No longer in gai PariS
check out this page to see a glimpse into my year in Paris and my travels.
enjoy my picture albums as well @
http://community.webshots.com/user/kimmyduEw
or click on "kimmyduEw" below
updates
so i recently accumulated some good pictures and thought i would share.
the first one is known as Desperado Night.04 Octobre. it was just a saturday night when me and the girls picked up some desperados and had fun. its a beer with tequila mixed in! we first hung out in my room with my neighbor mattieu there in the pics. then he and his cousin invited us to a soiree on a boat right on the Seine. it was really fun except for the part when i froze my **** off waiting in line. im sure that i am going to freeze this winter. that night was pretty much my first night drunk in Paris. enjoy the pics, they are entertaining.
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kimmyduEwnext is the soiree pour les filles. girls night out. i rounded them all up cuz i needed a girls night out. guys are being assholes. we went to a club on the champs elysees right under the arc of triomph called Duplex. it was really fun until some jackass grabbed my face! ya josselin almost beat his ass. enculer.
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kimmyduEwnext set is from the Cemetary Pere Lachaise. 01 Novembre. it is a very well known cemetary around the world because it hosts famous bodies such as Jim Morrison, Chopin, Edith Piaf, and Musset. November 1st was a national holiday so Chelsea, Ashley, and I spent the day there. the spots are so coveted that if your tombstone is not frequented, it gets moved out. it holds over a million bodies due to mass graves during the plague. got some good shots.
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kimmyduEwand finally, the last is one of my favorites! my friend Ali and his gf Courtney were in Paris just days before i got here. i told him he would have to leave me something cool to find and he made me a scavenger hunt ! the pictures here are of my second clue left to me in the catacombs of paris, basically a massive underground network with mass graves. i went all alone thinking that i could just go and pick up my clue and i ended up walking thru the catacombs all alone 20m below the street. it was definetely an adventure. you shoulda seen the look on my face when i found his clue. finding a note with your name on it on the otherside of the world is quite thrilling, i must admit. same when i found the first one in a metro station. i still have two more to go. funny thing is, im off to jim morrison's grave AGAIN. i shoulda known, its ALi. <3
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kimmyduEwi also added some more to fun. check em out! im going to start one of all the sights ive been taking pictures of.
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kimmyduEw
Tori visits!!
Tori came to visit me this past weekend and it was SOO much fun. It was amazing to show her around Paris as if this was my home, but then I remembered that it is!! It was also kinda of bizarre because I feel like I've grown so much from the person I was in SD and while she was here I felt like I was two different ppl. Does that make sense? It is kind of the way I felt when I kicked it with ppl from Cerritos and San Diego together. wierd. Plus it was actually wierd to speak english all day.
Anyway, she got in at midnight on Thursday and of course we spent all night talking. You gotta hear about her experience getting a massage in greece, it was hilarious! kinda like a skit out of SNL but creepier.
We get up and ready to go on friday. checked out the louvre. then walked along the Seine until Notre Dame. we had amazing fallafels in the Jewish quarter at this one spot that Lenny Kravitz goes to. we are girls so of course we went shopping. Zara and H & M because there isnt a lot of shopping in Firenze. I took Tori to meet a friend of mine but it was a bit difficult because she didnt speak french and he sucks at english. it was funny. they were trying italian and spanish. just didnt work out. after dropping all our crap back at my place (tori loved the 6 flight hikes), we walked all the way to the Eiffel Tower. We went all the way to the top. To this day, it still takes my breath away. I remember the moment i fell in love with paris two years ago and it happened all over again this time. we went right at sunset and it could not have been anymore beautiful. check out the video. we were starving so we headed to the latin quarter and tried a "real" french restaurant. it was shit. had some onion soup that tasted like water with floating onions. and we ended up paying a grip for it too. the beer that we had at dinner got us a little loose so we decided to pick up some wine and start the night off right!
Went back to my place and got ready / pre-partied with my neighbors. they invited us out to play billiards so we went and it turned out that the club we were going to was right next door. we ordered this huge ass "giraffe" of beer with a spout on it and got even more buzzed. check out the pic. around midnight we headed to the club and danced the night away to euro pop and old hits like jennifer lopez and justin timberlake haha. we spent most of the time on the poles and on the stage. what state girls! haha. it was a blast. took a cab back home and were in bed by 3 something. not too bad.
On Tori's last day, we got going kinda late and headed straight to this crepe place that I had seen in my let's go travel guide. AMAZInG! Tori had a crepe with steak, egg, cheese, and tomatoes and I had one with steak, cream sauce, and spinach. we topped it off with dessert crepes that will make u keel over and die. seriously. it was an awesome meal on the island St. Louis in a cute little quarter of Paris. We did a bit of souvenir shopping then it was time to get her to her drop off point. I am so glad I got to share a bit of my life here with someone I really care about. I think she got a sense of how happy I am. I really love Tori and appreciate her friendship so much. It took her 10 hrs total to get here from Firenze. bus train and plane. what a friend right? this was def one of the best times in Paris yet. i<3> 
by kimmyduEw
SWAy From MTV!
what chu know about the hip hop scene in paris? I walked into the grand palace on friday night and was blown away by the venue. every aspect of hip hop culture could be found all in this space. graff exhibits, graff in progress, a dance arena, a huge performance stage, bball court, half pipe, and skate jumps. there were huge canvas's put up on scaffolding for the graff artists and a schedule full of performances and dance competitions. wow. it was so dope. i checked the scene out then found a spot in the arena to watch these two chics battling it out. they then invited all the people who want to get down onto the floor. with no inhibitions here in paris, i decided to go down and break it down, haha. i saw sway from mtv! on my way to take a picture with him, i met up with my girl Alyssa and she said that he had already asked for her number!
Next, i went up and introduced myself and said i was from LA. Hes like "aww gimme some love girl". he told us that he was really happy to meet ppl from home cuz he was in paris for a week already and no one spoke english. apparently he was in paris because he is making a documentary on the history of the hip hop culture in France. he said that the hiphop culutre in the US is lost today and the fundamentals and basics of the culture are never seen anymore or rarely. he said that in france it is still very much alive in the original sense, bboys battles graff all that. i was very impressed with how down to earth and intelligent he was. he used alyssa as a translator for one of the interviews and she got to be in his documentary AND on mtv news.
He then asked what we were doing that night and invited us to a club with him. had our names put on the guest list. dope! i was stoked. we had some beer and then he had to go and do more interviews. he said we were more than welcome to tag along, so we followed him up onto this platform to watch the performances and then backstage. it was tight. we got to meet some of the biggest producers and head honchos in the hiphop scene in paris. we met this one cat who had been in the scene for over 20 years and who knew biggy and mary j back in the day. he invited us to his radio show on thursday when the game was going to be interviewd. sway was going to pre record for him because apparently sway has a radio show here in paris.
after being backstage for a while he invited us out to dinner with them. hell ya. they had a van pulled up and me alyssa, sway, some hiphop producers in paris, his potographer, editor, assistant and producer all went down into le marais and had dinner at this african restaurant. it was so bomb. he goes everytime he is in paris. there were pics of other famous ppl there too. snoop dog, rihanna. i sat next to him and we chatted all throughout dinner. topics such as interracial relationships, the history of hiphop, differences in french/american culture were all hot. i told him about myself because he asked how i ended up here. told him i sing and suggested i hook up with this producer who's email i got. sway was tight. nice to meet another smart man. he was funny when we were talking about interracial relationsips. his first gf was named kim and filipino. LOL. he is a great person to converse with. very intelligent and humble. when i asked how he stayed grounded he said that he just lives his life and doesnt dwell on all that. hes come a long way from growing up on welfare in oakland. also breeds dogs and sells them to celebs like 50 etc, but trains them in swahili so that they cannot easily be stolen. interesting.
we said our goodbyes cuz they had to cut out to do another interview that night. i told him that it was cool to meet him and that he was really down to earth and it was refreshing. he was like u actlike we arent gonna see eachother ever again! and agreed to see us on sunday back at the festival.
sunday comes along and i had some other events going on and i didnt get out of the house till 4pm and by the time i got to the event, they werent letting anyone else in! wack. but as i was eating i got a missed call from alyssa. checked my message and it was SWAY! he just said i was wack for not coming out and good luck and it was dope kicken in. he also threw in a few french words that we were trying to teach him haha. i called back and got to say peace to him. he was like like where u at youre wack! alyssa was with them again on the champs elysees. exchanged info and told him id keep in touch. DOPE!!
check out the pics!
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kimmyduEw
The Louvre
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kimmyduEw
La Nuit Blanche
So after I came back from Bruxelles it was La Nuit Blanche (the white night). It is kind of like a city wide festival where there are art exhibitions open everywhere and monuments, museums, cafes, and metros stay open from 7pm to 7am. I was so stoked about it. The first place I went was Centre Pompidou where they were playing short films in a film festival outside on a projector. There were GANGS of people in the streets. Apparently this night is known all around europe and was adopted by a bunch of other cities like bruxelles. I went to Notre Dame and they erected a huge screen and showed a documentry on the history of the cathedral over the alter. It was surreal. Watching a movie INSIDE Notre Dame. Anywho. To make a long story short, my feet started to hurt, I was tired, and it was cold so i headed home. Right as I was about to turn onto my street, my night drastically changed.
A guy approached me in saying that he saw that i was alone and proposed, if i wasnt too tired, to walk with him along the Seine River. I ended up staying out with him until 4am. We walked all the way from my house past Notre Dame which is a good distance. We talked about everything from what we are studying to what we want in our lives. It was so refreshing to meet a guy who wasnt trying to come with wack ass lines. He had respect and was intelligent. Who woulda thought though? Just before I went back home someone just approached me. Like the Jamie Cullum song says, what a difference a day makes. We walked along the seine and he taught me stuff about french culture and i taught him english words. Nothing like that has ever happened to me and i have never felt so comfortable meeting guys as i am here. theyre different in the sense that they dont approach me trying to spit game. all the guys ive met have been that way. i love it. i feel so at ease. The whole situation with this guy felt very movie-esque from how he approached me to how we ended up talking for hours walking along the seine and sitting in front of notre dame. He was really cool and i dont see it turning into more but i definetely slept that night with a smile on my face knowing that i finally am happy. im finally surrounded by an environment that i love and the relations between sexes works so much better here. its not so full of games. if you like someone you go and talk to them. thats how it is here. no games or gray.
...im just really happy. :)
Bruxelles
So my roomate, Chelsea, and I spontaneously decideded to take a trip to Brussels, Belgium since we had a week of vacances. We took the THALYS train there and it only took 1hr 20mins. I love that I can just up and go to a completely other country. We left Thursday afternoon and came back Saturday in time for La Nuit Blanche which litterally means the white night. It's an event in Paris where everything stays open from 7pm to 7am including museums, cafes, metros, and monuments.
So we got there thursday night and spent that night with Ashley's friends that she made when she was there last summer for an internship. Met this kid who was the most gorgeous guy I had ever seen. Basically melted when he walked in the door. That night we had Durum which is this turkish speality. It was the closest thing to a burrito that we are gonna find in Europe. We stayed with her friend Julie who truly is so nice. She gave us her place to stay while she stayed at her BFs. All of Ashley's friends came over and we drank wine. Found out that in Brussels they smoke bud mixed with tabacco. Figured that out the hard way. It was fun. Had the best wine Ive ever had..Argentinien. Had a tunisien guy tell me he loved me haha.
Friday we went downtown to Ashley's old work and met somemore of her old coweorkers. Then we had an infamous "gauffre belge" which is a REAL belgian waffle. It really is all its cracked up to be. I'm gonna miss the food man. Of course we shopped down this famous street called Rue Neuve. We also the famous fountain "Mannekin Pis" which is of a little boy peeing and on holidays they dress him up and he pees beer. Hilarious. We saw the grand square which was pretty amazing. The architecture was incredible. It went along with a story about the man who killed himslef from the top of the city hall because he realized at the end of construction that the building was lopsided.I spent a lot of time immitating the flemish language there. You guys know me I cant help immitating stuff! After shopping we went back to Julies and got ready to go out that night. Hung out with that hot ass guy later too. He told me i looked like this gorgeous singer on tv and I was SO flattered haha. We spent that night wandering around downtown till the wee hours with Ashley's good guy friends. Went to a venue where it was amateur night with a exhibition of rockabilly photos in one room. Pretty dope.
Saturday we had a short tour of some more touristy sites as well as go to a chocolaterie because of course I couldnt go to belgium without buying some chocolate. We also the friend of Mannekin Pis which was a fountain of a girl peeing which is pretty vulgar. We ate one last gauffre belge and durum and headed to the station. stopped to have a drink then headed back to Paris. The ppl there drink beer no matter what time of time. I had a blast there and am definetely going back. Ashley's friends are awesome.
The photo album that goes along with this should follow the blog.
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kimmyduEw
FUN
FUN! times in the past 3 weeks
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kimmyduEw
pictures!
picture page is served. check it.
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kimmyduEw
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kimmyduEw
ONE of my dreams come true
I met this guy who is the coordinator of a show held the first saturday of every month. Its a small restaurant/cafe in the Latin Quarter. He offered me a slot on one of the nights. I would have up to 30 minutes to perform whatever I want and even more, I get paid! Whatever money the cafe makes on drinks and snacks during the night, I get a cut of. DOPE right? I've always wanted to be a bluesy jazz singer in the back of a parisienne cafe. There's only one catch. I have to perform at least one original piece. Ive never even thought about it but he is hooking me up with some of his previous artists so we can write something. Can't wait to perform. Things are a little crazy right now so I think I might do the November show. DOPE!
im in paris!
hey everyone! I started this blog so i could keep you guys updated with my crazy endeavors. Ill keep it up to date with pics and stuff too. First off, ill tell the story of my living situation. i lived in the dorms for the first 10 days and found and apartment right away. it was a two bedroom place with an older woman. she was renting the living room and one bedroom to Ashley, a girl from my program, and I. We were stoked cuz it was only a 5 minute walk to Notre Dame and in the center of everything. Turns out after the first night that she asked us to leave because we had a friend stay over and didnt get in till 3 am. we convinced her to let us stay then in the middle of the week decided that we werent sure if having to walk on eggshells for an old catlady was worth it and told her we were considering leaving. She convinced us to stay by promising freedom. Low and Behold at the end of the week she asked us to leave again because Ashley had come home after 2 am everymorning and she said we were naiive and headed down the wrong path. crazy much? i think so. so we were happy and moved right away. now i live in a chambre de bonne which is an old maid's quarters on the 6th floor of a beautiful building with no elevator. i WILL have buns of steal at the end of 10 months. i can see the Louvre from my room and Ashely has her own place down the hall and can see the tip of the Eiffel Tower.I am incredibly happy here. I love everything about Paris. The people, the food, the culture, the history, the arts, the men :), the beauty. I know I have been MIA for a little bit but thats just because of all the hoopla with my housing. Plus on top of that i've had to start a bank account, ifnd and apt, buy a cell phone, buy subscription to the internet, open a landline all on my own, all in french. its been quite an experience but I am loving every second of it. Ill be more detailed in my next post but i just wanted to get this sucka started. Enjoy!ps. that is my latest pic up there. i was on the metro on the way to a pyrotechnic show and ashley snappped that one. im starting a page to post pics on too.
