the 'make anything instantly cool' app - i want one!

Props if you can figure out what we're laughing about.  Unfortunately it doesn't load clearly on here.

Yay!

I didn't fail the GRE :)  I didn't do that well on the Quantitative section but whatever I did really well on the Verbal!   I don't know about the essays yet, but the first one was alright I just didn't have time to finish.  The second one I killed!!! RARRRRR

StumbleUpon

"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity; Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend."

Vaginas > Valentines

Mixed feelings about that.

I was just tested

Gnarly, translucent spider spotted while trying to cook pasta!  I passed the test though, I scooped him up in a conveniently-just-emptied coffee jar and took the 'little' guy outside, instead of freaking out and squashing him.  Again, I was much better as a child.  I used to hunt spiders.  Not to kill them, but to catch them and freak other kids out with before I put them back.  Wolf spiders were my favorite because they were the easiest to find.  Tunnel webs.  At some point in my life however, I turned into an omnivorous scaredy-cat.  Not that I've ever eaten much meat...And I haven't killed many spiders in my life, I always feel strange about it.  But, after that first one, the squashing became easier.  Way easier than the catching/releasing system.  And if they are especially freaky, take par example, this translucent one that is now roaming the streets of Paris, I go into survival mode and it becomes their life against mine.  Tonight we both win, and I don't feel strange about it.

Au revoir meat

Bien cuit : well done
French people don't cook their meat!  It's very strange.
I went out this weekend with Josh and some real live Parisians to a great little restaurant near Place D'It.  I went for the duck, because I love duck and there's no ordering a French meal without meat...California is definitely cooler in that respect.  Vegan options??  I doubt if they even have a word for vegan in French.  Anyways, the waitress gave me a funny look when I said 'bien cuit', because no one ever says that in this country!
My flatmate Antoine, from Grenoble, would cook us dinner sometimes (he's really good, his dad is a chef) and when I would say bien cuit he'd be like 'No no no no no, you cannot eat it like that!'  and would hand me a bloody slab that I could not touch haha.  Les français.  My friends at the restaurant informed me that it loses all it's flavor if you cook it.  In my head I'm thinking....yea....the flavor of blood!  yuck!  No more meat man.  Moral of the story, my duck was not well done, it was pink haha and I find that highly amusing.  There are just no translations for some things.
Working with my recently developed 'scavenger' lifestyle however, where I eat whatever I am offered, I managed to get some of it down, and donated the rest to the happy meat eaters surrounding me.  The scavenger lifestyle comes with lack of funds.  It started this summer in Santa Barbara when I had recently become 'independent'.  It's less pretentious, however I will never be a meat eater.  I was born wanting nothing to do with eating animals.  My first argument with my parents I can remember is over me refusing to eat the chicken on my plate.  They wouldn't let me leave the table!  I can still see it.  My mom was pretty much on my side.
When I was 5 I told my mom one night before I went to bed that I believed that when we die we become animals.  I was more enlightened as a child.  But, it's hard to have morals when you're hungry.
I say that in the lightest way possible,  I do not pretend to have suffered any real hardship or hunger in my privileged life.  However, I understand in the shallowest of ways that if you're really hungry, you eat what is given to you.  But, in this moment I have the good fortune to be able to choose what I eat.  Therefore, I am going to remember what I already knew as a child:

In a past life, I was probably a slaughtered chicken.
Au revoir for now, meat.  It really hasn't been that great.

Happy

Sunshine in Paris :)  All the humans are out!

These are from the Monet exhibit I went to a couple weeks ago.  Magnifique.

And the Basquiat exhibit.  RAD.  You should look him up, he's from New York

SB

And I decorated my room!  So that's exciting.  I get to see all your smiling faces :)

Ghosts - Laura Marling

DJ D.Veloped - Stereo Drugs (Memory Loss Mash)

If you are reading this blog, I'm sure you already know my shameless love for Eminem/Dre and happy house music. You'll understand that this is euphony to mine ears.....yes I'm studying for the GRE
At 4:30 I die.

Ellie Goulding - Lights (Bassnectar Remix)

Lupe Fiasco - Words I Never Said ft. Skylar Grey [AUDIO]

Thank you for telling it straight.

Fate

Accidentally went to a Deer Tik concert tonight!  Awesome discovery.  Impressionnant

not supposed to have feelings

'we had grown closer, till his joy meant everything to me'
C'est quand je me sens le plus seule que Jordan me manque le pire.  Je ne sais pas si ça me soulage ou si je vais moins bien...plus ou moins seule.  Le souvenir de lui est le seul constant de ma vie, et je suppose que je trouve un réconfort dans ça.

Je regrette que mon français soit la merde.

Adorable

I FORGOT THE POTATOES!!!

Quick update:

• Tonight is my first night completely moved in to my new studio!  (Dannys old place)  Justine helped me bring over ma grande et ma petite valise and we metro-ed on over to Passy.  La classe, vraiment.  I'm right next to the Eiffel Tower!  I'm extremely happy because it means I can walk home at night, I can make noise, I can sing, I can use my very own kitchen, and I have my very own mini-fridge, huge bed.  Definitely moved up in the world, although it sucks that DK is gone, asshole.

• Went to Grenoble last weekend with Kristen to visit Antoine (my old colloc).  So fun!  I'll have to post pictures later.  Climbed the Bastille, went to Bukana (the exchange student bar) and Vieux Manoir (the club run by these huge biker Mafia men).  In the words of our other dirty Irish roommate, Mike, from when I lived in Grenoble:  Good Times.

• I started Bikram 2 days ago and am so sore!  And happy, let's hope I can actually do the full 10 days (the first 10 days are 30euro).  That would be quite an accomplishment.

• Today I met with a lady from MIIS (the Grad school I'm applying for) and I'm feeling inspired.  Maybe I actually could be a translator.  That would be so awesome, I think the work would really fit me because it would allow me to travel, among many other factors.  It would stay interesting...because I'd be translating news articles etc and I could work from wherever.  My French needs some drastic help though if that's what I'm going to do.  I'm going to try.

• I've been wearing my retainer every night for about a week and my teeth are almost straight again :)

• I have not been studying for the GRE as much as I hoped, however I have been studying and progressing.

• I've so far watched only 2 movies in French (Pauline à la Plage, et L'effet Papillon) both really good, but 2 means I'm 2 behind from my resolutions goal, so I'll have to get on that.

• I've been reading a lot, currently The Sun Also Rises.  Really into it.

• Overall things are goin well...got duped out of 200euro from my former landlady, but it's OK because I will enjoy Paris so much more living here.  I've been really enjoying it since I've been back.

• Paris has been freezing the past week!  I tried to peel a banana yesterday and I couldn't bc my fingers were too cold!  Today was nice though :)

• And last but not least, I've rediscovered hype machine and it's oh so goood.

And about the potatoes...I forgot my potatoes in the move!  Triste.  Not lookin' back.

N'importe

On that hungover day where I thought I had lost my purse.  The school lunch was:
1st course:  A container of beets.  Totally bizarre, but I was super excited and thought that someone must be watching out for me because apparently beets are great detoxers!  (Justine had informed me the day before when I told her I had been loving beets lately/eating them for breakfast...which shows that apparently my body does know what it's doing).
2nd course:  A plate of french fries, plus grands que ma tête!  Which I was kinda disappointed about because it did not go along with my whole health-day plan...but I immediately warmed up to the idea.  They were my favorite kinda fries, very potatoey :)  and I realized that this meal could not be more perfect for 'the morning after'.  It comes with both detoxifying elements and grrrrease.  Thank you France.  I was also entertained by how 'ravi' all the kids must have been.  A plate of french fries for lunch?  Yes please, Merci.  It also came with ham in another little container, but that's gross so I left it.
3rd course:  yogurt (the french always put sugar in it which is strange)
4th course:  An orange!  They decided to add some vitamin C to top off this oddly appropriate meal. 
I was as amused as my sore brain allowed me to be.

Also, did you notice that French schools get 4 course meals at lunch?  And I'm even in a ghetto one!  Although this isn't very representative of what they usually eat.  Usually it's some type of salad, then fish or meat with a vegetable, then cheese, then yogurt and fruit.  Infinitely better than corndogs.

But I am Le Tired

B