Antiques and Fancy Swat Meets and Cool Jazz Clubs

I am feeling a lot better now and had a really fun weekend.

Two days ago I went to an antique every two year festival and saw tons of interesting old things, there was even an entire store on old cameras and I wanted to buy them all, but I think they were really expensive. Scott and I found a music store and were playing cool antique guitars and made really good friends with the owner and his wife of the place, it was great. They told us about this cool bar that was completely dedicated to Django Reinhardt, and there were two guys in the bar playing music just like his. It is a really fast jazzy guitar sound, it was amazing. The bar had his original guitars and it was really relaxing just sitting and listening. At night we found an amazing jazz bar that used to be an old prison, and on the weekends they do live blues, and we went every night this weekend, it was so good. I am planning on going back there a lot.


I got my Eurail pass to go to Benelux, France, Spain and Germany, and I think next weekend we are going to Southern France. I can't wait!!

Song of the Day



French Word of the Day

ça va?- how's it going??

Hi from Paris

The past couple of days have been not the best, I have been feeling a little sick and sleeping basically all day today and yesterday. Our group did have a really nice dinner at a restaurant called Chez Eugene, and that was really nice. There was nice live french music being played in the restaurant and the food was great and rain was pouring down, it was a perfect french meal setting, other than the fact that I was completely out of everything hah. But I am already feeling much better. Sorry for the short blog, but I'm tired! Listen to the song of the day, its really good!


Song of the Day

I love this song, I can kind of play it now!




French Word of the Day

les yeux- eyes

Paris!!!!!!

o My desk!Playing Frisbee Golf in the park haha.. I did get it back.

John, Dana and I at the cool park!
Here is a great park next to our hotel, it is so peaceful and amazing, the picture really doesn't show how nice it is. Moulin Rouge! This was in a really sketchy part of town, but it was cool to see.
An big circle thing with air coming out of it, so we all took pictures with our hair moving around haha.
Two crazy guys from the White Night (Nuit Blanche)
John and I getting ready for the White Night.

The white night was really amazing. We met two really cool french girls that showed us all around, we saw some amazing art pieces throughout the city. The coolest was this amazing Disco Ball that had three spot lights hitting it, and it was attached to a huge crane. The reflections went literally miles throughout the city, and the sky looked so weird and cool. It was a great night. Today we had class, I showed some of my art photos which I think people liked, even though they were pretty creepy pictures, we had art history and I got our first test back, I got a B+, so I was pretty happy about that, and we had literature and discussed more Don Quixote, that book is really funny, well the segments that we were supposed to read. Then after that, Eugene took us on a little tour throughout the city just to get acquainted, we walked down the oldest street in Paris, walked by a cafe where Benjamin Franklin hung out and where the French Revolution was planned, and we walked by the Seine and the Louvre and the Arch de Triumph, the actual arch that Napoleon marched through after his victory. Now I am back in the lobby, waiting for dinner at 630 because I am so hungry!!!! I just got my Eurail pass too, thanks to my Grandpa, with the countries France, Germany, Spain and Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) for 6 days of travel. I am planning on going to Amsterdam, Barcelona, Germany somewhere and southern france!!! I am really excited and can't wait. I miss everyone, and sorry for the delay on updates.

:)

Here is a Video of the crazy disco ball! It was amazing.



Song of the Day

Pink Floyd- Dogs (Sean got the live from Pompeii dvd of Pink Floyd and I found a whole new apprecitation for this band)



French Word of the Day

un discaire- a music shop

Art Class and exploring the neighborhood

Today I woke up early, had breakfast, and took the underground to my drawing and painting teachers studio in France off the St. Denis exit. It was a three hour session with a nude model from Paris who was also an artist, and we worked completely on the feeling of drawing. We did gesture, which is super fast lines capturing the energy of the body, and contour, capturing every detail of the body from the texture to the lines of the body. Our teacher is really cool and wants us to be healthy and she gave us a half hour medititation yoga relaxation session. She was literally professional at it, I felt really relaxed and it helped me draw a lot. The painting class tomorrow is going to be really fun I think. After this week I will have this class on Mondays and Tuesdays.

After class I got lunch at the great cafeteria, walked around the block and got some deodorant and chocolate and mouthwash, and then I played guitar with my roommate Sean for a long time.

Then we watched the life aquatic, I explored the nieghborhood a little more, now I am in the lobby! Today was a really great day, and I am so happy I am here. :)

Song of the Day



French Word of the Day

du fromage- cheese ( i got brie at lunch, it was nice)

Photos from Rome and Vienna and others

A nice colorful Josef Albers, he did this same style painting for over 20 years, obsessed with the structure of the boxes.
I had to throw in a CInque Terre picture.

Rapheal's School of Athens from the Vatican, so good! This was on my art history test today, and basically every other art piece we have seen, it's so cool that this is my class! hahZebra at the Trevy Fountain
Me at the Spanish Steps!
The Trevi fountain above, I threw two 20 cent coins!
Laocoon is so beautiful.
Constantine and me.
An amazing contempoary art museum in Vienna, literally tons of great contemporary art and a cool exhibition on Cy Twonbly's work (I love his photography)
Paul Klee- The Scarecrow... I love this painting, and Paul Klee



The french welcoming was great, they gave us a quick walking tour around the neighborhood then brought us back for appetizers and juice before dinner, it was really great.

Then I watched Pride and Prejudice... the new version. You have to remember I am with 16 people, and 4 of them are guys haha. But really, it is a great movie.

Tomorrow morning will be fun, luckily class starts at 930 rather then 830, which is really good news, so that will be nice.

It's not a ton of pictures, but it's what I could do for now. Check out my flickr if you want to see a ton of them!!!

Song of the Day again

this song is great, the video doesn't do it justice, but, if you look on itunes store, you can hear a 30 second thing of it, or download it!! haha

You Mama You- Jude (thanks to Tom and Amy)

French Word of the Day again

de la viande- meat

Classs

Today I woke up, had some great breakfast with hot chocolate and apple sauce and nutella and bananas. Then I studied until exactly 2:00 when I had my big test for Art History, which I think I did pretty well on. I think actually seeing the pieces really helps with the memorization process. Then I took a shower, had our literature class talking about the book Don Quixote, which is really funny so far, now I am hanging out on the bottom floor lounge and everyone is writing emails and stuff until 6:00, we are having a dinner put on by the hotel, as a welcome party I guess. Its like a formal french welcoming, it should be interesting. The rest of the night is really open, and tomorrow I have to wake up realllllllly early for my first life drawing/ painting class. It should be fun though and I am excited to make art. I will update pictures later tonight I promise, I just don't have time before this welcoming thing. So check out my blog later in the day with some pictures!!!

Song of the Day

Feist- Inside and Out



French Word of the Day

fille- girl

Paris!!!

The rest of Vienna was so perfect.

We did a hiking trip around the vineyards in Vienna on a hill looking over Vienna and the hillsides, and it was so relaxing and beautiful. We picked grapes straight from the vines!

The rest of the trip was spent playing guitar, relaxing, playing frisbee. I probably ate a bratwurst every single day I was in Vienna haha. It was so worth it.

I bought a really cool sticket patch thing for my guitar for Austria.

We took an overnight train, stopped in Switzerland for about 15 minutes, then we landed in Paris!

We walked to the Fiap Hotel, I unpacked every single thing from my backpack, took a long shower, then took a nap. It was great. Then I woke up the hotel gave us an orientation of the place, and it was really exciting. There is a cafeteria with great food that I had today, there is a big chess board outside in the courtyard, there is a bar thing on the bottom floor, ping pong tables, game rooms, and probably 500 people from all over. Tonight about an hour ago we met a group from Westmont California and a lot of people knew each other's friends, it was really weird and cool.

The next two months are going to be amazing, I can't believe we are already here.

I have been to Iceland, Portugal, Spain, London, Venice, Florence, Rome, Vienna, and Paris. Now I am looking up Eurail passes trying to decide the best thing to do so I can go even more places!!! hah.

I miss everyone, and now that I am settled down, I should be getting online and emailing and updating way more. :)

Song of the Day

John Mayer- Comfortable



French Word of the Day

sale- dirty