A compilation of the past 3 months or so

I am a terrible blogger. I still have all this cool stuff happening to me ALL THE TIME here and I don't write anything down. EXAMPLE: today we were in the Louvre with our Art History professor and a few girls start whispering to each other "that was Natalie Portman!" We then convince our professor to allow us to run across the third floor corridor and stalk her like any proper American 20 year-old girls would. GOOD TIMES.

Anyway I decided to put up a few of my pictures and give you a brief run-through of the "big stuff" I've done so far with less than a month to go!!


Normally a trip to Brussels really isn't anything to boast about: you see the little Manneken Pis and you drink good beer. I, though, did things a little differently during my stay. This is me outside the American Consulate of Belgium, aka my crash-pad for three days! Gotta love how those "friend of a friend" things work out so nicely sometimes...


The three of us inside. Felt like a little, well maybe a big, slice of good 'ol AMUURICA.


Thumbs up for Obama. Eat your heart out Republican parents!










****THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK DUE TO THE VOLCANIC ASH DISRUPTION OF MOUNT EKYLLLAJUFUSTUIPDICELANDKULL**** During our Easter break we had planned on traveling around Italy. We were not able to get to Rome, and therefore I have no pictures to show you. We did, however, manage to take a train to Florence and finish out our vacation from there.














The five of us in the Medici gardens in Florence. Behind us is a great shot of the Duomo which we climbed earlier that day.


The Art History buffs in front of a replica of where the David stood. We would later visit the real-deal in the Academia building.


Our gondola ride in Venice. The gondolier took this for us.


I intentionally juxtaposed this picture with the following. This is me on top of one of Venice's many bridges with possibly a sangria hanging out at my feet. No bridge-dancing happened when the parents arrived unfortunately...


And finally the parental visit! I had a great time showing off Paris to them. Some highlights included:
*6 hours of pure shopping bliss at the Foire de Paris

*Showing off my navigational skills via walking, busing or metro-riding

*Visiting Reid Hall

*Eating a falafel in the always-amusing Marais district

*Going to a very French cabaret in the 18th and my mom coming out of it saying it sounded like "a bad American Idol audition" (can't win them all)

*Yves St. Laurent exhibit and my Dad coming out of that with a typical "guy" comment of "Huh, there were a lot of dresses in there"

*Snacks at Laudree including macaroons and chocolate eclairs

*Spending half the day at the Flea Market where they managed to find the most obscure thing possible to frame on our dining room wall: a 200 year-old gold and peach-colored priest vestment.

*The final dinner with my 70 year-old host mother who doesn't know any English and my parents vice versa. They thoroughly enjoyed their free translator, but also felt bad for me at the end of the meal when they realized I really didn't have much time to eat.


I hope to add a few more little updates during my last weeks here in Paris.

New Vocab

Bobo = hipster

BCBG (bon chic bon genre or, a more 'familiar' one I found, beau cul belle gueule) = preppy

Les Hautes Alpes

So I was very lucky to have the opportunity to go as an Au Pair and help my host-mother's sister with her two grandchildren for a week in the Hautes Alps Region called Gap. The weather there was beautiful. I probably saw more sun in those 7 days than I had seen in the 6 months of Paris weather. Since I told them I was a professeur du ski I had the little 5-year old out and about on the hills everyday. Not a bad gig I can tell you that!

Parents' Visit

"I'm starting to la-brush up on my la-French"
-Papa Forsyth

So my parents have decided they actually want to see their daughter (and tuition money) in action before I leave Paris. As you can tell by the quote, they are not the type that you can easily hide their "American-ness". Trust me, it is not easy to do.
Examples from my experience:
1) You must retire your treasured Vera Bradley bag.
2) You HATE ketchup and LOVE mustard.
3) McDonald's (or Mac-Do as they call it) thoroughly disgusts you.

Actually the last one is not really hard to do at all, but you see the point. This is their third time visiting Paris, so we can skip all the touristy stuff and get to the real under-belly of the city. Can't wait!

Strasbourg

Ahhh Strasbourg. Great weekend excursion. This is Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-Strasbourg, a beautiful architectural marvel that spans over 700 years of construction. The French aren't usually hard-pressed on finishing cathedrals, or anything for that matter...



Beautiful shot of the stained-glass windows.


This is a building in the famous French quarter of Strasbourg. This particular building was the center of the Tanner's Guild and now is a haughty restaurant not suitable for the HCJYF's budget. INSTEAD, we go to this restaurant which had a strange mixture of musical instruments and pictures of women in compromising positions with sausage.

This image was on EVERY SINGLE PLATE. ughhhh. Hey, at least she's sporting the traditional headdress of the Alsace-Lorraine area! I had to give her at least a few points for that, even though she was actually straddling the EXACT meal that was next presented to me.



Voila! My meal for the night. Choucroute garnie (literally meaning dressed sauerkraut) : a very traditional meal here. It includes mysterious slabs of meat, meat, meat, sausage, sausage, and two random potatoes (need that starch!) all over a HUGE heaping steaming helping of sauerkraut. *shiver*. Sausage girl? Yup, right under there. You can just pick out her silhouette under the kraut juice...blachhhh. To say 'it was not one of the greatest meals ever' would be a vast understatement. Actually, Allie's expressive face best explains the overall sentiment of the night. She went for the maybe-heaps-of-French-mustard-will-save-this-dish approach. Don't think that helped too much. Dashelle, however, looks thoroughly amused.



Other than the horrific dinner, Strasbourg was, in fact, a beautiful city: rich in culture and history.



I would love to come back here, maybe when I am rich and successful and I can afford to shell out for a meal that doesn't include sausage girls.

Compilation of Favorite Photos (Since Christmas...woops)

In London with Alicia.


The Globe Theater. I bought an eraser there that says "Out Damed Spot! Out I Say!" So great.


View from the Opera House in Prague. You can see the Castle in the background.


Our Christmas dinner in Prague. Super fancy. We loved carrying Czech money around since the exchange rate is insane. I had 2,000 crown in my wallet occasionally.


Berlin! And the best Christmas tree-man in the history of the entire universe. This picture = pure happiness.


Part of the Berlin Wall still intact. It has been transformed into a memorial and has been recently updated for the 20th anniversary.


So one of my New Year's resolutions was to bring my camera with me more often. I got some good shots from my visit to the Musee Orangerie.


Don't let the cool lighting distract you from the real reason I snapped this one...


Waterlily closeup painted by Monsieur Monet at the Orangerie.


Cemetery Montparnasse. Souvenir or remember.

I'm a bad blogger...

My bad guys. I haven't updated this thing since Christmas. Woops. Anyway, I'm still in Paris and I hope everything is well wherever you guys are. I'm going to try to to be a little more consistent now that my first semester is over and I have some extra time to kill.