HELLO FRIENDS!

This morning I was getting coffee at Place de Clichy, the place in Paris where you are least likely to find an American. Paris is crawling with Americans, I hear our brassy voices ringing all over town, but you will not find them in my neighborhood.

Remember when teenagers were burning cars in scummy Parisian neighborhoods on the news? Yea, it's that kind of neighborhood. Unless you're looking to purchase some questionable fun, you do not what to hang around at night. My place is juste a côté, at Porte de Clignancourt. I receive many wide eyes and much disbelief when I tell others where I live. When I moved here I was afraid to walk around at night. Upon seeing the Porte de Clignancourt for the first time on a Sunday afternoon I was struck by the cafe terraces, which were populated with men only. Oily looking men with leathery skin, glaring at women's bodies like a curious but unmotivated wolf. I saw few women walking around this particular day. Otherwise these are the different types of women that dominate the quartier:

-covered from head to toe, gazing downward, with a cart of groceries or a child in a stroller.

-3 inch long glistening nails and neon colored weaves sculpted in elaborate, sky-high shapes. polyurethane covered asses jiggling on top of polyurethane covered legs, teeter tottering on top of polyurethane heels. These women gossip and complain with loud scratchy voices like a cat in heat.

-of course there are less remarkable typical women but the other two types are so numerous you don't notice them. There are also drug addicts and little dirty (physically- that wasn't a remark on their character!) children digging in the garbage at MacDo and men hanging around on corners whispering codes to women they think might be able to provide them a service. Let's just say I know my value because it's been whispered in my ear. Icky. Icky. Poo. Poo. It's hard not to hate men sometimes. The Sorbonne also has a center near by so at certain times of the day on certain days you see typical french/international students moving in giant crowds from the metro to the school. You definitely don't see them sticking around to "hang out." I'm suspicious the government made the school put a building there to shift reputation of the area and encourage it to grow more culturally/intellectually.

Anyway, so I'm drinking my 1 euro coffee and reading my kindle which is probably really stupid because some greedy kid could just walk off with it, and I hear loud, booming southern women. I turn around and see FIVE hugely obese blond women wearing bright blue matching NEW YORK CITY tee-shirts and those therapeutic shoes. Above middle age. There was feathered hair and perms. There were fanny packs. They were talking about squeezing your eyes shut during an MRI. Talk about out of place.- Around us were glossy-haired, hard eyed boys in leather jackets and distressed denim with way too many pockets and a couple middle aged bollywood like men with silvery porn moustaches. These women were an enigma for everyone. Me included. It's been ages since I've heard a southern accent. They could have been plucked straight out of a greencastle hair salon. Completely oblivious of everyone around them. Shrieking with laughter, babbling all sing-songy in that southern way. i wanted to take them to the Eiffel tower, to the louvre, to all those places and revel in their reactions. They were SO funny and charming and husky and full of life.

I'm reading Anna Karenina right now (didn't that re-become popular recently thanks to Oprah?) People constantly make references to her jumping under a train at the end, so that's kind of annoying to be aware of while reading. I'm surprised at how fully Tolstoy gets into the heads of diverse people. His characters are complex, real, defying categorization. People describe great novelists like that all the time and I always find it to be true in modern books taht I love, but I'm completely unaccustomed to classic literature (other than some novels I read in high school, which honestly I couldn't imagine having a conversation wtih the characters), especially giant russian novels. I was expecting big, sweeping romantic characters that fit concisely into "types." Tolstoy, to me a Brahmsian type with his giant white beard and furrowed brow (in the pictures Ive seen), depicts so perfectly the full and contradictory interior lives of people that could easily have been shown as "the drunk," "the teenage socialite," "the broody, bookish, plain girl," "the adulterer." I shouldn't have been surprised since Tolstoy is constantly referenced as the greatest novelist.....anyway I love it and I feel like I'm watching a great TV serie.

MAD MEN IS COMING BACK SOON!!!!1

I'm in a serious relationship. We met 10 months ago and our 6 month anniversary is on April Fools Day. Ouai (pronounced "way"). It's emotionally cozy.

My roommates daughter is playing outside my door, rapping "c'est quoi Caaaaaa, c'est quoi caaaaa" and pushing Matisse pictures she pulled off an old calendar under my door.

I'm attaching a picture of my cheri. We met at a housewarming party last summer just before I left Paris. I was SO OVER men and turned off sex. Had been for months. Neither of us wanted to be at the party and neither of us was interested in meeting anybody. He blended into the wall like a plank. In my memory he was dressed in such dull colors that his cothes blended into his skin whcih blended into his hair which all blended into the wall. When he heard I played the flute though his eyeballs popped with fireworks and we turned into that couple in the corner, chatting animatedly about music, name dropping composers, operas and being overall pretentious and enjoying it. He played piano from age 4-21. He invited me to his place at 3 am to listen to 15th century Italian love song (i know...) and I said "i don't do that, sorry" I'd left out "I don't do that anymore" :) lol. He convinced me to go to Versailles (his home) to walk in the parks of the Chateau during my last free moment before leaving Paris. A Wednesday morning. It poured rain and we had the park all to ourselves. I was all weird about being physically close and walked awkwardly far from his side, which would end up with him holding the umbrella out at arms reach to keep it over my head (but not over his...) I'm such a ditz sometimes. Yea you all know it. My feet of course got uber muddy so we had to go to his place anyway. He didn't lay a hand on me. We spent the summer writing eachother very seriously, 4 times a day. There were no romantic intentions from either side. Fast forward to October first and he's held a party for me to meet his friends. I'm unknowingly in a dress that flashes all of his friends repeatedly throughout the night. They've all seen my breasts. he won't let me live that one down. Anyway we played bump bump that night and the rest is history.

He was ill when I met him, which I didn't know a the time. He's well now and getting healthier and healthier. It's fun to see the progression concretely, in his body. His face changes, his build too.

So now I'm moving to Versailles. This is a town of anti-birth control families with von-trapp like armies of children in matching knee-high socks. The town it's self is adorable, clean, beautiful, well-maintained. OLD. so many DOGS and bent, old couples holding hands. There's a lack of nannies. Parisien children are always being pushed around by (most often) hard working Filipino women or (less often) self-conscious/fashion-conscious 18-25 year old brits and americans. My rent right now at Porte de Clignancourt is 500 euro. Rent in Versailles is only going to cost 300 euro (Guillaume's going to pay 600 because he's not a starving musician)!! Crazy considering how much more upscale the place is. But it is 35 minutes on the RER outside of Paris and not ideal for party crazy young folk.

It's funny to me that I'm going to find myself in a conservative town, as I am far from conservative in comportment and in political views. but I am a sucker for well-behaved children running around in tall socks and suspenders! Guillaume has fallen in love with the place because of it's historical significance. I am drawn in by walks in the sprawling parks of the Chateau de Versailles, picnics by the fountains and the beautiful calm, quiet, safe feeling walking down the streets. Serenity=low blood pressure= good. Cat also =low blood pressure. Cat does not always =serenity... Do I vaguely remember there being symbols for "not always equals" in math?

The open air market that is on the square. < That was a complete sentence if you just believe. Pot bellied bearded men announce the rpice of their poulet roti as if they were shouting obscenities. Perfect, natural veggies and fruits that actually have their own unique shape unlike grocery store style genetically engineered produce. Flowers exploding with life like exotic bacteria in a petri dish. Huge, cold, open air shops at the corners of the spquare with shiny octopus, piles of mini squid, turbot (a delicious flat-like paper fish with eyes on his sides), eel, you name it....on the other side you'll see rabbits hanging by their feet and a baby pig sliced cleanly in half through it's stomach A LA DEXTER, laying legless on a bed of lettuce, eyes glassy and half open. It's like you can still see the baby pigs soul in his eyes. Quiail eggs. giant gelatin-meat-random-colors-cube concoctions (i'd google it for a picture but i can't remebmer what those are called.) So many wonderful regional products. Large crystalled grey or pink salt from Normandy, honey from bretagne, coucroute frmo Alsace. My dream for next year is to practice my flute all day long in our happy apartment, have a flute studio at home in the afternoons with students back to back, eat whole foods from the market and go on evening walks with guillaume. flowers on teh table, a cat to scratch up the furniture.

We're going to toilet train our cat.

His name will be Ludwig.

We're going to have a piano and guillaume will learn to play the boogie-woogie (Chopin is sooo overdone. It's also ALL he and I have ever learned.)

I have about 5 million jobs to keep up with rent. i'm almost done with the 1st year of a musicology masters but it's incredibly boring (JUST like kellys experience) but I'm not going to continue next year. I'm auditioning for the Conservatoire de Rayonnement de Paris for a post-grad orchestral training program (2 years long). The other flutists in my orchestra go to that school. i figure if they can, so can i! I miht play the Ibert for my audition. I haven't played it since freshman year bah bummmm badadadabadabadabadadadabadabadaDA!

My orchestra is also going on a European tour later next month. Yay! We're playing Gershwin and I think the Poulenc mass and the carmen overture or something? We've played American in Paris a million times this year. I love it because it feels like a clin d'oeil (wink of an eye).

DOESN'T MY HOMEWORK LOOK FUN???

Me and Guillaumes apartment will be in a floating orb just above the pond in this picture:

I have to go prepare the solfege lesson I'm teaching later. Allez-Crocodiles!

Guillaumes family is Corsican. They have a big museum like home with this little church near the property. It's so FREAKING CUTE I can't avoid having little-girl daydreams about it. you just have to ask the mayor for a key to get in.

PHOENIX!

I titled this post "Phoenix!" because it is obviously the first post of our resurrected phoenix blog, which apparently had died, and is now living. Like a phoenix. Mkay.

So there are so many things that happened since I last posted, but that's all boring stuff. Mainly just school--BUT I'M ALMOST DONE WITH MY MASTER'S DEGREE YESSSSS!! I am so glad because I am over it. I mean, seriously. I just want to graduate, have the degree, and then do something other than music. I swear, I had to go to a big conservatory just to discover that the best musicians I've ever played with were at DePauw...no joke! It's so true. So I'm ready to be done done done. I'm just burned out.

I had a really rough winter quarter--I was hardly practicing because I was taking my final theory and history classes and they were reaaally hard. I was taking the ancient-pre Baroque history class (meeeeeh) and SONATA THEORY. Worst effing class EVER. It was basically analyzing sonata form, but with all these fancy terms that some German dudes made up a long time ago. I mean, the book is in English, but you have to translate the English to understand it...it's so complicated. And the way our class was set up was SO stupid...we had 6 huge assignments (they all took me at least 4 hours to complete), the first 4 of which were not worth much. Then the last two were worth collectively like 75% of our grade. WTF? We had 3 quizzes..collectively, those three quizzes were worth ONE PERCENT of our grade. What is the point? I failed all of them (literally, I think my highest score on one of them was 4/10) and I still got a B in the class. I also read a book on my iPhone and hid it behind my score every day of class because it was so dreadfully boring and I hated it. Plus, there was NO effort made to connect any of the theory to performance practice; which is fine for THEORY MAJORS, but our class was almost all performance majors. Ugh. But the course evaluation was totally worth it all....:) I wasn't very nice.

Let's see, what else. Oh yeah I GOT MARRIED. I can't remember if I blogged after we got married or not. But anyway being married is cool, I like it. It's nice to have a husband that you can make do stuff, like wash the dishes or stuff. He's great though. He's going to be working at Blue Lake with me again this summer (probably our last summer ever!!! ahhhh!!) and then he is going to try to start being a full-time TRUCK DRIVER!! omg it's crazy. but they make good money and get good benefits so that's exciting. he's excited about it.

We have TWO dogs now, Clara and Sadie. They are both super cute but fight (well, more like play-fight) ALL the damn time. i mean seriously they are out of control! and sadie likes to bark a lot when they are fighting. but they're both still only around 1 year old, so they will calm down eventually. Sadie is SO cute--she just came and climbed up on me cause I wasn't paying enough attention to her. She is a really cuddly dog, she likes to come up and lay down on you. I've never had a cuddly dog--as Patrick says, it's like she's a stuffed anmial that just gets up and walks over to you and cuddles with you. It's so cute, I love her! I love Clara too of course cause she was my first baby and I raised her by myself, but she's not cuddly like that. She's just super hyper and crazy.

Ummmmmm what else. right now i'm on spring break chilling out at my house in terre haute. i have been MAJORLY busy this spring break because i have been moving all of my crap out of my current house INTO MY PARENT'S NEW HOUSE! yes, that's right, they're moving again. but this time, they're moving to a FARM! omg!! it's not really a farm actually, it's more like 8 acres of land with a lot of woods. my mom has been hating her job consistently for about 3-5 years now, and she grew up on a farm so she has really been wanting to get back to the country. plus my parents are super interested in home farming, self-sustained living, etc. i mean we already have 4 chickens in our backyard...so this is just really a natural step for them i think. the house is quaint--it's a 4 bedroom farm house that isn't as nice as our house now, but i still think it's perfect for what they want. my mom ordered 30 more chickens (they will be babies when she gets them!!!) and she'll be selling fresh eggs! Yummy. She is also going to get a couple of DAIRY GOATS!!! AHHHHH!!! i'm so excited for those goats--goats are so cute! and they already inherited a little barn cat named Andy who is super cute and lets me pet him. The yard is all fenced in and is HUUUUUUUUGE and our dogs love it! We've been taking them out there almost every night this break to just run around and stuff. My mom is also planning on having bees for honey and my dad wants to get a Great Pyrenees puppy (!!!!!!) and raise it with the goats so the dog will protect them from coyotes and stuff. I'm really excited about this place. I LOVE the country and animals and stuff so I'm happy to help out around the farm when i'm home. Plus, it'll be a great place to take our hypothetical kids someday. My dad got a john deere tractor, which he has basically dreamt of for his WHOLE life. He showed me the tractor last night and he was like a 7 year old, all happy and stuff. It was funny. I think it's exciting, and I really like it.

But i hate moving all my crap. I'm getting rid of most of it, cause it's like really old clothes and stuff, but it's a lot of work. I haven't gotten any practicing done this break because I've been helping them move! Ahhh ! Whatever, i'm not complaining. I have one more recital and then I'll be DONE. I'm only taking one academic class next quarter and it's a Latin american ethnomusicology course which i am SO excited about ---Tiffy and Amanda, I guarantee it will be better than that crap we took at DPU....

I'm hoping to get a job in the fall in the college admissions field. A position at DePauw would be great, but we'll see what shakes out. It'd be great to have a job though, that's for sure...

I think that's all really for me. I might delete my facebook just because I want to, so this blog'll be super important for me to see what's going on with you guys. Can't wait to hear about all of you, I miss you all sooooo so much! <3

sorry. blame obama.

so i spent the summer working for obama in hopes that i can convince him to hire me.

backup plan: show up at a staff meeting and say "um yeah my check didnt get deposited this week, can we do something about that?"

but no it was like starbucks 345-12 and then obama 130-9 or later and then sleep. EXHAUSTING to say the least. but i loved it and really think i might wanna be an organizer. which is what obama was BTW. but i also kicked fucking ass. everyone thinks i am awesome except crazy cat guy and he already hated me. but i got called out to be an example on calls and stuff. cuz im awesome. so that was really cool. and i def got recommended for a job, but no call yet :( i actually had to drunkenly update my resume. i do not suggest that.

so now im trying to get obama or some other dem to hire me bc starbucks is completely and totally awful.

i need to go back to the gym cuz i am now like REALLYF UCKING FAT. so get ready for that.

patrice gimme your japan address and we'll write letters.
also amanda sorry i was really busy getting obama elected which is why i didnt write you :( but you can thank me when you have health insurance.

OH I GET MY HEALTH INSURANCE BACK MNDAY! YEAH MY EVIL EMPLOYER KICKED ME OFF BUT I GET IT BACK SO I CAN GO TO THE DENTIST YUP WOOT WOOT.

ok that is all. love you guys tons and i miss you

In Japan

Hey guys, what happened? Why doesn't anyone write here anymore?

I'm in Matsusaka right now. First had an orientation in Tokyo for a few days and it's been a week already since I moved into my apartment. Been setting up bank accounts, cell phone, insurance, getting apartment set up to0. Been meeting lots of the other JETs that are in my prefecture, but there is only like 5 other JETs in Matsusaka. Haven't really met up with them though.
At the second orientation earlier this week I got to ride in an earthquake simulation machine. It was pretty scary. One of the guys videoed it so there is the video. I'm the one on the left in the back, kinda hard to see me, but that was a magnitude 7 on the japanese scale which is around a 7+ on the american scale.

Its super hottt!!!! I feel like a sweaty mess everyday. Right now the kids are on summer break, so I've haven't started teaching yet. Been to tons of orientations and presentations though. Its kinda lonely at times living by myself. I really need to learn how to cook instead of buying already prepared food or eating out.

Anyway, I'll update again with some pictures of my apartment in my next entry.

Unemployed forthe next 2 weeks......

So...yesterday was the last day at Borders. Borders might have a buyer, so its up in the air for the company. Gladd I'm leaving before all that shit goes down. And they are starting to do inventory (literally have to count and make notes of every single piece of item in the store).
Kinda sad bout leaving but yet really exited for Japan. It was rough at the beginning, but I think it was good for me. Just gonna practice for the recital and packing and stuff.
My coworkers, well ex-coworkers now and kept telling me that I have to find a hottt Japanese boyfriend. haha!!!!! I'm excited!

Kinda makes me sad that we don't write in here as often anymore, but I guess everyone is getting busy. Hope all is well.

I'm starting to feel that weird anxiousness you get before traveling (or the one I get before traveling...though I doubt I'm that unique in that respect.) I've got literally only one more full day in Tarnow before heading out. Unfortunately, I teach 3:30 pm to 8:30 pm and then leave Wednesday before 5 am. (My train leaves for Krakow around 5 am, then I have a train at 7:20 from Krakow to Berlin, then from Berlin to Hamburg.)

I feel like I am constantly cleaning recently. Had to reorganize and clean the entire kitchen, which was a wreck because I live with a male. Still gotta clean the stupid bathrooms as well as my room. UGH it'll be so much better next year when I live on my own with Jeff...household tasks will actually be SHARED. I refused to clean up after my flatmate, so the place was a mess, but whatever. I'm not his 1950's mother. I swear to god, why would any woman want to be with a man who doesn't think it's important to clean up after himself? But that's enough complaining for now ;)

My first real vacation in Europe starts on Thursday. Super freakin' excited, except I'm too tired from all this stupid cleaning to really show it. Downside...it's supposed to rain a lot :( Boo.

Also, I'm recently feeling nostalgic about everything, but especially DePauw. Maybe it was cause it was just over a year ago that we all graduated. *sigh*

MIA for 2 months

So, the last time I wrote an entry was in April. Seems I have been neglecting this blog when I was one of us who was really pushing is to use this in the first place.

I found out my placement yesterday: Matsusaka-shi (city) in Mie-ken (prefecture). Pretty much in the middle of Honshu (biggest main island of Japan). At first I was thinking shit this looks like it's in the boonies since there is only like one rail line to that area, but its actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Further south of the prefecture is really in the boonies. The city's population is about 170,000, so not too small, and it's in the center of the prefecture. Osaka and Nara are about an hour to the west and Nagoya is about an hour to the east. This is totally way far away from Fukushima and where the earthquake and tsunami were. Lots of wilderness and mountains for me to explore and its right by an huge bay/ocean. I'm actually quite some distance away from Ingrid and Charlie, but I'll make it out to visit them.

Oh and the best part, the town I'm in is famous for their beef. Matsusaka-gyu. Japan has like the best beef ever, its called Wa-gyu, sooo good. They like give the cows beer and massages so they aren't stressed out and stuff, and the meat is super juicy/fatty, delicious-ness. There are 3 top types of wa-gyu, and this town is one of the top 3! I'm pretty excited for the beef, but its kind of expensive.

Lets see what else....Waikele Borders closed down so half of their staff came over, including their GM and 2 other managers. We finally have a full staff, but it is still busy and crazy. Since that other one closed down we are getting lots of their customers and just more business in general. But, last week Borders announced another list of 51 stores (including my store and 2 other ones on oahu) that will be shut down by the bankruptcy people if they do not negotiate their leases. So....that sucks. We might be closing, or possibly staying open. They want a decision by the 21st of June, but Borders is trying to push it back to July because they may be a buyer who will buy out Borders stores. Too bad, my store makes the most money of all the Borders stores on Oahu too.

Been working out a lot and practicing a lot. I'm pretty disciplined. Depending on what time I work, I usually wake up early and practice for an hour, go to work, then go to the gym after work. Fitting it all in. I should fit studying Japanese into this somehow too.

Ok, that was pretty much it I think. I'm going to a wedding next week. This is like the first wedding that I'm going to as an adult......kinda crazy.

I'm pretty excited for Japan. Thinking about packing is stressing me out though.