updates!!!

quick update! Been pretty busy.. promise that a SUPER long post with TONS of pictures is coming soon!!

My awesome big big in Alpha Xi, the one and only Liz Scales, came Tuesday!! I had class so didn't get to hang out wit her much, but had an awesome time with her!! Glad she came and hope she had fun!!

Liz, Christy, me

My wonderful mom and dad came into Paris v. early Friday morning! I'm so excited they are here! We hung out Friday.. then went to Normandy Saturday! We took a train and got a private tour guide.. it was so cool! I'll have to post a whole post for their trip .. coming soon!!

Tomorrow, my parents, Christy and I are headed to London!! Staying the night there.. SO excited!!

Just wanted to do a quick update since I haven't in a while!

xoxo,
-A

VERSAILLES!!!

Christy and I decided that we are possibly the worst students ever. We have yet to even do the cool things in Paris, much less travel to other places. So. Were having Adventure Fridays. Starting this week.

First trip: Versailles! It is only a 30 min or less ride on the RER C and we got in FREE for being students! I wish places in the US were more student friendly. We get in everywhere for free here!!

ooooohhh. aaaahhhh.

You guys. I took 239 pictures. This is getting a little out of hand. 

check out all that bling!

There were people EVERYWHERE. Kind of annoying. We didn't stay in the actual palace for very long.

Hall of Mirrors

prettyy

were so cool.

The gardens were SO pretty though. I def want to go back in the spring when flowers will be out. I'd probably have taken 500 pictures if there were flowers! You guys know my feelings about flowers!

love it!

We also walked over to the Petit Trianon (Marie Antionettes house) and the Grand Trianon (the King's more "private" palace).  There were way less people over there so it was kind of nice.

petit trianon

grand trianon

back up to the palace.

Overall, pretty solid trip and I'm glad we went! 

That night we met up with some friends and went to a club, on a boat, on the Seine. So. Cool.

all of us :)

Last night (Saturday), we went to this Canadian bar, called The Moose. We wanted to watch the GT/Clemson game because we heard they play American football there! Our game was over by the time we got there (thank goodness.. probably didn't want to watch that anyways..) but they had LSU/Auburn. It was exciting to watch football! Typical Americans!

In other news, I got to talk to my wonderful little brother! He finally got a skype.. I haven't talked to him since I left the country! And my amazing parents are coming next weekend so I'm pretty excited to see them!!!

Life is good :)

xoxo,

-A

caleb meister is here!!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had fantastic weekends!! We've been just hanging out.. you know... in Paris. No big deal.

So we've been going to museums for classes, eating at cafes, walking around, sight seeing, etc. Christy and I decided were going to have "adventure Fridays" since we always are SO lazy on Fridays. First stop coming this week: Versailles. SO EXCITED.

Christy and I went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner Friday. SO GOOD. Worth every penny. Also some of the best cheesecake..

yum.

One of our friends from Georgia Tech, Caleb, came for his fall break!! Its been so fun having him here! Saturday night we had everyone over at our apartment for wine, chinese food, and Georgia Tech football (which we obviously won).

Sunday we walked from the Louvre...

caleb, me, christy and alex!

caleb and christy.. cuties!

... through the Tulleries...

... through the Place de la Concorde ...

monumental obelisk (stolen from Eygpt)

fun fact: Place de la Concorde is where Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed.

(along with lots of others)

... down the Champs Elysees....

so pretty!

... and finally to the Arc de Triumph! 

typical tourists!

underside.. I think the names are possibly all the people killed in the Revolution.. 

don't quote me on that though..

So overall a pretty fun weekend! This week we kind of have a lot of things for Wed. for school.. French midterm, etched plates due for our visual arts class, exciting stuff!

Love and miss you all!

xoxo,

-A

words of wisdom

"Architecture doesn't have to be about building towers in Dubai or shit like that."

-Xavier, my studio teacher

saturday night!

So school is really kind of kicking my butt right now.. but I'm blogging instead of doing homework! Shows how much I care about all of you! (.... or how much of a procrastinator I am! You decide :) )

Saturday night was SO fun. We went over to the dorms and the boys made cheeseburgers. YAY America! Shoutout to Jack, Zane, Paul and Alex for cooking!

Then we went over to Sacre Couer because a friend told us about a wine festival? and how it was super cool. Basically there were a bunch of booths and you could go around sampling wine (it was 2.50 euro though to taste .. sad) and cheese and all that kind of stuff. We brought our own wine but it was just a giant party! So fun.

zane, me, jack and francesca (our italian friend!)

view from where we were sitting.. so crazy!

all of us :)

I kind of wish we got there earlier to go to the actual booths and such, but it was still awesome.. the whole place went nuts when France won the soccer game vs. Italy!! 

Lots of work to do this week though.. hoping it goes by fast! Some friends from Georgia Tech are coming this weekend (its their fall break) so that should be fun!!

xoxo

-A

some thoughts

just thinking about some things...

I just had an orange and it was possibly the best orange I've ever had. Even normal things are better in Paris!

Sometimes I forget I'm actually IN PARIS. Its kind of unreal to me. Then I look around its a like a delightful surprise!

I miss my family, boyfriend, and friends. Not in an "I can't wait to get back to the United States" way.. but in an "I just want everyone I love to come here right now" kinda way.

Keep going back and forth about grad school. Can't decide if I even want to apply this year...

Haven't updated the blog in a few days... been pretty busy with school! We had a big thing (or so we thought) due for one of our classes wed. morning.. turns out it wasn't really a big deal at all! Still have a good deal of work to do this weekend though..

Studio today we walked around for 3 hours only to be told we were walking around in the wrong area. whoops. all is well though made some friends and saw some pretty things...

typical french street !

Montmare graveyard?

Not 100% sure thats what its called.. but I happen to have a thing for graveyards, especially when they are this pretty. There is something so.. surreal about them. Parisian graveyards have all the tombs above ground. I thought, for some reason, there was a law in Paris about how people cannot be burried and thats why that is.. but when I said that, my two French partners looked at me like I was crazy. I guess one isn't really French, she's from Tunisia, and the other is from Lyon, soo they aren't really Parisians. oh well.

I also have a thing for flowers (just in general.. once I even tried to add "flower" into my name. Ask my dad about it. He LOVES telling that story) but especially with wrought iron balconies (totally mentioned this before..) and I found 2 really good ones today...

exhibit A:

exhibit B:

I saw one with PURPLE flowers, but it was right about a cafe with an overhang and I couldn't get a good shot. LAME. If there is one thing I like more than flowers, its purple flowers. 

xoxo,

-A

nuit blanche!!

and some other pictures. Last night was pretty cool. I wish more things would have been open but we still had an awesome time!!

Samantha, me and Christy!!

Stopped by the Eiffel Tower.....

Pompidu Center....

doesn't look like real life to me.. soo cool

And one of our teachers had an exhibit as well so we went there.  We had some dramz with the people we were with.. but no worries! Paul and I found this pretty cool bar (they were playing Michael Jackson!!) and it was open pretty late. We were misled by saying the metro was open all night.. it actually re opened at like 5 a.m. though so we made it home ok :)

yayyyyy!

Also heres some photos from last week that I've been slacking on...

Sacre Couer!!

view from the top... highest point in paris!!

We actually went to Sacre Couer on taco night w/ the whole group.. and then again the next morning w/ our teacher for one of our classes! haha love how class is just wandering around the city here :)

xoxo,

-A

updates!

Hey everyone!!

This week we've been just kinda getting in the swing of school; our real classes started Monday. I was really stressed trying to decide what studio to take but I think im going to take the american one with most of the kids from GT. There are still French students in there, so that will be interesting to see how that plays out.

We got to go to the Sacre Coeur (highest point in Paris! pics to come soon) and it was a stunning view. SO many stairs though!!!

Last night we just took it easy, Christy and I went over to a girls house who she met at church with a few other people. They were all from England (aka spoke English :) ) and super nice!

Tonight is "Nuit Blanche" where all the bars, museums, etc. stay open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. Should be pretty cool! Our visual arts teacher has an exhibit somewhere so hopefully we get to check that out!

xoxo,
-A