Seasons of Love

Having my friends here is making me appreciate, love, and realize how much I know about Paris (and also don't know...oh well.)

I read a couple of my old blogs and it's weird to think I was wrong about some things and right about others. For example, I said "it's fun to try and communicate with the french". After living here for so long, I realized unfortunately that it's rather frustrating now to try and communicate with them, only because I feel judged whenever I walk into a store, a restaurant or a grocery store. I don't know what it is, but something about me just screams American, which leaves a sense of bitterness between the French and me. I unfortunately didn't learn as much French as I would have liked to, and got lectured a couple of times because of that, but I learned to be quiet and keep walking down the streets, leaving everyone happy.

Something I've absolutely loved though has been living here for 3, going on 4 months and experiencing the change of weather/seasons. It really has given me the grip of what it's like to live in a city.

In August it was hot, always sunny, and felt like summer.

In September, it started to cool down, but still felt like summer, obvious change in some shadows, but still sunny and enjoyable.

October it would rain, but still was sunny most of the time. The weather started cooling down, the fashion started changing to sweaters and scarves, and the leaves were beautiful in all of the gardens and trees. November got much colder, more overcast, and real fall to winter weather.

I can look back in all of my pictures and remember the temperature and weather (Let me tell you how nice it is now to look back on my Barcelona pictures... I was so tan! It was October and we were on the BEACH!)

I am looking forward to December, now that the Christmas lights are going up, and am crossing my fingers for one snowfall at least, to put the spin on my entire experience here. The simple change of posters for movies, plays, magazine issues, advertisements, store items has shown me how fast paced Paris is. One week we left for one of our trips, and came back to our local grocery store completely renovated and owned by another company.

The French may walk with their noses in the air (strictly my opinion), but it's been more than amazing living here... I need to continue doing this in my life; it's too short to live in one city your whole life. I like having to say I have 22 years behind me in Chicago, and I look forward to living in every city I'm brought to in my future.

Time is Running Out

Hello!

It's amazing how fast time is passing here... Everyone told me this would happen. It's already November 26th and I have LESS THAN A MONTH UNTIL I COME HOME. It's quite sad... I've adapted to this lifestyle, and I know I'll miss it when I come back to Chicago. I loved having places to look forward to see during the week/ends, and just the unpredictable things that were thrown at me.

Right now two of my best friends are here in Paris (Lindsay and Emma). I picked them up from Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday and we've been out and about on the (rainy) streets of Paris ever since. Yesterday we went to the Louvre (which was closed, but we'll go back) Notre Dame, and top of the Eiffel tower. It's been so nice seeing them, it's a piece of home that I've been longing for a while. I feel bad though, they haven't quite adjusted to the time difference, so there are some early nights here for them. I get to do my homework during that time!

Today was our shopping day. We also walked around Montemarte for a bit, I showed them the Moulin Rouge, and we ate at a chain called Leon du Bruxelles; a very good mussels place. It's been great showing them how I've been living here, my lifestyle, where I live, where I go to school, my favorite places... Tomorrow we're going to the Pompideu center and Luxembourg Gardens which I am very excited for! and...IT'S THANKSGIVING! The Horn's are throwing on a Thanksgiving dinner for 25 people (I believe they hired a cook...) and I am so excited to just EAT. I'll be sitting at the table with the family I've made out here and Lindsay and Emma. Couldn't be a better Thanksgiving in Paris!

A lot of stuff is going on at once, my friends are here and I have a ton of work piling up on me. I'm getting excited for the next few weeks though... I feel like I've done a good job throughout the semester keeping up with work and where my projects have led me. I'll be sure to post some of my final stuff when I'm done.

It's also so weird to think...I've been in Europe for 3 months. I've been having so many flashback memories of my whole trip here so far. It's so dense in terms of people I've met/gotten to know, my daily routine, my school work, and above all, travelling. I haven't seen my parents in 3 months (I FINALLY saw them the other day on video chat) and I haven't seen most of my college friends since May. I feel so accomplished though, like I've seen so much of the world. I can't wait to get home around Christmas, where it's family and friend overload. I'm thrilled for next semester too...I can't help but say I've missed school in the city. It'll be nice to come home with this trip in my pocket.

So much to do still, though! I'll be back!

-B

22

Hello Hello!

Another update from me! I'm getting through the days with hours of studio under my belt, but still so many left to go. I am in the dead middle of my studio project, and urban exploration project. Both have been making me busy and leaving me attached to my computer, unfortunately, but it's completely necessary. They told us the last month of school is dedicated to school. 3 months of 'vacationing' seems like a decent thing to come back to work from!

Something fun though happened the other day... My birthday! It was on Tuesday. I turned 22 (Permanently 21 for the rest of my life) In the morning, my roommates made us a french toast breakfast, and we headed out for an afternoon of shopping. I got a gorgeous red dress. At 6 o'clock we had a lovely evening class scheduled, but it was to watch a movie about Rome, called Fellini Roma. Our teacher wanted us to see it after been there the week or so before. It was a great movie, I recommend it to all of you to watch it. (don't forget the english subtitles) It was great to see Rome in the movie after we had seen it in person. I understand the atmosphere a lot more now; our teacher showed a clip of it BEFORE our trip, then showed us the whole movie after the trip. Good call on her part. After the movie, a group of 10 of us went to this amazing Brazilian restaurant, got the biggest portion of food I've seen in Paris, and an amazing dessert. For dinner I had Brazilian escolape, which was a breaded turkey breast in this delicious sauce, rice, and a great salad. The dessert was 'death by chocolate'. The dinner ended late, and half the group headed back to our apartment for a couple of cocktails, then it was time for bed.

It was a great birthday though, and I am so lucky to have celebrated it out here! I'm 22 and still so young!

Another fun exciting bit of news. Unfortunately, Priyanka and I decided to head somewhere cheaper than Greece, and a little bit closer for the last week we're here in Paris. None the less, we picked our favorite country so far, Ireland! We're going to Dublin this time, and cannot be more excited. It was super cheap, in an English speaking country, and well, it's Ireland. I don't really need to say more... I'm glad to explore a different part (the more touristy, busy part) and get out of Paris one more time before I get back to Chicago.

Wish me luck on my work, I have a tedious weekend coming up. My best friends get here in 3 days! I need to get a lot of work done before our fun filled week! I'll be back soon enough

-B

My new red dress (belt excluded)

do you like my tiara? Caryl, my professor's wife, bought me a bouquet of red roses

this was the sweetest part of the night.

they called me into the lecture part of the room, and surprised me a few minutes later when they carried a chocolate cake, and little cups of tiramisu, all with candles in them. It was so sweet, I wanted to cry!

brazilian escolape. sooo good!

death by chocolate

World Traveler

Here is a fun photo! recognize any of the cities/routes in red?!

click to enlarge

This map has been next to my bed since the beginning of the semester. I bought it to mark my travels... It's been fun going over with a red crayon where I've been after each trip. I hope to hang this in my room like a poster wherever I live. Maybe even frame it!

Urban Exploration 2

So I've been really excited the past few days because of my Urban Exploration project due at the end of the semester. Our final is a mapping project of Paris, basically our interpretation of our trip here. I've decided to completely personalize it. The biggest part of my trip (and life pretty much) is music; listening to my ipod while commuting to and from class, the mall, field trips, listening to music at my apartment (all of that jazz), putting it to sleep in the hostels in different countries. I've listened to a massive amount of music. My idea was to create a map of Paris with the songs I've been listening to, syncing artists, albums and songs up with the streets and routes I take. For example, it started with one of Anne's walks a Thursday morning, I was playing an album by the Arctic Monkeys. This album was completely fitting into the mood of the neighborhoods, the weather, and the route of this walk. Another FAVORITE ride of mine is from the Canal up to the Parc de la Villette while listening to Moby. I have begun to write down over a map of Paris my notes so far, and my project is building dramatically in my head.

My friend also gave me a video camera to actually take footage of my routes (walking through the metro stops, to and from school, and random moments I feel like taping)

I actually completed one of my movies last night. It is about the way I feel traveling through the metro, which feels like life is going by so slow just because I feel like I'm walking endlessly through tunnels trying to get from one stop to the next. You turn corners, go up stairs, walk through more tunnels, never ending. This video is synced to a song called "Slow Life" and is of all my footage walking through the metro. When the song picks up and becomes more dramatic during the chorus, it's of me FINALLY getting out of the metro and onto the streets of Paris. It's a slower video, but that's the point. I will find some way to post it eventually... I also plan on making some more videos of other routes, feelings, and/or chapters of my life here. My final project will be my music map of Paris, a cd of all the songs I used, plus some other good ones, and a dvd with my movies on it. The package will be put into a vinyl record case that I'll redecorate to my liking.

This project really reaches to my deepest passion: music. I'm glad I can tie that into a school assignment and make it my own. Things I've been wanting to do such as video taping and making movies, making mix cds, and designing my own album artwork is probably the best project I can think of to do for myself. If I get a grade and class credit for it, that's even better!

Wish me luck!

p.s. If anyone writes comments on my blogs, please say who they are from! I looove getting them, but sometimes when they are anonymous I don't know who's writing them :-(

I amsterdam/Roma

Hi!

I'm back. I had some more wonderful travels this past week. BUT before I even get there, let me tell you about my fun Halloween evening. Our teachers put on a really fun Halloween party on the 30th of October, leaving the whole weekend open for us to travel wherever we wanted before the Rome trip. Priyanka and I tag teamed as a costume duo... Mario and Luigi from the Super Mario Brothers!!! It was a big hit. Caryl made some delicious chili, and had great desserts afterwards. It was such a satisfying meal...She feeds us well. I've never felt that full my whole trip yet. I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving at their house :)

what a great pair.

haha...that picture still makes me crack up.

The next day Mihee, Priyanka and I set out for a roommate weekend in Amsterdam via train from Paris. What a coooool city! The whole weekend it was raining which prevented us from doing a lot of stuff, but the rain also added to the atmosphere there. The first thing I saw when I stepped out of the train station was a MASSIVE bike rack with bikes just everywhere. I remember someone's 'stereotype' saying Amsterdam is all about their bikes; I guess I underestimated that statement. It's really great though people choose to travel via bike. I think we need to take that example to other cities too...

The red light district was sooo crazy. There were literally women selling themselves in windows with red lights glowing over them. They would just stand behind the window in a bedroom with one bed in it waving at people who walked by, so you could basically shop for women. It was pretty upsetting to know that's the lifestyle of some women.

The streets of Amsterdam just like a lot of other older cities had no basic grid to them, so it was fun to walk around in the rain and just explore. The city center was so incredibly busy and lively. The overall atmosphere as I said was so much fun. People were pretty roudy too though...It is Amsterdam! Aaaaand I'm sure you can guess what the streets smelled like...

Overall it was a pretty relaxing weekend; it was also nice to just hang out in casual clothing and get a break from dressing all nice like we do in Paris. Priyanka and I both bought a hoodie and we would just chill in our sweatshirts jeans and north faces. I haven't felt that comfortable for a while! Always dressing in heels here in Paris...

For those who haven't gone to Amsterdam yet, it's for sure a place to visit in your life time.

Monday morning we took off from Amsterdam to Rome via plane. Of course the day we leave the sun finally comes out... And of course we arrive to Rome where its a torrential downpour. It was a long day of traveling, so the first night in Rome we literally just warmed up under our blankets and read for hours. The rain was kind of a bummer...

The next day Priyanka and I met up with our friend Mariana and we walked (in the rain) through Rome, touring the Colosseum, forum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and a bunch of Piazzas. Rome is a really pretty, minus the unstable weather. The first day it rained in the morning, but eventually cleared up once we got to the Colosseum (really pretty pictures). It was good to actually see all of this in person, which seems to be the constant theme of this whole trip. To see it all in pictures is nothing compared to being there in person.

The next three days were dedicated to our class tours put on by our Urban Exploration professor, Anne Attalli. Our class got a completely different feel for Rome compared to most tourists. She had themes for our walks; the first day was called A Roman String of Pearls, which was a 'walk about power, urbanism, and 'genius loci'; an attempt to approach the "substance of the city, and experience the feeling of "urban interior" given by its streets and piazzas. We covered a lot of ground, walking from piazza to piazza, stopping for gelato... A lot of it was what Mariana, Priyanka and I saw the previous day, but just walk-bys so I'm glad we had explored the day before.

The second day was called 'a collage city'; Romantic landscapes with ruins, 'useless' spaces, dream views and neighborhoods. This one was probably my favorite tour, mainly because of all the graffiti we came across. We really explored the streets, came across some beautiful gardens and landscapes, I got really into it. These walks were amazing just because we would just walk, and walk. At times even though we were with everyone, you got your thoughts to yourself (with help from a little bit of music). I captured so many building textures, doors, windows, colors, and a LOT of graffiti. The weather was best that day, I don't think it rained at all.

The third and final walk was called "A line from the center to the periphery". "Over 2000 years of architecture, from the mausoleum of August to some contemporary buildings and construction sites, passing through many time periods and styles. An occasion to observe their particularities and their distinctive approach to urban spaces and theatricality." This was the most rotten walk in terms of weather, we got rained on pretty hard to the point where we hung out in Richard Meier's art museum for an hour hoping the rain would pass, but it didn't. It was beautiful in the beginning in terms of buildings; we stepped into many churches whose decor was so beautiful and moving, I had to sit down and sketch a couple times. Not as many photos were taken this day due to the fact I didn't want my camera to get water on it...

Oh something fun; in the beginning of our Rome trip I purchased a cheap rainbow umbrella, and created this photo documentary where all I would do was just place the umbrella in front of a certain scenery, and just take a picture of it. It was a really cool effect and I carried it through the whole trip.

Overall I'd unfortunately have to say Rome was last on my list of places in Italy I've been to so far, but it's competing with Lucca, Piacenza, and Pisa, which are such beautiful parts of Italy by themselves. Rome was a hustle bustle (kind of dirty) city and I experienced it while it was very rainy, but needless to say the architecture and history is timeless, and you can't really compete with the famous historical Roman Empire. The gelato was an added bonus though :)

My trips are now over, and I have 1 month left in Paris, but I know it's going to be an amazing month. I am looking forward to completing my urban exploration project (I will have a blog about that soon) and really explore the city. It's been amazing living here in Paris. I've enjoyed seeing it through its season changing, and I hope to get one snowfall before I leave... I am looking forward to the Christmas lights being hung in the future too.

What's left on my Paris agenda? I get to celebrate my 22nd birthday next week, I get my two best friends visiting the week after that (which I am sooo excited for) then I get the wonderful benefit of finals, a trip to Greece and my journey home to Chicago.

I've been having day/night dreams about coming home, and I miss everyone so much. I'll be updating my blog still though, I have so much more to write down about my trips here, so stay tuned! Sorry for the inconsistency of my writings, but I've obviously been very busy out here I never know when I have time to write. Ciao for now!

-B

picasaweb.google.com/oolretaw

pardon the rotated pictures...there's about a couple hundred I still have to go to to rotate. I will get there eventually.