I like Paris Six Feet Under

Markus and I spent 12 Euros on eachother for one of our Christmas gifts- round trip tickets to Paris with HLX. It was a deal we couldn't pass up. We flew in Thursday night and flew out Saturday morning so we had the whole of Friday to explore the city together. We stayed with a friends cousin and her boyfriend (the cousin's boyfriend, not the friend's boyfriend because the friend is a boy and he would probably have a girlfriend before he would have a boyfriend). They lived near a famous cemetary so we decided to stop there. It supposedly hosts the bodies of some famous folk like Modigliani, Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, We ended up staying for over 2 hours peeking into all the private houselike grave sites and searching out some specific graves. We found Jim Morrison's grave and I took some photos. It seemed a little anti-climactic considering all the hype with the Doors and all. Lots of cigarette butts and who knows what thrown on his grave. I felt a little funny taking photos of his grave- I mean he probably got sick of people taking photos of him when he was alive and then people like me come to his grave and are still shooting photos. Oscar Wilde's grave is the photo below with the sculpture of the angel with all the kisses all over it. Rumor has it that the genitals on the sculpture were removed because they were too crude and were then used as a paperweight in the directors office.

We didn't mean for our trip to be so post-mortem, but post- lunch, we headed to the catacombs. It was 1.6Km underground passage way that eventually lead to a graveyard in the raw- the walls consist of bones and skulls of bodies that were taken down after a rampid disease spread through the city. The guy we stayed with and told us that the local kids in Paris will sneek down into the catacombs after hours. If I had grown up Parisian, I think an illigal trip down there would have been in my history.

After that we headed to the Louvre where I guess we saw artwork made by some of the bones we had passed by earlier. It all just came round circle. Just like this funny little life we have.








































Our one view of the Eifel Tower from the Louvre

Bye Bye Minneapolis

I was in Michigan and Minneapolis over Christmas and after Christmas. It was a great time in a lot of ways, but a little sad as well. I kinda wrapped up my job there and am planting both feet in Schoenes Deutschland. Crazy. I'll be looking for work and hoping to get some major painting done. Soon I hope to post new paintings. Till then I'll stick with photos.

light and shadows

street art...little did they know it.

the little things

I've been feeling like I spend a whole lot of time in front of this computer- which at times can be good, but for the most part when I say that, it's not necessarily good. So I think these little things end up at times meaning a lot. Refelctions. It was a beautiful day on Saturday. The sun shone brightly on the windows of the old buildings on my street. They loved it, and they shared it with the windows across from them, making strange shapes of brightness that peeked into people's apartments.

more photos

The Honeymoon

I guess I will be going a little backwards as far as the series of events, but this blogging thing is a little new to me. Markus and I came back from a magical wedding in Minneapolis, hung out in Stuttgart for a couple of days, then rented a car and headed down to Cinque Terra. These are 5 villages that are on the Italian Riviera. Very beautiful. Also very touristy, but we were able to sneak around the excess of Americans and find some Italians there, and some peace and quiet. Lots of relaxing and hanging out on the beach. Just what we needed. We also did a little drawing, and lots of photos. Here are some kind of psychedelic photos I took of some ducks plus a great photos of my husband.

Volksfest

My sister Tammy is here visiting for Markus and my German wedding celebration. The day she flew in I took her to Cannstatter Wasen- the Volksfest. Tammy described it as "The County Fair on Crack." I think she's right.

Fussball

Greetings,
This is my first blog...actually, it could be my second blog because I think that I already tried to start one before...just one more thing for me to spend even more time in front of the computer...hmmm. Either way, it sounds fun to be able to post some photos here. So I'll start with what is on every European's mind (although I'm not technically a European)- and that's FUSSBALL. German lost the other night and these Germans were certainly disappointed, but tomorrow Germany plays for 3rd place here in Stuttgart- not far from where I live


This photo is from when Germany won- and the one at night is the sad night and the Polizei were on the look out. We'll see what happens tomorrow night, and we'll see how many Germans make their way to Stuttgart.