A Soft Hum

You know why I love the mountains? 
Because they are quiet. 
Do you know why I love the beach in the morning hours? 
Because it is quiet.

This world is so loud. I've learned to let it just be noise, to be background. Unexpected noises make me jump. I hate using or hearing car horns. I avoid it at all costs. And press lightly when I feel I have to. Timid. Because I don't want to startle others... or myself, really. But the point is to be startled into action.

Growing up in a small house I tiptoed around. Not wanting to break the balance. And it wasn't to scare or creep up on unsuspecting siblings. It was only to avoid breaking the background hum. I became a master at the art of slipping around with minimal noise. I learned all the unique door squeaks and the person walks on the floor. Mind you, most of the time this was carpeted floor. I was that detailed in my trained hearing. 

I often notice the air conditioning switching on at work. I take note when the music changes at a coffeeshop. This morning, I heard the rain falling before seeing the splattered raindrops on the windshield.

I become in tune when the world has a soft hum. 

*written while construction rages at the office*

Dressed in Capability

When I watch the Oscars I watch for the dresses and well the musical performances, but mostly the dresses.  But… I’m not going to give you a rundown of my favorites or a list of my top dressed.  Instead, let’s talk about art.  See I love looking at dresses, and drawing them, and trying them on.  My friend went wedding dress shopping and I loved it…mostly.  Bridal shop, please adjust your lighting.  Please.

 

A few years ago I picked up a retro drawing of a dress in LA.  It lived on my bulletin board in college and made it into a shadow box that lived on my bookshelf for a few years.  When I go into a thrift shop I’m the one who takes FOREVER looking through all the patterns and looking for the retro, vintage ones.  I have a pattern for a slip from the 50’s, which I bought fabric for, and was going to make for my senior year prom dress.  Yeah, that didn’t happen.

 

This brings me to some art pieces that I saw and love the retro look.  You know what I also love, the statement. 

Source

 

I’m not going to go all feminist on you.   I’m just going to tell you that I am capable.  Honestly, I am much more comfortable in a dress than wielding a power tool. 

But, there are some days that I want to show you that I am tough. 

Capable

I can get dirty. {Ok, I’d prefer my dirt to be flour over mud}

 I can saw down a tree in the mountains. {Christmas trees count!}

I can dig a hole. {Although I’d like the hole to then hold a flower plant or vegetable garden}

I can hammer a nail. {Picture frames up on the wall, check}

I drive a manual car.

I have jumped a car battery multiple times, sometimes without assistance.

I can mount TVs to walls. {Mini tool sets are useful}

I can operate heavy equipment. {Yay tractor driving}

All this to say, I want to be confident in my abilities and to exercise my capabilities.  I also want to embrace my love of the swish of fabric and the click of heels.  I’m learning how to blend the two.  And I’m learning how to show that I am capable.

What are you capable of?

Pretty Pretty Picture

You know how I promised pictures...well here they are {some of them}.  You know how I said I would post more and write more.  Hmmm about that... Its week 5 of the 10 week quarter system.  And that my friends means that as much as I want to write.  This week is going to be a little lite on the posts. 

I'll stop babbling...Enjoy!

Reliving Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve day was amazing. We took our time getting ready and got up a little later because we were preparing for the late night and long day ahead. When we finally left the apartment we headed to the metro and the Vatican where we had been the night before.
We made our tour of the Vatican museum. The Catholic Church is considered a culture or people group and they have enormous wealth. The museum had statues and famous paintings. You could tell if they were created before the pope of modesty or after by the tactfully placed fig leaf. I think it was more distracting than doing its job. I love art museums
We saved the best for last. The Sistine chapel. Make an in awe face and you will know what it felt like to walk in. Have you been there? It is worth it! I love that I can appreciate the art and the huge sacrifice and effort it took to paint that ceiling. What a legacy that Michelangelo left. It also helped that I have knowledge of the Bible to fully understand the panels and sequence. I love that it wasn’t perfect.

The museum closed in preparation as we were finishing. It was setting up the anticipation of the night for me. We stopped at a little restaurant and ate a big lunch {at 3pm} to be used as lunch and dinner. After our meal we rounded the corner and found the line for the Christmas Eve Mass. It was already quite long and it was about 4.15pm when we got in line.
Throughout the in line process we made friends with the Canadian couple behind us and the English couple behind them. And then there was an American couple behind them that had taught at the Danish Institute. In front of us were a mother and two daughters from Poland. The daughters were so sweet and talked with us about their schooling system and how excited that they were to be here for this service. In front of them was a group of the men of the cloth. We met the family and couple in front of them as well. We made lots of friends!

This networking turned out to be crucial for us getting into the building as a unit. So many people cut in line. The nuns and the older people are the worst. I hope that I do not ever feel that I am entitled to something in that way. It is amazing to me that people who call themselves Christians {and yes they claim that they are Christians, they were asked} would be willing to cheat and lie to get into the basilica for mass.

During the line process we ate snacks and switched off to go the bathroom and changed clothes. We had quite the system going on. And then it was time 4.5 hours later to be like herded cattle going through the gates to get through security and hopefully {although it seemed highly likely by our place in line} to make it to seats in the basilica.

We made it and had good seats. We sat next to our new polish friends and could see the Pope as he floated down the aisle {no, he was not a bride, but I realized it sounded like that}. The entire service I could see the Pope and his address was done so well. He had people of many nations read passages from the bible. There was French, English, Portuguese, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Spanish and few others. The basilica was lit up even more brightly than the day before. Half the service was sung by the choir in Latin. It’s amazing how close the Latin and Italian are so I could understand most of the service.After the service ended it was already officially Christmas in Italy! We walked home through Rome’s streets and got to see all kinds of fun lights hung through the main part of town. It was a late night but what an experience!
What is something that you would give up Christmas with your family to have the opportunity to do or experience? Would you give up Christmas?

*There are no pics of me because they were taken on my friend's camera. She also has a closer picture of the Pope that I will share with you when I can.

A Walking Day {Paris 3}

There was this great idea to see the city and walk to the Louve…yeah I walked along half the river Monday morning. Adventure.
Arriving at the Louve we knew that we would get in free {See Tip #5 and know how wonderful France is to students} but we still had to wait in line to get tickets. The line was long. We stood for 1.5 hours in line to get our free tickets. Dedication. We would have come back the next day when it was supposed to rain, but the Louve isn’t open on Tuesdays.
Tip 6: know what days the museums are open, or rather when they are not.
We finally made it in and enjoyed walking around and seeing the things we wanted to see. We spent a good 2.5 hours there before heading out to find food.
We were going to go to Notre Dame so we decided to head in that direction. We walked. Because we are poor college students we walked and didn’t pay for the Metro. I don’t know if that was smart or not, all I was thinking was that I needed to find a chair. And I did and some food. Finally. The water was expensive because apparently it was not clear that I wanted tap water. {Lady at the café, you are not my favorite and I’m not going back to your café.}
Tip 7: You will make mistakes as a tourist because this isn’t your city. I make one at least every trip and it costs dearly {in my eyes}.
Tip 8: When you order water in France you can get free water. {You can’t in Italy so don’t try it} Just ask for a craft, not a bottle. Its tap water but it’s not bad.
Anyways we then went to Notre Dame and saw a huge long line. I decided that I didn’t need to go in that badly. And I figured that I would go the next day…but somehow that didn’t make the priorities list for Tuesday. Then we walked some more.
When I think of Paris I think of a little street on the 2nd island in Paris {there are 2 islands in Paris did you know that?} that has ice cream shops and little boutiques. We got ice cream. I don’t really know what flavor I got but I know that it was raspberry, mostly…
Then we hopped on the metro and went home to get ready for dinner at a crepe place near us. On the way home I got an éclair. I figured I was in Paris and I don’t know when I’ve had a real éclair. It was delicious and a perfect before dinner snack.
We got crepes. The first one was savory and mine had an egg on it. Parisians love eggs, they put them in/on everything…quiche, pastries, ice cream, sandwich. Everything. Fitting that I would order that. The second was a savory crepe. I split one as I had had plenty of sugar. Mine did not say that it would be flambéed or lit on fire on the menu but I think the waiter was a little over eager and decided to do it anyways.
Then we walked {had to put that in there again} to the Eiffel tower. It’s so fun to see it sparkle. And that is how I ended a perfectly un-scary Halloween…

Changing Plans {Paris 2}

Paris day 2 ended up landing on a Sunday. Sundays are important days in Europe. It means you usually end up rearranging your schedule multiply times because shops are closed or don’t open at the time you thought. In a big city and such a touristy place it is not such a big deal but it changes the name of the game none the less.
The little shop with the coffee and delicious pastry was closed…but there was something better!
A market.
I have to say that I love my markets. I’ll stop gushing and tell you that we shopped for food. For breakfast and for our picnic lunch that was yet to come. It smelled wonderful and I wished I could wake up to it every day.
Then it was off to Saint Capelle to see beautiful stain glass windows. We picked a day that had some decent light that shone through windows.
Tip 4: Get any discount you can. Student Visas in the EU gave me a discount to Saint Capelle. Score.
Then I did something that 4 months ago I would not have thought was a big deal. I got a coffee to take away. As in, it was in a cup that I could walk out the door with and then I could throw the cup away. Did you know that this was possible?!? I felt like such a traitor to the Italian tradition of enjoying a coffee. But I was in France, right?
Afterwards we went to meet our friends for a picnic lunch. We chose to go to Luxenbourg gardens. It is huge and gorgeous and there are trees everywhere. It took awhile to get there. There was a direct metro line but it was naturally closed for construction. And so we walked. It wasn’t supposed to be that far. But it was and then we were late for our meet up time. So we stopped to buy wine to make up for it. And in the process of buying wine realized that we could only buy a bottle that had a screw top because we didn’t have a bottle opener. Why don’t I live in a movie where this wouldn’t have been a problem?
Tip 5: Have at least one picnic in Paris. There are beautiful parks everywhere {ok that’s just how it seems}.
The picnic was great and nice. So fun to people watch and overhear conversations. And then we decided to look for a famous macaroon place. Wouldn’t you know that that would also be difficult? When we finally found them we then took our goodies to Montre Mart. Yummy!
We climbed the staircase to the top where there is a church and looked at the sun going down over the city. Paris is huge. We went into Sacre Corre the beautiful white cathedral/church at the top of the hill. They have the most interesting painting on the dome. Sorry I couldn’t take a picture. {I went in twice, yep I’m one of those…it was free though!}
Afterwards we headed to the “shopping” district up there on the hill. If I don’t see another souvenir shop I might be a happy camper. There was some cute stuff, but most of it was the same ole stuff. We walked around the district up there looking at the tourist shops and restaurants. Trying to decide where to eat and still have enough money for meals the next few days. We went back down the hill and looked around. And then we climbed the hundreds of stairs again in search of cheaper more authentic food. I had my first Croque Mousier. Again Yum!
We headed down and found Moulin Rouge which wasn’t too far. Then we went back to our itsy bitsy apartment. The end of day 2 in the adventures of Paris saga…

L'art Nouveau

by de Fuere

via

If you haven’t noticed I throw the phrase “I love” or “I like” at a lot of different topics. I have interests or some knowledge on a lot of topics but I never feel like I have that niche. One of those topics that I have great admiration of and sometimes put myself in the category of having some talent is…ART! That’s right I love art. Well, that’s broad, and I don’t love all art styles. I now have a name to one style that I have admired for a couple years. I don’t think I realized that I liked it so much until I spent a 2.5 hour lecture on it yesterday in interior design class…ugh. Sitting for that long is difficult, but at least I got look at pretty art!

via

I like the French variation of L’art Nouveau. It is a style that basis is rooted in Japan and was adapted to become what it is by Europeans. This was very surprising to me because I don’t usually like East Asian art, but I am learning I am fond of Japanese art and how it was shaped into L’art Nouveau. It was developed and invested in by this man named Siegfried Bing. One of my favorite artists was a designer of his, de Feure. De Feure originally designed posters so basically an early graphic designer {is that why I like his designs?}. The other designer I really enjoy is a Belgian designer named, Victor Horta.

Ok now that all you non art fanatics are bored and weren’t looking for a history lesson or to tour a museum we will do a little segway. This style that I have finally learned the name to and could give you plenty of information on now {ask any questions you may have} was realized and centrally located in Paris in France. They have some great museums with this style and impressionist art {another favorite, ironically appearing just before this style in history} in Paris.

Victor Horta...in all mediums
This weekend I am headed to Paris. I keep getting the question of why I am going if I’ve already been before {it’s true}. I had a fine experience in Paris, but there are a few things that need to redeem themselves…hence why I’m going again. I am all about second chances and redemption, please Paris redeem yourself. And really, who wouldn’t want to visit this famous city?

All these pictures are not my own, so I do not take credit for them.