Janna!

Janna and Farrah in Paris
Originally uploaded by ffaverey.

So Janna and I had a great time! We ate and drank a LOT, of course. And she even stayed out until 4am one night! Haha. Unfortunately, she was trying to prove that she could be a party animal and ended up drinking about 55 mojitos. And boy was she in pain the next day!! We were both quite hungover but we soldiered on because I wanted to try to show her as much of Paris as possible! We went to the Eiffel Tower (of course), Notre Dame, the Louvre, Versailles, shopping and a Seine cruise. And we ate at a cafe, went to a bunch of trendy bars and then to the famous night club, Le Cab. So we pretty much did it all! I had to spend all day Sunday in bed recovering after I dropped her off at the airport. Ha ha. And Katie comes tommorow so I start the whole thing over again! I can't wait!

It was so great to be out at night and to have a friend to hang out with. My friends mean so much to me and they always make my life brighter. And since I make it a point to only be friends with people that will make me laugh so hard that I start crying, it's always a good time. :)

Anyway, I went on a bit of a shopping spree today so from here on out all of my money will be spent on food and booze. Should be great!

Hope you're all doing well and I'll check in soon.

Dreams

So I've told some of you that I have been having weird dreams since I've been here. The first two weeks, those dreams mainly consisted of me being back at my office, having flown home thinking there was some emergency. Of course there's no emergency and I then have to pay another $800 to get back to Paris and miss a whole week here. Well, thankfully those have stopped but since then I've had some even stranger dreams. One involved Jonathan Rhys-Meyers that was actually quite enjoyable, ha ha. But the others . . . I don't know where they came from.

One involved this bitter, evil partner at my law firm. She is the one female partner I've worked with and she is mean, shrieky and basically a miserable bitch (those of you at the work know who I'm talking about). Well, I had a dream that I was back at work in September and she called me into her office. She asked me a bunch of interview like questions, all while being suspiciously nice, and then unceremoniously told me I was to now be her personal paralegal and would be getting her lunch and handling all of her affairs. Like a freakin personal assistant. Bascially it was the Devil Wears Prada except in this case the Devil Wears L.L. Bean and there are absolutely no perks. No free clothes, celebrities or fashion shows. Needless to say I woke up in a cold sweat.

The second one, that I had last night, involved the much anticipated wedding of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. Which is weird because I still believe that their relationship is a sham, Cruise is gay and that Suri has yet to be born to the hapless surrogate to whom they are paying $20 million. Anyway, they decided it would be easier if they just allowed the press to be at the actual ceremony and for some reason that included me. There were millions of reporters and they were taking so many pictures that the place was as bright as Times Square. I kept admonishing everyone for talking through Tom and Katie's very special day and then things got really weird. I looked up and the two of them were wearing freaky white-toga scientology get-ups with flower leis and no shoes. Next thing I know they are naked and walking towards me. Aaauuggh! Luckily I woke up before they kidnapped me and installed me in some Scientology reform center.

Anyway, it's still cold and rainy here so I haven't been doing too much. I've now read seven books and today went to one of the few English bookstores here to buy up a few more. I just wish it were warm so I could be sitting in a park instead of in my apartment or at a cafe alone but what can you do. Paris is notorious for having crappy weather. But Janna will be here in 2 days and then we can spend the rainy days getting drunk in a cafe together.

Talk to you soon. :)

Versailles

Versailles: Marie Antionette's Hamlet
Originally uploaded by ffaverey.

So I went to Versailles on Wednesday. They just reopened the Petit Trianon and Marie Antionette's fake village she had built so I spent all my time there. Didn't even go in the palace this time. I figured I'd be going there with my visitors so I'd be able to come back. Versailles really is so beautiful but the weather was crappy. It was cold and rainy. It's actually gotten really cool here. A little too cool for me, frankly. And some of the tree have already started changing colors! It's the middle of August! Hopefully it will warm up again in the next couple of weeks. Really, you all know how much I hate cold and dreary weather. Ugh.

Today I went to the Marmottan museum, on the recommendation of my Mom. They have some fabulous Monets and some other impressionist art. The saying is true about Monets: from far away they are beautiful but up close they are a fine mess. I don't understand how he painted them. Amazing.

I tried to take a trip to Spain as it's still summery there but the tickets on the flights and trains were over 200 euros. Plus I'd have to pay for the hotel etc. I just can't afford it and I want to spend my money when my friends are here. I'll def go to Italy and Spain etc soon though as Harris is already planning a trip for us for next summer since he was thwarted this time.

Well, I'm getting more excited for everyone's visits. I hope the recent terrorist BS isn't deterring them! Just don't bring any hand cream on the plane and you should be fine. :)

Time Flies . . .

Les Halles
Originally uploaded by ffaverey.

So I've now done just about everything there is to do in Paris. Ha ha. The only things left to do are the Catacombes and to return to Versailles and the Musee D'Orsay. All three of which I will be doing this week. I am still enjoying my time alone during the day but am getting really antsy at night. I went to the British bar on Friday with my book and had a glass of wine on the patio. It was quite nice but when I looked up from reading and I noticed that I was surrounded by couples, I knew it was time to head home. And as Harris is having nightmares about me getting hurt, I'm not planning on hitting any bars or clubs alone late at night. Not that I would've had the courage to do that anyway! I think coming here alone for 2 months took enough of my courage.

I am starting to miss NYC a bit. Paris is amazing but whenever I see my city on TV I feel a little homesick. They put a new bar in next to our apt and according to my roommates, it has a huge, horrific Vegas-style sign on it. They said I'm going to hate it but I kind of can't wait to check it out. And I miss all of my friends and can't wait to go out with them NYC style. So I know when it comes time for me to come home, I'll be excited to get back. The thing that is hard though is that once every one starts visiting, I now this trip will be totally different and that time will start flying. I hate that I am counting the days until Janna gets here as I love being here and when the trip ends, I'm going to be so sad that it's over.

So I'm going to try to enjoy every minute I have here, remember every beautful bridge or building, the taste of the food and the wine and just who I am at this point in my life. These are memories that will mean a lot to me as I get older. Espcially since I will probably spend most of the rest of the time wasted with my friends! Hee hee.

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the rest of their summers. Talk to you soon!

So Sleepy . . .

So I've been incredibly lazy. Turns out that three days in Amsterdam is PLENTY. I've been exhausted all week. I think I may have been fighting a bug or something because I sleep 9-11 hours a night, take 1-2 hour naps every afternoon and constantly feel tired. Today was the first day that I finally felt up to doing more than taking a walk. Yesterday I managed to go to the beautiful Jardins Tuleries. I left the apartment around 2 and was home by 4:30. Really, thank god I love my apartment because I am spending quite a bit of time in it. Also, the weather has turned quite a bit cooler so it's not as nice to sit in a park and read all day (it's rained a bit too). It's supposed to get back into the 80's next week but right now it feels like the onset of fall. Funny that it was 97 last week. No wonder I was feeling a bit under the weather.

Today I went to the Rodin museum. The grounds of the museum are gorgeous so I managed to stay there for a while but here I am back at the ole apt again. Ha ha. There's a British bar on the corner of my street that I think I might go to for a bit as I'm getting a bit bored here at night. There are chairs outside so I'm just going to bring my book and see where the evening takes me. (Oh, and since Harris is afraid of me getting roofied, I promise I will buy all my own drinks, okay?) Have a great weekend everyone!

Amsterdam :(

Amsterdam
Originally uploaded by ffaverey.

So, I am back. Actually, I got back Monday night. Why am I back two days early and without Harris? You'll never imagine.

Unbeknownst to him (and us) as of 1/1/06, citizens of the Philippines (and only like, 4 other countries in the whole world) have to have visas to visit European countries. One for each country. And they can take anywhere from one week to a month to get. So when I got off the train, Eric and Rachel were waiting for me and the first thing they said was, "Your man isn't here." When they told me what happened I couldn't believe it. It took almost all day for it to sink in.

Basically, he never should've been allowed to leave NY. Delta was fined what we think is a few thousand dollars for letting him even get on the plane. When he got to Amsterdam, he was told he had to go home. Delta only has one flight a day to NY and he'd missed it so he was forced to check into the one hotel attached to the airport that holds illegal travellers. It cost 180E a night. (He could've just stayed in the airport but he wanted a place to sleep and have a TV etc.) Delta paid for him to fly back the next day and he's looking into having his tickets refunded or transferred to another date. But he's not coming to Europe this summer. The next available appointment at the French consulate is Aug. 23. He would then have to wait 1-3 weeks for the Visa.

I ended up staying in Amsterdam for a few days (Sat morning until Monday evening) and Rachel and Eric were amazing. They showed me around and we smoked and drank and ate surprisingly good food. It was so nice to be with friends for a few days. But the first 24hrs we kept hoping that someone could cut Harris a break and let him stay. It sucked so much knowing that he was on Netherlands soil but couldn't see us. I talked to him on the phone and he said that when he got back to NY he was going to try and get a visa right away and come back. But obviously that was not going to be the case. The three of us had a lovely time but I kept saying there was a big brown elephant at the table. And no one likes to be the 3rd wheel.

So here I am back in good ole Paris. After the whole ordeal and all of the "partying" we did, it felt really good to come back "home". I've hardly done anything in the past 2 days as I've been totally exhausted. I did go to the Picasso museum and walked around the Marais a bit more today but then I came home and took a two hour nap. And I had slept 10 hours last night. Again, thank freakin god for my current state of unemploy. Ha ha.

So now I have 2 more weeks alone. I really was looking forward to having Harris visit and being able to experience Paris' amazing nightlife with him. I do enjoy being alone but I think this weekend I'm going to have force myself to a bar or something. If I can ever get myself out of bed.

Anyway, thanks for all your emails and I will talk to you soon.