Calcium Fortified

(wrote yesterday. posting now.)

I'm in David's kitchen right now, writing on a word document because there's no wi-fi. I'm watching at the calcium fortified apple pie bakes in the oven. Wait? What? Calcium fortified?

Yep.

Turns out, a jar of calcium looks deceptively like a jar of flour.

So. . . we'll see how that goes.

So I'm here in Verscio! It's fun to see everyone again. It's so weird, I feel like I was just with them, saying, "Bye! Good luck on your final piece!" Then a month later - bam! They're done with their final pieces. Last time I saw them, they didn't even know what they were going to do, and now each of them have created a 15 minute piece representing the culmination of the work and time a Teatro Dimitri. To me it seems like they made them overnight. David said he had a much different perspective.

at the hospital

Speaking of David, I need to learn to drive stick shift. Sorry, confusing jump. Last night David hit his head and was bleeding. Right above the eye, like when people get in a fight in a movie and they have that one wound in the corner just above the eye that slowly drips blood until the protagonist's woman gingerly bandages it. But that didn't happen. Instead, we went to the hospital to see if he needed stitches (he didn't. He's totally fine. Yay David!). But to GET to the hospital, someone needed to drive. I was completely useless because we're in Europe and there are no automatic cars. Point being: I need to learn to drive stick in case I need to ever drive someone to the hospital and there's no one else around to do it. Or - and this is a scenario I've thought of before - if I'm being chased/attacked and I need to jump into someone's car to get away, and the only ones around are stick.

I'd be screwed.

So, yes, I will be learning to drive stick shift when I get home. . . but my car is automatic. Any volunteers willing to let me learn on their car?

In other news. . . I don't really have an "in other news." I think that's all my news. There are a couple things I could talk about, but nothing super exciting or adventurous. . .

I was sitting here for a minute trying to figure out what to do, when I realized that what I really, really want to do deep down inside is make coffee. So I'm going to do that. And shower. Then take the pie out. Then go watch the final pieces of David & his friends again. For 5 hours.

from David's piece

 Yep, yep. Life is good.

Love you all.

(a bit later)

Showered. Coffee is brewing. I just realized the pie was cooking at a much too low temperature, so I turned it up. . . I really will be interested to see how this pie turns out. Maybe I've stumbled onto something. . . or maybe it'll be gross. I guess we'll see.

So now until I'm just kind of twiddling my thumbs until it looks like I can take the pie out of the oven. Drinking Italian coffee, which I'm sure I'll be reminded about it's strength in a bit, and eating an apple.

Hannah with a heart-shaped stop light in BCN

Oh! Questions for you:

1) A lot of the cool people I've met that blog have fitting urls. For example, Hannah Hart (Hart is her middle name) has www.hart-beat.com , so that's cool. Check it out if you get the chance! She's the expert on all things romantic. She's also going to have a shop in NY someday, so maybe if you can tell her that you've been a loyal reader for years, she'll give you a discount. But here's the question: do you have any ideas for a cleaver url for me?

2) Shoot dang. Forgot the second question.

3) The pie looks done! Yay. Perfect timing. K, bye!

(later)

It's later! And this is me remembering how strong Italian coffee is. Woooooooo!

The pie turned out okay. People liked it, and I feel like my bones are stronger, too, so that's good. I wish I could stay up and write emails to you all, but alas, I have no internet, remember?

Speaking of remembering, I just remembered that I'm reading an excellent book right now. So I think I'll go brush my teeth and read that. (Everyone else is brushing their teeth and going to sleep. They didn't have an American sized coffee cup of Italian espresso.)

Night all. Sleep well. Chooz. (That's not how you actually spell it. I'll ask David how to spell it. He says it's Swiss-German, so I can spell it however I want. No rules.)

Okay, cool.

Chooz!

Blades

Hey! Guess what I did today! You'll never guess. Okay, I'll tell you. I went ROLLERBLADING! (which I learned just now is one word).

You: You mean like in a padded room wearing lots of protective gear?
Me: No! Outside! In the open!
You: What?! No. Lila, don't you know that's for coordinated people?
Me: I know! I was just as surprised as you are!

So, ya. Today I went rollerblading. Outside. It was great fun. I learned very quickly, though, that I had absolutely no idea how to brake on roller blades (what? now spell check is telling me it's two words. . . whatever). So that was a little problematic. The only times I have roller bladed before were quite a long time ago and I was just going in circles at the Santa Cruz Roller Rink. I stopped by running into a wall, which proves difficult when you're outside with no walls.

So I had to learn to stop. Which I did! Kinda. Mostly. Good enough. But not super good. At first I realized that to slow down, I was putting my toes together like you do in skiing. Hint: that doesn't work. Duh.

But eventually, I got it! At least well enough to feel mostly safe and like I wasn't going to accidentally roll myself into the lake or run over a small child. So that was great fun. I roller bladed down by the lake and around the town a bit. There was one hill that I was like, "screw that" because at the end of the slope, it had nothing for me to run into but the lake.Or fall and die/break something. So I took off my skates and walked. Dad would have been proud (avoid the big disaster!), Stuart, not so much. Whatever. I went up it later, so that still counts.

So, ya. Today was super fun. I roller bladed for quite awhile. I only came back because a) I was hungry and food is expensive here, and b) I was getting sunburned, which I usually don't mind too much, but not with awkward tank top and back pack burn lines.

Plus I think this may be my last blog entry for awhile. I've been super lucky to have wi-fi in residence for the past couple days, but I don't know when the next time I'll have that is.

So...

I want to say a major THANK YOU to my excellent hosts Lili and Ludo. I know that Lili said she'd stop reading this, but I'm hoping that she secretly still does so that she'll see this. Lili and Ludo have been really, really awesome hosts. They're just awesome in general. Their that top tier of normal people. You know, first tier holds the Mother Teresas, Nelson Mandellas, MLK Jrs, Gandhis of the world, then the second tier has the best people that maybe haven't saved a whole country. The Kelly Kurtenbachs, Kim & Blake Carpenters, Jazmin Aguileras of the world. Lili & Ludo are in that tier.

Last night we went to fondu! It was super delicious. On the way there, we made Ludo stop the car so we could take pictures with the field of sunflowers we passed by. . . We actually made him turn around and then stop the car. He's a very gracious host. Then we went to fondu! But first at the fondu place, we went on a little walk up the the top of the canyon, and Lili took a "I'm king of the world!" picture for me. It looks like I'm powerful and mysterious. I like it. Then delicious, cheesy, thick, yummy fondu! On the way home, he stopped the car to touch a cow. 

Then we came home and watched Zombieland and ate apple pie. The apple pie didn't turn out too bad. I think I'll made it again for the rest of my hosts. Bring them a little bit of America. Maybe by the time I come back, I'll be an expert apple pie maker, like my dad. 

In other news, I think I want to get a pet rabbit. They're awesome. Depending on where I live next year, this is a serious possibility. . . I may start with a fish, though. Just to make sure I can handle it.


Here's me looking powerful & mysterious:

Neuchatel Makes Me Think of Chocolate

I don't know why Neuchatel makes me think of chocolate, but it does. Not the town, the name. Is there a chocolate called Neuchatel? 10 points to whoever can help me figure out why Neuchatel makes me think of chocolate.

In other news (well, I guess it's not super other. It's actually rather closely related), I love Neuchatel. It's cute and small and has a lovely lake. I was expecting to take day trips, but I don't really see that happening any more. There's just no point. Why would I pay money to leave somewhere I'm enjoying?

Lili and Ludo (her boyfriend) are really excellent hosts. I know Lili said she was going to stop reading the blog so that I could write whatever I wanted about them, but I'm still going to write about how wonderful they are, because it's the truth. Ludo is Canadian (from Quebec. Apparently, according to Lili, there's quite a distinction from people from Quebec and people from normal Canada. "Normal" isn't the right word there, but hopefully you understand) and Lili is French. They met each other when Lili was in Montreal, and I met Lili in a theater class at Cal two years ago. Now we're all in Switzerland. It's funny how small the world feels sometimes.

Anyways, they're both great. They have two bunnies that they love: Pumpernickle & Kartoffel. I had no idea that rabbits were the coolest pets in the world. They're clean and cute and run (well, hop. They're rabbits) around the apartment. They're trained to use a litter box, and Lili taught them tricks. It's awesome. I want a rabbit.

Last night Ludo cooked a delicious dinner. Salad with duck something (neck? I think that's what Lili said) and cheese and bread and nuts and just all around delicious. Seriously, they've been great hosts. I have a whole room to myself! The last time that happened I was in Dado's room (ha! Who is now in my room in California. Funny.).

Anyways, yesterday I spent most my time down at the lake. Reading, writing, swimming, doing nothing. Then last night we had the aforementioned delicious dinner and then went on a drive through the country side.

Then today I did some more nothing. Slept in late, walked to the train station to get train stuff figured out, walked to the post office, walked down to the lake, more reading, writing, and nothing. Took some pictures of swans. (They're everywhere!). Then it started to rain a bit, so I started meandering back. Stopped by Coop (i.e. Safeway) to pick up some food to make my wonderful hosts a dish from my motherland. Do you know what's hard? Picking out spices when you can't read OR smell them.

Then I came home and made said dish (while listening to One Direction. Don't judge). Apple pie. I don't really know how it turned out. . . I guess we'll see. It could be good, or it could be really not good. Instead of using measurements, it was more just, "umm, some of this and a little of this and some of this." So, it could very easily go either way.

You can't really tell from the picture, but the top is made out of hearts and stars. Hearts 'cause I'm a girl. Stars 'cause I'm American. Also, it's not as burnt as it looks. Or maybe it is. But in my defense, I only cooked it for 35 minutes, when it's supposed to cook 40-50. So not my fault.

Now it's thunder & lightening (sp??) outside, and I'm warm and cozy inside. I think I'll eat some bread and cheese.

Eating bread and cheese.

Cheese is one thing America needs to get better at. . . or maybe I just never knew that we have good cheese because I've just been eating cheddar for 22 years. Do we have good cheese?

Tonight we were going to do 2 out of these 3 things: fondu (even though it's summer and it's a winter thing to do/eat. Like baking Christmas cookies in July), go to the movie festival, or go hiking in the canyon. With the weather, I guess the decision was made for us. Which is nice, because decisions can be tricky.

Okay, I'm going to go reply to some emails, drink some water, and do other normal things. Today has been a very normal day. I keep smiling every time I remember I'm in Switzerland.

Free Internet

(I wrote this earlier today. Now I'm copy & pasting it for you)

I was planning to sleep on this train, but then I saw that it had free internet. But THEN it turned out that  it's free interenet after you pay. Ya, riddle me that. And I don't want to pay for internet, but I got all in the mood to write to you guys, so here I am - on a word document. Again. I'll copy and paste it later.

I was hoping to feel all better this morning, but that's unfortunately not the case. I bought another liter of oj. This one was 4.95 euros. Still totally worth it.

I'm on a train to Switzerland. One of 4. Some people don't like big travel days, but I do. Usually. If there are a million connections and little half hour train rides, it can be annoying. But a couple long train rides, I find that pretty pleasant. I like seeing everything. And it's nice to just sit without feeling like I should be out doing stuff.

It's raining outside. It looks. . . dreary. But the kind of dreary that would be quite pleasant if you were inside with a book and some tea. I'm hoping the rain will let up between 17:32-18:00 (when I have to walk outside), but other than that, it can rain as much as it wants.

It's funny this is summer.

No more hostels for a month (ish), so that's exciting. Switzerland with Lili, Switzerland with David, Amsterdam with Kat, Berlin with Nadja, Poland with Marta (may or may not need a hostel, tbd), Czech (hostel needed), Austria (hostel needed), California (no hostel needed).

Quite exciting.

I don't know what else to tell you. Umm. . . went to Bruges yesterday. Rented a bike and rode it around. Saw some windmills. The whole town looks like it's frozen in medieval times.

Okay, I'm ready to be done writing. Who knows, maybe I'll even fall asleep. Night/bye.

(much later)

It’s a couple hours later, and I’m sitting in the cockpit of the train. Do trains even have cockpits? I guess that’s a rater silly question. They must. I’m in one.

Or at least right near one. I’m at the front of the train, and I can see where the conductor would be if, in fact, we had a conductor instead of just being hooked to another train nose-to-nose. I wonder if the other train has a conductor, or if it’s all automated?

I think I’m in Germany, but I’m not quite sure. I’m on my way to Switzerland. I think I mentioned that earlier. It’s really beautiful outside. No longer rainy. Just big, white fluffy clouds and blue skies. I have a great view from here in the cockpit. PLUS there are only 10 seats. No crying babies. At first when I got in here, I thought I had stumbled into first class. But the number on the door said 2, so I figured I would just stay until they came around, checked tickets, and kicked me out. But that didn’t happen! So I get to chill here n the cockpit for another hour.

This is awesome.

And just think, if my original train plan had worked without delays or missed connections, I wouldn’t be having this awesome ride. Funny how things have a way of working out for the best.

Love you. 

(Now we're in current time as I'm posting this)

The day/night ended up being really, really great. I'm tired and it's late, so I'm not quite sure how much I'll write, but I'll go until I can't do anymore. Okay?

My friend Aur Elie (Lili) from Cal picked me up at the train station in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Technically, the "a" is wearing a little hat thing, but I don't know how to do that. It's a really adorable town. She said that all Switzerland towns are the same: cute old town, big lake, Alps in the background. All beautiful, but all the same. Definitely nothing to complain about. 

So when we met up, one of the first things she said was, "I hope it's okay, but we were thinking of going out on the boat." This after I had been drooling at the sight of the lake the whole way in, trying to figure out how I could bribe someone to take me out, or make friends with someone at the harbor or something. It was perfect! Just what I needed after a day of trains.

So we (Lili, her boyfriend, her friend, and I) went out on the lake, and it felt fresh and cool and breezy and fun. I think tomorrow I will walk down and go swimming. It really was quite perfect. When the sun started to set, we went back to the harbor and had a delicious dinner in the . . . boat kitchen. Crap, I was going to impress you with my boat lingo, but I forgot it. GALLEY! The galley! Haha! Got it. It was delicious.

Then when we were driving back from the harbor, we stopped for McFlurrys and ate them next to a castle.

Life is good. 

One thing that makes me laugh, though, is that Lili reads the blog (hi Lili!). It's funny writing about people and knowing they're going to read it. Or hanging out with people and having them think I'm going to write about it later, that happened with Fran too. She kept saying, "You're going to put this on your blog, aren't you?" (Hi Fran!). I feel like that must be how it's like to date Taylor Swift. Just wondering, "I wonder how this is going to sound in a song." I wonder if the whole time Taylor Swift is dating someone, she's constantly writing the song. Or maybe she just waits 'till the end when it all goes to crap. . . I don't know. I'd be interested to ask her. . . Actually, that might be rude, so I'd be interested to have someone else ask her, so I could learn the answer without being the rude one. Anyways, the point being, it's funny having overlap between the people I travel and stay with and the people that read my blog. That never happened when they didn't speak English (i.e. Central/South America). So. . . yep. To all of you that I'm traveling/hang out/staying with, if you feel like I leave something important out, let me know. And maybe I'll add it.

Okay, sleep for me. Love you all. 

Sicko

You know you're sick when. . .

• You dream about phlegm.
• In the middle of the night, you wake up shivering and go around collecting your roommates blankets that they discarded because they're all sweating. And you use them.
• Your first thought when you wake up at 11:30am is "only 8 more hours and I get to go to sleep." 
• You pay 4.70 euro for a big thing of fresh squeezed orange juice, and can't possibly think of a better way to spend that money.

Yep, so there's that. I can't decide what to do today. Staying here sounds unappealing, but so does going somewhere else. I think I'll take a train to Bruges and wander around there for a bit, and then come back and go to sleep. Yep, that sounds like a good plan.

Being safe. I'll be healthy by tomorrow. Love you all. 

Do's & Don't's of Taking a Picture for a Fellow Tourist

Let's be honest for a second - I don't know anything about photography. I've never taken a class. I've never had instructions. I don't know anything about shutter speed or any of the numbers that you look at when you buy a camera, except for how many stars it has. But as a tourist, I feel like I DO know a couple things about how to take a picture for a fellow tourist. So here we go.

The Do's & Don't's of Taking a Picture for a Fellow Tourist
1. DO consider what you're trying to take a picture of. DO NOT have a statue coming out of someone's head.

2. DO try and make the person look pretty. DO NOT take the picture from unnecessarily low and unflattering angles. Nobody will like you. 

3. DO notice what's going on in the background. DO NOT take a picture when there's a tourist with a bright blue t-shirt in the frame.

3. DO try and take a half way decent photo. DO NOT hand the camera back with a crap picture and say, "I think it's good."

4. DO take multiple pictures so they can have options. DO NOT just take only one where it looks like they're awkwardly flexing because their hands on on their backpack strings.

5. DO try and get the person in the photo. DO NOT obstruct their head with a giant thing of nutella.

Napoleon

Napole-dead

Complete Thoughts/Peace

7/3/2012 20:24

Okay, I'm back in my sink hole of a hostel that has a lock, bright colors, a roof, and not much else going for it. I'm writing on a word document, and later I'll use a flash drive to move this and whatever photos I decide to give you over to their computers so that I can upload this for you. Or maybe I'll just go to McDonald's in the morning. . . We'll see.

Anyways, I think I had just finished talking about the war museum. I'd check to make sure, but I don't have internet. So let's just assume that's where I left off. More on-and-off with the bus. Which means get off, walk around for an hour or two, get on, ride ten minutes, repeat. I went to the Arch du (de? di? ??) Triumph again, because I wanted to walk through it triumphantly. But then I learned that you could go UP it. So I did. Climbed some stairs. Quite a lot of stairs. But it was super cool. It's right in the middle of the city, int he center of a round-about that has twelve main streets feeding into it. The only round about in France where the cars entering the circle have the right away. Insurance companies don't even deal with it. Any accidents that happen in that circle, they split 50/50. It's impossible to figure out whose fault it was.

When I got on the bus again, I met some guys that seemed cool. Then I learned that HIS housemate is dating MY housemate by in Berkeley. Well, I actually don't know if they're still dating. So that's potentially awkward. Woops. Whatever. Dated? Anyways, super small wold. I rode to on-off bus with them to the Eiffle Tower. They decided to go up it, but I wanted to wait to go up with Fran. So we parted. But I'm continuously amazed with how small the world is. Cal is everywhere. Go Bears.

Then I went exploring, and I was potentially going to meet up with the guys again that night but our only way to communicate was via internet, which you well know, I only have at McDonald's. So I was going to go home and grab my comptuer and go to Mickey D's. BUT, on my way home, I took the wrong metro and ended up at Notre Dame. Not a bad mistake. So I got out to see if it was still opened. It wasn't, BUT there WAS a concert going on that night! So I got in line and WATCHED A CONCERT IN NOTRE DAME! Feelin' pretty cool. Not gunna lie.

The concert was great. 4 singers, 4 musicians. Oh my gosh. I've never heard anything like it before. It was. . . I have no idea how to describe it. You know (uhh, sorry, only some of you will know this refernce, I realize) in the Bible where there's that scene when that one guy goes to heaven and there are the angels all around singing? I always thought that was kinda weird, and I couldn't picture what their voices might sound like. I can now! I think it was especially cool because I didn't know what they were saying. So it was just pretty noises that I knew meant something. Really, really pretty noises. I can't describe it. Super cool. I considered taking a video, but then I didn't because I knew it wouldn't be nearly as good as the real thing. So just imagine it. Really pretty.

AND while I was there, I met my new friend E-Han. I'm making up the spelling of her name. Her English name is Angela, but she prefers her Tiwanese name E-Han. She's AWESOME. We ended up going to dinner after and she had avocado for the first time, and I had french onion soup (which they just call onion soup here), and we talked about boys and other girl things and it was great. So good to have a girl night! Then I walked her home and took the metro back and went to sleep.

Which brings us to. . .

TODAY:

Today, I went to the lines. Crap, sorry, fingers slipped. I mean the crowds. Dang it, did it again. What I meant to say is that I went to the money hole. Wow, why do I keep doing that? Clearly I mean the tourist trap. Ugghh, so frustrating. Let me go slowly now: V-E-R-S-A-I-L-L-E-S. Versailles. I went to Versailles.

There we go.

It was pretty. Big. Gold. Grand. Fancy.

I wouldn't recommend it.

I was a little disappointed. Not going to lie. The reason why I went was because of the room of mirrors.

(Now it's 7/5/2012 at 12:22. I am in the train station waiting for my train to Brussles. I'm really excited, because I think that between my train rides and waiting for my train rides, I should be able to catch up on my Paris blog. Especially since I don't have internet. And I don't have the stress/privilege of having a million other things to do. I really have three options of what I can do: 1) read, 2) journal, 3) blog. Well, blog in a word document. I read the whole time standing in line for my reservation/ticket, and that was a long line. I journaled a lot at Versailles, which I'll talk about in a sec, and so I get to BLOG! Yay! Love blogging. Anyways. . .)

Yes, the room of mirrors. A disappointment. I should have google image-d it so I'd know what to expect, because let me describe what I was expecting: a room of mirrors. Like a fun house. Mirrors from floor to cieleing, and a maze that you have to walk through. But it'd be classy. No warped mirrors or anything. But lots and lots of mirrors. NOPE. It's a hall. One side has windows, the other side has old mirrors, and the top has some fancy chandeliers. Big deal.

BUT it did have a big piece of art in it. There's a whole bunch of modern art on display all throughout Versailles, which is a little odd if you ask me. The art in the hall of mirrors was a giant pair of heels made out of shiny pots and lids. It was titled "women" and ment to imply the purpose of a woman is to look attractive and cook food. I mean, it's a valid point. Women are very good at both those things. Good job women! Lookin' pretty in the kitchen like you're supposed to!

Oh my gosh, kidding. It was made to explore the contrast between women's roles. One as being domestic (thus the pots and lids) and the other of being a working woman of power (thus the power pumps). It was actually titled "Marlyn" after Marlyn Monroe. So, that was interesting.

There was some other interesting art in the house too. I got to see Lady Gaga's helicopter and this weird hair spike wood thing, that actually isn't modern art but I have no idea what the heck it is.

And, oh! There was the story of Captain Hook told through a series of pictures, which I thought was cool. It was the story of how he turned into Captain Hook, pre-Peter Pan. I know that everyone things that his arm got eaten by a crocodile,  but that's just a myth. This is the real story:

Captain Hook was originally named Billy. He lived with his parents in a very nice home, enjoyed fancy clothing and big hair, and dreamed of being on the sea. He even had pictures of ships up in his bedroom.

But one day, little Billy's parents' house was robbed. Billy didn't know what to do, so he just stood there saying, "Look at what's going on! This isn't right. This isn't right at all."

But Billy was a diplomat. So he said, "Hey, let's play for it." So they played for it the way you play for anything: with goakey races. Goakey races are races where a monkey rides on the back of a goat. You bet on your favorite pair, and spoils go to the victor. What the robbers didn't know, however, is that Billy had been giving his favorite goakey pair special goakey food to make them the best goakey racers. Obviously, they won. How could they not?

notice hand bottom right

So Billy won, but when the robbers found out about his wiley ways, they were furious. Even though they were, you know, robbers, and it was orginally, you know, Billy's stuff, they were still super pissed. They got into a scruffle, to say the least. , Barthalamus, one of the robbers, waved his sword wildly in effort to prove his masculinity. In the process, he cut off Billy's hand, but the rest of Billy got away.

Billy fled on horseback. A large horse, named Diablo-The-Magnificent, which is really only a shadow of the great Diablo that now walks (or trots) this earth. (Shout out to Big-D!! What what!!). It may look like Billy is holding something in his right hand, but don't be fooled. Billy doesn't have a right hand. Diablo is a unicorn.

Because Diablo was a unicorn, he, of course, knew the way to Never Never Land, where he adopted the name Captain Hook, played often with Peter Pan, and got to fulfill his long time dream of being a man of the sea.

The End!

Wait, what? Those weren't pictures of Captain  Hook? What do you mean they were Louis XIV? Gosh, there should be a sign or something. Huh. . .Sorry about that.

But the gardens there were lovely. I had to que up again for those, but it was worth it. I walked around a bit. Not as much as I would of had I not been exhausted from all the lining up and such earlier, but what I saw was quite lovely. And then I left. I don't plan on going back to Versailles again. If I do go back, I'll only go to the gardens, and I'll go with a friend so we can rent a boat.

After that, I was super beat. Like I would have slept in the gardens had they remembered to put benches in. (Seriously, no benches. What the heck, landscapers?). So I left, and I was headed to the trainstation but I saw a pharmacy (normal drug store) down the road, so I went there becasue I needed to. I was really tired and my feet hurt, so on the way back - I got my hair cut! Seems logical, right? So that was quite fun, and it gave me another gust of energy. As I left and walked back to the train station, I was singing the song you sing when you just got your hair cut (in case you're not familiar with it, it goes like this: "Got my hair cut. Got my hair cut." etc.). 

And my new energy expired by about the time I got to the train.

So I rode the train home. And then. . .

crap. I forgot. See! This is why I blog. Otherwise, I lose it all.

I forget most of what happened the rest of the day, so it must not have been that important. Museums, probably. That night, I ended up with a hodgepodge group of people from my hostel. 2 San Diego kids, 2 Finland girls, 1 Denmark intellectual. We went and sat on the lawn in front of the Eiffle Tower. It was lovely. Then I went home and slept.

NEXT DAY:

(wow, sorry, this is quite long, isn't it?)

The next day, I tried to go to the catacombs again, but the line was two hours and I was all lined out from Versailles, so I was like "heck no" and went to the acquarium for free, where I wasn't eaten by a shark. So that, you know, good.

Then I met up with FRAN! My friend from Cal who is also traveling through Europe for the summer. She, her friend Jeanne, and I all had a picnic lunch in front of the Eiffle Tower, which was something I really, really wanted to do. Then Fran and I climbed it (what what!). Something like 1,453,532 stairs or something. To be exact. Then we went to a museum, which was really, really cool with Fran because she KNOWS STUFF! It added so much depth to paintings that before I'd just be like, "hmm, that's pretty." or "Oh, that's nice." I learned so much in one afternoon. I might even want to take an art history course. It was. . . awesome. I really, really enjoyed it. It was an enriching experience, and a blast too,because Fran is just wonderful.

THEN we met up with Jeanne again, and we all went out for burgers & fries to celebrate America. Then we went to the Eiffle Tower, took some failed jumping pictures (one that kinda worked, but looks a little scandalus, but it's NOT because I'm wearing shorts), then went down to the lawn to watch it get dark, see the lights turn on, and then watch the light show. I mean, it's no fireworks, but what are you going to do? Just kidding. It was lovely.  Then it started raining, as if to say, "Okay, I'm all done. Party's over." It was a perfect ending.

Then this morning I packed up and left.

Paris is a lovely city. There are things in it that are very pretty. But I don't know if/when I'll be back. I would say I enjoyed my time there, but I wouldn't say I loved the city. This probably had a lot of influencing factors: my hostel was crap, I can't speak the language, etc.  But I still don't think it's the place for me.

It's funny how that is. Some places just fit, and others don't. Kind of like clothes. It can be a lovely dress, and can honestly say, "yes, that's a very pretty dress," but that doens't mean I want to buy it. If it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you or with the dress, it's just not a match. I think that's me and Paris. I was definitely ready to go when I left this mornng.

Wow, I'm tired. I wasn't expecting to be this tired.

Okay, I think that's everything. You know everything I know. Now I'm going to Brussles, which is in Belgium which is where they have chocolate and waffles. So that's good. Long train ride. Too long for such a short distance, but I have to transfer because I got my ticket so late. Whatever. Such is life. I'm traveling through Europe. Complaints just sound stupid in comparison to how great this is.

Blah, I was going to write about so much other stuff. Including, but not limited to:

- The do's and don't's of taking a picture for someone else

- The do's and don't's of hostel etiquete

- How do you really spell don't's because there seems to be a lot of apostraphes?

- The do's and dont's of being a non-obnoxious-oblivious-dumb traveler

But now I don't want to bore you with those things. Maybe I'll bore you with them later. But for now, I'm tired. Let me know if there are any in particular you'd like me to bore you with. Or anything else you want me to talk about, really.

Also, sorry I've been so bad at email. I'll hopefully be better in the future. Maybe. Hopefully. Especially when I finally have internet. I hope it's raining when I get to Brussles (actually I hope it starts raining right AFTER I get to Brussles and am safely and warmly inside my hostel), because then I'll have an excellent reason to not do anything. And that sounds just about perfect.

Love you all.

(Now it's 19:51 and I'm at my hostel in Brussles. I really like Brussles. It's funny how you can tell immediately. Also, I should remember to be careful what I wish for. It DID start raining. And it DID start raining after I was safely and warmly inside my hostel. But it was after I had been inside my hostel, and then went OUT again to get food. Then it started raining. I walked home in the rain. In Toms. I thought we had learned this lesson, but apparently not. I think tomorrow, I will go shoe shopping. Yay. And for now, I am safe and warm in my hostel, and very much at peace.)

(Also, does the bad quality of the pictures bother you? It makes it much easier for me, but let me know. Maybe I can do a middle ground thing).

(This was really long. Sorry!!!)

Incomplete Thoughts/War

Dude, no wonder foreigners think we go to McDonald's all the time. If our McDonald's were like this, I WOULD go all the time. Guess what I'm eating right now. Burger, fries, and a BEER. Surprise! The walls ar colorful, they have large couch-y seats, it's awesome. The only thing they screwed up is the ketchup. . . I think they actually put tomatoes in it. Unfortunately, though, the Internet isn't working. Which was the purpose of me coming here. So I am using a word document until I finish my food, and then I'll forage for internet. I really hope I find some, because my head is really full.

Seriously, it really fills up fast. I think I need a bigger head or something. There's so much I want to put on here, and then there are things that I want to email/facebook people individually, AND I journal for all the stuff that I just want to keep to myself but I want to be able to sort out on paper. Thankfully, I pretty much always have my journal with me, so that stuff doesn't get trapped in my head for long.
Anyways, I guess I'll start with. . .

YESTERDAY:

Yesterday felt painted. The sky was my favorite: bright blue sky with big, white fluffy clouds. I got to wear my cute new dress. I mostly rode the hop-on-hop-off bus. I hopped off at this one place that was BEAUTIFUL. I lovelovelove gardens. I think they're one of my favorite things. And this one was. . . awesome. Big fountains, colorful flowers, beautiful palace/building/thing in the background. I really, really loved it. So I sat there and ate my "lunch" (bread + cheese) and walked through to the end where I hoped to go to the Catacombs as per the suggestion of one Jazmin Aguilera. But they were closed on Mondays. Super lame. So I walked around the town a little - it was a cute little area, and I eventually got back on the bus.

I hopped on and hopped off for the rest of the day. I went to a war museum. I think those are my favorite kind of museums, except for greek/roman sculptures. But they always leave an impression on me. In fact, while I was there I was internally-blogging about the current wars that we're in. And how it's weird that nobody cares, or really knows what all is going on. I wondered if people would be more involved if there was a draft and those were our brothers, sons, and husbands fighting over there. Or if the women were involved the sisters, wives, and daughters were the ones caring for the wounded, instead of faceless doctors somewhere overseas. Would we care more? If yes, is it selfish for us to NOT care just because we think we're not direclty effected?

It reminded me of a football game. (Stay with me for a second). At Cal on game weekends, some people painted up, put on their Cal gear, and went up the stadium. They cared about every down, every touchdown, every fumble, ever incomplete, everything. It was real. They may not have been down on the field, in the war zone, but they were very much connected to their team. When their team won, they won. When their team lost, they lost.

And then there was the other crowd. The crowd that continued wearing the green or orange shirts, didn't bother changing into their blue & gold. They didn't hike up to Memorial Stadium. They didn't watch their team score. They didn't see when their players were injured.

But it still happened.

I feel like we've all chosen to stay home from the game. But that doesn't make the score any less real. The passes are still being thrown. The bullets are still being shot. There are still first downs. There are still people down. There are still touch downs. There are still casualties.

So why don't we care? Why is it that so many of us are willing to suit up in blue & gold, but we don't take the time to care about what's going on with the BIGGER team we're on. Because regardless of if we suit up, when THEY do, they represent US. So don't we want to make sure we act like a team. If they're playing a game/fighting a war (or 5) that we don't want our team playing/fighting, shouldn't we try and do something about it? That's our team.

So why don't we care?

I think that's something that really strikes me about war museums. Especially war museums in the place where the war was fought. The people there cared. They had to. They didn't have the choice of whether or not they wanted to suit up and walk to the stadium, they were on the field. Men, women, and children were on the field. They had to care. As Americans, we have the privilege (I'm hesitant to use that word) to choose. Our schools aren't being bombed. Our backyard isn't a war zone. But I don't think it's too much to ask for us to know a little about what's going on down there on the field, much less that there's even a game being played. Our apathy is dangerous. If nobody is in the stadium, the game can get really dirty really fast. Maybe, the more eyes, the cleaner the fight. Maybe. Maybe?

So, yep. Went to the war museum.
(finished. Going to try to move locations.)

(Just came into a little hotel to ask if they knew other places with wi-fi. They said I could use theirs for a little bit, but not a long time. So I'm going to put up what I have. Sorry it's super incomplete! I'll try to find more wi-fi after!)

Lovin' Those Arches

Hey everyone! I'm in Paris! It's the weirdest thing. All day I walk around and I'm constantly inner-blogging, then I sit down to write and. . . nothing.

So I guess I'll go chronologically 'till I go tangential.

Yesterday was lovely. I hiked up to Saint Something's from my hostel and got a panoramic view of Paris. Walked around. Watched artists do their thing. Quite fun. There was one artist that I was especially impressed with! He would cut out pictures of people. That sounds really easy when I write it, and I don't know how to describe it better. I'll try: he would cut out the silhouettes (is that a french word) of people, but then also with details like jewelry or hair or chins or whatever. It was AMAZING. And he was SO FAST. I've never seen anything like it before. But that's not the reason why I was super impressed with him. I mean, it's part of it, but not the whole reason. He was also super kind and generous. There was one little girl who was watching for a really long time, and when he finished with one he gestured for her to take the seat. She was about to, but then her mom pulled her back, saying they couldn't pay. He said, "no, free. Free." The little girl took the seat and he cut out her picture in about 2 minutes, meanwhile the mom was trying to scrounge up money to pay him. When he finished, she tried to hand him what she had found (about 7 euros when it usually costs 10), and he refused it. He kept saying, "No, free. Free." It was. . . really impressive. I actually hiked all the way down the huge hill, went to the ATM, then hiked back up to get mine done. Not only is he a great artist, but he's the kind of person I want to support. I heard someone behind me say, "He's skilled and nice? This guy should get a medal." I completely agree. He was awesome.

Side note, when I was hiking back up, I came across a capoeira thing that I stopped and watched for awhile. That was fun.

Ya, wandered, went back to my awesome hostel, showered, wrote lots of emails, and slept with the intentions of starting my day bright and early the next day.

BUT the next day (today) didn't go quite as I planned. First, I woke up to find that my credit card had been blocked, so that's always fun. I spent the next hour or so running back and forth across the street between my computer in my hostel and the phone place across the street. I think the guy that ran the phone place was really confused. I kept needing one more piece of information, so I'd say, "okay, bye," hang up, run across the street, look it up, run back, call back with my new information, talk to a NEW person, get told I need different information, etc. etc. It was a bit of fiasco. But it all worked out! And guess what! I have big news!

Ready...????

Here it is: I AM eventually coming home!

Bought my plane ticket.

There was a really good deal, and it would have been really, really dumb of me to pass it up. So I bought it!

I will be arriving home on AUGUST 16th at 21:42 (9:42pm). To San Jose. Can someone (family and/or Stuart) come pick me up?

So after that was all settled - oh, I forgot to mention that while that was all happening, I almost burnt the hostel down with the microwave, woops - I packed up to move to my NEXT hostel. All the hostels in Paris were completely booked, so I had to change. None could keep me for the whole time. I'm really lucky that I even GOT one.

So I packed up, went to my new hostel, dropped all my crap up, and then went out into Paris! First stop: Louve. First mistake: going to the Louve on "museums are free day" i.e. first sunday of the month. Whatever. Live and learn. It was really cool. Museums are getting increasingly easier now that I know what I like and what bores me. Is it bad that some stuff in the Louve bores me? Probably. I'm not very cultured. Woops. Is it bad that I spelled it "Louve" three times when it's "Louvre"? Like I said, not cultured.


Anyways, I found some parts of it absolutely fantastic. How could you not? I'm going to post some of my favorite pictures. They're not pictures of the art, because you can google much better pictures than I got, but they're some of my fav pics from the visit.

(ummm, turns out that uploading pics is REALLY slow. Maybe I'll come back to this...)


(this is me coming back! here are funny pics for you!)

Whoever can tell me why this statue reminds me of the move The Wedding Planner wins!

I just imagine him going, "Mom! Can I wear the hat? Mom! Mom! Let me wear the hat, Mom! Mom!"

Everyone taking pictures.

Someone taking a picture with the sign POINTING TO the Mona Lisa. . . He could just go down the hall and take a picture with the real thing. 

Can you find the Mona Lisa?

Whatever, this is just one of the best museums in the world. I'm sure the stuff here isn't really important. Let me just throw my crap on this ancient statue. Nbd.

So...from there I got on a hop-on-hop-off bus. It was a very touristy day. And I rode it around and I saw lots of stuff.

At one point I got off to try and find myself a new purse (remember, my other one got stolen?). So I was walking around and decided I was hungry. Got a really, really yummy crepe with ham and cheese and egg. Twenty minutes later, I noticed I had dripped all over the top of my pretty blue dress! Shoot! But I was very calm. I was like, "It's okay. I know you really like this dress, and that you got it in Barcelona, and that it matches your eyes, but it's okay. You can just turn it into a skirt." Then I noticed that I had dripped all over the bottom of it too and I was like:

(Sorry, I know that reference doesn't make a lot of sense to people not in internet-youth-world, but I was bummed). 

(I just realized that I can re-size images quite easily, which makes the uploading process a lot easier. So I'm going to start making them all small, so they upload easily. I hope that doesn't bother you.) 

So I kept walking around, feeling dumb in my pretty stained dress. I got back on the bus and rode around some more until the little speaker in my ear said, "You can get off here to do shopping." And I was like, "Shopping!" So I got off and wandered around. But everything was really expensive. And EVERYTHING was on sale. I don't know what's going on. . . probably pre-fourth-of-july or something (kidding). So everything was crazy and expensive, because 50% off of a LOT of money is still quite of bit of money. But I DID find face wash! So that made me quite excited. Because it was a brand I recognized! So I didn't even need to figure out what was for what. The last time I tried to do that, I bought what I thought to be lotion, but it turned out to be naire-ish skin poison that kills your hair. Only discovered that AFTER I rubbed it all over my sunburn. Did I tell you about that one? So, facewash was a success. But they didn't give me a bag. And my purse is packed with like four different maps (Louvre, metro, city, hop-on-hop-off) and it's a super small purse. So I'm walking around on fancy-pants street in my stained dress carrying my facewash without a bag. I know, I'm all class. 

Kept walking. And eventually found. . .

H&M! Which, I recently learned, isn't American! They're European! So I don't need to feel lame about buying their stuff while I'm abroad. So I went and got myself a cute (cheap!!!) new dress. But now that I had my new dress, I didn't want to wear it for only a half day, so I decided to save it for tomorrow and just kept wearing my stained formerly pretty blue dress. I know, I'm such a girl. 

Then I went triumphantly to the Triumphal Arch with my new dress and facewash.

Then I got on the bus. 

Riding around on the bus is fun. It gives me a good feel for the city and I like being able to hop on and hop off whenever I want. Freedom! I'm going to do it again tomorrow, and then metro the rest because I'll know what I want to see and what I don't. 

Oh! Saw this! Nbd. 

Then eventually the bus stopped, and I caught the metro home.

To the crappiest hostel I've ever, ever stayed in. It doesn't even have outlets. Yep. Not kidding. But whatever. I should be thankful to have it. I AM thankful to have it. 

Another one of the amenities that it's missing it wi-fi. So I packed up and left. I don't mean everything, I mean my little bag with my computer in it, so I could come here and talk to y'all! Otherwise, my head gets clouded. And I miss you. But guess where I am. I'll give you a clue.

It's McDonald's! Okay, that wasn't a clue. It was the answer.

The area that I'm in is kinda sketchy. It actually does feel like Oakland. (East Bay!!). So walking around, I was SO THANKFUL when I finally saw those lovely golden arches in the distance. So I came and got dinner (gross, but somehow good) and have been on the internet ever since. I was hoping to avoid Micky D's, but whatever. It's full of French people, so I'll write it off as part of the experience. And it's playing American music, which I didn't realize I actually missed. So that's fun. 

All together, Paris is lovely. In the wise and accurate words of one Jazmin Aguilera, "everything look[s] like a postcard." I find myself continually going, "wow! it really looks like that!" I can't wait to see more tomorrow.

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, ya. . . that's me. Going to go back and add pics for you.