Pareeeeeeee

Yikes. I'm way behind on recording my memories on this thing, and it's because of the oddly busy life I've been having recently. From Tuesdays to Thursdays, I leave the house by 8 AM and get back around 9 pm. And then I have a lovely four day weekend to catch up on work, but when I travel, there's no "catching up" that I can do. And I need to take care of all my business regarding my coming home (in less than two months what?!), so I've been taking care of housing, internship applications, etc. It's weird that I'll be "home" so soon! I officially am homeless--not in a sad, cardboard box way perhaps, but in the way where I don't have somewhere to really settle because I'm always moving.
So this past weekend I went to Paris, and I'm going to London, so I've decided to make use of my class time by writing this instead. HEH!
So on Saturday morning, I woke up in a panic because I got up at 8 AM for my 8:13 train... whoops. Luckily, I got to exchange my ticket and pay a little more to take a later train, but unluckily I lost 100 euro in my haste. It's funny that as I was putting it in my pocket, I paused and thought, "This is not a safe place to put it... Oh well!" Sigh. I need to listen to my pauses more often.
I got into the city around 11 AM to meet up with the Rutgers in Belgium group, and we headed off to lunch where I had the most wonderful meal of baguette, cheese, and grapes.

I was so happy. Yum. Look at the size of those grapes!

And the baguette phenomena of France isn't exaggerated--seriously, everyone has a baguette in hand at any time of day. But they are delicious, so I understand why. But how do Parisians not get fat?! Croissants, cheese, bread, wine... it's not exactly a low-caloric diet.
Dr. Healey gave us a walking tour of the city, and Paris is absolutely beautiful with its history. It has the most beautiful architecture, but what got me the most was all the history and background behind everything. I had no idea that there were so many Roman influences and how the city was rebuilt so many times--we even got to see a building with gun shots in it from a rebellion. It's mind-blowing to think about all the events that have led up to what they have today. I guess Paris isn't just a city for fashionistas and hopeless romantics!

The group in front of a cathedral. Buildings like this are everywhere! So beautiful.

Then we went to the Notre Dame--to be honest, I had no idea that it was in Paris. I didn't have much interest in Paris before, as you can tell. Whoops.

It was too big for me to fit it in a shot. I can't help but compare all of the religious building I see to the cathedral of Toledo, and I still like that one better. I may just be biased heh

I love stained glass windows.

After the short visit, we went on a boat ride down the Seine to see a lot of the landmarks. That's when I saw the Eiffel tower for the first time! It was love at first sight.
Then after some more baguette, cheese, and grapes, we went to watch the Paris Philharmonia! It was a nice performance--I feel like I've heard better, but it might be because I'm biased (again). And we were sopping wet from the thunderstorm, so soggy socks could have also impaired my judgment.

This photo reminds me of the All-State band pictures we used to take ha

Then we were released for the night, and the Rut-ies went out for some drinks and crepes! I got a nutella one, but I wasn't very impressed by it. I expected crepes to be crunchier I think, but it's very soft and smooshy.

A pretty bridge at night

The next day, we went to an open air market, which was AWESOME. I love markets! I did some major shopping (big cool rings for a euro each?! parisian scarves for two?! who could resist?) and almost forgot to buy lunch in the process. There were so many cool things to buy and foods to eat from all over the world. The Lebanese deliciousness smelled so good. But I grabbed some baguettes (do you see a pattern here?), and we headed off to the Louvre!

We ate at a small park outside of it and discovered that pigeons are ferocious there. They come mad close!! But it was almost unreal sitting in the grass, eating cheese, and seeing the Louvre on the right and the Eiffel tower on the left.


We saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, of course, but we had to rush through the museum, unfortunately. I couldn't stop thinking about the Da Vinci Code. Whoops.

That ended the Rutgers part of the trip, so Lauren and I left to see the Arch de Triumph (after meeting an American swing dancer! so cool). It took a long time to walk there, but worth it in the end.

Ta-da! Ignore the not-so-beautiful van behind me.

The train left at 9 pm, so I went for a short visit to the Eiffel one more time before heading off. I wanted to take a picture of it in all its night-time glory, but dusk didn't fall soon enough before I had to head back to the hostel to get my bags. But it's still so pretty in the evening.

Ciao bella!

Introducing My Boyf, Mikey... Mikey BUBLE!

Yesterday night, I went to Antwerp to see MICHAEL BUBLE. It was amazing. I'm kind of dead now because I got back really late last night and had a full day of classes today, but it was totally worth it. MICHAEL
BUBLE.
I had never gone to a concert before (a "cool" one, I mean. I've been to like a trillion classical concerts, but I don't count those), so I was really happy to have Michael Buble be the one to pop my concert cherry. eeeeeee! He's so dreamy. I'm going to marry him for a day (I'm sure his Argentinian fiancee won't mind).
Naturally 7, an acapella group from NY that sang a track from his Crazy Love album, opened the show, and they were rather good!

Pretty hip.

I was kind of just dying for Mikey to come out though, so I didn't really pay too much attention to him. But they were good! And it was so nice to hear American English again.

THERE HE IS! And his band was so so so good too. So wonderful.

BUT MICHAEL! His voice is just so buttery... I wanted to just bathe in the butteriness of his voice and let it cover me all the way up to my nose. Just so I could breathe and live in his buttery voice. I don't even like butter. But I love Buble.

Oh Mikey, don't look so sad. Of course I'll marry you!

And he was funny and charming (Jane and I agreed that he is potentially a tool bag--perhaps too funny and charming? But I refuse to believe that. I believe he is just perfect) and wonderfully charismatic. I almost died when he did "Everything." eeeeeeeee!

Apparently Lady Gaga's coming to Antwerp too in a couple of weeks. I'd rather see Michael Buble than Gaga though. I'm a grandma and I'm okay with that. :p

We look good together, don't we? :) Jane and I are planning to share him. I get him Mondays and Wednesdays and alternating Fridays.

Sigh. Michael.

On Monday, Jules and I went to a little bar that our French teacher sent us to for a project, and it was really cute! Jules makes masterpieces with her camera, so we were really happy that this teeny little pub was the perfect backdrop for all the photos.
It was called Goupil le Fol, and it's this tiny bar that's just cluttered with old pictures, old photos, flowers, statues, jukeboxes, books stapled on ceilings... I loved it! And it was really romantic-y (we spotted a bit of kissing going on) with its candles and reds and blacks.

P.S. Disclaimer- Not sure if this is necessary, but just wanted to note that none of the following pictures are mine! They're amazing, therefore Jules'.

Look at all those records on the ceiling!

We spied on this other couple that was there.

Stuff everywhere! I feel like there's so much history buried in this bar.

Books stapled on the ceiling! Is this supposed to be symbolic for anything? Books... heavens (ceilings)... restraint (staples)? No tengo ni idea.

Doesn't Jules look like she's Alice in Wonderland?

There were also rooms with sofas everywhere, and look at the walls! I wish I got to read all the things that people found the time to etch into the wall.

One more free weekend, and then craziness starts again! SO READY

Nuit Blanche!

I think I'm pretty much the most super stellar student in the world, seeing how I'm not studying for my midterms now and seeing how I went out on Saturday to Nuit Blanche instead of reading. whoops. But Nuit Blanche was pretty cool!
Literally translated, it means "white night" or "sleepless night." Acrobats, performers, musicians set up stands all over the streets of downtown Brussels, and it lasts all night--hence the lack of sleep. I only stayed for a bit since I had some chocolate and these men dressed as moles really freaked me out. But I got to see some interesting shows before I left.

The first one I saw has acrobats in it in this huge circus tent. There was a topless lady and a topless man (not sure why), and they climbed up ropes and poles and did crazy tricks in this large moving cube.

Topless lady. Why though? Why topless? I feel like that's just asking for rope burn.

Defying gravity!

They were like monkeys, but weird monkeys because the music was super freaky. And the man was wearing a fur coat, and he walked around and shined flashlights into everyone's eyes. Just kind of freaky.

And there were other stands all over the place, but we were immediately attracted to this huge box with colored lights on the inside. It was a perfect backdrop for some pretty cool pictures.

Can you guess which one is me? Hint: I like thinking I'm an ostrich.

And then I saw the moles, so I went home. Too bad I didn't stay--I heard it was hoppin' until 5 am. Craziness!

P.S. My host mom and I spent the entire night yesterday drawing each other as cyclops and evil scientists and then uploading the pictures and then setting them as our facebook profiles. I love her.

Cee Lo Green - FUCK YOU (Official Video)

Songs of Europe on my "Studying-for-Midterms" playlist:

Yolanda Be Cool vs DCUP -- We No Speak Americano

Pack Up- Eliza Doolittle