Final Nights

A goodbye selfie with my favorite French prof-- Roger.

A night out at the bar with Hervé (aka Voldy), one of our French profs.

Always lovey dovey, these two.

Our Annecy home.

First thing we do when we get to the house-- devour all the chocolates.

Homemade vin chaud + Kimchi Fried Rice.

Daniel cooked for us!

We love our vin.

Da Krew.

Beautiful Annecy.

How beautiful is Lake Annecy?

Daniel looking like a yung James Blake.

My girls. Look at Mia being her diva self.

Snow!

Casual horseback riding. 

Off-trail hiking. 

I'm a deer!

James Blake, again.

Stole these devilish shades from the house owner.

Mars.

The beautiful view of the city.

Manging hard after the hike.

Daniel, the housewife.

Our last hoorah at an izukaya.

Well, it happened. I mean, we all knew it was coming, but it finally did. My favoritest hawmies Daniel and Kate left la France to go back to their real lives in America. Before they left though, Kaixi, Mia, Kate, Daniel, and I took a trip to Annecy to just get out of the city. We rented a home and pretty much just stayed in and drank vin chaud. I believe we murdered eight or so bottles of wine. Maybe more. We did go on a hike though, so don't just see us as alcoholic college students who do nothing but drink! It was fun making Asian food and just relaxing with the hawmies. And to celebrate one of our final nights, we went out to a bar with one of our professors, Hervé. We brought it up not really expecting him to say yes, but apparently, it's not that uncommon to go out for a drink with your professors in France. I love it here. Afterwards, Daniel and Kate treated me out to yummy Japanese food and sake at an izakaya, and of course, it wouldn't have been a Daniel night if we didn't get beer after. Man, seeing these pictures and talking about these nights makes me miss them so much. We will be reunited soon, my dears.

C'est incroyable qu'on peut rencontrer une personne qui peut changer ta vie. J'ai rencontré les gens ici qui ont devenu mes meilleures amis. Mon point de vue changeait et je ne suis pas la même personne de quand je suis arrivé ici. Je peux voir la change qui a été causée par mes amis. Ils me manquent.

Lumos

Failed AA x Le Sucre party.

Chinese lanterns at Parc de la Tete d'Or.

A failed selfie.

The gate of Parc de la Tete d'Or.

A faucet at the entrance to the tunnel.

The tunnel looking like a young rave.

Carpe Diem.

Giraffe art.

Basilique de Fourvière looking like its haunted self, as usual.

Cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste.

A field of roses.

Un Gafre avec Nutella (et Kate).

Luminous boxes.

Boing!

Water art!

Friends and I enjoying free tea.

My favorite-- The Grid.

The show was illuminated on a ferris wheel!

My favorite couple being their derpy selves.


La Fête des Lumières is an annual festival in Lyon and the name literally translates to, "The Festival of Lights." It's a really cool festival in which works from student to well-known professional artists are exhibited. It goes on for five days and people from all around the world come to see it. I think there are about four million people who attend each year, making it the third biggest festival in terms of attendance, after Carnival and Oktoberfest. It was so crowded that I couldn't get to see everything, but I think I hit most of them. My favorite has to have been "The Grid." It was inside a museum and you had to lie down on the ground and watch these mechanical strings move these triangles up and down, changing our depth perception of these triangles. The colors of the triangles would change and everything was set to this crazy, instrumental music. It was indeed a trippy interactive experience. Also, it was actually really fun because for once, we weren't the outsiders. It was exciting to be able to give directions to tourists and just feel like a local. Oh, and of course, having a vin chaud cart on every block wasn't bad either.

Ah oui, le premiere photo est d'un de nuits quand on a essayé d'entrer une boite après la fête. C'était une nuit la boite reçut avec American Apparel. On était sur la liste des invités mail il y avait une problème donc on attendait pour un moment. On pensait que il y avait beaucoup des gens là parce qu'elle nous donne beaucoup de mal, mais quand on entrait, il y avait littéralement quatre personnes là. Tellement absurde.

Chinese Princess Birthdays, Pérouges + more

Blue Lips-- Getting ready for Kaixi's birthday dinner.

The Chinese princess herself.

Hawmie Daniel looking like an old Korean actor.

Chinese Princess.

Pawty Twime.

Your very own lesbian sister girl rock band.

Kate Bloopwitz.

"Burn the witch!"

I love my freaky-deaks.

Madame Robinson being chauffeured to her husband's land.

Sleepy folks. 

The city map of Pérouges.

The city welcoming us.

Daniel being poop as usual.

Pan's Labyrinth?

These fools!

My Russian mother turning the wheel of sorrow.

A random hippie car we stumbled upon.

"Don't make me daaahnse~"

The famous galette de Pérouges!

Burning the witch at the stake. (Witches actually did get burned at this square)

Goodbye, Pérouges.

Our car for the day that Daniel parked in the grass.

Yummy salad. 

*Drool.

A common dish in Dijon.

A Chicken dish of some sort.

I love my dessert.

Tiramisu.

Nomz!


Kaixi, our late bloomer, had her birthday celebration in November. Whilst getting ready, Miranda, Kate, and I thought it'd be fun to put on some blue lips. Looking like three crazy witches, I decided to erase mine. But as you can see from the pictures, Kate and Miranda didn't. We definitely got some stares while walking to the restaurant, but it was all in good fun. After the restaurant, we went to Krystal's guesthouse to pawty/pre-game and then went to Bec de Jazz, my favorite jazz bar! Happy birthday again, Kaixi, even though your birthday was 5 months ago.
The same weekend, my friends and I decided to rent a car and go to this mystical (not really), small medieval village called Pérouges. I remember on our way there, I was sitting in the passenger seat so I had to give directions. I accidentally forgot to tell Mia, who was driving, to take the next exit, and it took 20 minutes to get to the next exit. Oops. Don't trust me with these kinds of things, guys :( Anyways, the city was kind of cool because it was empty and we were the only ones in town (literally), but it was also not cool because nothing was open. It was a weird town, indeed. It's the size of my bathroom and it's a place where witches were burned in the square center. At least they had really good pie (Galette de Pérouges).
After doing a tour of the entire city in under an hour, we decided to take a trip to Dijon. By the time we got there, it was dark and we were hungry, so we just asked a local for a conseil on where to eat, and seeing as she was drunk and probably crazy, we decided to eat at this slightly bougie restaurant. We are really embarrassing kids. We tried to share a menu (a set menu, a formula), because it was so expensive, and the lady owner scoffed at us and called us infants. Well, we ended up getting our own menus and it was delicious. And then after, we headed home. We literally just went to Dijon to eat dinner.

C'est vrai que mes amis et moi, nous sommes enfants. Qui demande de partager les menus? C'était tellement embarrassant. Mais c'est un souvenir qu'on va se souvenir pour touts nos vies. L'anniversaire de Kaixi était trop bien. C'est presque mon anniversaire, mais c'est bizarre parce que je sens comme j'ai déjà 21 ans. Je pense que c'est parce que j'ai commencée de boire quand je suis arrivée en France. Pas de suspense. Blep.