Fall and Fashion

My intentions aren't to rub in that Chicago is having some awful weather, but I am practically in eutopia right now. Fall has always been my favorite season. The transition from humid, hot 80 degree weather to refreshing crisp 60 degree air has it's own personality. The fact that I'm here in Paris experiencing it only amplifies it, and I am really, really teaching myself not to take anything for granted. It's so important you soak in the moment of now so you don't have any regrets of the future. I always used to be someone who relied on future plans to keep me busy, but in order not to miss out on anything, I try and close my eyes and breathe in the air and realize I'M IN PARIS!

Unfortunately when I came home from Spain, I immediately caught a cold that kept me inside most of my Wednesday earlier this week. It was around 5 pm, I was feeling slightly better, when I decided that I refused to lose a day in Paris because of this stupid cold. I dressed up cute, took my bike and did one of my favorite rides down the canal. [Riding bikes here is such a blast in Paris. Since they have bike lanes, and there's no traffic in them, just your occasional pedestrian who is just asking to get run over, the rides are smooth especially when you're going downhill.] I took my bike that day to the Parc de la Villette and took some pictures of the funland.

I liked that outfit so I took a picture of it!

I discovered this park a couple weeks ago after one of our Urban Exploration walks when I was on my own. It was designed by Bernard Tschumi and I was taken aback by it so much for some reason. The park is accented by the building's bright red color, and just the huge size of the park made me want to do somersaults on my bike. There were so many children there the 2nd time around, I couldn't help but take some cute pictures while they were in their own little worlds playing. When I got there my battery exhaustion light was flashing on my camera, so I could only explore one half of the park, so now I get to go back again! Plus theres a bookstore there I would love to check out. I am obsessed with bookstores.

I love the bright red of the buildings.

makes you wonder whats at the end of the bridge, no?

haha, I'm such a creep but this kid was sooo cute and he was coming right at me so I had to move out of the way for him.

I think it was the Urban Exploration walk we had this Thursday that really made me excited for this weather. As I said, we were all so used to the 80 degree temperature from Spain. The walk was called "A String of Pearls" which focused on the 'jewels' of Paris, like mansions, palaces, gardens, etc. We arrived at Place de Vosges in the 4th arrondissement, which was a courtyard designed by a King in the 1600's. We were all so cute dressed up in our fall jackets, scarves, hats and boots. The sun hit everything so perfectly like it always does in mid-October. Of course we arrived there and were freezing our butts off, and the entirety of the walk was focused on staying in the sun, but it was such a glamorous way to view the city. We passed by so many [expensive] boutiques I was so tempted to walk into and by a couple of schools, which for some reason is so fun for me to see all the young French students here. Our teacher brought us to a couple of round about 'places' with statues in the middle of kings or soldiers lost in wars, and a giant one near the end of the walk with your classic designer stores wrapped around it such as Dior. We walked through a park, saw the most beautiful carousel, little girls riding ponies [yes I wanted to ride one too], and ended up looking over the Obelisk near the Louvre with the Eiffel Tower in the distance. It was a great walk after being sick and coming back from Spain, and I am so looking forward to the second half of my trip here.

Place de Vosges

Love is in the air...

This was the window to a perfume store. The top started out as just a clear window but it gradually was a gradient of the prettiest shade of pink down to the bottom of the facade.

Pretty carousel near the Louvre/Obelisk

Oh and my birthday is in a month! I am so excited! There's still so much to do here ahead of me... My roommate Priyanka and I have our list of places to go in the last few free weekends we have left here.

-London (fall break)

-Amsterdam (Halloween weekend)

-Rome (last class trip, beginning of November)

-Prague (weekend before my birthday)

Then my two best friends Lindsay and Emma are visiting me during the week of Thanksgiving, the next two weeks are devoted to my finals, and then my parents are visiting me! I have about 10 days to kill before I come home to the states, so that will be a mixture of my parents' visit, packing up/cleaning our apartment, and taking my last and final trip to....the Greek Islands [Mykonos]! It's sad to see my trip has already reached its midpoint, but that doesn't mean it's going downhill. I am so excited to see what is in store for me the next few weeks, and then I get to come home and see everyone. I miss everyone so much and wish I could share my experience physically, but I guess that's what this blog is for in terms of sharing =]

Please send me emails and comments of how everyone is doing and if there are any exciting updates. I miss you all! My email is oolretaw@gmail.com

oh and one more thing. Fall is the best season for fashion, especially here in Paris. I've been obsessed with looking at fashion on websites. It inspires me to be creative with my wardrobe, which I definitely have been trying to do.

http://lookbook.nu/ and http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/ are my most inspirational websites to look at. Check them out; fashion is such an art! That's one more area of my artistic ability I'm trying to become an expert at!

Band recommendation: Badly Drawn Boy. I can't stop listening to them right now. [along with the Jazz of course... Frank Sinatra knows what he's talking about]

Currently reading: Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami. It was a recommendation from one of my friends here, originally written in Japanese. It's really good so far, I wish I had more time to read it!

Love always,

Becca