StormyRen.com

Wow, so although I’m very excited for Halloween – I have two costumes in mind to wear at two different times (one work-appropriate, one good for going out in B-more) – I’m sure you’ll see pictures in Nov – I am soooo ready for Christmas! (Haha, yeah – just skip Thanksgiving completely.) Which makes me very happy. Although I’m perennially and perpetually excited about the fact that our savior was born and is, it has been quite a few years since I was excited for the holiday season, excepting the year I explored culture differences and similarities during said season in Europe – which was actually pretty darn cool and always brings a smile of recollection to my face. Oh my gosh, and I just remembered the existence of EGG NOG! Yes! Love it.

Partially I think my enthusiasm results from this week’s unending rain, surprisingly enough. It’s like, in for a penny, in for a pound. I’m ready for snow! And the winter wonderland! It’s already necessary to warm up the car and put the heater on full ‘red’ and number 2, so it’s not too far from the depths of winter for me. I haven’t yet pulled out the winter coat and I’m still resisting scarves, but I’m emotionally ready to handle winter’s cold. I think. Typically I struggle to stay warm all day and spent most of the night keeping an inch away from shivering. But I now have a space heater! And I’m so ready for carols, and decorations steeped in family history and tradition. (My abs fav parts of the season.) I’m even looking into gifts.

Despite the desperate temporal distance between myself and a home of my own, I feel quite excited to celebrate at the ol’ family home all season long. Maybe this is accounted for through the fact that my brother, sister and niece live 3 mi away, for the first time ever! I’m pretty happy.

The other reason why I think I’m so happy is that for the first season in many years I am not 1) stressing about SATs or getting into college, 2) stressing about being in college and multiple exams, or 3) sinking deeper in debt and struggling to get a job. I finally have a job and despite a multitude of worries about where my life is heading (in terms of answering my call, staying in touch with the many people that matter so much to me, and deciding/investigating where my money is going to) I feel secure and peaceful, able to enjoy each day and sustained to continue seeking how to work out those things. And strangely (or not) I feel good.

This is not to say that I have days (pretty much every other) where I am stressed beyond belief at the thought of the unknown – where is my career going? when will I travel extensively again (Europe and the fav states rank high here)? what grad school should I go to? when will I go to grad school? will I have enough money to go to grad school? will it ever be financially feasible to leave my mom’s house? would she be financially ok if I did? when will all my material possessions be organized so that I feel free to get rid of them/finish my many projects? when can I get to see my college friends J.Rose, Vanessa, Morgan, Elisabeth, Sarah etc again? where is my money going? can I go to France next year? should I get a technical photography certificate at CDIA? how can I help my ankle heal so that I won’t injure it again? when can I resume cardio workouts and lose the ridiculous lbs I’ve gained since senior year in college? when will I fit in my clothes again? when do I have time to study film noir for fun? when do I have time to make my brother, Ebeth, Emily, and my coworkers their promised mixes? and more.

Haha, I’ll probably add to this post when I think of all my other constant questions. But those are the ’simple’ ones on my mind at the moment.

And yes, despite these, there is a creeping, swelling sensation of excitement for the holiday season. YAY!

Aujourd’hui et récemment mon cœur chante les chansons d’amour pour Paris.

Viens Dans Ma Rue (Mireille Mathieu)
J’ai Deux Amours (j’écoute la version à Madeleine Peyroux)

À l’instant j’ai une bonne amie à Paris. Je suis si heureuse pour elle, qui est là en cours de poursuivre ses rêves. Elle va commencer d’enseigner anglais a l’école pendant cette année scolaire. Moi, comme ses autres amis, j’ai envie d’entendre comment ça va. Mais c’est inévitable que pendant que je pense à sa vie en France, je commence a réfléchir a mon séjour passé à Paris…et mon cœur commence à languis pour la cité. Il n’est pas étonnant qu’elle ait voulu de retourner et a eu difficulté de se séparer d’elle la dernière fois.

Chaque jour j’ai soif des nouvelles de mon amie et des photos ainsi je lis son blog : sarahgilmour.wordpress.com. Je pense à l’atmosphère et à la culture de la cité et son peuple, comment l’air frais reflète bien la météo. (Bien sûr je suis un petit peu jalouse.) Je soupire pour Paris. Aussi tôt que possible, (et que mon amie est prête) j’y vais, même s’il coûte cher! L’amour (et l’amitié) demande les sacrifices.

* * *

Speaking of sacrifices, I’m laboring as quickly and efficiently as possible on renovating my bedroom and going through all my earthly possessions. I’m throwing things out and packing others up for when I have a place of my own with room to display them, uncluttered. I’ve got items in pretty much every room of the house and I’m trying desperately to regain them and sort through them asap. I know it aggravates my mom to have the house like this, so I’m working as hard as possible to get it together. And then move out. Maybe. It’s all part of the plan: 1. Get my life organized. 2. Do what I want with a sense of liberation. I’m very optimistic.

Photos of the Month!!! September 2006. This will be where I pick my fav photos from the month/the best ones. So here they are:

Interestingly enough they’re all from the same weekend – the first one we were here.

The next morning we went to Mont-Saint-Michel, an abbey on a rock!

I would like to thank Sarah Gilmour again for the use of all of the following pictures.

Here is an excellent picture, showing exactly how flat the rest of the land is around the Mont. Its incredible! I think the area frequently floods, too.

Oh, and our chaperone told us NOT to take a walk around the outside because there is quicksand! Scary! She said there are guides, that know where to go, but don’t attempt any kind of walk on your own.

So here is a shot of what, basically, the streets of Mont-Saint-Michel look like, because there is a very small town on the rock, below the abbey. And all the streets are on an incline, and its a real hike to get up to the Mont, so maybe if you had a heart problem, if I were you, I wouldn’t do it.

So here is what was a then-breathless shot of the outside leading to the entry of the abbey. It was breathless because we had to really climb up the city streets.

So here’s the view from the top, from a terrace of the abbey.

Even though my digital camera bit the dust for the rest of the weekend, I still had my black & white camera, with which I shot two rolls of film, and will hopefully develop at the lab this friday!

Audioguides are a great idea, but there was so much information that I missed this time around because the guide was in French. There was so much to look at as the narrator talked that it was difficult to look, concentrate on the voice, and understand the narrator’s meaning. It was frustrating, but it was fun, too.

Lovely Ladies of the Mont:

And the overlook series:

Ah, how the wind blows in our hair!

Various pictures of and throughout the Mont-Saint-Michel:

Ok, next we went to Saint Malo, a small town in Bretagne, which makes sense because we had been moving in that direction: we were in Normandy, then at Mont-Saint-Michel which is kinda on the border, then we went into Bretagne for the town and then moved on to [some other town] for the train. I’ll post a map later. So here are some pictures from Saint Malo:



Here’s lunch in Saint Malo, we had a type of salty crepe that is meant for a meal, instead of a sweet crepe, which is meant for dessert.

Here’s a view from the wall that surrounds Saint Malo – in the distance you can see the sea, which was a short walk away. Our bus was parked to the left, and the ice cream stand is just at the front of the picture, which is where we grabbed a quick treat on the way back from the sea to the bus. How did we get up so high, you ask? The ramparts are accessible and people can just mount some stairs and see the whole town, inside and out. Very cool.

Playing on the wall.

We turned around, and look, that’s where we ate! (The yellow awning).

Then we went to the beach!

So we walked over to that structure-y building thing, we couldn’t go in, we just decided to go over there and explore and climb on rocks like little children. We only had a little bit of time though, so we ran laughing over there, checked it out, and booked toward the bus. Then we were like, ‘Oh, ice cream!’ so we bought some and then got on the bus. We headed towards the train station and went home. It was a great trip.

On the train!

A very awesome girl, my John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt twin, because her name is my name too; and whenever we go out, the people always shout…you get the idea.

So here’s a quick pic of some of the people that came on this trip. There are two excursions to Normandy because the whole group could not come all at once. So I guess a rough 40-some came on this trip because there is a rough 80-some total.

So, yeah. We arrived in Bayeux – first city to be liberated during the war – and we saw this amazing tapestry. It was AWESOME. It is REALLY LONG and REALLY FUNNY. We got an audioguide in English, so we understood the whole story and it was so interesting and amusing, that I would definitely recommend it to anyone going to visit that region. In fact, our whole trip was amazing, as you’ll see in the following pictures…

Two more shots of the small town Bayeux. The church was the only other interesting thing to look at, I think.

I would like to credit Sarah Gilmour with all the above photos, except the one of the church, which is mine


Ok, next part of the trip.


The next place we went to was the American Cemetary at Colleville.


The first thing one sees when they enter the cemetary is the statue and hall to the right:

Here’s a shot Sarah got from behind:

There was a reflecting pool-type thing in front of it, and this is what it looks like from the cemetary towards the statue, and from the statue towards the cemetary:

The cemetary is up on a hill, so here is the view of the ocean and beach from the edge of the cemetary:

The cemetary:

*(The last one is Sarah’s picture, as is the following, and all other * for the rest of this post)

Here is a last, ironic picture from the cemetary. There were several MEGA HUGE mosquitos flying around, landing on the white stone, and the idea that these blood-suckers were here and staying here just seemed a reminder of how much blood was given and how war continues, and more blood is lost today, I mean, the blood still flows.

*

NEXT, we went to Omaha Beach.

The orange towel on the metal is from one of the guys, who pulled on some swimming trunks and swam in the ocean! He’s crazy!
We did some exploring: the Sarah and Rikki series:

The group on the beach:

Alot of people took their socks and shoes off, but I didn’t. Here’s a picture of the shoreline!

AND I SAW NESSIE! Just kidding, these are more crazy people seabathing.

Ah, look, Sarah’s found something! Look, guys!

Sarah jumps for joy.

And a quick pick of Roxanne and Sarah.

OK, the next part of the trip was Pointe Du Hoc, where soldiers scaled the cliffs to take the Germans by suprise – I think. It started to rain here and my camera ran out of batteries so from here on, past a certain point, we’ll be enjoying Sarah’s pictures!
Here’s the rest of my pix:

…and we continue with Sarah’s pix…

Then we fell asleep on the bus to the hotel – here’s Xitlalic and me.

Here’s our room, and my reaction to the fact that the soap and shampoo are one and the same dispensible product! I had the little one-person bed, and Rikki and Sarah shared the big bed.

We had dinner at the hotel, which Sweet Briar payed for.

(The hotel)

Ok, so after dinner we went out to a carnival type thing that was happening behind the hotel. And we were disappointed because it was a really little thing in this really little town, so we walked down the main drag, bought some chocolate and cookies, came back to our room (because it was a triple) and watched a concert on tv – which was pretty fun! Thus concludes day 1.