Direction

Hello loves. This is a picture I took in the Kalahari in South Africa, I rather like it. Yesterday I got a package from Peter and Ryan and also a postcard from Ari and Marissa, this made me pretty happy. Um, I found a Korean store which is on the way home from school and you can buy scallions and bean sprouts and blocks of fresh tofu for 50 cents! I looked up the word for bubble in French, it is "bulle de savon." Knowledge of this name has not helped me obtain any, however. Yet. muxtape.com is pretty cool. We got an extension for our English papers so Virginia Woolf will continue to cast a shadow over my life/weekend. We're doing modernist literature right now in that class (Woolf, Joyce, Beckett, etc) and it is quite enjoyable. I've been doing my fieldwork for anthropology at Parc Montsouris in the 14th arrondissement in Paris. It's lovely and I wish everyone could fly over for a picnic. My favorite activity so far is sitting on the bench across from the mini train-ride with a hot waffle with powdered sugar, watching kids ride in a tiny circle with the biggest grins I've ever seen, while old people stop to smile at me and exchange knowing glances about the greatness of sitting on a bench, in a park, eating a hot waffle with powdered sugar. This and watching four year old girls teetering around holding cotton candy twice the size of their faces, wisps of pink in their hair.

I made a video:

It's videos and pictures from Madrid. It kind of sucks but oh well. Enjoy anyway!

love and bulles de savon.

That's the Punchline

nataliedee.com

Rachel came in this weekend from Madrid! Highlights: beer and burritos at Banu's, fairytale park at Bois de Boulogne (NW area), falafel at L'as Du, fire jugglers at Palais du Tokyo, groove night at Fleche D'or, best duck you'll ever have at Cafe L'industrie, St. Denis cathedral, Les Refuges des Fondues at Montmartre, etc.

other updates:
-trying to start a SET craze in Paris; building steam
-the Bois de Boulogne has peacocks! and also swans-- has anyone ever realized how creepy swans are? they have these weird eel/snake-y necks...
-registered for fall semester today--the beginning of the end of a long New York hiatus.
-3,500 word research paper on Virginia Woolf due friday, yet to start.
-Berlin at the end of the month (with Kat's Swisster, Miri)
-Budapest second week of May, hopefully couchsurfing.

EDIT: I forgot the most important part!!! When Rachel and I were at Pigalle, a pigeon flew into my head. Directly. We weren't even walking that fast; I was practically a stationary object. It felt like I got decked by a soccer ball. Rachel's reaction, seeing the pigeon landing and stumbling on the ground, looking over to me: "Did a bird just fly into you?"

skype love

<3
skype likes to get artsy sometimes.

The Girl Can't Help It

I just dropped 47euro on 5 rolls of slide film. Please don't do the math.

One roll has been promptly placed into my largely neglected N65. The rest are sitting in my fridge amongst Orangina, chocolate soy milk, cheese, and leftover curry.

You don't even want to know what the quote was for developing it.
Add to film and processing/mounting fees: polaroid film and all the fixings for a little slide transfer lab and a Holga is sounding pretty appealing right now.

Listen To My Beat--

Listen To My Beat--, originally uploaded by Rocketships, Jellyfish.

Found these people playing soccer outside Gaudi's Parc Guell in Barcelona. It was nice to see some real life amidst all the tourists.

p-e-o-p-l-e- i-n- t-h-e- c-i-t-y

I put up six new albums on my Picasa, featuring Madrid, Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam, Amanda's Visit to Paris, and Florence. I only put up about half of the pictures I had, but there are still a lot. A lot a lot. If you would like to see them, I will remind you that once in an album, there is an option in the upper right hand corner to view the thumbnails large, so you don't have to look at all the pictures individually. Enjoy my loves, because I certainly did. Flickr highlights, stories, and videos to come.

Otherwise, life continues to be wonderful in all aspects (hence the lack of posts, perhaps...), even with the lack of sun in Paris and three very large papers looming ahead of me. Today I gave a presentation in French class about aquariums. (Jellyfish are called le médusa). I also went and saw my first movie in French sans subtitles (except for Amelie, which doesn't count because by the time I saw it without subtitles I had memorized it anyway). It was called Paris and it was quite good (if not a tad indulgent), so if you can find it with subtitles, do so.

The Sprout and the Bean

"My dear ones, you can't imagine how beautiful it is here. Already early in the morning I lie on a towel in the sand, which is like foam. I could drift along as if I were on a raft. But I quickly became aware that this would reduce my life, namely, to an ink-blue bar, a line, nothing. I immediately looked for a job. I watch the sea and count the soiling of its horizon."
--from an exhibit at the contemporary art museum in barcelona

So I'm back from break and it was wonderful. I'd like to reflect and tell you something a little meaningful/interesting about the places I went instead of a frenzy of bullets; this may take some time. What I can tell you now was that it was amazing/lovely/insert other adjectives and that the whole break really re-invigorated me in regard to Paris, if that's even possible. I'm also excited to plan more trips for the copious time off I have in May. I'm looking at Venice, Berlin, Budapest, Istanbul, and Greece.

My camera got wet and is currently not turning on but I'm crossing my fingers for its recovery. My memory card should be fine, but the long and short of the story is no pictures for now (and probably far too many later).

News for now: On the bus back from Amsterdam to Paris I met two American students who are currently traveling and whose plans for lodging in Paris had fallen through. I took 'em home, they did my dishes, and they're staying until Friday! Cheers to new friends and free couches to sleep on.