So much life happening right now

Holy petunia! It is getting hard to find time in my amazing life to blog! I'll give the abbreviated form of what I've been up to these last few days, then I'll get into some details. Monday I got lost in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery for a day, and then I made french onion soup. Tuesday I went shopping with Kendra and then to the Sequentially, Yours gallery opening at the Polka Gallery. Yesterday I went for lunch with Kendra, went to the top of Montparnasse tower, and then went to an Apero/Casting mingle where I met all sorts of neat people. Now, pictures...

Edith Piaf's grave!

 Oscar Wilde's grave and it's protection from lipstick kisses :)

The jist of this sign is, "Stop kissing this grave, please."

To which I respond, "Ok! I'll just kiss the glass like everyone else has been doing then!" I'm trying to photograph this indiscreetly, hence my terrible aiming. 

Dun duh daaaaah! My lips, all for Oscar.

Stumbled upon this part of the cemetery while being lost. These photos give you an idea of how huge this area is. So many people!

FINALLY! So stoked on this grave. It really IS creepily realistic (despite being green). My face looks a little crazed because of how mischievous I was feeling. Rub rub rub.

So shiny! Look, even his pant button is undone. Crazy.

(In case you don't know the myth, the deal was that if you put a flower in Victor Noir's upturned hat, kiss him and rub his bulge you'd have greater fertility/love/etc. The cemetery put up protection around him to prevent it, but their were 'protests' so they took it down. Too funny.)

This photo gives you a bit of an idea how HUGE this cemetery is. It goes on forever and ever and ever.

I was having a hard time finding Abalard and Helouise's gravesite, and then I found a love letter. Turn around and... it's right there. Looking a little worse for wear. The love letter is addressed to a lover she hasn't met yet. It's pretty cute, and dramatic.

JIM MORRISSON! Finally finally finally found this grave after HOURS only to be kicked out of the cemetery cause it was closing. I managed to snap these photos on my way out. 

This is a terrible photo of my french onion soup deliciousness. In the hilarious cup that came with my apartment.

More vintage shopping the next day! I ended up spending too much, but I got some sweet stuff. Sparkley shirt, summer dress, catsuit (leopard, 80's, magic), and some lace shorts. Success.

This happens in my apartment whenever I cook anything. The window is permanently slightly opened to allow all the steam out.

Fancy crepe, pear, cinnamony-yogurt dessert thing. So good. Mm. Yes, that is one serving...

Next at the infamous Montparnasse!

Surreal views.

Oh hey! I went there! ... AND there! And there!

Foggy Paris.

SO STOKED when I saw this. It's the balloon from by my place. I concluded my house is somewhere in the mist behind this.

Ok, so there is your crash course of my photos of the week. Now, what wasn't photographed... 

The gallery opening thing made me really nervous. I didn't understand what people DO at these things (beside look at the art... there's 20 minutes of the three hours) so I wandered around looking confused and everyone looked at me like I was dirt. No fun! The photography was amazing, and it was crazy to see so many people! Plus, free champagne. But, yea... if I go to another one of these things... I will bring a friend. It sucks not speaking French... you can't exactly join a conversation. I got to see Laurence for a split second, but she had to do her networking and stuff so I ended up leaving after about 45 minutes. It took me about 45 minutes to metro home, too, and it was crazy packed on the metro! First experience of the metro at rush hour... oh man. 

After that experience I was SUPER nervous about the apero/casting party for the film school. The agency I got my apartment through (Entree Paris) had randomly posted on their facebook page that this mingle and meet thing was going on at this cafe at an art's centre called 104. On the complete opposite side of the city. So, I got there around 8 (it started at 7) because I got sooo lost. I almost didn't end up finding it, but I walked into a FranPrix grocery store and asked the girl at the cash desk. She said, "It's right behind here" so I ran there cause I was so creeped out by the neighborhood. Walking in to this cafe was like walking into a mob. There were easily a couple hundred people crammed into this tiny space, and I had no idea what the system was. I walked up to a random group of people and was like... how does this work? Luckily everyone there spoke english, since it was a call for english-speaking actors. Plus, everyone was SO NICE! Like, one guy showed me how to sign up for the mingle properly (before mingling) and then get my yellow sticker that identified me as an actor. Then you just basically walk up to red-stickered people and go, "So, do you need an actress?". Which sounds crazy, but it actually was really fun! It didn't feel too schmoozyness of this evening. After, I went to go out with a group of students but then I realized the metro was closing soon so I had to head home cause I had no cash on me for a cab. Sad moment, but we will meet up again. 

That's pretty much all that was super epic these last few days! I had a FRENCH conversation in a grocery store with a lady from Haiti over the sale on Nutella. It was a buy-one-get-one-50%-off deal for GIANT tubs of it. She was like, "Pour le grand Américain". We giggled. And she taught me how to say some numbers when talking about money. I liked her. 

Now I must iron my entire wardrobe because hand washing makes everything look like ... well... like it's been hand washed. I'll try and write more next time, but life is moving so fast... I can't promise anything! 

Bisous!

Le Marais and Dessert dessert dessert

Yesterday was International Women's Day, and oh boy did I enjoy it. First things first, I made a delectable lunch of Camembert and Ham stuffed chicken breast (breast! not escalopes!) with a prune and onion balsamic chutney deliciousness on top. Heaven!

Happy happy joy joy! I am eating far too well for a 'starving artist'

This plate is far too huge.

So, after that delicious start today I moseyed on over to the Marais area to meet up with a friend for the FREE gelato being offered at Pozzetto. I got there super early (2 hours early...) so I wandered and wandered and came upon a dream come true. It may be common knowledge to many that the Marais is STACKED with vintage stores, but I was not aware of this fact till I walked right into one. The sign read, "1 Euro Bins" -- I bolted. 

After and hour and a half forage I came out with my grand prize -- a metallic art nouveau pullover of easter-egg colors. 

I don't think I could be more stoked on this sweater. It also smells like it's been recently washed -- win.

(You will notice that any photo I take in my apartment will probably be in my 'kitchen' where the natural light is. So, when you see my shower in the photo as well -- that gives you an idea of the size of my apartment.) So, the sweater put me back a whopping 10 Euro (pffffft) whereas my other purchases (below) came to a total of 2. 

This scarf is about the size of me, silky, and plaid & paisley. Joy!

Polyester goodness, in clear need of an iron. But... iridescent turquoise/violet shoulder-padded, waist-cinched glamour? Mm.

I seriously held back at this excursion. I had a good ten other items I considered, but then I wouldn't have any more budget left for the day. So I held back. When I realised the time I booked it back to the Metro where I was meeting Kendra. I got us lost on our way to the gelato, but we righted ourselves thanks to Kendra's keen abilities with FreeWiFi in public parks. 

The place was dead. I mean, no one else was there. It was 5 pm, all the schools had just gotten out, it was beautiful out, it was a holiday, it was FREE, it was famous gelato -- WHAT WAS GOING ON!? I immediately was worried it wasn't actually free, but when we went in the lady happily scooped us up some fresh rose gelato on two adorable tall and skinny waffle cones and sent us on our way with a friendly, "au revoir!" So confused. Not complaining. I would have loved to have documented this via photograph, but alas, I was so engrossed in the absolutely breathtaking flavor of this gelato I was unable to tear myself away from it until completion. 

Kendra and I then set off to find the art store. Now, my fault here, but we didn't find it. I had google maps'd it and taken a picture of the map on my phone to view. We were standing in front of what google maps said was the store, and there was no store. Classic google maps + Mikaela incident. We decided to skip out for the day on the art store, and instead head on down to Pigalle for dins.

My friend and mentor Melanie had suggested a dive called La Fourmi for cheap and delicious eats. We walked in, picked our own table (gasp!) and ordered a bottle of wine for less than both our little glasses had been the night before. 

I Probably should have not cut off Kendra's head in this photo... SORRY!

Now, the night before we'd seen a bunch of people with Croque Madames and we wanted them. So, comparing the size of the plate at last night's cafe with the incredibly reduced price at this one, I was expecting something roughly the size of a gluten-free grilled cheese. Non. This plate was EPIC.

The plate is like... the size of my torso. The Madame is the size of my forearm. Ah.

Kendra and I didn't talk for like half and hour. We just ate, and sighed, and occasionally mentioned god. It was a beautiful experience. Then, we both got dessert too. I got the tiramisu, and Kendra got something that translates to white cheese. We both polished ours off in like five minutes. 

There was so much delicious cocoa powder on this, I inhaled over my spoon and choked on cocoa. 

So, the bill for this meal came to less than half of the night before and we got... probably just as much food, but probably double the calories. It was amazing. Thank you, Melanie. 

Kendra wanted to go check our the Sacre Coeur and Pigalle at night time, which I know I wouldn't have had the guts to do alone so I gladly agreed. We took the tram up for free with our transit passes (so worth it, oh man) and snapped away with our cameras for a good 15-20 minutes. Kendra is a photographer. I am not. My photos all ended up blurry, save a couple good ones of the basilica. 

So gorgeous all lit up at night.

There was glass EVERYWHERE, and people were just chucking bottles like nobody's business. Party central, up here!

After that adventure, we walked around Pigalle, went into the Sexodrome store for like... an hour. We had our own set of adventures there, including a hilarious exchange with the stripper/prostitute there who, "Oh! English! ... I speaks english!" ... non. She did not. But she was very good at making you feel like you were communicating something correctly. We almost got chocolate crepes and pastries while walking around, but I know my belly was exploding, so we didn't consider those for long. After, we metro'd to our separate homes and I listened to my crazy neighbours party all night until I passed right out into a food coma. 

This morning I woke up and decided I needed to bake something. I made a Martha Stewart recipe for double chocolate brownies with a bajillion alterations. First off, I did make it gluten-free because... well... that's how I know how to bake now! Also, I used prunes all mashed up as a fat substitute (the recipe called for prune puree... no luck). Also, no cocoa powder, so I just bumped up the pure chocolate amounts (can't hurt for gluten-free stuff to have more moisture, non?). It's pretty damn good, not gonna lie. Pictures!!!

Mixing mixing mixing... I used corn starch flour, super basic. 

Oh hello, mini toaster oven. 

Please please please fit!

TA DA! 

45 minutes later... Voila!

Oooo food-blogger-esque close-up shot!

Right now I'm waiting for that brownie to cool so I can eat half the pan and go walk around for five hours! So concludes my last 24 hours! Good food, lot's of dessert, and lovely company! Au revoir till... probably tomorrow. Bisous!