beginning.

So, it's officially the beginning of the end in my book. Yesterday, the 15th, marked the start of my one-month-left in Paris. I think it's been a month since my last post. My apologies again; so much for posting once a week. Advanced Warning on this post: It might be really long and involve lots of pictures and random thoughts.

So I'm not even sure what I've been up to for the last month. I think the first major thing that happened was my trip to Barcelona and London with Taleen, Dana, Nina, and Uri! I spent 4 days in Barcelona visiting Alex and Scott. I was lucky enough to see Ronan and Lauren for a bit too. Ross, you suck at life. It rained two out of the 4 days that we were there. It was depressing, but the city was beautiful none-the-less and the paella was delicious. It was wonderful to be able to see the beach again. Newport will probably be one of my first stops when I get home. After Barcelona, I took a flight to London. I spent a miserable (only because of rain/hail/cold) day in London by myself seeing the sights and reflecting on life. Then I took a train down to Southampton, a port town on the south west coast of England. There, I met up with my friend Connor from high school and crashed at his place for the next two nights. I got to meet his friends and make real chocolate chip cookies again! We celebrated Halloween Southampton style, which basically just invovled me getting far too drunk far too fast at this pub called the Hobbit and us dancing in a club where they played far too much drum and bass. After Southampton, I took the train back to London to meet up with Yuri (!!!). We spent the day shopping and had a nice dinner at night. Post dinner, we randomly met these French guys from our hostel and ended up at some club with them. Pictures to come as soon as Taleen posts her so I can steal them!







PhotoCredits: Taleen/Nikki!

We all got back to Paris just in time for the Election day! (As much as I loved Barca and London, I missed Paris the entire time I was gone; So I was EXTREMELY happy to be back) I started off Election night with Janelle and Valentin. We met at L'Opera and went to (attempted to go to) Harry's Bar, which is an American bar known for its election day celebration. We found a HUGE crowd standing outside on the street partying and celebrating. We got our hands on some chalk that night and wrote all over the ground. I also got interviewed at some point for a French media outlet. Post Rue Danou, I went to Taleens, feel asleep on her wood floor (cause i love doing that!) and woke up just in time to see that Obama won! In case you didn't know, the French LOVELOVELOVE Obama, so the entire country was pleased! (but shame on California and prop 8). The highlight of the night was when I was talking to my friend Valentin in French and I realized that I wasn't drunk! It was the first time that I felt like my French was actually decent and that I could finally converse without feeling scared.

Yuri came to visit the next weekend. We explored Paris and did some shopping. It was wonderful to have her in Paris. I love being able to show people around and its always so wonderful to have a familiar face from home. We met up with those French guys we met in London and we all went to Le Showcase, a club underneath Pont du Alexander III. Valentin, Berangere, Greg, Ben, Scott, Emma, James, and Nina came with us. It was a good night.





Tuesday was a French holiday. I was lucky enough to get the chance to have lunch at my french professor's house! My highschool french teacher was here for the day and she just happens to be best friends with my current french teacher! Christina and I went over to Madame du Parc's house to see Madame Raitt. It was such a wonderful afternoon and I got to learn so much more about Madame du Parc.

And now we're finally up to this weekend. This weekend was full of wonderful apartment parties. It was a nice change from going to clubs. Friday night Janelle, Julie, and Allie and I went over to my friend Louis' apartment for a party. It was so great to hang out with true parisian youth. We drank a lot of wine and lots of random conversations. The guys that were there are all really close friends with my cousin Luc. I really wished he was there!

Janelle and I went to a really cute cafe that day too. It's called Point Ephermere and its also a music venue. VeryIndie and very grunge. Loved it!

Saturday night, the 4 of us went to my friend Berangere's apartment for yet another party. It was also a wonderful night with true parisians. Here is where I'm going to introduce you to some of my friends here in Paris:

The guy in the middle is Valentin. He's 20 and is an aspiring actor here in Paris. I met him through my friend Arthur. He's such a ray of sunshine! He's always down to party and so easy to speak French to.


This is Berangere. She's half American and half Belgian. She's the only french girl that I know here. I've only been meeting my cousin's guy friends! She's been SO helpful and SO much fun to hang out with. We gossip about boys and about how we dont understand them, no matter what country they're from! She's an aspiring actress here too.


This is Arthur. Arthur is one of the first friends of my cousin's that I met. He's been such a sweetheart and we always have best conversations. He's driving us to Brussels next weekend!


This is Janelle. She's in the UC program with me. She's basically my partner in crime (cheezy I know). I take her to all my French speaking things cause I know she'll love them. Practicing French was really important for the both of us. She's staying here for the rest of the year and I am so jealous that I wont be able to stay here with her and hang out with all our friends.


No explaination needed. I don't even know what I would do without these girls.

Words cannot describe how sad I am to be leaving Paris. I feel as though I actually, or I'm actually starting to, have a group of friends here, both American and French, and it breaks my heart that I have to leave them. I wish I could stay here but its 1. far too expensive and 2. i have far too many committments in LA that i have to get back to. And truth be told, I'm unbelievably scared to get back to my life in LA and all of the things I have to deal with. Being here is like being on vacation and it's going to be a slap in the face to get back to Kesem/Unicamp/Relay/CEC/Work/Internships/Class. I apologize to those in the states that probably think I'm slacking off majorly. It's just so hard to continue my life in LA while I'm here living my life in Paris.

I think thats all for now. I'm still trying to sort through my thoughts.

See you all very soon.

bisous.

Currently Listening to: Kashmir: Petite Machine