Adventures in IKEA, and other short stories.

This was a passage where the second part of my Sciences Po Paris conference was held. I presented some data that wasn't mine, to high acclaim. Hey, I'll take it. Anyway, this looks the way I always pictured Harry Potter's Diagon Alley must look.

DOES AMERICAN IKEA HAVE WINE? DOES IT? I'm actually asking, because I have not been to an American Ikea. BUT THIS IS AWESOME.

I apparently didn't take any pictures that show how pretty Saint Brieuc (or rather, Etables-sur-mer) is except little crappy ones on my French phone.

This was inside a "dive" bar-café near the closest beach ... I thought it was kind of epic, even though I haven't the faintest idea what it's about.

View from the beach (too bad it was WAY too cold for me to consider going in).

Johan and I gave our best shot at the Myspace-style photoshoot. If only it weren't so tiny, this wouldn't be half bad!

 We also went to a really neat restaurant, and it had a flea market-ish shop attached. It's run by "The three sisters." Obviously, I could hardly resist. I got three mint teapots!

For reference, they look like this! (My next craft will be painting this corner unit white.)

Chilling with my BFFLs

I spent a week hanging out with my three best little friends in late June! Of course it took about 0.2 seconds for a certain someone to start rummaging in my purse ...

When I first went to pick Simon up from daycare, he shunned me hardcore. I think someone was a little upset about my [to him, anyway] unceremonious departure. By the time we got home I was [mostly] forgiven.

Julien put me right to work on drawing assignments ... Mario Bros characters again.

Maxime loves the Picsou comic books. I have no idea who Picsou is in English ... Not Donald Duck, is it?

This was a common theme to our days. Hey, I'm the last person to complain about the whole family spending hours reading!

By the end of the week, my smallest BFFL and I were back to being, well, BFFLs. I hope he isn't too mad at me for leaving again ...

Conference in Reims

I headed to Reims for a few days for a conference (Comparative Agendas Project) at the Sciences-Po campus.

Of course, I had to do a little tourism ... Who wants to look at pictures of committee sessions?

Famous Cathedral.

Maryland Bar? Is there some pop cultural reference to Maryland that I'm missing?!

There was even a lights show on the Cathedral the last night. It was especially cool because they showed all the stages of the construction, from the drafting to the [slave?] builders at work, and of course lots of different paintings of it were projected on top.

I think this is from the drafting ...

This just looks cool.

One of the detailed stained glass effects. Since churches were originally painted, this might even be intended as a representation of what it looked like at the time (I don't know enough about this to actually be sure).

On my way out of town, I stopped in a café with a Canadian I met at the conference. Does Ernest Hemingway have a link to Reims, or is this purely marketing?

If my train had been leaving a bit later, I could have gone on the tour of one of the Champagne companies' "caves." The real reason this upsets me is because the parting gift was a BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE. Ah well, it gives me a reason to go back?

NYC-Princeton-Airport ... This is belated.

I know this is super behind, but I took all of these pictures darn it, and I want to use them. Oh, hi.

Before I left for Paris, I headed to NYC for the usual sleepover party with one Kelly OC. This was accompanied by a trek to Princeton for a meeting with a professor ... And catching up with Fred, an old friend from ... All the way back to first grade!

Anyway, he gave me the tour of campus (hahaha, Gothic), and I felt compelled to compare this statue to the Nittany lion. You'll see, this becomes a unifying theme of my adventuring. I give it points for scarier-looking teeth, but the Nittany lion is pretty stealthy looking.

After hustling back and forth campus trying to get HR the correct paperwork for dolla dolla bills, I decided it was hot enough to merit a splash. You can't see it here, but there were a couple of really classy girls sunbathing in bikinis. Parallel to the lawn of Old Main drawn here.

Back in Queens, Kelly and I decided it was a perfect night for Astoria Park and CHEESE and ... Surprise, surprise, WINE. Happy Liquor indeed.

I can never remember what number my dad's school was ... So I took a picture, jokingly, and sent it to him. NAILED IT. This was it.

Perfect afternoon for a picnic ...

And even prettier as we get ready to leave!

This is just random, but the fact that this minivan has Consul tags really cracked me up. Minivans aren't exactly the image I'd expect them to be targeting ...

Waiting for Kelly to finish work ... Decided to go read in front of the NY Public Library ...

This lion is pretty stellar. I mean, he looks like he could eat a Nittany lion.

It was a fun few days, as usual. One of my favorite places was a grilled cheese specialty restaurant in Astoria. A RESTAURANT THAT SPECIALIZES IN GRILLED CHEESE. I love having Kelly in the city to find all the things I would like for me :)

Hold up. WHAT?!

In one of the engineering buildings.

Pictorial representations were placed in Pond Lab shortly thereafter.

Really, Heinz? No.

Just check out that country list. Think it over.

Hint: South Africa is a country ... And apparently so is Africa.

On the table in the Nittany Lion Inn -- State College's classier accomodations.

You might be in trouble when the local magazine puts the nearby prison on the 

cover of the interest magazine.

A pinwheel garden, far prettier in motion, in the sun.

Johan and BELGIAN WAFFLES

These two things are unrelated, other than occurring within the same time frame. Johan came to visit for a week (yay!) and since it was his first time in State College ... We went to the creamery. Otherwise, we spent a lot of time either testing out the local restaurants or sitting at home doing work.

Wooohoooo, [sorta]professor life.

This one was at Pickles. Those are drinks. HOORAY!

Because I only recently got my awesome birthday present (thanks, Mommy!), I hadn't been able to test out my Belgian waffle skills until now.

In the works ...

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Now that I can make my own waffles, I'm one chocolate milk dispenser away from a Binghamton dining hall!

In other kitchen appliance news, Kelly's wedding gift to us is a BALLER raclette set. Johan and I had a brief dispute over who would get custody ... Luckily, I had already filled his bag with other things (of mine). So I now have kitchen appliances to rival people way more intense than I, SCORE.

The perfect pairing

HOLD ON. Complimentary beer/wine with a $12 haircut?! SIGN.ME.UP. Why have I never seen anything like this before?!

This made me smile, and seemed somewhat cryptic, until I remembered that the Cafe Laura is on campus, and does all kinds of thematic nights (I think it's some kind of dining hall-like thing).