real life began a week ago.

i just graduated from college. i am now an official holder of a Bachelor of Arts. in French. and what now?

i have many dreams and criteria to achieving these dreams:
+ being back in France within the next 5 2 years
+ where i can make good friends with similar (and differing) interests
+ i can continue learning. languages, photography, the history of an obscure island, quoi que ce soit
+ i can eat all kinds of delicious food.
+ i can read the economist in bed if i wish.

i'm hoping that working at Disney World in their College Program will at least meet a few of these criteria. need to make that money to get to grad school!

one of my quirks.

when i do my spanish homework, it is easier for me to translate what i want to say into french and use the french-spanish dictionary to figure out the correct vocabulary.

any excuse to pull out le français, i guess.

“tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
— Mary Oliver

me and my younger sister at cape canaveral, watching a shuttle launch, back in the day.

journal envy

So I took my Moleskine that I had received on the occasion of my high school graduation (and had neglected for a year. literally) to Barnes and Noble yesterday, ready for an afternoon of browsing and gleaning creative ideas. Instead, I found myself in the "Economics" section and spent a couple hours sipping Harney and Sons Holiday Tea and reading The Price of Everything by Russell Roberts. Good thing I had brought my handy little notebook along with me, because it was FULL of quotables and things I wanted to remember later, and I knew that a mental note would not suffice.

Anyways, after reading and spending that enjoyable time jotting down thoughts that I wanted to remember, I suddenly wanted another Moleskine. Granted, I definitely need to finish strong with this one, but it's a task I'm up for.

I also need to finish up my journalling from this semester in France. My mom gave me a Paris CityGuide Moleskine as a "bon voyage" gift, and I fell in love all over again.


thanks to Daniele Rossi credit to johnystadlerka

Now I'm wanting to buy the Washington DC and New York ones, and various other European city ones to make my own guidebook. I think travelogues are one of the most precious things in life, and we should take advantage of resources like this.

For now, I'll just wait :)


photo credit to trumpetvine

2009 resolutions

2009 resolutions by jillian alice

voila the polyvore set, which is a visual reminder of my 2009 resolutions :)

001. do a better job of writing thank you notes and giving thoughtful hostess gifts
002. take advantage of every traveling opportunity i have
003. watch more foreign and independent films (perhaps renew my netflix subscription)
004. try beige in my wardrobe, and continue to put in effort into my appearance.
005. buy a nice pair of boots!!!
006. continue some french habits i picked up, including the eating fresher, maintaining the fluency i achieved, and staying informed of current events.
007. make sure to record my itunes playlists. they are my best snapshots of my life at any given moment.
008. blog more often! i'm still trying to figure out the best way to make this a "plausible" goal, with achievable specifics. but i'll get there :)

blog spotlight: stuff white people like

I may be a little behind the times, but Stuff White People Like is one of my new favorites. I enjoy the blunt truth sprinkled with a little sarcasm on occasion, and this is the perfect blend of both. I'm going to let some of my favorite posts and their titles to speak for themselves.

#1 Coffee
#38 Arrested Development
#39 Netflix
#72 Study Abroad
#74 Oscar Parties
#78 Multilingual Children

Such a beautiful thing.

team cotillard

So school has taken over my life encore. Shocking, I know :) but I wanted to break that silence to exclaim how excited I am that Marion Cotillard won her Oscar!!! I was generally a fan of the bits that I managed to watch of the Academy Awards.

Okay, so I actually haven't seen La Vie En Rose (stupid rural theater in stupid rural town), but I was rooting for Marion because she is one of my favorite French actresses, after Jeux d'Enfants and A Very Long Engagement. But to see a French actress get recognized with such an honor thrilled me beyond belief. i've watched the video an embarrassing amount of times now.

more cotillard goodness

elle chant un peu. si belle!


elle remercie en français.

Other good moments, Javier Bardem thanking su máma en español. It thrills my little language nerd heart when I hear languages I know on TV. I actually wish that Marion had said something in French, but eh, next time right? ;)

And in strictly non language related moments, i LOVED that they asked Kristin to sing "That's How You Know". It had been far too long since I had been able to truly partake in Chenowethy goodness, what with Pushing Daisies not having new episodes and all. And her singing training and ability was beautifully showcased by this song :)

Back to studying for my horrendous tests this week.