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!!!