picture attack! in reverse order...

It's been a while, and plenty has been going on. So here's the picture update. Incidentally, in reverse order, since I somehow can't move my pictures around and well, that's just the way it is. So enjoy!

This is my silhouette at an exposition I went to today at the Palais de Tokyo. They had these cool lights moving around in the rather dark area, and my narcissistic side couldn't resist taking a few pics of my own shadow. There's another one a little lower down.

Oh, Paris. Cold and rainy the on the last day of April. At least there are different umbrellas to look at.

Fat Batman hanging from the ceiling in the Palais de Tokyo. Most likely a statement about American excess, but mostly just funny.

The other silhouette. You can kind of tell that my hair is all frizzy from the pouring rain...

The sign (at the train station near Giverny)--"Here rent Bicycles"

The roommate (D'yon) and myself in part of Monet's gardens at Giverny. Look how we love each other. Recognize the bridge in the background?

The pictures at Giverny weren't the best, since the weather was really grey...but there's that bridge you might've seen before again.

And here's where my nerdiness comes in. There were tons of beautiful flowers at Monet's digs, and most of them being my favorite flower (tulips) and amazing colors, I took way to many boring flower pictures. Then, to make things worse, I couldn't decide which ones to put on the blog, so put on way too many! I suppose there are those who will enjoy them!

This one's fuzzy (as are a few of them) but the colors are amazing so you have to look at them anyway.

Monet's House.

Gah--I love these colours together--they're so striking. And in the same flower in this case!

More of the red and yellow I like so much together.

A little street in Giverny--it's really like a small neighborhood, where Monet lived. Quaint would be the word.

My roommate (again) with her men on the train ride to Giverny. On the left is her boyfriend, Pierre-Alexandre, one of the guys we met in Prague. We're all buddies.

Just like this one. Window out onto paris rooftops from my friend Tiff's seventh-floor studio.

And Tiffy herself. A good friend of mine from class last semester. She's german (like most of my friends, it seems), from Munich. The wine's in the foreground because of the cork you can barely see that fell in. We thought we should commemorate her adorable klutziness with a photo.

I like to call these two my "Annes Allemandes" because they're both named Anne, and they're both German (that's what Allemand means in French). A great picture of two dear friends!

With my Annes, we did all of the major tourism for Paris over a long weekend. This is Place de la Bastille (where the prison used to be), where I introduced them to the joys of panini on the steps of the Opera.

The Louvre at sunset. With a bit of the pyramid.

The Cemetery in Montmartre. And tulips. I love springtime.

The Annes again, at the top of Sacre Coeur.

My friend Courtney doing Su-Doku to pass the night in the Madrid airport on the way back from Tenerife during Spring break.

Joanna shuffling cards...probably around 3 am in the Madrid airport--long night.

My first poker game. Still in the airport.

On the way to the airport-- the volcanic mountains of Tenerife--the one of the Canary Islands we stayed at.

Alright, same deal as the flowers. Too many pictures of the sunset on the beach. But whatever, you know you love it.

Dusk on the Beach with (l-r) Joanna and Courtney.

Beach feet!

Charles de Gaulle (called Roissy by the natives) waiting for the plane to take us to the SUN and the SAND and the FUN!

Hyacinths at the park near my house earlier this month.

The first real spring day of the year. D'yon's and my feet bare in the sunshine, a good book in my lap, and fresh fruit in a beautiful park.

Sorry all you got were captions...but that's just gonna have to do. Enjoy the pictures, at least!

"And the sun poured in like butterscotch...

...and stuck to all my senses."

If you didn't catch it right off, that's a little Joni Mitchell for ya. I put it at the top of this entry because...you guessed it--I have FINALLY seen the sun in Paris. It had been quite a while, and I was beginning to wonder whether or not it was ever going to return. Don't get me wrong--I am in love with Paris, sun or no--but we were about to need another break from each other if the skies didn't clear up soon and stop raining on me.

When I woke up this "morning" (a few minutes before noon), I could tell immediately that it was a beautiful day--we have two massive skylights in our little attic room, so two squares of sky are the first things I always see, and what usually set the tone for my mornings. I knew it would be warm enough outside because it had warmed up the last week or so. The only problem had been the constant rain that the warmth had brought with it. But today, after struggling through that transitional week between winter and spring, the sunshine and the temperatures finally managed to get their act together. April in Paris is famous, you know. And after waiting for it so impatiently through February and March, I was thrilled to know I had the whole day to myself and could enjoy it however I pleased.

So I ate a relaxed breakfast of plain yogurt, a bowl of cereal, and some good (read strong) coffee, moseyed back upstairs, and changed clothes to go on a "run." Of course we all know that I'm not in great shape, but from time to time, even I want to go at it with all I've got, and today was one of those days. I even wore a t-shirt. I passed droves of Sunday amblers, still wearing their long coats and scarves, some even their hats and gloves. Parisians are funny like that--they don't seem to have that antsy eagerness for a new season that makes a lot of Americans wear our warm-weather clothes and sandals long before it's actually "appropriate." But having lived in Paris for the past six months, I've come to terms with certain aspects of my Americanness. There are some things, like wearing chacos in warm weather, or putting on a t-shirt (albeit while exercising) while the babies are still bundled in snowsuits that I just enjoy, and I've learned not to be uptight about looking like an "outsider." I'm never going to completely fit in here--even if I manage the look and attitude, everyone will know as soon as I open my mouth that I'm not Parisian. I'm perfectly satisfied being an American in Paris, so long as I'm one of the Americans that doesn't contribute to the negative stereotypes. I'm an international, and that's more interesting than assimilating completely, anyway--right? It's what I tell myself anyway ;)

I think I just got quite sidetracked, non? Oh, well. I figure I write so infrequently on the blog that you'll indulge me in a little bit of meandering. Revenons à nos moutons. That's French for "back to our sheep," which is a rough equivalent of "meanwhile back on the ranch." I ran around the south-eastern corner of Paris, which is my area (the 12e and 13e arrondissements). One of the two major parks (or woods) on the outskirts of the city is about a 25 minute jog from my house--Bois de Vincennes, which is where I went. It was really the perfect way to experience Paris on a spring afternoon--on the way to the park, I got to enjoy the streets of the city, teeming with people going who-knows-where (since almost EVERYTHING still closes on Sundays in Paris), the energy of the sidewalks and the classic "parisian look" of it all--which was followed by a beautiful foray through the park. For the first time in a long while, I breathed relatively clean air (ok, so it probably only seemed like that because I wasn't actually on a street, but you can let me pretend, right?), and just enjoyed that now-rare feeling of being outside among almost natural nature, big, blue skies. I circled the convoluted pond, passing lovers (surprise surprise), runners and bikers, parents with their kids, dogowners and older couples soaking up sun on the benches. In the pond itself (which is really pretty big), there were little rowboats everywhere, since you can rent them at the entrance. Once I'd thoroughly tuckered myself out, I settled in on a patch of grass and just breathed in the springtime with my eyes closed, face to the sun with my ipod turned up, and even rolled up my pants to let my legs see a glimpse of the outside world, which hasn't happened in ages.

So that was my day--or at least the part I figure is worth recounting. I came back home eventually, though I could've stayed for much longer. The thing is, it started clouding up after a couple of hours, followed by some more spring bursts of rain. Oh, I almost forgot! To top it all off, when I went to walk a DVD back to the rental store, I saw the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen! It was thick and bright and it touched the horizon at two points. Of course, by the time I ran back inside to grab my camera, it was really faded. But I saw it, and it was beautiful!

Alright. I haven't written in over a month, so I guess now that you've heard about today, I could give a quick overview of the last little bit, and a bit of what's to come. There's really not a whole lot to say about March--I loved it, of course, but it was just daily life, with nothing really spectacular to share. I'm definitely VERY attached to my life here, and hate the thought of it ending in such a short time--less than three months at this point. Sometimes I think it must be easier for people who only stay a semester, because by the end of three months, you have really experienced a city, a culture, but you leave before really settling in, and feeling so disconnected from life back at "home." I can't wait to see people when I get back, but other than that, I feel like I could spend at least another year or two here. Who needs to finish college, anyway? Ok, ok, I know. I do. Anyway. All that to say that Paris is amazing--better than I ever really expected it to be. My host family is still great (we cooked them a real southern dinner the other night, which was interesting, to say the least), school is the opposite of stressful, I've been enjoying the theater and cafés, meeting cool people and still enjoying old friends, making travel plans...you get the idea.

Oh, speaking of travel plans--next stop is the Canary Islands for Spring Break (leaving April 11)!!! Beach here we come! I can't wait for that! I'll be sure to update after that trip, although I'm not sure too much "eventful" will be happening. Hopefully it will just be a lot of soaking up the sun and enjoying the ocean.

Ok, it's time for me to wind this up--I really must do a bit of cleaning up before my roommate D'yon gets home from her trip tonight. I love you all!