In the Eye of the Beholder

Yesterday I was doing that thing called homework off and on all day.  I was having a pretty rough time with it because the weather was that dark overcast that Michigan has just perfected.  And it was raining that kind of mist that makes you a little sad it isn't just a bit colder so that it's snowing instead.  I really love this kind of weather.  It makes you feel cozy and warm, even if it isn't like that outside.  I know that I am in the minority with these thoughts, but the safety created from an overcast fall day is one of the best feelings you can have.

At one point I was working on a surprisingly difficult response paper in one of the lounges by my room when I looked outside to take a break from staring at the computer screen in front of me.  I'm so incredibly happy that I did, because at that moment the clouds had taken a break from their windy rampage and the sun was setting just right that there was a bright pink-orange lining just at the top of one group of clouds.  It was downright pure beauty.  I tried to capture the moment on my phone, but of course you can't capture certain things on camera.  I know I say that I want to be some sort of photographer, but even I have to admit that sometimes it is better to just take it all in.  I can describe it to you now and you're probably reading this thinking that it sounds pretty nice, but you don't even know the half of it.  Then the clouds got swept up in the wind again and the scene disappeared before my eyes.  At first I was sad, but those clouds left me feeling so much better about everything going on yesterday.  I finished my response paper and spent the rest of the night relaxing and enjoying some free time before another busy week would start, no doubt in perfect cloud-free, rain-free sunshine.


I was right by the way.  It's been sunny all day. 

It's Always The Hardest Right Before You Begin

I'm in a weird mood right now, and for a lot of today, so I wanted to put pen to paper and create something.  But drawing sounded wrong and my hand cramps up when I write in a journal.  Instead, I've decide to start typing.  And I figure if I'm gonna type something I might as well do it here because otherwise I just forget about this thing for far too long.  So I'm sorry if this isn't the most interesting post ever and I jump from topic to topic without giving any of them a whole lot of thought.  That's just where I am right here, in this moment, staring at the cursor blink at the end of each word as my brain tries to come up with some sort of excuse for creativity.

Topic number one:  Rules. I've decided that I'm not too big on rules.  I won't list the ones on my mind now but they keep causing problems for me.  And didn't someone once say that rules should be broken rather than followed anyways?  And if we are breaking rules than who's to say what else we can break?  Like boundaries?  And we can easily break bones and easily break hearts too.  But then who does the fixing?  Who comes with their hammer and nails to repair all the broken things?  I think I'd like to be a person that fixes things. I'm not sure how I can do that, especially since I'm the one writing all about how I want to tear down those rules that cause the broken things, but being a fixer sounds like a lot more fun and certainly a lot nicer. 

Topic number two:  Proficiency Exams.  They are dumb.  So far I've only taken one, but I've done it twice so I think it should count for more.  Both times I did horribly but it didn't quite make sense because my scores in the class weren't half bad.  I thought I would pass.  I got all the credits so it technically doesn't matter, but I can't put it on a resume in case someone checks my transcript.  I don't get the special piece of paper that announces to the world that I am proficient in the eyes of my professors either.  It doesn't bother me all the time, just sometimes.  When someone shows me an opportunity I missed I get pretty upset.  Or when I walk past my professors and they give me that look like they think they know me and I just have to lower my head and avoid eye contact until they turn away.  It's not a topic I generally like to discuss but somehow it keeps coming up.

Topic number three:  Creativity.  You know how some people are just so creative you immediately get jealous when you see them because at list one time in your life you have listened to their work?  I know at least two people like that right now, probably more, and I seriously can't handle how amazing they are.  I don't understand how their brains work the way that they do but I'm immensely jealous.   And every time they speak my mind feels like it needs a second to recover from the blow it just got.  One day I'll be like them too and people will have to recover when I read them some of my work.

Today Julia is responsible for the title of this blogpost.  She told me to just start writing so I did and this is the result.  Thanks for the push.  Sorry it wasn't everything you had hoped for.

Be Ready For Inspiration

So I know it has been an obnoxiously long time since I've posted anything, but hey guess what!? I'm back!  I've actually been inspired to write again! 

Basically my week has pretty much rocked.  I've had homework but I'm totally not stressed so that is pretty awesome.  I watched and read The Graduate for the first time!  I even vlogged with my friend Julia on our new vlog (which you should totally check out!)!  To add to all of that amazing, I had my first creative writing piece returned to me and my professor really liked it!  He said I had great voice even the the topic was super weird which I thought was very funny and super exciting.  I'm starting to thing this whole big pretend dream of me becoming a writer someday could maybe totally actually a little bit happen!  Then tonight, my roommate decided to go to Poetry Forum and she was inspired by all things rhyme and wonder.  She was sad though because her poems weren't "long enough" or "good enough", so my RA decided to challenge us to write some poetry and basically not hate it.  Of course, being super competitive, we decided to accept.  Okay okay.  It wasn't a real "challenge" per say, but it definitely had potential.  So we came up with a theme (the moon) and a time limit (15 minutes) and just sat on the floor with a pen and a college ruled notebook and wrote wrote wrote!  It was awesome! 

My message to all of you wonderful people who have stuck with me and actually kept up with this thing:  GET INSPIRED!  Go do something spectacular and have the best time of your life!

Interested in the vlog? This here nifty link will take you right to it.  You're welcome! http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOKtpQKyLmusWsVmzMmV5Iw

Now I will leave you with the poem I wrote earlier this evening.  I don't care if you don't like it.  I would never claim that it's anything like Shakespeare or Dickinson, but I enjoyed writing it and I hope that you enjoy reading it as well.  

The Moon

Darkness
The sky is black except for the singular light of the moon
A glowing orb of hot white light streams to the ground
No clouds, no stars, just the moon and the people there to see it
They watch as it shines and shows them the after-hours world
A cricket chirps.
A frog bellows.
And the moon glows.
The grass moves and whispers to the river
The river answers as it rushes over smooth white pebbles
The moon shows it all with its hot white light

Cold
The night is cold with no sun to warm it
But the light, the illuminating light isn't cold
It isn't warm
It's hot like coals stuck under a mattress
while the little boy sleeps
and the mother and the father too
and the moon shows it all
with its hot white light

It was full
Then it was half
Now the moon is nothing but a sliver
Soon it will be nothing at all
And then there will be nothing to show the people the after-hours world
Until tomorrow when it beings again
It grows and grows 
Until...

A glowing orb of hot white light streams to the ground
And the people see it
And the crickets.  
And the frogs.
And the whispering grass and the answering river see it. 
And the moon shows it all with its hot white light and its glowing orb
And its man who smiles as the face of the moon looking down at the people that look up at him.
The moon

PS. This title was lovingly inspired by my good friend AGS. Thanks for the inspirational text the other day!

Adios Barcelona, Bonjour Paris! (Monday, June 10, 2013)

Today we woke up, had breakfast, and went to our last class at IQS.  Then we had some free time so my roommate Erica, Sara, and I took the metro to the Picasso Museum.  We heard it was a must see in Barcelona, so we figured we would take advantage of our time and hit that up.  We got there only to find out that the museum is closed on Mondays.  We were all pretty upset but my roommate was probably the most upset.  I felt bad that we didn’t make it.  Now we tell people, “Oh yeah, we went to the Picasso Museum.  You didn’t?” And no one (except you lovely readers) needs to know that we didn’t actually get to go in.  How perfect! 

Then we hit up some tacky tourist shops and a pharmacy to get some goodies to bring home to the US.  After that we took the train home.  We made the same mistake as yesterday and got on the wrong train, in fact the same exact wrong train that we had gotten on yesterday, at the same exact train station.  Someone told us we were going the wrong way and how to correct our error, so we were only lost for a few minutes instead of hours, but it still cut into our free time just enough to annoy us a little. 

Once we got back we went to the produce store and the market by our hotel so we could get food and water for the train ride to Paris.  Then we got our luggage from the hotel, loaded onto the bus, and got to the train station where we all waited in a huddle next to the tracks.  Someone dropped her wine bottle and it shattered with a splash of Cava, but otherwise that part of the day was pretty uneventful.  We just sat there trying to be sure no one got pickpocketed or stolen from. 

Then we got on the train and squeezed into these tiny little 4 person cabins with all of our luggage and backpacks.  It was crowded but honestly it was more like a cozy little Hogwarts Express, only not.  Plus once they pulled the beds down it was perfect.  All of FN had 3 full cars in the back of the train (mine was the last car) so we could be as loud and annoying as we wanted.  Obviously, with this group, we were pretty ridiculous.  We danced and ate and partied it up.  I also got to have some great conversations with the other people on the trip and blog a bit for when we had Internet again.  Then I went to sleep and woke up to the weirdest doorbell wake up call and the frigid air of the city of love: Paris!

Paris in the Rain (Tuesday, June 11, 2013)

This morning we arrived in Paris.  Ah!  It was way colder than Barcelona, and very cloudy, but everyone who knows me knows that I would always rather be cold than hot, and that this weather was perfect for me.  Then we got off the train and headed for the bathrooms to change and brush our teeth.  We had to pay to get in which really sucked.  And then they wouldn’t even let me brush my teeth because the sinks were for hand washing only (what?!), I wasn’t allowed to get my clothes out of my suitcase to change, and I forgot to go to the bathroom with all the hustle and bustle.  Oops. 

Then we grabbed our first French pastries and loaded onto the bus for a little tour of Paris!  We drove past all of the major landmarks before ending our tour at the Eiffel Tower to take pictures.  I know everyone always says that the tower is way less cool in person, but I disagree.  I still love it.  It was beautiful!  And yes, not as tall as I had imagined, but still taller than any NBA player I’ve ever seen.  We took a bunch of pictures and went right up underneath the tower.  I was sad I was still in my train clothes, but oh well.  It drizzled a bit, which was great!  Paris in the Rain was on my checklist of things to do and I got it out of the way the very first day (and every day after). 

Then we went to our first Parisian professional visit at OECD.  Everyone who went fell asleep as three speakers just kept on talking in a monotone for hours and hours.  They called us out for it too!  How rude!  We had just gotten off a train where we had hardly slept a wink and they were incredibly boring!  Give us a break!  And at least try to be a little engaging!

After that we went to our hotel.  Ty, Bowie, and I had dinner right next to the hotel and it was one of my favorite meals.  I had skirt stake, potatoes, and a crepe.  Yumm.  Also, in France we can ask for tap water, AKA we can cut out between 3 to 5 Euros off every meal! 

Then we went back to the Eiffel Tower with a bunch of people to take pictures at night with the tower all lit up.  It was beautiful!  We went up the tower, practically jumping out of our shoes with excitement.  The very top was closed because I guess they are renovating the tower, so we only went halfway up, but it was still pretty spectacular.  After a few hours up there, we took the stairs down the tower.  By the last step our legs were shaking and they couldn’t stop.  It was so strange. 

Then we went to take the metro back to the hotel.  Since the others didn’t have any crepes before they got some off the street.  My friend from Montreal asked for her crepe in French and the mean old man made fun of her for attempting to speak French.  Then my other friend tried to order her crepe and asked the one from Quebec how to say it in French.  She told the crepe man and he pretended to help her pronounce it, but instead he was actually making fun of her and calling her mentally ill for trying.  That jerk. 

Then we went back to the hotel.  I had new roommates now. Then I showered and was so exhausted that going to sleep on the rickety old roll away bed felt more like sleeping on clouds and bubbles.  Perfect first day in Paris!

Learning Cities by Getting Lost (Sunday, June 9, 2013)

Before bed I left a note for my roommate telling her my plans for the day.  Then I went to sleep and woke up early so I could go with my friend back to La Sagrada Familia right when it opened so we could go inside.  We ended up leaving a little later than we wanted, but still with plenty of time for us to go, come back, eat with everyone from the group, and then go to a beach down the coast. 

We made it to the cathedral on the metro with absolutely zero problems.  Then we waited in line for a little and walked in with open mouths and wide eyes because of how beautiful everything was.  So worth waking up early.  We set a time to get out, snapped as many pictures as possible, and got out and on the metro.  This time, we used a different entrance but we still found our train back to our stop and we said those famous last words, “We just beat the subway system! We own this city!”.  So wrong.  That is almost as bad as saying, “It can’t get any worse” or, “What could possibly go wrong?”.  We got on the right line and everything, but in the wrong direction.  By the time we realized it was too late.  We were lost in Barcelona, in an area we had never even heard of before.  For an entire hour we went from subway line to subway line and stop to stop before we finally made it back to El Poutex, our final stop.  We got out of the station only to find that we had missed breakfast and to put a cherry on top of that, everyone was on their way to the beach up the coast!  We were devastated, not to mention hungry.  We told them to let us know which beach they stop at, and we would be five minutes behind. Ambitious after an hour of wandering around the Spanish undergrounds, but still a noble attempt. 

We ran back to the hotel, saw our professor, got some directions to the separate train needed to make it to the beach, changed into our suits, and ran back to the station.  We followed the directions, but as we are us, we got lost. Again. For four and a half hours!  We asked so many people for directions, but everyone told us a different answer. Even when we asked two police officers, we got different directions from both.  Finally, we decided to stop at a Subway and grab some sandwiches to eat on the train because we still hadn’t eaten and we had been walking around with our backpacks on our bellies feeling like pregnant women for hours.  We eventually made it to the airport completely bewildered and angry that the others didn’t just tell us to go to the freaking airport and make it easy for us.  By this time it was cold, cloudy, and drizzling, but we were determined to make it to the beach and have a damn good time. 

We finally got on the right train, attempted to eat the worst Subway sandwiches of our lives, and got a text saying to not bother coming, it was too cold anyways and they were leaving.  At that point we had no choice, so we just kept going.  We made it almost to our stop, thought we were there, and got off the train.  We looked around a second and realized it was actually the stop right before the beach they had supposedly left.  Quickly, we ran back to the train as the doors started beeping shut, I almost got left behind, and we plopped down ready to cry at our luck. 

We went one more stop and made it to the beach very sad and cold.  My friend and I wandered along the damp sand and decided to go back when we saw people from our trip!  We were beyond happy and ran to them as if they were the only people we had seen in years.  We decided to stay a bit longer before going back.  Then the sun came out and we saw even more people!  No one had left yet!  We all waited for the train home together and took the hour train back to the metro station, and the half hour metro back to our hotel (standing the whole time due to a lack of seating).  On the bus, we asked how their day was and although it wasn’t quite as bad as ours with the amount of getting lost, they said it was still a pretty bad day.  It wasn’t even warm enough to take off their beach cover-ups.  We were secretly happy, but we kind of felt bad about that. 

Then everyone else decided to go to the Ice Bar but my friend and I were so exhausted from our day of getting lost that we stayed in her room and ate cold pizza with a few other lazy people.  She left and got locked out, by my roommate and I were too busy talking to notice her knocking at the door and she didn’t get back from the lobby getting a key for another 30 minutes.  Oops.  Then my roommate and I went back to our room, talked for a long time, and went to sleep so we could be ready to have a typically busy day the next day.  Oh well, at least the beginning and the end were pretty good.

You! is Now the Funniest Thing Ever (June 8, 2013)

Again, sorry this is late.  I know. I suck. 

So Saturday morning June 8^th, we woke up to thunderstorms in Barcelona.  Bummer! We didn’t want to miss an entire day in the city, so we (basically everyone on the trip) decided to follow my roommate’s plan to see like everything in Barcelona in one day even with the rain (which promptly stopped about five minutes after we left to make our day nice and hot and humid as usual. I swear this place is like Michigan with all its wacky weather.).  We tried to get together in the lobby, but that took some time to get everyone there at the same time.  Then, we tried to get to the metro, but moving that many people in a strange city didn’t really work out either.  Having gotten a quick little tutorial on where the subway was and how it works, my friend and I tried to lead, but no one listened and we ended up taking quite some time to find the stop.  Then we finally got there and there were some issues getting tickets.  One girl’s credit card even got stuck in the machine, and the guy was so confused saying, “Wow, this NEVER happens”.  So reassuring. 

First stop: La Sagrada Familia.  How amazing!  We walked around and took a bunch of pictures and then some people got in line to go inside.  I, being an idiot and listening to someone who told me the wait was going to be 2 hours and that we would only be allowed inside for 10 minutes, decided not to wait and went on with my day.  (Big mistake that I was sure to correct the next day, don’t worry.) (I keep getting incorrect information on this trip. lol)

Then, I went with a group to the beach, where we heard there was good paella.  They loved it, but I have decided, although it was fine, paella really isn’t my thing.  I just don’t like rice so I don’t know why I even bothered.  I guess I thought I had to try paella in Spain or the trip wouldn’t be complete.  To be honest, I’m ready for some new food because I was getting sick of all of the Spanish cuisine.  (Too much of the same and very pricey for all those little portions)    Parisian food should be really good and that is our next stop so yay! 

After lunch, we walked on the beach and took bunches of pictures with sailboats and the pretty view.  We went out to the pier and basked in the sun and saltwater fish smell.    We continued walking, saw a nude beach, and went to the W hotel where one girl had a membership and there was supposed to be an amazing view on their rooftop bar.  The rooftop bar wasn’t open for another half hour, so I went with one girl to Disegual (free beer, watermelon, and cheese?) while everyone else went to some bar called Salt.  We met up with them and waited until the bar opened but instead of going to the bar we went to the roof pool.  That was pretty cool because it had a really great view of the beach, but it was a bit cold and I was getting anxious to get a move on.  Then some of the kids made a friend with some guy from South America and mooched his alcohol until they decided to finally go upstairs.  Turns out, we weren’t dressed appropriately to even get in to the roof bar.  It was pretty sad so we left and some people went back to the hotel while two of my friends and I kept on touring. 

One girl had to leave so the two of us left made our way to the Gothic Quarters, not knowing what we were even looking for.  We got a little lost, so I said, “I wish Hugo was here so he could help us find our way and have fun”.  Then my friend said, “I dunno, I wish Peter was here”.  Literally, the crowd next to us cleared away and less than a minute later we looked and she shouted, “You! I know you!” right at Peter’s face.  Of all the people in Barcelona!?  Peter helped us find our way (AKA go straight and it is less than 100 feet away), and asked us how our day was.  My friend and I, being completely awkward as usual, answered with a little detail missing.  She said that we spent the whole day at the beach and the hotel, and that tomorrow we were gonna go back to the beach so we could relax.  We sounded ridiculous so she made sure to tell him the next day that we did more than that to make up for our apparent lazy tourist beach days.

So we got to the actual Gothic Quarters, took a million pictures, and moved on to the next thing on our hit list.  We walked to Las Ramblas, asked a police man where it was (he thought we were so dumb) and there just happened to be an Art Fair right near by with all local artists.  I love that!  But I didn’t find anything I wanted!  I did like the all plastic made jewelry, but I’m just gonna try to make some myself.  My friend bought a shirt too.  Then we went to the market for some essentials: chocolate, coke, and water.  On the way to the metro, we again thought we were lost (lol jk when we asked we found out the metro station was five feet away).  This boy (American?) gave us directions, because we really needed it, and then invited us to a traveler’s bar.  We told him we weren’t interested, that if we were going out we would be going to a local bar.  He tried to tell us it was local, “the bar is about 50% locals and 50% foreigners”.  We laughed to ourselves, said thanks but no thanks, and went to the metro to go home.  Of course, the ticket ran out and we had to buy more.  But hey, we got a new one and it worked out.  We even figured out the rest of the way home no problem at all!

Then we went to another market and out to dinner for some really bad pizza and pasta at some hole-in-the-wall before coming back for a much needed bedtime. 

Pretty good day, just wish I spent less time at the beach and the W.  But if you know me at all you know I am really not a lay on the beach kind of girl.  Well, for the most part.  Oh well.  Still amazing in Barcelona!