MOVING!

Hey Blogger kiddies, I'm moving to a lovely little website of my own. Haven't decided if I'm going to keep this one around or not but for newer updates you can find me at www.brittanyblackburn.com

Cheers

Updates

Europe, summer, love life... stay tuned.. new blogs hitting the internets soon.

mmm Friday

So I just found out that my RAD friend Merek is coming to Europe with me! Ahhh.. yay for traveling. I honestly get anxiety if I'm not traveling every other month. Pathetic. Stir crazy I guess. Anyway other than that tid bit, today has been pretty uneventful. At the moment I am watching The Fugitive with my parents whom are both asleep. My Friday night is cooler than yours. 

BLOG

It's been close to a year since my last blog. I should probably start updating the happenings..
An overview of the last 9 months for those of you who care enough to continue reading:

*Paris was fabulous. I plan to move there in 2 years. yay.

*I attended NYC fashion week, and enjoyed both of the Marc Jacobs shows.

*Made a rad new Bff

*Went to the ABQ Balloon Festival and my grandfathers memorial

in Santa Fe. Beautiful town.

*Made Vitamin Water costumes for Halloween with my sisters in homage to purely divine goodness . It was epic.

*Got a fantastic new job.

*Went to Disneyland for Valentines day with my two amazing girlfriends.

*Became Woody's girlfriend at D-Land.

*Got a promotion. Woot

* Lost my beloved dog to leukemia. Still heartbroken.

*Flew to Utah for the Holi Color fest and to see Bebe, Bond and M!

*All of my friends are having babies. :)

*Finally got NetFlix

*Flew to Seattle for a weekend with a really amazing person. Such an arty city. Loooved it.

*Planning trips to London in May and Paris in July with the fabulous HOWELL'S!

* Attended a protest

* Working at the moment

*Missing M and wishing we could be g chatting. She was sick today :(

* Planning on unwinding by watching Arrested Development when I get home.

PaRiS 8

I took the Metro to school today on account of waking up very late. The only problem was that I had to switch trains 3 different times and was still incredibly late. School proved to be quite entertaining though. We played French Taboo and it is probably my new favorite pastime. After school Nicole and I went to our favorite little Israeli shop and sampled "Turkish Delights". If you've never had it before it's basically a gelatinous substance completely covered in powdered sugar combined with 2 or 3 nuts inside.. Disgusting. I threw it in the gutter immediately after. We then made our way down to the Indian market and I bought super glue to fix my sunglasses.. yeah, I'm cheap. That was pretty much the extent of my day besides roaming the streets and taking pictures. Here are a few shots from the day...

Gone with the..afro... PaRiS 7

Today I whined to Nicole and Allison about my afro and converter troubles. Allison suggested that I go to BHV near Hôtel de Ville because apparently they sell everything! I was honestly ecstatic! (Sad, I know). Then Nicole told me she would take me to the flea market tomorrow and buy me a new converter.. YAY!! I'll finally be set!

After school I dropped off my belongings and set off to buy my afro killer!! I was pretty self conscious today. I was feeling mega fat (the baguettes and butter were starting to take their toll) and my afro was maddening. I tried to pop my sunglasses lens into place but while I was walking, the lens shot straight out in front of me. Now I resembled the dog off of Little Rascals-one large black lens and one large black rim. Ridiculous. I picked it up and fussed over it momentarily pretending that it had just broke so that the café stalkers would stop laughing. I just had to keep thinking positively.. the afro would soon be gone.. ahh. 

I arrived at BHV and thoroughly searched 3 levels before I found it in some obscure aisle (next to clothing irons..weird). I honestly let out a little gasp of joy. I tried to quell my excitement but it was difficult :).. I shopped a little longer (they seriously have the CooLest stuff over here!) and rushed home to get rid of the fro. I stopped by Maison Collet to buy (another) baguette..yum. I jumped in the shower, STRAIGHTENED the fro and took the metro down to institute. 

Bro. and Sis. Murray taught the lesson on honesty and had various people translate it to french. One story in particular touched me. He spoke about a family in their old ward in Hawaii that had 10 children and hardly any money. It was 2 days before Christmas and the family went out to do a little shopping. One of the younger boys came across a thick envelope on the floor and gave it to his older brother who opened it and counted $300. They showed their father and asked if they could keep it. The father said it wasn't right and took the whole family to the manager to return the money. Two days later on Christmas morning the family awoke to see their front porch covered with presents and food. The ward had all pitched in to make a memorable Christmas for this family. They had not been aware of the recent experience the family had with finding the money but found out at a testimony meeting the next month. Something had touched the hearts of the people in the ward to come together to take  care of this family. It just goes to show that by living righteously, the Lord will always prepare a way for you to be blessed.

After institute I had some creeper follow me nearly all the way home. It was a little frightening. But I'm here safe and sound and ready to go to bed. 

Versailles.. PaRis 6

I wegged school today (shh) to go to Versailles with Kat and Kemp. We left around 8 am from Gare du Nord and took the RER to the country. Halfway there our train stopped at a station where we apparently had to switch trains (we were unaware of that fact which left us momentarily lost). We were supposed to stay on the platform and wait for the next train but for some reason a random passenger told us otherwise and that we should go to a different track. We left through the "Sortie" and asked the ticket agent where we should go. She ended up pointing us right back in the direction we came. Well we couldn't get on the platform without feeding our ticket into a machine that released a turn style and a push door. We had already used up our tickets which meant we would have to purchase another one just to get back on our previous platform. Well I just wasn't going to have that. Dress and all I swung my leg up on the metal box, squeezed in between the long metal bars and jumped on the other side. The K's got quite a kick out of that and Kitty decided to climb over the turn style and under the door. Kemp couldn't make up his mind but finally got on his hands and knees and crawled under the door as well. It was quite a sight! We definitely had a good laugh.

Once we arrived we walked about 10 minutes and there it was. Grand, decadent, Baroque, elegant, beautiful and incredibly opulent.  There were already so many people for only being 10 am but after the 30 min wait in line the gobs of tourists evenly dispersed throughout the Château. Everything in the Palace was decked out in marble or gold. The Sun King was so self indulgent- In one of my art history classes I learned that before Versailles was built, King Louis's head of finance (I think), built Vaux le Vicomte. It was such a grand château that the King thought it was bad taste that someone beneath him should be living in such luxury. He imprisoned the man and then hired the entire team who built Vaux le Vicomte to build and design Versailles. The end result of 380 million francs, 36,000 laborers and enough paintings, if laid end to end, to equal 7 miles of canvas. The King then summoned thousands of grandees from their own far-flung châteaux to reside at his new seat of government. In doing so, however, he unwittingly triggered the downfall of the monarchy. Each day private invitations were sent out to each of the grandees inviting them to "Watch the King have his breakfast" or being permitted "to take a stroll in the gardens with his highness" I mean this guy was so full of himself! Anyway, a 2 century spree of indulgence in the finest bling-bling of the age by the consecutive reigns of 3 French Kings produced 2 of the world's most historic artifacts: gloriously, the Palace itself and, momentously, the French Revolution.- Ok sorry for the rambling.. I get carried away sometimes. Anyway, the Hall of Mirrors and the incredible art were my favorite things (besides the awesome wallpaper which I would LoVE to have). My absolute favorite part of the trip though was the outdoor gardens. I couldn't have dreamt of anything more picture perfect. The weather was slightly balmy with a cool refreshing breeze ever so often. The trees were trimmed in angles of perfection and the flowers were colorfully beaming everywhere you went. The grand canal was available for paddle boat rental which gave the grounds almost a Great Gatsby feeling. The K's and I began our long walk to the Grand Trianon. We thought we were going to the Queen's hamlet or Marie Antoinette's place but ended up on the other side of the grounds. The Trianon was outfitted in pink marble.. wow. It definitely looked like a woman's residence to me. Everything was floral and PINK!..We realized we didn't have the energy or the mobility to go back and see the Queens Hamlet (our feet were dying.. a days worth of cobblestone will do that to you) so we took the RER back into the city. We finally were on the metro and made a special stop to get our favorite crepes. :) Afterwards I bid farewell to the K's and we went separate ways. I'll miss them!! They've been soo much fun!!

On my walk home I was feeling incredibly self conscious of my awkward look. I felt so ragged next to the chic impossibly thin french women (I still had the fro). But just then a man on a scooter rode by, gave me a little beep and thumbs up. Then he muttered "très belle" and smiled. Ahh.. I felt much better. Even if he was being sarcastic. I love the French.