Paris!
What a crazy life this is. I feel overwhelmed and not sure what to say to y'all about this trip right now. Paris was beautiful, wow. When we were in Russia we found out that a French architect designed a lot of the buildings, and I realized in Paris that the Russian buildings looked like bigger, tougher, less delicate versions of the same buildings. That struck me as an observation better got through travel than art history classes. And art history classes are dull as dust.
And that the Eiffel Tower really is huge. Like, gigantic.
I went to Notre Dame and there was a mass going on. Only a handful of people were worshipping. Most people were walking around, talking rather loudly, taking pictures, chastising their children, and buying from the giftshop.
I greatly enjoyed the Paris Metro system. It was easy to use and spread thoroughly out.
The food was so good that I nearly cried. But through my tears, I managed to eat. My hotel was in a great area of town, Tuilleries, comfortable and pretty.
I didn't go into the Lourve or any other museum, but I did find an art gallery filled with the original paintings and drawings of comic books where I spent an hour blowing my mind out. On my last night I went to an area I hadn't been before that turned out to be pretty rundown looking. I ate there anyway. The people in the neighborhood all acted like a big family, playing with each others' kids. A seven or eight year-old boy bought me a string of flowers and then hid behind a man, stared at me, and occasionally shouted "I love you!" in English at me. It was adorable. The older men were very amused and one gave me a glass of champagne. People sometimes told me how cool LA is. I saved the string of flowers and wore them home.
I bought a dress that I really like. Paris is full of shockingly beautiful people of every ethnicity. There were a ton of really gorgeous African girls, very tall and thin. It's nice to sit in a cafe and listen to the soft indecipherableness that is my understanding of French. One night at dinner two English-speaking guys sat behind me and talked loudly about girls they were sleeping with. They either didn't know or care that people around them could understand what they were saying. One of the guys referred to a girl he was dating, but who is apparently too in love with him, as a chicken that's been cooked too long. Ignorance is bliss.
Now I'm back in Scotland, obviously, and working at New Media Scotland. On the Research tab of my menu I'm posting my work on hacklabs and new media if you'd like to read it. I'm leaving for Amsterdam on Thursday. A few days after that, Justin arrives, then he leaves, Miriam comes, and then we both come HOME. I'm as excited about coming home as I am about going to Amsterdam. Maybe more.
I'll be in the Fresno/Reedley region the day I get back I believe. I need to pick up my car from Joy and eat Mexican food with my family. I'll probably be there around 8 or 9pm on the night of August 19, a Friday. I'll probably head back to LA on Saturday night or Sunday morning. I start my last semester at USC EVER on Monday the 21st.
Love to you all.