Saturday, April 25, 2009

Is this much cuteness possible?



Marc's adorable Neice Manon age 5 with his boxer Asterix and The Little Monster Gwen age 3 in the back seat of the car after preschool!

Llyod and Harry!


I was on the set of Dumb and Dummer in Paris...

Excuse me miss, what's the tarte du jour?

That's the tart of the day...

UM! that sounds good, i'll have that!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

T minus 26






I must enjoy every moment I have left here, so last night I went out, and for some reason did not go to bed until 5 am. This is me and the man I aspire to be, god, I want his facial hair capabilities. And yes, I wore a baithing suit as a shirt. At the end of the night we ended up at this insanely beautiful extravigantly sized apt... the views from the balcony were amazing, and so was this surfer statue.

Back to life, Back to reality






After two weeks of traveling I arrived home yesterday and decided to bike to the beach. My ride out there was pleasant, the sun was high and very strong. I found a nice little patch of sand, derobbed and relaxed... for about 20 mins until I saw very scary rain clouds roll in. So, I got back on my bike and hit the trail. My intention was to bike as quickly as possible, however, this guy decided it was his duty to help me pass the time by talking to me and repeatedly asking me out, while i repeatedly said i have to do my home work tonight... yes, it was a Saturday. I think that's worse than if I said I had to wash my hair... I wanted to tell him his slow peddeling was a drag. But instead I was polite and dealt with him for more than an hour.

The trail to the beach passes by the biggest horse farm I have ever seen... it streches for more than a mile and has some absolutely beautiful ponies scattered through their fields.

I love Paris in the spring time






Tyler's first night in Paris we ate at a restaurant overlooking Nautre Dame, where we listened to some nice man playing piano... after we took the boat ride through the city around sunset, it was beautiful, sadly, toward the end both of us had gotten so cold we begged for it to end. I think that is my 5th time taking said boat. Maybe the 6th will be romantic...

18 miles, his parts hated it!





While Tyler and I were in Paris the weather was overcast and rainy, so when we got to Mtown and there was sun, I knew we had to leap at it. We left our bags at my house, grabbed bikes, and charged towards the beach. Unfortunately for Tyler, it was not a comfortable bike seat experience... the ride to the beach is 12 km...9 miles in each direction. It is a ride that typically takes around an hour and a half. It took us a little extra time on the way there, stopping for groinal relaxation... but when we realized how late it was, after only spending 45 mins at the beach we booked it back and made it home in 50 mins! look at us.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

the pitbull meets the pomeranian



So I got a new camera yesterday, thanks mom and dad! And with it there were some tinny little reminders that i do have the world's CUTEST dog ever!

his perfect face and his inquisitive nature!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Spring Time in Paris



Tyler is sleeping off the plane ride and it just stopped raining, here is the view from our window.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

call me Jérome!


Here is my impression of a French Hipster kid, I am with my friend Laurent. I met him because the night before he was wearing a chicago bulls flat brim hat... what's not to like?

Amendine a 18 ans!




My French sister Amendine turned 18 a few weeks back, and had the cutest soirée. It was incredible, these little 17, 18 year olds had a dinner party like adults... No keg, no stupidity, just nice wine and beautifully presented finger foods. Well, it was incredible for several reason... the first being the aforementioned well behaved youngsters, the 2nd being that the boys were cuter than anything I have ever seen! Where were they when I was 17? oh right, they were 10! There was one boy in particular that was so adorable and sweet and SMART, after chatting with him and his friends for a bit one kindly asked me how old I was, when I said 24, he replied, unabashedly, OH SHE'S TOO OLD for you! OH MY GOD! I'M OLD! ha ha. In great contrast to how the parties in the states go, the boys danced their booties off all night! Here are a few pictures of them busting a move... also a picture of me and Benedicte.

DINER du monde!




A few weeks ago, Karoi, Shova, Christy, Marc and I got together and made an international dinner... it was amazing! Shova made food from India, oh, I forgot to mention she speaks 5 languages, besides being a total babe she is beyond capable! Karoi made Japanese cakes for dessert, Marc made the most amazing crepes I have EVER tasted and I made mud pudding, as per request of Shova... she said another American girl had made it for her in the past. Incase you don't know what that is, it'
s chocolate pudding as the base, crushed oreo's as second layer, too much whipped cream as the top and then those disgusting jelly worms throughout... so it is like mud...

well, it was great! before dinner we played french pictionary, REALLY FUNNY! Christy and I totally dominated, there is nothing I take more seriously than board game competition... I blame it on my family... maybe even Tyler... I DIDN'T let you down!

Here are a few pictures of the night.

Soirée des filles!




Last week a group of 6 beautiful girls hit the town; Me, Christy (American), Shova (Nepalese), Karoi (Japanese), Benedicte (Norwegian) and Lucia (Slovakian)... an extremely diverse group and extremly beautiful! It is incredible to converse with girls from all over the world, using french as our uniter. We started our night at SHIVA, a rather expensive but so worth it Indian Restaurant at Place Antigone. First we were given a round of free drinks, we all opted for the Mango sans alcohol beverage. It was so pretty and pink! We went with two coupons, buy one meal get another free... knowing quite well that it was only one coupon per table... our waiter told us that they would make an exception for us because we brought 6 beautiful girls into their restaurant! Oh, isn't life hard?! After dinner some of us head out to Le HUIT, the only bar in Mtown that I acutally enjoy going to... the place is crawling with insanley cute skater boys! Sadly, for the past month I have had no photos of my own, because my camera was stolen, but here are a few I stole from the other girls. Benedicte is the only one missing from these photos, she will appear in my next post.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

finally seeing clearly


So it has been a month or more since i've posted anything new... sincerest apologies. I will over the next few days be posting plenty of photos and the stories that accompanied them. For right now I am heading out to to enjoy the day... and all the wonderful possibilities it has to offer. For now here is a photo of me and my new glasses, yes, they are real rayban's, I have been patiently waiting 24 years for a pair, and i got 'em.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

the day of JOUR




Yesterday, Claire, my host father's sister (and he said she said you said... no) took me riding. It was amazing. I am so glad I lugged my riding stuff over seas! The day was epic. First we arrive and everyone is drinking tea and eating croissants and chocolate and relaxing. We get our horse assignments and I have "jour" which means "day" in english. There are two rides of the day, the first is a Trail ride, and it was beautiful! We braked for lunch... 2 hours of lunch! I had chocolate cake, chocolate pudding, and dark chocolate bars! (I ate much more than that, but it was heaven, chocolate and horses!) In the afernoon we rode a small cross-country course. We jumped logs, fences and barrels. I felt very comfortable with Jour and may have actually fallen in love! (I still love you Russell) It just reiterated that I can't live without horses. It was only Claire's 4th time riding (her daughter that has been riding for a few years finally convinced her) and she did amazing! I hope to go as often as I can afford!

Emil Nolde





Last Thursday I went to Musée Fabre to see the Emil Nolde exhibit. I am typically an avid museum hater,
but after seeing advertisements for his work I counted the days until it would be open. A little background information on Emil. He was born in Germany in 1887 as Emil Hansen (and would late change his name to leave behind his farmer family name). He was a supporter of the early Nazi party, but his artwork would later be banned and burned my Hitler. He died in 1956 after being given an award of honor by the German government.

I have mixed feelings of his as a person... but his artwork covers every spectrum. Going from one room to the next I couldn't believe all the works had been done by one individual. Here is a small example. My two favorite works by him could not be found on the Internet, Sadly.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Weekend in BED! uh... Weekend in AIX!





This weekend I visited G in Aix, we had plans to go to the beach, go to his mother's, take a tour... and instead, I didn't get out of bed at all! I was like a little princess, I ate every meal in bed and I finally saw every installment of Back to the Future! Friday night G had to work and I went with him. The venue he books had a show... now, let me say, that if you thought Metal was questionable in English, wait until you see it in French. OH MY, all these guys are going around kissing eachother hello and then screaming the language of love, AMAZING, YES! So I eventually made my way to "back stage" with a balnket and slept off the show. Saturday I got out of bed at 6pm, G had to go back to the venue for a few hours, and I said, like little suzzie homemaker... ok, i will make dinner. Well, funny story... I was so hungry while waiting I first ate half a block of cheese, proceeded to just about burn his house down (cause i didn't realize there was a cover on the hot plate--note the gigantic burn in the photo) and then did NOT have dinner on the table when he got back. Sunday I stayed in bed again until 6pm, just enough time to finally shower, run to get what G calls an "emotion cookie"-soooo good it gives you emotions (it was amazing!) and make it to my train. Here are the pictures of the weekend. I have included a picutre of G inwhich I say he has only 1 thing on his brain--CHOCOLATE!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

First Supper

Last night was my first night at Chez Christine and Didi. Dinner every night will be promptly at 8pm. Friday started the 2 week spring break for actual French students, so both the "kids" 18 (Amendine ... totally butchered the spelling of her name) and 19 (Simon) were out of the house, so dinner was just me with "mom" and "dad." It was great. An amzing and simple veggie meal with great brown rice!! We sat at the table for over two hours--Didi is hysterically funny. And then dessert was fruit. I had a pear... which I ate with a knife... however did I eat a pear before last night... how prehistoric to eat with your hands and mouth only. After dinner I gladly retired to my room for the evening and watched Real World Brooklyn... until 3 am. eeek. I just knew I was too sick to try to navigate getting to a Bar.
The weather looks nice out today, although this window eveluation can be desceptive. I think I hear wind. More to come later...

Saturday, February 7, 2009

NEW ROOM! more sun!

So, it has occurred to me that I am 24! eeek! i have been living out of my parents house for 6 years and I just needed some more space, independence, liberty... so today I switched houses. Now I have my own house entrance, sink in my room, and a nice big desk. Here are the pictures of my new room. I have only been here for a few hours, I did some running around this morning, bought a 12 à 25 card so I can now buy train tickets for extreemly cheap and unpacked. I will detail the new "family" when I get to know them.