My 20th Birthday in Paris

It was my birthday on Wednesday; I'm officially no longer a teenager! (Oh boy).

I always find it interesting how the best plans are often the ones that happen accidentally.

After class, my French friend Clemence invited me over to her house for a surprise and boy was I ever! Her birthday surprise to me was getting to try escargots for the first time.

It was quite an interesting experience! After, I met up with some other friends to get sushi. It turned out the sushi place I originally wanted to go to no longer exists so we had to find another place, but it all turned out okay! The food was really yummy and who can really complain when you're surrounded by friends and in Paris on your birthday.

After we tried finding an Amorino location but it also doesn't exist anymore! We did find a really beautiful street though. All the Christmas lights were up and it was really incredible.

I have some really lovely friends. Also, all my friends back home decided they each needed to make me a collage to put on FaceBook in honor of my birthday. There were quite a few! This one was my favorite from my best friend.

I love collages. It's really fun to look back at awesome photos and see where you've been.

And now for the best part: PRESENTS!!! My friends all know me so well. Clemence got me a beautiful chain bracelet that is really popular in French fashion right now. Her mom got me a ring and another bracelet that says "Mon petit brin d'amour" which means "my little bit of love" (Clemence later told me she picked it out).

The silver square is a "petit beurre" which is a type of cookie that is very common in France. It's so unbelievably cute.

My roommate Monica and my friend Kyle both got me stuff from my favorite store: Oysho!!! Rat socks and the most amazing shirt in the world.

It says "You are the butter on my bread". The joke between my boyfriend and I is that I am peanut and he is butter, and my nickname in high school was bread so this shirt is simply perfect!

And lastly, my friend Lisa got me the prettiest nail polish color.

I love nail polish so much. I'm probably going to change the color to this one very soon!

I hope everyone had a really fun and safe Thanksgiving, or if you're in France like me, a wonderful Thursday.

Bisous mes cheris***

Photo credits to Lisa Cherkassky and Monica Park

My Playlist: An Unpopular Opinion

An artist I can't get off my mind nowadays is Miley Cyrus. There's obviously a lot that can be said about this girl, and most of it is not too kind. I'm sure I don't need to tell any of you about the various controversial things she's done, but here's my unpopular opinion: who cares? Sure she has an odd way of being but she's just doing right by herself. She isn't pretending to be something she's not, and she's damn proud of that! She encourages self respect and individuality; she wants others to know it is okay and good to be different.

I know a lot of people say that she's a bad role model for young girls and whatnot. They obviously say she shouldn't dress and do such sexual things because it sends the wrong message. I personally think that if you don't want your child to see Miley Cyrus as their role model, you explain to them why you don't think she's a good role model and you help them make different decisions. Miley doesn't have a responsibility to your children, you do. She has a responsibility to herself and that's it.

With all that said, I think she has a fantastic voice and that is why she is in this blog post. I'm not the biggest fan of the genre of music she sings but if you pull her voice out of it and put it other places, it is really something. Here are my favorites right now:

Even if you don't agree with my opinions about her, I hope we can all agree her voice is quite lovely and that the dancers in the last video kick major ass. Hope you're all having wonderful days.

Bisous mes cheris***

Barcelone!

Last weekend I went to Barcelona with a friend of mine who is studying in England. Unfortunately it was raining all weekend but that didn't stop us from having a really amazing time.

The city of Barcelona.

Sadly my iPhone was stolen in the Paris underground right before my trip so I was unable to take any photos. However I did buy some cool postcards, so I will be showing you the city through them.

I didn't know a lot about Barcelona before I went there, so I ended up learning some really interesting things about the city. I took a couple walking tours while I was there which were really informative (if you're in a new city, I highly recommend doing a walking tour). To beginning, it's important to know that Barcelona considers itself to be less a part of Spain and more a part of the autonomous community of Catalonia. Recently there has been some tension in the country because Catalonia wants it independence from the rest of Spain. It's kind of complicated and I'm not to clear on the details but I do know some cool stuff about the region! They say that when Saint George, a dragon slayer, was finally killed by a dragon, someone (if memory serves it was the French king) came and drew four stripes on Saint George's shield, giving him a suit of arms; this is now the flag of Barcelona. This is also the city where the king and queen met with Christopher Columbus to help support him on his trip to find "India". We all know how that story ends.

Barcelona has sadly been on the losing side of many wars and battles over the years and there's evidence of this all over the city. Old buildings with bullet holes and craters caused by bombs can be seen. This is largely to do with the Spanish Civil war and the War of Spanish Succession. At the Siege of Barcelona in 1714, the Catalans won and now commemorate that day, September 11th, as the National Day of Catalonia. On this day, they have a big festival and build these human towers called "castells" which in Catalan means castle. I unfortunately wasn't in the city to see it but here's a postcard with a picture.

A Castell and the Cathedral of Barcelona.

Looks pretty scary to me; I definitely don't want to be at the top of that! Another really amazing part of the city is the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. He was a very proud Catalan man who was the figurehead of Catalan Modernism. He has some incredible works in the city including Park Guell, Casa Batllo, and (of course) the Sagrada Familia. He spent the last 15 or so years of his life planning and starting the construction of this truly massive and breathtaking church.

Postcards ofa statue from the outside of the church, the outside and the inside.

Inside the church.

Despite how incredibly gorgeous it is, there is a lot of controversy that follows the building of this church (like most large monuments). An incredible amount of money has been fueled into this monument, and is currently being funded by the Vatican. When the building started in 1882 and when Gaudi became involved a year later, many of the citizens of Barcelona were starving and living on the streets. This of course begs the question, where were the city's priorities at?

The Casa Batllo was another Gaudi building I got the chance to see the outside of (it was expensive to go inside!) It really is probably one of my favorite building in existence. The original building was constructed in 1877 and in 1904, Gaudi was hired to design it. It has been refurbished a few times since its construction, and it kept nice and pretty for all the citizens and tourists. 

It is really just the coolest thing.

I also decided that after visiting Barcelona that I should start watching more soccer games. I figured I'm already half way there with my new jersey.

So excited to start watching!!!

All in all, I had a really great time. I found the city to be really fascinating and so filled with art and culture. It's quite an amazing place to visit and I hope everyone gets the chance at least once in there life.

Bisous mes cheris***

Photo credits to Lisa Cherkassky and Crystal Dwyer

About Paige

Salut mes cheris!
My name is Paige and I'm a native Californian. I'm from the bay area and I'm currently going to school at Cal Poly Pomona for Hospitality Management and French.

I've been asked what kind of blog this is and I don't really have an answer. I don't generally like to label things but I suppose a "lifestyle" blog is probably the most fitting (if by "lifestyle" you mean my lifestyle). This blog is essentially a way for me to share my thoughts, crafts, hobbies, and adventures. I have a passion for sewing, singing, baking, and occasionally causing trouble. I hope you will join me in my blogging journey!

Thank you for reading!
Bisous***