sangria and salsa

tonight I did ... not my homework.

well I did most of it, but I still need to study for stats test that I have to take tomorrow. david was over and we were all doing our homework, but when they brought the (non-alcoholic) sangria and turned up the music, that was the end of it. carlos and I danced merengue, bachata, and salsa, and I kind of taught him cha-cha but I'd mostly forgotten  it. it was fun! I need to learn how to move my hips. david spilled the sangria seriously three times. once on our armchair, once on the carpet, and once on the rug. we laughed so so hard.

then we watched teenage mutant ninja turtles, the old eighties one. we watched it to appease david cause he gave avatar a chance so we had to give his movie a chance. it was ridiculous.

lots of work coming up for tomorrow til thursday. hopefully I won't be so tired that I can't study statistics cause I keep falling asleep, like today. wish me luck. and maybe some more sangria would be good.

journée chargée

today was so busy. it was not much like any normal relaxing sunday. 

I accompanied margaret on the piano in church today, so I was way nervous. I don't know what's up with me this past year, I've never had such bad nerves in my life. my foot was shaking uncontrollably, my hands were numb, I almost couldn't breathe. I've got to find a way to get this under control. it still sounded pretty good though, I only really messed up one part.

I was the chef today. we made sweet and sour chicken, green beans, and gingerbread cake. there wasn't enough time to make 4 packages of chicken before 3pm so I was super stressed out to get it done on time. but it turned out excellent, though a little late. everyone loved it and it tasted so good. that meal always reminds me of home.

then my home teachers came - gab le beau and jean le bizarre. turns out gab's not from geneva, just close to geneva, so he's really french, not swiss. he asked me where I learned french and was very surprised when I told him just high school. he told me I speak very well. hooray! that's the second extremely authentic french person (1 was mme thompson frenchness to the max) who's told me that. mme thompson thought I had lived in france. I wish.

then I went visiting teaching. pretty uneventful. my girls are in the german and japanese houses. then I went to a stake leadership meeting for my calling, ward music chair, with allison, who drove. the stake center is pretty far.

I came home and played the piano for probably 2 hours. oh how I love the piano. greg came into the common room while I was playing just to listen while he was reading. that was cool. after that we talked for quite awhile. he asked me for my number. first time that's ever happened to me. is that sad? we have a lot in common - I hope we get to know each other better.

then when I came in my door to go to bed (5.30 comes SO early) oceane and stephanie and annie and carlos were watching little miss sunshine and I can't NOT watch little miss sunshine. it was already mostly done though. my favorite part of that movie is when dwayne finds out that he's colorblind and can't fly planes, his life dream. it is so sad and paul dano acts so well, it's just absolutely heartbreaking. I really like his character. here's a quote of his from the movie that I love. *** foul language. don't read if you are easily offended or intend to subsequently question me about what I put on this blog. that's a general rule.***

"You know what?  Fuck beauty contests.  Life is one fucking beauty contest after another.  School, then college, then work ... Fuck that. And fuck the Air Force Academy.  If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly.  You do what you love, and fuck the rest."

black and white

lydia from next door had a pre-birthday black and white party tonight. I sort of missed the dress-up memo until about fifteen minutes before it started, I was just going to wear my new to write love on her arms shirt (which got here today woohoo!!) but I ended up shaving my legs, painting my nails, putting on my black dress and heels and perfume and TADA black and white party here I come. I ended up dancing for the better part of the two and half hours I spent over there. I love dancing, even when no one else is, even when I've been doing it for a long time in heels. its so de-stressing.

work today was so long. I had three hours of training this morning and I was getting so fidgety and stiff by the end of it. the worst thing about work is that I get so bored that I get hungry and the only thing I can think about is food and the only thing that will distract me from the painful monotony of every fifteen minutes is eating. it's probably ... not very good for me. I'm taking off, or trying to get off, two saturdays in october, one to drive down with celesta to visit claire and jesse, and one for victoria's baptism and to be with my momma!! mom and dad and the little bros are coming out and I'm way excited to see all of them. I hope people will come through and pick up my shifts for me, cause I do it for them all the time.

throwback thursday

well, you know

you say you want a revolution

well, you know

we all want to change the world

you tell me that it's evolution

well, you know

we all want to change the world

but when you talk about destruction

don't you know that you can count me out

don't you know it's gonna be all right

all right, all right

you say you'll change the constitution

well, you know

we all want to change your heads

you tell me it's the institution

well, you know

you better free your mind instead

all I can tell is brother you have to wait

don't you know it's gonna be all right

all right, all right

Je croise en l’homme, en dépit de l’homme. Je crois en son avenir, en dépit du mal qu’il s’est infligé à lui-même. Je crois en la valeur des mots. Il dépend de nous qu’ils deviennent véhicules de haine ou porteurs de tendresse et de compréhension. -- Elie Wiesel

vraiment beau

friendships are already starting to happen and it makes me happy.

I'm still dropping the ball in regards to school. maybe if I used my planner I wouldn't keep forgetting things. how's that for a novel idea?

I went star-gazing with oceane, david, stephanie, annie, and carlos last night, and again tonight but minus stephanie. I still didn't see a shooting star, but it was wonderful anyway. we lay down on the top of this amazing hill and the wind is fantastic. cold but fantastic. we came back and drank martinelli's and played uno, only two games, and the second lasted for seriously an hour. I'm not sure why we kept playing a single game for that long. I guess it's just fun being with each other. 

gab is my home teacher. he is beautiful. really. he's the rf for one of the boy's dorms and hails from geneva. I don't have any hopes, I just like to look at him, and listen, cause he tells good stories. kryn is also quite good-looking  and interesting to talk to, but he doesn't really seem interested. that's cool, but he doesn't seem interested in pursuing any friendships either. he's just not around often enough to try to get to know him better.

life is mostly picking up. I really like my roommates. I really like our ward and the french house. but there are people around me, friends, whose lives are just abysmal right now. they're going through a lot, but I don't know how else I can be there for them other than try to spend my time with them when I can and empathize as best I can. I guess I'll just keep on trying.

P's

Pan's Labyrinth
not at all what I expected. I'm not sure what I expected, but nobody really told me the premise of the plot before. it was more violent and generally disturbing. it was much less about the labyrinth (or more, if the labyrinth is life) and more about the overarching plot. I guess that makes sense, but I just thought it was about a journey through a maze. some of the fantastical effects looked too fantastic, too digital. the ending was incredibly poignant. the music was haunting.

the Pianist
I finally sat down to watch it yesterday evening, in the mindset and ready. it was incredible. I'd built it up to be pretty much the best film ever made, but it had flaws. the editing was a bit choppy, which took brody's incredible performance that made it so real and made you remember that it's a film and he's acting. but there's not much choice when you have to show the passage of time. I think they could have shown his love of music more. I felt it, but that's cause I really do feel it. non-musicians would have missed it, I think, or would not have understood.

the first half was harder to watch than the second - the ghetto, the separation of wladek from his family, the wanton killing. to see everything in life, every bit of sanity, taken away. about midway I took a break to go put my laundry in the dryer. as I walked out of my apartment, I realized that my fingers were tingling, disembodied, and I had to breathe carefully to contain the emotion. the second half was the story of hiding and starvation. you watch brody literally wasting away until his hands are held misshapen, he works his mouth like an old man without teeth, and his spindly stick legs will barely let him walk. straight from unrecognizable baseness to well-dressed, clean-shaven piano playing. how quickly life is taken away and sometimes given back.

when it was over, I went and played chopin for an hour. it was painful.

the Prestige
it was so awesome. I can't stop thinking about it. it's a modern hitchcockian thriller, a work of genius construction. I can't give anything away, but everything came together in the end and not until the end. it was very sad, but very powerful. I could watch it again right now, less than twelve hours later. I seriously cannot describe in words the awesomeness of this movie. go watch it. I'm still trying to get my head around it. know this: obsession will ruin your life.