A Little Of This, A Little Of That

How’s it hanging, pretty people?

The last two weeks have been grueling, so please excuse my lack of blogging. I’m about to make up for it, though 🙂

In case you care to know, I had three exams last week (two in optimization/mathematics for economists and one in advanced microeconomic theory), two big homework assignments and then this week I had one major presentation in Econometrics, more homework and I have a final exam for my Mathematics for Economists class on Friday. BLAH. On the bright side, after Friday I will be officially done with one class! That’s a whopping 6 hours of class time and about 3-4 hours of studying every week.
Hopefully after that life will get a little bit calmer. My workout routine/climbing has seriously diminished as well, so that is where some of my free time will go.

Although I have been swamped with school, I have been managing to enjoy myself (because well, why not?). Last week I stopped in to watch a little bit of the Zedd concert, but because I had a crazy week of exams I was only able to fit in an hour. Still, it was a break and a musical one at that. Tonight I will be going to the Passion Pit concert, wahwahweewah.

The first weekend in October (Saturday the 3rd), Max and I attended the first session of the WBRU Craft Brew Fest at Lupo’s — it was awesome. Lots of delicious craft beers were consumed and I ended up winning the “hangover basket” raffle which had a bunch of fun goodies. Afterwards, we met up with a friend in Providence and ate at one of my favorite Mexican spots – Viva Mexico Cantina Grille. Overall, a very successful Saturday.

“Stay Pretty And Drink Real Beer” + hangover basket!

I’ve also been managing to fit in a little ride time here and there; hopefully more post-Friday. Sunday, October 4th I rode Digger (my mom’s horse) in an Eric Horgan clinic – a fabulous clinician I have been riding with since I was 10. It was a fantastic lesson and we have some high hopes for next show season… he even mentioned I should aim higher than first level, which would be freaking awesome! But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. We did, however, have a wonderful show a few weeks back in Connecticut – we won first place with a score of 70% in Training 3 and second place with a score of 68% in Training 2. For those not aware of dressage scores… those are high. Basically, I self-proclaimed us being official graduates of training level. About damn time!

Let’s see, what else have I been up to…

Did I mention I tried hot yoga? Max and I went a few weeks ago and I highly recommend it. We went to Rhode Island Power Yoga in North Kingstown; they were offering a free class due to their one year anniversary and it was so much fun we both bought their “beginner package” which was 3 classes for $20. Woo! Let me know if anyone wants to give it a try.

I’ve still been working, albeit only once a week, since that’s all I can handle. My juice game hasn’t been as on point lately, but hopefully when I get more time that will be altered.

Oh! Last weekend, I went to Point Street Pianos for a friend’s birthday. It is a dueling piano bar in Providence, and if you have a dirty sense of humor (as I do), or if you enjoy a fun, musical time with a bit of raunchiness mixed in, I highly recommend you check this place out. We went on a Friday night so it was pretty crowded, but we had reservations; I encourage you do that as well to ensure a table. It’s a comical time, but be forewarned: it does get loud, so if you’re looking for a place to sit and talk/be romantic, this should not be your destination.

The final fun thing I want to touch on is my rock climbing as of late. The Rock Spot (my climbing gym) started this new thing called the “Adult Climbing League”, which is a low-key competitive league that runs on Thursday evenings for 6-weeks; the kickoff event was last Thursday and I scrounged myself up a team! Obviously Max was part of it, but we needed at least one other person, so I convinced one of my fellow ENRE classmates, Kyle, to join us. He’s an amazing climber so that’s a feather in our cap. Our team name: The Crack Fisters. Yes, it is inappropriate, but we only chose that because everyone else had raunchy names as well. Teehee.

Kyle also happens to be friends with some of the really kick-ass climbers at our gym, and on Saturday, Max and I went with him and some other diesel climbers to Lincoln Woods to climb on some real rocks! It was challenging in the best way. Afterwards, we went to this little Venezuelan restaurant called La Arepa in Pawtucket. SOOO GOOD. Go there if you are into that kind of thing and in the area. Seriously, though.

Okay! Well, I think that is enough for me for one day. I should get back to some school work and final exam studying… later my loves ❤ I’ll post a side note later on about some upcoming events that may be of interest to you all.

Some Events To Ponder

Happy Humpday!

I’m currently sitting at my desk at school with an ugly cold wishing I was curled up in my bed right now, but alas… it is what it is.

I really ought to start my Mathematics for Economists homework before my Advanced Microeconomic Theory class starts, so this will be a short post – plus looking at my computer screen in this state gives me a bit of a headache. Fun times.

The past few months I haven’t been attending as many concerts as I would like to, so I’m trying to get back on that horse. After a brief query, I came across a few local concerts coming up; most of which I am definitely planning on attending as long as life doesn’t get in the way. These are:

• Beats Antique on Friday, October 2nd at 19h00 (Fete Ballroom)
• Zedd on Tuesday, October 6th at 19h30 (Ryan Center)
• Passion Pit on Wednesday, October 14th at 20h00 (Ryan Center)
• Cold War Kids on Thursday, October 22nd at 19h30 (Lupos)
• Guster on Thursday, November 5th at 20h00 (Lupos)
• New Politics on Thursday, November 19th at 20h00 (Lupos)

Other than musical concerts, there are two other events that may be of interest to some of you – they certainly are to me.

• WBRU Craft Brew Fest on Saturday, October 3rd – there are two time slots (Lupos)
• Kevin Hart on Saturday, October 17th at 19h30 (Dunkin’ Center)
• Rhode Island Comic Con, November 6th-8th (RICC & Dunkin’)

Well, that’s all I got for now, folks. Stay healthy and awesome and let me know if anyone plans on attending these… maybe I’ll see you there!

x’s and o’s

Electron

Here’s a video I took at the Electron concert in Fort Collins, Colorado and the Aggie Theater. Electron has members from The Disco Biscuits and Lotus, so you know I loved them from the start!

Newport Folk Festival L<3ve

My beauties! Hello!

It’s been almost three weeks 😦 I’m sorry for that. I don’t really have an excuse besides work and climbing, so you’re just going to have to love me regardless.

How are things?

I miss France today. Who am I kidding, I miss France everyday… but today I am feeling especially sick for what became my second home (or third, behind Burlington MAYBE). Alas, there’s not much I can do about that currently; c’est la vie. I think I have this undiagnosed (well, I’m diagnosing it now) problem where I have to travel or explore a new place every other week or so or I go a little stir crazy.

Why can’t some rich awesome person just hand me stacks of bills so I can travel the world opening eco-friendly and sustainable juice bars that use local produce? If you know of someone who fits the bill, I’m ready and waiting.

On a more realistic note, t seems like you all enjoyed my last post on The Gunks; thanks for that. I enjoy all of you, too. I promised that I would share about some of my other gypsy endeavors, so here it goes!

Sunset Over Newport

July 26th, 2014: THE NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL!!! That’s right, I scored tickets. My amazing friend Sarah, who happens to also be a champion concert go-er such as myself, used some gypsy magic to obtain us last minute tickets to (in my opinion) the best day of the weekend long festival. The best part? We paid LESS than face value! It was awesome.

Saturday Lineup

As you can see, it was a pretty fantastic lineup of performers. My favorites were of course Deer Tick, but Jack White and The Oh Hellos came in close behind.

Deer Tick Looking Sharp!

I just can’t get enough of Jon’s (Deer Tick’s lead singer) voice; it’s downright magical. His very pregnant wife, Vanessa Carlton, must think so too.

Vanessa Carlton making a guest appearance!

I had not been to the Newport Folk Festival in years because of it’s growing popularity and tickets selling out so damn fast, and I’m sad I had been missing out! It really is a magical place, right at Fort Adams on the water. So stunning and all the people there are friendly. However, I tend to be a big mush when it comes to music festivals, so maybe I’m a little bias. Regardless, I will definitely be returning and all of you should, too! My goal is to be a vendor there sometime in the near future — you can probably guess for what.

Sooooo, I had all these grand intentions to share more epic adventures will all of you sweet souls, but Max has just informed me that he needs my assistance with acquiring his car. And since I have been carting his bum around for the past 3+ weeks, I’m pretty eager to oblige. HOWEVER, I promise that I will be better with keeping you all updated on my life. It’s exciting, after all!

Before I leave, here’s a picture of the one purchase I made the the fest. I am in need of belts with all this epic rock climbing I have been doing, and this one was handcrafted, beautiful and inexpensive… so how could I say no?

Stay rockin’

A Lovely Red Weekend

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!! Well… Happy POST Valentine’s Day/Weekend. I hope that you all were treated as nicely as you deserved by somebody special in your life, whether it be a significant other, family or friend… it’s not always physical love that needs to be celebrated.

Max and I celebrated on the 13th since my beautiful and amazing friend Danielle came to visit from the 14th until today (!!!!!!), and Max chef-ed me up a delicious dinner that put me in a mild food coma – it was a mozzarella bake dish that included sausage, sauteed spinach with garlic & olive oil, gemelli pasta, roasted red peppers and pesto. ‘Twas yum.

Danielle Brought Me Chocolate Mice!

He also ate about 10 of my brownie-swirled cookies in around 3 hours, which was awesome that he loved them so much, but I can’t say I would recommend consuming that many in such a short period of time. I think that at this point – a mere 4 days later – he has already polished off the two plates that I gave him. Zut alors.

Anyway, Danielle arrived on the 14th and we just spent the weekend hanging around and enjoying ourselves; it was lovely. I took her to Raw Bobs and The Rock Spot for some climbing, we became mildly addicted to the show Girls (I recommend watching it – if you’re okay with nakedness; it’s hilarious and so so strange), got a little swilly with some red wine during the snow storm that we had, and we even created a beautiful snow maiden named Crystal Iceis. She’s a classy broad with nipple tassels. Yes, you read that correctly.

Crystal Iceis & I

The main reason for Danielle’s visit however was because I bought us tickets to the 6th Annual Cat Country Snowball, which was on Sunday the 16th.

We are both pretty die-hard country fans, and Rodney Atkins was the headliner, with other performances by Parmalee and The Henningsens.

Danielle & I

It was an amazing time. The venue was spacious, beautifully decorated with a silent auction and reasonably priced food and drink (woo!), the performers were perfect, the guests were all friendly – except for one girl fight that broke out between two 40+ year old women… so not okay – and all the proceeds went to benefit “Go Red For Women“, which is via the American Heart Association to fight against heart disease in women. When people with better video cameras than myself start posting videos I will be sure to spread the love, but for now pictures will have to do!

Rodney Atkins

Ticket & Pin

So that’s how I spent my Valentine’s Day weekend! Good friends, good food, good times – how most weekends should be spent! Or everyday for that matter…. stay beautiful darlings.

Short, Sweet & One Fair Warning

Good evening, beauties!

This is going to be a short one; I’m starting to lose control of my eyelids, and it’s only a matter of time before they close without my permission. Why, you ask? Well… I’m running on about 2 or 3 hours of sleep *gasp*, but it’s entirely my fault so I’m embracing it.
Last night, I went out with a silly crew for a friends birthday, and we spent the large portion of the evening out on the town. Our main destination was Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel for a concert put on by Umphrey’s McGee or “UM”, an American progressive rock band from Indiana, whose music is often referred to as “progressive improvisation”, or “improg”.

Tickets & A Homemade Juice!

If you’re wondering, it was great! I found a video some lovely person uploaded on youtube already, so please take a few momentos to check it out. They had a great vibe, it was a blast.

 

After the concert, a few people in our group had the bright idea to go to Club Therapy. Now, I consider myself a pretty open-minded individual, and I can usually have a good time wherever, but THIS PLACE WAS TERRIBLE. Please, please, do not go to Club Therapy if you have any idea of self-worth; at least from what I experienced.
First of all, it cost $25 PER PERSON to get in, which was absolutely ludicrous. I’m a poor post-graduate with student loans to pay and am hanging with college kids, where do you think we get the money to blow on cover charges like that?! Then… they didn’t even serve alcohol. Excuse me? I mean, if you’re going to charge me that much to get in, I expect champagne flutes being passed out, gosh darnit! Or at least PBR’s or something… come on people.

After that let down, I was expecting some entertainment at the absolute minimum, but nope. Wrong again. It was some DJ who wasn’t playing anything attractive or original, and there were about 20-25 people in the whole club, most of which were scantily clad and dancing around like baboons who were given crack. Honestly, I felt like I was in an underground sketchy brothel meeting place. Not about it. Never going again. End of story.

The concert still crushed it, so much so that I will pretend Therapy never happened, and we all went back to my friends to waste the night away, hence my 2 hours of sleep. Darn having to be a real person and work at 1. Whatevs, you only life once!

Eyes.getting.heavy.night!

Dance, Dance Until You Die

Getting all my ducks in a row, little pamplemousses. I figure it would be easier on me and more fathomable if I just did a few days at a time until I’m caught up. Donc, pour vous:

Monday, November 5^th: “Remember, remember the 5^th of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot”, in case anybody didn’t know 😛 I happened to have watched V for Vendetta a few weeks ago, so that phrase was fresh in my memory. Anyway, I had the usual slew of classes, and had to fight the Monday boo’s, yada yada. I finished class at 17h30 – no more extended classes, yay – and then went home to chillax, shower and do the lovely thing we like to call homework, erlack. I know I shouldn’t complain since in comparison to last years hell, the amount of work I get here is laughable, but c’mon! I’m in France, gosh darnit. It should be an unwritten rule that if you are studying abroad in a country that doesn’t speak your mother tongue, homework simply shouldn’t exist. When I become president, don’t worry… that will be one of my first amendments. Amongst other green things.

So yeah, that was pretty much it for my Monday. I spent the next hour or so prepping my expo for Wednesday, which is pretty much a 10-minute presentation on anything you want, as long as it is in French and not read directly off of a sheet of paper. To unwind, I read some Game of Thrones per usual, and went to bed at a decent hour.

Tuesday, November 6^th: Class, class, class. My translation professor gave us our “fake exams” back… and I’m pretty sure no one in the class got above a C-, COOL. I mean, for goodness sake, she expected us to know what BD was in French. I’m sorry, no (for future reference, BD = bande dessin, which is comic book in English. Why that should have been in my vocabulary, I’ve yet to comprehend). We actually read some interesting stuff in literature though, so that at least made the hour and a half pass by a little quicker than usual.

During class, I ended up convincing Nina to come on my night’s adventures, so after class we went to my apartment quickly so I could drop off my laptop and headed to Centre Ville for some dinner. Of course, being addicts, we went to a kebab place, ate some tasty kebabs with frites inside (!!!), and we were told that we speak French well. Being the proprietor, I’m sure he was just being nice, but I’ll take a compliment when it’s handed to me. We also didn’t have to pay for our frites, score.

Post-gorging, we met up with Natasha to go to her campus for a hot wine party. Yes, it was very delicious. Plus, it was hosted by GEM (the business school, chock full of foreign students from every corner of the globe), so we had yet another opportunity to parlons français with some natives. One of the students we conversed with complimented our French (twice in one night, quoiii), so it was yet another stroke to the ego, despite the fact that I’m 95% sure it was just a nice thing to say. Don’t get me wrong, my French has definitely improved, but I’m nowhere near good enough to be deserving of compliments from natives, but hey, I’m not going to tell them that.

After an hour or so, Ian met us at the party, we stayed for a little while longer, and then Nina, Ian and I made moves to Ian’s house to drop off our belongings. From there, we bought some brewskis (well, Ian and I bought one, had to keep it casual on a Tuesday night, plus I had my presentation in the morning), and went to a punk concert, wooop. Before we went in to witness the music, the three of us ended up having a mini-bonding session on a stoop for about 30 minutes, reminiscing on the best day of our young lives, aka Marseille/The Calanques. It was nice, and the music was pretty awesome as well.

Unfortunately, there were only two bands, but I guess it was kind of a blessing in disguise considering I really did need to get home at a decent hour to a) do my homework and b) get a full night’s rest before my presentation. I ended up getting home around 23h45, and somehow managed to do all my homework – of course I chose the one night to go out where I had to write a mini-paper thing – within 30ish minutes. Showering didn’t end up happening I’m sad to say, but I can be gross if I want. Needless to say, sleep came easily.

Wednesday, November 7^th: I presented my expo in class. It was supposed to be 10-minutes, but my topic was music festivals, so of course I was obsessed (plus I brought in all my rave toys), and ended up talking for about 30. Woops, not my chair, not my problem (don’t get the reference? Peep below). Wednesday’s are easy, so we were all done with class by 10h20, so Hannah and I went to the French Coffee Shop so I could Skype my grandparents and potentially get some homework done, but of course that didn’t happen. Nina ended up meeting us there, and after my Skype date was finished I went to WokBar with Max to hear about his Amsterdam adventures… GAH I WANT TO GO BACK. Oh yeah, and we both got shit on by a stupid pigeon, what the hell. Actually, I thought just he did so of course I was making fun, and then realized there was some on my fleece, eeeeew. Definitely not one of my top ten favorite moments. So gross, stupid rats with wings; I can’t say I’ll miss them when I get back to the states.

Herrrm, afterwards I went home to nap and do the usual necessary life things, had dinner with Madeleine, and then watched most of the first Twilight movie. The last installation is either out or coming out within the next day or something, and I’ve yet to see the most recent, so I was trying to re-cap and watch them all. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen because Nina, Emily, Hannah and I are seeing the newest one of Wednesday, so I’ll just have to settle with watching the one I’ve missed out on. I think I’ll survive… plus I forgot how absolutely horrendous their acting was in the first one. Gag me with a spoon. Thus concludes my hump day.

Thursday, November 8^th: Class from 10h40-12h30, had lunch on campus, and was then forced to sit through a torturous deux heures of translation for the second time that week, erg! We had to make-up for the fact that during Toussaint class didn’t meet, but half of our stupid class didn’t show (well, like 3 of the 8, harhar), and it just wasn’t how I wanted to spend my Thursday afternoon. Thankfully the majority of class was spent watching this French comedian, so I guess it could have been worse, but still, I didn’t get out until 15h00, and then the finally weekend! Woo!

It’s like a holiday every week; I love not having class on Friday. I can only imagine what next semester is going to be like since I’m 98% positive I will only be taking one class, hell yeah part-time student status (I’m so proud of myself for getting all my credits and classes out of the way by my junior year). Anyway, after class I went with Hannah to the shop and attempted to Skype my mom, but that kind of was a fail, plus she didn’t have too much time. Instead I just caught up briefly on the phone, and then ended up Skyping Danielle for a while until she had to go to work. So I guess my afternoon ended up being a success after all.

By the time I was done Skyping, my computer was dead and my iPhone was dying, so I figured it was about time to head to my apartment and start prepping for the night. I showered, had some dinner with Madeleine, and then met up with Hannah, Preston and a few others outside of Parc Paul Mistral to start the evening off right. Richard, Emily, Nina and a few select others ended up meeting us there, too, and once the group was rounded up, we went to La Bobine, which is a bar in the middle of the park. It’s nice because you can drink your own alcohol pretty much on the deck, so you don’t go completely broke at the start of the night.

Hannah and I, of course, ended up splitting our usual whisky and coke, and we stashed a bottle of champagne in the bushes for later. Actually, when were drunk, we kept on just running outside and filling up cups of champagne. Yes, we are classy, and yes we are nuts. Thank you very much. Max, Maddie and her friend ended up meeting us at the bar, and once we were all sufficiently drunk, we made our way to Vieux Manoir. Actually, we ended up losing a good chunk of the group, and Richard was rejected from the Manoir, and Heather and Evelyn didn’t even try due to their level of intoxication (go hard or go home, that’s the API way), so it ended up being Hannah, Maddie & co, Max, Preston and myself. I think; I may be forgetting someone, and if I am… my sincerest apologies. We ended up running into Robin and her friend at the club (Robin is an API member who I virtually never see, so it was exciting, especially because I was buzzing), and we soon became dancing machines. I had my first experience dancing onstage at the Manoir, and it was a pretty fantastical experience. I ended up dancing with this French guy who had incredibly sexy dance moves, so needless to say I was satisfied. Robin’s friend also knew how to boogey down, so of course I danced with her a lot, too. We stayed there for a while, and then had to walk home in the rain… eew (it’s been raining here a lot lately, I guess we’re in the heart of the rainy season). I got home at 4h00, and then fell into a deep, uninterrupted sleep. Great success.

I’ve Got A Crush On You

Hi Friends!
I still have a bunch of videos that I need to share with the world, so this post will be a mix of that and me catching you up on my life once again. It’s officially the weekend for me now because this week is France’s vacation week… I still had class Mon-Wed but it was only in the morning sooo yeah! Viva La France.

^ NERO KILLING IT. Amsterdam edition.
Saturday, October 27th: Woke up too early for me to be pleased. We had to be at the bus station by 8h30, which means I had to leave my house by 7h50 to get there on time.. ew. We left Grenoble a little before 9h00 and had a 3.5 heure bus ride ahead of us. I tried to sleep, but even with my human pillow it was virtually impossible to get comfortable enough to actually fall asleep. Eventually I just gave up and listened to music to pass the time. Overall though, it wasn’t an entirely painful bus ride. A little passed noon we arrived at our destination: Aix-en-Provence. It was outrageously windy there, so directly after we checked in at the hotel we moved our asses vite to find a place to eat. I ended up branching off with Richard and Macauley and we had lunch at some asain-ish inspired cuisine place. I got a soup that did a fine job with warming up my insides. Nomnomnom

After lunch, of course we had to have dessert. I opted for gelato, of course; the flavors I had were chocolate chip (except they were flakes, not chips) and caramel salted peanut vanilla. Yes, that is correct. It was an amazing flavor and if possible I would like to bathe daily in it. But alas. We had a tour scheduled in the afternoon with the group, so post-feasting, the three of us headed back to Maison du Tourisme to meet up with the rest of the API clowns to take a guided tour. We had the option to take the tour in French or English, but I was feeling lazy, so English won. It was a pleasant tour, but I really wish the wind was a little less intense. Thankfully though I had my spirit hood, so my hands remained toasty. Once the tour was finished, we all branched off again and I ended up buying dank cookies at this awesome cookie shop, then going back to the hotel with Emily and Richard to change into warmer clothes.

Try to ignore the creepy face…

From there, Emily, Max, Richard and I went to just explore the town… I ended up buying some sparkly black flats as well because I needed black shoes to match my black leather jacket (I’m still debating whether or not to buy matching leather boots though…). Richard was in search of a snapback, but it was all in vain. During our exploration, we stumbled upon this burrito place that came highly regarded by Evelyn (our resident burrito expert), so of course we had to stop in for an early dinner. Turns out, the proprietor of the establishment was obsessed with my spirithood, so I let him model it for a little bit… then I munched face on an amazing semi-spicy chicken burrito. Cowboy, take me away.

Post-epic food, the four of us purchased our drinks for the night: bottles on bottles of wine. I bought one for myself, and the other one I ended up splitting with Nina (thank goodness, because if I had beasted two on my own I would have been shithoused). I also found patches for Aix-en-Provence and Marseille in my travels, so my day was 100% made. My backpack is starting to look sweet, y’all! At this point, it was starting to get dark and cold, so we went back to the hotel, and I headed to my room to shower — and in true classy form, I opened my bottle of wine while showering because everyone else was starting to pre-game, and I couldn’t be left out.

When I was nice and clean, I headed to Max, Preston and Richard’s room to start the night’s festivities. It was just Max, Richard and I for a little bit, so we played some card games (I brought my deck from Amsterdam), and then Nina, Emily, Mike, Ryan, Natasha and Maddie joined us… so in true API fashion, we played king’s. Needless to say, we found out some secrets about one another, and we all left the room strongly buzzing. Well, to be honest, I was drunk, but whose counting? I had a slight mental breakdown concerning the boy (no worries, all is well now.. beyond well, actually), so when we got to the bar my friends decided it would be a good idea to buy me a drink. NO. Bad decision! You do not buy a crying drunk girl more drinks! But alas, it happened, and I vaguely remember slurping down a fairly gross tasting blue drink, and then being convinced to take a shot of caramel vodka. It was at this point that I started to black-out, and to be honest, I don’t remember getting back to the hotel, but API birds of a feather stick together, and I made it back safe and sound with some escorts. We didn’t end up going to bed until 3h30, and I broke down whatever barriers existed between Nina and Richard (inside joke, you won’t get it). Thus ended API’s day excursion in Aix-en-Provence.

Sunday, October 28th: Woke up and surprisingly was not that hungover. Thank the lord because we had to be in the lobby with our bags back ready to leave by 9h00. I ended up waking up a little after 7h00, so I had an ample amount of time to completely stuff my face with tasty breakfast food (I miss eggs sooo much). We left Aix-en-Provence on schedule and bussed to Avignon, a city in France where the Pope used to live before he bounced over to the Vatican (lamesauce). I honestly thought I was about to blow away a few times, but thankfully my feet remained on solid ground. We ended up taking a tour of Palais des Papes (Popes’ Palace), which was a pretty freaking cool fortress. I took a bunch of pictures, so stay tuned for those. I also bought Danielle a bottle of wine with pictures of Popes on it. Funny and classy all at the same time, you know.

After the Palais, Natasha, Maddie, Max, Elissa, Richard, Preston, Nina, Heather and I ate a tasty lunch at a creperie in town. I went with a crepe filled with cheese and ratatouille (sauteed Med. veggies), it came with salad and it completely hit the spot. The wind continued to blow, but we trooped it out and fooled around on a giant carrousel for a little… until we got kicked off. Party poopers. At that point it was time to get back on the bus and head over to wine country (Chateaneuf-du-Pape region, about an hour outside of Avignon), anyway.. plus, it was nice getting out of the frigidness.

Our final destination of the weekend was a winery, where we were enlightened on the logistics of wine tasting. During my cruise over the summer, my grandpa let me in on some wine secrets, so I knew a little bit, but this guy was a champion. I mean, if you work at a winery in France, you kind of have to be. It was a fun time, and I ended up buying a nice bottle of a 2007 red for my Nonni and Grandpa. After the tour/tasting, we walked around for a few minutes, but really the wind was deadly and I scooted back onto the bus as soon as possible. The bus ride was nice and relaxing, and before I knew it the weekend was coming to a close and we arrived in Grenoble… to find snow on the ground!! It was ludicrous, but I kind of liked it at the same time. We got back around 19h, so I went straight home, ate some dinner with Madeleine, read some Game of Thrones, and then slept for as long as I possibly could. Weekend = success.

I AMsterdam

This gallery contains 74 photos.

So here are the pics I can post without worry… And one of the many videos:

Are You The Now Or Never Kind?

Eyo, poppets. I’m almost caught up with telling you about my life!! I haven’t yet typed up a post for my weekend, but I’ll probably get to that tomorrow after class or something. Stay tunedd lovelies; until then, enjoy what I’m giving you.

Sunday, October 7^th: Woke up, did the usual morning things, and opened up my balcony window to find a crazy bazaar going on… right outside my door! Unfortunately I’m going a little too broke, so I didn’t even want to temp myself by looking at everything, boo.

Anyway, I left my apartment a little after lunch and headed to the coffeeshop to get my homework done. I hung around there for a few hours, and then went to Victor Hugo to meet up with Mike. He had asked me earlier in the day if I wanted to help make a ton of macaroni & cheese, so of course since it involved food I was more than down for it. I really didn’t know what was in store, so I just blindly said yes and hoped for the best. I wasn’t let down.

Basically, Mike has been going to this place called “FEU”, which stands for foyer evangelique universitaire, and it’s pretty much the hub for a student organization where people from all over Grenoble come to just hang out, play games, eat food and do general social things. It’s affiliated with the church, but it’s not like an intense Jesus-Is-The-Only-Way type of thing. I also like it because the people who go there are well-behaved (I need to mix it up sometimes) AND they all happen to be brilliant people; like biochemical engineer type of people. YES. I love uber smart people. The other bonus is that most of them are native Francaises, so it is a huge opportunity for me to speak French. The conversations I had were funny because they would speak to me in English (they want to practice), and I would respond in French. I met some pretty cool people who I definitely plan on keeping in touch with during and after Grenoble. Never hurts to have friends overseas!

Anyway, after Mike and I went to his house to pick up 4 (awesome looking/tasting) gateaux, we headed to feu to meet up with Mike’s roommate Jonathan and his friend from school, Justin. I’m kind of obsessed with both of them. They finished college and are in France to learn the language because next year they are going to Nigeria to start this church program thing (I forget the details). I want to do something awesome and rewarding like that. So the four of us were the only Americans, and we were in charge of cooking an “American dinner”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was brought into the game late, so the ingredients were already purchased so unfortunately I couldn’t use my food-obsessed skills to come up with a creative idea, but c’est la vie. The menu was: salad, mac&cheese with beef (homemade cheese sauce of course) and chocolate cake. Simple, but delicious all the same. SO GOOD. We made waaay too much food, so of course I got to gorge myself, which always means a good day. After dinner I hung around and socialized for a while with the natives – and these guys from Canada who are cool – but I had class in the morning and started to need sleep badly. I stayed until about 22h though, so I pretty much spent the majority of my Sunday there, a good way to end the week/week-end.

A cat found us, so of course I gave it milk

Monday, October 8^th: School, mer. For some reason I woke up at like 4h30 and couldn’t fall asleep for like 2 hours, which was lame and not a good way to start off the school week. I had class until 17h30 and was beyond exhausted by the time I got home, so I pretty much did my homework, ate dinner with Madeleine and her daughter (she was visiting for the weekend) and went to bed early to make up for my interrupted sleep the night before. One of the more laid back nights I’ve had since in Grenoble, but it was necessary, especially since people in my group are starting to get colds again and I in NO way want to catch that bug. I take my vitamins and chug orange juice for a reason.

Tuesday, October 9^th: The evil day of the week. It started off nicely though when I got my first French test back… an A+! Hell yeah. I have also decided that I like my translation class, especially since she gives us cookies every week; the quickest way to my heart is through my stomach, duh.

After all my classes were done (17h30), I went home to shower and change, and then headed back out to meet up with Nina, Richard and Maddie at Mezzo di Pasta before the Hockey Game!! Woooo. Richard didn’t come with us, so it was just Nina, Maddie and I, and it was a fun game per usual. Unfortunately our team, Brule des loups – the burning wolves – lost by a point. I was far from thrilled, but nothing I could do about it. At least I got my hockey fix, and I’ll be satiated until the next home game, whenever that may be. The game got out passed 22h, and I didn’t get home until close to 23h, and I was beatsauce. I made the decision to wake up early the next day to finish my homework and just passed out in my cozy bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, October 10^th: So my plan to wake up early to complete my homework was an epic fail. I had my alarm set for 7h, but in my sleepy state I turned it out and told myself I would be up in 5 minutes. Wrong. By sheer luck woke up at 7h45, and freaked out because I normally leave my house by 7h50. Somehow I managed to get ready in 5 minutes and got to class on time, but my homework was sloppily done on the tram… but at least it got done. Not the greatest way to start the morning.

Despite the shwagy morning, Grenoble never ceases to amaze me in its beauty

Thankfully I was done with class at 10h20, so I bought some sexy tights (they’re the ones that just stick to your thighs, yeahhh) and went home to take a much-needed nap and do my homework. The nap turned out to be a bit of a fail, so I ended up going to MacDo to work on the blog, and at 15h I went to the coffeeshop to skype with the boy and attempt to watch Dexter, which was another fail. Looks like I won’t be watching the new season until I get back to the states; but that’s something to look forward to I guess.

A group of us had plans to eat Batman Kebabs for dinner, so I met up with Preston 17h30 to head over there, where eventually Max, Ellisa and Mike showed up. The kebabs were fantastic as always (I got fries in mine), and after we finished eating we made our way to MC2, which is a giant theatre in Grenoble. We had a planned event with API to see Vivaldi’s Four Seasons performed by an orchestra, while at the same time a group of Chinese actors/acrobats performed to it and acted out things that were focused on Chinese History. It was an extremely awesome performance and nicely done, despite the fact that I couldn’t understand a lot of what they were saying (fast French and Chinese…); plus Vivaldi was a fantastic composer.

After the soiree theatre I went to a Mexican place with Macauley, Max, Ellisa, Ian, Evelyn, Kaitlyn and Maddie. I just got a margarita since I had already had dinner, but it was one of the best tasting margaritas ever. So tasty. Apres le diner, we met up with some more friends at this bar called Styx, but I was pretty tired and had class in the morning, so I opted to walk back home with Ian, Max and Maddie. Ahh, sweet sleep.

Thursday, October 11^th: Had my last class of the week from 10h40-12h30, huzzah! I hung around on campus until 14h, and then Mike and I bought our tickets for parapenting!!! Parapenting is popular in Grenoble, and is where you paraglide off of one of the many mountains we have here – of course you do it with a professional. Needless to say I am beyond excited… and it’s so soon too! It’s October 25^th, eeeeee. Don’t worry, I’ll take as many pictures as possible to document this once in a lifetime experience.

Once we purchased our tickets, Mike and I headed into Centre Ville for some lunch. Honoring tradition, I had a kebab for Kebab Thursdays, I can’t remember the name of the place I ate at (but I’ve eaten there before), but it was tres tasty and the woman who owns the shop is such a sweet woman. She thought I was Italian, a compliment I think. After lunch, I headed back to my apartment to trade in my backpack for my hula hoop, yeehaw. I hooped in V Huges for a few hours, and afterwards went back home to hang out and gather energy for the night.

Chocolate covered waffle… yup

Emily, Nina, Hannah and a few others were going to Emily’s French friend’s house to pre-game, but they were going at 20h30, which is before I even eat dinner so I opted out. We had every intention of meeting up around 22h and going to a bar, but of course in normal API fashion, those who pre-gamed went a little too hard, and it was like trying to herd cats getting the drunken fools to meet up with Max and I. Eventually we got to see them, but they were too far gone (and Emily was getting sick) to think about going to a bar, and Nina somehow managed to lose her phone battery which was an adventure in and of itself. Hannah was the only one sober enough to want to go out, but at that point I gave up, and just decided to go home. Oh, somehow I also managed to make some Spanish speaking friends at the tram stop, but I was a little buzzed myself so I don’t really know how that exactly happened. I ended up getting home around midnight, which was a good early night for me.