The market!

Today I had French class as usual and then decided to do one of my favorite activities in Paris: hit up the open-air street market. With a canvas bag in hand, I walk two blocks down from my place to the market. Vegetable and fruit stalls line the street for about 5 blocks. Everywhere you look, there are mounds of glossy vegetables and sweet-smelling fruit. It is quite a sight to see and easily eclipses any farmer's market I have been to in the United States. The vendors yell out to passer-by, locals bargain incessantly (especially the elder ones), little kids reach out to grab the produce that must look like very shiny, fun toys. When I came to Paris, I decided that I would make an effort to introduce more meat into my diet as being a semi-vegetarian in Paris is simply not accepted, but alas, I have been drawn into the meatless world once more. Vegetarian egg scrambles and veggie-tofu stir-fries now comprise the majority of my diet and my love for bananas has seized to die. Although I have not been very impressed with the French fruit, the vegetables are delicious. Today, pearly white mushrooms, plump avocados, ripening bananas, and robust peppers were purchased and are sitting in my fridge just waiting to be eaten. Thank god for the Parisian open-air street markets. It not only makes eating that much better, but it is so much exploring the market and watching the hubbub surrounding the event.

Finally, another post.

So I have been horribly lazy about updating this blog. Having internet that hates me with a passion makes even sending the most simple of emails a troublesome task and therefore I have dreaded dealing with the whole posting blog thing. And now I am too lazy to talk about what happened since the last time I posted, so I will just move on to talk about what happened this weekend!

Thursday I only had class in the morning so Cassandra and I went to Galleries Lafayette (a fancy department store) because they were having a sale of which I could afford nothing. After exploring the store, we headed to a café near the Opera House (one of the best places in Paris) and sat down to have an espresso, share a plate of fries, and write some postcards. After returning to my room, I preceded to take a 3 hour nap until Allie rudely woke me up with the incredibly loud doorbell, it seems I had slept through our meeting time for the night and so she rallied me to get up and we headed out to a new Irish Pub on the street where my school is, a few blocks from my place. It's a gorgeous new place with pool tables and dark corners and lots of ex-pat Irish locals yelling at each other and downing Guiness' at an alarming rate. At the urging of Cassandra, I tried my first Guinness and liked it a lot. We had fun just telling stories and chatting at a comfy table in the front until we decided t move down the street to another pub that knows us well as Thursdays are Student nights and drinks are only 5 euros. We stayed there for the rest of night, mingling with the locals int he pub and having fun. Allie and I then ran to the crepe stand just as it was closign for a late-night Nutella crepe and walked home.

Friday morning we got up pretty early to met our history class at Place St. Michel to go to Versailles. My teacher is this adorable Hungarian woman who has the body of a ballet dancer and the smoking habit of an old french man. She spouts out historical facts like it is today's news and never looks at her notes in class, listening to her talk about what we are learning is like listening to a story and it is so peaceful listening to her. We took the RER (the train that goes to the suburbs) to Versailles and headed to the Palace. It is just as imposing, grand, and beautiful as I ever thought it would be. The gates are glittering gold and the palace is huge. With large hordes of tourists buzzing around us, we crossed through the main courtyard into the back of the palace grounds to explore the gardens. We wandered around the miles of fountains, statues, greens, gardens, etc for hours learning abotu the symbolism for everything and which king developed which aspect (all illustrating exactly waht we had covered in class). Last weekend had brought low, low temperatures to Paris and demanded the first use of my wool coat, but this day in Versailles was absolutely beautiful. Warm temperatures, blue skies... The blue made the golden statues sparkle and the blue sky contrasted beautifullly with the yellowing trees. I honestly have seen very few things so beautiful as Versailles on a day with good weather. After exploring the gardens, we went to Marie Antoinette's fake peasant village she had made so she could play with animals and explore mini houses to make her forget her trouble and have her personal fairy tale land. It was straight out of Beauty and the Beast... old medeival cottages, lakes with fish.Goats, bunnies, donkeys, geese running around the grounds. A grotto. rolling hills spotted with pagodas. It was amazing... So anyways, this ended up being one of my favorite days in Paris and quite a spectacular sight to see, even though it was utterly exhausting -- we walked for 7 hours.

Saturday Allie's friend Mariah was visiting so the three of us set out to show her hte city by taking a long walk along the Seine. we started at one end where we live and wanted to get to the other, where the eiffel tower is. It was another sunny and gorgeous day with a blue sky. It proved to be a nice and relaxing day, just walking along the water and stopping for a coffee at one point.I cannot get over how gorgeous it is here in the autumn! It is fantastic to have a real season and although i know I may stop being so happy about it when it gets to be November and the temperatures keep dropping and the rain never stops coming, I'm loving it right now. So anyways our walk concluded with yet another Nutella crepe and a mini picnic at the base of the eiffel tower. That night Allie made us a scallop pasta and we headed out to a Moroccan bar which was very eclectic and fun.

Today I slept in and then did reading with Megan in her room. It was so relaxing just to hang out and stay in, I feel like I hve been trying really hard to not waste time here and see everything I can, but that can be super exhausting. For dinner, we went to the apartment of Megan's uncle and had a nice dinner (God, how I appreciate those now).

Another week of school starts tomorrow. crazy how time flies!

HOPE YOU ARE ALL WELL.

Bisous.

Paris, je t'aime.

So life has gotten increasingly busier here in Paris. Our two week French-intensive practicum just finished (thank god) -- French 9-12 with excursions three times a week got to be too much.

It's hard for me to sit here at my desk and put together a fluid, sensical blog post because Paris so far has been a blur of coffee shops, grocery stores, amazing sights, and hours spent in French class. The best I can do is to list a few highlights for the past week when I last posted:

- On Monday, my class and I took an excursion to Pere Lachaise - the famous cemetery where Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, and Oscar Wilde are buried. As a hyper-sensitive person who tends to be overwhelmed with emotions easily, I usually try and stay clear of graveyards of any sort but this one was truly spectacular. It was a museum of sorts, really. We saw the three gravestones listed above and then wandered around for the rest of the time. There are truly fabulous tombstones littering this place... mini-houses with stained glass, engravings, statues, doors. There are also so many famous people laid to rest there (history test!). It was a good time, I enjoyed seeing the creative tombstones and felt it was an honor to be there because this cemetery contains such beautiful tributes to the people. It really makes death a beautiful and respectful transition, in a way. The graveyard was also in Belleville, the "immigrant" neighborhood of Paris. It was cool to see a diverse, non-glamorous side to Paris, even though I did not appreciate the hike up the hill to reach it. There were many protest signs supporting "sans papiers" (immigrants without immigration papers) and many anti-Sarkozy posters.

- The next excursion my class took was to the old Opera House. We had a fantastic English-speaking tour guide (thank god) who gave a witty, thorough, entertaining tour. The building itself was magnificent... it was the most detailed, ornate building I have ever seen. The building was also constructed in a manner that reflects the history of the time -- there is a separate staircase that Louis XIV was supposed to use, the staircase was made so that the bourgeoisie would be the center of attention when they entered. It is also the Opera House that the Phantom of the Opera is based on, which I just saw for the first time. Anyways, I recommend checking it out if you ever get the chance! We really want to go see a show there, student rush tickets are only 5 euros, so that's music to my ears.

- Last night, my friend Justin decided to pay back Allie, Megan, and I for the many times we have hosted for dinner by making homemade potstickers for us at my place. As anyone who knows me knows, meat (and especially raw meat) creeps me out more than anything else. Now, picture me helping Justin make these dumplings and picture how it rattled my nerves to have raw pork flying all over my room. But nonetheless, the dumplings were made and proved to be quite delicious.

- Friday was wonderful because it was the end of the French practicum. Hoorah to no more 3 hour grueling French sessions! Once we finished our final, we were free for the day and a few of us mosied on over to the Photography Museum to see the Annie Leibowitz exhibit there. They were photos from the 1980s until the present, so the exhibit did not contain any of my favorite old-school Rolling Stone covers, but it did contain many wonderful portraits of her friends and family as well as some great portraits of musicians and actors. Leibowitz also showed a portrait of Richard Avedon and included a description of how the famed photographer had influenced her. It was so cool to see that after having just seen the Richard Avedon exhibit... god I love photogrpahy.

- Friday night we decided to indulge in our first true night on the town. Allie, her friend Kyle, and I made our way to Sharon and Maia's palatial apartment and gathered the troops for a rendezvous to Duplex, a club opened by Johnny Depp. We did not get there until 1 in the morning and danced non-stop until 430. It was an amazing, sweaty, exhausting night. I also fell in love with House music, much to my surprise, and now think it is quite the cat's meow, if you don't mind me utilizing so cheesy a phrase.

- Sunday was another great day. After dragggginngggg Allie and Megan out of the residence, we set off on a walk I had created that would show us two sights I had not seen yet: Champs Elysees and St. Germain du Pres. We got off the metro at the Arc de Triomphe and walked along the Champs Elysees (obviously purely window-shopping for us) and then crossed the river at the bridge Alexander III (and met up with Maia and Jen, a friend from UCLA) along the way. The bridge was just gorgeous.. the Parisians really know how to make utilitarian structures beautiful. There was a great view of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower in the background, perfect for many photo opporunities, which two newly-wed couples put to use. we then contined on (with many a griping from Megan) down St. Germain des Pres to Cafe Flore, a place fondly labeled in my memories as the home of the best hot chocolate in the world and I place I was first introduced to as during the first trip to Paris with my parents. It is very chic and houses a very in-crowd clientele, but I reassured the girls the hot chocolate was worth the 7.2 Euro splurge. To my delight, they all agreed with me after tasting the utterly rich, decadent chocolat chaud and we had a great time laughing away and being embarrasingly loud Americans on the sugar high that ensued.

It is now Monday (this post was written in two different times because my internet froze halfway through writing it) and today is our first real day of classes. French 9-1030 and then a big break until 215 so Allie and I have now sat ourselves down at the cafe across the street in order to procure real internet and a wonderful, hot espresso. I have class from 215 until 630 this afternoon and I am not looking forward to it.

I'll let you know how it goes though!


Also one more thing, you know the stereotype about snobby French people? Well I am starting to believe that it is mostly true about Parisians. I've met some wonderful people, but I am starting to get homesick for friendly people.

My first museum experience.

Today I had another 9-12 grueling session of French immersion made easier that all I did was sleep yesterday. Pierre, my TA, is this amazing Parisian man with a head of floppy curls and a penchant for wearing see-through white t-shirts with matching white pants. He does not know too much English so he rarely speaks it in class, making comprehension difficult, but I do believe it is working towards accelerating my French learning. Anyways, so today we had French and then in the afternoon we had an excursion (we've had them Mon, Wed, Fri) and Pierre took my cozy little class of 18 to the Lourve area to the Musee Jeu de Paume to see a photography exhibit by the American photographer Richard Avedon. We got off the Metro near the Louvre and had to walk through its grounds, through the Tuilerie gardens, and finally to the Place de Concorde where the museum is located. The Louvre is massive and intimidating and in no way tempts me to enter... the grounds are pretty enough for me! The Tuileries were also impressive (but my heart was already won over by Luxembourg Gardens). So when we finally reached the museum, we were given a guided tour in French. Pierre, what were you thinking?!? This is French 2!! We understood nothing, but the tour guide and Pierre amused themselves laughing at our lack of comprehension. Nonetheless, even with the jibber-jabber from the tour guide distracting me, I loved the exhibit. It reminded me how much I absolutely love photography, especially portraits. Avedon represented a change in the medium of photography (especially in the fashion world) from stiff, motionless photos of haute couture in studios, to lively photos done in a natural exterior with natural lighting. He also took great photos of celebrities and famous figures with facial expressions that do not reflect their public personas. He then went on a 5 year tour of Western America taking portraits of everyday, non-glamorous people. One of the highlights of the exhibit for me was a collection of portraits he did for Rolling Stone in 1976 before the presidential election of prominent political figures.

Here are some photos I found online from the exhibit. I recommend checking him out!

** okay nevermind, I cannot upload pics right now, but I suggest googling him and then I'll upload pics when I can

The first week or so.

Well, I'm here. I've finally made it to Paris.

The flight to Paris was manageable (thank God for Weeds on my iPod and tylenol PM) and before we knew it, Allie, Megan and I had arrived in Paris. Once I had successfully wrangled all four of my luggage pieces into a cart, the three of us were approached by a man who gave us a ride to the UC Center for 20 Euros each (not as shady as it sounds, I promise). The UC Center is in an adorable courtyard off of Rue Faubourg-Saint Antoine in the Bastille neighborhood of Paris. Once we had checked in, we dragged our suitcases a few blocks to our residences. Our building is in another quaint, quiet courtyard and we each have our own decently-sized single rooms with our own bathrooms and kitchenettes. (I'll try and upload pictures of my place here later, but the internet here SUCKS and won't let me do it at the moment).

Later that day, we were given a walking tour of our neighborhood, met up with Mai-Lan, and had our first real French meal at a great cafe across the street. I had a salad nicoise (yumm) and an espresso (of course). During the course of the meal, a nice, old French man engaged us in conversation about Paris and our lives and what we were doing here. He gave us lots of advice (although I remember none of it) and was eager to learn about us, but my favorite moment came when he called both Sarcozy and Bush "idiots" and laughed when we agreed whole-heartedly.
That first night we went out with some other people in the program to a bar in the Bastille neighborhood, which is quite a lively area. It was fun to see a snapshot of Paris nightlife, but albeit it it is August and most Parisians are away on vacation, so I have yet to see this city really come to life.

The second and third day we had orientation meetings at which I was very impressed with the staff. There is a guy named Jim working for the ACCENT Center (which runs our classroom/living facilities) that appeared to be a nicer David Sedaris. Absolutely hilarious. Spent one night attempting to participate in/admiring salsa dancing at a local salsa club - Bario Latino. It was definitely an entertaining experience...

Friday we all headed out to the Latin Quarter (with my guide book in hand, of course) to check that out. We lunched at an American Diner which was cheesy and wonderful and then strolled the streets. It was pretty touristy and crowded, however, so I want to go back and find better parts of the neighborhood. We did get a chance to see the outside of the Sorbonne and the Luxembourg Gardens, which were quite a sight. The Luxembourg Gardens are unbelievable -- just this huge sprawling, perfectly kept-up park with fountains in the middle, scores of chairs for people to lounge in, snack shacks, and old buildings surrounding the property. I cannot wait to come back with a good book or my iPod and just sit and relax. The French really know how to make everything in life that much more enjoyable. Things here are incredibly expensive, but you are always paying for more than the material possession you hope to obtain -- you are paying for an experience. To sit and read a book in the company of great friends in a beautiful park as the sun is setting is priceless to me.

Friday night Allie, Megan, Mai-Lan and I headed out to see the Eiffel Tower at night. It was so beautiful! Although you might call the new light show cheesy, I really liked how it was lit up blue and how it would sparkle every now and then. It provided some good photo ops... It also provided a good meeting place for our first real conversation with -- gasp -- real Parisian youths. Three guys approached us while we sat on a bench watching the light show and started talking to us about how we liked Paris and all that. We of course made up names (Megan's idea) and tried to end the conversation as quickly as possible, but of course ended up getting along with them quite well after a very disfunctional photo shoot and a few mangled translated conversations. It was a fun outing to say the least!

Saturday came time for the Marais, my favorite area so far. It is the Jewish/Gay neighborhood (my favorite people!) and was a mecca for fashionistas, coffee drinkers, and vintage store shoppers. I found some great finds for cheap at these fantastic vintage stores chock full of hidden treasures (will be making a return trip, obviously). Jewish delis next-door to gay bookstores ... classic.

Saturday night was Pub Crawl time! The Crawl consisted of a group of tourists (highlights including 6'8" South African twins, BBMAK styled Pittsburgh boys, hilarious Australian girls, and anti-American Canadians) being led around by young, English-speaking tour guides who took us to four pubs and a club. It was a blast, met a lot of great people, saw some great parts of the city, and really felt the excitement of nightlife here for the first time. Another highlight had to be the Australian kid who was excited to meet me because I had at one point attended school with Lo from "Laguna Beach," his favorite TV show...hmm....

School has been pretty good so far. For the first 10 days we have French immersion from 9-12 EVERY MORNING and then excursions on Monday, Wed, and Friday afternoons. My (very) limited is slowly coming back to me as I pick up more from what I hear around me in Paris. Class is pretty painful though... We went to Cite de la Musique for an excursion in the rain last Friday and Monday we went to Montmartre (the neighborhood where Amelie was filmed) and saw Sacre Couer. Very exciting but hot!

So.. that has pretty much been my trip so far. It's been exciting but also very comfortable -- I'm already pretty much in a routine of city life here. I love using the metro, it is so easy and convenient. I make most of my meals in my room with Allie (mostly pasta and fresh baguette), I go to the same Boulangerie every day for my daily baguette sandwich, I am starting to know the owner of the cafe across the street (where I go to get my groceries), I am memorizing the neighborhoods and which metro line gets where... basically, I love it here. But I miss home tremendously and I miss all the people in my life at home. I am so lucky to be here with Allie, Megan, and Mai-Lan who are so much fun to be with and make any possiblity of being homesick negligible. But nonethless, I have been listening to all my mixes from home, posted up pictures of you, and been thinking about you constantly.

Best wishes from Paris, I wish you were all here with me!
I have horrible internet here, so please get skype, it is the only way I can talk...

I forgot to mention that I have met some really great people in my program who I will talk about later!

Good story before I go: So we decided to go to ED, the cheapest line of grocery stores to get our food last week, but they are too cheap to provide you with bags, so you have to pay for them. I was not aware of this, and therefore was thoroughly confused when an elderly woman shoved an empty Pampers box into my arms and pointed to my groceries with a satisfied "I've Just Done a Good Deed" look on her face. So, I filled up the box and walked the two blocks home with a giant Pampers box in my arms, passing most of my UC Center Class along the way, of course.

Also, getting change here has been the most confusing thing.
And stores are open on really random days -- 11 PM on Friday night but not Tuesday morning? Really?

Okay, more tidbits and stories are coming next time!!

BISOUS!

Weird, weird.

Growing up, I'd always heard that the four best years of my life would be the four years I spent in college -- the best parties, the best friends, the best classes, the best ideas. I have found most of that to be true, but the "friends" part has proved to be more elusive that I thought. It is not that I have not met truly amazing people in college, because it is in fact the truth that the people in my life now make it the amazing time that it is. The problem lies in the fact that friendships in college are not the permanent, steadfast relationships that high school ones were. Going back and forth between Marin and LA and now Paris, I am never in one place for more than a few months at a time. It proves to create an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach that unfortunately makes me feel permanently homesick, yet on the bright side, also permanently hopeful and stimulated. Feeling unsettled myself has made it hard for me to feel that I can develop lasting, deep relationships since my friends' and my physical locations are ever-changing. That feeling does not reflect reality, however, because the knowledge that I only have a limited amount of time to share with these amazing people in my life has made me eager to enjoy the time I do have with them and to appreciate the perks to our friendship, rather than become restless and dwell in the inevitable downsides. I also make more of an effort to stay in touch with these people once they do leave my side, making the relationship more one of effort and less of convenience. I just thought I would write about this topic today because it has been on my mind as I contemplate my departure for Paris. I am so thankful for the amazing summer I have had -- the good high school friends I was lucky enough to see during my short trip home, the girls who took care of me and who shared in all that a warm LA summer has to offer with me as my roommates, the wonderful friends I have made in LA during my time here, and the best friends I could ever have whom I will reunite with when I return home. I will have to say goodbye to all of these people in the next two weeks, however, and while that may have been a significantly scarier move two or three years ago, I am now comforted during this transition period knowing that these people will always be in my life, whether in memories, my photo albums, by running into them randomly in a few years, or in my life day-to-day when I return back from my trip. It is more up in the air than it ever was before college, but I feel that this flexibility leads to friendships being more genuine. I feel that I now connect with people in a way that will transcend time spent physically apart, as hard as that may be to grasp at first.
So, with bittersweet thoughts, I leave in less than weeks. I'll have to say goodbye to these wonderful people and hopefully have the maturity to realize that goodbye won't be for long.

NYT Shout-Out

For all you Pride & Prejudice lovers, Maureen Dowd has a great piece in the paper today comparing this year's election to the famed book.

Obama as Mr. Darcy? I like the connection to the literary world but I really do not understand the notion of Obama being elitist. He carries himself in a professional manner that may seem haughty -- but I'd rather have someone in charge that I look up to and not down to (aka Bush). I mean, the man plays pick-up basketball constantly and watches ESPN on election days, how normal can you get??

Here's the website of the NYT piece: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/opinion/03dowd.html?em

Obamarama Abroad

It appears that there has been quite the fanfare for Obama's current trip abroad. He is spending time in the Middle East (including Iraq and Afghanistan) and Europe. As proof of how much stir his trip has caused, all three major American newscasters (Couric, Charlie Gibson, and Brian Williams) have gone abroad to follow Obama on his trip which means that they will broadcast from his location for the duration of the trip. McCain has not been met by any such brigade of prominent newscasters during his trips abroad.

I think this excitement surrounding Obama's trip abroad is a strong signifier that Obama will be popular internationally as president. His global appeal will be a huge asset to his presidency and should be pushed as a strong argument as to why Americans should support him. I believe that Americans tend to underrate the importance of a potential president's global appeal -- in today's ever increasingly global world, it is more important than ever for the American Head of State to be someone well-liked and well-respected (didn't we learn this harsh reality durin the Bush years???). One of the best classes I have taken here at UCLA was a seminar on foreign impressions of America during which we would host a speaker from a different country every week. The speakers often discussed how people from their home countries viewed Americans and our leaders -- a lot of which was negative, but not hopeless. These speakers made me realize how interconnected our world was by how easily they spoke of academic, social, and political situations in areas in all corners of the world. Unfortunately, they also reinforced how little my fellow students and I knew about the world outside our own country and about important it is to have positive dynamics between countries. With what I learned from this class in mind, I placed one's global appeal as a top characteristic priority of whichever candidate I would support. I believe Obama has the potentional to improve our relationships with other nations and command a higher level of respect in the international community, which is necessary in our world of globalization.

As an example of Obama's global appeal, a poll from England showed that Obama is five times as popular as McCain in England. FIVE TIMES!



More about the European mania over Obama http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/german-press-agog-over-obama/index.html?nl=pol&emc=pola1

Award for worst quote ever goes to...

"You know what? I am actually not that much into voting. I think it’s kinda crazy that a woman is running, because I think that women deal with a lot of emotions and menopause and PMS and stuff. Like, I’m so moody all the time, I know I couldn’t be able to run a country, ‘cause I’d be crying one day and yelling at people the next day, ya know?"
- Brooke Hogan

Now, normally, I would never give Brooke Hogan's opinions a second thought, but this quote from her shook me too much to let it slide. I feel lucky enough to have grown up in a time period where I feel few limitations placed on me as a woman, but when I see someone say something so ignorant as what she said, I realize that we still have a ways to go.

First of all, how could you not be into voting? Does she know how rare it is to have a society in which everyone is free to vote and a society in which one's vote is counted in a (fairly) just electoral system? Someone please take her to Zimbabwe or Ukraine -- show her the riots in Zimbabwe over rigged elections or the Ukranian (and opposition party member) politician poisoned... it honestly irks me to an endless extent when people do not realize how revolutionary it is to have the right and the ability to vote.

Second of all, how dare she say that a woman would be an inadequate president! Does she realize that we live in 2008 and not 1950? I honestly believe that if more women were in positions of leadership we would have a more peaceful and progressive world and I would absolutely love it if the United States would get in line with the times and promote more females to such positions of power. I did not believe that Hillary Clinton was the right person for the job this election, but the fact that a female was a serious contender in the presidential race makes me feel elated. Not only did this idiot of a girl say that she thought it was crazy for a woman to be running for president, but she said that it would be strange for a woman to be president because of her moodiness. I do not know a single male who is not also moody -- it's a part of human nature and not related to whether or not you happen to be born a female. It is absurd, embarrassing, and offensive that Brooke Hogan would believe that a woman would be an inferior president because of PMS. I cannot believe that a female would impose that horrible stereotype on someone of her own sex! It is bad enough that mysoginistic (sp?) men propel the rumor that woman are incapable of being in in an authoritative position because they are too emotional or moody but now a rich, priveleged, young woman is saying the same thing... simply infuriating. It just makes me want to work that much harder to prove her and all those as ignorant as her sorely wrong.

Art.

While I was home at the beginning of summer, I took a trip to the Legion of Honor where they were showcasing a glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly as an advertisement for his exhibit at the de Young. I was there to a Women's Impressionist exhibit which was interesting, but it was the Chihuly piece that stuck in my mind. I posted photos of the piece above. It's called "Sun," which I believe is a fitting name. The piece was amazing -- each branch of glass had a different texture to it. It was intricate, complex, and yet I feel it was very delicate and graceful. I recommend checking out this guy's pieces, I'd love to see a whole exhibit of them...

Those crazy Frenchies

http://youtube.com/watch?v=GsmzNB_eXek
This is a video for a Justice song. I think it's incredibly powerful and hard to watch it's so raw.
What do you think?

City of Lights

It's really hitting me that I am leaving for my home of four months in a little less than a month. My brother took these pictures on his recent trip to Europe during his stop in Paris.

Going to study abroad has always been a part of the list of things I want to do in life and it is surreal that this desire is going to become a reality in a matter of weeks. I am more than excited, I'm anxious. I cannot wait to see what living in a real city is like and on top of that -- a European one! How exotic... I cannot wait to meet people who don't know what it is to wear sandals year-round and who have not spent their whole lives inside the (gorgeous, but limited) confines of California. I'm excited to be challenged, rewarded, and even gracefully disappointed.

Kudos to my brother for these amazing photos of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Can't wait to be there

Every time I get nervous or possibly experience a tinge of regret, I'm going to look at these pictures so that I can remember how lucky I am to be going and how much although I will miss everyone here, it is so necessary to my spiritual, intellectual, and emotional growth to be on my way to the City of Lights.

Art at it's best

The new girl talk album is fantastic and even better -- you can download it & name your price for it.

http://74.124.198.47/illegal-art.net/__girl__talk___feed__the__anima.ls___/


I suggest you download it immediately and put it on repeat on your iPod, it doesn't get old.

Words of Wisdom

"We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change."

-- Al Gore

Beating Maureen Dowd to the punch

Two days ago I commented on the New York Time's article about how it is has been hard for comics and TV hosts to satirize Obama and the famed NYT columnist Dowd just commented on it. Although she is obviously so totally behind the times, she also has some good points about the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/16/opinion/16dowd.html?em&ex=1216440000&en=4cc4b28f35c01242&ei=5087%0A

She puts a different spin on the issue that never crossed my mind. An unfunny Obama presidency would not be so fun... our beloved Colbert and Stewart need fuel for their fires!

Proud to be a Californian.

It's a given that as a California girl through and through, I have a dislike for rain, a taste for flip-flops year round, and the need to be within 10 miles of the ocean. As much as I take it for granted, once in awhile something is brought to my attention that makes me realize how lucky I am to live in the state that I do. Here are two snippets of articles that make me damn proud to be a Cali girl (Play "we got more bounce in California than all yours combined..." in your mind).

1st article:
New York Times 7/17/08
For Pelosi, a Fight Against Offshore Drilling

"Upon entering Congress in 1987, Representative Nancy Pelosi quickly became part of the solid California front against oil drilling along much of the nation’s coast.

The Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969 and the steady push to tap the potential reserves off the state’s rugged coast had galvanized Californians and made opposition to offshore drilling part of the political DNA of up-and-coming figures like Ms. Pelosi...

She attributes today’s energy problems to a failure of the Bush administration to develop a comprehensive approach, to its ties to the oil industry and to a mishandling of the economy."

This article describes how my girl Pelosi (first female Speaker of the House and a fellow San Franciscan) has been willing to let her personal opinions on controversial matters be compromised slightly in order to achieve resolution in the House. Offshore drilling is not one of those matters, however. Political leaders from California have been pushing this case for decades and as the top Californian in Washington, Pelosi is in the position of being able to stop a offshore drilling bill from reaching the floor. It seems that with Pelosi in the position she is, the money-hungry Republicans won't be able to get their hands on the limited, possibly out-of-reach oil reserves. I feel better knowing that this California women has all of our best (long-term) interests at heart and wants to pursue more efficient and less damaging means of energy production.



2nd article courtesy of Evan O'Donnell.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7494640.stm
This one is short and a good, light-hearted read. Gotta love San Francisco...

Amazing Trailer.

The pineapple express trailer is a classic in my opinion. The movie looks like it's going to be hilarious and I think the use of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" in the trailer is absolutely perfect. The song is my summer anthem -- you can often find me walking around Westwood listening to it on my iPod complete with me shooting invisible guns in the air and mostly likely scaring passerbys -- and I am so happy that it found its way on to this trailer.

Here's a youtube video of it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYg2EJLJids

Enjoy.

I'm ashamed of McCain.

To keep with the political theme of today, I just saw that McCain spoke out against gay adoption. Nothing makes me angrier than this topic. It makes me so heated and passionate (in hatred of McCain and his ignorant cronies) that I realize why I love politics and why it is so important for all of us to constantly educate ourselves so that we can realize that McCain is saying this and to realize that voting for him is voting for this! Outlawing gay adoption has zero logistical support in my opinion. Having a mother and a father does not guarantee a happy, healthy childhood and therefore having two fathers or two mothers would in no way ensure some sort of detrimental upbringing for a child in question. These two homosexual would receive the gift and joy of parenthood and give the gift of a healthy, supportive upbringing to the child. 

This is one more reminder why Obama needs to win this November!

Darfur News

In other, more sobering news, the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashi, was accused by the International Criminal Court of the crime of directing genocide in his nation. This seems to me the first, concrete and legitimate step towards halting the destructive behavior in this region by an international organization with some accolades. Although the International Criminal Court is considered somewhat of a fluff organization given that it has no legimitacy in the international system (mostly thanks to the US's lack of willingess to hand over jurisdiction to the ICC), I still think that this is a huge, positive step in the right direction in the fight to right the situation in Darfur. It is also a step towards international organizations having more legitimacy in the national conversation. I think that the ICC's step to publicly reprimand the president of Darfur will place shame on the shoulders of the UN because the UN has taken no significant measures to end the genocide and yet it is looked to as the closest institution we have to a world government. As easy as it is look with disregard at the UN for not doing what the ICC has now tried to do, it is a mistake to criticize the UN for not taking action. The UN was not built to single-handedly take action. It is a foundation/structure through which the great powers could efficiently pool resources to run international affairs in their favor. Therefore, when the UN fails to impede the horrific act of genocide occurring in Sudan, it is really us that are to blame. Our government and those of other great powers such as China (who still does business with a lot of Sudanese companies) should be held responsible for the not taking action because the great powers have failed to put pressure on the Sudanese government to make the atrocity stop. Nonetheless, this post is not a rant, it is a somber celebration -- here's to the ICC for making a strong (though I would assume mostly symbolic) move towards ending the genocide and here's to hoping it draws enough attention to the issue to pressure the Great Powers to follow suit. 

Great article

I found this article today from the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/us/politics/15humor.html?em&ex=1216267200&en=eb5806c4fae3982b&ei=5087%0A.

I found it hilarious as it quoted from some of my favorite talk show hosts, but also interesting in a social context. Growing up in the Bush era, our president has been the butt of many, many, many jokes in popular culture and has been a figure that few have come to respect in this sense. As this article mentions, however, Obama is a figure that the mainstream pop culture has not been able to poke fun at (or is it just that they are so under his spell they have no desire to?). Not only do talk show hosts and pundits not have a particular characteristic or trait of Obama's to harp on, if they do find something to make fun, they'll likely be faced with the sound of crickets as audiences will show resistance to Obama-based humor. Will this lack of satire of Obama be a temporary situation until he makes a misstep or reveals an imperfect side to him? Or is Obama's spell over America and their talk show hosts going to take him into his inevitable presidential term(s)? And if the latter is the case, will his time as president redefine the sense of respect pop culture and comedians pay to the person in the oval office? I know that on a personal level this election has so far heightened my interest and respect for national politics that 8 years with Dubya had worn down significantly. As I'm sure anyone who knows the slightest bit about politics would know, this election seems to have brought many thought-provoking questions to the attention of mainstream America and I believe that in the end, we will be redefined as a nation no matter who is in the Oval Office January of 2009. (But God help me, it better be Obama)

Summertime

I think that summertime is the epitome of the saying "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Don't you agree? I've had some of my best memories during summer, such as body surfing at dusk in Cape Cod, beach days at Stinson, parties outside on warm nights, and some of the worst -- boring nights where a Law & Order SUV marathon becomes my only entertainment, the lack of phone calls from friends traveling all over the world while you work in your boring 9-5 job. But now that I am entering in my third year as a college student, summer has taken on a whole new meaning. Summer is now pretty awkward. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love the lack of nightly homework, the daily grind of manuevering around a packed campus, or sweating in the LA sun as you sprint to your 9 am French class that you are late to every day, but I feel that it is a transition period that one is unable to become accustomed to. A summer in college is a hodgepodge of the old, current, and future that allows for ample reminiscing, dreaming, and musing.

Going home reminds me of all I miss, don't remember, realize that I in fact do remember, and don't miss at all of my past life before college. The drive to your old high school feels like trying on old pair of jeans that snugs your body in all the right places and is worn in just so, but also has a huge tear in the crotch that you discover once you put them on and is also the cause for putting them aside in the first place. On the way to Redwood, I realize just how many times I have made that drive and how comforting it feels to head over there. Circling the parking lot, I remember being asked out for prom, sprinting out to my car to be the first one out to lunch, and drudging over to the track to run the dreaded mile in my horrid PE uniform. I also remember dragging my tired ass out to my car after a boring, non-stimulating day of school, hiding my head to avoid eye contact with my male obsession of the week (the height of my awkward stage), and the times when I sat in my car staring at the ominous Mt. Tam wondering what else was out there beyond the confines of good ol' Marin County.

Heading over to the town mall also brings the good with the bad. It's most recent structural facelift reminds me exactly why I was glad to leave home -- the superficiality of a state-of-the-art shopping mall and the glamazons that roam it aren't at the top of my list of sights to see. It also the place I had one of my first jobs, one of the first places I drove my car to once I (finally) passed my driver's test, I purchased my first bikini, bought my senior prom dress, and had countless conversations with some of the best people in my life. A trip back to the mall during the summer brings interactions with the good, bad, past, and present. For, a trip to the mall now means that I will most likely encounter five supremely awkward people whom I only deemed awkward once I graduated, moved my ass out of Marin, and gained the realization that we share nothing in common, revealed way too much about each other at high school parties, and have no desire to now mend our stale friendship. But, on the other hand, one gets to see the people we have know for 12 years and for whom only a trip to college could make me realize the dynamics of their sparkling personalities. Of course, it is also a given that a trip to the mall entails running into some of the many people from Marin I have met in college. It is oddly comforting to see them in the setting of one's hometown -- reminding you that share the same roots and that college is only one phase of one's life and that your relationships with the people you meet at school do not have be confined to the boundaries of UCLA and Westwood.
I hate to sound dramatic, but now you know why a simple act such as a trip to the mall beings on such a mix of emotions and memories. Goddamn, it can be tiring to go home!

Being back at school now, I have not escaped this feeling that "summer is weird." It is the first time that I am at UCLA in a new context and the first time that I am away from home in a new context. It is truly a departure -- I did not have to leave home, I chose to in order to do something other than school. In fact, I came to LA to live here this summer. I could have taken summer classes or worked at home, but I consciously chose to come down to LA and it sure makes me feel old/independent/somewhat scared. Times are changing and studying abroad will only accelerate these changes. Now that will be interesting...