Bonjour! Je suis etudiante en train d'etudier:
- le français
- l'arabe et l'Islam
- les rapports internationaux
J'aime beaucoup les langues et j'aime beaucoup mes études des rapports internationaux. J'ai passé du temps en France pour étudier la langue, la culture et l'histoire française et j'ai étudié l'arabe, l'Islam, l'histoire, les sciences po et l'art et l'architecture à Tunisie aussi.
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Brian and I have spent New Year’s Day together. Funny, it doesn’t feel like 2011 is right around the corner. Things, however, are already starting to look up. We’re making Christmas plans with my (now “our”) family for next Christmas – looking at skipping gifts and just all going together to somewhere warm, maybe somewhere in the Caribbean. With the group rate and early booking discount of 20%, I saw some cruises rated 4.5/5 stars as low as under $40/person/night, all expenses included! Additionally, my parents may come down in April and we can do some DC stuff, and perhaps we’ll all go somewhere fun in May. Other possible irons in the fire – perhaps a fun camping trip with Meg and Jenna when it warms up. I can’t wait to plan next Christmas’s vacation!
Today, we ran some errands and had an early dinner at a Vietnamese place, called Pho Thang Long (the old name for Hanoi). I’ll add a picture here. It was really tasty! Then, for desert at home, we made our first attempt at making fondue … we need to fiddle with the recipe a little for next time.
Now, the Twilight Zone is on, and we’re going to play Rummy 500, yay!
Picture will go here
As much as I love and miss my DE/UD friends, when I’m driving in the snow, a smile spreads across my face, as I no longer live in DE. I have new tires and an easily-located ice scraper (a gift from my brother last Christmas, I believe). I drove around today in the snow, getting errands done, and listening to Christmas and Classical music on NPR. How relaxing. Thank you, Dad, and NY Snow, for teaching me how to drive in several feet of snow (this was only an inch of snow/ice/slush). What a nice day!
Wow, it’s been a while! Update!
Got married on 10.30.10: The pictures will be completely edited this week, and we should receive our CD shortly thereafter, which I am very excited about! The night before and morning of were crazy. I only got 2 hours of sleep the night before and my bridesmaids made us 30 minutes late to the ceremony (we had scheduled an hour and a half ofbuffer time and even still exceeded it), but it was really pretty and different. The weather held out very nicely as well. Brian looked super handsome, and it was nice to see some of my LI friends that I haven’t seen in a year or two or three.
While we haven’t seen the photographer’s photos yet, I couldn’t be happier with our photographer, Susan, with Studio C Photography. She understood exactly what what I was looking for in our wedding photography within minutes – dynamic and tightly-shot photos. While they were a bit expensive, Studio C takes great photos. They do everything from family portraits to pregnancy to weddings to avant-garde runway fashion shows. My makeup artist, Jan, was really professional, kind, intelligent, and receptive to my input – everything you want in someone who is doing your makeup for your wedding! Our hair stylist, Earl and his hair salon, Natural Fusion Hair Salon, were really great. Their products are all natural, so much so that you can even EAT their hair dye! Our wedding coordinator, Vickie, was amazing. She helped with all of the logistics, table arrangements, and all the other crazy details that come along with a wedding. Our DJ, J.R., also went the extra mile. The DJ’s wife, Lisa, actually helped keep the show (close to) back to schedule, which was so nice! Even nicer was the the DJ (whom I originally bartered $200 off of the DJ package) felt badly that we were running late, so he gave us an extra half hour free!
  Honeymoon in New Zealand! Despite a couple of hick-ups, it was relaxing, warm, beautiful, untouched landscapes, kind people, longest days ever (close to the poles). Sent more post cards out than I’ve ever sent out before, and, while they were time-consuming, we wanted to share with friends and family. We also met up with Steve and Karen on their 4 week long honeymoon, and we spent two very fun and relaxing days with them. We stayed at a lodge on a huge farm with thousands and thousands of sheep and cows and some horses, too. We’ve never been white water rafting, so we did the advance white water rapids, which was pretty freaking awesome. I volunteered us to be in the front of the boat, so we were responsible for keeping rhythm with each other so that the other rowers could each follow us. The couple behind us was on their honeymoon, too. We also went zip trekking, where we met another honeymooning couple. We also went sky diving from 16,500 feet above sea level. We took an overnight cruise through NZ’s most celebrated fiord, Milford Sound, where we kayaked, saw penguins, returned to the boat, and then the staff brought me a ladder off of which to jump off the back end off of the second level of the boat into 10° C waters. We learned about the Maori people that first discovered the island, and we saw a bunch of near-extinct animals that can be found only in NZ, like the Kiwi bird!
 Etsy: Artemis Studio – I started my Etsy shop with a bunch of decoupaged crafts and French-themed items. I’m super excited about it, and I can’t wait to add even more of my creations. Please take a look and share with your friends. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtemisStudio I’m also picking up knitting again! I have two scarves that I am going to make for myself: a mustard and shimmery brown, and a super soft rose pink and white one. As I hate the feel of wool, the pink and white yarns are made primarily out of bamboo, which is super silky, and a tiny bit of acrylic. They are really fuzzy and soft! Can’t wait to snuggle up in that scarf! Note: size 10 > size 3 needles. I got these really pretty green size 3 needles, and they are definitely much more difficult to work with than I’d expected, so I went and got size 10, and, once I got the cast-on stitches just the right looseness, they’re a breeze to work with! I may make gloves, afterwards, so I bought some double-pointed needles for the project. And a nice lady in the store showed me the fingerless gloves that she made and gave me the name of the pattern – how nice!
 Our First Christmas Tree! Christmas is coming up! As always, I got my Christmas shopping done fairly in advance. It’s easier that way because you have more time to think of a thoughtful gift for someone without the stress and mania of consumerist, materialistic, (not to mention, mad) holiday shoppers who trample and from time to time managed to kill one another… all for that Christmas spirit of giving and joy and kindness… Anyway, I am so excited for Christmas with my parents in NY! Christmas is just not the same if not in NY. I love the city in the winter. I’m arranging a Rockefeller Center skating get-together for Christmas Eve, which I am very much looking forward to. Certainly on my bucket list. My brother and some of my LI friends (and some DE/NJ/UD friends as well!) will join in on the fun. We got a Christmas tree (actually, two – they came in a set)! It’s small – about 4′ tall, but we’ve adorned it beautifully with ornaments. Our first Christmas tree, yay!
We are basically having three or four Christmases this year! A week or so before Christmas, Brian and I are going up to DE to spend time with Brian’s dad and wife and then to see his mother, her husband, Brian’s sister and her family, and possibly Brian’s brother and his family, too. From what I’ve been told, they usually celebrate Christmas Eve, but Brian’s sister is going away with her husband on vacation for Christmas week, so it appears that it will work out better for them to all get together earlier than usual. Christmas proper goes to my parents up in NY. Oh, and somewhere in there, Brian and I will be giving each other our gifts. So four Christmases this year. And I don’t even get to see my other brother in all of that. Crazy!
Condo for Sale! The condominium is staged and on the market. The realtor has had some showings for it. If anyone is interested or knows someone who would possibly be interested, here is the listing: http://www.psre.com/public/vl.asp?ID=1.463.21427.49826.17903.20336321
Oh, and I am contemplating a career change to either an MD (either plastics, genetics, or ENT) or a pilot. I’m considering other options as well, but those are the forerunners. In the meanwhile, I am still a private tutor.
Today, I felt like blogging about “understanding the bridezilla.” I would see these shows about the terrible and embarrassing ways these crazed brides would act and shake my head at them. My fiancé, Brian, and I are planning a wedding in about 40 or 50 days, and I cannot adequately describe how stressful it is. Also impossible for me to relay adequately is how unbelievably and shockingly rude, obstinate, and selfish some people become during the wedding process! It really has been quite shocking how certain people that you would expect to act one way act in a completely different manner.
In spite of all of this, I have not Bridezilla-ed on anyone [yet]. Mostly, I’ve just been speechless, dumbfounded, frustrated, and stressed by some people’s manners during the wedding planning process. I think that, given the way certain aspects look like they may pan out, I may allow myself a one-time Bridezilla card. I’m hoping that I don’t have to use it, though. I am exceedingly thankful for my mom, who is taking care of most of everything associated with dinner, for my brother, Craig, who was instrumental in his suggestion of an affordable yet beautiful venue and a wedding coordinator whom I will meet this week, and for my wonderful fiancé, Brian, who is handling a bunch of reservations and documents on his end.
All of those shows on TLC or whatever focus on that crazy and mean bride, and, while I fully contend that many of them are acting rude and in a manner totally uncalled for, I have gotten a little insight in the past month on how a select few, their words, and their actions can really drive you mad!!
Regardless, Brian and I are excited about the upcoming wedding. It will be in a forest up in the mountains just before the start of November, so we are looking forward to all of the red and orange and yellow foliage. The room is a large, long, historic wooden lodge/cabin a huge stone fireplace at each end. There are windows along the length of the room so that everyone can have a beautiful panoramic of the fall scenery.
       
 BP Smokestacks Looming Over Town in Texas City, TX Is the oil spill in the Gulf not enough reason to boycott BP? Well, if you need another reason, BP is giving you one.
A large oil refinery in Texas City, TX has experienced a mechanical failure resulting in almost 540,000 lbs of toxic chemicals, including benzene (a carcinogen) and carbon monoxide, into the air that the unaware citizens of Texas City breathed in.
The New York Times reported that, “rather than taking the costly step of shutting down the refinery to make repairs, the engineers at the plant diverted gases to a smokestack and tried to burn them off, but hundreds of thousands of pounds still escaped into the air, according to state environmental officials.”
Results of this included severe coughs, chest congestions, and children and elderly having to be hospitalized due to persistent respiratory side effects.
Neither BP, a British petroleum company who morally should have informed the people, nor the state of Texas, which is legally responsible for informing the people, informed the citizenry of Texas City.
Angry residents of Texas City are joining together to file a $10 billion dollar class-action suit against BP.
“Officials in Texas City said they were not informed of the scale of the release until it was over. BP said it met the requirements of state law by informing state officials of the release in writing on April 7, then filing a final report on June 4, after the equipment was fixed.” The people of Texas City endured 40 days of negative side effects to their health with no inclination as to what was going on with BP right in their back yard.
The real question is bot why BP isn’t taking greater measures to ensure that these breakdowns and malfunctions do not occur. They are a foreign company; their focus is mainly production, not the wellbeing of people in another country who happen to live near their plant. The real question is why our government isn’t imposing harsh sanctions on BP. Not only have they unleashed the highest number of toxic chemicals into the air in Texas, but they have undoubtedly destroyed much of the maritime environment and economy of the US Gulf.
I just ordered my Sony Reader Touch Edition! I have always been an avid reader, but have never liked to haul around my big, heavy books that just barely fit in my purse. I definitely am not one to jump on the trend bandwagon, and I was indeed skeptical of the Amazon Kindle when it came out. First of all, what can replace the smell of a book? The feel of the pages? We can grow very attached to our books in the form to which we are accustomed.
Another reason why I waited for the initial flood to pass was to wait for competition to grow and strengthen. With the Kindle as the only e-reader on the market, the lessons from my collegiate economic classes told me to wait it out, wait for competition to enter the market to drive down price and to drive up quality.
Speaking of price, I bought this Sony Reader Touch Edition at a great price. It is on sale for $170 from $250 ($80 off) with a free $25 e-book gift card as well as 50% accessories, totaling a total of over $105 off. Oh, and did I mention the free shipping? http://bit.ly/e-reader0
What made me choose Sony’s e-reader over the Kindle? This speaks towards the driving up of quality that I just mentioned as a result of increased competition. Sony’s product can utilize multiple formats, including ePub, PDF’s, free Google docs, public libraries, and Microsoft Word, in addition to the offerings at the Sony Reader Store, whereas Kindle’s formats are limited to Amazon’s offerings. In addition, when I look to transfer my books to another e-reader in several years, I will not lose my collection. I would if I had the Kindle.
So, some more information about the Sony Reader Touch Edition. As one could guess by the name, it has a touch screen, which is 6″ large. it comes with a stylus, and it has a pretty good battery life: 7,500 continuous page turns or ~2 weeks of reading. For those with less-than-perfect eyes, there are 5 adjustable font sizes. The memory card that comes with the product is 512 MB (~350 books), but the memory is expandable, and it takes regular memory SD cards.
 
http://thechive.com/2010/08/10/girl-quits-her-job-on-dry-erase-board-emails-entire-office-33-photos/
Yo go, Jenny!
This is what I should have done when I quit my internship due to a boss like this. Jenny is completely right: even though I don’t have a job lined up, I am so happy that I quit. There is no price on self-worth.
So basically, you will see Jenny’s story through her erase board emails if you click that link below the pictures. The boss, Spencer, called his assistant, Jenny, a H.O.P.A., which stands for Hot-Piece-Of-Ass, to someone on the phone, which she overheard. She also goes on to tell him that, since he installed the “office snitch” to monitor their internet usage, office morale has been down. So she wondered to herself how he spent his time on his computer. He did, after all, give her all of his codes. The answer? Almost 20hrs/wk on Farmville!!
By the way, I’m pretty sure that is a hoax. Either way, it’s quite funny.
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Grammar Queen
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