Middle Ages Museum

Hey everyone! Just a quick post to share a couple pictures of the Musée national du Moyen Age (Middle Ages museum). Tomorrow morning I'm off to London for a few days! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures and write a real post when I get back.

So Middle Ages museum....it was ok. It was much smaller than I expected it to be and super confusing to get around actually. There were no maps or signs really. My friend and I spent a confused 5 or 10 minutes wandering around checking if we'd seen everything at the end of our visit. Besides their organizational problems the museum was pretty interesting. It's in a super old building that fits in perfectly with the theme instead of a super modern typical museum building. Here's a picture of the outside.

 Super pretty, huh? 

Here's one I took through the fence...still not very pretty...

The other cool thing about it was that they had a lot of new mixed with old, like this video projection on the wall. I thought it was a cool concept.

Here's some other cool pictures from the museum.

 A whole room of stained glass! My favorite!

I love his sword with all the fleurs-de-lis!

Sorry for the short post! I'm off to London! Have a good weekend!

Quote: As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it. - Gandhi

Walk like an Egyptian...

Really cheesy title I know....I apologize =P

So today I went to the Louvre again. I went there a couple months ago and stayed for a couple hours, but only saw one section of the museum. I decided that I needed to go back and see some more. I was super ambitious this morning, but I ended up only seeing one section again. =( The Louvre is soooo big!

Today I went to the Egyptian section. It was really cool! I'm not usually a big fan of Egyptian art, but I actually really liked it at the Louvre today. Not too much to say....so here are the pictures.

This is the wing with the Egyptian section

 Epic...

Fishing net 

 Kitties!

 I love this little sculpture for some reason!

 Love the color turquoise!

 Perfect for a perfectionist like me!

 More turquoise!

 This automatically made me think of Lost (even though there are two feet with five toes)...

....yes I'm a huge dork. 

 I have no idea what this book is or what it says, but it's pretty =P

Both cool and creepy...

So that's all of the Louvre I made it through today. Still much more of Paris to see...I have to start making a list! If you have any suggestions of things for me to do or pictures you would like to see let me know!

Quote: From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

Winston Churchill  

Summer Goals!

So...I've been officially on summer vacation for almost a week now and what have I done? Slept a lot, watched Dexter season 4 again with my boyfriend (France still doesn't have season 4 or 5!), finished Fringe season 1 and started season 2 (ha ha....new obsession), played and finished a computer game (yes I'm turning into a bit of a geek), made some pretty good (if I do say so myself) fettuccine alfredo, and gone swimming. Now that I write it all out I guess I have actually done something, but nothing of real importance.

So....I'm in Paris for the summer with no real solid plans as of now. I do have some goals for the summer, and I thought sharing them on my blog would motivate me a bit more to complete them. Also I guess you all might find my thoughts some what interesting if you're still reading. So here we go...


Goals for summer 2011:

1. Study for the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations for grad school applications) 
2. Read at least two books (hopefully more, but I need to justify bringing my two books with me to France) 
3. Do yoga at least once a week
4. Do the LA Times crossword at least twice a week (and not just the Monday and Tuesday ones...I'm going to catch up to you Mama =P )
5. Visit as many places on my Paris to-do list before my visa expires in June (I get in free to most museums as an under 26 year old resident of the European Union)
6. Write a blog post at least once every two weeks (because I know you all love me so much) 
7. See Harry Potter! (like I need a reminder for this one)
8. Find somewhere to do volunteer work here
9. Take as many pictures as possible
10. Relax and have fun (If I'm remembering correctly this is the first summer since I was 12 that I haven't had a job and a show to do during the summer, so I'm going to try to slow down and store up some relaxation for my senior year)

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this blog post. I just wanted to write this all down to get me motivated! 

Tomorrow I'm planning to go to the US Embassy (super exciting I know) and do a little bit of sight seeing, but I'm not sure where yet. We'll see. The bad part is that all the tourists are here now so everything is super crowded. Yeah I know I'm kind of a tourist too, but it's a little bit different since I've been here for almost 4 months now. Wherever I go I'll be sure to take some pictures to share! Have a good Wednesday!

Quote: 

"Most of our life is a series of images. They pass us by like towns on the highway. But sometimes, a moment stuns us as it happens. And we know that this instant is more than a fleeting image. We know that this moment- every part of it- will live on forever"

**According to the internet this quote is from One Tree Hill....yeah....how about we all just pretend it's from something a bit more classy and intellectual, okay?

Theatre, Cemetery, and another Church...

So I haven't posted in a super long time....sorry about that. Over the last month I have had spring break, my last couple weeks of school, finals, and I've moved all my stuff half way across Paris on the metro. I didn't have a chance (or maybe rather the motivation) to post until now. I guess it might also be because I didn't have that many exciting things to report.

Hmm...what have I been doing? I stayed in Paris for spring break. It turned out to be pretty relaxing and fun, but I didn't do anything very epic. I went to Disneyland (again...yeah I know, but it was fun and I rode a bunch of rollercoasters!), slept a lot, and hung out with my boyfriend. Finals were annoying as always, but not nearly as stressful as finals at Oxy. The last thing I had to do for the semester was a  performance for my theatre class. We did a bunch of short scenes (in French obviously) and combined them into a show for the end of the semester. I was actually in two scenes: L'Avare by Moliere and Tragedie by someone...sorry I'm too lazy to look in my script right now. Here are a couple pictures that my boyfriend took during the performance. Thanks Joe!

 L'Avare

 Tragedie

So now I'm on vacation...and officially a senior in college! Crazy! Right now I'm taking advantage of having nothing to do and just relaxing. =)

Here are some pictures of the Montparnasse Cemetery (where Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir are buried). I went here like 2 weeks ago, so it's a bit late...but here they are anyway.

 I really like cemeteries strangely enough...they're so peaceful, and this one was super pretty.

Some more old pictures... These are from a random church (I don't even remember the name of it, that's how long it's been) near the Mexican restaurant that I like. I know they probably look really similar to other churches that I've photographed in Paris, but I especially like this one! The lighting is awesome, and the stained glass is so colorful and easy to see.

Anyway, sorry for disappearing for so long. I'll be in Paris through August, so I'm planning to update more regularly from now on.

P.S. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there, but especially to my mom, Dana! I love you!

Quote: Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow.  ~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros