i figured out how to make the parisians smile and laugh: wear a dumb costume! i wore my mouse ears, all black, and painted a nose/whiskers on.
i walked by someone at school and heard him go, "OH YEAH! HALLOWEEN!"
in the metro station, i walked by a girl with a devil stick thingy. she and i both laughed.
i passed by at least 5 people who looked at me and genuinely smiled.
i ran into a group of 20 kids in the metro. two little girls looked up at me and had to hide a laugh.
two construction workers looked at me...i smiled back (duh, i'm wearing a dumb costume, i know that) and then shouted something like "happy halloween!"
THIS DAY IS WONDERFUL.
31 October, 2007
pre-rome giggles
so i'm looking up rome on wikipedia. this way, when i'm there, i'm not totally ignorant and ask where socrates' house was, and then get mad when someone calls me dumb in italian.
i'm in the "games and activities" section and the first line is this: The youth of Rome had several forms of play and exercise, such jumping, wrestling, boxing, and racing
jumping?!? I LOVE JUMPING. ((sarcasm)) come on, romans, you were smart people...jumping was a fave activity?
know what would be fun and ironical? if someone were to comment on this and go, "actually, nicki, what romans called 'jumping' was actually a highly strategic, complicated, physical game that would be too complex for us today. stupido."
oh, and happy halloween! i've dressed up every halloween of my life, and there's no way that being in paris will stop me. i'm a mouse today. yes, i'll be dressed up for class and on the metro. i'll tell you how that goes.
i'm in the "games and activities" section and the first line is this: The youth of Rome had several forms of play and exercise, such jumping, wrestling, boxing, and racing
jumping?!? I LOVE JUMPING. ((sarcasm)) come on, romans, you were smart people...jumping was a fave activity?
know what would be fun and ironical? if someone were to comment on this and go, "actually, nicki, what romans called 'jumping' was actually a highly strategic, complicated, physical game that would be too complex for us today. stupido."
oh, and happy halloween! i've dressed up every halloween of my life, and there's no way that being in paris will stop me. i'm a mouse today. yes, i'll be dressed up for class and on the metro. i'll tell you how that goes.
29 October, 2007
fat and poor
about a week and a half ago, i budgeted out all my money i have left for the trip. it scared the crap out of me because i have none. no, that's an exaggeration...but i just have a lot less than i'd want.
and then lately, i've not been running/working out as much. i've also started just dipping a knife into nutella and licking it clean. those two things put together have made me "fluffy*"
but you know what? who cares. i've got the rest of my life to get back in shape and become unpoor (yeah, i'm not banking on rich). i've only got 2 months left to be in europe. so here i got, getting fat and spending money, and loving every moment.
and then lately, i've not been running/working out as much. i've also started just dipping a knife into nutella and licking it clean. those two things put together have made me "fluffy*"
but you know what? who cares. i've got the rest of my life to get back in shape and become unpoor (yeah, i'm not banking on rich). i've only got 2 months left to be in europe. so here i got, getting fat and spending money, and loving every moment.
28 October, 2007
je suis comme blanche niege
((thank you, monique, for being my french editor :-D ))
i can't believe i didn't tell you one of the most exciting things of my weekend! we (me, chris, and the UK kids) were sitting in a park, munching on bread and cheese and stuff, when we notice hundreds of pigeons. chris, sitting a distance away from me on a bench, starts throwing his bread at me, sitting on my bum on the grass. every single bird in this little park surrounded me! the fat ones, the little ones, the sickly ones, the ones without toes...they came at me from all sides. i was all freaked out at first, but as i became more comfortable with it, i decided it'd be a good idea to feed them from my hand. SO I DID IT. i fed a pigeon from my fingers. check the pictures on fbook (you'll have to wait for other people to put them up...i obviously was not taking pictures of myself freaking out with 293857 birds around).
oh, and we went to the frog and princess bar last night. it's essentially an american/touristy place. i love seeing paris' version of american things. their playlist included mambo #5, gold digger and cotton eyed joe. you know, the classics. whenever we tell people we're from california now, they go, "ohhh! the fire...it's on fire!" lol.
i can't believe i didn't tell you one of the most exciting things of my weekend! we (me, chris, and the UK kids) were sitting in a park, munching on bread and cheese and stuff, when we notice hundreds of pigeons. chris, sitting a distance away from me on a bench, starts throwing his bread at me, sitting on my bum on the grass. every single bird in this little park surrounded me! the fat ones, the little ones, the sickly ones, the ones without toes...they came at me from all sides. i was all freaked out at first, but as i became more comfortable with it, i decided it'd be a good idea to feed them from my hand. SO I DID IT. i fed a pigeon from my fingers. check the pictures on fbook (you'll have to wait for other people to put them up...i obviously was not taking pictures of myself freaking out with 293857 birds around).
oh, and we went to the frog and princess bar last night. it's essentially an american/touristy place. i love seeing paris' version of american things. their playlist included mambo #5, gold digger and cotton eyed joe. you know, the classics. whenever we tell people we're from california now, they go, "ohhh! the fire...it's on fire!" lol.
hi, i'm nicki, i'll be your tour guide
i love showing people around this city. it makes me feel confident and makes me realize that i actually have learned things about paris. so if you want to come visit, i'd be more than happy to show you around :)
the question i struggle with, though, is, "so, what's the best thing in paris?" hell, i dunno. i've had some stupendous afternoons in the parks, so my first answer would be that, but if you're only here for a weekend, you're not gonna wanna run all around the city looking at parks. you gotta see the monuments! so then i say montmartre. and then people ask me about it and i realize that i don't know all that much (really, i just like to sit on the lawn...i guess it comes back to my park thing). but either way, just running around this city for a whole day is exciting enough. i don't think you can go wrong.
oohhhh i went to the catacombs yesterday. eerie as hell. there are so many bones that i would forget that those were, at one time, inside a living, breathing, loving person with a story and dreams and heartbreaks. it started to look fake. but i love that kind of stuff...death, ghosts, hauntings, the like. they had all these sayings about death down there, too. unfortunately, they were in french, so i couldn't read most of them (but i took pictures and fully plan on translating). here, a picture of me kissing a skull, which is probably entirely inappropriate, but he's dead and i don't actually believe in ghosts, so he can't really do anything to me.
the jeansons are gone so maddy, mal and chris came over last night before we went out. i had such a blast just sitting around and talking. this is why i love roommates! there's just someone around all the time to listen to my ramblings. oh, and i finally locked myself out last night. those who have lived with me know i don't ever have a house key on me, so i actually expected to forget my key inside the house earlier. but, anyway, we were on our way out last night and at the EXACT moment i shut the door, i knew i'd forgotten the key. my door locks itself automatically (well, no, it just doesn't have a knob, so you need the key to turn the thing...whatever, doesn't matter) so once i heard it click, i was like, "NOOOO!!!" i desperately and failingly tried to magically push the door open, but obviously i didn't have luck. i went downstairs and told maddy and chris, who told me i had to figure it out then (good point). it was 11 pm when i knocked on the maid/apartment keeper/mail deliverer's door and i thanked my lucky stars when she answered. she kind of laughed at me and we both knew the feeling of leaving your keys behind. i told her i knew EXACTLY where they were (on the counter right by the door...seriously, i walked in 1 foot). but anyway, she was real nice about it and i was able to get in at the end of the night, so all is not lost.
now we've set our clocks back an hour, and it's the great time change, so i'm tres contente. good weekend. it'll be my last one in paris for 3 weeks :-D
the question i struggle with, though, is, "so, what's the best thing in paris?" hell, i dunno. i've had some stupendous afternoons in the parks, so my first answer would be that, but if you're only here for a weekend, you're not gonna wanna run all around the city looking at parks. you gotta see the monuments! so then i say montmartre. and then people ask me about it and i realize that i don't know all that much (really, i just like to sit on the lawn...i guess it comes back to my park thing). but either way, just running around this city for a whole day is exciting enough. i don't think you can go wrong.
oohhhh i went to the catacombs yesterday. eerie as hell. there are so many bones that i would forget that those were, at one time, inside a living, breathing, loving person with a story and dreams and heartbreaks. it started to look fake. but i love that kind of stuff...death, ghosts, hauntings, the like. they had all these sayings about death down there, too. unfortunately, they were in french, so i couldn't read most of them (but i took pictures and fully plan on translating). here, a picture of me kissing a skull, which is probably entirely inappropriate, but he's dead and i don't actually believe in ghosts, so he can't really do anything to me.
the jeansons are gone so maddy, mal and chris came over last night before we went out. i had such a blast just sitting around and talking. this is why i love roommates! there's just someone around all the time to listen to my ramblings. oh, and i finally locked myself out last night. those who have lived with me know i don't ever have a house key on me, so i actually expected to forget my key inside the house earlier. but, anyway, we were on our way out last night and at the EXACT moment i shut the door, i knew i'd forgotten the key. my door locks itself automatically (well, no, it just doesn't have a knob, so you need the key to turn the thing...whatever, doesn't matter) so once i heard it click, i was like, "NOOOO!!!" i desperately and failingly tried to magically push the door open, but obviously i didn't have luck. i went downstairs and told maddy and chris, who told me i had to figure it out then (good point). it was 11 pm when i knocked on the maid/apartment keeper/mail deliverer's door and i thanked my lucky stars when she answered. she kind of laughed at me and we both knew the feeling of leaving your keys behind. i told her i knew EXACTLY where they were (on the counter right by the door...seriously, i walked in 1 foot). but anyway, she was real nice about it and i was able to get in at the end of the night, so all is not lost.
now we've set our clocks back an hour, and it's the great time change, so i'm tres contente. good weekend. it'll be my last one in paris for 3 weeks :-D
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