Filling In, Part Deux.

Day 9: Première Vision! [Friday]

THE LARGEST TEXTILE EXPOSITION IN THE WORLD, and Lord, I believe it. Imagine a regulation-size football field. With a thousand or more little booths. And in each booth a company. With them, hundreds of fabrics on hangers on bars across the walls. Not facing out, like in a clothing store, but sideways, like in your closet. So each booth had...1000? 2000? fabrics? that's over a million fabrics. And that's one hall out of SIX. Sweet Jesus. It was amazing. Of the 100 passes given to colleges across the world, SCAD got 18, or should I say CHRISTOPHER got 18. He is CONNECTED but never really says it. haha we know now though. We were there literally 11-5p, and it was amazing. In those six hours, I saw almost all of Hall 6 and a bit of Hall 5. They're divided by section, so Hall 6 was the silks, laces, embroideries, Wools, Prints, and Forecasting Services. What the services do ties into my Trends and Forecasting class--we saw the big themes for Fall and some for Spring NEXT YEAR. So we're up on Fashion for the next 6 months and even some of the big trends that will hit the runway in a year. We saw the big colors, and the new fabrics. And the fabrics we were handling will be showing up on Fall Runways in six months and even some on Spring Runways NEXT SEPTEMBER. Crazy Exciting. I can't wait to go "OH MY GOD, I SAW THAT A YEAR AGO!" haha. Understandably, no cameras were allowed in here either. 



By the way, I got to shower this morning, so it had been two days, and all I could do was rinse off because NO SHAMPOO. It worked, though, oddly enough. Paris just...doesn't make you dirty, surprisingly. Maybe that's why the French were notorious for not bathing? I didn't smell at all. I had a lovely dinner after bumping into Nick, Kelsey, Michael, and Reba (who did awful things with Pickled Ginger and her face). 



I hadn't been out for the nightlife yet, so I decided I wanted to go tonight. I gave myself a mohawk (pictures to come), popped on a dayglo orange shirt and headed out, with the AIM to go to Christopher's suggested hot spots back in the Place des Vosges. No luck--the crew, now comprised of Nick, Kelsey, Morgana, and myself--just wanted to wander around for two hours. It was nice, but...you know, crazy hair. It was the night of the Paris/Ireland Rugby match, so it was an energetic night. Right after the leaving the hotel, a SLEW of rollerbladers rocketed down the main street nearest the hotel. The parade of them lasted a good three minutes, it was INSANE. After coming home and combing out the hair, bed, finally, after 8 hours on my feet.

Day 10: Versailles

Ah, the splendor. EVERYONE (optionally) went to the Palace at Versailles, save for some photo people who went gallery-wandering with their professor, Andy, and hit a museum with lots of prehistoric bones. Cool photos from them. As for me and most everyone else, we saw the big palace and the HUGE gardens. Lots of pictures and some videos there. After assembling the lovely panoramas and uploading the videos, I think you all will enjoy them too. Coming soon, like everything else! Sorry sorry. We were there for hours. I was pretty much by myself wandering around. I didn't find Marie Antoinette's little Hamlet though. :( The gardens were lovely, though, with lots of lots of lots of cool fountains and some hilariously inaccurate sea life portrayals. Lots of pictures there, cannot stress that enough. I found Hansel, Nicole, and Caroline by the train station, and we headed back, bumping into Dave (student, as opposed to Daves, Professor), Lyle and Jonathan.

Walking back to the hotel, I saw a houndstooth sweater, and, having bought no clothing so far, decided to go back to the store and give it a look. You might've seen it in my Eiffel Tower picture? That happened tonight! After getting shampoo from Kate and Hansel (THANK YOU GOD) I wanted to look sharp, so I got out the new sweater and my turquoise tie...but the white dress shirt is old and the neck's too small...so no tie. Oh well. Off to the tower, which was lit up green and orange in a show of good sportsmanship for Paris having lost to Ireland. After a hurried ride back with some grumpy people who were really hungry, Nick, Brandon, Kelsey, and I had a lovely sit-down dinner. SO nice. Then, attempt two at my night on the town, last night in Paris, so off to the Long Hop, an "American" Bar (where I had Sprite, thank you), and I befriended the COOLEST person I have met in a long time. Her name was Ryan, currently getting her Masters in International Affairs, and--oh yes, she was my bartender! At the end of the night, she said the bar people wanted to tell me I looked like Anthony Kedis. :) I just friended her on Facebook, AKA MySpace for college kids. Cooooool. Such a sweaty, good time. I spent the night in Dominique's room for reasons only she and Melissa (her roommate) and I need to know. haha SLAP!

Day 11: Au Revoir, Paris! [Sunday]

Aw, last day. We slept in until 11:08! That's the latest I had slept since I got to France, my first day sleeping in. We had to check out at noon, so ...oops. I was good by 11:30, though. I went with a group (mostly photo) to the Pompidou Center, a Contemporary Arts Museum in Paris. That was nice--see the Picassos, the DuChamps, the Calders. Good pictures there, and of the museum itself, all tall and with a bare front, kind of scary. On the way back to get our bags at the hotel, I passed a great street performer and watched him for a good twenty minutes. I took a video, which will be posted. I don't want to ruin the surprise. :) Off we go, and THIS time we took the Metro to the Train Station. The TGV left at 19:20, headed to Avignon at 200 miles an hour, coming in around 23:00. The bus got us back to Lacoste by 23:30, an bed came not too much longer after that.

Day 12: Class? Riiiiiiight [Monday]

So after three days in Paradise, then two days of classes, then five days in Paris, it was hard to remember why we were here. But, we're here for learning, and classes finally started teaching us things today. Now at 13:00, Current Trends and Forecasting recapped the Première Vision experience, talked about the small project due Wednesday, and looked at the magazines we all got for the class. I think something else happened here, but I've forgotten. Oh well. Then Dinner, then bed.

Day 13: The Swing of Things [Tuesday]

TWO classes today. Business with Christopher was nice, learned things there. Can't think of anything to point out now, though. After lunch, Treasures of Provence, which brought us on the first of almost-every-class field trips. This time, to Bories and a church with baby graves. Creeeeepy. Nick laid down in the adult one. :/ Peeking through the keyhole presented you with a little surprise vision. [Insert picture here, but i don't have one] I guess you'll have to come see it yourself to find out what. :) I started a drawing of some sculpted plants at Versailles, and then FRENCH CLASSES started. The teacher is really nice (but I've forgotten her name), and I was comforted by the fact that everything she taught, I already knew. Not every word she SAID, as she was talking in French, but everything she stopped and TAUGHT. and I did get the gist of her monologue. She's funny too. Dinner, and then working on my plants and hanging out in the lab way too late.

Day 14: Work-laden Wednesday

First assignment due in Current Trends and Forecasting, a write-up of a Runway show from the current Season, for a magazine of our choosing--that's US writing it for them in their style, and to match them visually. I chose Charles Nolan--whose simple and unassuming line could please everyone from Heather to Virginia to Mom, and has pieces to look great on all of them. I think designers sometimes forget that bottom-line, clothes are meant to be worn. After Christopher's "magazine editor" read-through, I was good to fix it, although my one-page article was now a two-page spread after staying and working on it after class with opera for three hours. I like it though. (Picture here soon) FRENCH CLASS AGAIN, this time how to order drinks in a bar or café, then dinner, and more computer lab time. On the way to bed, I ran into Nick and Kelsey in the Library, and worked on Journal stuff for my Treasures of Provence class journal. Bed around 3:00?

Day 15: Whoops! [Thursday]

Woke up at 9:07 for my 9a class. My clock is set many minutes ahead, so maybe I woke up right at nine? In a setting where one absence probably means a failed class, not good. Sleep Apnea, ahoy! Oh well, I think I've got myself a system now in case that's going to happen again so that it ...doesn't. In Business of Fashion we learned that if you want to know how much a garment cost the designer to make, pretty much divide the price by 5. For many things in the business world. Keep that in mind when you go out next! Scary some of the markup things he told us, and a great story about the family who owns DeBeers. By the way, India has the most solid gold Rolls Royces of anywhere in the world. Retail price? Approximately $9,000,000 (that's Nine MILLION Dollars. for a car, and yes it works. And I'm sure someone has two in case they scratch one. haha) Meanwhile people starve to death mere miles away. Sad.

Treasures of Provence had a sickening hour-long car ride right after lunch to a fantastic old Roman village originally founded by Celts. We dipped our hands in the "healing spring" (read: stagnant water with a staircase. The dead bugs on top didn't look too healed to me, but whatever.), and walked around for an extra hour. We got back at 17:10 (instead of 16:00) and I took a nice, long shower to warm up from today's wintery chill in the air and light sprinkling all afternoon. Dinner (which was good and Provencial, like always), and then hanging out in the Mac Lab. I didn't do laundry (yet again), so I HAVE to do it tomorrow when I get back from Avignon. I finally got to update the blog and send some Emails, so ...enjoy? Hopefully y'all still check this. Adam seems to be the only commenter.