I Get the News I Need From the Weather Report

Madrid: 69°
Barcelona: 62°
Prague: 48°
Amsterdam: 50°

See you in two weeks.

WWI Cemetery

WWI Cemetery, originally uploaded by Rocketships, Jellyfish.

This past weekend I went on a study trip with my Paris at War class to WWI sites in Northern France. It was a little tiring, very depressing, but very cool. The countryside is beautiful. Some highlights were the cathedrals at Laon and Reims (two small towns in France), seeing the trenches from the battle of the Sommes, the "Cavern of the Dragon" (a stone quarry where soldiers lived directly under the battlefield), and the American Cemetery (pictured here). Lowlights: the small town of Albert selling me three rolls of exposed film for 12euro and me not realizing it until we got on the bus. I'm still not really over it. Pictures at Picasa and slowly editing some for Flickr.

Also, here's a video from winter break of my cousin Keana. She is two and can probably vuvuzela better than you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZmZPCKzbZk

I have bedbugs and an 8 page paper to write but otherwise life is grand. I'm almost done applying for internships, midterms are almost over, and spring break is coming up. After that it's going to be Spring!, sun, museums, meandering, picture taking, writing, reading, visitors!, trips, macaron binging, etc.

Love and things.

T-Shirt Folding, Xhosa, Cheese

Random update-- I do a t-shirt folding demo as requested by Claire/Meg, Kat sends a package, I break out some Xhosa, talk about cheese... Miss you guys. Midterms/papers are killing me.

Paris Metro

Paris Metro, originally uploaded by Rocketships, Jellyfish.

My favorite photo taken since being here.

Daft Punk is Playing at My House

Today I was walking around Montparnasse and stopped to get a caramel crepe, which was delicious. However when I went to throw the wrapper away I looked down and saw that I had caramel ALL OVER ME. My coat, my scarf, my jeans, my shoes... It literally looked like someone had taken a squeeze bottle of caramel and squirted it at me. I'm such a dope.

Also today my light went out in my room and neither I nor my landlord could seem to fix it. The whole event was pretty comical-- my sweet old landlord climbing up my rickety ladder to reach the light, me standing below, holding the ladder steady and handing him various different bulbs and flipping the switch on and off while he emitted various curses in French and English. The best part was when he would fiddle with it and say "Et voila! Switch it on!" and I would switch it and we would both stare at the bulb as nothing happened and he would say "Merde! Son of a bitch. Ok," and keep futzing. Verdict: still no light in Talisa's apartment.

On Friday night I went with friends Lindsey and JingJing to a jazz club below this bar in the Latin Quarter called Guillotine (yes, they had one!). The jazz club downstairs used to be a dungeon (!) and there were big stone walls and iron bars and yeah... pretty neat.

On a Roll

Enjoy, yo.

Kaki King in Paris 02.11.08

Kaki King in Paris 02.11.08
Originally uploaded by Rocketships, Jellyfish

So thanks to a heads up from Claire I went to see Kaki King at the Nouveau Casino in Paris with Jason on Tuesday. The show was amazing! ah! (gush gush gush, etc) We were all the way up in front so I could see everything for once, and also get some pretty nice pictures (I put some of the better ones on flickr). She played songs from all her albums, including her unreleased upcoming album. I'll probably put a couple videos up on youtube soonish. She also did a few covers-- Morrissey and Elliott Smith. She did some really cool stuff with a loop machine, especially for her last song (Gay Sons of Lesbian Mothers... my favorite song on Until We Felt Red). Maybe she and Andrew Bird should team up... Anyway this post is probably more exciting for you if you listen to Kaki King. But yeah. It was orgasmic. She is adorable. Thanks again, bear.

Also today I got my first piece of mail! (aside from a stupid overpriced book I ordered on amazon...) Thanks, Jennifer. I feel loved. I also had been meaning to get a green crayon.