LA FIN : it really isn't an end, it's a beginning

Since arriving in Montreal Tuesday afternoon, I have been meaning to write this final blog post. As I said from the beginning, I started this blog as a way to make my life easier - in order to not have to write 50 emails to all the people who wanted to know what I had been up to each day in Paris. Having never written in a diary in my life (j'ai jamais fais un "diareaa" [diary] was what I said to someone when explaining this fact - we all just died laughing) and do not enjoy writing, I was not too keen on starting this blog. But, the weirdest thing happened - I would find myself waking up at 6am every morning, because, yes I will admit it, I am nuts (Kiki and Paula thanks for rubbing it in haha) to go to the gym for 7:30 in order to be at work for 10am. Between 6-7:30, when I would have my coffee and eat my cereal, I would sit down at my computer and feel the need and want to write a new blog post. It became a morning ritual.

I figured out yesterday why it has taken me until today to finally sit down and put pen to paper - or keyboard to screen. I came to the realization that writing this final post means that my journey has officially ended.

This is the first time in my life, I have had a very difficult time leaving a place. It is not my first time leaving somewhere. I had to "leave" Montreal when moving to NYC for school three years ago, but my mentality was completely different. At that time, I was struggling with leaving home for the first time, living away from my parents - letting go was what was hard. This time was different. I was more independent, but I was going to a place where I knew no one and was not going to be in an environment like school which facilitates meeting people. I was also entering into a new culture - European - completely different from the one I have gotten used to - American.

Being an only child, luckily I have had to grow a rather tough skin (some people might not agree, but I know it has become stronger and stronger, the older and more mature I have become). I am used to being thrown in uncomfortable environments and having to fend for myself.

The first month of "depression" I felt upon my arrival sur Paris, was the same feeling I had my first couple weeks in NYC. The big difference was that three years ago in NYC I knew I could be saved if need be. Back then I was still a very dependent child. This time, when times were hard at the beginning, I knew I just had to continue pushing through, because it would get better. That was my motto. I was completely right - by mid June I was rolling snowballs and by the end of June, I had made a snowman. As July continued into August, I continued adding accessories and accessories to my snowman - a carrot for a nose, a hat to cover his head, some necklaces, etc. Now, the snowman has melted but I have kept the accessories with me. These accessories are the people I met, the places I saw and the memories I made while I was there.

I have had two of my best friends tell me that (thanks Kiki and Dave) that I have changed for the better after this experience. Kiki came to visit me for my last week and it was incredible. I was so excited to introduce her to the people I have met and so happy that she got along so well with them. She told me from the bottom of her heart that she found me more open and relaxed in Paris and that it was the place where I truly belong. Dave said the same thing, seeing me before I left and just a few days ago, he told me how much more happy and relaxed I seemed.

I had felt it, but wasn't able to truly admit it. Its hard to say that the place you "find yourself" most comfortable is halfway across the world, yet you got to do what feels right. Montreal was the most amazing place to grow up in, but a place I needed to escape from in order to grow and become more independent - thanks Dad for pushing me and granting me the opportunity to go off to NYC. Montreal also granted me the language tools to be able to spend my summer in Paris - I hated being forced to learn French all through elementary and high school, however I am sooooo thankful now - it is such an amazing thing to be completely bilingual.

New York, on the other hand has also been an amazing experience. I have learned so much and grown a lot as a person - becoming more mature and independent. It was the place I needed to be to get to the next stage in my life. Although I kept telling myself that it was the place for me because I enjoy it so much, I knew deep down, that I could never see myself staying in NYC for an extended period of time. I always looked at it unconsciously with an expiry date - 4yrs of school + 1yr of work. It is not the place to raise a family - not that that is what I'm thinking about now - but the place I find myself has to be somewhere where I will want to live a good part of my life. Paris, I feel, is that place. I know I only spent 3 months of my life there, but I was given a taste of a place which fulfills all the characteristics of what I have been looking for. It is a place that is incredibly multicultural, the people are real, there is a joie de vivre that is unlike anywhere else I have visited and the picnics are priceless...

I remember the exact moment I was given the idea to embark on this journey. Thanks to Lauren for remembering our family friend Nathalie from Upside Down and convincing me to do something different this summer. Thanks to mom and dad for giving me this great experience and to my friends that supported me through the ups and downs. To all the friends I made there, thanks for the most incredible experience of my life.

As much as my mom can continue telling me that things can change in the next two years, I know from the bottom of my heart that I will be going back. Just like Paula and Shelley did, I know I will too. There is something that attracts foreigners to this French city - like Paula told me, out of all the places in the world that she has visited, it is where she feels most "me".

When I put my mind to something, I will make it happen.

All I can say is a bientôt.

Gros Bisous

E.

dernière jour a UPSIDE DOWN DOWN DOWN DOooooown

Wow...has it really been three months!!! I truly cannot believe how fast the time has passed! I have very mixed feelings about today, mostly I am very sad. I have developed some great friendships at work. It is such a warm environment where every person has their own unique qualities that makes it fun and interesting to work interact with them. I really do owe it to the team for making my time at Upside Down so special. Not only did I learn from the projects we did, interacting with clients, but most importantly how to work in a team that depends on you to produce. Times will be slow and times will be stressful but it is so important to RIGOLE! There have been days that I have been under an enormous amount of stress and all it has taken was JP to put on his "Père Vert" (pervert) act and a smile immediately appears on my face. It makes you realize that yes work is important but it is not everything. Thats the most important thing I have learned about working in Paris - I know I have mentioned this before, but it is just too true to overlook - in New York people live to work but here people work to live...and it is just so evident its amazing!

I was talking with my friend George from London yesterday and telling him how sad it is that my experience here is coming to an end. His told me, yes its sad, but you know you are coming back. And that I definitely do. He said if you want it bad enough you will make it happen. I am a very determined person - it is how I got this stage in the first place. Yes, thanks to my mom's meeting Nathalie at Club Med three years ago, the relationship began and opportunity was discovered, however what to do with it was in my hands. I wouldn't have been here in Paris for the last three months had I not put in all the hard work to get me here - convincing Nathalie I would be a good stagiaire and to hire me, getting a visa and an apartment, etc.

I am very sad to leave Paris. I have made some incredible friendships here that I will not ever forget. I have also been made aware that I will be missed greatly. For the last month, Gigi and Emilie have been coming up with a plan to steal my passport so that I cannot leave. I also had Gigi yesterday ask me "Qu'est ce qui arrive si tu rattes le vole, est-ce que tu peux être rembousé?" (What happens if you miss your flight? Can you get reimbursed?) - she is just too funny! I would love to stay another week - but as my Dad has told me about numerous things, as hard as it is, when you prolong things longer than expected, you are just going to make it harder to go. HAHA...but there is a solution - why not just stay! As I rigole, this is not uncommon. Paula is the perfect example and her friend Shelley. They both fell in love with this place and found a reason and means to come back.

This will be me - I am positive.

la fin nous approche...

C'est mes dernière jour à Upside Down (Down, Down, Downnnnnnn - pour Emilie et JP)... It feels like yesterday that I arrived. I know everyone says that, but I truly feel it.

Forte was beautiful. I had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect - no clouds in the sky for the five days I was there and the food was incredible as usual. I can't say much more because it is truly an easy and no nonsense vacation - I wake up, go to the gym, have a bite for breakfast, walk to the beach, eat again, tan again, shower and get ready for diner, apero, eat again, apero and then sleep or go out. My usual two weeks or this time five days include sleeping eating and tanning. Had the skin I have been blessed with not been fussy this year I would have labelled this vacation as incredible - however because of my sensitive skin - after two days of tanning I developed a heat rash that spread all over my body. For the last three days, I didn't feel like I was in my own skin. My whole body itched and burned and none of the cortozone or anti-itch creams were working. It was prickly heat - the most uncomfortable sensation ever - I constantly felt like I had the feeling of my foot being asleep (pins and needles) all over my body. By the last day, I couldn't even sit on the beach under the tent, the heat was just too much for me to handle. I was the most excited when Nathalie and I landed in Paris and got off to airplane to a gloomy sky and the most incredible windy breeze. Finally today, two days later, I feel my skin has calmed down. The weirdest thing is that this heat rash occurs mainly in Forte every year. I have been other places in the world and tanned without getting heat rashes. Its mysterious and I am not the only one. My mother gets it too and I talked to some of my British friends there and they do as well.

This year was great because I was able to talk more fluently in Italian - forming sentences and making conversation. I got a little confused with French as it has been what I have mainly been speaking for the last three months, however it was nice to practice and know that the studying I have been doing for the last three years is starting to pay off.

So it is my last week and who better to have by my side, but my soulmate Kiki Bassoul who is in Paris. Her parents bought an apartment here and just got possession so she is helping her mom get it set up and spending time with me. Last night, after work I headed to Metro Boissière where their apartment is and met up with Kiki, her mom and uncle. They had been invited to a cousins apartment for diner and I joined. We had a nice diner there and then Kiki and I went off to a cafe to have a drink, catch up and most importantly gossip. I truly did miss her and I am so excited to introduce her to the friends I have made here and to the life I have created for myself. I planned a week extravaganza for her week her and for my last week. Tonight we are going to do a picnic at Champs de Mars - Tour Eiffel - with Gigi and Paula so that Kiki can understand the magnificence of picnics. Tomorrow, she will join me at my apartment after work and well find something to do around here - either Rue des Abbesses or just a cafe around her. We might also venture into the unknown. I have lived amongst my neighbors - the Sex Shops - for three months now and we still remain quite distant from one another. I cannot leave my apartment without having ventured into at least one of them and I know Miss Kiki Bassoul will be up for living this experience with me. I absolutely need to understand what makes this one store a specialist in Blow Up Dolls - or as they call it here - poupée gonflée. Friday, we have Lindsay and Olivia's birthday party. It is themed and I am quite excited. The theme is rock stars/singers - so you need to dress up as one of them. After buying this incredible sequin jacket from when my Dad was here, I decided I would dress up as either Michael Jackson or Prince. I think Kiki has decided on the guy in You Spin Me Right Round from the band Dead or Alive in the eighties - I think this is a tribute to my roomate Teri Kaplan who made Kiki fall in love with this video. You must watch it it is too good to be true. Saturday it is my MEGA TEUF. I have invited all the people I have met and become friends with and have opened it up to Paula's, Lindsay's and Gigi's friends. I am expecting around 20ish people and trust this party will be Nikel Or. Sunday Mom arrives early in the morning and I think we have dedicated the day to packing so we can play on Monday. It is too sad to think that I will be getting on a plane for Montreal on Tuesday morning. I am excited however to see my best friend Lauren in Montreal and some other friends I have not gotten to see much before I head back to New York for my SENIOR YEAR! Wow that is too weird to even begin thinking about right now. I will keep my mind focused on enjoying my last week here...

The stagiaire gets a vacation :)

The day has come. I am leaving for Forte today with Nathalie. I cannot wait. It is going to be a perfect 5 days of heaven and relaxation. Everyone I know is already there it seems, from the reporter messages I got from my mother who arrived first on Sunday. This is the first time we have all arrived at different times and are leaving at different times. My mom explained how weird it was arriving without us - everyone didn't get it - where is Simon and Erin was the ongoing question... My dad decided to spend one more night with me and arrived monday mid day and not I'm arriving today with Nathalie and we are staying till Monday evening. Note: typically stagiares do not get vacations - however when your moms good friend is the boss and you are taking her on vacation - exceptions can be made. Its all about connections...

This week at work was rather quiet. I was shocked because I thought that it would continue being as busy and stressful as it was the week Cyril was leaving, however I was completely wrong. When August begins, Paris becomes DESERTED and by deserted you can really feel it. All the Parisians leave Paris and head elsewhere for vacation. You feel the Metro's are less busy, the clubs, the bars, etc. Thomas and Gigi took their vacation during this time and now Nat and I are. This means that the phones ringing and the number of emails you receive typically decreases drastically because the majority of your clients are on vacation. The reason the week Cyril left was so busy was because all the clients who were leaving on vacation had procrastinated and needed something VITE FAIT so came to us at the last possible moment - ex: Longbox Dutronc. There was a lot of rigoler-ing done this week - it was truly WONDERFUL! I missed it. Bandai was still working, so that meant more Power Ranger packs, but other than that there wasn't much to do. I feel much better leaving Emilie and JP alone for these 5 days.

Off to the beach...

Une vraie teuf!

What a crazy weekend. It was jam packed with fun. I had so many things I wanted to do with my Dad, that unfortunately we were unable to do all of them with the time constraints, however we managed to do about 80%. We have been coming to Paris once a year for the last four years and it has become a tradition. This year is a bit different because I have been here for longer than couple days. My father, having grown up here from the age of 6 to 14 and having loved his experience here in his youth, has been living vicariously through me for these last few months.

Friday, I got off work at 4pm. My Dad met me there and we headed back to my apartment and then up to Montmartre, specifically rue des abbesses. Time was not to be wasted - we started our shopping expedition right away. That night I had planned for Paula to join us. We started off with an apéro at this hotel in Montmartre that Paula had known about called Hotel Particulier. Damn was it true to its name. It looked very beautiful from the pictures on the website - very boutique hotel. It was in the heart of the 18th, in a very residential area - so residential, there is not really a sign. You must ring at a metal gate in order to get into the courtyard. Once in, no signs once again. It was an adventure to say the least. We ended up finding it and it was rather beautiful and sweet. It seemed like the owners had turned what had once been a family house/mansion, into a hotel or bought an apartment building and did just that. The jewel is the little garden they have where they serve apéros. This was where our drinking for the night began and "began" is the operative word. My dad had mentioned that he had been catching up on his sleep for the last few weeks in order to do the TEUF with me when he came to Paris and he wasn't joking - and neither was I. From there we headed to the restaurant Casa Olypme next to Place St-George. I had heard about this place from two different blogs and Paula as well. It is known for its very good traditional french food and it is typically VERY difficult to get a reservation. They are also not open on Saturdays and Sundays. Luckily we scored a reservation - the reason being that they were closing for holiday the following day and this is the time when all the Parisians have already left for holiday. The meal was delicious. After a bottle of champagne and wine later, we headed back to my dad's hotel on the Champs d'Élysée for an after dinner drink and to decide where the hotel could arrange/suggest for us to go and continue the teuf. They made reservations for us at this club called Chez Castel in St-Germain. Paula had been before and was ecstatic when she found out that was where we were going. It was going to be her suggestion. It is a very exclusive club which is mainly members only. This was my first time going to a club-club with my father. We had a great time the three of us. We left around 3h3o in the morning and the best way to describe our mentality, the next day Paula called me in the morning, telling me that she was still feeling the alcohol from the night before. My dad really lived up to his word and did the teuf. Hey, in his day, he was a much bigger partier than I could ever be today - sacrilegious Mondays...

After a night like that, the next morning we had work to do. I met him back at his hotel and we began shopping. We headed to our favorite store in the Paris called l'Éclaireur and spent most of the morning there. Had lunch at our favorite restaurant we discovered in St-Germain last year called Le Comptoir. We then found him a suit in that area - at the only store in the world where he can buy a suit off the rack because of his enormously broad shoulders and tiny waist. We then headed back to the hotel to relax for our traditional diner at Hotel Costes. For the last four years we have had dinner here and every time it has rained and this time was no different - the weatherman schedules our arrival. Zonked from the night before - more me than my father - we returned to the hotel and passed out.

Woke up at 9am by my father to go to the gym and by 11h30 we headed out to the Marais to rue des rosiers - once again a tradition for Sundays because it is the only area open as it is known as the Jewish quarter. We spent most of the day there, had the best falafel for lunch and then went to my apartment to chill. Paula met up with us for a picnic at Parc Monceau. We were whistled out swiftly at 10pm when the park closes and walked home to have a drink at Cockney Pub, the bar that has FINALLY opened under my apartment. It is pretty cool seeing a place start at nothing and turn into something. The owner, Mouss, who I have become pretty good friends with since he owns the Long Island Bar down the street that I pass it each day has done a really good job renovating the place. The drinks were very good and there is a great ambiance.

I had a great time with my dad and look forward to Wednesday when I leave for Forte with Nathalie to meet up with both mom and dad. Relaxing in the sun is going to be well deserved.

The arrival of Mr. X

Yesterday was a good day. In the morning, we heard back from the client regarding the Dutronc designs that I had send him the night before. He ended up choosing a design Thierry from interne designed from one of the propals/axes I sketched for him when creating my brief the week before. I was so happy that my hard work paid off. The design he chose was actually the last one we did the day before and we were not sure about the font that Thierry had used when consulting the designs with Emily and Nath, but we decided the composition was too strong not to send to the client. Nath felt comfortable telling him that because of the time constraints we were unable to refine that one to the level we wanted too and that if it was the one he chose the font would undoubtedly be reworked. The next step was congratulating Thierry and emailing the two freelances we had also work on the project and telling them they unfortunately lost, show them the winning design and thank them for their hard work. I also told them some feedback from the client on their créas - which he liked, which he didn't and why. My email was short and sweet and to the point. To tell you what happens next describes French behavior. Just like the temper tantrum we had in the office a couple weeks ago, this was very similar just in a different format. I received ranting emails from both graphic designers upset that they had not won - thinking that their designs were way better than the one that one. Hey dude...its a COMPETITION and it is not us that decides which will be the winning design. One specified that it had not been clear that there was the opportunity to design the box in a horizontal fashion and assumed it could only be vertical, while the other said that the winning design didn't reference the style "télécréateur" that the client had given us as a graphic style he liked. This is the big problem about designing something for a client. Firstly, they have something en tête when they explain you the project, however they are still iffy themselves and don't yet have a concrete image. And the reference they give might not be really what they were looking for. It is not our fault that the winning design didn't necessarily strictly follow the brief. Secondly, like what happened with the rock compilation Rock Line, what we in the office think is beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, is not what the client will like most of the time. It turned out for Rock Line, that the design that was chosen for the cover was a collage that Cyril has done in 30 minutes on photoshop when the client needed something vite-fait to show his team even before giving us a brief and getting our freelancers to work on the project.

Anyways, I am glad that that is chosen and the choice was something that was actually one of my favorites. This was when the door rang at the office and it was my DAD! He had arrived early that morning from Montreal and came by the office to take me out for lunch, see where I worked and see Nathalie. I hadn't seen him since May 14th when I left Montreal, however with gchat and skype and talking on the telephone almost daily, it was as if I had seen him yesterday. Nathalie, who hadn't seen him since Mexico at Christmas time, felt the same way. We had a nice lunch and I went back to work to finish off the day. The afternoon, Bandai came back into the picture with some more corrections from the client. However, in the final hour, I had done most of what I needed to do that was urgent and took the opportunity to relax in the studio with the graphists.

I met my Dad at his hotel on the Champs-l'Élysée and then we met up with Nathalie at this restaurant Victor in the 16th. We had a delicious dinner and Nathalie had one of her friends join us at the last minute who was très sympa.

Well, this has been my last full week. Next week I work Monday, Tuesday and then off to Forte and when I get back, I work Tuesday-Friday. Its so weird it is coming to an end. My dad had asked Nathalie if she would give me the afternoon off today to go and chill with him. At first she was hesitant since Cyril is no here and they need me as much as they can, however she made the decision after talking with Emilie that I can leave at 4pm. So my Dad is meeting me at work at 4 and we will walk/shop on my walk home and then stop by Paula's to pick her up from her apartment and head up to Hotel Particulier in Montmartre for an apéro and then to dinner. As for doing the teuf tonight after diner, we are definitely going to, however no concrete plans yet. We will see where the night takes us.

We could be tourists...just for one day.

Cyril is officially on Paternity leave/vacation. What a relief. He finally finished briefing me and Emilie on all the Bandai stuff on Monday. He was supposed to be on vaca Friday but came in Monday because he wasn't done and worked from home Tuesday morning as he was still not done...but cut contact mid day Tuesday and is now OFFICIALLY on vacation. So now its all on Emilie. I feel for her. It is a lot of work. When I leave it will be even more. Although I feel bad that I am leaving in the heat of it, I am selfishly happy as I have had more than enough stress this last week.

Yesterday morning was stressful to a point as I was getting a lot of corrections done on Bandai and submitting them to the client. It is always better when its back in the clients hands because it means I can check it off my list until the client sends it back. Luckily before Cyril left, he made us a nice comprehensive excel table with all the style numbers, where they are in terms of creation/production and who is working on each. In addition, yesterday we received the propals from the two freelance graphic designers we had working on the Dutronc Longbox. They did some really nice designs. I also had Thierry, from interne, working on some propals as well. Today is the deadline and I will be sending the best designs to the client for him to consult and choose his favorite.

By 4pm yesterday, everything had seemed to calm down a little. I went 20 minutes not receiving a work email - it was nickel! This was the first time since last week I had the chance to rigole on FB or check out the blogs I like to read. I even found myself after a little time BORED. It was amazing how incredible it felt being bored!

Last night I had organized with Paula and my cousin Dan that we would meet at Notre Dame and then head to Ile St Louis for a picnic as Dan still hadn't experienced the Paris picnic phenomena. I took the bus with Paula from our arrondissement and Dan met us there. The meeting point was at Saint Denis - the baller headless saint. Paula explained that the story behind him is that he was beheaded and then took his head and washed it off in a fountain nearby - too cool.

Going to see the Notre Dame cathedral has been the only touristy thing I have been wanting to do since I arrived in Paris. The reason stems from its direct connection to the history of photography. Two years ago in Shelley Rice's Aesthetic History of Photography class, we were taught about the importance of Paris in the beginning stages of photography. When Haussman came in to restructure Paris, he hired many photographer to take photos of the change and in order to preserve documentation of the old Paris. She also explained that Notre Dame was, before the restructuring, the absolute CENTRE of Paris and when telling someone where to meet you you would always gage it from the location of the cathedral - ex: 500 meters east of Notre Dame. This photo by William Fox Talbot taken in 1843 is what got me excited about being a tourist...just for one day.

We then made out way to Ile St Louis and installed (that is for you Paula) ourself there amongst the rest of the groups picnic'ing while enjoying the view of the Seine. Lindsay stopped by on her way home from the gym. It was super nice to see her as the last time was when we got back from Amsterdam - I think it has been a month...wow time flies. Paula's friend John also joined us with his friend Sylvain. John is a fellow American who has been living in Paris for the last 16 years on and off as a filmmaker and producer. Interesting tidbit - he went to NYU for film grad school back in the day.

My day is about to begin...off to the gym... Dad is leaving Montreal today and arriving in Paris tomorrow morning. I cannot WAIT!

finally getting to know Paris

I left work on Friday at 19hr PILE...as I had had more than enough after the nocturne earlier in the week. Also happy that I don't have to do the "planning" at the Monday weekly meeting today meaning I don't have to be at work at 9h30 this morning to prepare. JP still hasn't managed to do the planning perfect yet even though he has done it many more weeks than me, so its his turn once again.

Friday night I ended up going to this "american" themed party on a Peniche - a boat - docked in the 5th/6th. It was a beautiful night in terms of the view. The temperature was a little chilli to stay on the dock all night, but we managed. I was supposed to go with Paula and some of her friends however Paula hooked me up with one of her friends I had met earlier that week at sushi dinner named Patrick. Paula was supposed to join us later. I met him in the 8th where he lives and we took a taxi over there. You were supposed to dress up for the party "american" style but we both decided to be lame and were much happier that way. When people asked what we were dressed up as our answer was New York'ers - hey why not! There were people dressed up as indians, hippies, police men, cowboys, etc. A good majority of people weren't in costume however. Had a nice time just chit chatting with Patrick and getting to know him. We stayed on the board for a couple hours and then around 1h30 decided to head off. He was heading to St Tropez the following day and had a 9hr drive ahead of him and I was exhausted with my lack of sleep that week - so were were both lamely yawning constantly on the boat and decided that was the sign to sign out. Rather than taking a taxi directly from the boat, we took the opportunity to walk a little. I haven't found much time to just explore and walk around and see the streets as most of the time I'm heading somewhere to meet someone and I take the metro and miss the scenic route, but this time I felt like I got a whole tour of a number of arrondissements. We left the boat, walked past the Seine, through Palais Royal, saw the glass pyramid at the Louvre, walked past Place Vendôme and onto rue St. Honoré. It was so nice to see these places at 2am as the streets were dead. We got to look at all the "chi chi" luxury stores on St. Honoré's windows when all the tourists were sleeping, walk past Sarkozy's house... It was a wonderful night.

The next day I woke up to my doorbell ringing...it was Gigi. She had come over at 11am as we were going to go and do errands in Barbès area at Tati and surrounding stores as she needed stuff for her vacation. Gigi is now on her way to Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy and has left me alone for the week :( I'm so excited for her, however this week at work is going to be tough as I won't have my lunch buddy or someone to rigole with. She will be back Monday, so is unfortunately missing my fathers visit from Thursday to Monday morning. We chilled at my apartment for a little while and then headed up to do some shopping.

That night I had been invited by Florent, the graphic designer at work, to a BBQ he was having at his house in Savigny-sur-Orge, outside of Paris. I organized that Paula and my cousin Daniel would come with me. Daniel is in town adventuring by himself for a week and thought it would be fun for him to experience some real French teuf'ing. Gigi unfortunately couldn't come because she had to meet the group she was going on vacation with very early Sunday morning and wasn't ready for her trip yet. Dan and Paula came over and we headed to the RER C. It was my first time taking the RER (the train that takes you to the banlieu of Paris) and it was super easy. Flo said it would take us an hour to get there, however it was much quicker. He and his friend kindly picked us up from the gare and drove us to his house. It was so nice to get out of Paris and chill in a real garden. Everyone was super friendly and it was nice to see the same guys from Amsterdam and that had come over for my picnic on the 14th of July as well. I also saw Cindy again - she was one of the girls from Amsterdam that I didn't hit it off to well with then - however she was super nice this time. This goes to prove my theory about French girls - it takes time for them to feel comfortable and then be nice to you. By the end of the night, she was offering to connect me to a French cousin in New York.

Paula ended up heading back to Paris that night as she had a check-in early the next morning, but Dan and I stayed. Flo had offered for us to sleep over and we took him up on his offer. We went to bed pretty late and the next morning chilled a little while and then headed back to Paris by mid afternoon.

It was a beautiful day yesterday and I had no plans for when I got back. I wasn't in the mood to go to the gym, and rather decided it would be nice to go for a walk. I got Paula to take me on her "death march" - the walk she goes on a couple times a week through the 8th, 17th, 9th and 10th arrondisement. After that night walk with Patrick, I was motivated to see more and more! What we had completely forgot about was that yesterday was the end of the Tour de France, so as we approached the Champs de L'Elysse, we saw the mounds and mounds of people that had come to see the final laps of the race. We unfortunately missed the end, but got to see the teams and ryders pass.

We returned from our walk, showered and met up again to go to the 11th to meet up with her close friend Bernadette at this Mexican restaurant they frequent a lot. It was absolutely delicious. It is so nice to have something different from French food sometimes.

What is up for this week? Well, work is going to start in a couple hours, after I wake up at the gym. Who knows what it will bring this week. I truly hope it will be less stressful than last week but I'm not holding my breath. Tonight I am having drinks with a friend I met at a soirée before Amsterdam and then tomorrow I am having a picnic with Paula, Dan and Lindsay at Ile St Louis and heading to Notre Dame to see it before. Wednesday I'm hoping to just take it easy and Thursday DADDY comes :) I am super excited for him to come and I think he is even more excited than me. He told me that this past weekend he made sure to sleep A LOT as to be ready to do the fete this coming weekend!

All I can say is I hope for "NO STRESS NO STRESS" - that for you Ms. Kiki Bassoul.

Forget the heat....has become...STRESS = L'HORREUR

I had my first ever NOCTURNE last night - that is the term Emilie uses for staying at work past 19hr. I was there till 21h30. All I can say is I am very scared / nervous about what is to come. This is Cyril's last week as I have mentioned - meaning he is briefing Emilie and I on all his projects so as to be able to go on Paternity leave/vacation and feel comfortable that the boite will survive without him. Well lets just say, I don't think this week is going half as smoothly as he imagined. Its always great to have too much work than not enough, however when your graphic designers en interne are fully occupied and 99% of your freelance graphic designers are on holiday or do not want to take on a competition without dedis - means that they don't receive any money if their design is not chosen. This is the reason I was there so late last night. I was preparing for a presentation / rdv with Nathalie this morning at 11:30am. Along with the logo corrections that had to be sent off to the client last night - that I had been working with the graphic designer on since Monday - should have only taken 1 day, however he wasn't getting it and Bandai work, I had received an email from Cyril with a brief concerning a collectors box for Jacques Dutronc - the French singer. It is a complete créa, that if we had freelances that were dispo we would have at least 3 working on. However, we were left in a tight situation. Cyril passed it onto Emilie and I as he had too much other stuff to do and Emilie couldn't take it on either for the same reason, so Nathalie decided that I will be taking the reigns and working on it with her and one of our intern graphic designers will do the créa. Since we don't have time to get our guy in intern to start doing créa, we have to have at least 20 concrete ideas for him to execute.

So by 19hr last night I had sent off the logo corrects to the client and the first selection of images of Dutronc for the cover so that he could get us the High Res images. My "day" was just getting started. Nathalie has planned out the research I was going to need to do as follows:

1) Look up all the previous Jacques Dutronc CD's and books

2) Look up Les Télécreateurs and ADL - two of the top creative agencies in Paris - known for their very hot illustrator work. BTW Les Télécreateurs is not a print agency like I expected, but rather an audio/visual agency - this meant going through tons of music videos and commercials to try and capture a feel of the work "Branché" that they do.

3) Look up all the OLD (1960's-70's) and NEW (2000+) CD's of artists of the same era to see how the design elements have progressed and if we can take an element of the OLD and make it new with this box set. These artists included: Françoise Hardy, Gainsborough, The Beatles, Johnny Hallyday, etc.

4) Look in out graphic design books for new and innovative ideas with les trucs illustrator - STILL TO DO THIS MORNING

5) Go over the tracklists we were given for the CD's that will go into this box set and choose a title that could be the baseline for the cover. This I started and struggled with enormously as French is not my first language and I have no idea what type of singer Dutronc was.

All in all, I woke up 30 minutes earlier today in order to be at the gym at 7h instead of 7h30 and thus at work earlier in order to be ready for my presentation with Nat at 11h30. I still need to come up with these 20 detailed propositions before then.

GOOD LUCK / BONNE COURAGE / BONNE CHANCE...its definitely needed!

HEAT + STRESS = L'HORREUR

So Cyril is leaving Friday for his Paternity Leave and he is briefing Emily and I on all his clients so that we can take over while he is gone. This in turn means one thing and one thing only...a lot of STRESS. At every réunion de Lundi, Nathalie goes around the table asking everyone to rate their level of occupation and stress from 1-10 (1 being the least and 10 being the most). I estimated right at 9/10 for both...damn today was STRESSFUL! and on top of having to work one not one but two briefs for a freelance graphic designer for Bandai, there was no air circulating in the office. It was 35 degrees celcius - pure HUMIDITY. I do not do well with stress and heat!

A good thing that happened today was that the client who had us working on the new brand name for their new label made their final decision on the name and slogan from the list we had given them. It is nice to see how things start from nothing but an idea, to something solid like a name and later on products that will further be sold. The logo is also progressing nicely. After the presentation to the client last week, she came back with her top three choices and now I am returning to the graphic designers to have them make some little corrections. I really am enjoying playing a part in the creative aspect of the agency. I am not particularly enjoying exé tasks like the work we are doing for Bandai and catalogues for the commercials - but hey you will never love what you are doing the entire time. All I can say is I am learning a lot and that is super important. I am also loving the team as a whole. I will truly miss working with them. Everyone is trop sympa.

This weekend is also looking like it will be pretty fun. Saturday night I am planing on heading outside of Paris for the night with Gigi, Paula and Lindsay. Florent is having a BBQ at his house in Savigny-sur-Orge which is around an hour from Paris by the RER C. His friends Lindsay and I partied with at the Sensation party in Amsterdam and who also came over for my picnic the 14th will all be there. I am really looking forward to it. Looks like we will probably sleep over at his house and head home the next morning really early as Paula has to work and :( Gigi is leaving for vacation to Bosnia and Croatia. What will I do for a week without her! At least my Dad is coming to visit the weekend she is gone - I can't wait to spend time with him here. I wish he could meet her, however they will just be missing each other!

I am really looking forward to two other things coming up. Firstly August 5-10th I am heading to Forte with Nathalie to relax on the beach and meet up with my parents and secondly, my best friend Kiki is coming to Paris from August 10-16th for some true soulmate time!!! I cannot wait! Then Mom returns to help me pack up from the 16-18th and that will bring this INCREDIBLE summer in Paris to a close. Some well needed R&R will be occurring when I am in Montreal for two weeks before I head back to NYC, I can promise you!

Dimanche génial sur Paris

Today was a wonderful day! For the day of rest when everything...mostly everything...is closed...I had a very Parisian Sunday.

It started at 7am when I was waken up by my mother as she was leaving my apartment in order to catch her flight to Florence. I helped her with her bags downstairs and then headed back into bed to rest some more. I re-awoke 'round 11am, had some breakfast and headed to the gym. There is a big difference from going to the gym at 7am to going on a Sunday at 12pm. The Club Med Gym website describes this time on Sunday as Dynamique and damn right it is. It is PACKED...something its not at the wee crazy hours I usually go. Anyways great workout and headed home to shower and wait for Gigi to come over. We had organized the night before that we would go and see a film with one of her friends Samuel.

She is a big fan of Kate Winslet and wanted to go and see The Reader. I had hear a lot about it as she won the Oscar for the film and was looking forward to it. What I didn't know until she arrived at my place, was firstly, the cinema was in the 15th arrondissement (quite far from where I live - Metro Ballard - at the end of the line) and the reason we had to go to that one was that it was where the film was being shown VF. In France there are two different types of films at movie theatres - VO and VF. VO means version original, which means that there are subtitles and VF means version français, which means it is dubbed. I have a prejudice against dubbed films, as I cannot stand when the lips move a different way from the words you hear, so I was a little worried to see this film that way.

My father had told me that the cinemas in France are completely different from the cinemas in the US or Canada and as a result I was super excited to go and see what was different. Thanks Dad for getting me excited for nothing more than a dubbed American film in a cinema that looked like the Regal Union Square! I think what my Dad meant was the old French cinemas that show old French films, because there was nothing special in this one. Anyways, I found myself quite shocked at the end of the film. Firstly it was a very good movie, a little long, but very good. Kate Winslet was brilliant, as she always is. But most importantly, I found myself not bothered at ALL by the dubbing! I think the reason why is because I am much more comfortable now with the French language then I have ever been. I have discovered that now rather than thinking in English before speaking French I think in French - it really makes a difference! I have yet to dream in French. Granted I don't even remember my dreams in English, so I think I might have a little trouble.

After the film, we headed back to my area and to Metro Abbesses as we were meeting Paula for a drink at a resto near there. We chatted and had some verres along with some camembert au miel and parted ways. What a nice way to spend the early evening.

A friend of Paulas who I have bonded with recently over music - Selim, was coming over and we had a very agréable evening sharing our new music discoveries of the week.

Tomorrow its back to the boulot. This week is going to be pretty intense I imagine, as Cyril will be leaving Friday for his Paternity leave as his wife is almost due. This means that once he leaves work will get a lot more stressful! I look forward to seeing what this week brings.

Now time for some major zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

MOMMY IS HERE : )

Mommy's arrival was the perfect ending to a stressful week. Emilie had her presentation for the new loisir créatif brand that we had been working on for the last couple of weeks yesterday and it went REALLY well!!! So exciting. Also, I got to sit in on the meeting with the client that we had been designing logos for yesterday as well. I thought I would be just sitting in, however Nathalie had me start the meeting...a little stressful...when your not too prepared. Luckily I had been working on the project long enough to know enough pour me débrouiller, but still I had to be quick on my feet and pull out my bullshit card in order to explain to the client the four different directions we had the graphic designers work on. It went well nevertheless.

Got the afternoon off work today. Will have lunch with Gigi and my mom and then hit the Soldes. Can't wait! Tonight, dinner with Paula and mom at home and tomorrow will take her to Marcher Barbès and then we will go and visit Nathalie in Levallois. Nice relaxing weekend. Mom leaves Sunday morning.

its been too long...

Im so sorry I've been MIA for almost a week. My trip to London was so amazing. Did I see much of London, no...did I expect to? no. My friend George lives outside of London in a place called Chiswick. I arrived on Friday at 8:30pm and he met me at the train station. Im so glad he did because there would have been no way I would have found myself to his house.

We had a drink at the station where the waitress couldn't stop hitting on me...WAITRESS! She wanted to know what my background was and why I was so beautiful! From there we took a cab to Waterloo Station and then the Overground from there to Chiswick. We could have taken the tube from the St-Pancras Kings Cross to Waterloo but George thought it best we take a cab so that I could see the scenic route...and he was right. The architecture in London is completely different from that in Paris...very Victorian. We arrived at his house quite late and went to sleep. The next day we slept in and went to the Barnes Market where one of his friends Jim works. It is an "open air" market, housed in glass that reminded me of a VERY civilized Barbès Market. Jim works at a fresh produce shop. He is the drummer for the band Watching Planes that George is currently a part of. They all go to music school together. Jim invited us to his house in Camden later on, so we went on our way and continued walking around. George showed me his music school and we went to a local pub. We then made our way to Jim's house. I met another member of the band, Ed and another girl Homay who is not in the band but their new flat mate. All his friends were très sympa. We had a civilized dinner that Ed cooked and then just chilled and talked. We ended up spending the night and only leaving the next afternoon. It was a beautiful day Sunday, as compared to Saturday which was drizzling. It was nice to get a sense of the typical London weather. I do not know if I could live in a place where the weather is so unpredictable. We returned home around supper time by the Tube (Underground) and the Overground and relaxed a little. His mother was cooking dinner and had invited two friends to join. We had a very nice dinner and then went for a walk along the river next to their house. The view was MAGNIFICENT, génial, excellent, NICKEL CHROME (a new expression I learned yesterday!!)

My train was at 5:25am so that I could be in Paris for 8:50am, just in time to drop my bags off at home and then be at work for 10am. I slept 3hrs at his place, took a cab to the station and slept the entire 2hrs on the train. Upon arrival, exhaustion hadn't yet hit, but I knew it would later on in the day, and it did! along with a runny nose. I was hoping and praying that it was my allergies considering I forgot to take my medicine the last two days, however it was a cold from lack of sleep, and other things. After déjeuner, exhaustion had set it and I was over tired...all I wanted to do was go home. I finally got to leave and rushed home to my bed. I went to bed at 8:30pm and only woke up the following morning...afternoon at 12pm. I haven't sleept that much since I was gamin! I guess I needed it. Thankfully we didn't have work cause it was the Fête National - 14th of July.

Gigi came over yesterday to chill with me in the afternoon and then around 7pm I had some friends come over to celebrate the 14th. I had a little picnic at my house and then we headed up to Montmartre to see the yearly fireworks at the Tour Eiffel. We arrived a little too late, but managed to catch the final fireworks. Originally we were supposed to have a picnic at the Champs de Mars, but that would have been way too crazy. I very much liked my picnic. Everyone was very sympa and had a great time I think.

My Aunt, Uncle and cousin on my Dad's side are in town for a couple days and I am having diner with them tonight. Tomorrow, my mother arrives!!! I am quite excited because I haven't seen her for a month!!!

Sucre en poudre ? ? ?

You learn something new everyday. Yesterday, it was sucre en poudre.

Work has been a lot more amusing and interesting this past week, as I feel like finally Cyril, Emilie and Nathalie have realized that I am very competent and efficient. I was done the brand research for Emilie soon after lunch and was just rigoler-ing on Facebook, blogs and gchat, when Cyril asked me what I was doing. After bullshitting that I was doing something for Gigi, I asked if he needed anything. He asked me to look at these logo's that we had received from three different graphic designers for a new client and to give him my feedback. The three designers could easily be ranked from professional to amateur. I decided at this point, I felt comfortable enough to give him my straight honest opinion - and not sugarcoat it. I clearly told him that the logos of the amateur designer were all môche. We both ended up choosing the same top design. The presentation to the client is this afternoon. I look forward to hearing what she says. The chances that she chooses one of the logos done by the amateur is very likely - as that is what usually happens. This is what ended up happening for that rock compilation album we did a few weeks ago.

As I was rigoler-ing, I asked JP to recommend me another "French" drink that I must try. The last one he recommended was the demi pêche - like a Monaco but with peach syrup...so good. This one is called a Polac. It is made with vodka, sparkling wine/champaign, grenadine and sucre en poudre. I understood all the ingredients except for the last one - sucre en poudre. The direct translation is powdered sugar which made me think of icing sugar. I asked him to explain sucre en poudre. This got the whole office involved trying to explain it to me. They couldn't believe I didn't understand. It came to the point where Cyril went to our kitchen took a sugar cube and came to my desk and began turning it into sucre en poudre on my cahier. IT WAS GRANULATED SUGAR!!! not icing sugar...simply white sugar you use for your coffee!!! Oh the French and their names pour les differents trucs.

Ahhh c'est excellent, génial, incroyable ! ! !

I am constantly made fun of at the office for my use of excellent and incroyable. Typically they are not commonly used words in everyday French. I use them rather than tres bien. I have gotten everyone in the office to start doing the same...its so GREAT!

Tonight I'm having drinks with Paula and Gigi. I am also finishing packing for London, as I'm leaving tomorrow night to go and visit my friend George. Im super excited because I've only been once before and it was with my father. We had a great time, but it will be different this time because I will actually be able to see London with someone who is from there. I have no wants or needs in terms of seeing anything, just to explore and adventure.

I am taking the train tomorrow night around 7pm and come back on the 5am train Monday morning to be at work for 10am. This was the stupidest decision I made, as the 14th is the independence day for France - Bastille Day - and we don't have work. Thus, I should have taken Monday off and stayed over till the 14th in the afternoon. No worries, I have a wonderful picnic that Lindsay has planned for Bastille Day at Champs de Mars. There will be fireworks, drinking and eating - a MEGA TEUF!!!

Started out bof...then got way better!

This morning at the gym, I did what I told myself I would never do - I locked my keys to my lock inside the locker!  I had finished working out and was locking up my locker on my way to the showers.  This meant I was in my towel!  What a great start to my day.  I asked a woman who I see every morning if she would mind going to the front desk and asking them to cut open my lock - she kindly did so.  Would have been très sympa going to the front desk in my towel!

My day could only get better from then.  Luckily I bought a vintage lock at the Marché au Puces last time I went with Sophie, so I have one for tomorrow morning!  I got to work and immediately began bossé-ing.  I have been working since last week on researching for an Arts & Crafts company who is about to introduce a new brand to their portfolio and we were hired to come up with the name and logo for the company.  This research has involved looking up their competitors and also going to loisirs créatifs stores and taking photos of already existing products - what I did yesterday afternoon.  I had to take photos very discretely as I couldn't get caught.  I was able to get over 200 photos from three different stores and after telling Emilie this morning, she gave me the name "the new Bond girl" !

This afternoon we had a meeting with Nathalie to discuss what I had discovered in my research.  Until the meeting I worked hard on creating a spiral bound book with over 200 pages of photos of products, divided by brand and store.  I even added dividers I created to make it easier to look through.  If I do say so myself, it looked damn good!  Emilie, Cyril and Nathalie were blown away!  They were shocked that I was able to put this book together in a little over a day.  Nathalie said that for most stagiaires it take them a week to learn where to put the garbage.  This work ethic comes straight from my mother and also the cut throat mentality in New York.

I was also asked during the meeting, at least three times, if it is absolutely necessary I leave on August 15th - CAN'T I EXTEND MY STAY???  My response was unfortunately I must return to school.  Cyril asked me if I plan on returning to Paris.  I have come to the conclusion that this is a place where I can definitely see myself living.  I truly love it here.  I love the joie de vivre and the city is incredible.  I love how people work to live and not live to work, like they do in New York.  I guess I could say, my plan is to graduate NYU next year and then use the free year the US Government is giving me for being international which is supposed to be the year you apply for your green card or other visa and work in New York and then hopefully head back here!

I think it is more than j'aime Paris for me - its j'adore Paris!

An awesome weekend despite the little things...

SENSATION WAS SENSATIONal.  

Lindsay finally arrived at the hotel to drop off her bag.   We immediately headed back on the tram to central station to meet up with Florent and his friends who were also here for the concert.  They were already dressed in their white outfits and ready for the party - they didn't get a hotel as they were taking the train back at 8am and the concert went till 6am.  We decided to meet up with them and then change later, as we didn't want to get too sweaty.  Conveniently the Amsterdam Arena was was closer to our hotel than to the center of Amsterdam.  We had a couple drinks with them while relaxing in the hot sun next to a canal and headed back to change.

We got dressed in our white outfits and took the metro to the Arena, where we met up with Florent and his friends.  It was amazing seeing 40,000 dressed all in white, ready to dance the night away.  

Amsterdam's transportation system is pretty cool - a little overdone though.  For such a small city they have: buses, trams, metros, trains, taxis, cars and bikes.  Their public transport system works on an honor system it seemed.  When you get on you pay the driver for the ride.  If you get on in the back of the bus/tram, you are supposed to walk to the front and pay the driver.  You can easily ride without paying as it is difficult for the driver to keep track of who has paid and who is getting on and off.  

Lindsay and I had this constant debate during our 24hrs in Amsterdam concerning the national language they speak.  We decided it wasn't German, but it wasn't coming to us.  Finally on our way to the train station heading home on Sunday, I figured out that it was Dutch!!!

Our train ended up being cancelled on the way back because of technical difficulties and we ended up getting a replacement an hour and a half later.  Our time in Amsterdam was really great, but we both wanted to get back to Paris and get into our own beds and go to sleep.  Neither of us had gotten much sleep this weekend, but it was well worth it!

Looking forward to London this weekend!

Why does it feel like you slept when you pull an all-nighter?

Last night was Gigi's birthday.  We had made plans for us to go home change and then reunite to faire la teuf later in the night.  I went home and got my valises ready for Amsterdam as I was leaving early in the morning.  Gigi's family surprised her by taking her to a nice restaurant on the Champs.  She wasn't too excited because it meant that it pushed our plans later.  She finished dinner around 11:30 and was over at my apartment by 12.  

The night before, Paula organized a dinner with her friend Aurélian as he works for an audio-visual production company in Paris called Première Heur and she wanted me to meet him.  He was super sympa and we bonded on things relating to art and creativity.  We had organized that we would do the teuf together the following night for Gigi's birthday.  I had originally organized us going to Chalet-des-Iles - the party I had gone to with Delphine in Bois-de-Boulogne, but we ended up going elsewhere.  Aurélian brought two of his other friends - Ed and Alex - who were also très sympa.  We danced the night away and since we only found ourself at the club at 1:30am, there was no point in sleeping.  Gigi and I watched the sunrise from my window and I left to the train station at 6:45am.  It was weird when the sun began to rise, I felt like I had slept the entire night.

This was when the little hiccup occurred.  Lindsay was supposed to come over to my apartment at 6:30am and we were going to head to Gare du Nord together as it is closer to my house.  I called her at 6:00am to ensure she was awake and her phone went straight to voicemail.  I was hoping she was just on the metro to me, but when I tried again a few minutes later, voicemail again and then AGAIN AND AGAIN.  This was when I started getting a little anxious.  I had my ticket for the train and Sensation and I had to just go!  I was hoping that I would find her at the train station...but again NO!  So I got on the train, alone....I really didn't have any other choice.  She knew the name of our hotel and perhaps she was already on the train and I was hoping that we would just find ourselves there.  The train started to move and ten minutes in my phone rang....it was Lindsay!  She had slept through her alarm!!!  She managed to get on the next train...the same one Florent was going to be on.  

I am glad that she managed to fix the little hiccup.  I arrived in Amsterdam at 11:45am and took the tram to my hotel in the South of the city - interestingly, when I booked the hotel...they said it was in the center - go figure.  I was exhausted, even after sleeping the entire four hour train ride.  When I arrived at the hotel Citizen M, they kindly told me I couldn't check in till 2pm.  How great.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  I left my bag here and took the opportunity to go and explore this area.  I found a nice strip with restaurants and shops and then relaxed at a park for a little while.  Lindsay's train has arrived and she is now on her way to meet me at the hotel.  She will drop off her bag and we will head out to go and meet Flo and his group of friends.  Then off to SENSATION!!!  I talked to some people who went last night....they said it was incredible.  I CAN'T WAIT!!!

epiphany au gym

I had an epiphany last night as I was walking home from le class de cycling.  I have done spinning before in the states numerous times, however this was a very different experience.  Firstly, you had to call beforehand and sign up for a bike where they give you a number - the number of the bike you will be riding for the class.  The class was absolutely full!  This was the first shock, because all the classes I have done in New York are never full.  We are lucky if it is half full.  Everyone arrived a little beforehand to prepare their bikes and warm up, while the instructor got the music and her mic prepared.  Side note: The instructor was at least 5-6 month pregnant!!! and pushing it harder than most in the class!  Another thing I noticed before the class started was that there was a disco ball hanging from the ceiling.  I thought it was just for decoration, until the class begun and as the teacher turned the lights down low, the disco ball began turning and emiting reflections.  WOW!  I felt like I was in a club!  It was incredible, the music blaring, a light show - what more could you ask for - I am not being sarcastic - I really did enjoy it!  There was one other thing that made the experience even more motivating - throughout the 60 min class, there was many moments during intense cycling intervals that various men would yell "ALLEZ-UP" or "ALLLLLEEEEEZZZZZ!!!!".  In New York, it was only the instructor who was trying to motivate the students, not the opposite.  I really enjoyed this exchange.  The class was great.  I look forward to doing it again and also trying this one called Aqua Cycling - where you do spinning in water.  It is a little of a trek as they don't have it at the club I usually go to, but next weekend I'm in town I will for sure try it out!

This morning, I chose to take another route to the gym.  Rather than the usual route which takes me 15-20 minutes, I thought why not try another route, maybe it is faster, I thought.  Was I wrong.  Being used to the grid-system of New York, Paris is COMPLETELY different.  I discovered this blog last week when I was bored at work of this woman named Maggie Kim who is a singer and writer and she was from New York but now lives in Paris - she moved here for the man she fell in love with.  Anyways, she writes about all these things that she notices living here and about her life.  One of her entries was about the difference between how New York and Paris are in terms of how they are set up: 

Paris, with its arrondissements, is built like a snail’s shell—or that’s what I read somewhere once.  The center of the shell is the 1st (where I live) and then circles around from there until you get to the 20th. Yeah, it makes no sense for people who come from gridded cities, like New York and even Philly.  So I have this theory that this town has a million wormholes that you step through, just by making a left turn instead of a right, or vice versa. There are routes I know to certain places like the back of my hand. Now, logic would make it seem that if you take the street that’s parallel to the one you’re on, you’ll still wind up at your destination at approximately the same time.  

Not so, mon ami!

This was exactly how I felt this morning.  My normal route consists of walking down Rue Nôtre-Dame-de-Lorette which become Rue du Faubourgh Montmartre, then turning left on Rue Bergère, followed by turning right on Rue du Faubourgh Poissonière.  It feels like I'm walking down, going straight and then walking back up - feels totally backwards, like I'm walking in circles.  Today, my route made more sense to my grid-like mentality, but ended up taking me 20-25 minutes.  France is so twisted...literally!

Happy Canada Day!  I will be sporting the red and white in spirit of beautiful country.  O Canada!!!

The weatherman is always wrong.

I have learned from experience, that the weatherman is only correct 50% of the time, and thank g-d for that.  As I had said at the end of last week, the weather was not looking good for this weekend.  I had consulted over 10 different weather websites and 9/10 said that saturday AND sunday would be thunderstorms.  There was one however, that didn't follow the pattern, predicting that it would be a beautiful weekend.  I chose to follow that prediction, going with the path Robert Frost describes in his poem "The Road Less Travelled" - trying to not be persuaded by the masses.  It was the right move, because it was such a beautiful weekend!

I came home Friday after work to the most beautiful new washing machine I have ever seen.  I sound crazy being so excited about a washing machine, but when I tell you about the first wash I did you will understand.  This machine is just brilliant.  It doesn't just wash.  It also dries.  Even better it washes and dries all in one!!!  I put my clothes in, set it on mixed wash, pressed secheuse and 3hrs later I had clean and dry clothes!  So un-France!

Saturday was SOLIDAYS.  My friend had arrived from London Friday night and we were super excited for the festival.  Friday night we just chilled, cause we knew saturday was going to be nuts.  It was my first time at a music festival of the sort.  I was most excited to see Girl Talk.  We met up with Lindsay and her friends Olivia, Arielle and Vivianna at the arrival in Bois de Boulogne.  It was set up like an amusement park.  There was a bungee jump, canteens and the concerts looked like circus tents.  We got there around 4 as we were only aware of who was going to be playing which day, not the specific times.  When we arrived, we found out Girl Talk was only playing at 3AM.  We were hoping we would be able to stay awake till then, but weren't promising anything, unfortunately.  We were able to catch Keziah Jones at 8pm and the Tings Tings at 11pm.  Keziah was really good - a mix between Rock and Reggae.  I wasn't too excited to see the Ting Tings because I can't stand their song "That's not my name", but I found myself pleasantly surprised with the other songs they played.  The main girl was dressed in this awesome purple sequined top with iridescent leggings.  The best was her microphone being lime green.  We got there early, and were able to get pretty close to the stage.  At around midnight, George and I we were totally knackered and decided to leave.  By this time, we were very close to the stage and there were A LOT of people behind us.  Weaving through these crowds of people unaware of where the exit was was a terrifying experience.  I am not claustrophobic, however at this point I felt suffocated and I was also very scared of loosing George in the crowd.  The odds are not really on your side when trying to find someone amongst 50,000 people.  Très soulagé, we found ourself FREE of the crowd and worked our way to the exit.  There was no way we could have stayed for Girl Talk!

Yesterday, we had a picnic under Sacre Coeur at Montmartre in the afternoon.  Gigi joined us as well as Paula and Delphine.  It was really relaxed, perfect for post festival.  

This week is quite festive.  Tonight is relaxed, but then the teuf (party) begins.  We are having a party at Upside Down to celebrate all the birthdays and summer being here.  It starts at exactly 17h31 and the theme is Paris Plage - so the dress code is bathing suits and shorts.  Wednesday is Canada Day and Lindsay is organizing a picnic at the Champs de Mars under the Tour Eiffel for the evening.  Thursday I have dinner with Paula and a friend of hers who works at Première Heure - an audio visual production company and finally Friday is Gigi's birthday so I was thinking we would go back to Chalet-des-Isle as they are having another one of those parties again.  Saturday very early in the morning, Lindsay and I are off to AMSTERDAM!!!

Big week. 

TGIF...for real.

I know I've used this title before, but today I really mean it.  Thank g-d it's FRIDAY!  It has been quite a long week and it is finally the weekend and it looks like it will be a good one.  Hopefully the one weather website out of ten I found saying the weather will be nice this weekend proves the others wrong who say it will rain everyday.  Who knows, my birthday weekend the weather was supposed to be bad and it turned out beautifully.  My main concern is rain on Saturday, for the Solidays festival.  I have also loosely planned a picnic at Sacre Coeur for Sunday, so hopefully it will stay clear as well.  I am trying to make this picnic as large as possible - so anyone I know in Paris is invited...you know who you are, just bring wine and food and we will meet on the grass under Sacre Coeur in Montmartre.  

I AM GETTING MY NEW WASHING MACHINE/DRYER TODAY!!! I think I am a little too excited, but who cares.  It looks absolutely awesome and I have been waiting all week to do a wash and have it dried.  Just so you can be jealous - this new washing machine has a washing cycle of 15 MINUTES.  This is unheard of in France.  I will be doing very small loads - I do not want to break this machine!

I found out this week that one of the graphistes at work, Flo, will also be going to Sensation as well with a group of about 20 friends.  At the beginning we didn't really talk.  Then we were stuck in the graphiste office just the two of us for a good hour working and he started conversation.  Since then, we have developed this little friendship.  He is very very sympa, a little shy, but same with me.  He has been going to Sensation every year since 2005 and told me it is incredible.  I wasn't quite sure what it was all about and was just tagging along cause Lindsay really wanted to go and why not go to Amsterdam for a night for a Techno Festival when it is so close.  Flo said that more than going for the music, it is the decoration that is incredible.  Here is a photo from last year.  There is always a theme and this year it is the 10th anniversary and it is Winter Wonderland.  The only rule is that you must be dressed head to toe in white.  Lindsay is so cute - every time we talk she has thought up a new outfit.  I wish I had time to go shopping and find an awesome outfit to wear.  I will do it last minute.

It is the SOLDES right now.  This is like boxing day in the States, but it lasts for about a month starting June 24th.  People take work off to go to the sales - its crazy!  But stuff are really on sale, so I guess it's worth it.  I will wait till it calms down and then head out next weekend before Amsterdam.  

Fingers crossed for the weather.

RIP Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

Things are breaking...but most importantly getting fixed.

Yesterday, I got a beautiful email from Paula with some great news.  Odile has decided to replace the washing machine and I will be getting a new one on Friday!  It is a washer/dryer which is ever more exciting.  It is really funny how the little things make me really happy.

Last night after work, I met up with Lindsay and her friend Arielle who is visiting from Montreal, along with Olivia on Ile St.-Louis for a picnic dinner.  I really am going to miss picnics when I return to NYC.  It is such an important part of Parisian culture.  Lindsay and Arielle made a beautiful salad with salmon, avocado, carrots that was very yummy, along with a lentil salad that had this amazing truffle oil mustard.  I must buy some.  I brought some wine, bread, cheese, tomatoes and carrot salad.  Next time I will bring better food.  That was my first time on Ile St.-Louis and I will for sure be back.  It is right next to Notre Dame and the Seine in the 5th.  

Another thing happened last night which made me realize how small Paris really is.  We were packing up the picnic and heading home and I heard the group that was sitting next to us speaking English and I recognized the guys voice.  I looked over and it was Sean, Dave's friend that he stayed with while he was here, that I met a few weeks ago.  So weird how things happen.  He is an avid volleyball player and I have been looking for a place to play here.  He is part of a club that plays a couple nights a week, but the season is almost over, but beach volleyball is starting soon.  He will let me know next time he goes and I will join him.  

This weekend is SOLIDAYS - a music festival in Paris - www.solidays.org.  I am very excited because Girl Talk is performing and I have never seen him live and I heard it is a lot of fun.  There are many other artists such as Friendly Fires and Yusek.  I am going with Lindsay and a couple of her friends as well as George - he is coming back into town this weekend for it.  I am very excited.

Coming out of the garde-robe.

I am not used to weekends going by so quickly.  It is already Sunday and tomorrow is Monday...back to work.  I have been very lucky the past few semesters to plan my school schedule so that I have no school on Fridays, making my weekend seem longer because it starts Thursday night.  Then again, the faster it goes, the more fun you have had...and this weekend was a lot of fun and VERY eventful.

Friday night I went for dinner with Stella to this really delicious Pizza restaurant called Paparazzi.  They are known for their paper thin crust.  We had a very nice time together catching up.  Unfortunately she is leaving for Hong Kong for the summer this coming Friday to spend time with her family, so that was probably the last time I would see her as she is very busy getting ready this week.  It has been very great developing a friendship with Stella.  She was always a good friend of my mothers, but we were not close when I was a child as I never got to really get to know her since she moved to Paris a long time ago.  Developing this friendship with her has been very interesting for me.  It is the first time that I have had a friendship with someone who is quite a bit older than me and feel comfortable talking about anything and everything with.  Usually when I meet people older than me, I am intimidated by them and judgements that they will make.  With Stella, I am not.  It is also nice, that it is not because of my mother that we have become friends.  It is more that we both have made the effort to get to know each other and have found that we really enjoy each others company.   I am sad that she is going to Hong Kong so soon, but I'm sure I will find myself back in Paris and our friendship will continue to grow.  

After dinner, I met up with Paula to go to her friends party.  We met a group of her friends in Saint-Germain at this really cool restaurant/bar called Alkazar where they had live ambiance music to have a drink.  When all her friends had arrived we made our way to the club Lup where the party was.  It was ]  party her assistant Kelly's partner had invited us too.  I had no idea what to expect.  When we arrived, I immediately found myself surrounded by an abundance of girls.  It didn't click until we got to the bar, that this was a Lesbian club or party.  This was the first one I have ever been too.  The music was great, but we only stayed for a little while, cause it was clear that we didn't really fit in.  Paula chose to stay, however Delphine and I moved on to another party two of her guy friends had invited her to.  It was at Chalet-des-Isle.  This party only happens every two weeks or so in the summer and it is in Bois-de-Boulogne (the Central Park of Paris).  It is so different because you have to take a little boat over a small river in order to get to the party.  Think a Chalet, like that Beaver Lake, add over 2000 people, great dance music and open bar and that was what this party.  I definitely want to go back.  It is considered "l'un des endroits les plus branchés de la capitale"!!!

The funniest thing happened when we were trying to find a taxi on our way home.  It was around 4am and we had taken the boat back across the river.  G7, the taxi company, had a line set up.  We were about 5th in line.  A girl behind us asked Delphine if she knew if it usually takes long time for a taxi to come.  Delphine didn't know, and as she replied I looked slightly to the back, curious who was asking and immediately heard someone call my name.  I turn around fully, only to see that Marguerite, Lindsay's friend, is right behind us.  What is the chance...to run into someone in Paris at such a huge party like this.  I couldn't wait to tell Lindsay!

I didn't get much sleep that night as I was meeting Sophie and her family in the morning to go to the Marché au Puces.  Her mother is a serious collector of antiques and various tzatch that she is a regular every Saturday morning at this market.  It was set up like a garage sale where each vender comes and sets up their own little stand.  I find numerous little treasures such as an awesome vintage leather sheepskin bomber pilot jacket, a purse, a wallet, a bracelet and a couple other things.  The most important thing to do is to bargain, and my Dad taught me well.

 After the market I went to Marché Barbès and Gigi met me there.  It was so much fun going with her as she speaks the language of the venders and was 'drague'ing' (flirting) them in arabic in order to negotiate better prices.  To help with the fake 'flirting', I was her niece and we were both already married.  The weather was awful - it was raining buckets.  We stayed there until the market closed.  This is the best time to buy as all the venders want to get rid of their produce so that they don't have to bring it back with them.  We bought a huge bag of potatoes and onions for 1 Euro.  

We returned to my place with our purchases and Sophie joined us with some meat and we cooked dinner together.  We had such a nice night just chilling and talking.

The following morning was the House/Techno Dance class I mentioned I was going to do.  I said I was nervous because I am not inclined at all in Dance and I did end up making a fool of myself.  Lindsay joined me with two of her friends.  We couldn't stop laughing the entire time.  It was so hard and I couldn't even get half the steps.  There were two 60 year old women there who were doing better than me.   But hey, looking back, it was a lot of fun.  This was the video from So You Think You Can Dance Canada that intrigued me to try this style of dance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qeg0iRHq5A.  It is way harder than it looks.  

I took the rest of the day to relax, do my laundry at a laverie (the machine is fully broken and am waiting for it to be replaced) and clean the apartment.  

Last night was the Fête de la Musique in Paris.  This night happens once a year and it symbolizes the first real day of summer.  How it works is singers/dancers famous and infamous perform on the street for free.  There is music and dancing on every corner.  From my apartment I could hear drumming at Pigalle.  There was a group who were doing numbers like from the movie Drumline.  It was so cool.  Gigi joined up with me and we made our way to le Marais to check out what was happening there.  We hadn't eaten and felt like Falafel - so we went to the best place on Rue des Rosiers - L'as de Falafel.  There was a line halfway down the street - but it was well worth it.  They had techno music blaring and people were dancing like they were at a night club.  It was amazing!  It was like they didn't have work the next day.  

I had a really eventful weekend.  It was the first time that I have had tons of things planed which was really nice.  I do look forward to coming home after work tonight and relaxing, as I didn't get much sleep.  But hey, who needs sleep when your having fun!

Planting seeds.

Last night was a lot of fun.  Usually I take the metro everywhere but I had quite a bit of time before I had to meet Paula and her friends, so I decided to walk from the 10th arrondissement to the 2nd.  It was a really nice walk.  It was supposed to rain yesterday but by the afternoon it had cleared up.  Its really nice to see how the quartiers change from one to another.  

I arrived a little too early and funnily bumped into Stella on the same street as the restaurant I was meeting them at.  She was outside of her favorite place to 'prend un verre' called 'Joe Allen' and invited me in for a drink.  I had a quick catch-up with her and then continued down the street to meet Paula and her friends.  I'm having dinner with Stella tonight at this thin crust pizza place that she has raved about, so more catching up tonight.

Paula had three other of her friends join us - Delphine, Anne-Sophie and Renaud.  They are all Parisians and very nice.  Before I found the apartment through Paula, I was supposed to rent her own apartment.  She had planned to move into another apartment that she was going to share with Delphine, fun little tidbit.

My favorite food here which I ordered last night is escargot.  They are just so amazing - the combination of garlic and parsley is 'halucinant' !  I had them the night of my birthday and again last night and this will not be the last time.  

Paula was telling me that she knows a lot of people in the domain of production and arts that she wants to introduce me to - so that I will know some people in the area that I potentially want to go into.  She also invited me to this private party at a club tonight that her friend is taking her too.  I'm very excited because its the first time I will be going out 'out' in Paris.  

Tomorrow I'm going to Marché au Puce with Sophie and her family and then back to Marché Barbès - I cannot wait! Then Gigi will join us in the afternoon and 'on va faire la fête' le soir.  Its the first weekend I have tons of things to do!  It took a month for it to become this way...I'm vachement happy that the seeds have been planted and have begun to grow.

Just to add a side note...the time difference here is quite great.  Getting to talk to my best friend Kiki at 6:30 in the morning before I head off to the gym makes my day.  Thank g-d also for 'rigoler-ing' time at work...what would I do without Gchat and Facebook.