nouvelle amie

coucou Helen ;)

USA USA USA USA

It's great to be in Europe for the World Cup. France is going nuts about the team strike and drama, and USA wins Group C. How crazy. Though this means I can't go anywhere near St. Denis for a while. Too many Algerians. :p

A conversation with Samson

hows france? french food/ culture/music/ partying/ women/ your fluency?

man everything here is amazing
i got some time so lemme break it down haha
france = the shit paris = even better
french food is incomparable to anything else on the planet and i was in a host family that luckily fed me every night
the people are really hard to meet though i been here almost 5 months and i only have like 5 french friends
partying is dope, bars and everything, night clubs are dope too but it's a lot harder than in the US imo cause people dont do the dirty dirty on the dance floor as much
and me i'm all about the r kelly bump and grind shit so sometimes it gets annoying in the club when you got girls feelin self conscious about shit

Sammie: lol word i feel that


culture is dope, music is dope, but they play a lot of american music here so i have to search for french music
women, shit man i fall in love everytime i step on the metro

Sammie: ahhh i figured that blows
hahahaha
any luck yet?


nope
got a few numbers here and there
but they never lead anywhere
this lebanese french girl was FIRE
but i never heard back from here after this one time we hung out

Sammie: ehh her loss

so its whatever i guess, i'm just focused on having as much fun as possible
whatever comes my way comes

Sammie: as you shold be
wise words

but this american girl i met is out of this world haha
american-french with a little italian on the side i'm thinkin
or at least a little mediterranean influence. anyway the girls here are what i like in girls, fashionable, dark hair, heels, etc. no southern belles
not that i dont like southern belles but i always enjoy more urban girls
and i'm pretty fluent in french nowadays, playing fallout 3 in french, great experience.


i think you got a greater overview than anyone else so far.

Nationalism

Boy, speaking with my home family about Vietnam sure is weird. They make little cracks (not derisive) about Dien Bien Phu and the fleeing of the French colonial (imperialist) control. This entire trip has made me question more and more the nature of the Vietnam War. When I was younger, I used to think that my father fought because it was for freedom and equality and etc. All the things that school teaches you is wrong with communism. But there is such a nationalist perspective that is lost in the midst of the whole COMMUNISM = BAD, DEMOCRACY = GOOD argument. People weren't fighting for corrupt governments; they were already in corrupt governments. The only difference was that it wasn't their own people. Who can deny a man (sorry, I'm using non pc language) the right to self-determination? It is the same story with every nationalist rise for independence across the world. I should probably go more in depth with this, I will later. The biggest question on my mind right now is "Dad, why did you fight for the South?" Don't mistake me for a communist, but you can take me for a nationalist.

I'll add more pictures, later, but I'm in Amsterdam right now, and it is an amazing city. I've got an odd mix of nostalgia, joy, and sadness, right now that is really quite bittersweet. It's like watching the Where the Wild Things are trailer, that sense of lost innocence and fond memories. At what point did I sit down on the carpet in the living room as an adult watching cartoons instead of a child?

These feelings are quite overwhelming at this point in time... I really miss home and everything and everyone. I really miss my parents and home family as well. Never thought I'd say that. But I've been rather blessed and I know it, but sometimes you just forget. I'd like to pick up Michael J Fox's Adventures of an Incurable Optimist, maybe that'll be some good chicken soup and chao (runny rice soup).

Cheers, and I promise I'll update more later. Then again, I say the same thing about my personal diary...:)

Alllll right. So there really is no way to post all the pictures from my journey (like 1000 and counting) so the best you'll have to do is catch the ones I like best, and then take a look at my facebook for the others!

Here are more random ones that aren't trip related. Me at Le Roi Lion, Colin playing his show, etc. Oh, and me singing Knocking on Heaven's Door with people in the metro.

All right, so I am avoiding doing any work at the moment, so I figure I might as well update my blog for the first time! Shoutout to Ginny Brady for making me do this... haha

So, a quick recap of what's happened so far, in picture form.

Trip to Versailles