Bad Luck Boots

Dear Mom,
I'm sorry I don't update on here as much as you'd like me to. I promise to write three posts this week, so be on the lookout!
Love,
Janice

     Ok everyone, how has your week been? Good, great, awful, so-so? Mine has been... comme ci comme ca (a little bit of both). It god off to a very slow start, ie. a four day weekend of which I spent about...72 hours in bed. It was just a lazy weekend I didn't have anything to do and no reason to leave, and Catherine was gone so there was no one to hold me accountable for my laziness. It was not fun. Class on Wednesday also started poorly with a migraine that had me missing my first class, luckily, it was the best behaved migraine on the planet earth and after an extra 4 hour nap that morning, I was ok to finish my day.

     On thursday we went to Versailles. First of all, I love travelling my train. The daily metro is ok, but I love getting out of the city, even if its only an hour or so. I am honestly getting pretty annoyed of being in my group all the time, and I am less and less impressed with opulence the more I see it.

Oh yeah, giant chateau with lots of rooms and gold and old tapestries and stuff huh? I'll check it out online...

Alors, the trip to Versailles was not as magnificent for me as it is for some. Yes, I went to the hall of mirrors and through the Princesses apartments and the princes apartments and the kings and the queens and the ballrooms...but it just felt fake to me. Touristy, and overcrowded, and not authentic, even though I am told it is very authentic. There was also a long long art gallery in what used to be the princes apartments full of beautiful paintings. What impresses me most about works like this is the size, its incredible to me that an artist can paint on canvases bigger than my room; I think I would get bored with a project before I got it done. There was also a portrait of George Washington and some French leaders (whose names I'm sure I'm supposed to know by now) during the revolutionary war, and my audio guide had some great little spiel about how much the French helped America become established and it ended with "France has remained the friend of America ever since, because of the French devotion to liberty" Mhmm...right.

    The gardens at Versailles, those are amazing! I LOVE French gardens. I like the lines and the symmetry and how everything always feels like it goes on forever. These do go on forever though, we toured just a teeny portion and it took us over two hours! We spent a lot of time inside the domain of Marie Antoinette, whose garden was styled and created after an English garden, which was supposed to be the embodiment of the sublime. That was fun to see because we are studying the sublime in my theory course right now. I didn't take many pictures of the chateau itself, but I did take a few of the grounds and the adorable animals inside Antoinette's domain.  I decided that if I ever have a large sum at my disposal to do what I please, I would love to own land. Enough land in the right place that I have my own horizon. That is the sort of wealthy I would enjoy :)

If I was ever to see this building back in the day, this would be my view, that of a commoner. This is part of the front courtyard. Looks big, eh? Google this place, it's HUGE!

See that water stretching out toward the horizon? Yeah, the property continues after that :)

This is French decorating, pretty shnazzy, huh?

Louis XIV knew what he was doing! If I had the money of France, I'd make my own lake, too!

The chateau from the right side of the gardens, a cottage built for Marie Antoinette's play village with pigeons on top, a peacock who would not spread his feathers despite my attempts at flirting, Geese? The blood descendent of her favorite pig, a cute cute goat (that was for you, Mom!), Chickens! (Also for you, Mom), more goats and some of the birdies playing together.

     Now...those boots. I broke the heel off the right boot in Dublin, when I very first got there, as you might recall. It's been slippery to walk on and I've almost fallen multiple times, makes me look very graceful, like the Parisians, non?  Well...tonight, I was crossing the street and I could feel my right foot slipping beneath me. My left foot was already in the air and I knew I wasn't going to be able to catch myself. In slow motion, just like in the movies, I fell face first onto the street, in the exact middle of an intersection (I was crossing diagonally and I was the only pedestrian walking, though there was plenty of cars watching...). My right leg went out like I was going in for a sweet side lunge, my left knee skidded across the ground, my hands barely catching myself to keep my brand new cream sweater clean (it's important, ok?!). So I have small scrapes on my hands and I skinned my knee through my leggings. Annnnd...I broke my other boot--ripped the sole off the first two inches of the shoe. I'm glad I only paid what I did, but I can't believe I paid what I did, I've owned these boots less than a month. Lame sauce.

So there you go, there was my week. I've also been working a lot on what I want to do when I get back, as I have to keep reminding myself that this is temporary and all too soon I'll be trudging across Seattle for class again. I think I have a game plan worked out, and that makes me happy. I'm pretty sure I don't want to go straight into grad school, and so that leaves me options wide open again. What am I going to do with my life?

For now, the answer to that is eat cookies and watch movies and pout over my poor knee and the death of my boots :c

These are my favorite cookies here. They run about 45-65 cents a box and they are so yummy! Taste just like thumbprint cookies.