a bookstore, a piano bar and cheap sangria

you know, this city isn't THAT expensive if you look hard enough...or maybe i've just been here too long and am now convinced that a 6 euro cocktail isn't "that bad."

last night began at shakespeare and company. if you know me (and i think you do, loyal readers), then you know i was excited about this. there's this book called "i wish someone were waiting for me somewhere" by anna gavalda that i've picked up the last 2 times i've been in there. it's a great little read, but the only thing stopping me from actually buying the book like a regular person is that it cost 13.50 euro. and it's a small book. so no, i'm not gonna pay like $20 for a book. i'll just go in the shop and steal some reading.

afterward we went to a wine bar that turned out to be a piano bar for happy hour cocktails. the guy sang some french songs and then some english songs and attempted that louis armstrong thing...you know, that thing where it sounds like he's kinda got a loogi he's trying to get out? that's the second french performer i've heard attempt that. what's with people? ah, louis armstrong voice or not, the guy was great and mal, maddy, chris and i agreed that we were new fans of piano bars.

in search of a dry place (where the heck did all the rain come from?!) with cheap drinks, we headed to le 10 bar, where there were rumored pitchers of cheap sangria. it was true! about 13 euro for a 4-person pitcher, which gave us all 2 glasses of sangria. we busted out our paris souvenir cards and played a few rounds of BS. THAT GAME IS CRAZY. i hate when people have four of a card, because then there's NO WAY that anybody else can lie. i at least want the option of lying if i feel like it, because that's the freaking point of the game, people.

aw, crap, i'm getting all worked up and saying "people" like mom does when she's trying to get us off the couch in san clemente (clapclap "come on, people!"). i think that means it's time to end the post.

craigslist findings

have you guys ever browsed craigslist? probably. i'm like the last one to get on the ball here. anyway, i was turned on to it while house hunting, and now i'm checking for couches. i'm finding so much more.

under "household items," i found a Miniature Schnauzer Purebred (M) Docked/Cropped/Lic/Advantage/Shots for $400.

you can also buy some stained glass for christmas. the seller even promises that "it's the gift that keeps on giving all year long." ah, my precious stained glass, just always giving.

know what's weird? personal ads. i click on one of this guy who doesn't even necessarily want a girlfriend, but just someone to talk to. i scroll down and he's got two pictures of his face and one of his body..just his body. and he's not even that in shape. why would you put that up if you don't have a chest to brag about? i'd be nervous to answer to a personal ad on craigslist cuz i'd be afraid of being at the butt end of a joke.

guy: "dude, what if you put a personal ad up on craigslist? who would respond?"
guy's friend: "haha, dude, i bet you'd get really weird girls."
guy: "we should do it! hahaha"

and then they make up some profile, which i'd respond to on a particularly adventurous day, only to be laughed at. see what i mean?

EDIT!

did you know you can barter on craigslist? it's just like being on the oregon trail, except for the internet.

one woman is offering some breast implants. yeah, seriously, she's giving away BOOBS. they're not used or anything...i think. ew, that'd be gross if she got them removed and was like, "actually, could i hold on to those? i think i've got a use for them..."

i can also get two dental chairs for FREE! i dont even have a good use for those. oh, wait, they specify in the ad that they're for "anyone who could apply to good use." man, no dental chairs for me.

in the "for sale" section, there's a link for baby+kids. i went there to look for a baby to adopt. i was disappointed.

isla vista dreamin'

(more procrastination posting, as promised)

i've been watching videos of IV for the past (get this) HOUR. yeah, there are enough videos of the place for me to do that.

those videos put me in the best mood. i know i'm lucky to be traveling all over europe and i'm seeing some of the most beautiful cities in the world, but i still haven't found a place quite like my little iv. when i watched the videos, i couldn't wipe this huge, dumb smile off my face. here, go watch one.

can't wait to see your lovely face, isla vista (even if it is blemished by beer cans)

does it make you happy?

for my comm class, i'm researching global media and happiness. i haven't really figured out what link i want to make yet (are advertisers manipulating our happiness to make us buy stuff? is google helping me find a good self help group to make me happier? is globalization in general making us happier?), but i'll get there. the deadline is coming up next tuesday, so of course i'm procrastinating. oh, technically it's not due until dec 14th, but i'll be in barcelona from nicki day (dec 12) to dec 14th, and i dont want to worry about a silly comm paper.

what's difficult about researching this specific topic is that when i do it, i really want to be happy. know what makes me more happy than looking up articles in online databases? like, everything. oh, sure, i'll run across an interesting article and get sucked in, but it takes me a while to get there.

getting good research done is like taking a shower. before the shower, i do lots of things to put it off...go on facebook, go for a run, read a chapter in my book, eat something, do yoga, call mom and dad...you know, everything. once i finally run out of things to do, i sigh and turn on the shower. ugh, dammit, shower time is here. once i'm in the shower, it's kind of a hassle to wash my hair and scrub under my armpits. then there's getting out! oh, the ordeal of getting out is almost more trouble than it's worth because i'm all wet and i have to wrap my hair in a turban and pick out an outfit and put on makeup and do my hair and OH LORDY so many things.

but once i'm clean...ahhhhhhh that's a great feeling. sometimes i'll just flop down on my bed, happy to bask in my cleanliness. what a feeling of accomplishment.


with research, it's irritating to log on to the ucsb site, figure out a good database, pick out the best words, read all those abstracts, download the full text PDFs, take notes, etc etc. but once i look at all my scribblings in my blog (yeah, i make research blogs, too...told you, i love the things), i get kind of excited at all the stuff i've managed to dig up, especially because i have this tendency to choose topics that don't have a lot of history/research to look at.


anyway, i'm glad i made that long and complicated connection between showering and researching, as i'm sure you are, too. i've got lots more reading/writing/researching to do, which also means i've got plenty of procrastinating to do, so you can expect more updates soon.

procrastination!

if i could make a pie chart for how i spent my hours during the day, i wouldn't do it. it would show me that i spend at least 60% of my day split between the metro and facebook. that is disgusting.

but i did manage to read a chapter in my econ book today (hurray for money supply and required reserves ratio) and start to get some thoughts on paper for my comm project. i'm looking at globalized media and happiness, and it's actually pretty interesting. but you know what's more interesting? your pictures on facebook. and playing scrabulous. and responding to messages with alarming speed.

see you in 17 days, california.

sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me

i don't know if it's because the french are stereotypically rude or it's just big city folk in general, but lots people here aren't nice to me. they aren't cruel or abusive or anything...they just don't reach out to help strangers or do random acts of kindness. i've never had more people think i'm a complete tard.

they're usually right. i don't know how to express myself well in this language, so i usually come out looking like a moron. i also didn't know how to handle myself in a big city at first, so i stumbled on a lot of things (literally and figuratively).

having so many people look at me funny and --to put it nicely-- be short with me, i've become hardened to this kind of rudeness. when someone isn't nice to me at the cash register, i brush it off. if someone doesn't smile back, it's no big deal. when i was calling to apartments in iv earlier, some of the people sort of treated me like i didn't know what i was talking about. instead of getting all worked up about it, i found myself unaffected by their non-niceness.

this is a change in myself that i'm glad to see :-)

class in 47 minutes

it's unbelievable how much i DONT want to go. ah, well. 3rd to last poli sci/econ/comm today :-D

4 days without updates?!

blasphemy! my apologies, readers. i was gone in amsterdam this weekend, which might explain the lack of updates. i'd tell you lots of stories about amsterdam, but there is no way they will be able to tell you how the city really is.

we got on the train early friday morning (6:55 am!). train>plane. though i do love airports and hanging out in the terminals (this is not sarcastic), you still have to go through all that crappy check in/security stuff with planes. on a train, you just walk on and it leaves. i could've arrived at 6:50 and been on the train with 5 minutes to spare.

after the 4 hour train ride, we checked in at the hostel and found anne frank's house. this experience is definitely one that i couldn't write about. i don't own it enough to do that, if that makes any sense.

later in the day we visited the sex museum. my conclusion? everyone everywhere in every time period has loved sex.

red light district friday night. it's bizarre having a mostly naked hooker staring at you, eying you, trying to get you to come in for a romp. what's weird is a lot of the girls were fat and ugly (and covered in enough make up to conceal the latter). hats off to the girls for dealing with the creepy groups of men staring at their boobs.

biking around the city saturday. i thought for sure i was going to die in one of those intersections. they're not the nice square ones like we have in san ramon/sb...they're more like everybody's coming in from a different angel with little regard for what color the light is and who's crossing right now. but we got to do a loop around vondelpark at dusk, and that made my trip.

van gogh saturday afternoon. i didn't know much/anything about van gogh before i went in, so i was a bit apprehensive. but then i read those little info bits by the paintings, and learned a crap ton about him. now van gogh gets a gold star in my book.

the souvenirs in holland are the best. (fyi, i just looked up the holland/netherlands thing. north and south holland are two provinces in the netherlands, but we english speaking folk tend to get confused and call the whole country holland. silly us) i love those little shoes, and the windmills! i'd love to get back there and see the windmills when the tulips are in bloom.



oh, yeah, we went to some coffeeshops. :-P