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

Grenoble

I can't believe its been a month since I've last blogged! My apologies to those who actually read this thing.

I just reached the two month mark on my stay here in Paris. It's really unbelievable that its already been two months and even more unbelievable that I only have two months left here. I've definitely come to feel at home here and to tell you the truth, I really don't want to go back to LA. I would love to stay here for the year, but of course I've got too many commitments to deal with.

So what has happened in the last month or so? The first thing I can think of is that I saw Bon Iver at the beginning of October! My friend Janelle and I went over to La Maroquinerie in the 20th and saw them perform in this tiny little venue. I blogged about it for Fuel, although I'm having issues posting it, but you can read it here. It was such a good show. It was exactly what I needed for the slump I was in at the time.

I spent a weekend in Grenoble visiting my uncle and his family with my grandparents. Grenbole is a small city nestled at the bottom of three mountains. My friend Claire is studying there for the quarter, but she wasn't there that weekend! Thankfully, her friends were there and they showed me around. It was really nice of them and we had fun! One memorable moment was when we went to this bar and the music that was playing was The National! I was so impressed by the musical tastes of Grenoble at that moment. Andrew and Liz also took me up to the Bastille. We had to take a ...ski-lift-like contraption up the mountain. It was gorgeous out! My cousins were absolutely adorable. They're growing up really fast and you can see their personalities starting to develop.







Last weekend was a good weekend here in Paris. We went out Thursday and met this guy from the states who was a UCSB Alum. He was suppose to leave Friday morning but ended up missing his flight and staying till Monday morning. We showed him around the town a little bit. Thursday we went to two irish pubs. Dealt with some drama..... Friday we went to La Rhumerie. Saturday we went to Andy Warhloos. It was too intense of a drinking weekend, but we definitely had fun! Sunday I went for a walk along the Seine and stalked some skaters for a little bit. Sorry, I'm a creeper like that.

Two nights ago Janelle and I met up with my friend Louis. We went to this Irish pub off the Vavin metro stop and met up with a whole bunch of his friends. Afterwards we went back to this guys apartment and chilled there till FIVE in the morning. It was such a long night but it was so fun! It was so great to be around french people and practice my french again. It had seriously been like two weeks since I had a real conversation in French. Last night we went to Le Showcase with some friends and saw Maps & Atlases play. Janelle and I attempted to interview but it was failure. No big. It was so good to see some live music again. There are tons of shows in November that I want to go to. Tickets are super pricey, but it'll be worth it I think. We were going to go again tonight, because Peaches was dj-ing, but I got too tired. I know, I'm lame. Janelle and I have a language partner! He's a friend of my cousin (WHO IS NOW IN LA AND YOU SHOULD ALL CALL MY OLD CELL PHONE NUMBER AND HANG OUT WITH HIM) and is adorable.

School's been good. I find myself not studying as much as I should, but I think its okay. We have midterms coming up. Spending this weekend studying...kind of...not really. Hah. I think most of us abroad can agree that the study part of "studying abroad" isnt really working.

Life here has seriously been amazing. I forget to appreciate it sometimes. Everyone always says your feelings while being abroad are always going up and down, and I totally agree with that. I have days where I'm SO incredibly happy to be here and then days where I'm really missing home... or well people from home. I've met really amazing people here, both French and American, but I dont think they'll ever compare to the people from home. (and yes I know I say that all the time) I wish I could stay here longer though, and get to know my friends here better.

I've been awful at taking pictures because I hate my camera. Sorry!

Going to Barcelona next week with Taleen and Nina and then to London to see Yuri and Connor! Missing you all at home tremendously and wishing that you guys could be here in Paris with me. Sorry this post was kind of boringggggg.


Bisous


Oh. and P.S.

I've decided that I love the smell of roasting/roasted chestnuts. Why? Because it smells like bonfire!

I've also realized that french couples apparently love to sit on each others laps at the park and proceed to take pictures of themselves with their camera phones.

I recently found a new pair of fake wayfarers at my great-aunt's house (score!). I've punched out the lenses in my old pair and have decided that they are now my drunk glasses. Therefore if I happen to have some hipster glasses on sans lenses, you'll know that I'm probably in my drunk alias mode.

and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NITEYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

//edit: I think I'm going to start judging people on how many applications they have under the "boxes" tab on facebook. Bascially, if you have anymore than MAYBE the bumpersticker application, we're done.

party.

So it's been quite some time since my last post. I broke my camera last week therefore upcoming posts may be significantly less interesting because there won't be any pictures... unless I steal from facebook that is, such the case with this post!

So lets start with the first memory that stands out since the last post. Julie, Megan, and Allie were all gone in Nice last weekend, so I got to get to know Cassandra, Cayenne, and the other girls in the program a little bit better. The Pope was here on Saturday and Cassandra and I decided we wanted to stalk him. We took the metro to Concorde, got off, and tried to get in front of the Invalides but the police had all the entrances blocked off. So we followed the crowds, walked around, and ended up behind the church and behind where everyone was. We watched the Pope on this big screen they had set up. At the end of what I think was Mass, we watched him get into what we now call the "Pope Mobile". Its a Mercedes car with this large glass encasement that he sits in! He starts to drive off and we thought that everything was over untill we realized that everyone was still waiting around. We started walking and then saw that the Pope IN THE Pope Mobile as driving towards us! We got to see him drive by in the car. It was SO awesome. I'm not even Catholic and I was WAY excited. Here's me with a flag that Cassandra got for free (oh how we love free stuff) :



Tuesday nights have become going out nights as well. Most of us don't have class untill noon the next day. The last two weeks we've gone to this bar called "The Frog and the Princess" or something like that. It a chain, and seems to attract a lot of english-speaking foreigners, so its not exactly conducive for improving my french, but its fun either way. Taleen (Flipper!) came out with us last week and so did James (JM/Jean-Marc). It was so good to have them with us. We ran into some of my cousin's other friends too!





Thursday night, we all went out to The Mix. The Mix is a club here in Paris. I went a couple of years ago with my cousins and friends when I was here for the winter. It was really fun so I'm glad I got to go again. We met up with my cousin's friends Cedric, Louis, and Christopher. I didn't get back till like 4 AM that night, which is actually kind of early, but I was SO exhausted. Oh! And I ran into Esther from high school! It was such a nice surprise!







Friday, Wilson organized a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. We met up with a couple of others from our program and hung out at the park for a while. I also met up with my friend Victor from UCLA who was visiting for two days before he went back to LA. It was so wonderful to see him. Afterward we had drinks with one of his friends. It wasn't the friend we were thinking of, but it was still nice. That night I met a couple of his other friends that he sailed with this summer. We were on the Champs Elysee for most of the day. It was nice to be with french people and attempting to practice my french.

Saturday, yesterday, Paris had their annual Techno Parade! It was such an awesome day! It was sunny and breezy. I woke up late, met up with James, and then (after quite some time) finally found Cayenne, Wilson, and Heather. The parade ran from L'Opera to the Bastille. There were SO many people out in the streets. Everyone was dancing, drinking, partying, and following these huge tour buses to the Bastille. We made a little detour to do some illegal things that Blaise would be pleased with (and NO I did not participate, but I did assist!). Went home for dinner and stayed in for the night. Eventhough it was Saturday night and I should have gone out, I was SO exhausted from the last like week worth of going out. It was so nice to be able to chill out finally.








And finally, today is Sunday. I'm playing catch up today with homework, blogging, emails, CEC emails etc. Meeting up with Esther too! Life in Paris has been pretty eventful which has been great. I feel like I'm experiencing a lot, seeing a lot, but probably not practicing my french as much as I should be. It's a little frustrating. I really really want my french to become as close to fluent as possible by the time I leave. I've been writting down random observations in my moleskin (thanks mark!). I'll write something about them hopefully sometime in the next week.

Miss you all a ton. Please send updates about lives in LA. I can't believe school is starting in LA this week. I'm so bummed that I won't be around for the amazing events that occur during fall quarter, courtesy of CEC (yay!) and UCLA football.

That's all from me for now. OH!! I forgot, or I might have written about it in the last post, but Lea and Scott were here last week! It was SO amazing to see faces from home that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE. Showed Lea around, took her out, we had fun!

And Food Blog for Nitey:
The food here is quite amazing. My lunches consist of crepes, both savory and sweet, paninis, sandwiches, and falafels (sp?)! There's an amazing falafel place in le Marais. Everyday on my way home I buy a baguette for 85 cents and in the morning i'll get a croissant! Pictures when I get a camera my love!

Photo credits go to Cassandra and Heather!

bisous bisous!

boys.

So there's nothing too special to report about Paris this week. We had two excursions, one to L'Opera and the other to Quartier Latin. Both were places that I've been to before and neither were too exciting. My cousin Luc is back in town! It's so great having him around. I hung out with him a couple of times this week. My friend Deborah from LA came to visit on her way to Barcelona. It was so good to see a face from home. We went shopping in Le Marais and I bought a great vintage red coat. I'm sure you'll see it in pictures soon enough. Scotty is here too! He'll be here for the next nine days and Lea gets here tomorrow! Justin is here too. I love that everyone I love is coming to France.

I think I've made a few new observations this week about life in Paris. The one that stands out the most is that boys... are dumb... in all parts of the world. As much as we like to think that French boys are special and that Paris is the most romantic city of the world.... we're wrong. Aside from being a significant amount cuter and a tad bit more charming than most boys, French boys, I've come to find, are just as clueless as American boys. They're just as confused about their relationships and are quite casual about cheating on their significant others. They really take "carpe diem" to another level. French dating is quite confusing. I've asked many of my friends about the ins and outs of French dating and have received different responses from each. Some say it's okay to kiss on the first date, some say its not. Either way, I think I've realized that, just like it is in America, everything is on a case by case basis, and really, you shouldn't do anything you wouldn't do in America.

On a more serious note, I spent some time yesterday at le Jardin du Luxembourg reflecting on the last three weeks of my life. As some of you might know, one of the goals I had for studying abroad was to learn how to be comfortable just being on my own. I'm involved in so many different groups on campus that I feel like I'm always surrounded with people I love and that my time is always occupied with things to do and people to see. Don't get me wrong, I love that; but I realized that I was becoming to dependent on being with other people. I realized that I really hated being by myself, not by myself as in I'm one of those girls that always has to have a boyfriend (which I'm not) but by myself as in just not being with people in my life. Somewhere along the way, I had forgotten how to just relax, and how to be completely independent.

After sitting in the park today, I realized that, it's nearly impossible to be completely independent from others. Our personalities are built by the people we encounter and the things that we experience. We're social beings and without social interactions we wouldn't have anything to base our characters off of, we wouldn't have anything to validate our presence. Granted that it's important for us to be comfortable enough with ourselves to validate our own behavior, it's also necessary for us to learn and grow from the behavior around us.

On that note, I've come to realize (again) how much I truly love the people in my life, and that I don't voice that appreciation well enough. I have these moments when I'm around my friends where I think, wow, this is such a great moment or wow, these people are amazing. I cherish moments like that with all my heart, and want to thank all of you in my life for those moments. You have no idea how much they mean to me.

That's all for now I think. This might be deleted soon. Sorry.

(Currently listening to: Emily Haines)



Peace and Love!

relax.

11:00 PM Thursday August 28 - Not going to Hossegor
11:30 PM Thursday August 28 - On the phone with Matt Cochran and looking at train tickets for the hell of it
12:00 AM Friday August 29 - BOUGHT A TICKET
5:45 PM Friday August 29 - ON A TRAIN TO HOSSEGOR

So some friends from my old internship, Fuel TV, were filming the Rip Curl women's surf contest in Hossegor, France this weekend. I had known about it for a while and had been considering going down to visit them for a while, but never got around to actually getting a ticket. So my decision to go to Hossegor this past weekend was probably the most spontaneous decision I've made in quite some time. One minute I wasn't going, the next, I had a ticket! I'm so glad that I made it there though!

I took a train to Dax, a town 30 minutes or so from Hossegor. Matt picked me up and we got back to the hotel around 11:30 PM on Friday night. We met up with Shannon and Sean and headed down to the beach for a party. The contest had just finished and they were free pretty much free for the rest of their stay. There was a Latin music festival going on that night so we found some live music, tons of people, and ohhhh a lot of alcohol.





Highlights of the night:

1. Shannon getting mistaken as Gustavo Kuerten, the famous Brazilian tennis player, all night long. GUGA!
2. Speaking drunken (yet better) French with Bastien, a scrawny french kid who claimed he worked security for Rip Curl.
3. Bottcher, Cochran, and Shannon all thinking that "BON SOIR BITCHES" was an appropriate way to pick up girls.
4. Being the perfect amount of intoxicated all night long
and oh so many more.

We got back around 4 AM and passed out till 10 AM. The boys had to film some interviews for around two hours. I tagged along and watched them work. Afterwards we had lunch in Hossegor, got some ice cream (delicious!), picked up some stuff at the store, and then back to the hotel for the pool!




After that, Bottcher and Shannon went golfing (!) and Matt and I went to the beach. It was so great to the ocean again after so long. It started to get really cold and then it rained a couple of hours after that. Lame, but actually still kind of nice. We went out to dinner at this sea food restaurant. Cochran and Shannon shared a rather large plate of deliciousness. Then we went out to the same area we went to the night before and did a little bar hopping.







Highlights of night number 2:
1. Shannon being SO SO SO excited during dinner.
2. The return of GUGA.
3. Bottcher getting dirty looks from an old lady.
4. Bottcher taking pictures through his drink.
5. Being the perfect amount of intoxicated all night long
and oh so many more.

The next day we took a drive down to Biarritz! It was a gorgeous day out and Biarritz is such a great town! Had lunch on the beach, Shannon and Matt went in the water and surfed a bit. Sean and I sat on the beach and chatted.








Highlights of Biarritz:
1. The beach!
2. Getting in trouble with the hotel man for sneaking in on ping pong.
3. The ridiculousness of how much the boys loved France's topless beaches
4. Bottcher, aka the encyclopedia of random facts.
5. not being intoxicated all day long
and oh so many more.

Took a train from Biarritz to Bordeaux and then Bordeaux to Paris. Jean-Marc picked me up (yay!). Got home, showered, DID FRENCH HOMEWORK, passed out at 2:30/3 ish and woke up at 7:30 for class.

Train tickets: ~165 Euros
Drinks: 25 Euros
Seeing people from home that I absolutely LOVE: priceless!

It was truly an amazing weekend. I was so grateful and so happy to see some familiar faces from home. I'm not homesick, and I love my friends here in Paris, but it's definitely not the same as having my friends from home around. It was good to hang out with the guys. They're all such wonderful individuals that are so talented at what they do and have so much to offer the world. It was such a rejuvenating weekend!

Back in Paris, ready to conquer the world!


En Fin