Last Blog?

I'm not sure yet if this will be the last blog? becasue this is the end the upcoming last week of the semester but   i don't know if we will have to blog about the last week we are here too. I got to see the west wing! aka the forbidden part of my house. my computer suddenly stopped working and i went upstairs to find come becuase i could hear he was up there from the music. so themystery is solved! except that there are like hundreds and hundreds more horse statues and pictures, and all sorts of creepy like charcoal portraits of come, margerite, and marie de laide. and there is a sclae up there! it has been like directly above me all semester, how weird it that. but it is still like trashed up there, it is seriously ridiculous. but then come disappeared into another level that i didnt know existed and i am still in the dark about that one. seeing that it took me a semester to get up to the first secret floor i doubt im going to get to see the top in a week.

abby came with us to the versailles meeting today (my friend fromknitting) but i think we were both disappointed in how much like class it was. yesterday we went to knitting in public. we were the first oness there i think? or maybe we just didnt see the big group buy she brought romain while she and i knitted for a while he read. then we found the big group. our group didnt have neough intererst so we joined with the "knitspirit group" (stupid name) because they said on their blog that knitspirit herself would make little kits for everyone who came. but then their group was like not very friendly and we tried to wait them out becuase i was sure she wouldnt want to carry all those packs back, but evidently she did becuase she never gave us any, she just like showed them off and then she even gave some to strangers! they had some needles in it and some yarn that looked like shoelaces kind of, and a little pattern. the thing i wanted most was the bag becuase it was red and snapped shut and had a great handle, it was just, SO GREAT! but anyway she didnt give us any and i didnt want any of her stupid bags anyway becuase the yarn was ugly. so we left. then we went to this little flea market kind of thing and walked around for a bit. i have made so much progress on my sweater! there are only 46 more rows until the body is done! i started the lace part too, the first row of it today but then i was too tired to do anymore without screwing up after the slave drive that was this morning. 

i finally bought some honey too, but it is not the right kind. even the honey specialty store saidt hat ivy honey did not exist so i bought some white lavender honey. i think it will be good anyway but im bummed i didnt find the right stuff after all. i was teasing with john that iw as just going to put an ivy honey label on it, but i guess honey actually tastes a little like what kind of flowers it was made form? oh well, lost cause. but this means souvenir shopping is over. i hope everything i bought is going to fit. i cannot wait to start packing! I am going to be home in less than 200 hours!

bordeaux

so i am rather unimpressed by the city of bordeaux itself. there is like NOTHING to do there. but I found a tour of the vineyards that was not to expensive and it was really fun. basically they gave us a lot of wines to taste starting from the youngest to oldest to teach us how to taste the different levels of tannins in a wine and how they get better if you dont drink a bottle of wine until 3 years after you buy it, and an hour after you open it. I also found the castle where I am totally going to get married, provided the economy is still bad enough for castles to be as affordable as they apparently are right now, when I get married. Other than that I have been making so much progress on my sweater. I am thinking about taking enxt weekend off from travelling becuase i already have plans with abby and kind of want to try to go to the beach. although, i gues i could just hang out with abby and go to the beach the last weekend I am here because it seems like that is going to be pretty hard to get out of town during just with getting everything packed up and everything. 

this is the first time i have just really not wanted to blog. it just feels like there is so much to cover. This week was rather uneventful, but the weekend was great. Friday I got up at the crack of dawn and went to Normandy. There I did a tour of the normandy beachs (the tour that john and I were supopsed to do when he was here. i feel so bad because he would have loved it). as soon as i arrived i was starving so i sat down in the first restaurant and ordered a plate of eggs and some bread, and they brought me out FIVE EGGS. these people a few tables down were british and they were just aghast by how many eggs were on my plate. it was so delicious. so then after getting downtown i found my tour which was like a van with these two other couples. By the end of the day i was like in love with the other people on my tour, they were so nice and friendly. and i learned so much, like i wasnt even particularly interested in the history of it until i learned it all. our guide was really sweet she knew literally everything. One of the other guys though, who had broken his ankle falling down the steps in the louvre, knew even more, like he knew everything she knew and then like, how to shoot the gun we were looking at, or the angle of incline of the cliffs. he was great, so nice. the tour was american themed so we went to omaha beach, gold beach? and the american cemetary. then i went to the british cemetary by myself before the tour even left. when we got back i got some salted caramel flavored gelato after dinner. i got to the train station early, my train didnt leave until 8:07 and i went back to the breakfast place to see if i could buy a newspaper and the same british couple was there, they heard me counting my money in english and they started talking to me and they said they couldnt believe how many egg i had been served and that they had thought i was french! which is great, except that i mean they dont speak any french so how would they know. then i was waiting by the track reading my french newspaper and these people from atlanta came up to me and like, as though they were speaking to a deaf child were like, "PARIS, FRANCE, HERE? like pointing to the track and like making train noises and i accidently responded in french then he went over back to his atlanta family and was like yea she says its here...and they kept being like no i think shes wrong, etc, until the mom was like shes not deaf she just cant understand you! lol, so then i went over and in english explained to them like the sign that said they were in the right place and how to compost their tickets. Then when I was walking away one of them said "wow you speak english so well for someone french, thanks!" lol.

    then yesterday i met up with my friend from knitting and we had such a great day. we went to the yarn store and she bought some of the cream silk that i bought for my stocking for her to make a shirt for her pacse with. i am getting kind of worried about how muppety my sweater is looking. the kidsilk haze just seems like it is thread, but to get the like airy feeling that everyone else made in theirs, i think i would have to use some thinner yarn. it just feels like it would be so fragile....but the things that were knitted up in the kidsilk haze were like, i mean they were  light and delicate but you could wear it without breaking it for sure. there is a thinner yarn that is the same blend as the yarn that i am using now at the cat'laine and i would only need 3 skeings of it but its still like nearly 8 euros a skein... plus i am kind of far along with the yarn i have now. I dunno, i wish i had a felting shaver because im hoping that just what i dont like is that it is so fuzzy and that it will seem lighter without all the fuzz. so then we went to the bon marche so she could get some needles for her pacse shirt. then we went to this place called the mosque and drank mint tea with sugar in it. it was really kind of special. it is this garden with fig trees in it and little tables and they just walk around with trays of the tea, which is so much better than you can imagine, and then if you want cookies you have to go inside. we got two different kinds of pistachio cookies, mine was more of a cake and hers was more of a doughnut. anyway, the only problem was it was really hot and we were both getting sunburned so we had to go kind of quickly. next we went to go letterboxing. the directions we had were to find one by the palais royal so we walked FOREVER to get to the palais royal, but then once we were there we realized that we were actually at the grand palais. at which point abby made me fall in love with her forever by puling a compass out of her purse so we could figure out where to go. we arrived at the palais royal (the buren columns that i am doing my project on are under renovation and like, not there at all right now...) there was an ouositde exhibit of pieces of the berlin wall which were decorated by artists, it was pretty cool. then we followed the directions to find the green box, and it was inside this hedge with people surrounding it. we were trying to think of a distraction so we could get in there without being seen but we finally just went for it, people noticed for sure. we found it and inside there was a buren column stamp for our books, but we hadnt made our stamps yet so we couldnt stamp the book :(. but there was some little extra thing in there called a hitchhiker. it was a eiffel tower stamp and if you find it you are supposed to take it and put it in the next one you find. so we drew something in the book, and took the hitchhiker, but then we couldnt figure out how to get it back in the hedge becuase the same people were still there and it looks kind of like a bomb...so heres where things get kind of sketchy...we took it. abby is going to get a stamp book, stamp the stamps, and take it back monday when different people are there. i really hope no one looks for it today! then we went grocery shopping, and i went back to her house and cooked stirfry for her and her boyfriend. it wasnt the best i have ever made it, but it was still pretty good, i was happy at least. we bought the biggest artichokes i have ever seen and cooked those too. her kitchen is like a martha stewart/ikea spawn. she has literally everything, a garlic press, a rollilng pin, a steamer, many cutting boards, great knives, several aprons. it was fantastic. romain, her boyfriend is very sweet. they were both really nervous that i was there i think, i could tell that she had like made him clean up over the day, they were really just adorable. he helped me study for my exam a little bit because i told him what my upcoming exam is on and he helped my practice the linking phrases like bien que and si bien que for example, and was correcting my oral grammaire. then he like got out this giant "le bon usage" book and started looking up rules for that for me and for accords. i dunno, it was cute. then he played games on my phone while abby and i knitted, knit? it was a really fun day. then when i got home beth had found the knitting group reportage and abby was like all over it. 

today i need to wrap up the bibliography for one of my classes but the girl i am supposed to meet with is not responding. i really need to get it done today because my like major french final is thursday, then next weekend i am going to bordeaux for a late birthday celebration so i doubt i will be able to accomplish much there. then the upcoming week, i like havent even started the project for my  last class yet so that week pretty much needs to be reserved for that. then all the sudden the whole thing is done and im 22 and graduated. what the hell.

Samantha's Visit and London

It is so hot in Paris. it was cold for the last 3 months, like far colder than i expected and then all the sudden it started being so hot i cant even stand it. my lazy days of sleeping until noon all but two days a week are OVER becuase it is too hot to sleep with the curtains drawn, and when they are open to let the breeze in I am basically sleeping in a sunbeam from about 9 am onward. which is good because i need to find some time to work out so i can wear a bathing suit when i get back to the united states, 11 days before the fourth of july. I just looked at the weather and it says that right now, at 6 pm is feels like it is 87 degrees.  BUt ooh it looks like it is going to rain hard toinhgt and then be not so hot again for at least the next 10 days the high is 76. I am spoiled by being used to being near-ish water at least. For a while today I felt really trapped here, especially since my allergies have been driving me crazy in the hot weather. 

 So my last post was entirely inaccurate becuase evidently I got the date wrong and Samantha was not arriving until monday. sobasically i sat in the sketchiest metro waiting for hours for no reason. the worst part is that the next day samantha had to do the same thing waiting for me the next day while i waited for my class to be over. As soon as she got here we dropped off her stuff, got some food, and went over to montmartre and saw the museum of eroticism and had drink over on that side of town. we saw sacre couer, and place de tertre, which I have only recently been able to consistantly locate, and then headed home. The next day I had class and she went over to the eiffel tower. we met up later and I cannot or the life of me remember what we did. The next day at 743 we went to london. Catching the trains thus far has been easy so when it said to be a half hour early i mean im usually a half hour early anyway, but the train itself was really early in the morning so we were goign to just get there a half hour early and we did, but then we got breakfast because usually you like just get on the train then once it arrives. after wasting about 15 minutes eating I realized that the track was upstairs so we went upstairs only to realize that there was like a luggage check, customs, LOTS of stuff to do, forms to fill out. Everyone who was already there was for a later train already so we had to like cut all of them, and we made it on the train 4 minutes before it left. Our first day there we saw a lot of really touristy things like westminster and parliment andthe eye, then we went to the half price ticket booth and bought tickets to see chicago that night. which was great. i wore my new vintage find a like velour fur shirtthat has tiger stripes on it. THATS what we did the night i forgot in paris, we went to the vintage stores in the marais and then walked up and down the champs elysee. so then the next day in london we went to abbey road and some like movie museum samantha wanted to see becuase she is obsessed with the beatles. I ate fish and chips with mushy peas SO MANY TIMES. i could eat that every day i think. we went out that night to this little bar that was recommended online with a bartender who looked like rhianna and she was so nice she was like are you guys going out tonight? and we were like uhh we are out...and then she kicked us out and told us we couldnt call that being out and it was pathetic and sent us over to this place called huxton square where there was like, du monde, essentially. we went to a mexican bar where i ruined the mood by ordering 3 bowls of different kind of mexican food. then we went to this sweet club kind of thing that looked like it was in someones house with like wallpaper and wooden floors, but we didnt stay very long becuase samantha didnt like its vibe. so then we cabbed it back and had the nicest cab driver who only made us pay 10 pounds instead of 12, and reminded us not to tip him. Our hostel was so cool , it was caleld the generator and had 800 people staying there. we had a private room so it was fine. it felt like camp! there were bunk beds and free breakfast with like the best muesili ever and you had to wait in line to put it on your tray. there was also a nighclub inside which was actually really fun. you had to eat breakfast in the night club   though becuase there was not evnough dining room space which was kind of funny. then the next day we went...to buckingham palace and the tower of london and brick lane. samantha and i both bought leather jackets which is im sure why it is so hot in paris now. then the next day we went to camden market whenre i bought so much stuff, i bought these earrings and a bracelet, and a tapestry that i love but I may or may not be too old to hang in my house (becuase the day i will be 22 is now on the 10 day weather thing on weather.com).  i got to eat more delicious emxican food at camden market!!! then we took the train  home and had a casual night in paris. sunday we went to the catacombs, we had to wait in line for nearly 2 hours! i met the nicest couple in line though, he was from south caroline and she was from belgium. there were like 15 really obnoxious kids from virginia tech in line in front of u though. then we came back here and went to the market by my house. later we went and had dinner and wine by the eiffel tower. 

The museum that I went to see for this week is the Tate Modern in London. I just realized i forgot to include that in the itinerary of what we did, I have no idea when we went, friday maybe? Anyway it was fantastic. It is just this huge space near the thames. The bottom level was this movement instalation that included like balance beams and tight ropes and climbing walls, and a hollow cylinder, and there were just children playing with them everywhere. the balance block made thing thundering noise everytime it hit the ground and it was in this huge room so it echoed too. then around the corner there was a video of the equipment being used by people repetitively. a few floors up there was a lot of matisse and picasso and warhol. this tied in really well with what we have been studying in howards class. I was really impressed with the collection, and that it was free, and that there were so many people there. The next floor was like the next half of modernity with a large collection of jackson pollock  and then kind of moving into theings that we have only just touched on rather then studied, like objects made from blood and food. there was a woman artist I had never heard of her but her stuff was amazing. i cant remember her name, but she was extremely recent and just painted pictures of distorted women. There was also a room playing a movie with like french nonsensical words playing over it, of a woman who iguess was like the creator of the idea of using self in her work. anyway it was of her hooking up with men in this like orgy, but then there was a lot of meat there too. like she would be making out with this guy and then all the sudden he would tear the head off of a chicken and start like thrashing it around. it was extremely bizarre, called meat love, and transitioned into a part of the museum that was mostly video experiments with and without sound including one that was just like gorss things with food. like this man dressed in a horrible outfit with an almost clown thing going on rubbing just bottles and bottles of ketchup in his sheets. it was pretty awful. so then we left and outside there was this great little lawn with almost a fair of performance art on it. like peoples art was their clothes, or they woul dset up a tent and recreate a scene, or pull up a trailer with their installation inside. it was like like the salon of rejects. there was this tent with a giant bed in it called grandmas bed and all these women were inside nursing their babies. basically i loved this museum far more than i thought i would and im  SO glad i went to it instead of a different one. Pictures coming as soon as samantha posts them!

In twenty minutes I am going to go get samantha from the metro/rer. I cant wait! and then londont his weekend, i thik i finally feel caught up from all the traveling of spring break to the extent that I am actually excited about traveling more. Because then after this it is bayeux next weekend, and then bordeaux. i hope i didnt lose the information on my reservations for bordeaux....becuase now i cant remember which hostel im staying in and such. hmmm ye ai have no idea that is a concern. not as big of a concerns as my socks though. they have turned into socks for someone with cankles. it is really too bad. i think i am going to need to start them all over again! but i kind of feel like i should stop until i get home so i can measure more. 

John graduated this weekend, and was almost as frustrated as when i graduated. his whole family was there, and going out to dinner and he and all his friends were going out at night. it would have been nice to be there, but also im just kind of jealous of how much actual pomp and circumstance went on. but to have graduated from law school, like that is so unbelievable. 

I had a rather more exciting weekend then usual even before samanthas arrival because come invited me to the movies with his friends TWICE! the movies were only 3 euros this weekend for some reason, so we went and saw star trek and angels and demons. both ended up being in english. his friends seem really nice, and everyone was very sweet about me being the weird foreign girl. i think people here are more used to it and judge less and are instead just impressed that youre trying .yesterday i figured out that i can  make spicy eggs in the microwave now that i have hot sauce. i put way too many peppers in them for the first time, but they were really good anyway. daffy the dog is visiting but i think come is the only one here besides that so daffy is staying in the kitchen, i wish he would come up and play. I am also not unconvinced that the old lady who  live across the street died...because we are on the same schedule somehow so i saw her all the time, until the other day i woke up when there was this giant flash of light in my room at 600 in the morning, and when i looked outside there were alll these firefighters and ambulances but no one had their  sirens on. maybe i have just been watching too much greys anatomy. actually i definitley have been watching too much greys anatomy. Once samantha leaves there is only like a month left until i leave, that is ridiculous.