my summer so far.

(The title of this post is a rip-off from the movie My Life So Far [1999], which is excellent and if you haven’t seen it, you should.)

Whenever I’m with my family, i.e. living at home, I feel like we are so busy doing the most mundane things to keep life afloat that there is never a moment of relaxation or enough of a respite for me to crack out my blogging fingers. So forgive me for not posting more but I feel like my life has been rather boring yet intense since July 16th. However, now that that has been said, there have been a few exceptions to the monotony.

The biggest adventure that I’ve gone on since I last posted, was a trip to NYC. Sidenote: as a musical enthusiast and a lover of RENT, every time I hear the words “New York City” I feel compelled to follow them with, “center of the universe.” Needless to say, I think this got old pretty fast for those around me.  Anyway, my mom treated me with a trip to the Empire city as a belated 21st birthday present.  We went for a long weekend and had an amazing time.  We had already done most of the “touristy” sightseeing in Manhattan when we went as a family over Thanksgiving in 2001 (that isn’t a typo) so on this trip we just did fun stuff that we wanted to do!  We stayed at a very nice hotel on the Upper East Side that was complete with murals by Bemelmans and elevator operators!

We saw two musicals on Broadway- Promises, Promises (starring Sean Hayes and Kristen Chenoweth) and  A Little Night Music (starring Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch)- both of which were EXCELLENT (although Elaine Stritch did flub her lines a few times, but I’ll forgive her considering she’s 84). We explored a lot of great restaurants and also spent a good deal of time at The Met and The Frick Gallery, which is a MUST if you enjoy art, and we even had time to visit a friend in Brooklyn. We were so busy the whole time that we didn’t do any shopping (except in the museum gift shops). But of course no matter how long you’re there, it is never long enough.  I could really see myself living there though. It’s so full of energy and you can feel the excitement around you <3

Sadly, all good things come to an end.

When we came home it was back to reality and back to work.  I’ve been hoping that I can be transferred from the shop in Des Moines to the shop in Denver when I return to school and so I’ve been working really extra hard lately. I’ve sold three credit cards in a week, which is more than I had done all summer so hopefully that says something.

On a health note, it seems like the little things are never going right for me.  Remember my tonsil infection and severely sprained ankle? Right. Well add eye infection and fluid in ears to that list. Yep. I went to my doctor for a physical and came out with some hardcore anti-biotics to fight fluid in my ears that’s been hanging out there since a trip to España in février. Sweet.

My chiropractor wasn’t happy to hear that I was on anti-biotics. He’s worried about my flora. So I’m trying to eat extra yogurt and pro-biotics to make up for it.  Anyway, thanks to this fluid, I’m now getting cracked twice a week again. Ugh! That’s faux irritation though haha because to be honest I love going to the chiropractor. I just feel so fresh and aligned after I see him!

Did I mention that I just switched to Daily contacts? I’m super psyched about them too. No more cases, solution, or eye infections (hopefully!). I also had lenses put into the frames I purchased in Rennes. And I am in love with them.  Enough of these tangents though.

I can’t think of anything else important off the top of my head (although I’m sure there are tons of things I’ve meant to share but have already forgot about) so forgive me because this post is the abridged and rambling version of what my summer has actually been like.  Luckily there are still several weeks left before schools starts for me to make it up to you.

Have you ever been to nyc? If yes, did you love it or hate it? What was your experience? If no, what have you been up to this summer? Have you done anything fun to shake things up lately? I want to hear about it.

gros bisous.

xxo

Happy Paddy’s Day!

#1. It’s Saint Patrick’s Day, yayy! But I don’t have any green…

#2. I’m sorry if I haven’t texted you back…I have 3 unread text messages (since February!) that my phone won’t let me read.

#3. I’ve run out of bowls and now I’m resorting to eating my cereal out of tupperware containers of all shapes and sizes.

#4. I gave myself a cold :( I thought anti-histamines would help my ears pop (from flying with the sniffles a few weeks ago). They didn’t. Now I have a pile of used kleenex by my bed. Awesome.

#5. As embarrassing as it is to admit this, I’m genuinely upset about Freddy (on Skins) getting killed. Wtf?!

#6. Live in Austin 2010 is free for download at Urban Outfitters.

#7. I can’t stop watching RiRi’s Rude Boy video…it’s so good!! M.I.A.-esque, but me likey :D

#8. I went to an adorable concert last night. Some friends of friends performed covers and  we all sang along. Don’t Stop Believin’ and Hey Jude, included.

#9. I’m thinking about getting these glasses…what do you think?

Lurve to you, my internet readership <3

bisous

Spontaneous trip to Nantes…”The most BEAUTIFUL place on earth”

I feel like so much has been happening lately and I havent had a chance to blog about it and then it becomes old news and then you never hear about it!!! So I’m going to try NOT to bore you but catch you up to snuff:

Monday: First day back from break. Mondays are actually my favorite day of the week this semester because I really like the classes I have on those days :)  Vacation felt like it continued a little longer though because Emily and her roommate Kaysey were on break and so Emily went to visit her former host families in Grenoble for the weekend and on Monday night Kaysey came to Rennes!  I took her to English night at an Irish pub in Rennes called O’Connells.  English night is sometimes hit or miss but it ended up being really fun.  We met some really cool people & spoke a lot of French :D

Tuesday: We woke up and I briefly showed Kaysey around the city before going to class and then she did her own thing during the day, wandering around.  We got back together for a late lunch and then said goodbye because she was on her way to Nantes, via a carpooling social network (www.covoiturage.fr), where she was meeting up with Emily.

Wendesday: I went to class like usual on Wednesday and after my last class, I took a train to Nantes…I haven’t gotten up the courage to covoiturage yet.  The train took me to Redon, where I had to switch to a bus that took me the rest of the way to Nantes…I think I heard someone mention that there was some sort of construction on the line to Nantes, which was why we took a bus. Anyway it was very strange and made me feel like I was on my way to a cross country meet that was really far away. Haha anyway, I got to Nantes and met up with Emily & Kaysey as well as Pascal.  Pascal is the guy at whose place we couchsurfed. I feel like that was a strange sentence but I think you get the idea. They stayed there the night before and I just stayed there Wednesday night.  We walked around the city, saw some crazy shiz and got some food before going back to Pascals.

Pascal had a really big apartment and so there was plenty of room for all of us.  He invited us to go to a concert that he and some friends were going to that night and since we had nothing better to do, we agreed.  Good thing too, because we had an awesome time!! The opening band was Henry’s Funeral Shoe, followed by SSM, and then the headliner was Radio Moscow. We were checking out the merch in the back between sets and started talking to Brennig, the drummer for Henry’s Funeral Shoe, and he was really cool. Hanging out with him totally made my night.  Another thing that was pretty cool, is that I found out the band Radio Moscow is from IOWA. No joke. And it gets even better.  Guess where they are from in Iowa?! AMES.  actually Story City but apparently they associate with Ames because that’s what Brennig told me first before he remembered Story City.  I didn’t want to be a creeper after the show and hunt them down but isn’t that crazy?! I randomly ended up at a concert in Nantes where a band from my hometown(ish) was performing. Crazayy.

Thursday: Kaysey wanted to make a big American breakfast for Pascal because he had been so nice, and so she made pancakes, bacon, eggs, and potatoes. All delicious, but after just one pancake I could barely move…I was so full!! yummy though.  I missed my train (bus) back unfortunately, and so I had a few more hours with Emily and Kaysey in Nantes.  We wandered around and explored but the main thing we did was go to Le Lieu Unique.  If you’ve ever heard of Prince or Le petit écolier cookies, they are made by a brand called LU.  These initials come from Lieu Unique, which is the name of their old factory.  It was converted into a restaurant, cafe, librairie, boutique, hammam, and a space for “les spectacles et exhibitions.”  Anyway it was freakin awesome.

Le Lieu Unique

detail

I got the bus back to Rennes at 16:00 and on the way I tried to write a poem about the wild mistletoe that is infesting and killing the trees in Bretagne but didn’t get far.

How is this the only non-blurry photo from the whole night?!

That night was Rich’s birthday and he had an enormous party (I think about 100 ppl were there, which meant no one could move in the apartment lol).  It was really fun because there were so many different groups of people there. There were the English speakers, the Spanish and the French and probably some other more obscure languages represented as well but it was just a really fun time in general :)  Everyone left for town around 00:15 because the last metro runs at about 00:30.  This is where the night turned strange, but amusing :) We were all going to meet up at a club called L’espace, but we lost half the group and then found the other half right outside the club and apparently it was too expensive so we all sorta split up and went our separate ways.  I was with a new friend that I had made that night called Rob and we ended up meeting a whole bunch of French people in a park at which point my other friend also named Rob joined us and then we went to the first Rob’s house (which is freakin awesome btw. He lives in a real house right off the main drag in Rennes and lives with 9 French ppl. Jealous much? Yeah, me too.) to warm up before the other Rob and I walked home. Whew! crazy night haha but really fun :)  Sometimes the best experiences in France are when you just start talking to strangers.

Friday: I didn’t do too much on Friday (I don’t have any classes on Friday), but I met up with my friends Imogen, Maire and Barbara for lunch at this adorable tartine restaurant in the middle of town before shopping a little bit (no purchases for me though, shucks!). I saw a really cool pair of frames when Barbara went in to get some contact solution.  They’re a light tortoiseshell color and they’re pretty square shaped but the coolest thing about them is that on the inside of the frames, they’re a lavenderish, purple-y color, so when I turn my head you can see a little hint of it…I’m super tempted to get them :D

Saturday: Today I really haven’t done much but recover from such a long week.  I’ve been blogging a lot today and I’m hoping to meet up with some friends tonight. I’ve cleaned up my room a little bit, but I still have a little bit more to do, like usual ;)

I’ve been listening to Wet Sand by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Neutral Milk Hotel’s The King of Carrot Flowers Pt 1 repeatedly.  It’s that kind of day…chilly and dreary.  I’m sending out rays of love and sun to all of you! Bisous!

xxo