This morning was one of those mornings where you wake up and suddenly remember that everything that happened last night ACTUALLY happened. Farah’s first standup act in NYC was last night, at the New York Comedy Club in Chelsea. So naturally the gang was all there to support her and make the best of the two drink minimum. The club was decent(ish) enough, not quite a crack den, but the headshots outside indicating that the likes of Chris Rock and Jim Carrey had performed there were mildly reassuring. Anyway, we got there, ordered our beers and long island iced teas up front and took the seats. Now seeing as this is a new talent showcase, at least 75% of the comics are guaranteed to suck, and last night’s lineup did not disappoint. The first two acts, middle aged guys, were downright painful, the first guy inserting lots of awkward and offensive (not in the good way) racism jokes. I mean, just flat out, horribly unfunny. A few of the people kind of sort of picked up from there, and then Farah was on! She did pretty great actually. People were laughing, smiling, etc. Actually, right as she got on the “stage” we heard a huge crack of thunder from outside, and rain started flooding the room – very fitting for Farah’s act, haha.

Ok but so, we were sitting up front, and Syd and Tim had kind of been heckling some of the comics a bit during the various shows…not even heckling, really, more like responding to what may or may not have been rhetorical questions J But the comics pick on the audience too (especially the poor Asians, jesus! And I was told my problem is that I can’t get laid or something played out like that) Tim had some drinks at dinner, coupled with two long islands at the show…a couple people after Farah this guy came on who was just not funny at all. Some people were kinda talking, Tim was talking a little bit, and the guy like freaked out.  He basically told Tim and Syd to leave, so Derek kinda flipped out, then these other huge dudes started talking back, and Derek actually wound up getting up on the stage with the guy, talking on his cell phone and then gently kicked his leg. We seriously thought things were gonna come to blows for like a solid 10 seconds, then Tim dragged Derek out…It was a fucking RIDICULOUS scene. The people at the club didn’t really seem to care that much, but if this is what most comedy shows are like I will be at more of them! I just think the combination of alcohol, a dark room and extreme amounts of bad comedy (seriously, by the time we were kicked out it had been over two hours, and the hostess said there were STILL more comics after the asshole guy…feel pretty bad for them) is a bad bad mix and has the possibility of leading to physical violence.

But the point is, I think Farah did really well, we were all quite proud and hit another bar afterwards. So I got about three hours of sleep and am supposed to see Dark Knight later, hopefully I don’t fall asleep on a $12 movie.

Also…XFILES MOVIE TOMORROW. It’s so weird, I’m not, like actively excited about it, but then when I really think about seeing it I get so pumped. Trying to keep expectations low so that if by chance it’s actually kind of good, I’ll be blown away. Good tactic, I think.

INTERLAKEN (July 4th - July 8th)

We arrived in Interlaken, Switzerland on the 4th after a 4-5 hour train ride (where we all discovered a love for buttered yeast cake...sounds nasty but DELICIOUS). The train ride was just ugh...such a preparation for the beauty of Interlaken. It means between two lakes, which it is and they're lakes of such a crystal blue that are breathtaking. The water is straight from melted ice/glaciers in the mountains so it's cold and crisp and does wonders for your hair!
The Banks were a lot closer to us here than in Paris so we got to see them a lot more. They stayed at a place just a few streets over from ours. My parents and I had an apartment at Swiss Inn Apartments. They lady who owned it was so nice and sweet and pretty much dying to help us in anyway. I had my own loft upstairs and the place had a kitchen and it's own terrace which had an amazing view!
 

The first day, Mom and Dad were poopies so I walked around the city with the Banks (it was good to have people who were actually doing stuff! I think my mom felt bad that they would do one thing and then need to go take a nap). We got ice cream and looked at stuff (OMG THEY EAT HORSE IN SWITZERLAND wahhhhhh) and found where the Nissan Sport thing was being held (it was a competition of extreme videos). It wasn't really in full swing when we got there but it was pretty much an American hosted event and they had kid rock climbing walls for the girls to do.
Then that night after we retrieved my parents, we went to a restaurant for fondue and realized too late that it was the biggest tourist pot hole ever. The waiters dress up in cow pants and they have big tour groups come inside with a contest for blowing that really big, long horn. Then they all conga lined around the restaurant. It was a huge group of Australians (AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE - OY OY OY).
   

Jungfraujoch
On saturday we took the most anticipated journey of our trip to Jungfraujoch, the top of Europe. When we were in the early planning stages of our trip, I had seen an episode of Passport to Europe on the Travel Channel where Samantha Brown went to Interlaken. She took a trip up to the Jungfrau where they had an ice palace and gorgeous snow covered views. I knew I had to go there. Aunt Christine had also seen it so pretty much it was a set deal.
The train ride up was pretty eventful. It takes about two hours and you have to switch trains quite a little bit but everything was so much easier because we decided to take the guided tour. Annemarie was awesome and so knowledgable. The train went up one way (through Lauterbrunnen) and down another (Grimmelwald) and once you get up into the mountains you have to pass through the mountain. They make two stops along the way so you can look out onto the glacier. This is where Uncle Livingston started to have a hard time. The man, pretty much a line backer mind you, is afraid of heights AND claustrophobic. He almost puked but he got to sit up front with the driver haha. He did not have fun. Don't worry though. The rest of us had enough fun for him.
   
The ice palace was by far the best part. Uncle Livingston stayed up in the station the whole time, poor guy. Unbeknowst to us, while we were down here having fun, he was upstairs fainting :(
   
They had outdoor activities like sledding and skiing (see the picture above of Madison mid flip). It's a really great place (although the food was really expensive since you can't exactly go anywhere else)! But I was happy to leave in the end. As soon as we sat down for lunch, the room started spinning and everyone started to feel sick. We were all happy to get on the train and get outta there. I mean, we were only over 11,000 feet in the air.
 
Of course, the pictures don't do it justice. While I love the architecture of cities like Paris and Barcelona, there's nothing like natural beauty. Switzerland is officially one of my favorite countries, even though it's expensive :)

Thun Castle
Our beautiful weather started to get a little down at this point. But we decided to march on and take a day trip to Thun, just a twenty minute train ride away. Thun Castle is pretty awesome and it's supposed to have its own ghost, although I wasn't introduced.
    

On Monday, the Banks proceeded to leave us for Heidelberg. It was strange without them. The weather was still drizzly so we continued to be extremely lazy and sat around all day. We read...I read a lot. On this trip alone I read Girls In Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood (again), Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood, Twilight, The Secret Life of Bees, and the majority of New Moon on the flight home. I had read the first three books already by the end of Switzerland. 
Side note: I really like the Twilight saga. I'm halfway through Eclipse but taking my time since Breaking Dawn doesn't come out until the 2nd. I mean it could be better...Meyer definitly draws everything out to a poop shit pace to fill lines (and make a quad series when she could have had 2) but I don't mind that much. 
Can I also just make another major side note and say how much I've read this summer? I mean all the books besides the ones I listed above have been rereads but...
First two Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books to prepare for the 4th and for the movie, first three books of the Alvin Maker series to continue reading 4, 5, and the never read 6. As well as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. That's 12 books (13 in a few days) by July 21st. Not too shabby...

But yeah, that's pretty much the end of Interlaken, Switzerland. Stay tuned for one last post regarding Germany and the end of the trip!

so it's time for me to talk about my Europe trip...I keep putting it off but I know it needs to be done before I forget anything...so...here it goes...I'm even going to try and make it pretty and colorful and filled with pictures!

PARIS (June 29th - July 4th)
So...we flew out from Dulles on the 29th on an overnight flight to Madrid. There was only a two hour layover until Paris but we flew Iberia which SUCKED. Their seats are way too small you can't even just sit there without feeling squished. Airlines are sooooooo selfish.
We took a taxi from Orly to our hotel, the Magdelini which was near Montparnasse cemetery.
It wasn't bad...maybe a little smelly though.
We only stayed for one night because the airline changed our flights and we couldn't get a room at the hotel we already booked. But it ended up being good since we were jetlagged. We just walked around and got used to Europe. Here are some pictures from the Montparnasse cemetery. I hate cemeteries but this one was pretty cool.
         
You can put something like this on my grave...               Ewww. dead people.                 Samuel Beckett!

Then we moved to the Jardin de L'Odeon right near Odeon Theatre. It was a really cute neighborhood and nice and quiet.
From there we were only a fifteen minute walk to Notre Dame. We hopped on the Batobus (the one that goes around the river)...do not recommend. It was hot and the thing is so damn slow. It only goes one way. It could have taken 15 minutes to get to the Eiffel Tower but instead it took like and hour and a half because we had to go alllll the way around instead of back two stops. But we finally got there...
         
Then Mom and I went to the Musee d'orsay which was filled with impressionist works like Van Gogh and Monet.
The next day we went to the Louvre. All this time we had been trying to meet up with my dad's sister, Christine, her husband Livingston, and their two children, Danielle (11) and Madison (7). It was hard work because my phone was having a lot of drama. First it wouldn't charge then we found out the wire was almost split so Dad fixed it then my mom called THEM (I get free incoming calls but raped when I call someone) and used 90% of the 15 euros on my phone so all through the Louvre we played "where are you?" text message tag until I ran out of money on that too...we later tried to put more money on it but it wouldn't let me. That phone is such a hassle! But we did find them eventually...umm and re: the Louvre. I did not like it. Too too too big. Massive. Uncontrollable. (not to mention nothing was in English or ANY language besides French...it's a world renowned museum...you'd think they'd have the stuff in the mandatory five languages). But I liked the pyramid (why do people not??) and I liked the statues.
  
We went out to dinner with the Banks by our hotel (which was near the Luxembourg Gardens and they were alllll the way over at Sacre Coeur). I freaking love those little girls. Who knew it could feel so nice to have a seven year old worship the ground you walk on? Their parents told them to stop bugging me but they didn't believe I didn't care. I'm an only child for goodness sake and my little cousins are so adorable (only annoying when they sing a certain Camp Rock song OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN :) ) I didn't mind them.

For our last full day in Paris, my parents and I were on our own again. We went to the Arc d'Triomphe (Dad and I went up to the top and Mom stayed below with the masses) and then walked through the Luxembourg Gardens. Outside the Gardens they have this magnificent display of award winning photographs which were all just amazing. I wish I'd taken pictures of my favorites but I didn't...
 

  
And then we finished our trip with a beautiful moonlit (or really still sunlit walk...it didn't fully set until after 11pm) around the city. We watched the lovely Eiffel Tower sparkle. It changed from when I went there nearly two years ago when I was in Ireland. The tower now constantly glows blue at night (and it has stars on it for the EU flag) and sparkles for an hour every night insteadly of multiple times. I wanted to stay forever but my parents made me leave.
 

And so ended our trip to Paris. On Friday, July 4th we hopped on the high speed train from Paris to Bern and then Bern to Interlaken. That Independence Day marked the beginning of our journey with the Banks who shall forever be our travel buddies.
   

But before I go on to that, let us not forget the statue complete with undies :)


Stay tuned for the other parts of my Europe 2008 trip.

First public post in a while…when did I get so damn private? Not that it really matters, as I’m 98% sure that I’m friends with everyone who reads this, so yeah. I tried to go to the Y this morning and got there only to realize that I had forgotten my keys. So I couldn’t lock my bike, and there is no way in hell I’m leaving the bike out on the streets of Bed Stuy unlocked. Instead I decided to bike around the neighborhood a bit, wound up in Ft. Greene as always, and just lay in the grass for a little while. It was really nice…an interesting crowd at 7:30 in the morning, mostly people playing with their adorable dogs. I might just start doing this once a week instead of the gym thing, it was really relaxing.

Tuesday night my aunt invited me to this midsummer cocktail party a friend of hers was throwing in his gorgeous Ft. Greene brownstone, so I went over there with her, and despite the fact that almost everyone was at least 10 years older than me, it was a ton of fun. There were probably about 30 people and at least 40 bottles of wine, no joke. And they were mostly gone by the time we left around 10 – I was incredibly drunk, one of those things where you don’t even realize it until your mom randomly calls and you struggle to put sentences together. I barely remember coming home! But the food was delicious and I got to meet my aunt’s hip artist buddies…I talked to one guy for a really long time and he was telling me about how he and my aunt used to get stoned and come up with crazy ideas for projects. Nice.

Tonight is the Dark Knight at midnight in Union Sq. We are for reals getting there like an hour and a half early. I mean of course we have tickets already but it will probably be insane. I don’t even really care about it, but I do kind of have to see this Heath Ledger thing, and besides, everyone else in the universe will be talking about it for the next two weeks.

The most exciting news of all: Sydney, Marissa and Gleni found an apartment IN our neighborhood!!!!! They came to search for places on Monday and found a great space, literally a fifteen minute walk (or five minute bike ride) from our place. So pumped for dinner parties and the like. I also had lunch with my friend Doug from school the other day, and he’s living in LA right now but trying to move here with Fischer and a few other friends, so that would be quite awesome. I’m luring people to Brooklyn by any means possible…

Home this weekend, hollaaa. Can’t wait to see everyone but people really just need to come to NY because it’s infinitely better than Maryland, not that you need any convicing.