February 16, 2011

Sept Stylish Things

Leslie from La Forchette S’est Embaillée has bestowed upon me the Stylish Blogger Award!



Her blog is a wonderful combination of beautiful photographs, delicious recipes, and hilarious stories about her life in Aix-en-Provence. You should definitely check her out!

Here are the rules for being stylish:
1. Link back to the awesome person who gave you the award (check - Thanks again Leslie!)
2. Tell everyone 7 things about yourself
3. Pass it on to
15 7 other bloggers!

7 things you don’t know about me:

1. When I was 15 my parents sent me to a 3-week summer school program at the American University of Paris. We would go to school in the mornings (I took photography and beginners French), and then would go on field trips out to the city in the afternoons. I fell in love with the city and knew I had to go back.

2. That trip was the first time I got drunk. The program put on a wine tasting, and pretty much all the kids got a little tipsy off of the wine. Only, I didn’t like the taste of wine! (Boy how times have changed) So I decided to add something to the wine that I did like: coca-cola. All of the adults thought this sounded disgusting. BUT! I have since learned, while I was in Barcelona last year, that the Spanish put red wine and coke together on purpose! Plus, it tastes pretty yummy. Clearly 15 year old me was just in the wrong country.

3. While studying abroad in Paris for a semester my junior year, I stayed with a host family. My host family turned out to be a nice old lady who didn’t speak any English. I didn’t really speak any French (aside from things like “bonjour” and “comment-allez vous?”). On the first day, she asked me a question in French. I stared at her blankly. Then she started miming to me, moving her arms, pointing at me, and pointing at various objects. I still had no idea what she was talking about. After about ten minutes, and some “vvvvmmmmmm” noises, I figured out she wanted my permission to vacuum my room! This is pretty much how we communicated the first couple of weeks.

4. All last year I felt as if I wasn’t truly taking advantage of my assistant’s job because I wasn’t traveling “enough.” I realized this was totally inaccurate as when filling out the customs form for the US, I ran out of space for “countries visited.” I also completely forgot to include Ireland on the list…

5. This is not because I didn’t like Ireland. I love Ireland. I saw Lady Gaga in Ireland last year. I also love Lady Gaga. Lady Gaga + Guinness Factory St. James’s Brewery = one of my favorite trips from last year!


Me at the Guinness Factory and Lady Gaga doing her thing!

6. Despite being from CA and only having lived in le Nord for 2 years, I have more jackets than FBF, who has lived here his whole life. I have 6. He has 2.

7. I must look like a giant stoner, as the only decorations on my walls are a free map of Amsterdam, and a free poster from Dampkring, a coffee shop in Amsterdam. I am not a stoner. I just have nothing else to decorate my walls with. Clearly I need to be traveling more this year if only to accumulate more decorations.



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And now, drum roll please.... the 7 bloggers I'm giving this award to are:

American Girls Are... - a recently married expat living in Paris who makes hilarious little pictures.

Is There Such a thing as too much Cheese? - an Australian expat living in France who won me over with her post about a man who paints portraits with his penis.

jennaventures - she (or is it her cat?) basically makes me laugh every post.

Kaley...& Más - a Spanish expat who hopefully can attest to my claims in fact # 2.

Le Fabuleux Destin de Brenna - an English teaching assistant in Verdun, France who successfully made chocolate chip cookies in France (reinforcing French stereotypes of Americans while simultaneously making me look bad for disappointing my French friends).

Sara in le Petit Village - who has already won a bagillion of these, but I just can't get enough of her and her font size changing blog posts.

Traveling Amber - a fellow nordiste who isn't afraid to put all of her emotions out there! Plus the semi-regular pictures of her adorable new baby would make anyone smile.

10 comments:

  1. Sigh. My sister was making fun of me the other day that my blog has turned into an homage to my cat. Clearly my singleness is becoming cliche. But HE is funny. Lotsa personality shoved into those wee little legs of his. Based on your description of my blog, it appears she is right-but whatever, I've found my audience!

    Thanks so much! And I love your 7 facts (they confirmed what I realized after living abroad when I was 20 and watching Taken-my kids won't be going)

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  2. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have managed to make me smile on a very dull and dreary day!
    And how cool is the Guinness factory? One of my work Christmas parties was there a few years back, very fun!
    Oh, and they do the coke & red wine thing in Italy too... so there's another place you can live! :-)

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  3. Awww thanks! I can attest to number 2, and I too cannot imagine now not loving red wine, as it is my lifeblood. (Okay, not really, but pretty close.)

    I will do this later!! Thanks again.

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  4. So funny to relive #1 and #2. I remember that wine tasting- they gave us 5 (!) tickets to taste different wines,they were purposefully getting us drunk. I didn't have a hangover though- amazing.

    Love your blog Laura!

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  5. Love it!! I'll get right on this :) xx

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  6. Merci Laura! I did a little yelp just now I was so excited! Thank you, thank you! Also, I definitely mix red wine and Pepsi--it's delicious :)

    Linds

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  7. wine and coke? odd but perhaps worth a try... i'm jealosu that you've gone to ireland. i think that i'm only going to have time to visit other cities in france this year. i wish i had time for all of italy. :(

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  8. Jenna: Your cat is about 50% of why I read your blog. Well, him, and your hilarious captions underneath his mischievous pictures. Also, you're welcome! Also also, seriously why did our parents ever let us study abroad?

    Sara Louise: I'm super glad I could brighten your day! I love the Guinness factory! I've actually been there twice now. I really love how you get a "free" pint of guinness at the end of the tour, and let's face it, it get's you a little tipsy. AND THEN they usher you out into the gift shop!! I've never had so much fun shopping in my life.

    Kaley: You're welcome! I'm glad someone who's currently living in Spain can back me up :)

    Clairey Fairy: That was one of the craziest nights of the trip. That whole three week period was so drama filled! I loved every minute of it. I also really loved the times we would blow off the scheduled excursions and just meander around Paris. Thanks for reading my blog! Glad you like it :)

    Amber: Do it fast! I want to know everything.

    Linds: You're welcome!! Although I almost want to take it back... Pepsi?? Gross. It's all about coke.

    Melissa: Yeah, 15 year old me thought I was super original, but apparently it's all the rage in Barcelona. Although you use cheap, boxed wine for the mix, not the good stuff. It's funny that you say that about wanting to travel to other countries, as this year I've been saying I want to focus on staying in France (plus a little Belgium as it's really unavoidable up here) because I've never really explored anywhere but Lille and Paris.

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  9. Oh wow!

    I'm honoured - I don't know if there is much (or anything) stylish about me OR my blog - unless you consider portraits with penises and me rambling about being sick and watching bad TV the height of style, but I squeed a little when I got your message.

    Thank you ever so muchly!

    And keep up the funny France stories - I too have a few horror stories from my time spent at Laundromats, like the time I left to get a cup of coffee only to find that some lady had thrown all my clean and sopping wet clothes on the floor as she was in a hurry!?!? WTF!?!

    These days I have a relationship with my local place, where they let me dump my bags there and for an extra 4Euros or so, they will wash, dry and fold it all up for me to collect later that day! whoo hoo! At first I was a little bit squicked about other people folding my delicates, but I got over that real quick.

    Will do me "stylish" blog soon.
    Thanks again
    x B

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  10. B: You are ever so welcome! Maybe painting penises isn't exactly stylish, but I feel like this award is mostly a popularity contest anyway!

    I'm way jealous about your laundromat! That is totally worth an extra 4 euros. Especially because that way people can't be assholes with your clothes!

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