Saturday, June 26, 2010

flying a kite.

"La, da-da, dee, di
Look at my kite fly
Over foggy fields
The pungent pines
The verdant veils
The vapid vines
And the thousand purple cups of wine
The tearing teeth and the four full tines
The crumpling feast and the dawdling dine"


i just love joanna newsom so much.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

sing to the mountains

"sing to the mountains,
sing to the sea,
sing to the sparrow
high in the tree
sing to the forest
sing to the breeze
sing to the weed
that grows up through the street
sing to the spider
sing to the bee
sing to the seaweed
dry on the beach
sing to the mountain
sing to the sea
sing to the dog
that curls up by your feet"


- vio/miré

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

ooh la la!

- Here is a list of my activities in Paris, in order of how often I do them: sleep, eat Nutella-filled crepes in parks, aimlessly wander about Montmartre. Not a bad life I'd say.
- It rains all the time in Paris.
- Today I saw a small French boy walk up to a mud puddle, exclaim "ooh la la!" and jump in. Precious.
- Yesterday I went to the Louvre. It was beautiful, of course, but also stressful. No English anywhere and also thousands of people shoving you everywhere.
- One of the most wonderful things about Europe is the fact that I can ingest the tap water. I can fill my water bottle from the sink when I wake up thirsty at 3 a.m., I can eat salads, I can buy drinks with ice in them...
- Instead of attempting to get my body off of India time, I keep going to bed at 8:00. I can tell my roommates at the hostel think I'm really lame. Tomorrow I need to leave for the airport around 5:30, so I may go to bed even earlier.
- Today I once again forgot that a kilogram is bigger than a pound, and also I was flustered by the fact that the man wouldn't speak English, and ended up walking away with 2.2 pounds of cherries.

Monday, June 7, 2010

oui oui

Yesterday I said goodbye to India and flew to Paris to spend the next few days.
- Today my plan was to just relax and perhaps walk around a bit. Instead I went on two guided tours. Perhaps Chacha's ADD wore off a bit? Now I have seen almost all of the touristy things, at least from afar.
- When we got here this morning it was 50 degrees and I was freezing. It warmed up quite a bit but I was never sweaty.
- I would say that 90% of the time here I think in a British accent. That makes no sense.
- This is my first time staying in a hostel. I think one of my three roommates is a boy. Or a girl with freakishly large feet. Hmm.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

also...

- I overuse the word 'also' in my life.
- The thing I want more than anything these days is a good spinach salad. We get zero raw vegetables here and I can feel my arteries clogging. Yesterday I bought a green pepper and ate it plain because I miss raw vegetables so much.
- Yesterday Kallie and I followed two different wedding processions trying to get invited to a wedding but it didn't work.
- My Chacos smell worse than they ever have thanks to the cows of Varanasi and my own sweat.
- in Varanasi we had mangoes that you squeeze until they are squishy and then suck out the pulpy juice from the top. I will be trying this method with mangoes at home and I will be very sad if it doesn't work.
- In the month or so before India I probably took about two photos. I don't know what caused my lack of motivation, but it lasted into the first few weeks of India. Before Varanasi I took 500 photos. In Varanasi I took almost 200. I cannot wait to edit them all.
- The desktop image on this computer is the guy who works here's face. I find that hilarious.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Wavin' Flag

- The bus drivers who drove us from Chennai to Mahabalipuram and back were straight out of the Three Stooges. Hilarious.
- When we were in Kolkata we volunteered in Mother Teresa's ministry. We worked in Daya Dan, a home for handicapped children. The children were beautiful and it broke my heart that we could only help out one day. I loved Kolkata and I really hope to go back and explore more someday.
- While I was on the bus going to volunteer I heard some guys singing K'naan. It was beautiful.
- Later, at Daya Dan, I talked to one of the guys who was singing K'naan. Turns out he's transferring to Hope next year.
- Yesterday (in Varanasi) lots of beautiful children begged me to take their picture. I was happy to oblige.
- Today a man holding a machine gun told me that he likes my sari.