Thursday, December 4, 2014

Paris Rental

Hello peeps!

It's been forever but I have been busy!!!!!! Anyway, thought I'd give a shout out to Paris Rental De Circourt Associates. Yes, I work for them but they are seriously the best rental agency in Paris.

I can say this unbiasedly as I worked with them while looking for my own apartment a year ago. They were the only people to call me back! Actually, I think that I might have blogged about this at the time! I'll have to go back and check.

Anyway, check out our website to see some beautiful Paris apartments. Tell your friends if you know of anybody who is moving to Paris for a while, or just give us a few more hits! Actually, our Facebook page also has interesting stuff posted.... I post it ;) and the blog has really good info too!

So here's to Paris Rental!!!!



Thursday, May 8, 2014

Be humble, count others more significant than yourselves.

So, living in Paris is so glamorous... really it's nice.. but at the same time, you do all the things that would normally do.

For one, thanks to the warm-up run through the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens before the 30 day shred, I bring about half of the gravel from the park into my apartment. That would not be so terrible, expect that fact that I have unsealed hardwood floors with spaces between the boards, and I have to vacuum everything with my handy dandy DustBuster.

There is a first world probleme if I ever heard one.

Enter photo of DustBuster and living room.

Thankfully, whatever the DustBuster fails to pick up, the bottoms of my feet take care of the rest. So about every half hour, I sit, brush/rub/scrap off the crap from my feet, and then vacuum that up. It's a beautiful if not too graphic system really.

Let's hear about some more first world problems that I exeprienced yesterday.

(Yesterday was acutally a great day, I have no complaints.)

HAD to eat this salad because it is exercise time. It was yummy. I am so so hungry these days! I made a vinagrette with fresh lime juice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, sald and pepper. Then dumped in what I had which turned it into a mexican salad..... mâche lettuce (which if you can find it is delicious, Whole Foods I bet!), cherry tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, black beans, corn, and some weird shredded dutch cheese that I had because for some reason the store never has Gruyere. Threw on some baked tortilla that I had cut up too!



And then I got back to the vacuuming. So honestly, I love vacuuming. It's like one of my favorite things to do, especially here because my god, the dust and dirt is killer. There is way more here than in Hawaii. Speaking of Hawaii, my mom bought an Electrolux mini vacuum last year and it quickly supassed all others in my life and became my best friend. Sadly, my best friend was so introverted, she could only run for about 10 minutes before needing to go home (to the closet) to recharge.

I was using it so much that my mother was beginning to have a problem with it because everytime there was an actual vacuuming emergency, it would be dead.

Anyway, so continuing along with housekeeping, we have a dead dustbuster and now my laundry detergent packets exploded in the bag. Yes, here arrives another first world problem I have a washing machine. Which is very cool and very good because really, it acts as an encourager to keep all my stuff clean. But in all honesty, it's amazing to have a washing machine here, at least for people my age.

So back to the oh so interesting topic of laundry detergent. Perhaps you are firmiliar the degergent i use, they have dishwashing liquid like this, it's liquid, but it's in those thing, dissovible packets.

Well, this is the second time this is happening to me, one of the packets exploded and in turn, the oozing liquid dissovled roughly 80 percent of all of the other packets leaving me with a bag of detergent.

I had been using plastic cups to scoop some out but this week, I got smart.

In true France fashion, and perhaps I haven't talked about this enough but it will become apparent in forthcoming blogs... Evian is the answer for everything.

Here's how I solved my first world problem.

Global paring knife.

Overload please an incredibly messy kitchen full of crap that needs to be washed/put away but... surprise! I live alone and no one is coming over today.

Mess for the win!

Anyway, it was really really helpful that the kitchen wa such a mess. That way, when I spill in the coming pictures, everything got a nice coating of purple laundry detergent.


Enter Empty Evian


Enter bag of detergent. And purple sock that got stuck in the washer, only contributing, along with that purple rug you see, to me dyeing all my white laundry pink, but that is another story.



The drained remants of the disolvable packets. (reflecting off the incredibly shiny yogurt packaging)




Anyway, that was that day. I actually wrote this several days ago and never posted it.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Machete Order

Finally, a good answer to one of life's toughest questions...

So you watch in this order:

Episode IV
Episode V
Episode I
Episode II
Episode III
Episode VI

Bam! It's so right!


For those of you less informed... I'm talking about Star Wars.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold...

Now granted, I feel that the title of this post is almost completely wasted on the content because the title is so great! But I read that today and I really liked it and in the spirit of attempting to maybe possibly getting this blog post back on track, thanks of course to the numerous requests... which is very cool, I had to find some motivation. Anyway, read that verse and it compelled me to write.

I hope you have a hope that makes you very bold.

So here I am, writing. It's May 1, some sort of holiday in France. Really, not sure what it is for, but they are selling special flowers. I guess in the interest of becoming completely absorbed in the culture, I should read up on the significance of May the 1st, but for now I'll just stay here with you.

I guess I can also say, thanks to the reminder from Megan DeBoard, it's May/Lei Day. So perhaps a yarn lei should be in the making. We'll see. So much yarn needs to be reserved for my arm knitting projects which shocker.... are also on a "petite pause."

In other news....

So this week began Gillian Michael's 30 Day Shred... or whatever it is called. After graciously "borrowing" the dvd from Lauren, thank you AppleTV, and getting over the initial shock of her overly masculine presence, not to mention the size of her arms, I can now completely understand how those people on the Biggest Loser lose weight.

One, the workout is hard but short. Just when you think you are going to die, it ends.

Two, you can totally tell when she tells you that she understands that arm circles are hard, that she is used to exercising with people who are easily four times her size or perhaps just grossly out of shape. However, I am not four times her size, and Day 2, I am having trouble with the arm circles. So who am I to judge... I am just as out of shape as the next guy.

So, Day 2 and sitting to go to the bathroom is almost more painful than it's worth. Just kidding but I am sore!

Reminiscient of the early days of summer when HBA volleyball would recommence and I would hide in the bathroom to avoid running around the campus. Still to this day I wonder if people ever figured that out.

But to be honest... and I am being completely serious here, I think that even only after two days... it's really really working! Ahh It's kind of rediculous.

So, only being on Day 2, I highly recommend this. We'll see though how I feel Days 3 and 4.

Not too much going on in France. The weather has been almost completely terrible all the time with the short exception of the morning when I am trying to my inverted crunches and bicycle sit-up's that the sun chooses to shine... right.. in...my...eyes.. Super special.

I really want to post some pictures but the weather is so terrible, any pictures I take look a bit glum. I suppose tomorrow I can capture some of my arm circles... those will be sure to enchant.

Alright, there is an update... don't go too far... I promise, ha!, in the near future that I will try to make things more exciting. For now, just hope I survive until the next post.

I'll leave you with this.. Not overly current as it clear from the sunshine but beautiful none the less.








Friday, April 25, 2014

February

And on to February!

The Sutherland's came to visit for a day and a half on their way to Africa. I met them at the airport and stayed the night with them at their hotel.... it was like a mini vacation.


Then we all came into Paris the next day. They were the first to see my apartment (besides Meg). It was like having my parents here, they bought me groceries, helped me carry them home, took me to lunch, and then it was already time for them to go. I was so so sad! But it was great to see them!


Bought some flowers! It was the first time I had had enough courage to buy them! Now, I have them all the time. Aren't they beautiful! I had/have no vase so they are in a water carafe that actually has quite a narrow neck.. but it works.


It was sunny! So being extremely hungover from some dinner party the night before, I bundled up in layers, layers, layers and went to the park to read.


So usually, I buy flowers on Sunday on my way home from church.


Walked out onto my steet to find that I was in the middle of a period movie shoot... that was cool!






Later that night went to the grocery store and saw this beautiful moon!



Next day decided to go for a run. Key word being "decided" and not "ran." Instead I stayed home and ate ice cream.


Now it appears we're at Valentine's Day. I've been collecting all of my wine corks. Even for the number of bottles imbibed... still was not enough to complete the heart.


Then came the four weeks of no water from 8am - 4 pm. Enter washing my face with Evian.


Made some chocolate covered strawberries.




Okay so now enters where my school went crazy. They decided to shorten the length of time we had to do all of our classed but still maintain the same amount and workload. One girl in my class described it perfectly. "The best part of my day is the five minutes I have to shower. It's like my break." Basically, I have never done that much work so continously. Everyday... all day, class, work, repeat. This table was a staple in my success. Acutally, if you notice, I was sitting in that red chair so much that I finally had to start sitting on a pillow.

I also started drinking more vodka tonics.... making that vodka pasta a few weeks earlier really came in handy.

Actually, now that I think about it... the weeks of endless work actually began in January. I think here you are seeing exam studying. Also, you can see that my Christmas Tree is still "up."


Here's the table up close. Everyone was getting a little nutty.


Saturday morning I had had enough, went crazy and made myself a little American breakfast...had no idea what trend this would set! By the way, maple syrup is so so cheap here!


M&M's from Milds.... and the last Hershey kiss!


Here's a sample of the wonderful material we had the oppurtunity to study.


View from my street.



And we made it! Went to a bar called Havana after our last exam! Not a great picture of anyone! Had to keep it fair! Also, this "cuban bar" had no one Cuban item on the menu!


Somehow, even though we were done with classes and exams, we were not done with school. At a wine store for yet another project.


Made a salad.


My walk to my French School. Finished MBA classes and went right into French!





Pont Neuf!


More studying and flowers....


I think here I am doiny my business plan.




On my way to present my business plan. Picked up this amazing pastry! Wow! Incredible!


And back to drinking.


Then Anna and I concocted the world's best quesedilla's for dinner. Who ever imagined that dill could really bring Mexican food together!


Finally received the Syrian Tapestry from Meg and hung it up! So cool!


I'll let you guess what is happening in this picture!



And scene! Onto March!