Déjeuner avec grand-mère!

Today I went to Boulder to meet my grandma for a final bon voyage before Paris. She helped me so much with Paris, I can't thank her enough! We met (although Jeff and I were 20 minutes late...it actually takes at least an hour to get to Boulder from the Fort...thanks mom...who said it would take 40...) at a little vegan/vegetarian restaurant on the Pearl St. mall called Leaf. It was really nice meeting up with her and explaining our classes, plans, etc (also very nice to find a vegan/veg head friendly restaurant! keep it up veg heads!). After looking for huckleberry jam (which I should try!) we said goodbye for the next 5 months.  Then I headed the streets of Boulder to find the perfect address book (which I find I'm still looking for...), then headed to the Laughing Goat for a spot o'tea jittery from sharing our excitement avec grand-mère. It's finally starting to sink in for me, I suppose all it took was my first au revoir :( .

Before she left, she gave me a euro card..its like a gift card that automatically transfers money to euros so that should be very helpful in Europe (I consulted lonely planet and according to their travel guide it should be great!) so I cant thank her enough for her thoughtfulness and help! I'll let y'all know how the well the card works once I'm in Paris.

My tombstone will be my diploma

-Eartha Kitt

My classes are official! My hopes when selecting classes were to pick the classes the explore the most famous (stereotypical?) aspects of Le French world.

1. Haute Couture in Paris: History of Style & Fashion
We visit Chanel (trouble for moi $$$$$), Lacroix exhibit, and so much more.
2. Beginning French II
Because you didn't quite learn what you needed to in high school french....ugh
3. Oenology: The History, Culture & Business of Wine
A class where I'll be able to brag about my wine tasting/making/selling skills here in the US of A to my friends (who currently have to order wine for me because I have no idea what the difference is between a pinot noir or Cabernet.....) Where I'll be able to visit a vineyard, pick grapes, taste wines etc (side note: the last house I lived in had a leftover grape vine from when it was a mini local winery...and I've found that wine grapes taste nothing like real grapes....) We'll visit the largest wine cellar in France (not quite as exciting as my visit to the largest wine barrel in Heidleburg, (with photo ops: the true American spirit ugh) but it should be a close second)
4. History of Paris: An Architectural Perspective
Where we'll tour the city and actually learn (amazing concept right?) about what we're actually seeing! Which will also involve sketches ( I'll have to wake up my inner visual artist, I haven't done visual art since high school!).

Classes are really like an educational tour guide of Paris...that involve tests and attendance, but they should be exciting and help unravel Paris for me.

Comme c'est romantique!

My next home for a few months

So I've recently found out where I will be living in Paris. I'll be within the 14th arrondissement. I really don't know anything about the arrondissements except for what I've been told by google. Apparently we're just 10 min from the center of Paris, just a metro ride to the heart. I watched Pairs, Je t'aime last night and the portion of the movie regarding the 14th I felt was the climax of the film, where the romance of Paris is unveiled (Maybe it's because she was precious, a poor french speaker, and American, so I could relate, but we shall see). I will be living alone that was a huge relief, no offense past roommates, but I love living alone, (even if it is in the cupboard under the stairs). I'm a little concerned with a community bathroom, but I was able to handle it at the gym, it shouldn't be any different...right?

Oh la la road trip

In retrospect I should have started my blog much earlier to document the processes of just simply getting to Paris. The drive to LA from Colorado to get a visa...the drive where our A/C broke in the middle of the dessert, the drive where we got stuck in traffic for 2 hours in 115 degree AZ heat. The drive where we almost ran out of gas in Utah but luckily (it wasn't Sunday: Mormons won't work on Sunday I've been told, luckily it was Monday ) found a teeny gas station open fully equipped with "Ran out of gas in Utah" souvenir shirts. The same drive where we landed in Las Vegas, had an amazing time. From dreaming with Le Reve,

dancing in the Moroccan baths of Lavo, drinking from the Piero Selvaggio's Valentino wine bible (equipped with 27,000 different bottles of wine), to Studio 54's $15 Grey goose cranberry juice that I left (one sip gone) on a table because we had to get out of there so quickly. I mean I'm a vegetarian and there was only sausage at that party. Not that I don't love the men, its just that I already have one...and one's enough. The World Series of Poker at the Rio

The same drive where we left Vegas at 5am to trek on over to L.A. where we experienced the traffic, the trash, the graffiti, the glamour of Rodeo, the paparazzi, the Bentley's, the Maserati's, the Bugatti's,

the beauty the luxury, the pointless (but still the envy). Where we got our visas for Paris, which was extremely nerve racking (especially since we drove 17 hours to get it! If we forgot something Au Revoir to Paris), yet still entertaining where the fingerprinting booth was equipped with a Spock photo.

Then we headed to Sprinkles, for a few souvenirs (that didn't do so well in the oven of a car that Jeff's Subaru really is) where I realized that I'm not really a fan of cupcakes even if they are world famous, where we headed through Beverley Hills, parked illegally in private parking garages, almost got trapped in a private parking garage, but made it out with help from the parking attendant through a very strange and disconnected sense of communication, then meandered our way to Santa Monica where Jeff played in the waves,

 and where I found myself only knee deep (safe from sharks) peeling seaweed from my legs but still loving the ocean, thinking that I would definitely live in LA sometime soon or somewhere with the ocean.

Maybe somewhere where you could drive 15 miles in 15 minutes, not 1.5 hours. We headed home from LA and Vegas exhausted but excited, the deed was done the visa was done. Paris was inching closer.