Dedicated To The Superhero

Most of the time, we take what and who we have in our lives for granted.

We take the ones we care most about for granted because we feel entitled to them, like it was our birthright. They have always been a constant in our lives, so in our own minds we think this is something that will never change. 

Most of the time, we don't stop and reflect on what a privilege it is to have these people in our lives, and how positively they affect us. How having them in our lives makes us want to become better versions of ourselves. 

But we don't realize that often enough. 

We don't stop and think that it's pretty fucking amazeballs that these people deal with our shit constantly. And usually we're too selfish to step back and realize the amazeball-ness.

I'm writing this because it's kind of a special day. It's the day a total badass became a part of this world. She constantly defies this aspect of human selfishness, because she's too busy caring for the other selfish people. She's the stuff superheroes are made of, always looking for justice and peace. And that's what makes her THE superhero: she doesn't wear a superhero's suit because she's so selfless, she doesn't want to take any credit for the miracles she works daily.

It's also kind of a miracle that I get to have that superhero in my life. She is so in tune with herself, her feelings and those of others that she sees and notices things that anyone else wouldn't. It's scary. She brings things to my attention that I would have never wanted to face. And in this gift of being able to read people so well, she bring to my attention that I'm oblivious. To a lot of things. For example, how much of a badass this superhero is for putting up with my ignorance and moronic tendencies for so long, yet still loving me.

I may not say it often, because I think it had always gone without saying, but she's one of the most important people in my life, and I love her. I now know this is the worst way to think, because who doesn't love being told how much someone matters to another?

People say this all of the time, but superheroes really do exist in our lives. It's cliché, but we all have one. We don't always see it, but they're there even when we don't. 

This superhero of all superheroes is my mom. And it's her birthday, which marks 48 consecutive years of awesome.

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you.

And the Countdown Begins.

Hey lovely muffins!

P.S. I forgot to tell you all in the video that I'm to leave France the 29th of this month... that's so close!

Too close?

...

nah.

But it means I have less than a month to get everything I can out of being abroad that I haven't yet! Which is... nothing I can think of. 

I mean, I traveled a bit around France itself, along with other beautiful countries such as Germany, Austria, Hungary, Ireland, Italy... I mean I think it's safe to say this year abroad was well-utilized and I took every opportunity I could to gain all the amazing experiences that I did.

I think that's a cue to reminisce. 

Remember that time I went to the famous square Piazza San Marco in Venice and let dirty pigeons land on me? Or the time I saw the world's longest bench in Geneva? Or that time I saw a street performer playing "Hallelujah" on a golden harp in Vienna? Or that time I went to the coolest bar in Budapest that looked like a dumpster threw up on it? Or that time I swam in the Rhône? Remember when I got drunk with my friend Caitlin in an Irish pub in Dublin as we sang rebel IRA songs?

Well I sure as hell do. All of it. Like it was yesterday.

And time may pass, but the memory will be crystal clear, even when I'm 64 and it feels like a lifetime ago. I can close my eyes and travel back to what seems like another lifetime, and know my life is what I choose it to be. 

Alright enough cheesy talk.

Doooooooods I'm coming back to freaking America soon! Back to family, friends, late summer nights, camping, river days, and enjoying my last summer before my last year of my undergrad career. It is absolutely crazy how time goes by so quickly. It's like yesterday when I landed on French soil, like the day before that I went of to college to start my freshman year, like last week that I graduated freaking high school. WTF I feel like I'm in a time warp. WHAT IS HAPPENING.

If I learned anything during my year abroad, it's that a lifetime can go by in an instant, so do as much as you possibly can so you can fulfill your duty as a LIVING PERSON. It's seems stupid to say, but fucking sit down and think about it for a sec. 

K, done? 

Good. Now go watch my video!

À bientôt!

xoxo

What the Eff It's Already May.

First of all I would like to announce that if you go to France during mosquito season {which is basically whenever the goddamn sun shines}, you should know that they are immune to citronella candles. I don't even know how many bites I have at this point, but I keep my window closed as soon as the sun sets and they STILL FIND A WAY TO DRINK MY BLOOD THOSE TINY FUCKING VAMPIRES.

Moving on. 

I'm basically home free as far as classes go! Just one more final and I am finished with my French academic career. Then I'll have over a month to, uh...

I promise to find something to do in that time other than twiddle my thumbs. I've all the time in the world, but won't have enough money to travel all the places I want to go!

And I may be off base, but I think that's where a job {or a fuckton of babysitting} comes in.

So it will be my goal within the next week or so to land something decent with decent pay so I can go somewhere decent!

Yay for decency!

Anywhoo, I think that's all for me for the time being. I'll try to make my life more interesting between now and the next time I make a video for the sake of not boring everyone to death. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a naked Furby in case you didn't find them to be the spawn of Satan before.

Finally, here's the new vlog:

À bientôt!
xoxo

Protests and Shit.

Yo!

So I just made a video today. I am currently patting myself on the back for keeping up with making a video at least once a week {I will count that last one and the one before that because technology just wants to see me fail but I have what it takes to prevail!} and not being lazy and putting it off until it's too late.

In this last video, I said a couple things about protests in France vs. protests in America, and I don't feel that I correctly gave either of the sides justice.

American protests obviously still happen, but 1} I haven't heard of many lately besides those of marriage equality, and 2} I'm not living there as of now so it's a bit hard to gauge what's actually happening. But there definitely is a difference between American and French protests and protesters.

The French have been protesting against authority forever. That's kind of how things work here. Rather than being born with a silver spoon, they seem to be born with a picket fence with a witty one-liner. If they don't like something the government is implementing, they want to change it. Same goes for groups of people such as farmers.

The goal of the protest was to call for better prices from supermarkets to offset the cost of production. For example, you go to the grocery store to buy some apples for a euro, but the amount earned by the farmer is 40 cents. 

Fucking capitalism.

So it's kind of everywhere. But the difference is the French want to do something about it. At the same time, I personally don't believe that protests would work very well in the States. Why, you ask? Just watch the video below.

Some asshole gets all mace-happy just to spite people who stand firm on a protest against rising tuition costs in the University of California system.

Whereas in France, the people don't really take that kind of bullshit. 

But don't get me wrong: the police definitely have a strong presence here. I had to wait at the crosswalk today for literally 15 minutes to wait for Poseidon knows how many police vans sped through the intersection towards the protest and the Prefecture. They're there to make sure the protest doesn't get out of hand, but they're not gonna go club an old lady just because they're feeling spiteful.

So when I made the point that I don't see a whole lot of activism going on in the States, I didn't mean to say that it doesn't happen. It does, but you have to agree it's a bit lack-luster. 

Anyways, that's my rant on the protest deal. If you have any questions/comments, don't hesitate to send them my way. 

Hope you lovely pumpkins have a lovely weekend and the sun shines wherever you may be!

Pssst... here's the video

À bientôt!

xoxo

Stereotypes!

...That word should rarely be followed by an exclamation mark. But it's not for stereotypes themselves, but for the fact that I finally got around to tackling the subject.

I finally followed through with something! GAWD, the sensation of  accomplishment is coursing through my veins as I type. Granted, it took me a few weeks, but that's only because I've been busy, and technical issues arose, and I'm making too many excuses...

Like I said in my vlog, if you would like a postcard from France, let me know.

À bientôt!

xoxo

Wanted: Bigger Pockets

Happy Friday you lovely pumpkins!

So, this is me trying to stay on top of my shit by doing a video more than once every two months. We'll see how long I can keep up the streak. 

So this time, I just babble about French holidays.. The ones that allow them to take off the day at work, not like Halloween or St. Patrick's Day {which is on a Sunday anyways}.

Also: I found a grumpy cat meme previously unseen by me. This will be the last photo of Grumpy Cat {Tardar Sauce, I still love you}.

Next video I'm going to try to bring in some common stereotypes about Americans and whether or not they prove to be true {or something in between}, and then talk about some common stereotypes about the French people. So look out for that one!

Here's the embed for the most recent video. Click here for the link itself.

À bientôt!

xoxo

My Life Hath Been Invaded By The Internet

Hope everyone's week is going admirably. If it's not, I've just the thing. Click here for a video by Goatye to feel loads better. Whenever you have a baaaad day, you can remind yourself that so many kinds of awesome/hilarity exists on the internet.

In other news, I decided to talk a bit about what exactly it means to be a United States citizen. What are the good parts? The bad? I did some research {on the good ol' trusty internet, of course} and went over a few basic points that seem to come up a lot in the argument of "Americanism". Look below for the video.

Like I said in the video, send feedback for new topics! I enjoy making them, but sometimes struggle for a good idea that I can fit in under 5 minutes {that's the new goal, it takes too long to upload/edit anything over that amount of time}.

On another note, I plan on going to the French Riviera in the not-too-distant future; I have a tentative list of things to see, but if you have suggestions for that as well I'd love to hear them! 

I wish warmer weather and a merry March from the ironic country of comely class and carcinogenic community {alliteration FTW}.

À bientôt!

xoxo

Title Will Just Be Called "Title" Because I Am Not Feeling Particularly Creative Today.

So I was looking at which grumpy cat image I should upload this time... until I realized that only so many can be made. As much as I hate to admit it, the grumpy cat will not last forever. So instead I'll put something up a bit more up to date.

Sorry if you never watched the Fairly Odd Parents, because 1) You're totally missing out, and 2) This isn't funny to you. To totally ruin this joke, here's the link to the original clip of Timmy's father. Also for the record, Leo is great and he's definitely in my top 5 favorite actors, but this is too funny to pass up. I mean he's been in the film industry for quite literally his whole life and has never won an Oscar. Maybe he'll all make idiots out of us in the Great Gatsby. But by looking at the trailer, I'm not quite sure if it would even be Oscar material.

SO: I went places! It was fun! And exciting! And crazy cheap! These things make me happy in life; I am a person of simple needs.

So as shown by the image above, I did get the chance to watch the Oscar's upon my return. I have to say I was very surprised that Jennifer Lawrence won leading role actress.... yet not that surprised. She is an extremely talented actress, and I plan on watching Silver Linings Playbook (Click on the title to see the trailer) when I get the chance.

Also, it seems that a lot more people than I'd thought seriously hate Anne Hathaway. Why is that? I find her to be a great actress, and all the work she's done is phenomenal (apart from the Princess Diaries, but let's be honest, all actors have that one film). I have come to the conclusion that it is her personality itself. We all had those annoying theater kids when we were in high school/lycée/enter adolescent place of learnedness here; I think that's who she reminds us of. In any case, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and that's what makes everyday life interesting.

Now I may have left out some parts in the video from my trip to Budapest/Geneva/Vienna. Next time I'll make the video a little more sparkly and fun, I promise. For this one I just kind of explained the trip in a drone-like manner because I was still a bit tired of traveling. or possibly groggy from sleeping for 14 straight hours. But who's to say?

Let me start of by saying the Hungarian language is... unique. I tried learning as much as I could get out of our Couchsurfers, but I really only got that it is an agglutinative language, and just a couple words, for example "utca" = "street" and "Budafoki" = "In the cape of Buda". Interesting stuff, right?

Well it is to me. Aaaannnyyyywhooooozzzzle, that's about all I can think of at the moment; I need to run some errands because surprisingly, life hadn't been paused when I left Lyon.

À bientôt!

xoxo

Gone Fishing

Or traveling, rather.

I'm off on a trip to Geneva, Budapest, and Prague, so I'll be out for a week. But when I come back there will be an post filled with central Europe awesomeness! 

Sorry I suck at keeping this up to date.

À bientôt!

xoxo

My Only Blogging {is best done half-assed}

Oh my sweet baby panda.

I forgot grumpy cat in my last post.

Does that mean I have to put two in this one?

Two late.

So dudes! I finally made a new video! It only took me like 3 weeks. I don't even have a good excuse, because my break wasn't even productive {until the end}. 

I have to say, if being in France and learning the ways of the French hasn't taught me to be lazy, these last few weeks definitely have. Being back in school is quite refreshing I must say, but I won't be saying that for long. Soon enough, you'll hear me saying, "Why do I have to take classes here again? And why do I have to go outside of the city to listen in on a class I might not even take?"

Anyway, watch the video for more of my rambles {or don't, the fuck do I care?}!

À bientôt!

xoxo

Facebook, Revisited {Le retour à Facebook}

Hello, you precious cupcakes! So lately, I've been so bored because ever since I got back from Germany, because the obligation of class hasn't really been present {and won't be until the beginning of next week}.

Now normally, this void would be filled with the internet, which it has... I'm now familiar with it more than I care to be. But my time spent on the internet lacks one very important element: THE FACEBOOK {bum bumm bummmmmm}.

It was a few months ago when I said I'd deleted my Facebook for the main reason that it scared the shit out of me knowing that anyone could stalk me without my knowledge. And honestly, it shouldn't scare you unless you've information on the internet that you wouldn't want anyone else finding out. It's just that I like to keep my life personal, and share the things I want with others on my own time. Facebook makes this particularly difficult.

So, for my New Year's resolution, I told myself that at the end of January, I will re-activate my Facebook. I now have had a strong urge to break this resolution lately, and bring the monster back to life. Here are my reasons for coming back to the site:

1) It is impossible to keep in touch with everyone, because there are about 39,098,193,984 ways to keep in contact with people so they all use different modes of communication. Facebook makes it so much easier because everyone is on one site.

2) When I see something/go somewhere, I have to put up all the pictures I take on my Blogger website; this takes a REALLY long time to upload all the pictures. For some reason, it's fairly quick on Facebook. 

3) I'm falling behind on my friends news {aka, I can't stalk people anymore}. NO, it's not a double standard. It's just that I use my powers for good rather than evil.

4) There is no number 4.

5) I already re-activated it, so there's nothing you or I can do about it.

But I have to say, it was nice to be off the grid. 

Anyway, this break has been not particularly intriguing  which is why you haven't heard much from me. But this long break made me realize I'm not going to be in France forever, so I better make the minutes count. 

When I first arrived, I had the feeling that I was going to stay here forever, even though I knew there was an end. It was just the mindset that, "I have all the time in the world, so I don't have to worry about how much I have left"... Well now I do.

Half of my time has already passed, and I have no fucking clue where it all went. I traveled and got to see a lot of amazing things, but the rest? What happened?

It also made me realize I left a different life back in California. This time here has been a dream, and this dream has an expiration date. It's a pretty shit way to look at it, but there's no point in sugar-coating it.

But the good part is I get to go back home to this:

I've realized that lately I've REALLY missed the small comforts of home. Mainly Mexican food. And living on the beach (which not everyone in California is capable of, just to be very/stupidly clear). And large dogs. These little shits that should be called rats aren't cutting it.

Welp, that's all for me right now; I hope to make the next post a video because I haven't done one in a while. And I have all the time in the world to make another one, so I have no excuses. Until then enjoy the new(ish) year!

À bientôt!

xoxo

My Christmas in Germany/Mein Weihnachten in Deutschland/Noël en Allemand/

Happy Holidays you lovely blossoms!

I just came back from Germany this morning, and upon looking at my {attempt at} footage for the vlog, I realized it needed to be redone because I was extremely tired and spaced to actually use it.. I was talking so slowly that the video couldn't be less than 11 minutes.

In this video, I talk about food!

Sports!

The annoying neighbor who recently acquired a hammer!

Music that nobody will admit is outdated!

Also as promised, here's another grumpy cat in another internet favorite. 

God, I hope there are Tumblrs/
internet fanatics out there.

Anywhoozle, below is a link to the video. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel to get updates when a new video is released!

And how could I forget to take pictures while in the beautiful West Germany?

Here's some pictures of the Nordkirchen Castle!

Some pictures of Münster:

You can see the three cages above
the face of the clock on the cathedral!

It's been brought to my attention that there's some interesting information on those cages in the clock tower of the cathedral. If you'd like to learn more, here's a link (the important part is under, "Stuff Making an Even More Smashing Film Than the Spanish Inquisition" (English friends, can you confirm that the word, "smashing" is even still used??) 

My comic book store virginity was officially
taken in Münster. There was lots of staring. 

Münster is nicknamed, "The Bicycle City" for a
good reason.

Back in the day, Nordkirchen used to be a logging
town. 

I was given lots of food before I had to depart
back to Lyon.

This pastry is called the Berliner. It's basically
a donut filled with awesome (home made jam).

Well that's all for me; now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to sleep for the rest of  the weekend.

À bientôt!

xoxo