Filling in the gaps - Day 0

slowly but surely I plan to fill in the gaps of those glorious five months last year. Marianne kindly pointed out to me that in yesterday's post I wrote a total of two sentences on the last two weeks in Paris while rambling on about other stuff :) Sorry... I guess that's how my mind works.


I'll be filling in the gaps little by little so stay tuned!


I'm calling today Day 0 since for some reason that's the way I have the pics organized on my external. 


The first thing we did after J & M got settled in my apt was go out to grab a bite to eat and just take in the city and the beautiful weather. We weaved through streets in the Marais until we arrived at l'As du fallafel-- best falafel in Paris and best falafel I've had ever. 

our little 3some on the girls' first real venture of the two weeks out into the city. we're still on my street here-- you can see Chez Janou on the left with the green awning.

Instead of paying extra to eat in, we decided to take our falafel pitas to go and eat on the steps of a church around the corner.

Here we are stuffing our faces... pretty good first meal in france.

We spent a few hours in the rest of the evening just walking-- possibly my favorite activity to do in Paris. There's so much to see and while I <3 the metro so much, it was June-- the weather was beautiful, the sun was about to set and you obviously can't enjoy these things as much when you're underground. We walked down toward the Louvre and Pont Neuf... 

laughed at a silly re-titling of the Hangover for France

enjoyed good company, good walks, beautiful views

acted shamelessly like tourists

and sipped beer on the walk home. We're going for a full cultural integration, right?

All in all, a joyous day that is making me miss my friends and last June while reliving it now.

Finally, a tribute to one of the best meals in Paris--

it's too bad the food is already demolished at this point. I will be looking for a better pic of the falafel to showcase. It will make your mouth water.

Looking back...

I never posted anything about the my last two weeks (and probably my FAVORITE two weeks) in Paris when Jessie and Marisa came and stayed with me. Charlotte and Eddie also came so we had quite a full house, but it was definitely the more the merrier, especially because it was my birthday week!

I'm supposed to be working on a paper about the relationship of an artist to his art... the radical empathy of Shakespeare-- are his characters more than he is or are they perhaps negated forms of him?... does an artist/playwright have to annihilate herself to take on and create other poetic identities (Keats-negative capability) ... Nietzsche says the artist "is, after all, only the precondition of his work, the womb, the soil, sometimes the dung and manure on which, out of which, it grows--and therefore in most cases something one must forget if one is to enjoy the work itself" ... are we supposed to remember that Astaire choreographed his routines and that he and Ginger did 100 takes of that last dance in Swingtime or should we stay strictly within the plot of the movie and think of them only as Lucky and Penny?

and I ramble.

Flights lax -> CDG for the week of Thanksgiving are $819 on US Airways.

We climbed the Eiffel Tower on my 21st birthday :) You're only allowed to go to the second level if you are not taking the elevator-- probably a good thing since I'm not sure we would have made it all the way to the top. This is our "after" picture. It's a pretty nice sum up of how much fun we had over those few days in Paris.

Hilarious video of me and Charlotte skyping with my mom when for some reason her voice sounded like a chipmunk :) All in all one of my favorite birthdays.


Addendum:

I forgot how much I love bangles. There's something about accessories that jingle that I think is charming. I used to wear a tiny bell pendant made out of copper that was gifted me when I went to Mexico on a "junior ambassador" program in 8th grade. It made a subtle clinking noise that I thought was cute as a freshman in high school... then a friend pointed out to me that it was something like a cowbell. I haven't worn it much since that comment. 

Une demi-annee apres...

Six months after returning back to the states I find myself missing my favorite city more and more every day.

The first month or two back it just felt good to be home and to see all the people I had missed for so long... For the past few months, though, I've found myself looking up flights to CDG at least twice a week.

I wish my French was better.

the importance of the weather forecast

I went out in this outfit today without checking the weather forecast - 20 mph winds. 

Big mistake!!! The Marilyn Monroe look is much more glamorous in pictures than it is in real life.

More Random Musings

I've given up on trying to update this thing diary-style and in chronological order of events. Get ready for a very short and disjointed post to match my very short attention span and disjointed thoughts right now.

I took this picture on the walk from Gare d'Austerlitz to the Grand Mosque de Paris where I had dinner with a bunch of other BC kids. I had the "tagine agneau" or lamb stew served in a "tagine" clay pot. soooooooo yummyyyyyy. There were a bunch of these signs posted on fences and walls that said things like this. "I could never forget you." "I love you." I wonder what the story is behind it...

I'm currently working on a paper about the ideology of the model minority. I think I'm going to argue that it requires assimiliation by the minority into the larger national culture which could lead to the disintegration of the minority ethnic culture and the formation of a monoculture... Sound good???

Also, I pledge to always do my dishes after I cook at home from now on.

Random Musings on Life in Paris

For whatever reason, potatoes and garlic seem to sprout here. I assume that means theyre overripe? but I really have no idea. Anyway, I know my dad would scold me for saying this, but I think sprouting potatoes are pretty gross. That's not to say that I wouldn't eat them. I just plucked/cut all of these sprouts off, made a big batch of yummy roasted potatoes and froze them. That being said, I wasn't at all annoyed when a new batch of my potatoes started sprouting two weeks later and one of my roommates threw them out without saying anything to me.