New pics, after a thanksgiving from a land afar

ME! on the Paris metro

Hello hello hello! it is I, the wayward, european vagabond, wishing you all happy thanksgiving, and a pleasant time of snow and snow related activities. I hear your getting quite a bit over there on the west coast, and although it is the bane of many a driver's existence, I am terribly jealous. We got a dusting today, and I'm hoping for a few feet. I love snow and I would really like to see Poitiers draped in a think blanket of creamy slush

Sigh, alright on to pictures. Here's some extra pictures I forgot to put up the other day of our trip to the Loire Valley. The one next to this and the couple below are from the chateau we stayed at. We couldn't go into the pool since it was too cold, but peter and brandon and I snuck in at night and dipped our feet in.

 There was a gorgeous view from our room. the boys slept in one room and the girls  slept in a couple different ones. At least that's what was supposed to happen...

 Boys room. Dirty and smelly and masculine. NOW YOUR A MAN, A MAN MAN MAN! (anyone? orgasmo reference?)

Creepy hallway of doom. I expected to see two twin girls at the end of one.

And now on to my Halloween! It was spent under the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower, guzzling wine and then stumbling back to our hostel.  Here's some pics of the weekend:

We'll start at the train station, because afterall that's where it always starts and ends. This is the train station by our hostel. It was really nice all lit up and such. Although this picture hides the beggars panhandling outside the station. As well as the repugnant stench of urine that follows. But lets stay romantic, shall we?

 Friends Bethany and Alison at a fancy french restaurant, living it up. Got me a burger with an egg and bacon on it. They put egg in EVERYthing. from pizza to pasta to already fried eggs, everything's gotta have an egg. It's great.

Paris street before we arrived at....

The gorgeous and irreplaceable, yet one of hundreds...

The hugest church ever! It was really neat inside, although they didn't allow cameras or hats. I forgot mine briefly and felt really bad about it. And since I am mildly respectful, the picture just above is not from my camera, but I did take the liberty of taking from my friend. It was really cool...

The view from the top of the stairs in front of the church. Had to get it in three pictures to get it all. I think this is the right order...

 

And here's just a pretty picture of the Eiffel Tower between some trees

After seeing some sites, we explored the major graveyard for some famous people and beautiful structures. Here's some noteworthy ones (ps if this seems morbid, bear in mind it was halloween. Plus, just wait til you see who we saw):

 The carvings were really intricate. Lots to think about.

 

 And for some reason, almost all the sculptures of the saints or angels covered their eyes and face. It gave off an eerie, silent hill sort of vibe.

First celebrity on our list is Edith Piaf, which if you've never heard of her, was a famous, old timey french singer. You'd probably know her from the song "la Vie en Rose". It's quite good, I would recommend doing some music research to discover a classic voice, and a tortured soul.

And this one, everyone should know. The infamous jim morrison. Bet you didn't know he was buried in Paris, did you? (if your elderly, then you probably do because he's like your kurt cobain). He has a very modest, almost hidden grave, between several bigger graves tucked away, but as you can see, it's one of the more visited graves. 

And finally, this one is big. The support for this gifted, but troubled writer was overwhelming.

Oscar Wilde, who if your unfamiliar, please please please pick up a book by him. He's done a lot, but the books everyone knows are the importance of being earnest and the portrait of dorian gray. His grave is lined with hundreds of kisses. Here's some close-ups:

One of his lines, reading: to cure the soul by means of the senses and the senses by means of the soul

And as a finale, our last night in Paris, getting drunk off of 5 liters of wine for 7 euros. It didn't even have a name, it was simply named "rouge". And yes, that is Alison Arnold in the pictures! She met us there for the weekend and we kicked it and shared stories and laughed and laughed. 

 Alison being a baller, drinking my wine.

 These are some of Alison's friends from Angers. They were a hoot and a half

 Me being disgusting. Spilled wine on my sweatshirt, bottles and drunken stupor action going down.We had a huge entourage, my friends, Bethany's Irish friends, and Alison and her friends. Crazy. We were loud and obnoxious, but the Police didn't seem to care. All night long vendors walk by trying to sell you things, everything from tiny models of the eiffel tower to roses to bottles of wine. You can haggle them down, and we ended up getting a pretty constant supply of wine for the whole night without spending very much money.

  

Bethany and me taking cracks at the massive jug of wine. we didn't get arrested, but we did get the one thing French have in excess: disapproving looks.

 Me being very French above, especially with my TMNT shirt. (psst alicia, remember buying that in like 11th grade in the big and tall section of the little boys department of Kmart? who knew it would see the world...)

 Peter being waaaaaay too drunk! Ahh I love peter so much! He was supposed to go to a concert this night, but two handles of whiskey and some vodka got the better of him. He did, however, attempt to go, but after stumbling across Paris, falling several times, and bringing irene with him, Irene said eff this and brought him back to the hostel. The end result you ask?

Peter giving us his thug stare. Bitch I want some waffle fries, for free!

Ba-Bam! Peter took a mighty spill and cut his eyebrow open. Oh peter, you steal my heart.

Welp, that about does it. I didn't do much in November, so that's about all my most recent pictures. I will be traveling as soon as I get out of school on the 17th, going to paris, then to amsterdam then to munich and austria with the fabulous, the gorgeous, the granola- miss Kimberly Morgan Elizabeth Malan Absher. She's coming in just a few days (this saturday, huzzah!) and will be accompanying me the duration of my stay. So, many pictures will ensue from there. Probably more pictures from Poitiers, because I haven't really explored it as much as I would have liked to. Thanks all for reading and laughing at my trip thusfar, it's been a lot of fun.

Dad- when do you wanna skype? shoot me an email whenever you're free
Mom- did you get my email? waiting for a response (don't forget about me!!)
Alicia- nothing, just wanted to say HI!!!

To all others- sorry for cutting it off so quickly at thanksgiving, the host parent's I was outside of freaked out and made me leave. I think this beard is finally giving me the street cred I've been looking for.

Love,

Joel

French Mot du Jour

Breasts: seins

Left: Irene's boobs
Right: Peter's boobs

Hope you have no where to go and a tall glass of metamucil

Hello my adoring fans!

It's been a long time since my return to the world of internet blogging. But, its not without lack of trying, trust me. I have such a truckload of pictures to upload that it takes about 3 hours to do so, and I've tried three times thusfar, but in doing so, it renders my computer useless. SO here i am, sitting with tall glass of orange juice, my cabby hat on and a fag in my mouth (correct usage! everywhere else in the world still uses fag for cigarette). Anywho, lets get started.

First, here's some pictures of my trip to the Loire valley. My site director took all of us on a trip to go wine tasting, checking out this old vinyard and played some senses games, trying to tell how old a wine was, smelling different odors and other such tasks. the winner went away with a giant bottle of sparkling wine, which everyone shared at dinner.

A veritable catacomb of casks lined the walls. The smell was unbelieveable

so much wine...

head guarding the wine. it shot lasers from its eyes

PETER!

irene by her birthyear

one of the smell tests.

so much wine was drank to determine EXACTLY where it came from. for the first time it was necessary to get hammered. ps, eff spitting it out

more tests

us gathered around eagerly awaiting more wine. Sylve (site director) on the right

Shana with the win. glorious bottle of wine

amazing. simply amazing...

We stayed at this enormous castle that had a pool and was way out in the middle of nowhere. We stayed up til god awful late, chatting and drinking (we soaked a bunch of fruit in vodka, specially made for soaking fruit). then the next day, we toured 3 more different castles, one that held war prisoners which was absolutely chilling, one that was a big commerce hotspot along the Loire river, and another that had a huge garden (mom would be positively salivating), a hedgemaze and a crazy big kitchen.

quelque fruit très chouette, dans un bouteille et demi d'alcool.

me and irene and my beard

hallway made me feel like playing legend of zelda

big cabinets and writing desks everywhere. oh to be royalty

17th century playboy

most of these the pictures speak for themselves

My friend!! I named him greg

moat. sans alligators. tres triste

genevieve's head barely over the headgemaze

arc in the center of the hedgemaze. it was profoundly easy. we were hoping for The Shining sort of headgemaze, but you'd have to have sever brain damage not to find your way

playground for the kids. (did mgmt just pop in your head?)

another courtyard for the stablehands

AAAANNNNNDDD the garden. The pumpkins put the pathetic, crippled pumpkins we tried to grow look like peanuts

every spice, herb, veggie or legume imagineable

sturdy motherfucking pumpkin

last castle we saw. just so happened to be the war prisoner castle. end on a happy note

the torture room!

he's been there about 9 years now. They used a crude form of waterboarding essentially

this was painted on for...moral? I can't remember what it read though

old school shitter

the last room before the escape room.one window with about 4 square inches of sunlight

prisoners carved this into the wall to pray that their merciful god would grant them the sweet release of death

window to the outside world, reassuring them that the sun is still rising

the very very very bottom. about 4 floors under the surface.

church on the outside

lit a candle for nana here. hope she can see it

various pictures of those things. got to see a lot of france. it was loverly.

the rest of the pictures are more of the grand and sprawling metropolis of Poitiers

notre dame (not THE notre dame. every city has one. it just means our lady)

a popular coffee/beer establishment entitled nardo's

more notre dame

hotel de ville

center of town. currently under construction

super market in town, on the way home to my studio

and finally, pictures of the results of the grève, or riots. Don't know if you've been following french news, but Sarkozy (frances president) passed a law to change the retirement age from 60-62.

they left no possible entrance unblocked

we had to pass this just to go down the hall. its unguarded now, but before there were students making sure no one came through

entrance to the school. completely blocked off.

The school was shut down for a week. no buses ran, the train was stopped because of people on the tracks and they cut off the oil supply to various parts of the country. This was completely shocking to me, considering we in the states haven't seen this sort of organized upheaval of the government since the 70's.apparently its outrageously common; the french don't take shit from their government. kinda good, kinda bad, cuz after the first day, they let foreign exchange students in (begrudgenly), but since the buses didn't run, we had to get there on our own.

AHHH! well hell, hope you all enjoyed the pics. I have more of my recent trip to paris this last weekend, but I'm tired and I have midterms tomorrow. So, I leave you with my french mot du jour and bid you adieu. Bon nuit!

French Mot du jour:
dead bird: oiseaux mort

ps: kiiiimmm!! i'm excited to see you tomorrow! hopefully your camera will be working?? lets make that happen asap, yeah? and alicia: you still haven't given me your new address, you bad bad person