Upward Over the Mountain

Last Bits of France....

2012-01-03T19:57:00.000+02:00

Random adventures I never got around to putting up; here they are all thrown together!

the university campus

while on a bike ride I saw this sign about the dangers of nuclear energy... hilarious because a lot of my American friends initially thought was saying Tchernobyl when I was actually saying Grenoble...

Went on a hike to Pic St. Michel with Marie Noel, Charlotte and some of their friends.

a GLIDER skated by while we were on the top!! SO COOL

This is my wonderful adorable incredible volleyball team. top from left: Gaia (Italian), Beatriz (Brazillian) and Maude (French). Bottom from left: Celia and Marion (Both French) and moi.

Thankgiving dinner at Leona's host family's

Leona and Pragya

Hayet, Antinea and Mariam

Hayet

The christmas lights up in Grenoble...

the "suicide roll"

Bea and Renato

Felipe's birthday party

medically inclined

Gustavo!

Fete de les Lumiere in Lyon with Beata Gabriela and her cousin Angelika!

more vin chaud!

So many. people.

Back in Grenoble...

basket of bounty

Nicole picks out a cactus?

More to come?

Some Visitors...

2012-01-03T19:35:00.000+02:00

So the evening I got back from Dijon, I met up with my grandmother and my mother who had just arrived in Grenoble from Lyon! The Battaglias kindly welcomed them into 8 rue Voltaire and they stayed almost a week! It was wonderful to be able to show them my favorite spots around the city and school and of course introduce them to the Battaglias.

Christine (left) and my grandmother Zima

Marie Noel and Benjamin

Mom brought tortillas and chile from New Mexico and we made them a new world feast!

Marie Noel had free reign of the camera at this point (I swear I'm making the face at her; not at Dominique!)

hahaha

After 4 days of only being able to see them in the evenings because I had classes each day and they took day trips to different places nearby we took off Friday morning for Chamonix, the French home of Mont Blanc!

We took the Montveners train up the mountain to a gigantic glacier

Mer de Glace! (Sea of ice)

hahahha loved this sign...you wonder how often there was an incident in order to merit a posted sign

We jumped back in the car and drove tooooo Switzerland!

The pass just beyond the Franco Swiss border

Lac Geneve

After arriving in Lausanne we met up with a cousin who lives there- Luigi (Gigi). He took us to an elaborate dinner at the Hotel Beau Rivage... very shwanky. Pictured is my rockfish bisque...

The disastrous dessert cart... but the best waiter.

After dinner espresso and madeline... mmm

Gigi and Zima

walking around Lausanne after dinner.. what a beautifulcleanorderlyrich city!

The next morning we walked around the downtown with Gigi.... ... ...

for Beata Gabriela

The non catholic catedral

BEST SIGN EVER. and in a church no less!

ahahhaha... we decided this choir boy is deffffinitely yawning.

big government gives you clean sidewalks and great healthcare... and nightmares?

view out our hotel balcony at Hotel Bellerive.

Ensuite... we got back in the car and drove round the edge of the lake to Geneva for a brief visit to the famous cathedral there (St. Pierre)

we sat in the grey weather and ate our weirdly Swiss grocery store finds (marzipan yogurt and red carrots)... and laughed at this dedicated photographer.

After Geneva we crossed the border once again and I got dropped off back in Grenoble while Mom and Zima took off for Lyon in order to get to their flight the next morning back to the States!

Ketching up with Dijon

2012-01-03T18:59:00.000+02:00

So I'm back! No more France. :( I've been in the US about 3 weeks now and I intend to post everything I fell behind on because of exams, papers, traveling and then a host of technical difficulties.

First up? Dijon! BU took us all on a group excursion to Beaune first, and then to the city of Dijon; famous for escargots, owls aaaand... moutard!

After some bus troubles we got to Beaune

And promptly had deliiiiicious vin chaud from street vendors

vin chaud is mulled wine- spicy, orangey, warm, delicious.

Next stop: A tour of l'Hotel de Dieu de Beaune; a beautifully preserved 15th century hospital for the poor

at the in-house apothecary

Back on the bus: to Dijon!

Great Italian dinner with friends in Dijon-

Nicole

Playing with settings on Nicolette's camera~ Beata Gabriela

From here on out on this post I used Nicolette's camera; a Nikon D5100 because she was kind enough to let me have free reign of it's mind-blowing capabilities. I had fun.

Allison and others at after-dinner drinks

The next morning, walking around Dijon

The cathedral

Patrice explains the curious little owl affixed to the side of the cathedral; a symbol of Dijon- it's good luck to touch it and make a wish.. now there are little owls all over the city and in every souvenir shop

At every hour a little mechanical man does a little mechanical dance...

Valerie

Mariam and Leona

Celine always looks so elegant!

props to Kana

"Blue steel"

at the Musee des Beaux-Arts

Nicoles eyes matched the wall paper!

Anya

from left Pragya, Christine, Josh, Nicole and Nicolette

the egyptian section

tilt shift!

Kana watches the mechanical dance

The well worn wall owl

more owls!

So mignon! at lunch

cheersing with kir. mmmm.

Nicolette's camera has the most amazing food setting. I hardly edited these.

Then they took us to Bourgogne (Burgundy)! We arrived at the winery Chateau Mersault and were promptly lead into a tasting!

Before the tasting there's a small exhibit about wine and tasting etc. They have examples of all the difference elements of wine bouquets. Here: the smell of white flowers

"earthy"

underground!

you must check for "tears"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_of_wine

back on the bus to Grenoble!

Londres

2011-11-15T21:30:00.004+02:00

The weekend of the 4th and 5th I went to London! I went with my friend Sebastien and some other girls, June, Fanny and Jenn who happened to plan the same trip the same weekend met up with us a couple times. Without realizing it, we planned the trip to correlate with Guy Fawkes Night! This is the holiday in London where they celebrate the spoiling of the Gunpowder plot- (though a recent reinvention of the notorious terrorist Guy Fawkes has turned him into a kind of Robin-Hood-like "people's hero" thanks to the movie V for Vendetta and the Occupy ____ movement).

Aaannyyway, regardless of the spirit of the movement now and then, the city maintains their gigantic fireworks shows (plural!) all around town.

We left Grenoble on Friday evening and arrived at Stansted airport in time to find our chill hostel and then some fish n' chips that were highly rated on Yelp.com (and in our opinion as well).

The place was called The Golden Hind and I highly recommend it if you (whoever you mysterious people are) are in London.

I'd like my peas extra mushy please.

June actually ordered the bread&butter. It was a slice of spongy Wonder spread thick with good'ol butter. She enjoyed it!

Dear England,

Fish and chips aside, your cuisine is pretty disgusting.

Ethnic food for the rest of the trip, please.

Thanks,

#spoiledbyfrenchfood.

Fannnyyy

We met two really nice Australian travelers who wandered around with our group that night looking for a pub to chill out in. Apparently, pubs in central london close at 11pm thanks to some law dating from the first world war. You'd think they would've fixed that by now.

Nope.

Instead we discovered our very own Night bus (YES, LIKE FROM HARRY POTTER I KNOW SO COOL!)

The next day (Saturday, that is) we found a free tour (thanks NewEurope tours) that runs on a tips-basis (and thus is 99% backpacker students) and that took us allllll around the sites for 2+ hours. It was actually really entertaining.

This color hair was everywhere in London! Guess it's the thing to do... Darn-ded kids these days...

Newest column-topper outside the British Museum (Trafalgar Square)

British taxis win for Class.

Right next to 10 Downing Street- a.k.a. the British version of the White House which is...black...

My mission in life=candid photos of June

Lincoln representin'

Yeah... whatever.. ya know..

Westminster! Although we didn't go inside (super-cher), the outside is so incredibly detailed and gothic-cool. I think it's in my top 3 churches.

Charles Barry done gooood.

Big Benjamin

the 'Eye!

There's a really surprising amount of random Egyptian things in Europe. Including this obelisk and pair of sphinxes on the banks of the Thames....

Seeing as every.single.tourist. must take a picture in the iconic phonebooths, we decided we needed to get creative.

No, superman, you have to exiiitt the phone booth first.

Next we went to St. Pauls cathedral. We couldn't go in that one either. But this time because it was closed due to the Occupy London protestors and tent city that has amassed in front. It's huge!

This guy doesn't have the average Protestor vibe, I must say.

Guy Fawkes' face is everywhere.

The columns all around the square are plastered in posters, signs, letters, random art, pictures...

From the Millenium bridge

Sup Sebastien

We next went to the Tate! (Modern Art Museum)

Not sure why Monet was in there, but I mean, I'm down.

After the Tate we walked. and walked. and walked. Literally for the next 3+ hours. Our goal was Battersea Park, and eventually we made it but the journey there wasn't exactly on our petite tourist map so we continually stopped at bus stops (which have tiny little street maps of the surrounding area) to try to figure out where we were and where we were going. Public transport in London is the most expensive of anyplace I've ever seen in my life. Actually, everything is more expensive than anything I've ever experienced. To take the London Underground one zone, one way, one passenger, during off hours is 4 pounds. Thats 5 euros. Which is 7 dollars. Which is absolutely insane. Therefore, we cut costs as much as possible, and were very successful, if only a little hungry and tired.

Finally, we arrived at Battersea Park (where the best fireworks show was rumored to be)

About 60,000 other people managed to find it as well! (Thats 5 times the size of Zozobra!)

The fireworks were really cool. Also, a unique cultural experience. Yayy London.

After the fireworks we took a bus (2 pounds!) to Victoria Station and found some amaaazingly bad Mexican food at a restaurant that was still open. But then our luck changed when my friend Kim (who's studying abroad in London) called and invited us to her dorm. We chatted over tea in her kitchen (1-2am) with her until she decided to sleep (what? crazy) and then watched ridiculous '80s Japanese game shows (Takeshi's Castle!) from 2 to 3am. I was laughing so hard my sleeve was soaked with tears.

Finally we made our way on the night bus back to the train station where we caught a 4:30 train to Gatwick airport. Our flight boarded and left by 7am or so, landed in Lyon an hour later, we took a bus back to Grenoble and then the tram back to centre ville where I slept like a fossilized infant in a tree (rock+baby+log) for the entirety of Sunday.

Ah-May-Zing.

Fall Break: Cattolica and Florence

2011-11-10T01:25:00.001+02:00

I left Rome on Friday afternoon from the train station.

I bought my ticket from a machine, and I read on the ticket:

*Falc*Foli*Fano*

....

none of those say "Cattolica" which was where I was trying to go.

I wandered over to a crowded poster and saw a list of departures, eventually finding one train that included my destination under its list of stops. O.K.

Several Allen Ginsberg poems later (killing time in a nearby bookstore where the only English books were poetry anthologies with Italian and English side-by-side)...

I made it onto the train and 20 minutes in- sitting on the starboard side- I'm staring out the window at the countryside passing by, realizing that I can't see the shadow of the train.

This was a problem.

It was 2 pm. If we were going north to Cattolica, the sun would have been in the west, on the left side of the train, making a shadow outside my window. There was no such shadow.

I began to silently panic.While looking back and forth from my ticket to the shadowless exterior, I began to imagine expensive, embarrassing and inconvenient scenarios that would be the result of my accidental trip to Sicily.

The businessman across from me noticed my distress and came to my aide.

We were going east first, and yes, I was on the right train.

After that the train stopped at some random town and the entirety of the passengers exited and booked it to the train immediately adjacent that was apparently waiting. I, having no idea where everyone was going, joined them, only finding out later that I did make the correct connection. *wipes brow*

My "seat" on that train was also interesting. The compartment I was next to was full, and, not wanting to awkwardly traverse car after car of staring Italians (a truly unpleasant cultural norm, I must say), I was stuck in the the little space outside the seating area next to the door sitting on my rolly-suitcase. With me in this very small space, was a curious cast. Directly across, a young gay Italian couple- two men in designer jeans- who were holding hands and talking closely. To my right was a pair of men as well, however these two were American (thanks to sports regalia which always gives us away) and, Catholic priests. Joining our little party was an elderly Italian couple and a small child. This space was probably 2 meters square.

Many incredibly awkward but also incredibly polite turbulence-induced-interactions later we arrived at another station (where one of the young men told me to get off) and looked at their poster-thing and waited for another train and got off again and then asked another person and... well. its a long tale.

Eventually, I made it to Cattolica and met Dan (my uncle) and Emily.

Here she is the next morning. (I GOT TO SLEEP IN IT WAS SO NICE)

Cowboy hat? Well of course I will wear it. Teddy bear wearing a dress? Normal.

Dan's lovely flat

Saturday afternoon we went first for a walk along the water. It was great to talk to Dan. He told me about a lot of things, including the history of their small town, Cattolica.

(you can learn about it too!)

Fishing is still a major industry there

Emily is interested in everything.

Sand art with a found feather-in-'er-cap

cloudy day as per usual in their foggy valley

We went to the sweet little museum of Cattolica which was completely deserted. Emily loves it though (they go quite often)

Next we went to the "zoo" which is actually a small small farm next to the country house of friend of theirs. About 40 minutes driving in their car up into the mountains...

beautiful leaves!

Now YOU wear the hat!

HOrse!

hungry for grass?

Love.

beautiful sky.

A trip to Castel Montefiore was in order- a really cool old castle up on a mountain with a bizarre cube-like shape. Dan thinks the Malatesta family had a premonition of what "Modern" art might look like.

The famous archway where two gates would slam down, trapping intruders in the space of the wall, after which hot oil would be poured down the chute onto their invading heads. Lovely.

Emily's animal tower.

I was sad to leave Emily and Dan and Marzia but hopefully will see them soon for christmas in Massachusetts!

Next stop: Florence.

I arrived via Eurostar (plush!) around 3pm.

My hostel was "all full" (despite reservations....) and so they put me in their sister hotel which was nicer than a hostel, but pretty much the same thing. Really, actually a bizarre place. I decided to spend as little time there as possible and started walking.

I walked.

and walked.

I saw every "cartoon" on my tourist map.

Santa Maria del Fiore!

Bronze doors of the Baptistery

Green stone

bored/angry little girl getting her likeness in Piazza della Republica

This was as close as I got to the David.

Why?

1. The Accademia closes at 5 on Sundays. 2. The Accademia is closed on Mondays. 3. The Accademia requires advance reservations 4. The Accademia's entry ticket costs more than my hostel.

S'Alright. I saw plenty of him.

Il Porcellino.

Il Arno

on Ponte Vecchio- famous for gold and silver shops?

There were a few other people in Florence with me.

The bust of Benvento Cellini watches us tourists as we all take in the sunset.

Funny because I recalled doing a massive project on Cellini (well, it seemed massive at the time- i made a giant posterboard and wrote a multi page-MULTIPLE.PAGES.-report) in 5th grade but I had completely forgotten about it until I saw his bronze face.

Europeans and their love-locks!

Statue for Galileo next to the moooooon.

more crescent moon. By now the sun had set and I still had some cartoons to go. I still made it to all of them, but the pictures got steadily worse.

Palazzo Vecchio (everything is pretty old, I must say)

Lion statue in Palazzo della Signoria

Martini sign on Borgo San Lorenzo

More David! and edible.

Dont go there.

Cool doorway near Catedral Santo Spirito located on Via Mafia. Yep VIA MAFIA. (Look it up i dare ya)

Sweet shadows near Ponte alla Grazie

Reflectionsss

All the hotels near Santa Maria Novella

I met up with Michael, Kana and Mariah at their hostel. We had fuuuunn.

The next morning- the Basilica di San Lorenzo- the campo of which is PACKED with purveyors of all goods leather. incredibly crowded and pricey and icky.

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana! After studying this in AH 220? (Architecture) I knew I wanted to see it. Designed by Michelangelo- the Medici's private library- really really cool. I also managed to catch the free English tour so I learned a lot.

Entertaining interpretation of the staircase can be found on wikipedia (as linked above). This is my favorite excerpt:

"In the ricetto, critics have noted that the recessing columns into the walls made the walls look like taut skin stretched between vertical supports. This caused the room to appear as if it mimics the human body, which at the time of the Italian Renaissance was believed to be the ideal form. The columns of the building also appear to be supported on corbels so that the weight seems to be carried on weak elements. Because of the seemingly instability of the structure, the viewer cannot discern whether the roof is supported by the columns or the walls. This sense of ambiguity is heightened by the unorthodox forms of the tabernacle windows and of the architectural elements compressed together, creating a sense of tension and constrained energy.^[2]

The dynamic sculpture of the staircase appears to pour forth from the upper level like lava and compress the floor space of the vestibule. In the central flight, the convex treads vary in width which makes the entire arrangement disquieting.^[2]"

Original terra cotta floor.

all the sections of books are labeled.

petit pantheon?

After the library there was a cool (and free) temporary exhibit of old surgical texts from the library. Crazy, gruesome, awesome.

I walked around the posh stores in the downtown for awhile (theres alotttt of them)

saw some neat posters.

Next stop was the Basilica di Santa Croce. I made my way there and as I arrived and saw the line queueing wayyy around the side of building- at least an hour and a half wait, I gave up my dreams of seeing the inside and kept walking. Soon thereafter I saw signs to the "leather workshop" of the monks of Santa Croce. Hmm. okay.

Turns out there's a back entrance. AWW YEAH.

I also followed an English tour guide so I got the full story. Double winnn.

Galileo's tomb. no big.

The statue that they believe inspired the Statue of Liberty...

Depressed dame- Michelangelo's dead and I must sit on his tomb for all eternity.. *sigh*

Dante's tomb = More sad women.

Snitch? Potion? Fire? Feather Pocket watch?

Door decoration.

Sorry, the great angle's not worth looking that silly.

I stumbled into Pazzi chapel- which we'd studied in Architecture but I had completely forgotten was in Florence. Literally stumbled- the entrance is just a giant curtain to the outside and I tripped and fell into it. Laughter ensued.

Cool model of Santa Croce with reflections of stained glass on the case

Painting in the museum.

Special foot?

Secret-telling.

I really enjoyed Florence. True, very touristy, but I think I would like to go back and actually spend time at the museums, churches etc. It was an intense 20 hours.

I left Florence and got on a train to Milano where I switched again, getting on a SNCF train (home at last, haha) on its way to Paris. I got off at Chambery and from there it was coasting back to Grenoble.

Coming next: My weekend in London! Whoa.

Fall Break: Rome

2011-11-07T22:59:00.000+02:00

We arrived in Rome late on Tuesday night and by bus made it to the city center and to our actually quite cozy B&B called Conte House.

There at the bus/train station to help us navigate were some friends from Grenoble! Yay!

Half starved (not like we could ignore it thanks to Ryanair's entrepreneurial stewards...), we crawled to a nearby ristaurante and I had some delicious (and spiicy at last!) Penne alla Arrabiatta.

Of course gelato came after. (I had blackberry and dark chocolate hazelnut)

The next morning we made it with the others to St Peters Square by around 10:15

We joined this massive crowd/line, thinking it was just the line for something we were eventually going to want to do and thus might as well stand it while we figured things out.

Reading to group around me from the cheesy Rick Steves guidebook given to us by the hostel, I was describing the history of the Vatican and St Peters, visiting hours etc when suddenly I saw "...And on Wednesday morning, at 10:30am (I looked at my phone: 10:25), the Pope blesses the large crowd in the square."

Our coincidental arrival was soon explained by the appearance of the pope (alas, on a giant TV screen due to the inclement weather) and the subsequent blessing (in a zillion different languages).

So cool!

SO MANY PEOPLE

from all different places, it was amazing to be able to hear 5 languages within immediate earshot.

Oh, sup Pope?

Giddy Rakhi. Bostonian tourist behind her.

Un peu crowded.

inside St Peters!

Some other people had the same idea, I guess.

Next we headed to the Vatican museum

Bored security guard.

Great spot for a temper tantrum

Gettin' hitched by the pope? Bu... (means "dunno" in italian)

Some famous dudes or like, whatever.

sneaky picture!

Beata Gabriela

my hair has turned a weird color. I think its possibly my fault for the 3-4 home dye jobs this summer...

Beata Gabriela and Janani at the Tiber!

SHE FOLLOWS ME EVERYWHERE.

the inescapability of Ms. O'Keeffe astounds us again.

delicious Forno di Fiore pizza (famous I guess!)

free taste of limoncello!

fountain at campo di fiore i thiink

]

Pan THEONNN

The river smiles at us.

Colosseum by night!

We may or may not have rented a 150cc scooter. I may or may not have driven with 1 passenger amidst the Rome traffic of cars, scooters, motorcycles, buses, pedestrians and bicycles. I may or may not have allowed my back to be used as a table for a pedestrian walking map (however helpful that would or would not have been) so that Rakhi could or could not have tried to navigate. We may or may not have succumbed to the endless one-way, pedestrian-only, street-closed, street-doesn't-exist or inconveniently observant carabinieri officers thus having an hour long adventure to a restaurant less than 1/2 mile away.

So you can believe what you like!

Trevi by night!

A coin for good luck. (Coinage from fountain goes to feed the poor- apparently around 3,000 euro per day!)

St Peters by night (and a bride's in sight!)

Tiber ancore

The Vittorio Emmanuele memorial (known locally as the "typewriter" or the "wedding cake")

Our strange, but good, hostel breakfast.

At Santa Maria de la Maggiore

aussi

Michelangelo's Moses

St. Peter's chains!

Colosseum by day!

Guys that dress up as gladiators and charge tourists insane amounts for a photo. This guys changing into his costume around the corner from the Colo. I must say I don't disagree- I also wouldn't like to take the Rome metro wearing that get up.

Another tourist-trappy thing from the movie "Roman Holiday" (1953) this statue "bites the hands of liars." I think this lady is trying to convey pain?

nutellaaaaa

Really bothersome rose peddlers at the Spanish Steps.

Gelato from the world-famous Giolitti's. Really. very. good.

At St Giovanni

Hidden little alters to Santa Maria kept cropping up

funny sticker I've seen all over Europe.

at our last dinner together, we had incredibly good pasta and then Rakhi decided to order the grappa for dessert- as a cultural foray, of course. Who knew grappa came in a glass I would normally associate with thirsty white-wine drinkers. Karolina and I watched Rakhi's long commitment to the fire-water... laughing, of course.

A waiter at the restaurante kept chatting with us in hilariously bad english. We learned loads about him and after we had paid and were leaving he invited us to have a coffee/go to a club/celebrate his brother's graduation from university. Also, he invited us to have a picture with him; during which he instructed us to "Prepare the machine!" in reference to the camera. We died laughing.

Via Plebiscito (The Typewriter is in the back)

we kept passing by this on the scooter (or did we?) groaning, ("UGG, we're on Plee-Biscuit again!!")

Ruins along the Via Alesandria we kept passing on our way to our somewhat distant hostel. The foreground is the Metro line C construction that has continued (and been paused due to yet another archeological finding) on and off for many years.

Ciao Maria

Another Moses

curved facade=so renaissance.

Fall Break: Cattolica and Florence coming soon!

Fall Break: Barcelona

2011-11-07T00:52:00.000+02:00

Ten days of vacation in Europe... where would you go?

Rakhi, Karolina and I first headed to Barcelona for the first 4 days.

We stayed in a youth hostel called Alberguinn a little outside the downtown, but very easily accessible by metro in a quiet residential area. The hostel was great except that my bunk was by the door (of the 16+ bunk room) and so uninterrupted sleep became rare...

Besides being slightly dazed, Barcelona was incredible.

Catalan is such a bizarre language. For example:

(Si us plau = please)

I loved the sound of it and picked up some words while we were there (txocolat is always a good one)

I also forgot how comforting Spanish is, and how lovely it is to feel at home with language spoken around you.

The city itself is majestic, metropolitan, chic, lively and of course, touristy.

Karolinaaaa

Brass lion derrier

at La Boqueria= an open market pretty much just for tourists, but still very cool

sweet piercing dude

mmm figue tart.

surprise owl mosaic

Attack!

not so fun for Rakhi.

Walkin in the sunshiiiine

Barcelona WINS for architecture.

Gaudi's mammoth sand castle

Casa Pedrera

c'est moiiii

fake-designer purse vendors are on the lookout for policia and ready to run in case they come.

Parq Joan Miro

We rented bicycles! I rode uuppp the hill to Park Guell

More Gaudiiii

The cathedral that charges admission ;(

street art+smoke rings

loved this. latin quarter

the cathedral that didn't charge admission! (Santa Maria de la Mer)

Arc de Triomf (yes, that is the correct spelling)

Down by the water

MOST INCREDIBLE TAPAS

An incredibly small space called Quimet & Quimet:

standing only, very affordable, but soo cramped

most amazing combination:

crispy puff pastry with smoked salmon, greek yogurt, miel (honey) and truffle oil

We're waiting in line for the Picasso museum (and calculating the speed of the line by the rate cobblestones-per-15 minutes)

Also outside the Picasso museum, the interior of which could not be photographed.

My favorite part was seeing Picasso's 58 interpretations of Velasquez's Las Meninas

check it:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas#Influence

Second installment of the trip (Rome) coming soon!

Paris.... !

2011-10-14T16:30:00.000+03:00

This past weekend I went to the capital!

It was rough getting out- a major train strike- but eventually I made it! I went with one other friend and we stayed with Dillon from Santa who is living in the Quartier Latin- a lovely neighborhood on the left bank. He didn't get out of work (a photography internship) until 6 on Friday though so, for whatever reason, we decided to start in Montmartre. We ascended the steps...

The weather was cloudy all weekend but I couldn't have cared less. PARIS. where would you rather be in cloudy, rainy weather??

Cookie time!

It was the festival of the new wine in Montmartre and part of the celebration were these "desgustation" tents where you could try local specialities of France's island colonies like Guadeloupe and Martinique...

Mon dieu! Sacre Coeur!

Turn around...

thats me.

very boring picture of a very cool place- where AMELIE WORKED IN THE MOVIE.

Cancan-ing tourists is always interesting

le Louvre!!

aphrodite

a slave.

john the baptiste

not sure who this is.

la jocande. a bit crowded though.

Justin admires.

tourists looking at the Victory of Samothrace

DILLON in a grocery store near his house.

It's Seinebd. I hope someone gets this.

2am crepes

on a bridge of locks

beautiful statue in the jardin du luxembourg

wonders

the apiary! at jardin du luxembourg. Super Chouette.

not baad. at Saint Sulpice

Found a see-saw!

The what tower? where?

nice clouds.

random ping pong table+ epic game at le forum des halles

a dog looking oddly natural in front of one of those bizarre computer-generated pictures of a developed paradise.

look closely....

second-hand! aw yeah.

we went to this great french place called Breakfast in America. No, but actually. BOTTOMLESS COFFEE. and actually quite cheap.

Place des Vosgues!

Seinuit

Our lady.

New favorite bookstore: Shakespeare and Co. (It was in Midnight in Paris...)

REPresent!

Thar she blows

a dentro

At monoprix.. haha.

one of his three cups.

our wonderful second dinner. #hobbitsinparis

at night it glows. and on the hour, every hour, it fizzles and pops.

this is Dillon's abstract capture of the light show amidst the clouds.

Dillon's 6 story walk up.

metro advertisement

Marche d'Aligre

Shhh...

Outside the Centre Pompidou

Dillon's photography mentor is in the bookstore at the centre pompidou

Annika on the metro heading to Mount Parnasse cemetery

Toni!

spider web

graveyard surprise

Sarah and Dillon

Back at Dillon's. cozy-pasta-making-sock-wearing weather with Sarah and Annika

a face scratched in the smoke stains

Saint Michel? I believe.

ironwork on the door at Notre Dame

photo props: Dillon.

A morning in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and 45 minutes in Avignon

2011-10-14T13:24:00.001+03:00

This was from the two weekends ago, sorry! I just now uploaded the photos- which I took on a friend (Thanks Chase!)'s camera. I must say it's really uncomfortable to shoot with a camera you're not used to... I think it changed the pictures...

We arrived from Arles.. everyone of us bright and cheerful and ready to face the sunny morning...

Aaron and I

Saintes Marie de la Mer is a pretty little village.

every summer the population grows from 2000 to 50000. Unfortunately, the character of the place has suffered.

cliquez ici to read about the town!

We still had fun. :)

Kids these days.... haha. no but seriously.

mmm. nutella ice cream.

HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD AND I STILL GET AWAY FROM THIS JUNK.

Where are you when you the souvenirs are of horses, bulls, flamingos, wrought iron, stripes, dolphins and Saint Sara? Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, Camargue, France. Duh.

I think they look like some kind of marine life, yeah?

cool crosswalk

The underground candle-den underneath the altar in the fortified church.

Avignon: frustrated me. SO BEAUTIFUL and we had 45 minutes to soak up everything we could before the bus left. very sad. I therefore didn't get to take many picture/do anything. I will go back someday!

Sur le pont d’Avignon

L'on y danse, l'on y danse
Sur le pont d’Avignon
L'on y danse tous en rond.....

Arles, Provence

2011-10-07T11:51:00.000+03:00

Last weekend we went to Arles in Provence! It was warm, sunny, beautiful... it was the South of France.

Arles is a quaint little city on the Rhone, where Van Gogh painted his most famous, and colorful pieces. Also it's home to a lot of incredible ancient Roman ruins...

Here it the church of St Trophime in Arles, architecturally distinctive as one of the "finest examples of Romanesque design"...

These are in backward order... but it doesnt make too much of a difference.

This sanctuary was stunning in the afternoon light. the fading mural in the back is really cool too, I think it's a pyramid with an eye on it.. kind of reminds me of the Da Vinci code....

This former church we stumbled upon was filled with a really interesting modern art exhibit within the gothic structure

one of those cool chalk drawings!

this is viewed from the front

and this is from the side!

whoa!

blue

Roman arch at the baths that we happened upon the "Thermes de Constantin"

brick dome over where the baths once were...

"can i borrowa cup'a sugar?"

more kitten-age

it's funny because the buildings ACTually kind of look like this...

I'm enchanted by this font. a famous hotel built in the sixties.

a good descriptor of the Arles-ian lifestyle.

at the amphitheater-where they still have bullfights! though no more gladiator matches...

so many cliches are true.

They love me here.. (RF)

THIS IS PART WHERE I MET THE MAYBE FUTURE PRESIDENT OF FRANCE-

Francois Hollande.

haha. He was going around this market- very touristy place- meeting people and there were loads of cameras following him so I figured I'd take a picture and figure it out after, but then he approached us and I was surprised when he greeted me with two bisous on the cheeks. haha. maybe i'm on french TV?

Aarons eye

my new brazilian friends- Bea (on the right) is my outside hitter (I joined the university volleyball team!)

One of the french students- Sophiana- had us over for a cheese tasting! yum.

more great font at a toy-train shop.

OFF TO PARIS THIS WEEKEND!

wish me luck! Actually- wish away this train strike please so that I can ACTually get there!

Annecy!

2011-09-30T18:13:00.001+03:00

Last Sunday we went on a group trip (with Celine and Marie-Eve) to the quaint village of Annecy. It's postcard-perfect.

This is the postcard view- the old prison with the famous (and weirdly blue) canals and colored houses...

I love bikes...

Annecy is actually relatively new to France, historically it was Italian (well, it was actually a possession of the "Casa Savoia"). At one point it became a sort of refuge for Catholics (part of the counter-reformation movement during the advance of Calvinism in the 16th century) and so there are many catholic churches packed right next to each other all over town.

Of course, the weather was beautiful.

French prefecture.

Switzerland is on the other side of this Lac Annecy- hence the flag

these little "horse-drawn" tricycles were up hire. Haha.

I think this is a combined sundial and some kind of star-orientation? Love the skull+bones.

View from the Pont des Amours...

Conor bought a lovely new dress.

Mini-Celine prefers June's beautiful napkin crane to Conors mushed mess.

"I have a really flat head"

We ate traditional "Raclette" a kind of melted cheese with potatoes, pickles and meat... this was despite the t-shirt weather outside, of course.

Anya, Mini-Celine (Jane) and I

The scraping of the Remblochon- a.k.a. Raclette. The copper thing on the left is the heating element. Literally this giant half-wheel was meant for 3 people. we didn't even finish a 1/3 of it.

Michael and June.

I love seeing the different French names.

Saccharine marzipan creatures.

I couldn't get over how awesome this guy's shirt is.

they're obsessed with baby animals! They're on all the postcards and souvenirs, so random! and cute!

This guy reminded me a lot of Ajax... whom i miss dearly.

Prunes (plums) at the market.

mushrooms!

Then we all went on a tour of the lake! It was sunny, warm, beautiful, clear... but we had just all eaten so much and a large portion of the group slept through the scenery, haha.

Conor posing.

Conor and Rakhi

My summer home in Talloires. Nbd. (reminds me of Bolt Castle, yea?)

Sebastian.

A really beautiful day....

And here is a picture of some cupcakes Rakhi made. Dangerously delicious.

une petite randonnée

2011-09-30T17:23:00.000+03:00

Last Saturday Laura, Ben, Ula, Anya and I decided to go on a small hike. The bus we intended to take has apparently stopped running by this time of year so we kind of just took a random bus to a little village and walked around until we saw a big hill and climbed it. Spent the sunny day wandering through little mountain villages, past green pastures, down narrow country lanes with friends.... Life is hard, isn't it.

Too bad the countryside here is so unattractive.

Here's Ben on the bus:

Anya's sleepy neck

Laura high-fives a bear. nbd.

LOOK it's Hotel Christian(i)a!!

At the top of the hill (not pictured, haha sorry) (which was a ski area) there was a little lake. Ben and I had a very refreshing plunge! Then we made a little (ha) lunch of apples, nutella, cheese and pretzels.... yummmm

I've ALWAYS wanted to climb up the chair lift poles. FINALLY got my wish!

This is just awesome.

These little yellow signs are everywhere! You could walk all across France and always find these handy little signs that tell you which direction to go. They also over-estimate your walking time by about 2-3times...

Aww Ula.

Morning fog out the bus window

hiking club part 2 comes soon hopefully.

How to Become an Unreliable Narrator

2011-09-23T01:49:00.002+03:00

I've found a few too many new photo blogs recently and let's just say my documentary photography skills have perhaps suffered. Editing was much much more fun this round.

Oh yeah and France is still great too.

OH and I fixed the comments settings so guess what everyone (yes, everyone) should be able to leave me lovely little messages about how annoyed they are with the sudden lack of specific people or event based photos! yay!

I'm in love with this roof of our science library on campus. I feel like it belongs in Norway or Finland..

Anya dyed her hair and my shoes in the grass during lunch.

This is our lovely, wonderful, brilliant chem professor Frederic. We actually love him.

Learning the definition of "ennui" and knowing what this 1.5 hour library tour was like would be the same thing.

who doesn't love an focused blur

snapped over conor's shoulder from the tram

Sebastien and Beata Gabriela in my kitchen

some pretty good Polish people I know.

beautiful peeling posters near Lauras house

Burro dishware.

Starving artist or eco-friendly gallery owner orrr...?

out the main kitchen window at Michael's cool apartment- designed by his architect+civil engineer host parents. design-magazine esq. (when it's actually finished, maybe)

rakhi took this of me eating grapefruit.

June's not posing!

Paul Mistral

Entering June's new place

very fancy, thought-out decor inside. also magazine photo shoot worthy.

candlesticks near windows

at the botanical garden today with Laura

civil engineering was having it's "integration" party/riot/mob. they're all wearing hard-hats, soaked t-shirts, covered in flour-mud and asking every girl they see to write their numero on their t-shirt. and a man crossing the street too.

My lovely solo dinner ce soir. tomato salad, tea, bread and dijon. yogurt for dessert.

cloudy weekend

2011-09-19T00:03:00.000+03:00

Our trip to Charmonix this weekend was rescheduled due to weather, so I had another weekend in the city. It was quiet.. pleasant. Last Thursday I realized it's autumn- the air is crisp, and Jacqueline (grandmere) made an apple tart. The clouds and rain this weekend confirmed it.

Friday night we had some shenanigans in the fountain at Notre Dame with some of the French students in our classes.

Kiri gets dunked!

Oh hey Sophiana.

Not sure what cultural lesson is going down here.

Saturday afternoon the Battaglias always go next door for an elaborate lunch cooked by Jacqueline. It's a very nice tradition. I love her apartment, it's crammed with little things that are delightful to find.

zucchini quiche.

there was some sort of demonstration concerning Palestine's bid for statehood at the UN this week...

The Art of the Press.

My new best friend.

the Isere on Saturday. I love this stencil. Why did they choose to have them facing that direction?

The same river, the next day after Saturday night's intense downpour.

Simpsons reference?

the gore left behind after the market in St. Andre.

bookbinding artist at an exposition

Running with Mousse (réentrée)

2011-09-12T00:39:00.000+03:00

This weekend was a 3 day weekend for me (I didn't have class fridayyy) but we didn't travel- just hung out in Grenoble. It's incredible! Friday night was the fete de la Bastille- a giant party/concert up at the Bastille on the mountain (40 min walk up a million ancient stairs) for the Re-entree. "Réentrée" literally translates as "Re-entry" (shocker) like the American "Back-to-School" but in actuality is Back-to-work, back-to-business etc because the entire country has been on vacation for the month of August and all of a sudden has to snap back to reality. They celebrate this return to work with lots of parties! (shocker)... so everything is "réentrée" themed and everyone is in the streets, stores are opening, things are starting to move again from the molasses pace of Aôut. Dominique and Christine were in Strausborg for the weekend so Charlotte and I spent time together- we even went "footing" (jogging) along the Isere! I'm starting to understand why the French value vacation time over any other quality-of-life measure...they're really good at it! I also spent time this weekend exploring the streets of Grenoble, snapping photos of neat details I didn't notice before and sitting in cafés for hours sipping espresso and reading orgo...

This evening I went with a bunch of girls to La Tronche- a neighborhood a little bit outside the downtown area where I live- to have dinner at Mariam's homestay. Rakhi and I cooked mousse and tuile (delicate lacy cookies) to bring but ended up seriously damaging them in our effort to catch the tram... hence the blog post title, haha.

Rakhi is a serious foodie.

stirring the mousssssssse au chocolatttttttt

ivy covered wall in La Tronche

Cool house in La Tronche as well

Reminds me of some old New Mexican stenciled designs...

Karolina and Mariam messing around in the kitchen... tsk tsk.

Chocolate coma.

Karolina and I at a restaurant in Grenoble with the most ridiculous waiter.

1. While waiting for the bill we literally watched him casually drink an entire beer, then smoke a cigarette with a friend at another table

2. Finally when he came (30 minutes of trying to call him over) with the credit-card swiper he dropped it on my foot.

3. After charging the cards Rakhi discovered he had divided 23 in 2 to get 16.

4. After she called him out on his bad math he magically whipped out 2 five euro bills for the two of them as if he were ready and waiting for her to catch the error.

5. The receipt he needed flew away under some ladies' table. He proceeded to crawl on hands and knees under their thighs- amid startled cries- to try and retrieve it.

It was then that we then decided to leave our drunken waiter to his ridiculous antics.

Hahahahhha. French waiters.

the tram trackkks

my new favorite café- pain et compagnie- with a roving accordion player outside. Really? Can it get a little more cliché??

Breakfast of Champions.

The view up Laura's stairwell

Little turtle on Laura's balcony

I have no idea what these pretty little things are.

Laura's pantry door.

Copper cookware!

adorable.

The view directly out my window at sunset.

beautiful building somewhere in Grenoble

"Grenobloisss aller aller aller, aller aller aller, aller, aller, allerrrr!"

street art- horses diving into a black hole? cool.

half a chair in the wall (on the left)...

Sort of Eastern European designs?

The church near Place Grenette... Can't remember what it's called...

Government buildings near Place Verdun

Grandeur..

This our weird apocalyptic campus- a view across the main square at the Science library...

Commente!!

And then there was Marseille...

2011-09-04T23:52:00.001+03:00

So... something like 20 of us went to Marseille this weekend! Don't ask about the whole pack travelling thing. dont. do it. Luckily we pretty naturally broke up into various little groups after we arrived and had checked into our hostel and ended up having a great great time. The trains in France are wonderful. We paid around 40 euro for the train tickets round trip- not too bad?

Guess where we're going?? Conor on the train.

the cutest little sign telling you to turn off your phone- Sleepy cellphone! (top left)

On the way to Marseille our train stopped in Valance for about two hours. Justin and I found a couple churches and some cool old streets. Apparently, among other claims to fame, it's the village Napoleon Bonaparte received his military training.

the Maison du Tetes, a preserved house from the Renaissance, has lots of head sculptures- but also a beautiful hidden courtyard

Saturday morning I literally dragged some poor souls out of their hostel bunk beds and made them come with me to this "calanque" (cliffs basically). It was a petite hike to some beauuutiful blue water in a tiny village with terra cotta roofs.. we didn't stay very long though..

Janani.

Nora.

(we didn't stay long).... because we had to see the famous Vieux Port of Marseille-- our hostel was a *bit* out of the downtown.

At Hotel de Ville there was literally a line of wedding parties lined up waiting to take pictures underneath the arch with the picturesque harbor for a backdrop. It was insanity but also very fun to watch. This girl is staring at the bride (top right) seemingly oblivious to her matching dress.

Love Chariot no doubt.

Scarffage.

The walk along the harbor.

Brides-in-waiting

Baguettes are so cliche, right? But we see people actually carrying multiple baguettes all the time! Its hilarious!

Approaching the Cathedral

Cathedrale Sainte-Marie-Majeure

built in the 19th century but in a verrry Byzantine style. Really confused me before I looked up the date of construction.

mosaic'd archway

Stainglass window

Justin and I decided this guy is saying "Ahh... J'ne se pas.."

Another wedding-in-waiting, although this was at a church.

Italian family

Beautiful street art

Prune Gelato! (Plum. PLUM!)

Everywhere you turn in this neighborhood (called Le Panier Quartier) is so photo-worthy... my poor companions were troopers though and put up with my nonsense thank god.

more street art "You Are Beautiful!" (only 2" above the ground)

The furthest apart heads are jealous of eacthother?

Justins eye while we waited for the others

Cheshire cat?

Another wedding....

All of a sudden Marseille got all Hausmann-aise on us..

Whoa.. Paris?

Wonder what the locals wear...

More friends joined us for a splurge-y dinner on the water (we've had 3 straight days of bread and occasional fruit) and after we all hung out at a beautiful lookout with a great view..

I love the shadows. (Conors head in the foreground- hey there)

Well that's all for today kids.

Professor-Sightings at the Cafe Forte... and a trip to the mountains

2011-09-04T23:09:00.000+03:00

We were treated to a dinner at a restaurant with all of our professors, as well as all of the French students who have opted to take our classes with us- chemistry and biology- to improve their English! A bit of a photoshoot always seems to happen whenever our group is waiting somewhere, and I'm no exception.

Beata Gabriella looks complacent

I actually love this. Beata Gabriella and Justin.

Black currant juice with white wine? Okay! I like the madness going on in their midst. I think BeataGabriella took this.

Suspicious?

Rakhi got a birthday sparkler in her tarte tartin!

Many hours after the dinner, we got caught in a warm thunderstorm walking home.

Mon petit dejuener- cafe au lait (in a bowl) with petite pain (it comes in a bag, pre-"grilled" from Carrefour) with some confiture

The women- Jacqueline (grand-mere), Charlotte, and her mother Christine

Thursday we had off from all classes to go on a field trip organized by our Introduction to Scientific Research professor- Catherine Bougault- to the Jardin Alpine du Lautaret. We took a big bus up an incredibly narrow road which took us through an obSCENEly picturesque alpine valley. Glaciers and glacial lakes, treeline and bright sunshine- in a valley at a lower altitude than Santa Fe?

heres the link to the botanical garden:

click heeyah to see where it is!

the water is ACTUALLY that color!!

It's a very famous road for road bikers. Also Very Dangerous. Very Narrow Road. Very Fat Bus. Tunnels Really Small. Ack.

'Ey! Where's the rum 'round 'is neck?

Our extraordinary guide. The real thing. So so so legit.

He walked us around the entire garden and told us interesting tidbits. He's lived his whole life in that valley!

Frenchman holding a puppy? I think yes.

A little of Grenoble

2011-08-28T23:56:00.002+03:00

Watching french news television with Dominique

Irene, Sarkozy, the election, Japan vs France (karate?), Football...

En plein air music.. and ivy!

Babies are great because they're reliably adorable. in any language.

Benjamin and Aaron sampling the local liquor- Chartreuse

Laura and Anya enjoying the view

the "bubbles" of the telepherique- this photo is taken from the inside of one of those!

The figs from the market at Place St. Andre are much more flavorful than the trader joes variety!

Figs+pain au chocolate+an petit cafe+outdoor setting= wonderful breakfast

Dominique demonstrates the mobility of a suspension bridge

very common juxtaposition in Grenoble

Didier (acted the part of Ivanoff)

Dominique is a very knowledgable tour guide!

a Chez Didier- lunch

'Nuff said.

Chez Moi!

2011-08-27T17:17:00.003+03:00

August 27, 2011 2:33 am

Bonsoir/jour (?)

I am sitting in my new room in Grenoble listening to the Rolling stones blasting over the speakers in the next room and the stomping of dancing feet and the laughter of a crowd.

I arrived in this house earlier this evening to meet Dominique, my host father. He is a “City Planner” but also a part-time amateur actor who lives on Rue Voltaire, just a few hundred meters from the center of le Ville Vieux. He has a wife Christina and daughter Charlotte (plus two others who don’t live at home anymore) who are in Hungary and Serbia (respectively) this weekend so he’s a temporary bachelor. He speaks broken but much-appreciated bits of English, about 55 with gray hair, he says they often go on bicycling vacations in the mountains nearby.

After I arrived in this very sweet (and quite large) 3^rd floor (they call it second floor) apartment he showed me my room (which is lovely) and then sat me down with green tea (in a ceramic bowl) in the kitchen. The apartment is decorated verrry eclecticly, random folk and modern art hang on every wall, creative clutter or family photographs are stuffed in the bookcases along with hundreds of books from all over the world. Childish drawings are lined up with interesting collections of themed knick-knacks; like the extensive collection of oiseux, ranging in material and size. It reminds me very much of several households I know well in Santa Fe. The bathroom I share with the daughter strangely lacks a toilet- thankfully there’s another bathroom near the parents’ bedroom.

In the kitchen Dominique explained to me, in an inventive blend of the two languages that he was in a play that night- Chekov’s Ivanoff- and I was invited to come. An hour later we left (in the pouring rain…) for the play which had been moved indoors to a different venue than the summer series’ typical en plein air setting. I sat with the actors as they ate in the makeshift green room and met a host of them, smiling and choosing “oui” and “non” and “quatre moins” almost at random. They were fooled, I think, because they just kept talking to me.

The music has switched to Linda Ronstat?

A man who I later found out is called Gregoire (I guess it’s not really customary to tell your name when you first meet someone here) was introduced to me as Dominique’s best friend- ‘like my brother’- and he took me into the lobby for a very curious dinner. Volunteers provided the food as a fundraiser for the theatre group and because of the play it was Russian themed. Basically my first real dinner in France was boiled potatoes with onions, toasts with caviar, tomato and olive spreads, a piece of bologna (I let it be), a small pickle and a smallish pretzel. We had Russian beer- tasted like soda- and bread with Camembert on the side. Actually it wasn’t half bad and Gregoire talked away in small sentences- allowing me to interrupt him for food vocabulary whenever I wanted.

The play was another story. I honestly caught about 15 words total in the 2 and a half hours it went on. I wasn’t familiar with the plot of Ivanof walking in, adding jetlag and a late night at a interesting bar with the other students the night before, the darkness of the theatre drew me in and I was afraid on several occasions of spraining my neck due to the violent jerking that occurred every time I nodded off. By the time it was over I was more than excited that Nikolai Ivanof finally committed suicide.

Gregoire drove me back to Rue Voltaire (at 11:00 when it ended) where I settled in all ma stuff in the closet and generally got organized. Around midnight I was hanging up the last of my sweaters when the music- which sounded like it came from the street- suddenly got much much louder and I heard the doorbell go off. I thought that was weird and peeked out my door to find the entire cast (14 people) of Ivanof drinking Chartreuse and dancing like maniacs to “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” What. I came out and sat with them through some strange numbers- Etta James singing the blues, Louis Armstrong, Flogging Molly and Credence Clearwater Revival Band and Serge Gainsbourg were just a few of the rousing tunes. They started making spaghetti and I crawled back into my room, now so tired I think I’m hallucinating this Linda Ronstad right now.

So much for brevity- theres so so much more- like, everything that happened before 5pm today- but whatever…. I guess I’ll just have to forget all that and pretend it didn’t happen!

Bisousss

Oh yeah and comments are definitelyyy apreaciateddddd

Bonsoir Grenoble! The first night- view out our hotel window at Place Grenette

Plan B turned into Plan A
PHOTO CREDIT GOES TO JUSTIN MORSE
happy now?

My room!

A view of the kitchen

A view out the living room window at Rue Voltaire

The living room

Bon Voyage

2011-08-24T05:03:00.001+03:00

I'm off tomorrow!
Lufthansa will somehow get me from Boston to Munich to Lyon and then eventually I will end up in Grenoble, France where I'm spending the next semester! I'd like to update this blog while I'm there to show you folks what I'm up to. The posts may end up being rather meager, but at least it'll be a glimpse into my undoubtedly compelling experience.

Here are some pictures from the last week in Boston- see the full album on facebook

These first ones are all from the Carnaval parade in Provincetown, Cape Cod

Our picnic at Race Point:

Speed and Trevor

In Salem, Mass

Jumping off of Marlon and Les' boat in Scituate, Mass

Ferris Wheel at the Marshfield Fair, Mass

With any luck the next time I post I will be 'crost the Atlantic! Yayayya

bisous!

Apologies

2010-05-06T09:35:00.000+03:00

Hello all-

I am deeply apologetic for the time I've been away from this space. Much has happened, including my timely departure from Thailand (As my plane to LA was on the tarmac a "State of Emergency" was declared in Bangkok). In those last few weeks at Warm Heart I attended "Sports Day" (This time, for all the adults of Mae Pang district), went to an Elephant Nature Park with the kids, a livestock market outside of Chiang mai, Doi Sutthep and played in the lake some more. My life in Phrao concluded with a festive karaoke fueled goodbye party for me in the Boys Home- during which the staff-both American and Thai- serenaded everyone, lasting late into the night.

I came home exhausted and depressed. The food was less flavorful, the colors less bright and the people less smiley. As days passed, and jet lag wore off however, I realized how much I had missed my friends, family and pets. Also, I developed a great appreciation for the novelty of overhearing conversations, understanding strangers, reading local media, going to movies, speaking slang, speaking spanish and conversation regarding anything deeper than "what is your name" and "where are you from."

After that I faced the quandary of college. I embarked on a week-long whirlwind tour of North America, starting with Seattle and continuing through Austin, Montreal and Boston. At the end of the trip I decided on my formerly self-ranked least favorite- Boston University. It was a tough decision.

For now I'll just share the photos I've marked as my favorites from my last weeks in Thailand.

If you'd like to learn more about this INCREDIBLE place- which rescues abused elephants from all around Thailand- watch this video

Now on to Doi Suttep (famous temple on the mountain above Chiang Mai):

gift shop at the base of the 300-something stairs

I love that that boy is smiling.

Sudah with P'J's youngest.

On a truck, at a market... I have no idea..

Love Handle.

I still have loads of photos to go through, so there will be more soon... hopefully. Otherwise I was wondering if maybe I should continue this little project with photos of my life as it is now. Would that be boring? Do I care? Let me know what you think (you mysterious bunch, you) by commenting. Please.