Metro Adventures!

This weekend I was planning on going to Barcelona, but since it is All Saints Day week, everyone is traveling! So I stayed back in Paris, which turned out be extremely nice. On thursday night, Dana and I watched Friends and the movie Shooter, which is amazing, and she did a photoshoot of me for a new idea that she has. Then friday night, Dana, John, Megan Clarke, and I decided to go on an metro adventure, and the rules were that we rolled a dice, and if it was 1-3 we went left, and 4-6, we went right. This also applied to which metro stop we went on, and how many stops we went on. It turned out to be an amazing way to explore the city! We saw all kinds of weird things that we probably never would have. We decided to do the same thing last night, with Anne instead of Megan, and we started at the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower has this amazing light show going with this weird techno music too, and that was nice to see. We went all over Paris with our dice game. We threw glow sticks on to a boat, John slid on an orange, we went to the top of an apartment building, we got on and off the metro pretending to meet eachother every time (which was really funny) and so much other random stuff.

Also this weekend I have been working on Art Quests, which are sheets that we need to fill out with art on them, and I have a good amount to catch up on :p We found a full library in this underground mall at Chatlet/ Les Halles metro stop, and it was a perfect place to study.

Now more art quests! I'll put up pictures soon!

Song of the Day

Miles Davis



French Word of the Day

le trombone- the trombone

!!!

The best crepe I've ever had, made by this guy.
Sunset at the Marsielle harbor.
The highest cliff in France, right next to Cassis on the boat trip.
Dana and I at the harbor of Marseille.
Spices from the food market!!!

^Marsielle boat trip on the coast!!!!!!!One of the hundreds of fountains in Aix, it was really beautiful everywhere.
Great hot chocolate with a chocolate bar and a cookie, and a game of scrabble.
I can't remember the name of the mountain in Aix, but Cezanne was obsessed with painting it. It is a really weird mountain.
In Cezanne's studio!!!



This past weekend I went on a trip to Aix en Provence and Marsielle, and it was really magical. In Aix en Provence, we strolled the streets and saw great art in the Granet Museum, where there was an exhibition on Cezanne and Picasso and how Cezanne heavily influenced Picasso's work. We had a chance to go to Cezanne's studio that he architected himself, and in the studio there were the original paints, bottles, glasses, easels, everything that he actually used and painted in his work. During our time in Aix, I had the best banana of my life at this open fresh food market, where Dana and I sampled every cheese and meat that we could, and I also had the best banana and nutella crepe ever on the streets. The town is extremely clean and beautiful and everyone is really good looking there, it was really perfect. We found a little english book store, and we spent a good amount of time there playing an intense game of scrabble, that I got 3 out of 4th in, which isn't bad for me haha. The rest of Aix consisted of having a crazy night in the hotel, making a fort and playing music and having a light show, and lots of other random fun things. On our last day, we decided to head down to Marseille, which is only a 15 minute bus ride! We get there, and the first thing we find out is that we can't go home until the next day, so we were going to have to spend the night in the train station. We decided not to worry about it, and we went and explored the town. The first thing we find is a flea market, and I find the two things that I have been wanting right away, a european gamecube with two controllers and a polaroid camera, it was amazing. Then, when I didn't think my luck could be any better, we find the cheapest thrift store and I found tons of new clothes that were cheap and good. After that, we walked down the street and ended up at the harbor of Marsielle which is really beautiful. Anne and I decided to check out and see if we could take a boat ride, and we found one that took us all along the coast from the harbor to Cassis, another town. It ended up being one of the most beautiful boat rides of muy life and it gave me a chance to see the coast of France, which I never knew was so amazing. We went in to all the little creeks and crevices finding the small villages of people that live there, and we went to Cassis, where we saw the quarrys of precious cassis stone which is on the bottom of the statue of liberty, it was so great. Then we hung out in a fastfood european resteraunt on the harbor and watched the sunset.

We walked back to the train station, and hung out for a few hours, and we found out that Dana's mom would not let us stay in the train station for the night, so she got us a hotel! It was really great and so nice of her, it would of been really cold and bad staying out all night. Then we caught our train in the morning, I slept the whole ride, and then we had drawing class right away.

The rest of the day was spent figuring out my class schedule, which I am still working on.

Today we had our normal classes at the Fiap, and we had a photo critique where we narrowed down everyone's best photos, and then decided which was the best of the best, and somehow people picked mine! I was really suprised. We also got our papers on Don Quixote back and I got a B+, so I was pretty happy with that.

After class, we went to the Louvre and walked around Napolean's apartments, which are ridiculously extravagant. It really was wayyy to ornate, but that is what he wanted, and felt he deserved during his time. Then we went and walked around the Ruben's room and through the Rembrandt paintings and other holland painters like Frans Hals. It is really nice to study the painting in class, then go see them in the evening, it is a good system.

Now I am waiting in the lobby for a concert to start, and I can see a drum set, a bari sax, an alto sax, a trumpet, trombon and a guitar and bass, so it should be a pretty fun concert here in the Fiap!!!! Also, pretty soon, our group is going to put on a concert in the Fiap, so that will be interesting :)

Song of the Day




French Word of the Day

prix- price

photos

Cool Church with nice stained glass everywhere!
Sultan from Alladin, he was at the antique festival haha.
The Django bar, there is a classic Django guitar.
The amazing music store I played in and made really good friends with the owner and his wife.
Pyramid! I have a year pass to the Lourve!

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)