The flight (in a picture).

Just look at those clouds.

The flight.

I have been back in Paris for two days, just lying around and enjoying the sun. As soon as I got out of the metro station, ending my twenty four hours worth of traveling I noticed that Paris had become a much nicer place. The trees were actually green and the sky was blue: things I had taken for granted the past seventeen years of my life. While laying on the grass this afternoon I finished Clockwork Orange, a book I was supposed to read last year for my final English project (I lost the book and due to the graphic nature of the book, was allowed to switch my project to a book that I had previously finished Farenheit 451, which happened to be a book about one third of the length of the former).

Matt and I had a book exchange while I was in New York and I gave him the books I had finished and he gave me A Year in the Merde, so between that and finishing Gulliver's Travels, I should be set for May.

Some Stargazing.

I would be exagerating if I said I met Whoopie Goldberg and Silvester Stalon and got my brother to watch Wicked on Broadway with me. But it would be the truth if I said that I saw the aforementioned double and then watched Wicked on Broadway with my brother.

Also, Liberty Island tomorrow suckahs.

New York.

I arrived into Newark airport one week ago where my brother Matthew came and picked me up. I had a very nice flight on AirCanada and was able to watch Harry Potter 7 pt 1, Inception, and Love and Other Drugs, as well as finishing 10 sudoku puzzles. I had a layover in Montreal that was supposed to be one and a half hours, but unfortunately I kept Matt waiting and worrying for me in New Jersey for five hours thanks to delays. When I finally got on the plane (four seats across plus an aisle) I had my first ever air  anxiety because out of my window I could see a propeller. A PROPELLER. Luckily I fell asleep and woke up just in time to see the lights of New York blaring outside the windows.

Since I have been in New York, it has been a very relaxing trip. Just enough touristy things combined with just enough sleeping in, vegging out and hanging around.

On the check list I have finished:

Here we go again.

For the longest time I didn't post anything because I hadn't done anything interesting. I was sick in my room for several weeks, and then immediately after I got better, I had a millions things to blog about but little to no time. My friend Louise from London came in stayed in  my room and it was a lot of fun to go out and see Paris again with fresh eyes, especially now that the trees have fully bloomed and the birds and flowers are everywhere. We went out everyday and every night and by the end (now) I was exhausted. However, I can now open a beer bottle with park benches, fences, a lighter and another beer bottle, and wine stoppers don't stop me.

Although I am not exactly 'recovered' from having a very long week, I am leaving for New York this afternoon and am praying I don't mess something up with my planes. I am so excited to see Matthew and start another exhausting week, but it will be worth it.

Dracula.

Right now I am reading Bram Stoker's Dracula, thanks to Gilert Juane's two euro classical books collection. While reading it there were several thoughts I had in terms of literary devices. (Thanks Valdy and Coghill!) The book is set up in a series of diary entries, newspaper articles, letters and telegrams but it works very well together. Bram Stoker is able to play with different dialects and thought patterns and it is actually a very good read. There are some things I noticed however with this method of writing. I just finished one of the "Diary entries" and the character finished his diary. He said that he was done keeping notes and if he were to start one again it would be a different part of his life and so he concluded with "Finis." While this is only a portion of the way through the book, it gave me the urge to put the book down. Although the story is by no means concluded, because of the very final word in his diary, I put the book down and found something else to occupy my time until the concert tonight.

Another thing that I quite liked, was "King Laugh." An idea brought up by Van Helsing's character, that laughter does not come at appropriate times, that it does not knock on the door, but that true laughter it is in fact the King and will come and go as it pleases. I liked the idea of laughter being in charge, just like when someone is exhausted and copes with stress by laughing, there is no control.

Paris is cool. Still wish I was in Baja.

I am off to go have mint tea and cakes in a mosque. Cheers.

The TMNT.

Currently babysitting, watching the boys watching TMNT. As the boys call it "TMint." Victor keeps checking on me to make sure I am paying attention to the movie and that I don't miss an important story point. "That's Leonardo, he's my favorite." The movie is kind of funny if you are only half watching. On their cool TV the CG looks even cheaper, but the turtles' new voices are more snarky and modern than ever. Ever sentence I write takes two minutes because the boys keep calling my attention to the screen, it's pretty cute.

Ok, I have promised to watch the movie with them after I finish. They are really cute tonight. I just came here form a great picnic in the Butte Chaumont. Thirty some au pairs from around Paris got together in the beautiful park. I have been there several times but this time, thanks to the sun and the flowers, it looked like a concert. The sloping hills were covered with people on blankets all facing the sun in outdoor concert formation.

They are hounding me to come watch so I will leave it at that. :)

April Fools Day!

Here in France it is called Fish of April, or Poisson d'Avril, and it is similar but the kids will hook a fish on the back of those they wish to mock. Thank goodness nothing happened this morning, but I am babysitting tonight so I can imagine the kids trying this as a way to worm out of bedtime. I am about to head off to a sunglasses store. 100 euros worth of Optical Discounts for 30 euros. Thank you kdgdeals. If you don't know what that is, it is similar to Groupon, but I find that the deals aren't as good. You buy a certain coupon which is a voucher for more than what you bought. Typically it is to grab business and customers, but I normally don't go again after I have bought my deal. This weekend may be a bit of a drag (last weekend too was ruined by my cold) but my friend from London is coming to visit for a week on Tuesday and so I will have an excuse to get out and do the tourist thing again as well as drinking on the seine. And two days after she leaves I leave for New York to visit Matthew! April is going to fly by!

The 2011 Baja kids leave tomorrow for Baja so I thought I would put this up (if it works...).