SpazzleNET

Posts Tagged ‘Life’

This weekend, I have received my first visitor à Paris…Erin!  She’s a friend, former and future roommate from BC who’s currently studying abroad in Madrid.  She got in late Thursday evening, as I was making a lame attempt at recovery.  I feel bad that I haven’t been 100% to be the greatest host, but I’ve been giving her maps and directions to a lot of different things so that she can see some of the stuff without me.

Today, we got up early and actually ended up going to Breakfast In America with Chrissy and Kelsey (note: I feel this is going to become a regular occurrence).  Since my stomach is still on the mend, I decided to order some pancakes with berries, and I had my first official meal in days!  Afterward, Erin and I headed towards Place de la Concorde.  We checked out a Longchamp store, where she bought a lovely bag for herself and one for her mom.  Then I showed her the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe, and we eventually made our way over to the Eiffel Tower.

Today was the first day I climbed to the top since my trip in high school.  It was BEAUTIFUL, but a tad chilly (as in, I think I only have 8.75 toes now, courtesy of frostbite).

I’ll fill in some more details tomorrow…just wanted to write a bit to keep track of the day! G’night!

Ahhh, another enthralling day on my big, red, Buddha couch in an effort to recover completely from this stomach bug.

Although I didn’t do anything too exciting, I did spend a few hours uploading and editing my pictures from Belgium, which are up on my Facebook!  I can’t believe it took as long as it did, but it’s tough going through 530 photos and picking the best ones.  I also spent a while going through my messages and wall posts and answering people that I should have answered days (if not weeks) ago…so I’m just going to apologize for the absurd amount of times I have probably popped up on your newsfeeds this evening.

I also finally managed to upload the pictures from the National Archives trip I took a couple weeks ago.  Although I inserted them in the original post (dated February 5th, if you want to read it), I’ll put them here too (since I’m going to assume the majority of you are too lazy to spare a few extra clicks).  Although I’m not sure which documents are which, here are two of them.

Even if I’m mistaken, both are awesome, and I’m still so psyched that I got to see them!  And that’s that.  I also added some pics to the Belgium posts below, but if we’re friends on Facebook, you’ve probably seen them; I just wanted to add some eye candy.

Alright, well I’m going to go watch a movie (or something that at least seems a bit more productive…?).  Bon weekend!

I think I’m overdue to give you guys some rants.

Keyboards: All the letters are in different places.  You have to press shift to type numbers.  And the period.  COME ON, it is used so commonly it should NOT be a shift-key button.  And the @ sign is pretty much impossible…it took me 10 minutes to figure it out.

Printing at Sciences Po: THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD.  Takes at least 25 minutes to snag a computer (because I mean, 20 computers are sufficient to serve 9,000 students who need to print things), and then once you actually figure out how to print, you have to wait in line at the printer while 3 people ahead of you each print 400-page articles.  It only takes a few years.

Lack of Marsala Wine: All I wanted was a little bit of Marsala dressing.  I just wanna cook me some chicken Marsala.  THEY DO NOT HAVE IT IN PARIS.  I mean I know it’s Italian wine (from Sicily, I believe!), but seriously…?

Inefficiency: Administrators say their office hours are, for example, from 9-12 and 2-4.  They leave at 12…and sometimes just don’t return.  No big.

Last evening was un soir parfait (a perfect evening)!  Kelsey invited her friend Chrissy over for dinner, and thus we decided to have our first dinner party here in the apartment.  Kelsey found a Giada De Laurentiis recipe for balsamic glazed chicken (I’m drooling just thinking about it all over again) and also an Ina Garten recipe for string beans with garlic.  We walked over to Monoprix to pick up some of the food we needed, which was actually a bit stressful; it was incredibly crowded, the lines were very long, and I felt as if everyone was passing judgment on the things I had in my little basket with wheels.  Also, the aisles are much, much narrower than what I’m used to, and thus it’s a hassle to pass someone or to stop in the middle of the aisle to investigate canned peas.

We triumphed, and arrived home shortly before Chrissy herself arrived.  She presented us with a delicious bottle of wine, one that I believe her French “grandfather” recommended to her.  We put it in the fridge to chill, and began to prepare our dinner.  Everything turned out amazingly, and we had quite a feast.  It truly enjoyable spending time with them because we have so much in common; we are all foodies, sommeliers-in-training, and love reading and writing blogs.  As Chrissy said in her blog (which, by the way, you simply must read…it’s hilarious, even if you don’t know her!), I felt like I “found my people.”

Today was a most uneventful day, and I feel rather guilty for my lack of activity.  I slept until 12, woke up and saw that it was pouring rain, decided to shower, and then sat around in our living room all day watching a combination of CNBC in English (ha) and game shows in French.  It’s not that I didn’t have big plans, because I did.  I wanted to go to Galeries Lafayettes to return a hair straightener that I bought, and then I was planning on checking out the Musée d’Orsay with Kelsey and getting crêpes (because I have only consumed TWO in the entire time that I’ve been here).  Oops.  Note: the picture to the right was not taken by me; I found it on Google images.

Tonight should be fun, though, as there are some BC people visiting from Strasbourg and San Sebastian, and we’re all meeting up at the bars and then most likely going to a club afterward.  Should be fun!

I was just stumbling, and I came across the following by Gandhi:

Seven Blunders of the World
1.  Wealth without work.
2.  Pleasure without conscience.
3.  Knowledge without character.
4.  Commerce without morality.
5.  Science without humanity.
6.  Worship without sacrifice.
7.  Politics without principle.
-  Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi was a wise, wise man.  I’ve been thinking about these seven “blunders,” and it’s striking how relevant they are, particularly in today’s world.  I think they are at the root of most of the problems and conflicts we face today as a global community.  Thoughts?

I also stumbled upon The Eight Irresistable Principles of Fun.  It’s slightly longer than a short video (maybe about 3 or 4 minutes?) but worthwhile watching.  It basically just tells you to lighten up and live your life because it’s too short to take for granted.