat. if it was like a live french rock band i would be -all over- that.

my diet is largely starting to consist of the crepe lately. i had a apricot confiture [jam] crepe today, and a nutella one yesterday, and an omelette one the day before that. they are delishus.
speaking of diets, the french's attachment to tuna is starting to wear on me. i kind of just want it in a soft breaded sandwich, not a baguette, with mayonnaise and relish -- not.. tomato sauce or eggs or whatnot. i do think it was the parmentier of yesterday which really kind of put me off to fish in general for a while -- microwaved dish of mashed potatoes mushed with this strange smelly sort of fish really.. yeah not good.

sometimes i think the french really don't like me. i am bad at french and i guess i kind of look french enough [i dont know -how-] because i get talked to in french pretty often and i have no idea what these people are saying, and they seem dissapointed when i'm flustered and can't remember how to correctly say 'i don't speak french' in french. especially when i'm getting served or am in some kind of store. i'm forgetting less to say bonjour, i say it almost all the time now, but i still get that kind of 'eh!' feeling. also, finding change is easier when i'm at the checkout. the euro consists of the 1, 2, 5, 20, and 50 cent coins, as well as €1 and €2 coins, so the first week or so was damn difficult trying to find exact change at the supermarche when i didn't recognize any of the coins as fast [and when the 20 and 50, and 1 and 2 cents look so much alike to me]. but i'm getting better at it. hooray.

spending less money. my bank account has dropped -drastically- in how much i have left in the last week sooo i need to stretch out this week's money a bit. i'm really just buying cheap food, not going out to eat as much, and scavenging whatever i bought at the grocery store that's already in my room. whether or not it's good. i'm not looking forward to trying the stale prune muffins...

i miss cheddar cheese.

st chapelle. this is seriously the gaudiest church you will -ever- see. mostly because it was the royal chapel churchy thingy for st. louis the king saint. but yeah.

the front facade of notre dame.

MEDIEVAL KEYS. yes.

ROMAN RUINSSSSS!!!

this is a very very very large monet, and only about half of it. D8

medieval house! one of the last remaining truly medieval-age houses
in paris. it's really really old. like 1400s at the latest. most of the nice buildings in the city were redone in the 1700s or later.

notre dame, from the back. ITS HUGE.

this city has a thing for crocodiles and lions, i swear.

the seine. from one of many bridges.

something in the musee d'orsay i really liked.

update!

okay, i know it's been a while since i've updated. i don't even know what to write. so much stuff happens every day...
we saw giant monets today. like. they were seriously like 50, 60 feet long. it was ridiculous and i have no idea how this man was able to even see what the heck he was painting at this size. the biggest painting i've ever seen, by far. my favorites -- this was at the orangerie, btw, for anyone who knows -- was the room with the willow trees. so pretty. if only the color was a bit more intense...
the day before today was an intense day with almost no break, i got home at 10:30pm. i was very tired and unhappy at several points but seeing famous paintings almost makes suffering foot arches worth it. we had vietnamese food -- i tried other people's pho even though it was beef broth, just to see what it tasted like, and -man- do i wish they made a fish version of that.


probably going to make a photo post later. feet hurt, trying out new beers. amsterdam is the sweetest beer i've ever tasted, it is like someone dumped a pound of sugar into the mix. its almost TOO sweet. kronenbourg is next...

this city is beautiful, around almost every corner. merely waiting in line to go to a tourist attraction awards serene and unique views. these are the houses people live in, the parks they see from every window. every house is different. every park is different, and much more of them are scattered through the city. the flowers are in bloom, the trees are green. if i had to live in a city, instead of the country, for the rest of my life, this would definitely be up there.





we saw this music box the other day, saturday. in the park, a duo of women -- one older, one middle aged -- played a very old crank-run music box, turning the handle to push through paper sheets with holes that played music. the covers were alphonse mucha illustrations. it was very old-fashioned, and they sang to the music. some songs all the audience knew the words for. it was quite french, and definitely something you would never experience anywhere else. the way they moved, their hair, the way their mouths formed the words when singing -- french, french, french, in the amelie french sort of way. very beautiful just to watch, to see, to feel. and the songs, the songs were so pretty and moving too. a bit sad sometimes, but not depressingly so.

a fromagerie, in a market only open a certain day [days?] a week, has many types of quite french soft cheeses. these cheeses are tough on the outside, crusted in a certain type of mold. the smell inside a fromagerie, which was only about 10-15 feet deep, is as if you are surrounded by the outside of brie; the scent of true french soft cheeses is so intense that it actually made me sneeze. it is mold, but a familiar off-delicious type of smell. the cheese is not wrapped. the cheese is not pre-packaged. the cheese is not factory-made. the cheese is not on ice, cold-refrigerated. it's cheese as cheese is made.

only in paris would some kind of flower show her little butt on some orangina cars racing outside the louvre. very confused. anthro plants ftw. you can see a sexy zebra one here and a cactus one here. europe is so strange sometimes, but it's cute somehow. i also -just- noticed the deer and giraffe girls in the background of the zebra photo. it was too bright to see them the day this was taken.










the tomb of st denis; the heart of louis the somethingth. real creepy stuff in the first gothic church ever built. the crypt smells like someone's basement got taken over REAL bad by mold. these caskets or tombs are around 1800 years old, around when this church was first founded. apparently st denis got his head cut off by romans and walked 13 miles after he was dead, holding his head, to this spot, which was turned into a church.

so tired. every night. had to do lots of painting homework for class, like master copies and essays and stuff. on painters. french painters. entertaining though. except for the essays, it's what i'd be doing anyway.. well, drawing, at least.
today saw manet, monet, degas, renoir, and van gogh in the same building. and some awesome art nouveau furniture, haha. i was hoping to see prints there, in the musee d'orsay, of like, alphonse mucha or something, but no such luck. boo!
did see many sculptures though. i need to remember to upload some photos tomorrow night if i'm not busy.

more food + 4th juillet

the french version of ramen is different. less salty, less spicy and the noodles are thinner and harder. or maybe i didn't make it quite right, but the microwave here is very hot. either way they give you a little fork inside your cup-o-noodles so it's all good.
yesterday we walked around the louvre for six hours. i think i'm going to be drawing lots of master copies here. i keep having them for homework. it's ok, i guess.. i never had to do that before for class so it's actually something new to me. i really would rather just draw the greek/romanesque sculptures that they have; they're in such crazy beautiful poses.
the other day we [two friends and i] went to a creperie for lunch after class and sat down and ate crepes. mine had strawberry jam on it. it was really damn good. i love strawberry jam... and it wasn't so sweet like crepes at home would be.
it's getting really hard for me not to spend too much money. lunch yesterday was €15. which is like $22. for hummus, cucumber and yogurt, grape leaves, and tomato/cucumber salad. as well as a baklava [very delicious] and an orangina.
my perpetual heartburn is almost gone now; i woke up this morning without it for the first time this week. i went to the pharmacie the day before yesterday and got some acid reflux pills. they were €5.80, about $8. i looked up the price for the american equivalent [by active ingredient or whatnot] a bit later. $70-100 for this stuff. which i got for EIGHT DOLLARS.
food's well-sized too, overall health otherwise is pretty.. not bad. every portion and serving of anything i've eaten here has been good for me and filling and i haven't had -any- leftovers or doggy bags. i. walk. everywhere. even after taking the metro and the bus i am still pooped ridiculous at the end of the day from all this walking. the only fat people i've seen here are american tourists. the only obnoxious people i've seen here are american tourists. HMM.

so anyway, the fourth of july yesterday was... interesting. our entire group went out [sans teachers] and bought some wine and snacks and had a picnic in the park across the street. it ended weird after moving to another park and with talking to some people from spain and whatnot, and i couldnt stay awake past 1 so i just crashed. people also ate hotdogs in small bagguettes... very interesting.