HaHA!

When i was babysitting the boyz, J and A came over and we made a music video to The Rocket Summer's Gotta Believe, and we got put in their real life music video for that song, which is so cool if you ask me.

1:37 bottom left corner...the three crazy people rocking out in someone's (ahem) kitchen. I think that is one of my favourite activities...dancing around and acting completely wild to great music. When you don't care what people are thinking, it truly adds a special sparkle to your movements.

http://www.jsyk.com/2009/12/07/video-premiere-the-rocket-summer-you-gotta-believe/

Smoking Men (and one old hag)

This is inside my smoking man.
The top and bottom half just slide apart, while the cone of incense sits on a little tin plate.
This is what they look like when the incense inside them is lit. The smoke pours out of their mouths, and looks quite cool.
This is mine. Dad says he chose it because i paint too.
This is my sisters. Dad says he chose it because they are both old hags. Just joking!
And this is my brother's. Because they are both male. So original, Papa.

Also, more pictures of me are up on Flikr...http://www.flickr.com/photos/joelklassen/4163819280/in/photostream/

The Eleventh

Il fait tres froid, au jourd'hui. Also, there was a snow storm all day yesterday and last night, and the snow is blown into HUGE drifts! We haven't seen snow like this since the first year we moved here, and the mild-coast girl in me rejoices at the exoticness of it all. I was out shovelling yesterday, and there is so much of it that there is nowhere to pile it- it is quite a strange phenomenon to be standing there, holding a shovel full of white powder, and looking around for a place to dump it. It is piled up high against the fence, and we can't dump it in the road...so where does it go?
Yesterday we decided to start decorating the house for Christmas, since my grandmere is coming to visit for a while. She always bakes the most lovely Christmas stuff, and when she visits the house smells good all the time. She is also a very interesting person: she discovered a love of travel when my grandfather died a few years ago, and she is almost always off on some jaunt around the world now, taking cruises and exploring Hong Kong by herself. She and her sisters (also widows) also like to take off unexpectedly on road trips down to California, or Mexico, or across the country. She is fluent in German, shorthand, and loves to read. Oh, also knitting and crocheting. And embroidery. She plays the piano, organ, and has a wonderful voice.
We have these lit up stars that we bought this year, and we have strung them across our kitchen window. Although slightly tacky, they look amazing in the dark, and fill the kitchen with a sun-set type of glow that warms up the soul. I cancelled all my going-out plans last night because of the storm, and opted to stay home: my parents were hosting a "German party" in honour of my dad's trip, and so lots of friends braved the treacherous roads and came to our snug and warm home, bearing good things to eat and drink. Us young people watched "A White Christmas" in the spirit of the season, while the "olds" played in the kitchen. We all gathered round the dining room table, and feasted on roast pork, red cabbage, potato dumplings, and other delicacies. There was even German apple wine, which i thought tasted horrid- i like to think i have mature tastes when it comes to food and drink, but this was undrinkable, and even after a few tries it didn't grow on me. I have to go study now, but it was a wonderful warm night.

Victor Murray

This is in Baccarach, Germany, where we split up. He was going to Munich to see a friend of ours for the third time, and i was continuing on to see more Germany, Holland, and Poland, and hopefully meet my family somewhere!
This is very typical "Victor and I"...wearing some of the most inappropriate shoes ever to hike up some Alps. At least we looked good doing it!
Hahaa, if it looks like i am wearing the same outfit in every picture it is because i am! Limited clothing selection combined with the intense heat made for one cute dress worn over and over and over again until it got too dirty to live.
This is typical Victor, doing who-knows-what, wearing no shirt, bad tan lines, and rolled capri pants. It's kind of his thing though, this European-hobo style, and for him it works.
Since there was no A.C. of course, we had the windows down constantly, and as a result i had the biggest knots ever in my hair all the time! Also, i like this picture because it is the brownest i have ever been i think. I met up with Victor after spending a fortnight in Palermo where every day was a beach day, and i became almost orange. Skin cancer alert! But truly i love a bit of natural colour in the summer.
This was one of our typical meals: bread, cheese, and as a treat some proscuito ham. We would eat some gummy bears for dessert, and a piece of fruit or a a vegetable. I remember our breakfast were usually these awful plastic-y muffins, but they were so full of preservatives that they lasted forever! Oh, and instant coffee. Cold. Oh, and beer. It was our routine to get beer at the last gas-station of the night (where we washed our faces and brushed our teeth), and it was totally a competition to see who could find the cheapest bottle. The record was 0.79 Euros. Incredible.

This is Bignosco, also known as "Big Nasty" when she overheated. Which was common. It was very hot in Italy, and we would have to pull over and let her cool down, or hit some open highway where the speed of the air through the fan cooled it down enough. But other than that she was a good car. Comfortable for sleeping in.
This is us taking a break from driving, and eating lunch, in some train station in the middle of Switzerland. Yes, we always look this cool.
Talking about Mel a few days ago reminded me of the other good friend i made in Schladming. This is Victor Murray. He is oh, i dont know, 24 or 25 or something, lives along the coast in America, and when not travelling he works odd jobs and such. It's funny, because even though we travelled together (he was the one who bought the instructor's car) and we email back and forth quite regularly, i still dont know that much about him. Let me tell you how i see him though.
I like this picture of him (I took it in some small Swiss village, near the Italian-Switzerland border) the best out of all the pics i have, because even though it's not the most flattering, it is rare to have one of him smiling. I love the wrinkles around his eyes, and the laugh lines. He seems happy and "at peace", and lacking that invisible barrier that some people carry around all the time.
Anyways, so here is the thing about Victor. He is kind of original looking, in the way he dresses and the things he says and does. It scares the suburban chicks away, and makes many people uncomfortable. The first time i ever saw him was in the train station in Salzburg, and i thought he was a hobo! Then he turned up into my compartment, and he had a knife and long hair and a crazy hat and while i wasn't scared, i definitely was a bit wary. But, true to my nature, i love the oddballs and goofs and quirky people the most, and so once he got talking i found that he had the driest sense of humour, and was quick to laugh.
Through all our time in Schladming we didn't hang out that much, but we did get to know one another a bit and were on friendly terms. Afterwards, I heard he had bought the car and was travelling with Andrew for a while. I knew my travelling partner at the time, Hill, was leaving Palermo to go visit her German boyfriend, and so i asked him if i could meet him and Andrew in Alexandria, Italy, and join the crew. He said yes, and when he picked me up at the train station Andrew had given up and gone home, so it was just the two of us. We were a bit awkward at first, but being with someone 24/7 you have to become comfortable and talk or else you will die. And that's when i really got to know him as a person, and not just a crazy American-European-hobo-wannabe. It was great. He was a fabulous travelling partner. We had so many adventures, but it would take too long to talk about even the best ones. To finish up, we have kept in contact over the past year and a half, and i know that if i ever need a "partner in crime" i can count on Victor. He has the best sense of humour, is original and not afraid of what people think, has a noble soul and an old-fashioned sense of chivallry. I think he is, while not one of my "best friends" per se, one of my favourite friends. And that may be the best thing about him.

Studying with Mel (and in memoriam of room 22)

I feel like i have been a pretty shallow, surface person the last few months...focused on clothes, boys, fashion, boys, lookbook, boys, etc. and I want to change that. I am not a party-girl; I like to curl up and read books. Often I would rather stay home on a friday night and watch movies with friends than go out clubbing. Of course there are nights when i would go stir-crazy if i stayed in, but as we dive deeper and deeper into the dark depths of winter (haha, alliteration?) i feel like scrubbing my hair up into a pony-tail and schleping around the house in saggy-bummed leggings and wool socks, working on some paintings or baking rock-hard muffins. I find baking to be very soothing in an old-fashioned sort of way, and in certain situations (ie., when everything is right with the world, or when im trying to get over a bad day) i will wait until i am alone in the house and then i will play music and let my mind go blank while mixing and measuring. I have heard that this is quite common. And it works, too! Not only do you work out pent-up anger or frustration, or even excess energy, but you end up with something to eat, some treat that can be shared around.

Anyways, i got distracted. I was going to talk about my friend Mel. Mel and i met a year and a half ago in a small town in Austria called Schladming. We were actually room-mates for three months, in fact, she had the bunk-bed below me. I was really bad at making friends, still am in fact, and my 4 other roommates were not people i wanted to get to know better. Of course, first impressions are terrible and they ended up being my best friends there, but still...i was feeling pretty lonely, and a long way from home. Mel arrived a day later than everyone else, and when she did my heart sunk...i did not want to get to know this sort of emo- dark -haired girl with the eyebrow ring (that i secretly envied) better. But she was so bubbly, so full of fun and energy and witty comebacks that i was won over along with the other 4 girls. But it was when she started singing songs from Grease every morning that i really thought we could become friends. Soon, we were dancing on table-tops to the horror of the quiet villagers and serious students, and crushing over our instructor's bright blue eyes, and the 6 of us roommates came together as a whole force that was not to be reckoned with lightly.

In May we split up...some of the girls went home, some went travelling with other friends...Mel went with her mom and explored the rest of Europe, while I alternately crashed at an acquaintances apartment in Palermo, and caught up with a guy who had bought the blue-eyed instructor's car and we bummed around Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. But it wasn't until I got home in September that Mel and I became as good of friends as we are now. We text each other almost every day, and study for exams with each other over Skype. We are actually "studying" right now (well, she is. Im writing this!). I don't know how i would have gotten through life this past year and a half without her. She always has the best advice, and can make me laugh even when im crying. In fact, she even helped me pick "first date", "second date", AND "third date" outfits over Skype. Now, that's a real pal. SO thank you mel, for putting up with my hare-brained schemes and crazy adventures and strange sayings, and helping me sort out my problems by reminding me that yes, you can do it. And for supporting me in my decisions when no one else does- it means alot. And here's to dancing on the tables in quiet little Schladming, and shocking the stiff and serious: may we always continue to shake things up, whether together or apart. Love!

Re-Vamp!

And so with a whole new look, lots of photo's, and a generous amount of entries, i am applying to lookbook...wish me luck!

I got chatted up on the train home from school today. It happens every once in a while, some brave lad will face my stony cold persona and try and ask me out. But today i was wearing my faded old jeans and a heavy wool sweater, and i had a scarf wrapped around my head to keep my ears warm...not exactly attractive! And he was pretty cute too...haha, im not full of it, i swear. It surprises me that anyone would want to ask me out, that's all. What about that sweet, bubbly, little 5 foot 2 girl over there? They get all the boys. Not us tall lanky stone angels. Sometimes guys will surprise though, and take the initiative. Here's to the unexpectedness of boys! Sante!

The Tenth

I am going to change around the formatt of this blog before i apply to Lookbook tonight, (A has already sent in her application! So exciting!) and then i'll do the dirty deed. It shouldn't be as big a deal as we are making it, and after all, we really only need one of us (out of A, D, J, and i) to get in, and then they can invite the rest of us. Yeah, that's the other news. My brother J is going to apply as well. I think he is a shoo-in for sure, as they are always looking for more guys i'm sure. It snowed heavily yesterday. Since it was only -3 or something, it was quite warm, and there was something still and other-wordly about the fat, heavy flakes that made an almost unhearable sound as they landed. Normally i hate walking in the snow/rain, since when the wind picks up it flys into your face, down your shirt, blearing your mascara all over and making your hair curl where really it should be straight, but yesterday there was no wind in the morning and the result was truly a winter-wonderland. Too bad that later in the afternoon the wind picked up, and going to work in the evening was an absolute nightmare. But still, nothing says Christmas in the North like a good snowfall. (It also says "November, December, January, February, March, April, and May!)