Paris

Bonjour!

Oh golly, where to start…well, I could give a re-cap of each day, but I don’t actually remember what happened in each day…So I will tell you things in the sequence of images on my camera.

To start, we arrived as weary travelers in the middle of the day on Friday. A grocery trip, dinner and sleeping followed. We are such party animals. Watch out Paris!

Montmartre…up on a hill, away from the busy, loud Paris is a cute little town with artists and pretty buildings. We went here on our first day (I think…) and had an interesting lunch where people freaked out when they found out we were from Kansas (?) and where a strange man dressed in a white suit (accompanied by a white hat) seemed to stalk us the whole day…everywhere we were, he was too…coincidence? I think yes. Our day concluded with wandering the streets of Paris…(sunburn status: we good.)

The next day, my camera is telling me we frolicked to Saint-Chapelle, and is also reminding me (by lack of images) that we were ripped off. We waited in line for about thirty minutes, went through a security thingy (like at the airport) and paid cash-monies to see one room…grrrr. But it was pretty and gaudy as heck (oh Paris and your love of all things gold and those creepy little angels with their beady little eyes…)…then my feet started crying tears of blood (over exaggeration) so we went home for a while and ventured back out to an internet café only to be hit on by the most awkward French man ever…a painfully dull 45-minute conversation ensued ending with us going “oh, look at the time…”(sunburn update: grrr…pink frosting colored…yum)

Anywho…Next, Mr. Camera went to Notre Dame, which was GORGEOUS. OMG (literally). We arrived early enough for no lines, hardly any tourists, and they still had the chandeliers lit which made majestic-like images inevitable…after the happy-hunchback extravaganza we meandered into the Latin quarter, stalked some chocolate shops (we are females, give us a break). We ate our little packed lunches (oh elementary school, how I miss you…) by the Fontaine de Medicis while staring at some scary green man. It was super duper hot so we decided that ice cream was a beautiful idea…followed by copious amounts of water and shade. (sunburn status: noticably a tourist)

Uhm…I’m lost as to what day it is…I remember that once upon a time in a land that was super freakin’ hot we tried to go to see some dead people buried under ground (the catacombs) but it was flooded… *melodramatic tear* …

Hmmm…we saw the Eiffel tower…ugly as heck! Hehehe, we saw other touristy things, a lot of which I did not take pictures of because I saw no point…

We went to the Louvre, but I got sick while inside within the first few moments, so we did not stay long. Although I did see one of my favorite da Vinci paintings, Virgin of the Rocks. Sadly, we did not see the entire museum. But, on the next day, before traveling back (on a train that lost power three times) we went to Centre Pompidou, a modern art gallery, and I got in free (said I was Dutch…yay lying!) and I saw so many artists that I like (and a bunch that I want to punch in the face)…there was Picaso (of course- but none of his super famous pieces), Francis Bacon (had some sort of mental issue…but made cool paintings), Kandinsky, Rothko (who saved my booty back at USC...long story), and many others…although the museum also was plagued by those artists who give all the others a bad name, such as Klein (stupid neo-dada) and Pollock (with his "I feel where the paint wants to go, and I just put it there"...wow...really?)…hmmm…who else did I see…oh, Miro, whose work reminds me of a happier version of Dali (and not so gross), and Louise Bourgeois (girl is curzy.), Giacometti’s creepy emaciated figures were chillin’ in there also…all in all, it was wonderful. I loved it. It was the perfect end to the trip. After the museum visit, we packed our things, got onto the train, and were home just before midnight. (sunburn status: doesn't matter, we are back in the land of coats and scarves!)

So…that was our trip in Paris. A lot of walking. A lot of admiring gorgeous architecture. A lot of sweating and sunburns and freckle explosions. And best of all, a rekindled desire to immerse myself in good literature, and paint/bake my life away. No worries though- I’ll not do anything drastic (like bake 400 cupcakes again…) and stick to the whole ruling-the-Asian-business-world game that I have been playing for awhile now. Maybe I can woo potential investors with pastries?

The upcoming days/weeks will be annoying. I have projects due in three classes and exams to prepare for. So, don’t expect super intense posts- anticipate the mundane-this-is-my-life posts that I have been doing recently, and eventually one from Switzerland will pop up…one of these days.

Love you! 63 days!

Picture time...

Montmartre and Sacré-Cœur

Sainte-Chapelle

Catedral Notre-Dame

That giant touristy-arche thing

The city.

most awesome door ever

I only love Paris in the rain...the following images are why...

Short and Sweet

Home. Alive. Pictures of trip to come when my brain thaws from traveling.

Love you.

Bonjour!

Bonjour from Paris!

First of all, this post has the potential to be quite short due to the French keyboard I am typing on, so if there are any odd misspellings, I apologize in advance.

Well...turns out Hilary brought the good weather with her, it has been super hot the whole time we have been here, maybe a bit too hot considering our reddened cheeks and pink sholders.

Our apartments that we are staying in are supposed to have internet but it turns out our laptops do not speak the same language as the wifi connection (or we are just dumb) so we are currently in an internet cafe a little way down the street from where we are staying.

Likewise, sorry if this post lacks the quirky, semi-nonsensical way i usually post/talk- this darned computer is making typing some sort of a mental test I forgot to study for.

Anyways,

Got my score from Statistics back (finally) and I passed with flying colors (does that saying make sense to anyone anymore? Flying colors, sounds like you are tripping on acid or something, which would not hint towards any sort of academic success...I digress)

Basically, our time here has been fun. We are avoiding touristy places (but still walking by, taking pictures quickly, and then blending back into the Parisian crowd...or as blended as two English speaking, staring-and-pointing Americans can be).

My keyboard has the 'µ' sign in a prevalent position, but not the '.' (period) button (requires a shift-key to get to it).

Let's go on a strange key quest!

§ ¤ ² ° £ ¨ `

all of these keys are in common positions...how often is someone going to use the 'squared' key ('²') in common type? Or why in the hell would they use it more often than the period button... France...please try to make more sense. Merci.

Oh golly sucks darn family, just typing this much has taken me thirty minutes (although I blame that on Hilary being next to me, and my persistant conversation with my keyboard, questioning its motives in messing with my head.)

On a different note, tomorrow we will hide from the sun (and give our tired bodies a break) and wander through the catacombs (yay dead people!) and then perhaps find some artsy places or something equally lovely. Also, I should write a book on how to see Paris in a week on the budget of a homeless person. One word. Skillz. (do the French not end their sentences in periods or something? Come on! Stupid shift, then '.' )

I should stop complaining now. 2² (one last thing- I have to shift for the '2' button, but not for the '²'??? AAAAAHHHHHH)

Okay, we will go be Frenchy now, sans the dumb keyboards.

Nighty Night...or...Good afternoon?

Lucky Ones

Oh my goodness family...guess who dominates at finding cheap places to stay in the wonderful city of Paris?

ME!

Yup. Here is how this fiasco turned into a glorious triumph:

1. We search for hostels. All are booked for the weekend, and are going to be about 60 euro per person a night, no kitchen, and a bathroom down the hall.

eck.

2. I start looking for apartments to rent for a week or so (because I remembered Marie found something similar in Amsterdam) and we find a super sketchy place in district 10 for 270 euro for Friday through Thursday (6 nights)...

But we didn't feel like being murdered in our sleep, so I kept looking and...

3. I find an adorable little apartment (with kitchen and bathroom) for less than the amount to stay in a hostel (which would have no kitchen or bathroom) in the 9th district. so I book it.

then...

this adorable little apartment was actually overbooked for Friday-Sunday... sad face.

I was worried and frightened that we would be wandering the streets of Paris homeless from Friday through Sunday...everything was booked for the weekend!

then, all of a sudden...

the lady who was going to rent us the lovely little apartment agreed to put us up in one of her other apartments (even nicer than the first) for Friday- Sunday at the same price (otherwise, it would have cost 176 euro a night)!

So...you now have the privilege of drooling over our cute little apartments in Paris. Below I have put a picture of central Paris, with red dots for the two apartments, as well as pictures...enjoy!

Apartment One (for Friday through Sunday)

Apartment Two (for Sunday through Thursday)

SCORE!!!

more updates later...

Tulips, the Sea, and Alkmaar

Well...Saturday proved to be a splendiferous day in the wonderful world of Taylor, and the joy continued with picking Hilary up from the airport today. We are currently sipping tea and vegging until dinner, and then sleep. Lame first day...but you know you are tired when you get excited at the prospect of lying down.

Anyways, I have some pictures of Sébastien's and my adventure yesterday.

We first drove through fields of glistening gold, pretty pink (yay alliteration!), and other lovely arrays of beauty. The famers (or gardeners?) had started to harvest (or pick?) the flowers earlier that week, so many of the fields had been stripped of their glory. Some fields even looked like war zones; remnants of the most adorable battles ever.

Then we frolicked off to the sea, where we...uh...watched the water? It was really nice, but eventually became quite cold (my hands looked like they were dead. It made me sad. Why did God make me so pale? Was it some sort of a sick joke?)

Finally, we traveled to the most beautiful place I have seen in Europe thus far...Alkmaar. It's like a mini-Amsterdam, with quainter streets and canals, and super wonderful everything! I am in love with this place, and I want to go back and live there for a month!

Here are some photographs of the journey:

Sébastien relaxing in the fields

Desolate lands...

My heart cries for those lost.

Destruction!!!

Sexy.

F This University.

I QUIT.

This will be a very angry and short post.

I got the result from my statistics exam back...

guess what I got.

a ZERO.

Yup, they think I didn't even take the exam, thus my final score in the class is a 2 (out of 10).

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS FREAKIN' UNIVERSITY?!!!

I have e-mailed them, and I will do all that I can.

The sucky thing? There is no proof, except for the exam, that I was there.

awesome.

And the world comes crashing down...

It is midnight here, and as usual I cannot sleep...so I will write what little things I know...

The internet gods have decided to grant us with their heavenly powers once again…hallelujah.

Yet, with every good thing comes something bad…

Our house is sad. It keeps crying. It is crying up through the kitchen sink, onto the floors, and out of the washing machine…we don’t know how to make it happy again, but the land lord will come tomorrow to give it medicine (a.k.a. rip up the kitchen floors and bang on some pipes). Until then, we need to be cautious showering (time for me to tap into my smelly-Euro-self) and using the washing machine is questionable (it attacked everything that cleans!).

More sad news…I failed my International Business exam. I needed a 5.5, I got a 5.3. The first time in my life I have not made an A…and it just so happens to be an F! AHHHH!!! I kinda feel like a failure, but I know that is an irrational thought. Good news is that I can do a re-sit in June which will fully replace my initial score. Still…this is a monumental failure in my mind. I didn’t even fail with reason…had I been partying like crazy, or even traveling so much I could not study, I would be okay with this score, but no…it was none of these things. Arg. I will stop pouting now…

I GET TO SEE TULIP FIELDS ON SATURDAY!!!

And then…

HILARY COMES ON SUNDAY!!!

Golly…things are getting super exciting around here.

But, other than that…nothing much is going on. Just a lot of studying (and working on a paper all day…uuuuugh…my brain is jell-o. The blue kind.)

OH! I have finished my painting…below you can see it from beginning to end. hahahaha

Yes...I decided I hated it after I painted the bird. The wings looked too small, almost like they were clipped, so I decided to go a new direction. With the assistance of Sebastien, we created a masterpiece (until I think of something else to paint).

Good night family! I love you all! 78 days!