life in surround sound and process color.

LISTENING TO: Chronic Future - Static on the Radio ; in actuality Marc Robillard - So Much More Kim found out that she got approved for her semester abroad in South Africa today ( ! ) and was talking about how weird it was going to be being in foreign county. I agreed, and then realized my life would be a lot different if  I was spending SIX MONTHS rather than just two weeks in Paris. Not that it's any less significant, but I would be way more worried about my lack of language skills at this point if I was leaving for that long of a time in a little over a month (side note: A LITTLE OVER A MONTH. yeah. just thought you should know that haha). However, I'm also not Kim, who's one of those people who is just gifted with the grace of language, so I'm sure she'll come back not only being able to speak a little/comprehend a lot of South African, but also any other language she may meet along the way (The girl is done with classes sometime during the middle...

LISTENING TO: Unbunny - In A Way So crash course French? It's an interesting way of thinking about language. I'm definitely learning something, although I'm still not sure it's going to be a quick enough course to get me anywhere near Paris, but it might just work.Or I could fail spectacularly. I'm betting on the later. On to the newest topic of conversation (besides conversation, that is): the artistic portion of this little trip. I've always figured that the best way to approach this would be from a photographic standpoint - not that I didn't consider doing something more design based, but in the end I just figured it would leave a more lasting impression if my project had something to do with physically capturing the time I spent in Paris, as well as allowing me to make design-ish photographs while still being able to have a solid idea in mind. I was instantly inspired by "Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years." ...

LISTENING TO: Rio Diamond - You're Gone (thanks to Acafellas, for getting that stuck in my head for the next year), and AM - Self Preservation (for being the song that's actually on continuous replay on iTunes this week). The rest of this week after class was an interesting one, for the most part. After going to the bookstore multiple times trying to find/purchase the textbook we're reading for class, as well as pick out the book I'm doing my book report on, I found myself at both an economic and interstate commerce fueled crossroads. So what's a girl to do?  Practice her French. Did you know that there's a Wikipedia entry entitled, "List of French words and phrases used by English speakers?" Meet my new best friend. It's not really helping me... verbally, if that's even the right phrase (hah!), but it's definitely an interesting look at what I found to be so interesting about Latin - English translation when I was taki...

LISTENING TO: Timbaland & She Wants Revenge - Time , but again, in actuality, Jason Mraz - You & I Both (Live & Acoustic) . Kim and Alyssa both laugh at me when I say this, but me and language just don't get along, and never really have (hence why I avoided taking a "legitimate" language in high school, taking Latin instead). With that said, I have a little over a month (!) to learn basic French, and I'm happy to say that it's going better than I had hoped. Of course, this is with me only having had one hour of French in my life, period, but it could totally be worse; my knack for accents/mimicry definitely helps, even if I'm not exactly sure what I'm saying.  That's what Mondays are, for class: language. Yesterday covered the basics - Hello , How are you? , I am American , Do you speak English? , Please repeat , Thanks , etc. The French are insanely proper, which, if you know me/know how I talk on a normal basis, is kind ...

LISTENING TO: Panic! at the Disco - London Beckoned Songs About Money Written By Machines, but in actuality, a nice go-between of Copeland - She Changes Your Mind and Weezer - (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To . I've forgotten my history. Actually, I've forgotten how much I like history, especially when it's well written/in a good book... I guess I'm going to have to thank Joe Kyle for spoiling me on that one. I haven't, however, forgotten how much I hate trying to learn a language other than English (how's that for the stereotypical American outlook?), although I am determined to learn key phrases in French so as not to come off as a complete idiot. " Bonjour " and " Merci " can only get you so far, and although I'm not going to be so cocky as to say I will be able to carry out an entire conversation by the end of the semester (that would be the day), I'm at least hoping for passable Frenglish....

LISTENING TO: The honorary first-blog title belongs to Ke$ha - Your Love Is My Drug , as it seems I've become completely addicted to her album (thanks for that, Tawah).  It's been a while since I've done this (hey there, xanga!), but it seems like a good idea, if only because this trip seems like it's going to be insane (and adding in the fact that I have to keep a journal both during the rest of the semester and when we're actually in France), so here's hoping to this successful blogging experiment. So, here we go. The Paris countdown begins... with me missing my first official class. Thanks to a mis-communication and a massive failure of Bannerweb's scheduling prowess altogether, the class didn't show up on my schedule. ART 200: TBA. So I emailed the professor I knew when I got back to school, and he tells me the class is on Tuesday. And then I get an email from my other professor, TODAY , telling me here's the homework and the syllabus ...