Garrison Keilor's "A Writer's Almanac"

So while i've been out of the midwest, i've been keeping up with the news from lake wobegon by podcast. A few weeks ago, the poem seemed very appropriate, so here it is:
Eve Robelard "Jetlag"
He flies over the ocean to see his girl
his Sorbonne girl, his ginger-skinned girl
waiting for him in the city of light
everywhere river and almost spring gardens
everywhere bridges and rainy statues
streets going nowhere
streets going on all night
i love you my mona my lisa my cabage my gargoyle
Degas' little dancer in dawn's ragged gown.
But on the third day
she picks up her books
tells him she needs to study
she adores this town
she's not coming home in May
she going to stay all summer
lowers her morning calm eyes.
He's alright in the cab
alright on the plane, dronning him home
in only three hours American
key in lock now
his tick tock apartment
shiver his shadow, his need to sleep
then, with the tiredness washing over and over him
and through his raveling bones
he begins to know

my little corner of paris

okay, more photos of my surrogate home. glenn, i don't generally take pictures of my food, but just for you, escargots:

and my itty bitty room:



and this is my view:

and this is where i eat my lunch (generally a demi-baguette with butter, mustard, tomatoes, camembert, and gouda):

and mom, i was walking back to work and i noticed that the building next to me was dripping water (a little odd). so i look over and here's a building completely covered with different mosses and plants that you could probably identify, but which i cannot. évidemment, it's a museum of other civilizations or something, which is much less interesting than the fact that there's a building made of moss. crazy.

now, i have several leads on possible burritos so hopefully after tonight my serious craving will be assuaged. i did find tabasco, so all is well.

barcelona for les vacances

so, i have apparently been neglecting this rather severely. i started my internship and now stare at a computer all day and i don't come home with much motivation to do anything else in front of a screen. i'm getting used to typing on a french keyboard (except i spent about an hour trying to figure out how to make a %) so now i can't find the letters on my own computer. very tricky. however, i have many many pictures and thought that you might enjoy to see them.
i was in barcelona for spring break. it was, quite simply, beautiful.
here is my view from the room of the apartment we were staying in:

and here's the mediterranean sea:

this is one of the gaudi houses, now a museum:

and another:

this is the entrance of park guell, which is this huge park designed by gaudi. it was originally the estate of some very wealthy man. he and gaudi both had houses on the property, which is very large and rambly atop a very steep hill. so:

and the view from this hill (and yes, that's the sea in the background):

the sagrada familia was gaudi's life work. it's basically four churches with different themes, as it were, put together. it takes up an entire city block and is still unfinished. absolutely amazing:


Hopefully more photos to come...sorry about the original confusion...

photos

just to give you an idea:
le petit palais, next to the pont d'Alexandre III (a bridge to honor a russian czar) and across the river from where i have my internship. the palais is now a museum, but i have not yet been:

the palais de luxembourg in luxembourg gardens. the palace was basically the precursor to the louvre in that it held the first real exhibition of art in paris. the collection was moved to the grand corridor of the louvre so that there would be more room and i think because someone wanted to live in luxembourg.

mom's art nouveau desk as seen in the musée d'orsay (which used to be a huge railroad station


and of course, the louvre at night:



the winged victoire:

and the venus de milo

Finalement, a blog

So, it's the week of vacances here and i've finally pulled myself together and created a blog. Hopefully, this will mean at least semi-regular updates as to what i've been doing and seeing. for example:

that would be the Tour de Montparnasse as seen from below the Tour d'Eiffel.

That's a rainbow as seen from the Place St. Michel. Apparently, it rains alot in Paris in February. And of course you also have Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe:


One of my friends came to visit for a few days, so we went to all the tourist spots and took lots of pictures and spoke loudly in english. I just got back from visiting her in Barcelona, so there will soon be pictures of that. It's hard to believe that in Spain, one can sit on the beach in February, but I'm not complaining. Evidement, global warming has it's perks.
That's all for now, accept to say that my classes are over and i'm starting my internship on Monday. Hopefully, I can figure out economic policy in french. who really knows?
love
katherine