Loquaciousness

A Habi Family

2012-01-28T18:28:00.000-05:00

I've been back at school for a week now, startled a bit by being placed so suddenly amongst everyone again and doing school work regularly, but life is SO GOOD. I've reunited with friends I haven't seen in 8 months, I'm President of our ASIA club (Asian Students Intercultural Association) and resuming activity in other organizations, and simply having a blast. Rather than a dorm, I'm living in a theme house that's still considered campus property-- the Habitat for Humanity House! There's 5 guys and 3 girls with me, and it's the work hard, party hard kind of lifestyle that I can get down with. It also helps that the library is a two minute walk away because I'm determined to stay on top of my classes! Last night we went to the Asian buffet in town because my room mate turned 21 over break and wanted to do sake bombs. I couldn't participate obviously, but things were pretty rowdy and just continued when we came back to campus.

Trying to look super-Asian with our ridiculous Chinese waiter that definitely enjoys getting college students hammered.

I've spent the entire afternoon doing work, so I can't wait to hang out with the 'family' tonight... Ohhh boy!

Proof of a Productive Winter Break part II

2012-01-21T07:04:00.000-05:00

And, here's my second painting project that is partial redemption for not completely the other things that I said that I would do while I've home since December 16th :D. Haha! Well this one is an actual photograph taken by my mom while we were at Boca Grande Beach in Florida last May. She practically begged me to paint all summer, but I didn't start until This past Monday :B. I finished Thursday, though! Amidst about 13 hours of frustration, mainly due to those darn light houses and their tiny, straight columns. Again, I utilized some artistic editing to make the composition more appealing. At least now my mom has her painting. What have you done this winter?

And I am SUPER STOKED because after 8 months, I am finally heading back to school today! I can't wait to resume my college life!!! CHEERS.

Proof of a Prodctive Winter Break

2012-01-21T06:52:00.000-05:00

Well, these have been a ridicously fast five weeks. Maybe winter break was so bare able this year because I didn't come home in the fall (not that I could have). And although most of my studious expectations fell apart, I did complete some of my desired tasks, like painting!! This is a portrait of a model from the Chanel Spring/Summer 2011 campaign. It was about 13-15 hours worth of work over five days. It's now hanging in what little wall space we had left in the living room. And yes, I purposely didn't paint the neck strap. Gotta live artistic editing!!!

Dream Menagerie

2012-01-06T22:58:00.000-05:00

I love National Geographic because the photos are awe-inspiring and the articles full of depth. I just read a short bio about the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkey! They inhabit the high (at 10,000 feet) mountains of Central China, enduring harsh winters with their shaggy coats. Their faces are almost alien-like, especially with the blue, and I can't help but thinking of mini Saskatchewans!

Just another reason for me to study abroad in China in the coming years :)

And this odd sea life wasn't in Nat Geo, but I've always been intrigued by the ocean sunfish, or Mola Mola. They are recorded to be the largest bony fish in the ocean, appearing like one of the first prehistoric fish, though according to oceansunfish.org, they are one of the more recently evolved fish! There are a few species, but the most common Mola Mola have enormous, disc-like bodies with planar fins and sand-paper scales covered in mucus. The name was derived from their habit of sunbathing at the surface of the water! The average sunfish weighs over 2 tons, (the largest ever caught weighed 3.5 tons) is 6 feet long and 10 feet tall subsisting off a diet of jelly-fish.

Photo courtesy of Mike Johnson Marine Natural History Photography.

The mysterious ocean sunfish is a very docile creature. The only violence they've ever caused is when they jump out of the water and land on people, effectively squashing them :B. And I'm pretty sure this Pokemon was modeled after it...

courtesy of The Pokemon Wiki :D

Okay, and I just have to point out that I love manatees. I just want to give them a hug, they're so ridiculous! The poor things used to be mistaken for mermaids by sailors, and today they are rare in the U.S., threatened by boat motor accidents, habitat destruction and slow reproductive rates. I've had the fortune to see the shadows of a few in the Gulf of Mexico, and they appear to be lumbering blobs! These mammal herbivores reach lengths up to 13 feet and 3,500 feet (like that giant mola!) and can live to be 60 years old. Facts courtesy of manatees.net.

I WANT TO PET ONE.

Alright, that's enough Animal Planet! I had a lovely afternoon with one of my best friends from high school and exercised my consumer power (of Christmas gift cards) at the mall. Score for "End of Season" sales!

Here's a video to leave you with; another one of my idols, Florence Welch of Florence + the Machine, reinterpreting Drake's "Take Care".

The Perks of Being... On Break

2012-01-03T18:32:00.003-05:00

I just devoured Stephen Chbosky's novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
It was published in 1999 but this summer the movie was filmed and should be debuting soon this year! I have to say I'm thrilled because Logan Lerman and Emma Watson are incredible actors and being their age seems to make things more relate-able. The book is an easy read--only 200 pages long--yet the naively contemplative letters from the protagonist Charlie are addictive and emotional. What can I say, I am a fan of the coming-of-age genre. Also, Charlie is incredibly awkward but accidentally wise because of his ability to observe, but I'm curious as to if he is perhaps autistic as well? In my opinion he seems to exude mild characteristics, yet it's true that freshman year of high school tends to be a bizarre experience, socially.

Emma Watson, reading the novel and a blurry self-portrait of Logan Lerman. He had posted these on his twitter! Below is a photo on set; it should be interesting how Emma interprets her character, Sam. And did I mention that I want to be Emma Watson (see side bar)? She's an inspiration.

Photos courtesy of cambia.com

I haven't had the chance to enter The Hunger Games craze (blasphemy, I know), so this what I'm looking forward to for now! I'm going to re-read it too, in order to make sure I didn't miss any of the good details in last night's late 3 hours.

When I came home from France it was pretty exciting because I had 4 Amazon book deliveries. I already read one, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, which was a beautiful story. Although, I couldn't remove Robert Pattinson's face from my mind as the protagonist, Jacob, because I had watched the movie first on my flight to France at the end of summer. Nonetheless, I think the movie is a just adaptation of the novel. In fact, I preferred how the film fused Uncle Al's character into August-- it just made him all the more menacing and complex as the owner of the circus.

It's been a few months so I can't remember well enough to critique any of the actors, but here is Reese Witherspoon who plays Marlena, and Rob Patz as Jacob. I remember reading an article about Rob's relationship with the elephant, how fascinated and practically enamored he was with her personality and abilities.

In other news... I don't think I have any! Whoo, it's 2012! 2011 was quite the year for me and I hope this positive trend continues. I spent a low-key evening with a few friends making fools of ourselves with Just Dance 3 and now I'm trying to make my break a bit more productive. I'm studying up on Spanish (but I need to be more pro-active), reading and writing regularly, working on a knitting scarf-project and painting again! And of course, blog posting.

So, my friends, I leave you with this lovely song/video and wish you the healthiest of brightest of New Years.

... Because it's supposed to end December 21st, right?

Dreaming with eyes wide open

2011-12-30T21:48:00.000-05:00

You know how it is;

You've just had one of those experiences, the life-altering kind. Perhaps it was the amount of time it lasted, the people you were with, the things you saw, or the nature of what you did. It was everything you felt.
Though of course, there has to be a return to "normalcy". Some transitions are more abrupt than others.
If you haven't guessed yet, I'm already yearning to relive the past 4 months of my life in France. I have issues with dwelling on the past, it's really something I should work on--but it freaks me out, because it feels like a dream.
Fortunately for me, it wasn't! Whether it is acknowledged or not, a part of me has changed. And although I prefer the tangibility of printed photos from film, handwritten letters and souvenirs to remember where I've been, I like that I have hundreds of digital photos that tell stories and Facebook to connect with my friends on the other side of the world.

I'm struggling with identity disjointedness [apparently a real word !]. I can't lie, when I left on December 16th I was ready to jump back into my American life. There are things you take for granted when you're away from home for so long. I realized this even more than I did when I left for college! However, I feel like I'm cheating myself out; I feel like I've lost my 'French identity' already. It's a mental turmoil, sorry I can't explain it that well. But like I mentioned, my experience in France is now a part of me whether I can reconcile with it or not.

These are photos from the last week I was there, the one above is the building where we took our classes.

The cafe I hung out in before political science every Tuesday.

My host family!

La Catedrale Notre Dame de Rouen

Going out with friends and taking advantage of "city life"!

And our ridiculous program group in general.

________________________________________

How do you summarize a trip like this...

It tends to come best in spurts. At that moment, something I'm doing will trigger a memory of what I've done, then I'll laugh and relate it. Trying to explain it as one long story is tough. I just spent the last 1 1/2 actually going through my full set of photos with my parents, and we only made it through 3 weeks of my semester!

I know people are interested, but it's almost uncomfortable because in general they probably don't... care. Bad assumption, I know I can't apply that to everyone!! Haha, the general formula of formality goes, "You went to France?! Oh my god, did you love it? How was it?"

How do you answer a question like that. I'll tell ya----

"Yup, I was there for a semester! It was amazing."

"Yeah, I think I'm fluent in French. All the courses were in French, it wasn't too hard."

"Yes, the food was delicious... Enough baguettes for a lifetime!"

Cut me off right there because no one cares. At least beyond that point.

Bah, and I understand! My parents' eyes were probably glazing over but I have to say that I love them immensely for being patient to give me time to explain everything and expressing genuine interest. And this blog, it's my other outlet of expression! So whether you're truly engaged in what I'm writing about or not, I thank you sincerely for dropping by.

Oh la vache, I can't believe 2011 is over tomorrow. What is everyone doing?

Alhamdulilaay!

2011-12-01T18:38:00.002-05:00

As a part of my France semester program, we spent a week in French-speaking West Africa : Senegal!!! It was my first time being in Africa, in a developing country, into the Global South... and it was incredible.

So many beautiful things and places to see.

Baobab Trees, practically the national symbol of Senegal.

Traditionally prepared meals, eaten with our hands (did that each night with my host family)

Incredible, arabesque mosques -- this one in Touba being the largest in Sub-Saharan and Western Africa.

New perspectives on religion, beauty, respect, living...

Beautiful people to meet, with spirits and smiles that can't be justified in photos.

10 crazy Americans in Africa.

It was unbearably intriguing to discover which aspects of globalization have been integrated into their culture, and which others are still retained in tradition. Smoking fish on the beach with wood chips and dried grass, for example, is still done as it was in the beginning.

The end of the week we moved from Dakar (the capital), to farther down the Atlantic Coast to a hotel-resort at Toubab Dialaw.

And yeah, we found paradise :)

And magnificent animals during a safari on the last morning

And the fruit of the Baobab Tree (below)!!! The refer to it as "monkey's bread", and you crack the giant pod open and pull out this chalky, white morsels that tasted like sour apple... and it made incredible juice.

That's the briefest summary I could supply; I know these photos don't cover up the fact that I have been an atrocious blogger, but I work in cycles :B. I'm sad to report that I have only 2 week left in France, so be prepared for the nostalgia updates and more photos I never added during my disgustingly long winter break. I hope you all had a lovely holiday, and talk to you soon!!!

with peace & love,

nicole

Little tidbits of Rouen life before my immediate departure

2011-10-19T20:58:00.000-04:00

It is nearly 4 in the morning here and I'm sitting at my desk in France (an Instagram-ed photo of my room above) as I've been engrossed in planning my academic future (namely next semester) on my school's registration (they call it registrar) page!

Yup, I'm still in France but already my program is over halfway completed and already I need to figure out what courses I'm taking in the spring. I'm really making my life out to be pathetic at the moment, aren't I?
And also I am sorry I've been so lame about blogging! I have about 16 photos sitting in a queue.. it'll come, I'm going to photo bomb my blog then not be around for another 3 weeks-- ridiculous, right? Well, a lot of that can't be helped because this Sunday my program is taking off to Paris for the week! And then, we have our 'actual' vacation next next Saturday, and my friend John and I are flying to Madrid, the capital of Spain!! We'll be there for 4-5 days then coming back to Rouen for Thursday night, and then Friday we're taking a train to Lille in the North of France for a Friendly Fires & Foster the People (and others) concert and finally returning to Rouen next next next Saturday and perhaps doing nothing but recuperate that Sunday, the end of fall semester break.

In this next two week period the following may or may not happen (but most likely will) :
- I shall be engulfed by the City of Lights (how romanticized can we make it? :P).
- I will traverse a few hundred miles and a border and walk a lot and see beautiful things, while having a crash re-introduction to Spanish (though I haven't worked with the language in 3 years..).
- I will spend too much money but dine deliciously.
- It will become November (OMGZ!).
- I will have 19 years of life to declare.
- I shall dance outrageously at to some of my favorite bands in a foreign country.
- I, undoubtedly, will feel extremely tired.

Real life; IT'S ALL HAPPENING.

Otherwise, I just wanted to share a few things that have been going on. The other day a package arrived from my high school French teacher, presumably as a Halloween/birthday gift because she had asked when my birthday was in an e-mail! Yes, I am one of those students who bonded way too well with the high school faculty. No shame here, she has been one of the greatest educators, mentors and overall friend to grace my life. I found the aloe-infused Halloween socks to be adorable and useful (it's always chilly in my host family's house), the Reese's are fantastic because they aren't sold in France and she sent me pepperoni!!! HAHA so random. Yet I love it all. I've had a lot of friends and a few relatives send post cards and letters, which cheers me up as well.

One way I have gladly immersed myself into la vie Francaise is through the culture of the cafe.
Now, I am not the greatest caffeine or coffee fan-- I find the miniscule black espressos to be generally distasteful and pointless-- however, that doesn't mean I can't sit around with everyone else idly at whatever hour of the day! My favorite thing to order is a chocolat viennois, which is essentially a luxurious hot chocolate with a generous heaping of whipped cream (just what I adore). They're usually expensive relative to other drinks; the one above set me back 4€ but it was amazing after a brisk morning at the market and one of the better tasting in Rouen (I've drank quite a few at this point).
In spite of the white truck-vans, the photo below is a cafe/boulangerie across from the building where I take political science. For the last 3 Tuesday mornings, my host mom has dropped me off in Rouen, I walk there, order tea or a heavily milked/sugared coffee and then brace myself for 45 minutes before my 4 hour class. Yup, the cafe is definitely a French social phenomenon that I wish we in the U.S. would adopt more significantly!

Ah, the bottom photo didn't rotate but these are some photos of various works I've done for my history of art class! I take this course twice a week at the Musée des Beaux Arts of Rouen. For the most part it's an endurance test of lecture, terms, names and dates as we power through galleries and centuries of European art, though every few weeks we work in the atelier (studio) attached to the museum!! Our professor for that portion is actually an art instructor himself, so he has taught us techniques related to the works that we view.

The haphazard painting on the left was when we covered the evolution of the tree; painters went from ultra-precision with the foliage, to fuzzy blobs of implied shapes. Our professor had us compose our own landscape, inspired by other paintings and then color it ourselves. Ha, and he was baffled by my yellow sky! I really don't have an explanation, either.. it was instinctual! :)
These drawings are from this past Monday, when we learned how to properly compose a portrait with the proportions of the face. I found this extremely useful because I struggled with achieving certain facial expressions, and whenever the subjects mouth is slightly ajar (apparently, you're not supposed to draw the teeth).

His critique is very straightforward though extremely constructive-- much like all the professors I have worked with in France. They aren't the most sympathetic but hey, I suppose we can't always be fluffy and flourished!

Bonne nuit à vous, I hope you're all doing fantastic and I shall be back soon.

Nice (no matter how you say it)

2011-09-29T18:17:00.000-04:00

A few weekends back, I took a field trip to Nice.

It was a semi-blind adventure that turned out wonderfully. I had received a grant from my University in the U.S. to conduct 'enrichment' research on the proposal that I wrote : Gastronomy and Regional Identity in France -- How food has shaped the cultures of Normandy and Provence. Living in Rouen covers the Normandy side, and then I chose Nice as my base point of Provencal cuisine :D! The city is very youth-oriented with the bars and nightclubs, but there is Roman history and Italian influences and also an endless number of museums. I took a train down very late on a Friday night, posted up in a 16 person co-ed hostel and passed out.

I started my Saturday off way too early with everyone in my dorm passed out from their bar-raging (probably through 3 or 4 AM). Nonetheless, it was a 75 degree morning and I made my way through the Old City in such a rare, tranquil state. The photo above is the Place Giarbaldi, an immense public square with artistic sculptures, checkered tiling, performers, palm tress and more. My hostel was literally a five minute walk to the beach -- the Mediterranean Sea -- and the Cours Saleya square, where I met up with my culinary class teacher. The Cours Saleya was like any other market except that it was in Nice so there were exotic flowers, an abundance of fruit (the region is known for citrus) and vegetables and olive oil and tourists with their cameras.
Before my culinary class began I wandered the market and interviewed the farmers, and one of the ladies was so helpful that she allowed me to try a traditional local product called Estouffadou. It was an almond-corn meal type cookie that filled me right up! When I rendez-vous'd for my course, my instructor Rosa explained the history of the city and region, we went shopping in the market, then back to her apartment to cook!

I also was in the class with two ladies from Britain. It was a lovely afternoon filled with incredible food! Even though I'm not an olive fan, I tried the Nicoise variety and liked it a lot; I also brought olive oil produced in Nice back to my host family in Rouen. For the first course we made the classic Nicoise salad; then we had what seemed to be a green lentil stew with carrots, a bit of bacon and guinea fowl (first time eating that, it had a mild game-y taste though similar to chicken), a platter of regional goat and sheep(!) cheeses and then a fig tart for dessert, made from scratch!

The fresh figs from the market were marvelous. We also finished it with some lavender honey on top. I was so stuffed the rest of the day I didn't need a true dinner; I just relaxed on the beach with my water, journal and Bueno Bars :). The stones are bothersome for sure, but it was surreal just lounging about on the French Riviera and watching the cruise ships and para-sailors. I even took a dip in the water because it was so warm.

I also met some fantastic girls in my hostel who were international students studying in France, like me, except they're living in Lyon. I was so fortunate to spend the rest of the weekend with them! We went out Saturday night to one of the raucous bars, then Sunday morning we took a macaroon course. It was more like we watched the chef explain how to make them, and then reaped the rewards with our own boxes of macaroons to eat :).

Sunday afternoon we also went to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (here's the website if you're interested)! The museum was free first off, so I was thrilled for such an opportunity to see 20th century works that shook up not only the art world, but society itself.

The permanent collections were quite impressive, such as this from Niki de Saint Phalle. Many of her works are a critique of mainstream views of beauty, specifically for women. This was her sculpture of 'Venus de Milo'; the original Greek sculpture of this goddess rests in the Louvre, and you can see her that she no longer remains the perfection that was once portrayed..

I apologize because I didn't note the artist or title of this sculpture, but I thought it was incredible how this 'gown' was constructed out of plastic bottles, even including a train. My friend Jordanna remarked that it reminded her of Ursula from The Little Mermaid, and I totally agree!

There was also this artist named Ben (Benjamin Vautier), who had a giant room plastered with signs and objects with his signature artwork, begging the viewer to question what is real and not, according to what society has taught us -- totally up my alley :).

I just realized I posted mainly photos of installations and 3D works, but there was a great variety of paintings too! The temporary exhibit was called "Coleur en Avant" and I saw some tableaus from Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall.

The picture above is one of the shots from the top of the museum; I just adored the terra-cotta roof tiles, winding streest and the cresting Alps that nestle Nice right into the Bay of Angels. And here's me taking one last step into the Mediterranean Sea. Now I can say I've been in the North and South coasts of France!!!

Alas, all good things must come to an end.
I shared dinner with my new friends then set on my way back to Rouen. I loved Nice and would go back in a heartbeat, and I am interested in seeing the rest of Provence as well! If you happen to ever find yourself planning a visit there, give me a heads up and I'll point out so more things to do :).

And I'm expecting more adventures to come! Have a great weekend, everyone.

L'inévitable

2011-09-26T19:14:00.002-04:00

Bahh oui,

My next excuse for not posting in a timely manner is that I am pulling my first all-nighter for my university course in FRANCE !!! Hells yeah, lucky me.
I haven't been as diligent with tracking my assignments in my agenda, which has inevitably doomed me to not realize until 9 PM (I'm six hours ahead of Eastern U.S. time) that I have an oral presentation tomorrow morning for my French political science class at 9 AM. While brief (7 to 12 minutes), an exposée on French politics in French is sooo out of hand, when I don't even understand or follow the politics in the Untied States!!!

So of course you've found me here, procrastinating.

No to worry, I truly have made progress. After bouncing between French online newspapers, Anglophone articles and lots of Google Translate, I believe I have demystified the Karachi Affair that is rumbling the French political scene : In brief, it's a bribery scandal that took place in the early 90's involving armament contracts between Pakistan and France.
A French naval construction company sold submarines to Pakistan through middle men .
--> Part of the money received was used to finance former Prime Minister's (between 1993-1995) Édouard Balladur's Presidential campaign again Jacques Chirac in '95 (Chirac won, duh).
--> When Chirac became Pres of France he stopped paying the contract middle men in order to eliminate political kickbacks (bribes, in other words).
--> Then in 2002, there was an automobile bombing in Karachi, Pakistan that killed 11 French technicians and employees of the aforementioned naval construction company (the DCN) -- Al-Qaeda is suspected.
--> This came to fruition in 2008 when the DCN released a report that implied the attacks as political retaliation for ending the armament contract years before, not solely the initiative of terrorists.
--> The case is propagating once more with the French Presidential elections approaching this spring and more witnesses affirming various claims in the scandal.
Those are about as bare as the bones can be; for current French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he was the Budget Minister under Balladur and denies any involvement in the case, though Nicolas Bazire, who was Balladur's campaign director in '95 and a close friend of Sarkozy's, was recently arrested for "complicity and the misuse of money." And so the trembling of the Fifth Republic continues ... (*cue dramatic music)

My goodness, this is nuts and you probably don't care! I should probably continue trying to convey all of this in French-- I'll let you know how it goes.
[sources include : NY Times, France 24, France-Info.]

OH, before I part, allow me to leave some thoughts and observations I've written on post-it notes while in Rouen, usually when I'm waiting for my host father to finish work so I can go home on the back of his scooter (can't wait to show you that photo) :

`` Once you live a medium-sized city, you begin to recognize the homeless people. It's a brutal truth, yet they're usually occupying and doing the same sort of thing, in the same spot on a routine basis! There is this woman who once came up to our group at the train station and asked every singled one of us if we had a cell phone; no one answered until a boy at the end, and she used his phone then slouched off with her distinctly patterned bags and a very cracked-out looking appearance (according to another boy). Later that day we were sitting at a cafe, on the other side of the city, like across the river -- and there she was again, slowing walking around in this dazed state! And I saw her again two days later. Others have encountered her in different sectors of Rouen; she simply roams the streest, I think. One day I also saw a trio of homeless people more than once because they were switching stoops and benches. The one scraggly woman was tugging at her male comrade and yelling at him to come back with their plastic shopping bags filled with who-knows-what. What a spectacle.

` No less than three-quarters of the men (this includes my age and older) in this country, and perhaps most of Europe, wear man bags and man satchels. The most common variations are small across-the-shoulder pouch-basically-purse in an array of colors and designs. I've also noticed male Longchamp totes and satchels! I'm sorry if I'm perpetuating a stereotype and discriminating against a man's right to have a purse, but I feel that Longchamp looks better on women and there is nothing wrong with a sleek leather wallet for the back pocket! It is, above all, endlessly amusing.

He who made satchels acceptable, perhaps? :D

`` For my course called French Encounters (Rencontres Francaises) we have read articles about differences between French and U.S. culture, as well as composed analytic journal entries. One of the topics is the idea of personal space and how it is maintained between strangers. For example, in the U.S. it's perfectly polite to say hi to whoever you're passing on the street, smile or wave even if you have no idea who you are. If there's a long line at the grocery store, you might talk the other customers in line to pass the time. In France, eye contact or too much emotion with strangers can indicate personal interest and you don't really strike up conversations with anyone unless you really have a reason. Usually if people are looking at you it's the blank stare (I'm so bad at it) just because there's no where else to look, or it might mean they're interested in you! All the girls in my group have had this sort of encounter, where a creepy man starts talking to you at the bus stop and just nags and continues despite all the signs of disinterest. Perhaps I'm not used to this as much because in the States I live in the countryside, but it's unnerving and I would really prefer some dashing guy my age to engage me at the bus stop instead.

Well, I hope that gives you a more satirical look at what I'm experiencing here :). Have a great week, everyone!

Une belle séjour

2011-09-21T17:32:00.000-04:00

Obvious precursor/apology : This post has been sitting in my drafts for the last two weeks, but here's the last week of my countrystay :D

Our host families in the countryside organized a lot of day trips for us because Normandy has such a rich history of war, kings and religion. These are some ruins from l'Abbaye de Mortemer.

About an hour from our village is a city called Beauvais. It was destroyed drastically during World War II, and despite the necessary cleaning, the Cathedral still remains standing. I believe that it has the tallest spire in Europe!

On the inside of the Cathedral were these massive, wooden supports and braces. Quite unnerving, in my opinion, though at least it's still open for visitors.

Merrit and I had host families that were really good friends so we happened to spend a lot of time together. Our last Friday his host brother drove us to Giverny; a town that's about 45 minutes outside of Paris and where Claude Monet spent the ending years of his life.

Evening though it was September without all the flowers in bloom, the house and gardens were teeming with tourists. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time for the Impressionist museum, yet we spent a lot time enjoying the gardens. The inside of the house wasn't entirely available for exploration, but I did appreciate the bright, monochrome color schemes and the Japonisme works of art adorning the walls.

I did some ~~very rough~~ sketches of the Nymph ponds :P I'll have to try to upload those.

I'm also a sucker for macro shots and beautiful objects with amazing visual textures.

I shot this archway down the center of the garden with a 'popart' setting on my camera.

And of course, I just indulged in food all week. To be honest, French food has been slightly tough for me because I tended to eat meat two times or less a week, I sustained off of fruit and vegetables and made my own meals. Now that I'm living with families, obviously I adhere to their dinner time and meals. In Normandy, the region is known for having a heavy hand with butter, cream and meats-- perhaps you could imagine my initial dilemma! Unfortunately there's nothing really I can do about it; out of politeness and obviously taking advantage of the experience, I've been trying everything (although I still try to avoid ham as much as possible, I can't stand it) and at least I do whatever I want for breakfast and lunch.

However, I was overjoyed when last weekend, my country stay host mom invited me to cook what I wanted from the grocery store!! I picked up bulgar wheat and vegetables and made a curry-seasoned meal. Oh, I am also a huge seafood fan so it was awesome to have those mussels and fresh shrimp (on different days).

And besides this, we also went to a bottle making factory (I pretty much know where all the world's Grey Goose Vodka bottles are produced now, along with Cognac, Grand Marnier..) and Europe's largest Dannon yogurt factory!
Really, just an uncountable number of experiences that can't be reproduced. This truly was a magnificent stay and beautiful way to end vacation. I've been in Rouen now for almost two weeks and I'll be posting next about classes and what I'm up to here. Thank you for reading :)

et plus de la semaine

2011-09-09T20:00:00.000-04:00

This is a continuation of my photo-vomit from my first few weeks here in France.

We visited another city on the English Channel, called Dieppe. We lucked out and for once the skies were free of clouds and the air was warm.

Myself and a few other of the students (our country stay families live near each other, so we go on a lot of day trips as a group) buried one of my host brothers in the pebbles on the beach!

My host family :)

A really awesome dog on the pier.

These poor starfish wash up onto the walls after massive wave surges. But they're still pretty gnarly to photograph.

As I mentioned, in this region there is no shortage of churches. The one in Dieppe, however, had particularly stunning stained glass.

And at the end of last week, France had a unseasonable heat wave (I think it was similar in the U.S.?)! Luckily, one of the girls' host grandparents' invited us to lounge at their divine pool. They own a breathtaking farm that has fields of sheep and orchards for cider.

That weekend, there was a party at the farm-estate that originally was going to be a camp out in the sheep field (HA), but then this storm rolled in..

Though not to worry, we moved inside and worked things out.

Pine cone barbeque. What?

And then last Sunday, Cuy St Fiacre had a the annual village festival. One of my host mom's friends' had me sit with the Medieval warriors..

...and ride a donkey. Minus a saddle. In a race.

SKILLZ.

OH, only in la campagne (countryside in French).

Merci tellement for checking in and reading up! I'll try to check up on everyone else's blogs as well.

Une Semaine Finit

2011-09-09T19:29:00.000-04:00

Bonjour, tout le monde! Je vous promets que je ne vous ai oublié pas!

I'm sitting here, in the countryside Upper Normandy, France, and finally figured out how to work the wifi and updates are to follow. It's been 2 weeks since I arrived in France after a tiring journey from Rochester to New York to Dublin to Paris to Rouen, and last night marked my first full week with my host family during this séjour à la campagne. The two weeks here are sort of an acclimation period to practice our French, because obviously classes will begin and I suppose one wouldn't want to be thrust into them immediately without prior preparation!
I carry this mini notebook with me everywhere, recording all the new vocabulary and nuances. I have a diary to write what was done each day, and also a journal in French for my class with the American program director. He instructed us to observe cultural differences and then reflect on why it might surprise or shock us. There are quirks here and there and then obvious differences in history and architecture, but nothing seems too radical to me. I've already done so much these past weeks and my host family is the best! They're genial, laid back, accommodating and engaging--the perfect combination for a successful home stay.
Now that the wifi works I was able to post dozens of photos on Facebook, but that doesn't do any good unless you know the story behind them :).
I'm going to obnoxiously post days I found interest in successive posts-- here we go!

Two Fridays ago, we made it to France! 12 of us plus our University director stayed in a hotel for two days of orientation. Rouen (French pronounciation roo-uh) is the capital of the Upper Normandy region in the Seine-Maritime department (departments in France are like counties in the U.S.). Normandy has a marvelous Anglo-Frano history, filled with fortresses and castles and religious architecture of Normand, Roman and Gothic design. In Rouen itself, there are several churches and a cathedral, as well as the site where Joan of Arc was burned. We explored the city, went out to the patisseries and bars, and just marveled that we were in France and didn't even have to start classes like everyone else at home (haha, sorry!).

Le Gros Horloge on one of the main streets in Rouen, La Rue Jeanne D'Arc

Oh, Normandy cider! How I do appreciate you sweet and sparkling. It's a regional specialty that's fermented a bit more strongly than we have in the States.. ;)

Cathedral Notre Dame in Rouen. It always amazes me what cultures have built and dedicated for their higher belief.

Savoring my first macaroon in Rouen :D and hopefully many more to come!

Of course I had to take food porn market pics.

Le pain et la baguette! The cuilnary masterpiece and foundation of French dining!

I've eaten more cheese in the last two weeks than I have in my life. Milk's not as popular here, the French necessitate their calcium intake obscene amounts of living, aged cheeses (over 100 varieties) and yogurt--which is enjoyed as a dessert, rather than breakfast or dessert as we would in the U.S.

Last, last Sunday: Early that afternoon, our country stay families picked us up from the hotel. I have been living a solid hour outside of Rouen, in a petit village called Cuy St Fiacre (Cwee Sahn Fee-ah-cruh) with my host family that consists of a mother and her two sons.

The view out the bathroom window on the first night.

Haha, another thing is that in France, normally la toilette is in a completely separate room than the shower/tub/sink. Thankfully the upstairs toilet has a sink, because it's awfully inconvenient not having one.. Yup, just different ideas of sanitation.

Throughout last week we visited beautiful beaches on the North coast and participated in bike-platform-rail-riding (vélo-rail) and general site-seeing.

A view from one of the cliff peaks at Etretat.

[continued]

Notes on Departure

2011-08-24T15:12:00.001-04:00

Back during the spring my parents gave away our last miniature horse to our good family friends.

Did you know that we used to have a farm of miniature horses? Probably not. My parents used to breed horses and one of my sister's and I participated in horse showing. I have all the trophies in my room still and last winter I purged a garbage bag full of my old ribbons, but at one point we had 20 minis! When we moved we downsized to 6 and it's been on the downward slide ever since. With my departure to college, I finally resigned and accepted that it would be best if we sold our last miniature, my show horse named Targetina (Tina for short). We actually gave her away to some friends, because she's not in her prime for showing anymore and we know she'll have the proper amount of attention and love.

Last week we went to visit Tina at her new home. Our friends live amongst fields of corn and cows, but they're in fact quite endowed with a lovely farm. I don't know too many farmers, though the ones I do I truly admire. They're very down to earth; they have a deeper compassion for the world to live in and people, creatures and land they care for.

She looks thrilled, right?
Oh, and don't call them ponies. Different breed.

I'm sorry if this appears to be animal torture; I promise I only turned on the flash for a few shots.
I'll admit, I harbor some guilt for taking for granted my life with miniature horses. But I also believe it's one of those things you should fully invest yourself in -- or not. I believe this was the best choice for Tina and my family, because raising horses is a pretty expensive lifestyle.

Our friends also have a full-sized horse named Buddy, and a previous mini they bought from us named Comet. And here a few more farm shots:

After that visit, we drove back to modernization because my mom was insistent upon purchasing an elegant outfit for my trip. While I'm in France, my program director made reservations for an opera in Paris! Oh, what to wear.

Hopefully this is classy enough, and I figured the cocktail length will translate if I ever wore it at a school function. Photos courtesy of my Pops :).

_________________________________________________

In other news, my friend Eamon was nonexistent in my life this summer because he decided to live in Philadelphia and work at his school. Then he came back last week and had us over one night to celebrate his birthday. It was so long since I had been at his house! His mom chatted us up as she gardened and his dad made these delicious grilled and roasted ribs and homemade macaroni and cheese. No pictures this time, but the amount of ribs I ate sufficed my meat intake for the rest of the month (I've been pseudo-vegetarian this summer :B).

And then, he left.

He was home for 7 days.

Umm.. nice to see you, Eamon?
In spite of my sarcasm, I'm happy he's found life beyond our bubble.

_________________________________________________

And now I present :

How to Pack 4 Months of Your Life

in a 28 inch suitcase, a 16 inch carry on and backpack.

(without losing sanity or feeling naked and dreadfully unprepared)

Demure, versatile, light-fabrics to accessorize with outrageous and pretty patterns.

Several dresses and tunics, because they pack easily and they you don't have to worry about bottoms. I have a pack of tights, leggings and stockings coming with me.

Some "American" clothes (Adidas shorts and tye-dye and concert t-shirts to workout and be sweaty in),
shirts I won't mind re-wearing for 16(!) weeks,
3 sweaters that'll keep me warm at least through autumn,
my rings and XC/Senior necklace that I wear everyday,
3 pairs of jeans,
a pea coat (that's weighing down my suitcase), a lighter coat that can be layered beneath the pea coat and a blazer,
some tank tops,
and gifts for my 2 host families : travel guides about New York, local buckwheat flower honey, brass ornaments from my town and Reese's cups. I hope they like peanut butter.

SO yes, my outfits will be redundant. I honestly, really worked with the mindset of minimalism, but there still seems to be a lot of stuff. I didn't post a picture of my shoes because I was still mulling over which ones to take and leave behind. Guys have it easy, I needed (heh.. debatable) shoes that were appropriate for any possible scenario. I'm bringing 6 pairs that include tall boots, short boots (those ones from my thrifting post that'll be my main go-to), moccasins (les Francais wear slippers in the house), sandals (for the shower and Africa), running trainers (you never know) and the heels that I wore in my dress photos. I took out my ballet flats because those are one thing I plan on purchasing, yet I can't go day to day wearing those everywhere.. my feet aren't supported enough.

And this morning's grand weigh-in :
45 pounds for the suitcase

24 pounds for the carry-on

It could be worse!!! The backpack will hold my laptop and important documents, so who knows. I have to reduce some more weight from the carry-on because this Irish airline we're flying through have significantly lighter standards than the U.S. airlines. Typical, right? Our nation's rally of go big or go home, manifested in luggage limits.

In closing, I solemnly swear I will not be going on a hiatus because now I have friends and family relying on me to live vicariously! I truly appreciate all of your well-wishes and I'll do my best to keep up with your posts, too. My flight to JFK leaves tomorrow morning. IT'S ALL HAPPENING.

Listening: "You Are a Tourist" by Death Cab for Cutie

p.s. I hope my friends at school are all settled in comfortably and had a fantastic first day of classes. It's really odd not returning to campus, but I'll be back before we know it. I miss you all and wish you the best fall semester!

Last Weekend's Roundup

2011-08-20T19:57:00.006-04:00

I spent last weekend with some of my closest friends from school.

Justin was utterly generous to come via bus and train to Rochester from Maine to stay a few nights at my house. He showered me with gifts of the Avett Brothers CDs, blueberry jam, blueberry syrup and blueberry honey (blueberries are, apparently, a Maine thing). Saturday we went to the Rochester Public Market, which was voted as the best in the country! It was actually my first time visiting too because I live pretty far from the city to begin with. Jenny, another friend from school, took us there with her mom and showed us the ropes!

Checking melon densities :)

If you're from the Greater Rochester region, or even New York State in general, you're obviously familiar with the Erie Canal which is hailed in our elementary educations from first grade onward (remember the song?!). For those of you who don't know as much, it's the revolutionary waterway opened in 1825 that connects the Great Lakes from Buffalo to the Hudson River in Albany. Expedited travel and trade ensued; today, commercial travel, recreation and tourism at the various canal towns is frequent.

Jenny's mom asked one of the lock operators if we could watch him in action. Haha, it wasn't that mind blowing, but you had to appreciate the ingenuity because the locks change water levels and keeps boats moving through the different elevations in the canal (there's 36 total).

And then we came back to my house in the countryside and plated a beautiful dinner on the back porch after a team effort in the kitchen. The Menu:

Grilled shrimp with a lemon, honey and mustard vinaigrette

Grilled chicken

Grilled summer squash and zucchini

Sweet potato fries (that didn't exactly crisp), finished with cinnamon sugar

Italian pasta salad

Couscous salad that had raw sunflower seeds, craisins, cucumbers and a multi-cheese blend

And for dessert, a homemade peach pie that we brought from Jenny's house!!!

there were sooooo many leftovers...

On Sunday Justin and I went back into Rochester to the George Eastman House (the man who founded Kodak, basically the Henry Ford of photography and huge proprietor of Rochester). We went for the Norman Rockwell exhibit that was quite impressive, though the gardens ended up being off limits because a monsoon/typhoon was raging through Western New York that day. When I had called my mom, she was panicking about the flash floods on the thruway and the water coming over car tops-- hahaha.

Fortunately for us, we made it a few streets down to the East End of Rochester to Java's Cafe. I have friend who attends Rochester Institute of Technology, where they have a Java's on campus. There is also one at the Roc. Public Market, but I was adamant to visit the first location, which is across from the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. The Cafe is low-lit with an off-beat ambience; artwork and vintage posters adorn every inch of the walls and there are cozy nooks to sit and just be in your own zone. Besides specialty coffees and baked goods, they have an entire wall devoted to loose-leaf tea that you can have brewed there or buy per ounce. There was also a pool room lounge in the basement near the bathrooms. Basically, I was in love. If I only resided closer to the City, you'd find me there everyday (and we also noted that it's a hipster hideaway, makes for good people watching).

On Monday, I brought Justin to another one of the Finger Lakes, Canandaigua. We strolled around Main Street and bought artisan chocolate, he displayed his musical talents at an instrument shop, we had coffee, gelato on the pier and sent him off with food from Wegmans for the train ride.

By 2:45, he was gone.

I won't see him until the end of January, so I was ridiculously fortunate that he came to visit! And I'm really spoiled because another one of my close friends, Kate, came to my house Monday night for dinner. I met her on the Cross-Country team and since I'm going abroad this fall and she is applying to go to Kenya in the spring, it's likely we won't see each other for a while. As you may or may not know, I'm studying in France this fall semester. I'm leaving Thursday, and I'll be back for Christmas. It's odd, hearing about all my friends going back to school and starting and I won't have left home yet! My family didn't even realize that I was leaving this week, and they thought I was there for the year... there tends to be a lot of hearing but no listening around here.

CHEERS.

Listening: the Avett Brothers albums "Emtionalism" and "I and Love and You", courtesy of Justin.

The Rock Show

2011-08-16T23:25:00.002-04:00

Every now and then I feel like a loser for being into punk rock.

Mainly because it doesn't have much substance, seems to be an immature phase and all the musicians are just recording the same crap. Then I reconsider, because since when have I not felt like an immature loser for liking and doing the things I do? And as it turns out, I have friends along with thousands of others who appreciate the same too. And so, we went to see blink-182 for the second time around (Reunion Tour was August '09) last Thursday! Oh, and one could actually credit them for being one of the originals that influenced subsequent bands in this genre. Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker (who joined the band a few years later though) have been making music about as long as I've been alive.
After a few years of being reunited blink is traveling across the States to promote their new album Neighborhoods that should be released in September. So, we grabbed our groupie-est garb, set the playlist to their 40+ songs and drove to Darien Lake.

The tour is sponsored by Honda-Civic and there were tons of promotion tents, like the airbrush tattoos and ridiculous Tom DeLonge masks. We're frugal-minded people and only forked over $20 for the lawn, though of course we made the best of it! Manchester Orchestra was the first opener, and I know they're a great band, but it was just a terrible venue and audience for their performance. Then My Chemical Romance came on and we spent that hour with our eyes twitching and openly laughing. I'm sorry, your transition from emo to anthemic rock can't fool me, Gerard Way!
Finally, at 9:15 PM our boys came on and I had that heart-wrenching swell of adrenaline and elation and spent the rest of the night dancing and screaming with my friends and trying not to be hurt by the mosh pit in front of us. All of the above was a success! Ha, and I learned the next day over 60 people were arrested for under age drinking and the roller coaster at the connecting amusement park had another accident.. fortunately no one was injured.

And here is some lame, severely distant footage of blink-182 playing "I Miss You" that I shot on my iPhone. I was rotating the thing and switching off hands because my arms were tiring, but you can generally see the immense lasers and hear Tom's warble. Their set was definitely shorter than the Reunion Tour and their energy felt off, though I should quit comparing this concert to the previous one and just feel fortunate for being at their concert! I have realized that sometimes during concerts, I'm so focused on taking videos and pictures that I lose the furor of the moment. "I Miss You" is a blink classic, however, and needed to be recorded.
To bitch once more, they didn't play "Adam's Song", "Another Girl, Another Planet", "Not Now" and a few other older favorites.
The rebuttal to my bitching: They're raunchy, hilarious, the audience is dangerously fun and they know how to put on a damn good show!!!

During the encore, Travis Barker did another sick drum solo too. No flying drumset this time, yet he mashed up hip-hop and electronica, and the percussion beats are allllll him. At 40 seconds for this video there's lots of pretty lights :).

There's something about him that is oddly... sexy. Maybe it's because in his late-thiry years he hasn't gained any chub like Mark and Tom? He just seems to have aged differently. :B HAHA

I have another post in the works about the weekend that followed, but what a stellar way to kick it off. We squeezed our way through traffic, wolfed own atrocious food at Denny's and I was home and in bed by 2 AM. Ahh, summer concerts.

Listening: "Another Girl, Another Planet" by blink-182.
p.s. Here's an article about them that's hard to look at graphically but at least contains beautiful pictures an a rundown of the band's history. CHEERS

Summer's Harvest

2011-08-10T14:44:00.000-04:00

While on my bike, I was caught in a downpour.

Whenever I thought it couldn't torrent any more, it did! But the rain was fresh; the humidity broke though I wasn't cold. My eyes were water logged but when I finally made it back to my driveway, I just had to dance. I began twirling and throwing my arms, the weight of the water in my clothing increasing the perpetual motion. But then I stopped, because the neighbors across the street sketch me out. I moved to my pool deck and sat for a bit, admiring the sounds and the lushness of the yard. It was one of those moments where my body felt so tingling and alive, that I was numb. It's exhilarating.

________________________________

So you may or may not recall the post I did about my overwhelming addiction to the magic of oatmeal (' Your Stomach on the Line ' check that out if you want to review my madness). Well, here I am to rave about the power and versatility of the vegetable that is present in gardens everywhere: zucchini !!! Here's some cooking suggestions to try if you haven't:
- grilled; my parents prefer olive oil and dill, I always use oregano and lots of pepper, though brushing it with some honey or maple syrup is amazing
- sliced into strips, salted, drained and boiled like noodles
- breaded with crumbs, an egg, some flour and spices then fried in butter or olive oil
- shredded and cooked the same way, as a sort of zucchini latke/fritter
- tossed in olive oil and herbs with other garden vegetables and roasted in the oven (350-375 degrees) with some cheese until they're tender and golden
- sliced and cooked lightly to use in omelets, egg scrambles and fritattas
- RAW. Younger, smaller zucchinis have a sweet, soft texture. A lot of people love lightly frying the blossoms, but I have to admit that I haven't tried it yet. Anyone?
- Searing the zucchini with curry powder, a bit of cumin and turmeric and chili powder. I like doing that with rice noodles for an Asian-influenced meal.
- Zucchini cakes, breads and cookies

Yes, cookies! This vegetable has a magnificent moisture content and mild flavor. My mom always makes spiced (cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves) cookies that people can't resist. These are the ones I made the other day. In my effort to improve the nutritional content, I only used egg whites and substituted apple sauce for a lot of the butter... and they fell flat! This time, my mom wins; some things just shouldn't be changed. I placed dark chocolate wafers in a few of them, though. I'll just leave the cookie-making to her next time. Let me know if you'd like the recipe, they're super easy!

__________________________________

In other news, my friend Tucker bought a bus.

Yeah, that's what he keeps calling it anyways. After Craiglist hunting, phone calls and even driving to Ohio, last weekend he finally drove to Pennsylvania with his Dad and brought home a 1970's white (ish) Volkswagon Westphalia ' bus ' (i.e. hippy van).

I guess the owner before him lived out of the van with his son for three years, and who knows where it's been before that! The inside was plastered with Grateful Dead stickers and this cool tapestry, though he's been very occupied with cleaning, purging and reupholstering.

Nonetheless, Tucker is happy and that much nearer to fulfilling dream of being a road tripping vagabond. And he paid for the entire thing himself; definitely something to be proud of.

Listening: "Every Morning" by Sugar Ray

Photos from Home

2011-08-06T01:48:00.001-04:00

While I'm awake, I figured I would double post (omgz!) and share some photos that I took Thursday. I passed these sights when I was riding my bike, made it home, grabbed my camera, then pedaled back. The day was hot but too glorious to pass up a photo shoot. Sometimes I take for granted how beautiful it is where I live.

I adored this giant bumble bee because it seemed to be lolling about the pollen. Us, the neighbors and many others have these bushes around their yards (I'm blanking on the name of the flower, of course).

As I was climbing back onto my bike to head to my next destination, a man was pulling into the driveway at this field and asked me if I was lost. I smiled sweetly and replied, "Nope! Just taking pictures of the hay bales." He nodded skeptically then continued onward. Hey, why not? There's something about their spiraling textural madness and shimmering gold straws that I could not pass up.

Yup, I really am loving my camera. Looking around, what's your favorite part about home?

"Wasting is an art

2011-08-06T01:32:00.000-04:00

like the nights we spend in backs of cars."
- "End of a Spark" by Tokyo Police Club

I distract myself way too late on the internet. It's usually after I've finished closing at work and I come home and foolishly convince myself that I can restrain myself to 10 minutes that turns into 3 hours. But there's a lot of blog browsing to be caught up on, and photo-bragging of course. I will say that I've had a few fantastic days with my friends that make up for the long hours at work.

Exhibit A: A free concert on Sunday evening. My friend Jenny, who goes to college with me, came to my house for dinner (I went to her house the last time). She brought a freshly-baked peach pie (♥), then we saddled up and went to a park a few lakes over for a free concert. Chairs were sprawled on the grass, grills were going, and loads of boats and family's were parked in the harbor to revel in the summer ambiance.

It was the Sim Redmond Band (http://www.simredmondband.com/), who are a few decades ahead of us, but they're folksy serenades about love and living fully were definitely to be admired.

We were entertained just by watching the hippy parents with their barefoot children. And the crazy beards! (Jenny insisted upon taking this... sorry for whoever you are... :B)

Exhibit B: Another free concert! In the summertime, you don't have to look hard or far to find decent music in public spaces. In this case, we kinda went far, but the ride was worth the spoils of seeing one of my favorite bands up close and for free.

Tokyo Police Club !!!

They're an indie-rocking post-punk progressive quartet from Toronto: David Monks on vocals and bass, Josh Hook on guitar, Graham Wright on keyboards and Greg Alsop on the drums. I was so unbearably happy that they came across the border to play a free concert because I was screwed out of seeing them back in April at Ottawa. I was probably ten feet away from the stage; it was crowded, but not sardine-jammed so I wasn't slick with other peoples' sweat for once. Their music was so passionate and real, yet... better. AH :D

The lead singer, Dave Monks, used to have very shaggy hair. As you can see, he cut it! Did you know that these guys are one of the privileged bands to be pictured at the bottom of my blog? Ehhh, bet you didn't know that! Please, I beg you, if you haven't heard any of their music please take a quick listen to the following and let me know what you think : "Your English is Good", "In A Cave", "Breakneck Speed" and my personal favorite, "Bambi". Maybe I'll post one of my videos-- at a decent hour of day.

Yeah, I can't lie, my friend (not going to point him out bahaha) can be temperamental with me from time to time, but he really pulled through with this one. He drove us out to the concert and was happy that I had such a good time :). Those boys really knew how to jam.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Tell me about the fun things you're doing!

Yeah Buddy

2011-07-29T22:35:00.000-04:00

I found this cheery little political quiz on Facebook.

It's harmless, and somewhat insightful. The results don't surprise me one bit; in fact, I'm pleased!

My Political Views

I am a left moderate social libertarian

Left: 6.75, Libertarian: 1.93

My Foreign Policy Views

On the left side are pacifists and anti-war activists. On the right side are those who want a strong military that intervenes around the world.

You scored: -5.45

My Culture War Stance

Where are you in the culture war? On the liberal side, or the conservative side? This scale may apply more to the US than other countries.

You scored: -5.56

Political Spectrum Quiz

Go ahead and take the quiz, then post it if you dare :).

In other, ravishing, ground-breaking news in the world of Nicole, I went thrift shopping with my boys Tucker and Nick the other day.

We ambushed our friend Caitlan at Wegmans, where she was making pizza during lunch rush hour.

We had Philly cheesesteaks (chicken cheese, for me) on the sidewalk, watching people about their business.

And we strolled a bit more, because I'm in search for a beautiful woven tapestry to hang on my wall at school next spring. The shop unfortunately wasn't open, but we found some intriguing street art. Who's the Banksy wannabe, I wonder?

At the Salvation Army, I bought an unrelentingly bright, cotton romper, a sheer floral button-down, the perfect yellow rain jacket with a hood (kind of a big deal for me-- I don't own any jackets with hoods), and a new pair of leather shoes! Found'em in the men's section but they're broken in and fit quite nicely.
And the grand total : $11.34 :D

Yeahhh buddayyy! That was one of those 'so-annoying-can't-help-but-say-it' taglines at work tonight. Cheers to the weekend, everyone!

Listening: the Yeasayer album, Odd Blood

Bonafide Berries

2011-07-28T01:06:00.000-04:00

And I wonder why I'm so exhausted everyday..?

So you know all those berries that I picked a few weeks back and posted about? Well, they certainly went to a good cause: my stomach. And the select others who were lucky enough to have some ;).

Strawberry and oatmeal smoothie (!); I mean, I adore oatmeal as you know, though perhaps we'll just limit it to it's solid form.

Strawberry Muffins! Modified with applesauce and a generous amount of cinnamon. Let me know if you'd like the recipe.

I invited to dinner at my friend Jenny's house, so I used the remainder of our blueberries and strawberries into another haphazard baking attempt.

A layered cake, with a berry crumble filling inside! Flipping those things out of their pan might have been easier if I had remembered to flour them first...

Jenny was displaying her master grill skills, and I supplied dessert.

And while it wasn't the neatest presentation, it sure tasted good.

I'm lamenting the end of berry season.

I love plucking these black raspberries off the prickly brambles around our yard.

What's your favorite way to eat summer berries? In a sense, I'm a purist because I don't feel that fruit this good needs to be covered and disguised in various dishes, but if you handed me a can of whipped cream I would go at them like no tomorrow.

Listening: "All Day" by Girl Talk

All This City and Not Ever Enough Time

2011-07-24T19:52:00.000-04:00

I went to New York City in June to apply for my French student visa, then returned last weekend to pick it up.

Other than being at JFK International Airport, that was my first true visit to the Big Apple! I have to say, it didn't let me down. Since I've lived in the country for so long, I thrive on the bursting energy and diversity and opportunity! I also left with a new camera after the first visit. Here's a look at some of the things I did:

A mother and her daughter cooling off near the World Trade Center.

Rockefeller Center in the brilliant sun.

An amazing tree house in Central Park!

It was called "A Tree House for Dreaming", and was created for the Young Arts program (wwww.youngARTS.org) in 2007.

Argos Tea is my equivalent of a small child in a candy shop.

South Street Seaport on the pier; it's as if the ships could float into the city.

The New Amsterdam Market off of Fulton Street, right near the pier. It's open every Sunday from 11 to 4 and it's absolutely wonderful, I couldn't get over all the hand-crafted foods.

Delicious tomato strecci from Sullivan Street Bakery!

Shaved ice (with elderberry and rhubarb syrup) from People's Pops of NYC.

The Fulton Street subway station. I had a lot of experience taking the underground/metro/subway/train while in France, so it didn't bother me at all. I actually find it quite efficient to use in the city.

We watched the last 15 minutes of the Women's World Cup Soccer Game in Times Square with thousands of others-- including that agonizing shoot-out!

And there's the French Consulate on the East Side of Central Park. That modest apartment, where all the magic happens :P.

For those of you that have visited New York, what are some of your favorite places and things to do?! Trust me, I've filled my journal and Urbanspoon with a wishlist of pending adventures. I can't wait to go back one day on my own terms and crawl the entire city, not just Manhattan! Anyone with me?

But jeez I can't believe it is almost August-- where has this month gone?! I just keep working like a horse in this heat... though since I don't go in until tomorrow night, I'll be spending this one with my friends :). Take care, and have a fantastic week!

Listening: "Something Good Can Work" by Two Door Cinema Club

We are Warped

2011-07-16T22:34:00.000-04:00

Just to review the last few summers of Warped Tour...

Summer 2008 : First time, we had no idea what we were getting into. A lot of giddyness and typical teen-groupie 'tude, but we met some of our musical heroes (Tom DeLonge of Angels and Airwaves/blink-182, Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, We the Kings, All Time Low and, at the time for me, Jonathan Cook of Forever the Sickest Kids)!

Summer 2009 : Same crew, and with a summer under our belts we knew exactly what to look for and how to handle it all! This photo is with a poster from a Canadian band who was relatively unknown to us at the time called Down With Webster. When all the bands and tents were packing up, we stole all the DWW posters possible! I crowd surfed for the first time during the 3OH!3 set and we saw The Maine do sick nasty things with Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me".

Summer 2010 : We added a few more people to the crew but they drove separately so they weren't in the picture. I saw We The Kings again, and was practically spat on by Tyson Ritter's singing during the All-American Rejects. There were more that I watched but those moments stand out most at the moment.

Summer 2011 (on Tuesday) : Our group ever-evolving, but Cassie, Bianca and I are still veterans :).
I wasn't really going for any band in particular this year (although seeing 3OH!3 for the fourth time was great), but we still had a blast. Oh, except for the fact that I forgot my ticket and was sizzling out in the parking lot for the first three hours o_O. I'm quite absentminded at times; I was annoyed but not too surprised that it happened. However, the fun of the rest of the day made up for it.

Yup, we stumbled upon some new bands, snuck into Darien Lake Amusement Park at the end of the concerts, indulged our sun-stoned, starving selves around midnight at Denny's and took a group picture-- with me still in the same position (intentionally).

My friend Jen had her first Warped experience, and she was able to meet one of her musician crushes, Stephen Jerzak. I just love this photo because it looks so natural, like that he's still genuinely happy to meet every one of his fans. That's one of the pleasures of this tour and interacting with groups who haven't hit it too big yet.
These pictures (via Buffalo News and Buzznet) were of Bad Rabbits (the group on the left) and Foxy Shazam (right), who both played on the Skullcandy Stage. I wandered over to Bad Rabbits because they were bouncing all over stage, the singer had a magnificent falsetto and the crowd was dancing-- and they're totally my kind of group! Their music was like modern soul and funk with some punk and R&B influences. I was stoked when they told me afterwards that being from Boston, they've actually played at my school concert venue before!! I'm trying to rally them back next spring for another performance :). And Foxy Shazam, I can't deny, they are pretty odd but I was intrigued by the name and held down to their set too! I can't describe their sound as well, but there are big choruses and a trumpet player and lots of energy. They are certainly worth checking out.

It wasn't awful this year, but it wasn't anything mind-blowing. We'll see if I end up going next summer if the line-up is really dynamic, though for now it was simply another beautiful sunset across the park as Warped Tour packed up and moved onto the next location.

Whoo, and I'm going back to NYC tomorrow to pick up my French student visa, cheers for two-day road trips! I hope you're all surviving this summer heat with grace.

Listening: Arcade Fire's Grammy-winning album, The Suburbs

Open Up Your Eyes

2011-07-11T23:04:00.001-04:00

When I went to New York (which I have still failed to write about), I was brilliantly schemed into purchasing a new Olympus camera. I do regret that it cost more than normal retail, but so far the exposure of the photos has been more than satisfying.

Here's a glance into my life-- sometimes through the filters of the camera as well!

No harm done in a little photo editing and experimentation. Tomorrow I'm heading off to Vans Warped Tour, take four. I can't wait to fill you in on the ear-bursting adventures under the blistering sun :).

Listening:"Surprise, Surprise" by Brett Dennen

This is A'MERicuh (sorry it's funny to say it that way)

2011-07-04T23:10:00.001-04:00

I'm currently at home watching the mega fireworks displays in NYC and D.C. on t.v.
I'm too lame to be there, and my friends and I were too exhausted to go out and find a real display.. Oops.

Yesterday I woke up at 5:45 for my 6:30 Sunday breakfast shift at Mill Creek Cafe. This is my second season I've worked here, and it's exciting to see my name gain priority on the schedule list. It pretty much means that my boss feels that he can depend on me to work more, and I have greater full front-of-the-house serving shifts, rather than prepping or ice cream. Despite the dirty work and way too many dishes, I do try my best every shift I work; it pays off for the restaurant, the customers and myself! I made mad moneycustomer during our 7 - 12 breakfast, and a few new friends!
All the staff are laid back and we try to keep things positive and fun and that's another reason I love working at Mill Creek. One of our breakfast specials was 'Red, White and Blue French Toast', which combined strawberries, blueberries and fresh cream stuffed into French Toast. It was absolutely wonderful; this is my own order, the full order that customers ordered actually came with three slices and bacon or sausage!
Whenever one of these was in the window ready to be served, I chanted, "U-S-A! U-S-A!" I couldn't help it :D. Needless to say, the special sold out.

After closing the Cafe and coming home, my family and I had Independence Day festivities at my house. I was so pleased to see that the weather was cooperating, my nieces and nephews enjoyed the pool and good food was grilled up and served. Did any of you have a picnic, watch fireworks or go out and do something full-blown American (:P) for the weekend?

I didn't partake in swimming this time, but all the younger kids seemed to have a blast!

Our back deck has a great umbrella so we aren't completely roasted beneath the sun.

Throwing down zucchini, summer squash, chicken and Zwiegle's on the new grill!

Generally we serve massive amounts of food at every holiday.
My favorite dishes from this one? My mom's artichoke cheese French bread and the tomato-mozzarella salad that one of my sisters-in-law made.

Typical look for my Dad :B

And both my Mom and Pops! Have to love them for tolerating so many years of insanity. Well, that was some solid family bonding. It'll probably be another month before I see them all again, haha. Despite us their all living within 45 minutes of each other, my siblings and kids are constantly running around for their summer sports, work, short vacations and whatnot. And me, Mill Creek Cafe seems to own my soul...
And tomorrow marks my fourth summer teaching swim lessons at the town beach! Oh dear, I hope I end up with the 6 year olds..

Have a stellar week!

p.s. A few recent Instagram photos from my iPhone-- the one of the trees reflecting in my pool was selected as one of the Josh Johnson forum favorites for the evening! Although, if you don't have Instagram I suppose that would mean nothing to you... haha, oh well.

Fields of Friendship

2011-07-01T12:10:00.000-04:00

Corny title, but who doesn't like a little alliteration (or consonance/assonance) every now and then?

We are trying to fight monotony. We really are.
Whenever my friends and I aren't at the mercy of our parental figures and/or summer occupations, I insist upon regrouping whenever possible. The rain's been interfering with several attempts at fire boning (have I ever mentioned that I enjoy reversing compound words? :D) and then at last, our little hamlet dried up enough for some kerosene-induced flames.

The typical crew was in attendance, plus or minus a few. Ariel generously brought honey grahams, Hershey's bars, giant marshmallows and roasting sticks for the quintessential s'more. Conversations from there bounced between salacious gossip, to the recent high school graduation of Ariel and Jen (congrats, girls!), to wishing for independence and adventure and recollections, sing alongs and re-enactments of the amazing television shows we all grew up with!
You know... Zuboomafoo, Arthur, The Wild Thornberry's (* Netflix instant heyooo), The Reading Rainbow, Zoom! (which had decidedly high educational merit), Dragon Tales and obviously many more. Even though our childhoods had a generous range of television, which were always watched in your household?

I was particularly fond of Sesame Street when I was really young, then Pokemon, So Weird, Zoom, Hey Arnold! and Out of the Box-- also, those TGIF shows and One Saturday Morning on ABC.

And now that I think about it, does anyone remember "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" and "Honey, I Shrunk Ourselves" ?! Love it! Nineties entertainment wasn't bad :). Ohh man, those mega 'mellows made for some seriously sweet, sticky, oozing goodness for s'mores. Toasted perfection.

Jen and Ariel spent the night, I proceeded to do nothing for a few hours that morning and then Ariel invited me out with her! We went strawberry picking, staining our hands with the ripened jewels of summer.

I've conducted extensive recipe searching to use these strawberries. In light of all my recent food postings, I shall save my creations for next week :).

It was one of those magnificently clear days at the farm. There's a deep gratification in eating and preparing food that is locally grown and harvested and, most essentially, in season. I understand that we are unflailingly privileged to exist in a society of mass transportation and capitalism to deliver produce year-round, yet there are some serious consequences with this consumption. We deal with global food insecurity (which was just addressed by the world's top 20 economies at the G20 summit on agriculture), pollution from transport, chemicals, and machines (amidst countless other environmental implications), the demise of the family-farm in favor of mass-producing industrial-agriculture practices, reduced nutritional value in our diets and just bland-tasting and perhaps genetically modified food that we need to think more about.
end// off-topic tiraid on the commodification of global food systems. Hehe, but I like the fact that I do understand what I'm mentioning; I learned a ton about that in school this past year!

Ariel and I went for a run after this under the blistering sun, and I couldn't make it. I had to walk and my psyche wasn't recovering any better for it, yet it's defeating to finally accept that I am no longer a runner.
I run, but I am not a runner. (These dwellings inspired the previous post)

Finally, I was able to reunite with one of my dear friends, Kerry! She and I met three summers ago when we worked at the lake beach, though she found a better paying job that actually will be relevant on her future career resume, as I continue to slave at the Cafe and wade the questionable depths of the lake with first graders blowing bubbles in the water and refusing to float on their backs.

We caught up on many months over stomach-bulging, hearty homemade ice cream.

*Gasp! We chose to enter the lake!!!

Alright, and next post I really think I should write about my first trip of infatuation with New York City.
Until then, enjoy the weekend!
Listening: the new album Torches by Foster the People

JUST before July

2011-06-30T23:55:00.000-04:00

It's almost July! I needed to squeeze in one last post for June.

My friend Kristen laments on how she wished that August would arrive so we can all resume our dynamic college lives, but I'm in no hurry leave just yet. Yes, home life can be suffocating, yet I'm trying this new thing where I take a step back and realize how grateful I am for the present.

Took me long enough to figure that one out, eh? ;)
I work hard and I see the people I love; that I can not complain about. I wish I was more satisfied though, because I always find myself dwelling and yearning for the past and how things used to be. I realized that my attitudes towards the present realities can either be joyful and boundless, or turn painful and bitter. Obviously we are shooting for the former.

So between these two attitudes, there seems to be a bit of a trade-off:

I despise my weakened mental resilience when it comes to exercise and how I don't maintain my body the way it used to be; I am frustrated by various restrictions in my life that I can't seem to overcome; I am saddened by the people who are losing priority in my eyes, as I am losing touch in theirs.

However,

I am proud of what I have learned throughout these last two years, and the progress that I still am making in all different areas of my life; I am thankful for a mind that has been expanded and a body that has healed itself; I am astounded at the maturity that has developed in my family relations, despite the occasional setback; I am invigorated by my friends who have stayed true and keep me going.

Oh, the contradiction of life.

Peace out, take care and see you in July :).

Back with my Baking Buddy

2011-06-22T12:31:00.000-04:00

Of course I'm still bonding over food with friends.

In particular, my friend Ariel and I go back to the middle school years of being baking buddies. Last week was the first time we really spent time together since I returned from college, and it was great running errands at the grocery store and making our own confections.

I just bought a cookbook from Kohl's ($5 and all going to charity, why not?) that has dozens of simple, healthy recipes. We used Ariel's wilting bananas and made the banana blueberry muffins-- and I added the rest of the dried cranberries from my house.

We also baked a two-layer confetti cake for Jen's birthday, smothering it with vanilla frosting and candy messages.

And for dinner, we followed another recipe for pesto pasta salad. I've never made my own pesto unfortunately, so we mixed in pre-made from the olive bar at Wegman's. That was super easy to make as well, and with fresh cut mozzarella, steamed broccoli and crunchy bread, dinner was divine!
Would anyone like to join me for a food party? Really, come visit, and we'll eat until we pass out.

Listening: "A Punk" by Vampire Weekend

Riots Whereever We Go

2011-06-17T20:17:00.000-04:00

"It's like a Chinese Thanksgiving!"

Wednesday night I went to dinner at P.F. Chang's for my friend Jen's 18th birthday (which was Thursday)! It was chaotic and confusing trying to order a sufficient amount of food for a table of 12, because it's served family style, but the staff was totally patient and courteous. A lot of my friends were first-time eaters there, so of course we ordered the chicken lettuce wraps! Much laughter was shared as we passed around sweet and sour chicken, sesame chicken, crab wontons, lemon scallops, the coconut curry veggies and tofu that I ordered, and much more. Dessert was fun too; Jen was given a complementary dessert 'shooter', while a few others tackled the 7-layer chocolate chocolate cake called the "Great Wall of Chocolate"!! We were all frazzled by the ordering process, then forgetting what we had ordered when it arrived, though Jen declared that dinner with all her friends was perfect. I couldn't agree more :).

A group picture in front of the (hollow!) horse statue outside the restaurant.
Do you have a particular restaurant or place you love going out with your friends?

Afterwards I slept over at Jen's house, though there wasn't much rest amidst the wild toddler, cats walking all over you, and her 9th grade brother climbing and harassing our friend Brad. Typical-- but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Lastly, that afternoon a baffling package arrived in the mail! It turned out to be a lovely, hand-sewn leather iPhone case that my extraordinary friend Justin ordered from Etsy! The crafter (Robbie Motto) mailed it to me, accompanied by an endearing note from him. We became friends this year at school, and he lives quite a distance away, so this really made my day :).

If you're up to it, send a friend, regardless of how near or far they are or how often you see each other, a handwritten note just to remind them how much their friendship means to you. And if you'd like a snail mail penpal, at least for the summer, give me a shout. Receiving mail addressed to me is my favorite ♥

Happy Weekend!
Listening: "United State of Pop" by DJ Earworm

An Except from a Self-Described Foodie

2011-06-13T18:39:00.000-04:00

So I'm going to talk about spinach again...

Okay, I asserted my adoration for spinach. One thing that irks me, however, is the rapid deterioration and expiration of these glorious leaves-- pretty much the reason I went on a spinach binge the past few days. We also had left over wheat pasta and three (!) cartons of eggs (what??), so I figured it was time to improvise.

I put a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and began cooking chopped tomatoes and baby carrots. I poured a bit of water in and placed the lid for a few minutes to stew and soften them. Then I added a handful of spinach, followed by two eggs. I proceeded to scramble the eggs and vegetables and finally stirred in the pasta and remaining spinach. With the help of herb & garlic hot sauce, thyme (amazing with eggs) and oregano, I cooked a delicious dinner.
So much did I enjoy my dinner, I basically made the same type of meal to bring to work as lunch for the next day! Incidentally enough, the Food Network had Iron Chef on, and the secret ingredient was... spinach! Haha, I was so pumped but unfortunately none of the courses were as practical for me to cook. For this serving, I left out the tomatoes and added peanuts. I also used curry powder, chili powder, cumin and turmeric rather than the former spices. Curry powder rocks my world, and another satisfying reinvented pasta-egg-spinach meal was consumed.

Finally, I had less than two cups of raw spinach that I bagged and placed in the freezer over night. For breakfast the next day, I blended the frozen spinach with a handful of frozen blueberries, original Silk soy milk and a spoonful of berry jam. Please reconsider the concept of smoothies/mixed drinks with me, because this was amazing! It smelled more of spinach, but the taste wasn't strongly present, I think due to the jam. I was quite proud of my superfood smoothie. Oh, and that's more spiced oatmeal with blueberries and cranberries :).

Yay, spinach!

///

Sunday the cafe where I work closes at noon but the ice cream side stays open until nine, and I had that shift for a few hours. The air finally chilled out, but no one was in the mood for ice cream. Basically I was being paid to serve no one. Yet, I did spend a solid amount of time making waffle cones! We began making them 'in house' a few weeks ago, and the batter is quite simple and I enjoy using the press and mold and making the shop smell heavenly.

Here's a brief glance at the process
(collage courtesy of the iPhone app called Montager):

And can I say how gratifying it is to fill a container with hand-molded cones, with the curiously delighted inquiries of customers who are now persuaded to eat them.

\\\

A parting Instagram-ed shot:

Boca Grande Beach Lighthouse, Florida

Apologies for the superficial/lame posts-- I'm hoping to come around to something a bit more substantial soon enough. Have a good week!

Your Stomach on the Line

2011-06-09T18:28:00.000-04:00

After last post, Joce had me thinking; I'm going to try to write about more of the culinary adventures I have.

Especially things that are inexpensive and easily reproduced. I, fortunately, did not subsist on ramen noodles in my dorm room at school because our dining services were actually great, but I have learned what's good food to keep around!
I have developed a fondness for oatmeal. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but it absolutely excites me when I consider all the ways you can prepare oatmeal-- like a blank canvas! I prefer plain oats, either instant or microwavable. I think it tastes better than the other instant oatmeals, and I know there aren't any odd chemicals or flavorings. When I have more time and a stove I definitely go with rolled and steel-cut oats. I tend to cook the oats in half water-milk (whoo, a dairy serving!) and fill it slightly above the oats in the bowl-- I'm a not-too-lumpy-or-moist oatmeal person :P. It's kind of trial and error, similarly with the microwave times because all are different, though starting with one minute is good.

Then, comes the culinary freedom! Some ideas that I mix and match:

pushing some oatmeal aside to eat with plain or vanilla yogurt, or applesauce
mixing in fruit jams (also helps plain yogurt)
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
maple syrup or honey
brown sugar (while the oatmeal is still hot, so it caramelizes :)
cinnamon (I use generous amounts) and a dash of nutmeg
sliced almonds or walnuts
toasted coconut
any fresh or dried fruit
granola mixed in, or improvise with your favorite cereal
a dash of whipped cream or a few mini marshmallows :)
and savory flavors! I haven't gone too much into that, yet I imagine eggs and cheese with thyme would rock.

Yeah, it seems obvious, but once I started thinking about all the possibilities I was blown away. I have oatmeal nearly every morning. It was so convenient at school because you can throw whatever you want into it. Oh, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies are my absolute favorite. I still haven't tried baking oatmeal, but I'll post about that once it's done :). Do you have any oatmeal ingenuity that you would like to share?

The picture next to my breakfast (accompanied with a chai latté) was my lunch! I could, without a doubt, live on baby spinach. I love eating it straight out of the bag. I just happened to have the perfect melange of food in my house to make this extravagant salad: leftover summer squash that was sautéed in olive oil and dill, leftover sliced chicken, a diced tomato, peanuts and dried cranberries. Then I added a bit of a herb olive oil dressing. It was so satisfying, my bragging is obnoxious but I felt like this was breaching restaurant quality (at least a Panera-type :P). What's your favorite food to indulge on in the summer? I could also o.d. on watermelon!!

Ahh, and Monday night I finally had my first backyard bonfire of the season. Nothing like keeping the neighbors awake with my friends under the stars. I think I ate four s'mores and roasted numerous marshmallows. I was so glad to go to bed smelling of burning wood.

Listening: "North by North" by Faded Paper Figures

Sound Off

2011-06-06T19:24:00.000-04:00

All these pictures are from my iPhone. I love this thing, a bit too much!

Over the last few years I have had a difficult time finding external speakers for iPods/mp3 players. They tend to be unreliably short-lived and distort sound to a certain degree. And expensive! I'm thinking, though, that my next investment will be in this Lego speaker that can connect to iPods. It's only $10 on thinkgeek.com and use the iPod life rather than its own battery. Yay!

On another note, I spent this past weekend back at my school for the Alumni Reunion. Rather than organizing for a specific class, it's a series of milestones gathered together. This weekend we had over 1,200 alumni attendees and their families for the 5th, 10th, 25th, 30th, 40th, 50th, 55th and 60th reunions, and more! I spent the first two days trapped in the Registration room, handing out packets to alumni and orienting them with what they needed to do with their name tags and residences for the weekend. Thankfully Saturday I worked outside at different events, and it was glorious weekend.

I spent Wednesday through Sunday living in one of the upper class dorms, but it's the shoddy one known to be trashed on weekends. The walls are this terrible whitewashed stone, and there's permanent stains and odd smells in the carpet, but at least I had a view of the courtyard..!

As a student working registration, we would be open until 10 pm so I wouldn't have time to make a proper dinner and eat until 11!! Luckily, there were quite a few friends living on campus for the summer, whether they were doing research or working, so we had some food resources. My friend Soknea, from Cambodia, always cooked jasmine rice and fried chicken. She also stir-fried asparagus, while I contributed peanuts and haphazardly cooked lentils, and my friend Viktoriya made a cucumber tomato salad. We kept joking on how we should be documenting the curiously innovative meals of struggling college students :D.

The alumni were, for the most part, generous, zealous people with a great enthusiasm for my (our) school. Some of them had not been on campus in over 40 years! It was my pleasure to show them how things have developed and changed, and they shared many of their stories as well. The classes of 80, 81 and 82 (for the 30th year reunion) resided in the same dorm that I lived this past year as a Freshman. My friends and I were wandering around Saturday and saw that all the lounge furniture had been moved outside!!! I found it brilliant. We would have been fined if we tried that...

One of the annual events during the reunion is the Parade of Classes. I had to help blow up hundreds of balloons, for each class had their own specific color and theme. It was hilarious and I was so thrilled to see all these alumni marching around. It was also amusing how drunk they all were throughout the weekend, and we danced with them during the concerts at night, and some had to be chased down after they stole a golf cart!! Despite the long hours, I'm glad I came up to work. The pay check will be gratifying and I'll certainly do this again next summer!

This is the class of 1961, and their banner. I can't even imagine what the next 50 years will bring.

Listening: "I Won't Back Down" by Tom Petty

Instant Gratification

2011-05-31T20:39:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, I made an enormous technological upgrade.

I am now a proud owner of a 16G, white iPhone 4, courtesy of my gracious, wonderful father. I have an iPod Touch, but not the one with a camera, so having this iPhone with all these picture and filming capabilities is addicting! There is this fantastic camera app called Instagram, which is basically a photo-taking twitter, except you can edit the photos with a selection of different lenses. I think I am obsessed-- and it's free. Go download it if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch with a camera :).

I would like to present to you some of my amateur-but-I-wish-I-they-were-professional photographs.

I'm having so much fun. It makes me yearn for an actual Lomographic or Hipstamatic camera with all these different lens and filters! The photo above is one of the first I took with the app, and so far it's my favorite. Which do you like best?

Listening: "Helena Beat" by Foster the People (their debut album, Torches, is now available!)

Drive where?

2011-05-30T19:22:00.000-04:00

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

This holiday to honor our past and current troops usually kicks off the summer season for families. You know, barbeques, pool openings, lots of sun and ice cream! I'm back again at the cafe in town, I've already worked five times and spent earlier this afternoon in the ice cream side. We are making our own waffle cones and waffle bowls now, which I quite enjoy doing! I'm trying not to be as reckless with my ice cream eating this year; it kind of sabotaged me last summer. We stock Perry's though, and I love so many of their flavors! Muddy Sneakers (white chocolate ice cream with chocolate peanut candies, milk chocolate flakes and caramel swirls, according to the Perry's website haha), anything cheesecake-related and Rocky Mountain Raspberry (white chocolate ice cream, chocolate raspberry flavored flakes and red raspberry swirls) are my favorites. Although, I can never resist a fresh fruit sorbet. Or the classic vanilla soft-serve! I could go on about ice cream, but what are your preferred flavors? I enjoy the interactions, although brief, with regular customers as well as visitors from out of town. If I am able to deliver them low-priced, sweet satisfaction, then my job is done :). Support your local ice creameries, restaurants and businesses -- I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

So another summer association is the drive-in! You knowww, cars, blankets and chairs on the lawns, giant screens and a double-feature under the stars. It's quite glamorous--in it's relaxed, liberated way.

My family and I have been going to the same drive-in for as long as I can remember, and I was shocked and saddened to hear that many of my friends from college have never experienced one! I invited my friend Jenny over Friday and we planned on watching the newest Pirates of the Caribbean and Kung Foo Panda 2 at said drive-in. However, the erratic weather of Western New York won this battle. We drove there under dense fog-cover and even when we had finished delicious pizza at the drive-in restaurant, the drizzly fog had not lifted. Plan B was to stop at the regular movie theatre on the way home. Nope, couldn't catch a movie there because we arrived too late, and the next showing was far later. We returned to my house to watch a movie off of the cable pay-per-view and nope, that wasn't cooperating either! Haha, it seemed as if the world did not want us to see any movies that evening.
Still determined, we headed to the grocery store and used the Red Box rental system. We picked up The King's Speech and Easy A for $3; not a bad deal at all! I know these movies have been out for a while, but I wanted to write about them anyway.

This movie was wonderful. Even at two hours long, watching Colin Firth as King George VI battle his self-doubts and rise to become King of Great Britain was engaging. It's definitely one of those feel-good movies, but not in a cliche way. The acting was outstanding as well, thereby making the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director (Tom Hooper), Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler) and the dozen nominations extremely well deserved.

On the more comical side was Easy A, directed by Will Gluck,which was how innocent gossip turns bad and high school becomes Puritan New England. It took an exaggerated approach to personality stereotypes, ostracism and sexual pressures, yet the characters were outrageous enough to keep me interested. Olive, played by Emma Stone, ultimately acts the way she does (or pretends to, anyway) to help other overlooked students and outcasts finally fit in. All I can say is, I am so fortunate that my high school was not that insane. At least not the people I associated with.

Without or without the drive-in, 'twas a lovely evening. I hope to make it back there soon, though! Have you watched any awesome movies lately?

Flohreedah

2011-05-24T22:48:00.002-04:00

Florida was such a glorious destressor after this year.

I ate way too much and probably should have applied more sun screen, yet I was able to sleep, relax and not mope about missing college as much as I wanted to. I realized that I have a penchant for palm trees. There's something about them-- so many different sizes, species, bark growth, leaf formation --and possibly because of the toasty climate, I've decided that palm trees are just a feel good foliage. In fact, I am so enraptured by them, that I walked up and down all the streets in our quaint development (it's 4 or 5 streets in a few square miles) and did a photographic inventory of every variation of palm tree I could find. Needless to say, I tend to go overboard with things.

Palms.
EVERYWHERE!

I saw a few of these magnificent Cuban Laurel trees.
They're not native, and they actually remind me of "Fern Gully" Amazonian/jungle trees!

I don't discriminate with my tree hugging :).

The house that my parents bought isn't directly on the water, though it only takes less than 20 minutes to reach the Gulf Coast. I have never stayed near the Gulf before, and I really enjoyed it! That area in general seemed less commercial and fast-paced than the Atlantic coast. This is a picture of my parents enjoying the sun at one of the beaches in Boca Grande. There were pristine white sands, zillions of shells (no exaggeration!), mind blowing blues in the water and sky, and beautiful architecture. All the shells I collected I'm turning into crafts: gluing them to frames, boxes, making jewelry and key chains.. not quite sure what else I should do with dozens of shells! Any ideas??

I also was a wildlife spotter in Florida! There were many varieties of birds and cranes, my favorite being the sand piper. It scurries up and down the beach, jabbing it's beak into the sand for insects whenever the tide rolled in and out. I also saw osprey, an iguana, two manatees (they just appear to be brown blobs in the water but I adore them! I believe that I will be reincarnated as a manatee in the next life.. all they really do is chill out and eat :D), the alligator that lives in the lake in our community and this funny little crab at the beach! Well, it was actually the size of my hand. I think it was quite perturbed with me being in its face for photos, then attracting other beach-goers attention. I guess if I were a crab just trying to live my life on the beach, I would be upset too.

As we were leaving Boca Grande and the beach, we pulled over the side of the road because we spotted a manatee in the distance! Anddd I decided that it would be a marvelous backdrop for my new sarong :).

Sunsets at our community lake-- which is also the home to the alligator.
Even though I didn't have any interaction with people below the age of 60, it was a grand time. I become miserable whenever heat mixes with humidity, but it was actually very mild and bearable! Except for Thursday when it reached 95-100 degrees and I had a headache. Anyways, vacations are always welcome. Despite the sublime weather, I don't think I would live there permanently; I enjoy the seasons of the Northeast too much. Do you like where you're living now, or would you move to another region in the country?
Yup, and now I should go to bed. I'm back to my job at the cafe for the first time this year tomorrow! I'm scheduled quite a few times this week, so hopefully I don't fumble too much...

Listening: traditional Bolivian music :)

Release

2011-05-19T10:54:00.002-04:00

Where we are in Florida, my parents bought a modest house in a dominantly senior community (HA!), but it's quiet and lovely. Internet, however, is only available at the Clubhouse. It's mighty inconvenient to have to walk over here just to check my e-mails and such, though it's also a blessing because I haven't read magazines, books, written, nor slept this much in months.

The Holi Festival is a Hindu celebration of spring, renewal and colors. All across the world it was celebrated on March 11th; in the North Country it was still winter, haha, so we saved our festivities for the last day of classes. It was a slightly chilly, yet still mamagnificent Friday afternoon. The ASIA club that I'm provided the powders and dyes. People came in their worn and tattered clothes, I wore an unblemished white, and basically we had a battle of colors! I'm fairly certain any onlookers thought we were maniacs (some people moved off the quad for fear of being sprayed with dye), but I had a blast. My t-shirt and overalls are now sufficiently colored, but I did throw my contacts away and scrub my teeth. If you want, look up Ke$ha's "Take It Off Video", they do a Holi reference in an empty swimming pool :).

On the last day of finals, my friends Annie and Elizabeth and I took advantage of the free Canoe shack and went on an adventure down the river. There were dozens of kids paddling under the pristine sky, savoring their end to exams and the semester as well. We sat and listened to the birds, and imagined what it would be like living in one of the small houses along the bank. I spotted a musk rat (I didn't know for sure, but I called it correctly!), and we found the park-beach that's a few miles down from our school! I had completely forgotten about it, so that was a thrilling discovery. We exorcised our inner children on the bright, old metal playground, undisturbed except for the Canadian geese on the far side of the lawn. We tumbled around in the beach for a bit and then paddled back to turn the canoe in on time. The poor worker there had to deal with drunken students putting boats in the water 15 minutes before close! At the same time, I couldn't blame them for wanting to be on the water for such a nice day.

I almost forgot that I was leaving the next morning, that we were all leaving next morning. Just for those solitary hours, I was able to row this twisted, distraught feeling aside.

On Facebook a few moments ago, my friend mentioned how he wanted to start a two-man traveling band. It kind of blew up and I declared that we will be hippy-gypsy-music-playing hobos, which was summed up in what he called vagabonds -- sounds delectable to me! Once I fall back into reality from Florida next week I'll probably be working all this summer, so I only need as much adventure as I can handle on my down time! I wish I had available funds and transportation to attend the amazing music festivals all over the country too (Outside Lands in San Fransisco, Bonnaroo in Tennessee, GrassRoots Festival in Ithaca..).

Any pending ventures in your summer?

Pack and Go

2011-05-14T00:15:00.001-04:00

HOLD UP, where were we again?

I keep sporadically appearing and making false promises, but my first year of college is finally finished now -- my blogging commitment will potentially be reignited.

I lied on my room mate's bed and took one last shot of my side of the room, before tearing it a part. Packing was nauseating, the walls become so stark and I'm bluntly reminded of all the foolish things I accumulated through the year. I loved my room! And my roomie. *sigh
Goodbyes are hard for me. I tend to become an emotional wreck or numb myself down and combust later. I apologize to you, Mom and Dad, because departures make me anxious; my anxiety manifests itself in bad temperament and tears. I just really know how to attach myself fully to things, then not ever want to let them go. These last few weeks have been some of the best of the year ... I was [am] just so, so happy.

I'm thankful for all the people I've met who have helped make me this happy, and it simply pains me to see our college lives dissolve into summer. Because I'm studying abroad in France next semester, I might not see some of them until January. A few others are going abroad in the spring, so that's over a year before we'll be together again. At the same time, I am exuberant for the opportunities we are seizing; I mean, we all still need to take our own paths to grow. Regardless, am absolutely assured that we have enough love for each other to stretch beyond oceans, language barriers and time.

At the moment, I'm in my bed, two small dogs restfully drifting in and out of sleep as I blog and listen to cds. Twenty-four hours ago I was galavanting around campus with Justin, our typical atypical debauchery at hand; I hate how long it may be before that happens again. It's utterly bizarre now, with bags and boxes and reminders of my dorm engulfing my room. I have barely made an attempt to unpack because my parents and I are heading off to Florida in... oh, six hours. I'll be there for the week then buckled down in my town for the summer, working to make as much money as humanly possible.

That's where I'll end this for tonight, though I want to re-emphasize what an unbelievable year I had. I feel like I've come so far, and things could not have panned out any better.

Enjoy your weekend, and I'll be around soon :)

Colorful

2011-04-13T22:13:00.001-04:00

So it seems that I've been involved in numerous campus activities lately, never having a moment to breathe, and maybe that's why I'm four weeks in with a virus-related chest-head-congestion-cold disease :D! The health center here finally decided I was sick enough to deserve a prescription for medicine, and it's an inhaler that had a $40 co-pay, despite insurance. Agh! Living amongst people is great, but I'm realizing that once you're sick you stay sick. I think ultimately I need to sleep more. Which won't happen. There's too much life to live, agreed?

Last Friday I performed in a talent show called Kaleidoscope, which promoted cultural performances and many of the International Students' backgrounds. There was a fantastic array of talents, and I was in the finale performance with the ASIA (Asian Students Intercultural Association) Club for a Bollywood dance!! We've spent at least five weeks practicing to the song "Discowale Khisko", and we wore traditional Indian clothing and all! Unfortunately the only photos/videos of the performance are on my Facebook, but here's a video from the song we used. (The dance moves were self-choreographed, however) Huzzah for cultural diversity!

Immediately after posting this I am going to bed because A) sleep is good B) sleep might alleviate my sickness *cue the cough and C) I need to be up at 4 AM to go hike Azure Mountain and watch the sunrise and write poetry. Yup, that's the type of random excursions different theme houses on campus organize, and I can't pass it up!

Friday, at 6:15, fifty-five of us students are hopping on a bus funded by a Mellon Grant and the Environmental Action Organization, and riding down to Washington D.C. for a climate action conference called The Powershift, which is a project of the Energy Action Coalition. The link to the website is much more exciting than my explanation, but essentially thousands of youth from across the country are spending this weekend in workshops learning how to push for green energy jobs, bills, development, etc., we're lobbying for environmental change to our state Congressmen (New Yawk), we're rallying and marching and seeing a bunch of super-awesome speakers such as Al Gore, Bill McKibben and more. That's for the entire weekend, and I think it's going to be epic. Watch out in the news, it may be there for the immensity of the movement. I can't wait to learn how to take action!

The madness does not cease! (Though I wouldn't want it any other way)

Enjoy your week and almost-weekend, friends!!!

I'm Walking on Sunshine

2011-04-09T13:42:00.000-04:00

Once in a while when you least expect it, you make a friend.

Walking is nice.
It's low-impact, casual and non-committal. It's also introspective, relaxing and conducive to good conversation. I spent a good portion of last night walking for the cause of fighting cancer at my school's first American Cancer Society Relay for Life. My fundraising was a bit haphazard because I signed up on Thursday, but the overall turnout was impressive. We had 27 teams, 268 people and over $11,000 in donations raised. The Relay for Life normally occurs for 24 hours, but ours was a 12 hour event and we walked/danced/skipped/played frisbee/partied and camped out in the field house with the indoor track. My hamstrings are not thanking me today, but I had solid bonding time with my friends and team (the First Year Council) and it was a powerful experience.
My grandmother passed in 2007 because of the rapid onset of cancer, and my dad has skin cancer. I'm sure we all are, or know someone, that is impacted by cancer. My several hours of walking on a track was nothing to the struggle that cancer patients experience, though as the sun was rising we headed back to our dorms at 6:30 am, I couldn't help but think that perhaps we are that much closer to ending the battle.

So Toms 'One Day Without Shoes' day on Tuesday was insanity. I have never been so thankful for shoes with in my life, which I presume is the point! It was freezing and hailing, but myself and probably 30-40 others braved it out. I think it probably wouldn't have hurt as much if I had callouses, but it was also a mind over matter deal and once I relaxed and didn't focus on the pain, everything was good. We all definitely brought some awareness about children without shoes, too!

Also, good news: It finally resembles spring outside.

View from my dorm window. There were Adirondack chairs there yesterday, I think... somebody must have moved them last night.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone :)

It's April, Fool!

2011-04-05T08:10:00.000-04:00

I was doing soooo well with posting-- and then I just lost it! Shoot, March is over. I need all of this to slow down, I'm having too good of a time to leave in a month..!

This is going to brief as well because I have some reading to do before class this afternoon, but today, the shoe company Toms is holding an event called One Day Without Shoes. As you know, many children all over the world have to walk miles everyday without shoes in order to attend school, have medicine, or food and water. At Toms, for every pair of shoes that is sold, a another pair is donated to a child in a developing country. The Environmental Action Organization at my school is co-sponsoring awareness for these children today, and I think I'm going to give it a shot! It's quite dreary and muddy out... and I actually have a lot of qualms about foot hygiene (I don't like being barefoot in locker rooms, for example)... but I'm going to go without shoes today and hope that I do not contract an orthopedic disease or step on something terrible.

I'm so exhausted from the weekend. I try to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but I become so engaged in writing or homework that it's never early-- and then I'm up again once the sun rises in my window. I've been sick for nearly two weeks now, but I'll keep wheezing and hacking on through by eating well and running (albeit, slowly). On a fun note, the dining hall had sushi last night! It's not spectacular but a tasty surprise nonetheless.

Do you like sushi? :)
Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Samedi

2011-03-26T12:33:00.002-04:00

You wake up with the sun drifting

under your eyelashes

today’s promises flooding

across your skin

a tugging smile

through your lips

pondering yesterday

[the mind knows no discretion].

So, a few musicians who's music has not failed in bringing up my mood:

the Friendly Fires

recommend: Strobe, Skeleton Boy, Jump in the Pool

Florence and the Machine
recommend: Cosmic Love, Drumming Song, Lungs

Kid Cudi

recommendations: Up Up & Away, Enter Galactic, Erase Me

The Strokes

recommendations: Anything!

Who is on your go-to playlist?
Currently: Lounging in a greenhouse-type study room, enjoying Saturday and clearly not doing my homework.

Strongly worded letters

2011-03-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

Last night/this morning:

Dear drunk guys outside my door,

Why are you here right now.

It is 2:45 in the goddamn ~~night~~ morning. And you're all drunk, and hollering-- on a Tuesday!!!

No, the guy you're banging on the door for probably was sleeping like the rest of us. No, he doesn't care that you brought your bikes upstairs with you. Yes, other people on this floor are now awake and pissed and yes, someone called security on you.
And screw you for tearing down the calendar that our Community Assistant had so painstakingly made.

Best regards,

Peeved me.

Right now:

Dear residents next door,

Please stop banging or thumping or dribbling or hitting or whatever you're doing that's coming through all the walls. They're quite thin and I'm tired and my roommate is trying to sleep.

Yours truly,

I should go to bed now too.

Hahahaha. Dorm life.

I guess it's not as big of a deal as it sounds... I just love writing concise letters like that to random people :).

Otherwise, it has been a terrific first week back; I've been pro-active on my work, there's environmental speakers for Climate Change week, I learned how to make crane oragami for World Languages week and as a fundraiser for Japan relief, I ran my first hill workout Monday and speed/tempo workout today since October and ~~even though it's still freezing,~~ my bike is out!

There are bikes everywhere, it's a beautiful thing.

You know it's bad news when...

2011-03-19T12:29:00.000-04:00

the clothes that used to be your loose ones are becoming snug. D:

On the upside, I guess I can't feel bad about shopping for new ones.

From Target, I bought a pair of bleach-denim short overalls. Kitschy and a throwback to second grade, yes, but I'm determined to bring them back once it's warm. A lot of the boots were on clearance so I bought a stormy blue pair which also seem fitting for spring. At the Salvation Army, almost all the objects are half off, so I bought a tye-dye tank top, a polka dot button-up, a lightweight forest green suede jacket and a denim full-zip jumper dress. All I had was spring on the mind :).

My parents said I looked like Daisy May from Dukes of Hazzard :P. The photo with the tank top, those are Bermuda shorts with suspenders that I made a few years ago. The striped cardigan I'm wearing with the dress and boots is also a previous Salvo purchase.

But of course, only in New York would it be sixty degrees for two days and then drop thirty in 12 hours and be snow flurry-ing the next morning. And we missed the epically close moon because of the chronic cloud cover. Did anyone see it?!

Besides gaining weight throughout the week, I did some experimenting in the kitchen! I made cabbage and carrot curry with rice vermicelli noodles, which wasn't difficult at all but exotic and fun to eat nonetheless.
The cut up half a head of a small cabbage, a small onion and five or six carrots, and as you can see, it filled a huge frying pan. I had leftovers for three days and gave the rest to one of my friends last night! I sauteed the onion in some oil then added the carrots and cabbage with half a can of vegetable broth.

The spices I used were a basic Indian curry powder (I'm sure there's more eclectic and expensive mixes, but this was on sale), cumin, turmeric, ground red pepper and some salt. It smelled like heaven!

I simmered the vegetables with the lid on for about 15 minutes before I added the noodles. One thing I need to remember is to check the moisture while it's simmering so the dish doesn't become too dry.

The rice noodles came in a big bundle at Wegmans for $2. I soaked them in warm water before adding to the vegetables, but next time I'll cut them so they're easier to move around and stir. And eat.

SO GOOD.

And finally, on this last day of Spring Break, I received some thrilling news in the mail:

I have been accepted to study abroad in Rouen, France next fall :D.

It seems like I'm always talking about this place, but I can't contain my excitement. I was there a year ago too, by the way; so many memories.
Cheers!

Smudge

2011-03-17T12:32:00.001-04:00

More pictures of different artwork I've made. This was one of the 'in-progress' images for a 16 x 20" still life drawn with vine and compressed charcoal.

And the finished product!

I wish everyone a very Happy St. Patrick's Day! Since it's a weeknight and I'm home I'll be doing absolutely nothing to celebrate, but I'll try to wear green. I think Saturday one of my brother's and his family is coming for corned beef and cabbage. Does your family partake in this culinary tradition? Or do anything annually for the day? We don't have any Irish roots but I bet it's a point of pride for many. One day I'll make it to Ireland to celebrate.

And I hate to gloat, but I love being able to sleep in until eleven thirty without any true commitments for the day. Yesterday I did some hardcore shopping and cooking, soon to be another post topic :). I need to go for a run and work on some more homework, but it's sixty degrees out and I plan on enjoying the sun.

Cheers!

Benign Line

2011-03-14T19:03:00.002-04:00

These are a few assignments I did in Studio Art from my cell phone camera. Even though my meets twice a week, the scheduled block is for three hours a class. We practiced intensively with line, doing contour exercises, hand gestures and examining different qualities and mediums for making line. It's fun experimenting with how you can draw a line and convey a particular emotion or personality, much as our personal signatures do.
For the project below, I used a blue ink calligraphy pen and wrote hundreds of Chinese characters to make implied lines, thus creating a scene. It's a mountain scape scene referencing the artistry and literature emerging from the Tang Dynasty of China (618-907 A.D.).

By not connecting all the forms and leaving the characters floating, I wanted to create a mystical quality. Obviously there are Earth elements portrayed, but if the wind blows strongly enough, perhaps the characters would just lift up and be carried away. I also created a Gestalt image of a phoenix rising-- can you see it?


No, unfortunately I am not that literate at Mandarin Chinese yet. These characters are from Tang Dynasty poems that I found on the internet :B.

Currently: Getting ahead on Chinese character writing homework while watching The Young Victoria.

Revolution from the Streets

2011-03-13T00:06:00.012-05:00

Banksy.

He is the enigmatic British street artist that satirizes and commentates pop culture, politics, war, capitalism and more. His name is eponymous to controversy, rebellion, anarchy and unconventional art in the forms of graffiti, installations and stickers splattered onto public space. It's supposed to make you think twice. Once looked down upon for it's crude, temporary nature, street art is a contemporary revolution that's sort of forced itself into the spotlight. It attracted pedestrian attention, then to the media and increasingly gaining momentum into galleries and professional buying world. And obviously aspiring anarchists/hipsters and teenagers with a lot of time on their hands and looking for something interesting [ahem].
I just watched Banksy's documentary on Netflix called Exit Through the Gift Shop. It was nominated most recently for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary category. His film did not win, but 2010 had a strong presentation for documentaries, and his was certainly enjoyable. There's controversy over whether Banksy actually staged the entire documentary himself, including the protagonist Thierry Guetta and his role as a street artist, thus alluding to power of images and the media has over any of us because of our commercialized-induced naivete.

If you have time, check it out on Netflix Instant Watch! I think everything I just tried saying would make more sense if you watched the movie. Nonetheless, I did some more internet researching on street art and those who are making their mark.

Shepard (Stephen) Fairey has been in the graphic design, illustration and street art business for over two decades. He began making replications of the wrestler Andre the Giant with the assertion OBEY. He and Bansky are the more prominent faces in this genre. You may recognize some of his other works...

Smokey Robinson, then and now.
Cover art for the 2009 Grammy compilation CD.
Movie poster for Walk The Line.
Yup, he was the artist behind the Hope campaign while Obama was still a Senator running for President. Ironically enough, Shepard may be facing copyright infringement on the photo from the Associated Press...

Here are some of my favorite Banksy works. I love the politics of street art, and particularly the risks these artists put themselves into. There are no rules, outlandish works. Banksy has graffitied the U.K., L.A., NYC, Toronto and even the West Bank. I also love how he takes existing structures or graffiti and works with them.

Graffiti of a man cleaning graffiti that references cave art in Lascaux.
Causing controversy at the Israeli West Bank barrier in 2005.
Bansky's major exhibition debut in 2006 was called Barley Legal. He and his team took over an abandoned warehouse in Los Angeles and attracted thousands of visitors, the average citizens and celebrities alike. This camouflaged elephant was one work called "Elephant In the Room".
Banksy's 'Privy Henge' installation from the 2007 Glastonbury Music Festival.
Bansky's animal-oriented exhibition from 2008 in New York called "The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill" featured chicken nuggets, floating fish sticks and narcissistic rabbits.

So some of it is a amusing-- others, a bit more disturbing. You can't deny, the guy makes you think. And why would want to erase that from the public eye?

Note: I do not claim ownership or copyright of a single one of these photos; I just Google searched the beejeezus out of the artists. A more current display on Banksy's work can be found at his website here, and Shepard Fairey's website for the OBEY campaign can be found here.

It's one of those catchy songs

2011-03-10T01:30:00.004-05:00

that I hope doesn't annoy me soon, because it rotates through my head. The whistling hook is infectious and I love all the different instruments! I'm going home Friday for Spring Break, and I think this will be a well-needed break because I am beat. I feel as if I'm sick every night, but then oddly enough if dissipates through the day.

"Home! Yes we are home. Home you are me, and I am you." :)

I stand to be corrected.

2011-03-08T14:38:00.004-05:00

I seem to be very good at obsessing over people from a distance.

Has that ever happened to you?
You see a person everywhere and you're unbearably compelled to make contact with them, to know them, to be their friend. You silently beg for their acknowledgement. I think I die a little inside whenever I see them, and I can't bring myself to say a thing.
Maybe one day.

Listening: "The End Has No End" by the Strokes

We've Only Just Begun

2011-03-05T15:23:00.007-05:00

Is it bad that I live for the weekends?

I just prefer the unstructured time to do whatever I please and see my friends because classes and practice don't make us unavailable! Once Thursday afternoon classes were out, I was free. Friday was spectacular-- I don't think I've been in that good of a mood in ages. I went for a run at 8:15 even though I didn't have class until noon, and the sun was scintillating. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the warm rays that kept me radiating with happiness.
After Chinese class I went to the International House (which is actually just a few designated hallways in one of the nicer dorms) for a Chinese Culture Club meeting. It's only a few girls, including some of my Chinese lab TA's, and we began discussing different activities and meeting times. After realizing that all things we're interested in doing (cooking food, watching movies, learn Mahjong, etc.) were similar to that of The Joy Luck Club, we changed our group name! So once we finalize our constitution, we'll lobby for organizational status under that name.
I'm trying to take advantage of embracing my ethnic heritage! I decided that my goal for the group is that by junior year we will have enough impact on campus and funding to take trips to Chinatown in Ottawa :).

Later that night my friends and I went to an African Drumming circle!! This guy is an expert in West African drumming and dance, and he a truckload of drums and instruments to try. We learned that the djembe orchestra is structured like a family-- the poppa bass drums, the momma middle tones and the baby slaps. Similarly, each drum itself has three ranges of tones depending on where you strike it. We learned different rhythm patterns and even attempted singing, which was hilariously incoherent. There was some freestyle jamming at the end and we just had this circle of life beat pulsating through our giddy hands and minds.
After that we went to a concert that one of the organizations/theme houses called Java organizes at their venue referred to as the Java Barn (except it's more like a psychedelically painted warehouse). There's a band performance or student music act there basically every week. It's not everyone's scene, but for me, going there all the time has increased my likening for reggae. The Heavy Pets were last night's performers. Even when they were transitioning between songs, they were still tight and had a really good vibe. The drummer could do some sick vocal beat-boxing too! I love dancing and just losing myself in the music with everyone else around me.
Today, the sun has been lost to the forlorn sky of rain. I have been sitting in a comfortable chair with some of my XC/track friends since... 11:30 after I had brunch. HA! I think I've finished a reasonable amount of homework, but obviously my blogging here isn't helping and listening to them debate indoor racing teams. Thank goodness for Sunday, except I'm doing a mini-road trip in the afternoon with a group from another class to conduct interviews and field research. We're researching Poverty in America, more specifically the North Country, so it's essential to have some primary sources.
I always have this inkling fear that I won't have enough time to finish anything, but somehow I find a way to pull it off; I need to just save myself the stress.

I hope you're all enjoying your weekend; I LOVE Saturday! Talk to you soon!

Oh, what to do.

2011-03-01T23:03:00.003-05:00

I wouldn't mind packing up and strutting off towards the mountains at the moment.

It has been an atrociously long time since I've blogged! That always seems to be the case when I return to school, I fall off the blogging- and television-watching-boat. The former is more saddening.
I have to admit though, I love college.
My schedule has not been inherently stressful until this point, where we are a 1 1/2 weeks from Spring Break. It's bemusing-- a March Spring Break. I hope that the snow and ruddy season transition weather decides to blow through while we're gone. I can't wait for spring! I am finally running outside again (since Sunday!), realizing that I don't have to be a hamster around the indoor track to save my legs, as long as I avoid treacherously uneven footing; i.e., slush and rough ice. I am invigorated being outside, wearing a headband and finding dirt splotches on my leggings, sucking in cold air and at least starting out the run with my team.
I'm not going to assume a date for when I will participate in the workouts again. Hell, I don't even know what the four-week outdoor track season is going to result in. I spent the entire indoor season walking-jogging and helping rather than competing at the meets, but it's not like I'm disparaged. Just accepting.
Another note that's buzzing around campus is the housing selection process. Our randomized lottery numbers were delivered in the campus mail boxes today and it's basically a rite of passage that many rising sophomores are, sorry for the lack of a better term, shafted during the housing process. That's mainly because it goes in hierarchical order. Hahaha I honestly cannot comprehend how my lottery number is 624 because our class only has 616 students!
Well, I am somewhat assured that this defunct set of digits is inconsequential because I have applied to study abroad next fall. Where, through which program?
To the France program that involves host stays in Rouen and Senegal! No big surprise there, haha.
My heart is sewn there; I'm a self-declared Francophile, I'll probably expatriate from this country one day (...just kidding). Though there are many more opportunities as a collegiate exchange student, that of which I need to take advantage of.
So if I am accepted into the program, I will no longer be concerned with fall semester housing at this school.
If I am rejected from the program, it will be the biggest fml of 2011 thus far.

Clearly I have a lot of ramble about. I'm going to post soon about different things I have learned in my classes, sort of to reassert to myself that I am learning here, and I am becoming more intellectual. Maybe it attaining knowledge becomes more effortless when you aren't coerced into it. Who knows.

I'm procrastinating on a take home test!!! Some things just never change. I have to go.
Have a nice night, whoever is reading this :)

p.s. Finally figured out why Blogger wasn't pulling up on my Firefox Beta, so now I can easily blog once more! YES YES YESSSS

Back in the Ice Box

2011-01-24T16:37:00.002-05:00

Way up North, where the air is cold
I'm back at SLU for the second semester, doin' what I'm told :).
Studio art, Chinese and News From The Bottom Up today. Being the first day, not much was done aside from reviewing syllabi, though Wednesday I have two quizzes. It's splendid being back into the swing of things, but frostbite warnings and fighting for a bike in the gym isn't as great. What have you been up to?

How Inconvenient!

2011-01-11T19:08:00.003-05:00

Ever since I upgraded to Firefox 4 Beta in favor of Internet Explorer, the cookies andbrowser cache for Blogger has refused tp work for me. I'm typing this as I pedal om a stationary bike in my steaming living room, but it's nagging me to not be able to properly update! I can't figure out how to adjust the settings on the new Firefox. Any suggestions?

Well, ever since mu brother graciously shared his Netflix account information, I have officially become a sedentary bed slug. Eugh! Haha I LOVE catching up on favorite television shows and movies at last, but this is bad business, it's going to be a major distraction at school D:. I also went out to the movies the other night to see "Black Swan". If you're put off by sexuality, the movie would probably make you umcomfortable, otherwise it's an incredible psychological thriller. I love the way it was filmed because you in the main character Nina's perspective. I was constantly questioning what was real and basically squealed when it was over. If Natalie Portman doesn't recieve an Oscar nomination, that will be absurd!!

Alright, gonna keep biking. I hope I can make a REAL post soon. Have a lovely evening otherwise
Listening: "Beverly Hills" by Weezer

Cookin' up Conflict

2011-01-05T19:12:00.007-05:00

My German exchange sister from last year sent a Christmas package for me! It arrived today filled with splendid surprises: Lindt chocolate truffles, ornate dangling earrings, a notebook and special ink pens that the students of Germany use in schools! It was really sweet of her to think of me. People underestimate the power of the long-forgotten post, whether it's a gift or written scribbles on an index card.

I'm here at home, still trying to occupy myself during this interminable break. I still have 3 weeks and I'm beginning to resent this town. My parents and their belligerence has prevented me from going out with my friends tonight, and some thieving scum at my former high school stole my phone Monday! I was there in the art room painting, minding my own business, and then it was gone!! We searched like mad, top to bottom through the clutter of that class room. I didn't want to assume that it was stolen, but after checking the phone activity online, the random downloads indicated that this was the case :(.
Due to the utter misfortune and reckless naïveté that encompasses my life, my phone has been deactivated for eternity. Nevertheless, my sister graciously gave me one of her old ones to reactivate. It's just irritating though, would you agree? I never felt angry or panicked, simply baffled and disappointed. I don't know why someone would feel compelled to steal another's phone, or anything, and apparently I can't even feel comfortable with my own belongings in a high school class room.
It's not that I doubt the human nature, just the nature of the jackass kids in this town.

To combat boredom, I've been channeling my inner bohemian artist with those forementioned painting supplies that I bought following Christmas! I used this picture of my friend and I with New Year's (it's honestly sparkling grape juice--we thought we would be witty :P) and threw together a mixed-media mini-portrait.

Voila! I painted on newspaper clippings of words that allude to rebellion, partying and the pitfalls of excessive drinking, but I emphasized the phrase pure theatrics to indicate that this picture isn't us, just a satirical act :). The little words that drift off the canvas are 2011s; I have titled this Happy New Year.

Hope you're all keeping busy and chipper!
Watching: Top Chef All-Stars (loveloveLOVE)

On the right foot

2011-01-01T21:11:00.004-05:00

“New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.”
-- Hamilton Wright Mabie, via thinkexist
FYI, Archer Farms at Target makes a delicious peach sparkling juice :) Comme d'habitude, I dressed in clothes unsuitable for the weather outdoors, slipped on my favorite pumps, had a wonderful night and ate 2010 into oblivion-- hellooo 2011! I was at my friend's house and she swears that her neighbors hate her, so a few minutes after midnight we ran around the front of her house hollering and banging pans. However, I think her neighbors were pretty plastered so it was all just in the festive spirit :). What did you do to celebrate the New Year?
I didn't get to sleep until at least 2:30, then at 9 my parents picked me up and we drove 2 1/2 hours south to visit my dad's aunt and uncle. So it has already been a decently scheduled year!

On a random note~
My sister-in-law sent me a care package once and it had colored foam sheets, and taking a cue from an example craft, I constructed a few monsters. Hahaha they're utterly ridiculous though I am finding great amusement in exercising my imagination.

I also began thinking, we all have a monster inside us-- a creature manifestation of ourselves. I think there's an actual term for this but I can't put my finger on it. And my monster? Well, it would be yellow, fat, swathed in draping scarves, with an iPod in one hand and a tea cup in the other, ready to initiate a dance party at any moment. What about yours?! :D

Even though I didn't have much to say, I felt compelled to post on this New Year's Day. And, it's my bicentennial post! Haha, it's about time. I would like to thank you, who reads my nuances whether they make sense or not. Despite that I believe this winter break from college is beginning to drag, I really am loving the spare time to bum around the blog-o-sphere. Blogging is such a great destressor and a lot of fun.

SO MUCH LOVE! Cheers,
nicole :).

Everyday is a Daydream

2010-12-30T16:44:00.010-05:00

Just sitting here, eating broccoli, contemplating where the year of 2010 has gone.

I'm older, fatter and maybe wiser?

Still working some identity issues, but I'm enjoying the process. No resolutions this year; just a focus on becoming who I want to be-- someone that I love.

I wish you all the best this New Year's Eve-- party safely and drink a lot of sparkling stuff--and cheers to what 2011 shall bring!
Listening: "Waving Flag (World Cup Version)" by K'naan

Much mistletoeing, Hearts will be glowing

2010-12-27T17:06:00.005-05:00

This year's Christmas tree is comparatively smaller to what we've had in previous years. I mean, it's quite a lovely tree, very full-- but I burst out laughing when I first saw it! And yes, that is my bichon frisé Razzle wearing a canine snuggie she recieved for Christmas :D.

Huzzah for the holidays! These affairs are always held at our house because my mom makes unwieldly amounts of food, and this year I helped with the brunch preparation. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter-- always a family brunch, instead of dinner. But it's funny because my brothers and sisters will be over in the mid-morning, then gone within three hours! Haha so I spent the rest of the afternoon fiddling with my gifts! Did you have a good Christmas haul? :)

Biggest surprise/sickest gift for Christmas '10: A Kona acoustic guitar!!!
Apparently my parents have listened to my constant groveling about wishing that I could play the violin again, or learn the guitar. Haha, in my earnest effort to tune, I accidentally snapped the B string after playing for two hours. Nevertheless, this morning it was fixed and I bought a full set of strings at a music shop for $10.
I am overwhelmingly stoked to learn how to play! The biggest obstacle I'm finding so far is shifting chords without looking, so I'll just have to continue practicing. It's going to be a thrill bringing it back to school with me because I know several people with guitars, and now I can join the jam sessions!

I am finally becoming the pseudo-hippie free spirit that I've always admired :)).

Sunday we went on an entirely unecessary shopping spree anddd I went absolutely nuts. I mean, I had a mall giftcard from my brother and sister-in-law and I purchased that paisley tunic I'm wearing in the picture above from H&M, along with a black knit headband and a fringe black camisole from Charoltte Russe, but everything else... haha I dropped a lot of money.

At Teavana the teacups were clearanced, so I bought that floral porcelain one for $2.10-- a total steal! But I bought 2 oz. of 'Precious White Peach' white tea that was $16 o_O. Call me crazy, but I brewed a few cups today, and it was delicious! Oh, the things I do for tea (and food in general).
Then at Michael's Arts & Crafts, there were dozens of clearanced Christmas tins and I horded those to use as tea canisters. I also decided that I needed to pick up painting again because I'm taking studio art semester, and I figured it would be beneficial to engage in activities not so technology-related. Thus, I spent another $15 on new acrylic paints, paint brushes, palatte knives and a spray bottle. It was like Christmas, two days in a row.

Needless to say, I have temporarily confiscated my debit card from myself :B.

Hope you're all having a lovely week!

Listening: "Erase Me" - Kid Kudi, featuring Kanye West

Haul Out the Holly

2010-12-24T18:22:00.004-05:00

Put up the tree before my, spirit falls again! :)
(classic Christmas music from the 40's - 60's is my absolute favorite)

Merry Christmas Eve to you all!
I spent the morning prepping with my mother for our tremendous, annual Christmas morning brunch. It's just unnecessary the amounts of food that is prepared! I never realized how many recipes used sour cream and mayo as well, but what can you do, it's the holidays... Do you have any family Christmas traditions?
We always wait for the morning to exchange gifts, and the tree has been raised and decorated since the beginning of December! Though after attending our once-a-year holiday church service (we used to be regulars, until we moved out of range of 'our' church), we will put all the gifts underneath the tree.

I would like to announce my new mission: cultural enlightenment.

I'm home for beyond a month and I may shrivel of boredom if I don't have actual plans, therefore I might as well make productive splendor of the available time! When I went to the Geva Theatre with my parents Tuesday, seeing everyone so dressed up and knowing how much money was spent for the sake of the arts, that rendered me thinking. My aim is to be able to bring more to the table in terms of conversation and general intelligence when I return to college. I want to become a more sophisticated being and create a presence-- silly, doesn't it seem?! Bear in mind this is a living list, therefore I am very open to suggestions for what I can do to heighten my cultural awareness! Currently:

Investigate on-the-verge and ethnic restaurants in Rochester, in lieu of chains and regulars; ex. The Owl House
Finish Three Cups of Tea then proceed to read at least 2 more novels (setting the bar a bit low for that one, but if I meet this goal that would be an immense amount of reading compared to what I've done these last two years..!)
Pore through the works of Walt Whitman; he's the one poet I am will to spend time considering.
Cook something daring (courtesy of Food & Wine Magazine)!
Blog twice a week about something.. meaningful
Discover some kickin' jazz and swing music
Learn a new vocabulary word everyday using the Dictionary.com iPod app; chaffer: to bargain or haggle
Catch up on indie films
Study up on global geography and learn countries and capitals (if I can manage)
Drown in tea, brewing the perfect cup every time (that was assumed); I hope to reach connoisseur status one day, if such titles exist for tea-lovers :P

Alright, so I may be totally missing the mark in terms of 'enlightenment', but I just want to inrease my general knowledge on the world, you know?

One of my good friends has the first season of Glee on DVD now, and I watched it for the first time at her house last night! Anddd I like it, a bit too much, so the last 12 hours I have watched as many free episodes as possible on Hulu. Haha, the show is so over the top, I simply can't help but enjoy it.

I may be around the blogosophere tomorrow, but nevertheless I wish you all a positively Merry Christmas! I can't wait to read how they went-- 'tis the season!!!