02.14.06
Photos of France
Just a quick note: I’ve put up some photos I took in Paris on my Flickr account. These photos are viewable by the public, but I have other photos on Flickr that require an account to view (plus I have to list you as a friend), but they’re not that unique… just normal college life. I’ll make a note if I post some more in the near future.
By the way: I’m an amateur photographer, for those who don’t know. My work is on my DeviantArt page. Essentially, Flickr is for snapshots and DeviantArt is for art. Enjoy.
-Vic
01.05.06
What I’ve learned: France
What I’ve learned.
France
France is a beautiful place and it pains me that I have to spend my last days here wishing for finals to be over.
Read the rest of this entry »
What I’ve learned: People
What I’ve learned.
People
Some knowledge you seek, some knowledge you stumble upon, and some is forced upon you.
What I’ve learned: Academics
What most people see as a beginning is more of an ending for me. My old-world trek is in it’s dying days.
I don’t leave the country for another week, but my experience here is essentially over. I have to write essays and study for finals until January 10th and then on the 11th I visit a friend in Salamanca, Spain until the 16th, when I go back to the United States. I haven’t done anything special since my trip to Rome, so this curtain is closing.
These past four months constitute the longest time I’ve ever been out of the US and the longest time I’ve ever lived in someone else’s home. That has had an effect on me, Paris has had an effect on me, people have… etc. This post is a sort of closure for my whole experience. Some things here may be of some interest to people planning to go abroad in the future, but I haven’t fleshed out what I’m going to write beforehand, so we’ll see.
This is a long post broken into easily digested smaller pieces. Read whichever of the sections that interests you.
Excuse me for not starting with something very meaningful. I’m still doing work and that’s what’s on my mind.
Read the rest of this entry »
12.08.05
*End of the semester: CramJam2005
AHAHAH IT WAS ALL LIES.
turns out that extra essay stuff wasn’t true. Now I don’t twitch and tremble so much.
11.28.05
One night upon the countertop
The first time I tasted a pear, I didn’t really like it.
I don’t remember how old I was, but I was just not that enchanted with the taste, plus it itched my gums to take a bite out of one, as it did with an apple. After that first taste, I left them alone for the most part, preferring the tropical and berry families to their orchard-dwelling cousins. Since my arrival in France, however, I have found that our story would not end so quickly.
After the jump: A second taste and a deflowering
11.20.05
Funkin’ with Duncan
This past Friday night I met up with Duncan, who’s studying music in Paris for the year.
When I first got in contact with him, I was a bit apprehensive about meeting up. He was at best a friend of a friend (or rather, several friends), an aquaintance I’d see at Jonny’s house, but with whom I’d never had a real conversation. I figured “why the hell not?� and met him for a drink in the Saint Germain des Pres area. We started off at an expensive place on a main street and quickly wised up and headed out to find a less faux-trendy older crowd bar. Luckily, he knew about a couple of places and we ended up going first to Le Piano Vache [�The Piano Cow� …I dunno why either].
After the jump: Two great bars
11.08.05
The French riots: an American on the sidelines
One thing about having a blog is that now I feel required to comment whenever something big happens around me.
First off for anyone that knows me personally: I’m fine. I feel safe. Nothing has happened in my arrondissement nor in the arrondissements of the universities I attend.
After the jump: An American student’s view of the riots in and around Paris.
10.31.05
Roisin Murphy live at the Trabendo, Paris
Wow. You’ll have to excuse me, I’m writing while still in post-concert euphoria.
Tonight I saw Roisin Murphy perform live at the Trabendo, a little place in the Parc de la Villette, a 10 minute walk from my apartment. The concert was at 8:30, I arrived at 9 because nobody in that park has even heard of the Trabendo, let alone knows where it is. Luckily time is elastic in France, and the doors didn’t even open for another 10 minutes after my arrival.
I went to the concert alone. Nobody I know has heard of her and thus no one was willing to gamble the €25 ticket price on an unknown. It’s nice to go to concerts with people, but to have gone to this concert with someone unfamiliar with her music wouldn’t have made the experience any better. They probably would have just been like “Vic, you’re into some weird shit, man.” Going alone let me love every minute of the show without distraction.
After the jump: What the hell do you think? The show!
10.17.05
Normandie, 2e Jour
Continued from a previous entry…
That night, we had dinner at a Normandic… er Normandish… a restaurant serving the cuisine of Normandy (gracieusement paid for by Sweet Briar). To describe the food of this region, you only need one word: cream. Everything has cream in it or has a cream sauce on it or is somehow creamy. This makes it a bit heavy, but still quite good. Mushrooms are also pretty well represented here, as are potatoes. Dessert, however, was not so much a creamy dish as it was a dish that had whipped cream on it… it was a (delicieux) pear tart that didn’t have a creamy soul like our dinner, but was complemented well by the topping.
After the jump:
Drinking & a girl on her knees, beatboxing & a local bar, and an architectural marvel & the ride home.
Read the rest of this entry »
