Meandering Mind Melts

Second installment in surrealist poetry

Surrealism #2

My meandering mind

melts the sky

Striping the night;

oil on canvas

The stars fluid melody

released

The world

rushes forth;

blending blurring

birthing memories

Dusk

falls apart;

purple petals

coalescing

I’m caught

beneath the shining

breaking waves

blacks

blues

bruising hues

all rushing to

enslave

Paris Je t'aime

Last wendsday max and i left Germany to spend a few days in paris together with my sister and her boyfriend who live in Neuilly. It was his first time in Paris so we hit up all the big tourist attractions lol. That thursday we saw the Louvre, Notre Dame, Ile de St Louis, The Marais, L'arc de triumph, Champs de lysse and Sacred Couer.


I love Paris even if the summer is almost unbearably hot here lol we also went to see the eiffle tower but it was too hot and the lines were too long for us to go up. That evening i lost my camera which was pretty upsetting but my sister gave me hers since she just upgraded to a new one.


To make up for the lost pictures, on friday max and i got up extra early to go see the eifle tower, thursday was like seriously blisteringly hot so i was wearing only shorts and a t shirt which was a very wrong move since it was only in the 40s that day and incredibly windy. we took the stairs to the first level where i thought i was going to die from being so cold lol i made max go up to the second level alone while i warmed up in the gift shop. He eventually convinced me to suck it up and climb to the second level where we could take an elevator to the top. The view was obviously amazing and even though i was still cold i had a lot of fun.

after the eifle tower we went to the tulierrie park where they are curently having a carnival, i love the food stands, i cant get over the crepes and pastries i will probably gain 10pounds this week.


That night we went to the muséé at the louvre. if you are under 26 then the muséé is free for you between 6 and 10 pm every friday night which is awesome, it is called "party at the louvre" lol.

We got to see the mona lisa, venus di milo, napoleans quarters and lots of other exhibits.



After the Louvre we went bqck to the chqmps de lyséé for food. In france Quick is the equivalent to McDonalds lol so we decided to try it out (soooo good lol i had a triple cheeseburger lol).


Saturday we went to the luxemburg gardens. we brought wine, books and snacks and listened to an orchestra that was playing. We were also accosted by pigeons (they are seriously the size of small cats here lol).

After the gardens max and i went to the Pompidou, it is a new building in the marais that is housing a kandinsky exhibit and is basically a media center and library on one side. We got to take in a lot of street performers and and the surrounding architecture as well. there is a lot of controversy over the Pompidou at the moment because it is very modern in design and many parisians think it is a blight on the city lol, it is not the most attractive site in the city but it has its own charm.

That night we went to the red light distrtict to see the moulin rouge lol it was pretty crazy and my sister and her husband were even propositioned on the street (i am pretty sure it was a random person and not a professional though).

Sunday we went to the market in Neuilly, i love how fresh everything in France is, the patriserie for pastries, the boulangerie for breads, the boucherie for meats, i like the idea that everything is specialised and made by the people selling it to you.

I got the most amazing fresh goat cheese (chevre) at the market by a vendor who raises his own goats, it was so light and creamy, we picked up some baguettes and ate them with the cheese for lunch.

later that day we explored Montmarte


afterwards we went to Concode and saw Madeline, a parthenon like chaple where they were holding a concert.

On the way home we went to see the us embassy and cleopatre's needle.


I also got to try macaroons from Ladurre, that were absolutely to die for, i got rose, coconut, menth and citron. the line for these is out the door and around the corner, but it was totally worth it. I dont think i can say enough for the food in Paris so maybe i will wait for a later post lol.

Max caught a train back to germany that night, but i will stay in paris untill thursday when i head back to germany to see him..

The Weather in Germany

Hooray! i have made it to Germany safe and sound. I am not staying in Frankfurt actually, but Mannheim, which is about a 30min train ride away. IT is very diverse in terms of people and everyone seems very friendly. I am also trying to learn some german lol i can now ask where the bathroom/my street/train is :) i am also learning the basic prepositions ich bin du bist eir sind etc, very useful.
my first day here, my boyfriend took me to the ARENA OF POP, which is one the largest musical festivals in Germany which just so happend to be held in mannheim this year!!!!!!!

it was very exciting, there were so many people and so many awesome food stands, i tried the most amazing fried dough square covered in this weird sourish cream thing and topped with curling cheese. It was sooooooo good, i wish i had brought my camera (sigh)

there were also many bands playing but i enjoyed silbermond the best

i am going to go look for their cd later today.

yesterday, when i had recovered from my jet lag some what (6hr time difference) max (my boyfriend) and i went to luisen park.

it was soo big and very beautiful. They have lots of lakes and gardens (citrus, medicinal, iris, etc) and lots of animals both in cages and some ranging free. i really enjoyed it. we had dinner in a nice restaurant at the park where i got to watch max expertly order everyhting in german, i am slightly jealous of how well he speaks it, many native germans think he is actually german lol. That night we watched flight plan with jodie foster in german with max's roommates lol there are so many beer commercials in germany and way too many commercials in general. I was very amused and impressed with the dubbing though, which although not entirely beyond a required a suspension of disbelief was very very passable.

today is my first day traveling around mannheim alone while max is at work, i am very excited to work the train system and maybe do some shopping :)

Surrealist poetry

I am beginning a collection of surrealist poems, this is the first one and is still a work in progress. Most of my favorite paintings are surrealism and i wanted to try and capture the feeling of one through poetry. I chose the picture after the fact lol so it doesn't match exactly but i think it conveys the feeling

surrealism#1

the walls wax and wane

spinning thoughts and words and scenes

you reach out to smudge the paint

your fingers tangled in my dreams

We watched the world slip away

In shocks of orange blue and gold

Pictures knotted

Sounds frayed

And time stood still

We stare too hard

the picture fades away

Our hands left empty

grasping memories

returning with air

Where my Head is Lately

I am still studying for the mcat and my test is in exactly 1WEEK!!!!! so please send lots of positive thoughts and prayers my way :). I also managed to convince my friend tanya to come up with me for the drive to syracuse and the hotel stay the night before. (it only takes one attack story of a single female traveling alone to make you paranoid lol so i am really grateful. I will also be in desperate need of a post mcat party buddy to hit up all the bars afterward so her presence is an added bonus!!!!.

Besides studying, I have also been putting the finishing touches on my primary application to medical school!!! for those of you unfamiliar with the process, it has two (technically 3 steps) the primary application begins in June and it is basically your background/ transcript/resume/ personal statement-why i want to be a doctor. I am applying to about 22 schools (a lot right lol but apparently it is better to have your options very open) this will set me back about 820 dollars- practically extortion right. After your primary application is approved and sent to yours schools of choice, they will send out their secondary application, mostly essays and the like detailing exactly why their school is the best fit for you (this will also set me back in price lol). If they like your secondaries then they will ask for an interview. If you do not get an interview (and only a small percent of applicants do) you do not get into the school period, and even then only about half of the people who get interviews actually get in. So hopefully i will get lots of interviews and lots of acceptances.

on another note, i have purchased my ticket to Europe! i will leave the 10th for frankfurt to spend the week with my boyfriend who is doing research there over the summer. I have never been to Germany before so i am really excited, and frankfurt just seems like such a cool and urban setting.

From frankfurt I will take a train to paris where i will spend a week with my sister and her husband. I have been to paris before when i was in the 10th grade but it was a school trip and very touristy. Although i did get to experience all the big museums and sites in rapid yet thorough succession, this time around i want a more in depth experience of actual parisian life. I especially can't wait to explore all the fashion houses. My obsession of the week is the summer 09 collection of Matthew Williamson, it's so bright and shiny yet undeniably sophisticated and sleek.

i especially love this suit

If my stars align right i will also be making a stop in London to see Wicked :) i read the book when i was in the eighth grade and still have not gotten to see it on broadway despite being in love with the soundtrack for so long. It is also something my sister and i have wanted to see together for ages. I am so excited for this trip, it is the only thing getting me through my relentless studying for the mcat.

As for my free time, last weekend i made the 8hr trek home for fathers day and to pick up valerie who will be spending the week with me (Hooray) and my car. It was really nice, i went to church with my family, we had a barbecue watched some soccer and just spent lots of great time together. It is never the same as when all of my sisters are home (one is in paris, the other in peru) but two out of four is not bad.

I even got to see the proposal, which was sooooooo cute and funny, and reaffirmed my soft spot for all things sandra bullock and ryan reynolds. I have not seen such a well executed romcom in ages so this movie was very refreshing. My sister and i also agree that ms. bullock made the movie. Her character script-wise could have come off as very offensive, cold and abrasive but bullock just managed to carry it with such charm and vulnerability that you couldn't even begin to hate her and could completely understand why reynolds' character falls for her in the end (please like you didn't see that one coming, definitely not a spoiler).

this weeks guilty pleasures have been, NYC Prep, and the real housewives of new jersey lol why is bravo so addicting and neurotic personalities so enticing. I never could look away from a train wreck.

Movie Binge

I saw The hangover yesterday, with my friend Happy Tanya who is visiting for a few days. It was definitely just as funny as I expected, if not more. I went to Vegas for the first time last spring break and it was a blast, so I definitely appreciated all the references and witty dings the movie made about the casino culture. What I liked most about the movie was that it was crazy but didn’t push the limits of credibility too hard. It would have been very easy for this film to fall into a pit of sloppy shtick and shock valueless humor but the characters were very likable and realistic and the ridiculous elements were tied neatly and cohesively into the story.

I love reading and I love films, yes I am a total escapist buff lol but even for me I have watched a lot of films this week. The first three films that stand out had a shocking trend of pedophilia (I am told by the friend who rented them that this was purely coincidence, but I have my doubts …) The Reader, Old Boy, and Doubt.

The most disturbing of the three, would definitely be Old Boy, a Korean film about a man who wakes up from a drunken stupor to find his wife and daughter have been murdered and is then kidnapped and secretly imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years. The rest of the film is him trying to figure out who had him imprisoned and why, and him seeking his revenge. This movie was done very well but I had a lot of trouble sleeping afterwards because of all the darker psychological elements. It definitely makes you think and forces you to question modern paradigms of love and sacrifice.

(Stop reading now if you don’t want spoilers)

ok so in the movie, after he is imprisoned the main guy Dei Sui meets this beautiful young women who is instantly intrigued by him and offers to help him in his search. In the end you find out that his captor is a kid from his high school who Dei Sui caught fooling around with a girl that turned out to be the captors sister –eww incest right- to punish him for spreading rumors about his sister that ultimately led to her suicide, the captor tricked Dei Sui into falling in love and sleeping with his own daughter!!!

Ok so here is where I get caught up, Dei Sui is obviously distraught that he slept with his daughter and insists that she never find out they are related. Instead of just stopping it there though he is determined to keep their relationship alive! He finds a hypnotist to erase the knowledge that he is her father from his memory so that he no longer feels any guilt and they can live happily ever after. What I want to know is why didn’t he just get the hypnotist to erase both their memories of having slept with each other and of being in love (they were hypnotized to fall in love with each other in the first place). That seems like the obvious solution to me, but I guess he wasn’t willing to sacrifice their love. I can’t imagine being so in love with someone that I would sacrifice my moral integrity like that, even if I knew that I would never know that I had.

(start reading now if you skipped the spoiler)

The Reader was also very good but sad. I enjoyed trying to understand the character’s motives, and it is always refreshing to see a movie that doesn’t romanticize the uglier and more damaging parts of love. All I can say about doubt is, he did it, of course he did it, he was so defensive and guilty the whole movie if you really want to know why I am so convinced you can ask lol but I feel like the movie was designed as a question and this is my answer :)

I also watched the movie Choke this week. Fight Club is probably one of my favorite movies of all time, so I obviously had to give this movie a chance, and though no where near as amazing as fight club, this film had the same dark and witty humor so I enjoyed it very much.

On a happier note I had a girly sleepover last night with Tanya and our friend Marcy where we drank dry Riesling and watched Audrey Tautou movies, He Loves Me He Loves Me Not, and Priceless until 3am. It was oddly appropriate since we all took French together and yet still needed to rely on subtitles for the most part. Miss Tautou creeped the heck out of me in the first movie, but was absolutely perfect in the second. If it had been anyone else I probably would have hated the character Irene but she just made the character’s ruthlessness seem eerily charming and attractive. And the clothes!!!! When she first steps into the elevator in that beautiful Azzaro dress that just screams simple elegance and luxury it was perfect.

I think I will take a break from movies for a while now lol and hopefully go out tonight but now I have to stop procrastinating and get back to studying :)

-Nessa Rose

Summering In Ithaca

What can I say about summering in ithaca ... last summer was probably one of the best summers i have had in a while, I remember sunning by the gorges, making ham and hash-browns for breakfast, staying in weekends till three watching the first three seasons of weeds and the bachelor :) not to mention karaoke, group therapy and darts till 1 am before sweat boxing it until 4am ... sigh. This summer will not be like that, i will be holed up in the library studying an obscene amount of material for the mcat in an obscenely little amount of time. I will be missing my friends and my boyfriend, and trying desperately not to procrastinate lol. I am also in the ongoing process of packing up my room and applying for medical school HOORAY! Hopefully by mid july i will be touring europe and germany and have infinitely more exciting things to blog about, but for now i will keep you updated on the few and far between things i might do to amuse myself that do not involve staring endlessly at a computer screen taking practice tests. So until next blog 

MWAH

Nessa Rose