Flight Home

I am FINALLY HOME! It was a long journey, but well worth it. As I was touching down in Salt Lake, (if I may wax poetic,) I almost cried at the beauty of the spilled-mercury-like silver Great Salt Lake against black mountains, poison-like orange sky and glitter thrown about on the black desert valley. (It's a desert right? .. "cold desert"?) Well, ok. I flew to LA, then from LA to Salt Lake. The first flight was eleven hours. I was way sick of reading so I resolved to watch movies the entire time, I calculated I could fit in approximately 4. I got through "Coco avant Chanel," then "Hannah Montana: The Movie" (which I highly recommend,) then I noticed the old French guy watching "He's Just Not That Into You," so I watched that too. After that, I watched the little plane on the map inch along the screen ... across the Bering Sea, down across Canada, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. I had a little fireworks show in my head when we crossed the US border ... I knew that even if we had to emergency land I could use 3g data roaming on my iPhone for free.
Once in LA I immediately bought a fountain diet coke & perused the candy shelf of the little convenience/souvenir store. I (overzealously) bought Newsweek, The Economist, Time, & People as I was eager to see what I missed while I was gone. I got through the first part of The Economist and the whole Newsweek (most of it was about serial killers and drug smugglers,) then waited on the plane eagerly for landing!!! I was so happy when I finally walked out into the airport, I wanted to cry (& maybe I did.) (Maybe not.) My whole family was there to meet me & I was so, so, so, so happy.

I had a great experience in France but coming home was incredible. I missed it so much. I learned a lot over this summer, & I plan soon to write a final post laying out the knowledge & wisdom I gleaned from the city of love & light.

damien visits

This week my friend Damien came to visit. We were planning on going to Morocco but his credit card information was messed up or something so he couldn't pay for his ticket. So, I've just been showing him around, but I've never been so homesick in my life and all I want to do is go home. I've been really moody and reclusive which really hasn't been fun for Damien ... sorry Damien. He says that I've lost my sense of humor. He realized that I wouldn't be up to much and decided to go out by himself while hide by myself at home and read Simone de Beauvoir. Reight now he is at the Louvre, then he's going to Sacre Coeur and to see Moulin Rouge. I've already seen all these places a bunch of times. I feel a little bit bad but not really. I'm going out to show him some of my favorite places every night. Tonight we are going to the Pompidou (YESS,) and tomorrow we are going to the Musée Rodin and Galignani, that great English bookstore, where I'm making Damien buy On the Road. He'll love it. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to.




Oh, first of all I moved out of my apartment into Kate's which has been GREAT. I get a huge comforter in a huge room, there's a real shower, a new kitchen, and a BALCONY. This is the view.


Here's the Tuileries.
Damien loved all the statues.

Then we went to Shakespeare and Co. I bought the Second Sex, which apparently was translated into English right after it came out, and it is a bad translation that misses the point of the book. I decided to buy it in English anyway, to see what's up, then I'll read my French version when I have more time so I can really understand what she wants to say.

GOLD FERRARI
We went to see an opera singer sing Ave Marias and other songs in the oldest church in Paris, next to Notre Dame. It was beautiful. I bought the CD.
Barbies...
Eatin Falafel in the Marais (Jewish district.)