France

• I'm thinking about starting a series on different places to travel, to go a long with my little spring break theme of how to travel well, so to take a break from thinking about my very strenuous job of filling out the rest of my list, I will babble a little bit about France. I chose France because I'm in french, and a lot of the people in my class are going on the class trip to France so, I will discuss this country for a while.
  
  

Ah Paris! the city of lights and love; what more could you ask for? A lot. You can't just go somewhere and expect the place, even a famous place like Paris, to entertain you. You must use the city, take everything it has to offer then ask for more. However cheesy and philosophical this may sound, its true.

I recently went on a trip to Paris (France in general) and had a blast! it was great, the food was fantastic, the people friendly, the walking- terrible, but worth it. I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere of France, it was very inviting, although sometimes very intimidating as well. One time, my friend and I were ordering our food in french and the waiter straight up told my friend, "speak in English, your French is terrible." We laughed so hard, although like I said, the people can be very intimidating although they are nice.

There are a few places that, if you go to France, you must go to. Thats just how it is, you need to see them, like think how dissapointing if you went toi france and came back and there were a few places that you hadn't been, like the Eiffel tower. So the list is..... :

The Eiffel Tower

L'Arc de Triumph

Notre Dame

Sacre Coeur

Le Louvre

Palais de Popes

Monaco (a principality outside of france)

So dont forget, if your making a trip to France anytime soon, please dont leave out any of these wonderfull monuments, not only because you have to keep up your reputation, you have to maintain some credibility and these are some of the most fabulous places you will ever go, They are perfectly fabulous and beautiful.

The Art of Travel

Traveling is one of, what I consider, the great American arts. Everyone goes somewhere- at least its a lot more common here than it is in many other nations. We see it every year, spring break comes around and everyone says "yeah I'm going to Florida" or Mexico or the Bahamas or somewhere. It seems that everyone wants to go somewhere and most people do- so as spring break is just around the corner, I'm going to talk about travel, not just where to go and what to do, but how to travel and travel well.

1. The first step in traveling is Packing. Wherever you go everyone needs to pack so that your prepared for every adventure, but you still need to be able to fit all that stuff in a suitcase and then fit that suitcase in a plane, train or automobile! Hence, packing would be the first step.

In order to pack efficiently you need lists. For me that starts with everything. I like to set up the lists in cattegories like "pre-trip" "essentials" "clothes" etc... and then within those categories you add all the things you will need. Now, lists are not required and for many people and for most of my own life I got by just fine with out a list, but let me tell you, the minute I switched over my life got that much easier. For some people checking up online is also helpful. There are many sites that will create a general packing list based on gender, how your getting there, and even the size of your suitcase. This is helpful to keep your packing to a minimum and to make sure you don't forget anything. Heres a great site I found.

2. Shoes: need I say more? shoes are an essential no matter what which is why put them in their own category, they have a sort of trancence, being that they are so key to wherever you go. No matter where you're going you will want a good pair of walking shoes. I don't care if your going to Vegas, you might be partying it up with stillettos at night, but hey, what about during the day? who knows if you'll want to go on a hike to see the Navada Desert. I have yet to be able to find a cheap, comfortable pair of walking shoes that don't look absolutely hideous. I mean, you see some of those shoes that people say are not really that bad, but I'll be the first to admit- I want my shoes to look good, I don't want just so so shoes I want HOT shoes that stand out and, sadly enough I have yet to find those dream shoes, so If you find any, PLEASE!! please!! let me know...

The rest of the list? well I'm still working on that, I know there will be a little more about how to pack and how to actually do the traveling part, you know when your actually on the plane...

Family

Quietly, slowly, it comes on sneakily in a way that we can't hardly even tell if its really happening. What am I talking about? Peace. Its something that we often take for granted because often it can be over in a blink of an eye. I think often when we think of peace we don't realize what it is. Peace can come in so many different packages. It can be a quiet evening at home, or just a few moments to yourself. Often times I don't think we notice it until its over. Thats basically what happened to me tonight. I often look forward to Sunday evenings because it is my evening of peace. Almost everyones gone so its usually an evening of quietness, not entirely to myself, but very close and I enjoy that- then the rest of the family comes home and, well I realize what I've lost.

This is family. A crazy mix of quiet an crazy never quite leaving you alone for more than a second. Mothers for example- they want to know everything. They question and sometimes nag and sometimes you just wish that they would leave you alone, but then again. what would the world do without mothers? Thats the key I think, it's tough to know when its ok and when its not. Often I feel like my family is bearing down on you- more than you want to deal with. Its so tough to describe or explain things to your inquisitive family when you can hardly explain things to yourself in your own mind. But then again, often times thats what it takes to straighten things out in your mind, someone who wont put up with a B.S. answer and really pushes you to discover the real thing.

So I guess that no matter what family is something we have for a reason. Without them we may feel temporary peace, but often we don't understand the real peace, because real peace is knowing that no matter how tough or crazy or unsure your life may be, you will always have someone to always keep you on the ground.

International Women's Day

March 8th marks the date of International Women's Day, which is celebrated around the world and in some countries is marked as a national holiday.

I think womens rights, especially throughout history is really interesting so, thats one reason I decided to blog about that today. It was first proposed by Clara Zetkin at the second International Conference of Working women in 1910. It started the next year. It was a huge success and as governements began to recognize the holiday, it has remained a large part of the world today.

Today, IWD is marked by speeches and meetings to celebrate the strides made by women all around the world. It is usually marked by a theme every year which can vary depending on the country or region. This year, the theme of the United Nations is Equal Rights, equal opportunities: Progress for All. The UN has also recently started their campaign UNiTE to end violence among women. The idea is that though women in most developing countries support and feed the family they have little politica and social representation and opportunities.

President and Mrs Obama addressed IWD to disscuss the progress of women all over the world throughout history. As the president spoke to encourage women around the world and commend the women who helped to make those great strides, he still recognized some of the gender inequality that still exists and pledged to help support the advancement of the equality of women.

Overall, I feel that the strides we have made as women are significant, and the strides we will make are also significant. We simply must remember no to feel superior, that we are a part of the future-- not the ruler. I think often as women we feel that we have been supressed so long that we now deserve to be superior, although when you think about it, the more powerful we get the more we become like men-- the ones we used to criticize.

BOReD WiTH NOTHiNG TO DO

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Do you ever get that?? you have no idea what to say so you just roll your fingers accross the keyboard? well, thats what that was.

This past week has been, well interesting. for the most part it was a fairly boring week. Studying for finals, taking the finals, then getting a three-day weekend, well that was pretty nice, but still boring. This seems to illustrate my point- life can be boring, at least right now it is mostly for three reasons: One, its march, kind of springy but still kind of cold and lifeless. Two, school. need I say more? Three, well, nothing new and exciting is happening. Life seems to take those turns, the ones where you sit quietly and wait for something new to come into your life. The title of this post is from one of my favorite books as a child. It was about two boys, who over summer vacation got bored, and their mother told them they should go outside and do something, something useful like she did when she was young. They decide that they want to fly an airplane, so they find a book and make an airplane out of odds and ends around the house. They take the wheels off the grill and the baby carriage, they use lawn chairs for seats and fence posts for wood and bed sheets to cover the whole thing. It makes me laugh to think about all those extremes but looking back now I think that even I could be persuaded to make an airplane.

I guess my point is that sometimes, life just seems to be on auto-pilot. You're simply biding your time until something important comes along. For me it seems that I must wait until, well a long time. Summer vacation is aways away, I still have quite a while before applying to colleges it seems, and the rest of my high school career has been carefully planned and supervised so I'm simply floating through life right now.

I feel that its important to tell you that its not like I feel that my life is useless, on the contrary I believe there is a special purpose on my life, on everyones life- it just seems that sometimes we can get carried away with feeling like theres too little to do, and right now I feel the same way. I feel that its just a quiet time in my life, which most people would be grateful for, but let me tell you, I'm ready for some excitement!

So let me encourage you, one and all, keep your chin up and keep pluggin' away! At the beginning of this blog even I felt like I was so bored I would fall asleep right then, but now? well now I feel like looking for some excitement! Who knows what I'll have to say next time?