Last Week: LA, Velvet, and Disneyland.

Currently, it’s almost midnight, it’s raining (a rare occasion), I’m listening to the Swingin’ Christmas station on Pandora, and burning the Cider Lane candle from B&BW which smells like caramel apple cider. Today, I had no plans or commitments, and consequently took TWO, yes that’s correct, TWO naps, drank hot chocolate and ate a hot apple crumble pastry. Looking back, today has been fantastic.

However, lately I’ve been a little uninspired about what to post on this blog. Apart from looking back at my time in Paris, there’s nothing too exciting happening in my life at the moment, at least exciting, blog-post-worthy things. The highlight of my day yesterday was coming home to my cozy bed; I recently adorned it with some Christmas lights and a red sparkly garland. I also went to Disneyland with my bff Natalie a couple days ago, which was super fun, but usually my life consists of work and school and being a homebody. Yes, there are fun things to do out here, I live close to LA, but for some reason I never feel inspired enough to venture out of my bubble. Probably because I’ve lived here my whole life.

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Paris Memoirs – Dépaysement

It has been over a year since I first arrived in Paris, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, anticipating the span of five months that, in my fantastical imagination, would be pure bliss. It would be all frolicking, colorful macarons, endless bottles of wine, cornucopias of cheese, and elegant style. I just assumed that I would suddenly transform into one of those chic people you see in photos from Paris fashion week at the Tuileries. Indeed, I certainly did consume countless bottles of wine, but what I didn’t expect was a crippling reality check.

The French word dépaysement in the most general sense describes the condition of being disoriented in an unfamiliar context. At a deeper level, it is used when a person finds themselves far away from their home country, feeling a sense of alienation and longing for home; the word itself contains pays, which is French for country.

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An Image an Hour

So I definitely didn’t manage to take a photo for every hour I was awake yesterday, but I did manage to capture the feel of my day as it passed by. As expected, there are a lot of selfies, mainly because I didn’t go anywhere interesting. You gotta work with what you got!

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Purple Trees and Summertime Sadness

It’s only two weeks into summer vacation and I’m already going crazy with free time. And I don’t mean crazy in the good sense. I was supposed to take a French conversation course this summer, but it was cancelled last minute unfortunately. So, with my 15-hour-a-week job, and nothing else on my plate, I’ve had a lot of time to lounge in bed…and lounge in bed some more.

I used to enjoy doing nothing! But I’m so eager for the future to get here that long, empty days really annoy me. But more on that future in a later post!

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