THE EVENTUAL RETURN

so i've been back in london for about a week now. returned from paris last friday and found myself panicking over two papers due next monday (when i leave for spain), i've finished one! and given myself a brief rest for this massive entry on paris that will probably be the first to take over this entire blog's webpage. the weather there was a bit temperamental, but this visit probably ranks highest on my list of the most pleasant vacations i've had in my (short) life, thanks to the delightful company of magali duzant and michelle lee! it was very convenient to just walk around the entire city, it's such a pretty one with its slate blue rooftops! i mostly explored by walking, observed french society, sat in cafes, gorged on tasty pastries, saw beautiful art, visited cemeteries, went to markets, watched the L word with the girls, and listened to stories about snooty french art students.

first day in paris!


their flat was chilly because the french don't believe in double-paned windows, avec an outdoor dining table


aforementioned anti-climatic passing of torch


passed japan town/street, i've heard japanese cuisine in paris is suspect b/c they're mostly run by vietnamese and the fish is not fresh...i miss sushi


street of the bad boys (or something like that) in the marais, avec gun-totting panda


maison europeenne de la photographie


lunch with mags at a cute restaurant/bookshop


sacre coeur


jardins du luxembourg, magali and michelle add a bit of humanity


paris at sunset near the apartment


one of the stalls at an antiques market


some were like movie sets


there were often protests with frightful policemen patrolling with guns and bulletproof vests


debuffet piece at the pompidou


proust at the cemeterie du montparnasse, had trouble finding him so i just followed these two women, one of whom, upon arriving, proceeded to look at me and say "proust." indeed.


truffaut, one of the more touching graves with rocks placed upon ticket stubs


yummy pastries from patisserie sadaharu aoki


the louvre, i went to see winged victory but quickly ran away after seeing all the tourists


musee de l'orangerie to see monet's lillies


my last few days were filled with photography-related events, modeled with michelle for magali's jean project


and met alec soth! future famed photographer who was showing at the jeu de paume and kindly gave magali's photo class a tour of his work.


this was my last day. i was sad to leave. it's a bit lonesome living on one's own, i forgot how nice it is to have someone to start the day with! anyway, i'm back to normalcy till next monday when i go to barcelona, valencia, and madrid!

XENA IN FRENCH

HEY GUYZ REMEMBER ZENA WARRIOR PRINCESS, SHE'S STILL ON TELEVISION IN FRANCE


i didn't think the show could get any more ridiculous but yes. yes it can. a decapitated head is speaking in french right now. too funnyy.

DANS PARIS

ahh been superbusy these past few days. last wednesday morning, joey returned to london from spain and texted me if he could come by my place. he stayed for two nights, the first night we went to this cuban restaurant called cafe cubano that had guns and flags as decor all over the place and the second night we saw el orfanato, spanish horror film produced by guillermo de toro that absolutely terrified me. it was fun times. friday night, i went over portia way 133 to see rachel and phil, the plan was to go out to a bar and then club, but we stayed at the flat too long and showed up at the club as it was ceasing to be a STRIP club. we were expecting sixties music, not naked women. anyway, the night was kinda fun/awkward because phil had to pretend we were all his girlfriends and tell pervy men around us that he was not a pimp. also rachel stole toilet paper to make it worth the five pounds we each paid.

i arrived in paris last saturday night and have been enjoying my time here thus far! magali and michelle have been kind enough to let me stay here until the 16th. their flat is quite nice and near the marais, right by the pompidou and other art institutions. they've been telling me about french art schools and parisians through an assortment of anecdotes and tirades, entering french society has been difficult for them to say the least! sunday we walked around the neighborhood and the bastille market to pick up fresh veggies and fruit.

today/monday, magali had class in the afternoon and we started the 45 minute walk to her school after lunch. the olympics torch relay was happening and there were protests about tibet and policemen all along the river! i had no idea what was happening until the torch passed me. there were people with signs just sitting, but they looked like the most apathetic protesters i have ever seen. photographers were snapping away, but i was too put off by the scene to stay around. yes china is oppressive and hegemonic, but sitting around and holding something is not going to help. i was also annoyed that these photogs were just shooting away and that those images would later take on more meaning than there actually was, where is the truth?

then i went to tour montparnasse to get a panoramic view of paris. would post fotos if i had brought my card reader sorrrry. but even if i did, you wouldn't be able to see how breathtaking the city is. i realized how in all my traveling i've projected my own feelings onto places expecting reflections with the hope that the process would bring me closer to some understanding of the world. i stayed there longer than i expected so i couldn't make it to the cimeterie du montparnasse in time. i wanted to visit l'entrepot, a film institute/center, as well, but it started to rain and i was lost. i asked an old man for the subway station that it was near to, but he thought i was looking for the metro. he took quite some time to get a metro map out and was speaking french the entire time, but he was so kind! he insisted that i keep the metro map. i kept replying to him in mandarin, possibly because his french put me in foreign language mode and that's the first "foreign" language to me. but having took some french in high school, i can understand un peut. anyway, he pointed to the metro so i decided to come back to the flat. since the weather cleared up, michelle and i made a quick visit to a thrift store in the marais before cooking dinner.

tomorrow i get a haircut! i hear there are a few japanese places (restaurants, stores) around the opera so i am crossing my fingers for a salon. it's nice to be staying with friends who actually live here and have the time to not be a tourist. more walking adventures to come.