in a holidaze ya know

Hello my balls of sunshine!!! I hope you are all fantastic and still in a semi Thanksgiving food coma! I realized I have yet to write about my time living out the movie Love Actually in real life, so here we go! I mean, if you're just laying on the couch, binge-watching Scandal, you should probably take a break eventually...right? Or if you're headed back to school, here's some cheer from overseas to put a smile on your face as you pull away from your own version of a cloud bed. Or here's something to distract you from the homework you've ignored all weekend. (no judgement). Whatever you need it for.

So we must preface this blog post by saying Love Actually is my all-time favorite movie. I can definitely recite it word for word, and I have strong opinions regarding the many different couples in the film. I mean my relationship with this movie can be described like by Jonah's with running or Mac's with horses: intense. (Hi Mac and Jonah!!! Miss you two!!!). Obviously, visiting London during Christmas time was a must for me. If you don't know what Love Actually is, go watch it. It's on Netflix (another great break from Scandal-binging). Then come back and finish this.

All I can say is London did NOT disappoint.

Obviously, Christmas is a magical time and I'm lucky enough to live on a continent where Christmas celebrations get started just after the middle of November. I had HIGH expectations for Christmas in London, obviously because of Love Actually. Even though I didn't run into Hugh Grant at 10 Downing Street, didn't find Alan Rickman slumming the streets with some slut named Mia, and didn't see a little ten year old boy breach airport security, the city was literally perfect. Since I'm running out of words, here's some pictures! My friend Lindsay is studying abroad for a year in London so she and two of her roommates showed me around their London--absolutely fantastic woof.

my fab Londoners!!!!

ain't the green but still decent I'd say

OH on the topic of the holidays: Thanksgiving. Even though Thanksgiving is looked over/most people don't even know what it is, my program was nice enough to give us Americans turkey and pie on the actual day. Honestly, it was perfect, even if the turkey was a little salty and the stuffing almost non-apparent. The pumpkin pie stole my heart 4 real (I mean the last time I had pumpkin pie was a year ago, so I don't have much to actually compare it to) and the gesture was actually so perfect. It did make me miss my family though (obviously), and skyping with them was hilarious. My grandma had my dad ask all her questions, even though I could clearly hear her, and a One Direction love life discussion spurred. Andrew didn't talk to me, just regressed to his eight-year-old self by sitting in the back and moving a lot while making strange faces. Overall very typical. Now that it's the holidays, I do find myself missing them more and more but for the weird things: I miss driving to run errands with my dad while singing along to the Rat Pack Christmas CD, especially their version of Baby, It's Cold Outside; I miss walking into the kitchen when my mom is baking holiday cookie boxes for the neighbors and stealing all the cookie dough scraps; and strangely enough, I miss finding Andrew in the kitchen after swim practice, looking like he's practicing for the World Eating Championships. (sorry that got long and cheesy, but the fam rocks).

Pie Appreciation Month 2013 was a success

I'm staying in Aix until winter break--exams are coming up and I actually have to study!! Strange, I know, studying on study abroad...it'll certainly be an interesting experience! But my winter break consists of going to Vienna with Lindsay (apparently they have one of the best Christmas markets in the world there!!!), Christmas with my wonderful French couple, and a trip back to Finland for a little family lovin with my aunt! I've said this before, but I literally cannot believe how lucky I am weeeeeee life is fantastic. Even if it DOES snow here and it DOES get cold--not quite what I signed up for, but that's okay with me. Still paradise.


Kisses from (a sometimes snowy) France!

I thought this was dandruff at first...deniallll

Sarah

We're gonna party all night!!!

Waaaaaazup guys!!! I know, it's been a while. Too long, I'd say. This blog post comes to you sponsored by the one and only HUMO HELL WEEK!!! WOOHOO!

We were good at being pretty and also good at "winning"

**If you know what humo is, you can skip this next part**

What's Humo, you ask? Well if you're asking, you probably either a) just met me or b) never met me. Humorology (Humo is the abbrev cause we hip over here) has been one of my favorite parts of college thus far. It is the largest student-run philanthropy at UW-Madison and basically frats and srats (ew that's a horrible abbrev) team up to create a 20-minute production to raise money for Camp One Heartland, a camp for kids with AIDS. Super philanthropic, super fun, yay life.

Humo hell week is the week before either auditions (which are this Saturday) or the two weeks before the show (which is in the spring). You basically devote your whole life to the show. Any interaction with people outside your cast is frowned upon and you get branded within your cast. Not really, but it is impossible to see anyone else. It sucks but also rocks at the same time. You also end up with the dances drilled into your head FOR ETERNITY. I can still do all the dances from my freshman year, and definitely all of them from last year.

**okay you can start reading again here**

My pal Ruska tweeted at me last night requesting a blog post, so Ruska, this one is for you, along with all the other humo addicts I've met ! I met Ruska through humo (duh) and it's humo hell week now (again, duh) so hopefully this distracts all of them from the fact they'll probably get a collective eight hours of sleep for the week or accidentally sleep until lunch every day of the week. Both bad (not speaking from experience, mom, I promise) but it's always FTK!

I don't have a pic of Ruska so this will work

Ruska specifically wanted to know about the nightlife here and yesterday I happened to indulge so this is perfect!!

The night started abnormally--I do not usually make dinner with my program director and six other kids in my program. But last night, we made moule frites chez Kelly! And it was really a fantastic job cooking on our part, even if the most helpful thing I did was wash moules and drink a borderline inappropriate amount of wine, which consequently led to me crying over how good this butter was. BUT IT WAS WARRANTED because I've had a lot of bad butter in my time (read: oxidized) and literally this butter was PURE fat and salt, with no other distracting flavors omg I really couldn't handle it. If your name is Sam, Wilson, or Olin, tell your mama that she taught me well and I impressed Kelly and now she wants to set me up with her friend who runs the cheese shop. I knew being a cheese taste tester would come in handy!!!!

boys working a good ratio comme d'habitude

yeah man I made that (ha)

Tears over butter...lol dairy state probz

OKAY ANYWAYS on to the actual nightlife. So I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before but Aix is expensive as...idk, Versailles (okay no but I needed an analogy). Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that's not wine is cringeworthily priced. I've gotten used to it, a little, but also I've found the "cheap" places to shop, eat, and obviously drink. When it's nice out, so the first couple months I was here along with the random days that come in November, I usually start off at this cute little wine shop that lines a plaza. That's followed by sitting in the plaza/standing in the streets with my friends for like four hours. If we feel up to it, we continue on to clubs, but usually on nights we could get in for free or, in my case, when someone else pays for me. If not, we find some other shenanigans to get into lawl idk but it's always a good time, always. When it's cold, we actually have to sit inside bars and that calls for meeting very interesting people, many who have had much more to drink than me.

I do probably have more to say, but I got a minimal amount of sleep last night and training for a stupid marathon is stupid tiring. Oh!! I am slowly coming to terms that I will not be able to eat all of my mama's fab cooking come next Thursday so that's sad. Luckily she's fantastic and sent me pumpkin bread mixes, but nothing beats Lindstrom originals. Woof. So when you eat your Thanksgiving, indulge a little extra for me !!! And to my lovely humo pals, GOOD LUCK, I LOVE YOU, and plz take embarrassing photos of each other come Saturday night (or earlier) and send them to me so I can laugh.

This was way longer than I expected!!! Hope it proved a good distraction!!!

xoxo,

Sarah

Oh, worth noting that TVs dream couple, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody (Blair Waldorf and Seth Cohen) got engaged so if that's not a reason to binge on Gossip Girl and the OC, I don't know what is.

yelling obv because I love humo and engagements

To Finlandia and Beeeeeeyond!

SO in France, they actually give you fall breaks (if you're a student at UW-Madison, you understand the complete agony of having no break until Thanksgiving. It's kind of like torture. If you're one of my friends that actually has a fall break, I don't like you). I took this opportunity to head way north, to Finland by way of Paris with a surprise stop in Estonia.

**WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST TO GIVE YOU AN IMPORTANT LESSON IN THE GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE**

I told many people that I was in Finland/going to Estonia and many of them responded with "where's that again?" so here's a map of Europe. Finland is circled, Estonia is directly south. I hope you all know where Paris is. If not, that's on the map too!

OKAY anyways, first up is Paris! Honestly I wasn't expecting to love it as much as I did. A lot of people told me they had such high expectations for the city that they ended up kind of hating it. I guess having low expectations as well as a sunny day to explore really worked in my advantage. After taking various French classes for eight years now, I've read a lot about the Paris monuments and whatnot. Actually seeing some of them in person actually took my breath away. I didn't stay long, only like 12 hours, but man I cannot wait to go back. 

my heart wut

feelin triumphant haha

someone give my friend Amy a dollar

Then I went to Finland! I think I caught the country at kind of an awkward time: it's not summer, it's not winter, so there wasn't much to do (no snow :( boo) but I enjoyed myself none the less. It was absolutely a blast to stay with my aunt: she's lived in Finland for 25ish years, so growing up, I saw her sporadically at best. Plus, my cousin (her son) just got married so I had many family stories to catch up on and pictures to see of her granddaughter. I spent the days wandering Helsinki, which is right along the sea and quite beautiful. It stole my heart for two reasons: one, it's easy to walk around and see everything and two: it has a lot of thrift stores!!! You never know how much you love thrift stores until you live in a city so bourgeois there's literally only one. I managed to find a fantastic nordic sweater, which I refuse to take off. Nothing beats wool sweaters in fall, even in France where I got weird looks on the train yesterday (haters gon hate I guess). Oh and Finns are known for having strong, strong, STRONG coffee so that didn't hurt their case either. 

what a view

that coffee almost gave me a heart attack

Saturday was a high holy day in Finland (All Saints' Day I think?) so the whole country was going to be shut down. Naturally, my aunt and I decided to jump ship (literally) and go to Estonia for the day! It's a two and a half hour boat ride from Helsinki to Tallinn, so away we went! Tallinn was one of the coolest places I've been to date: most of the landmark buildings were built in the 12/13th centuries, and parts of the original town wall are still in tact and snake through the city. The tallest building there was probably the tallest building in the world for a while! Like in the 1400s, but it's still tall now! In "tourist season" aka not when I was there, you can go up in the steeple and there's an awesome view of the city! I guess I may have to go back to Tallinn and Helsinki then...

"probably" the tallest building, at one point

sew many ancient churches

I'm back in France now, ready to tackle the rest of the semester! Weird that it's already November ah I have no idea how I feel about that. Can't time just slow the eff down so I can stay here forever? I was so happy to get back to Aix after my marathon day of traveling--I guess it really does feel like home here. It's not the same, but that's why I love it! I did miss a monumental event in Wisconsin though this weekend--necessary shoutout to my brother Andrew and the West cross country boys for getting second in state and to my basically brother Olin for winning the whole thing!!! Proud is an understatment :)

Okay that's all for now, I guess you'll hear from me next when I travel again--so the end of the month! I'm going to Nice and Monaco (for real this time) and London because why not?

xoxo,

did you know it gets cold on boats in November?

Sarah

TWO MONTHS WHAT

HOLYMACANDCHEESEIVEBEENINFRANCEFORTWOMONTHS how is this even possible????? your guess is as good as mine. Really, it is. LET'S SEE what's new, what can I tell you guys....

WELL I guess a huge thing is I decided to run a marathon in April. Am I crazy? Yes, for sure. I'm pretty sure France has made me crazier than before. Like, remember way back in August 2011 when the cross country season started without me (obviously because I was going to college) and I couldn't handle it so I legit went insane?? (Nikki, Simone, Dana, and Lydia had to hang out with me that day. so sorry again guys) ANYWAYS I think this is worse. I'm really excited, because it's a huge goal/hopefully accomplishment, but HAHA 26.2 miles is a really long way to run. Woof. Like I ran a half marathon this summer and thought I was going to DIE so why did I sign up for a marathon?? I have no idea. All I know is I WILL train more than I did for that half (which won't be hard, seeing as I didn't train at all). The exact date is April 6th, so yknow if you're in the area or something, come cheer your crazy girl on!!!

OH and last week was my french woman's birthday! And she told me she loved American cookies so I decided to make her some because I love baking and love giving good presents so this was the best of both worlds. So the biggest problem I had is brown sugar--you know, that delightfully sticky stuff that comes in bags, is completely different here/also impossible to find so to make cookies, I had to make my own brown sugar. In theory, it's really easy: just mix normal white sugar with molasses. HOWEVER in practice, that took like 40 minutes of my time and all my arm strength I have. And then on top of that, KitchenMaid mixers/electric beaters in general are also unheard of here so I had a lot of butter to mix using the arm I just killed making brown sugar. At least I got a semi workout in? The cookies turned out pretty yummy if I do say so myself but I could tell something was off--the flour? the butter? the vanilla? Idk but I know I'll be baking again to figure out the problem.

twenty minutes in and I was certain failure was in my future

BUT IT WASNT YALL HOMEMADE BROWN SUGAR 

I did not eat any of this nope

obv presented in a cheesehead...where do you think I'm from?

Uhhhhh other than that, I dunno. I'm off to Finland in a less than a week!!! And I'll be in Paris before then so come back when I get back for a blog post full of nordic adventures (IT MIGHT SNOW WHEN I'M THERE!!!! I know you're all groaning at my excitement over this but honestly it's been 70 degrees for far too long and I'm tired of being hot. Okay princess rant over you're right) So you'll all hear from me soon enough. Which is also next month. WHAT HOW IS IT ALMOST NOVEMBER.

BYE!!!

A crazy Sarah

The original crazy Sarah, now gone global

ROMA ROMA ROOOOOOMAAAA

YOU GUYS I'M OFFICIALLY A SUPER INTERNATIONAL TRAVELER!!!!!!! I made it to Rome and back in one piece, with nothing stolen or broken!!! I'm pretty proud of this fact. And Rome was awesome because I GOT TO PRETEND I WAS LIZZIE MCGUIRE FOR LIKE 72 HOURS which is every girl alive in 2003's dream, let's be real here.

So Sunday was my first full day in da city and I decided just to walk and see where my feet ended up. I knew I wanted to go to the Vatican (because remember, I have to get to seventeen countries somehow!!), so I decided to walk there just to see what was up. There were a million people around but I didn't think to much of that--in Rome, there's a million tourists and so many walking tours. These people seemed to be waiting for something, so I asked a guy what was going on. He looks at me like I'm stupid and proceeds to tell me that pope is out. OH OKAY, SUPER CAUSAL. THE POPE IS CHILLIN OUT WHEN I'M THERE. There were so many old people around me who started crying when he drove by and I just stood there, pretty dumbstruck. I wouldn't call myself religious by any means, but a) I was raised Catholic so it does resonate with me and b) this pope is a total badass so I appreciate that.

PAPA FRANCESO ay ya sew catholic (he is in there, I swear)

The best part about just walking through Rome is that you actually stumble upon old ruins basically everywhere, and always completely on accident. There's a ruin that I found on the way to dinner with my friend Sidney and there was this sign:

hahahah wtf Rome

CATZ BABY CATZ

So basically stray cats just come and hang out there so that's pretty random/cool. Wandering is also how I found the Trevi Fountain!!! I had a guidebook my french couple lent me, but I didn't want to have my nose in a book so I basically would just read it when I was eating for something to occupy myself with so people wouldn't harass me. Dude, the thing is huge. I don't know what I was expecting really, but shit. So intricate!!! Obv threw a coin in!!! Sadly, no Italian pop star came up to me because I was the twin of his singing partner, but a street vendor told me I looked beautiful so that's basically the same thing, right???

~*I could almost kiss the stars for shining so bright*~

There's only two things I didn't do that I probably should've: the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel. I actually forgot that the Sistine Chapel was in Rome/the Vatican until dinner I had with friends from my hostel so that was pretty embarrassing. And I tried to go to the Colosseum, but it was so crowded and so many people and I just was not in the mood, you know? But it IS gorgeous lit up at night, and there a million less people around to bother you. Now I just have an excuse to go back to Rome in the spring!!! Not complaining, I for sure have way more I wish I could've done. My friend Sidney was at a bar AND SAW JORDAN TAYLOR. LIKE HE'S LIVING IN ROME. So naturally I have to come back to try and find him, as well as continue to grow intellectually or whatever.

proof I did see this beauty 

So that's a tiny lil glimpse of my time in Roma, the Eternal City!!!! I'm busy planning more trips because omg traveling is so fun and addicting and there's so many people to meet and to talk to!!! eee sorry. but I think I'll go to London in December and live my dream of Love Actually in real life, as well as something else! You guys will just have to wait and find out boom!!!

Until my next adventure!!

Sarah

I was unimpressed by the Spanish steps oops

I need to go on a rant

Can we talk about street harassment for a second? Because Jesus, it's gotten a tad bit out of control. Let's journey through my history of being harassed on da streetz.

So in high school, I was a runner (as you all know by now) and when it was hot out, I was allergic to shirts. NOT because I thought I had a rockin bod or because I was trying to seduce adolescent boys with my shirtless body (I didn't have many people I actually wanted to seduce anyways), but because running with a shirt on when it's 90 degrees and humid is straight up uncomfortable. Have you tried it? No thank you. It clings to you in all the wrong places and hurts your armpits and NO ONE likes it. This led to me and my friends getting honked at quite often on our runs--I still don't know what people try to accomplish with that. Yes, it's little, but still there.

Then I went to college and my love for heels and dresses flourished. Yes, I wear heels with dresses and skirts like most other college students. Sure, I'm tall. My natural height is not going to stop me from strapping on a pair of heels. As they say on Pinterest, if you men can't handle me at my tallest, then you for sure don't deserve to handle me at my shortest (that is what they say, right?). My love for heels, however, has drawn nasty comments from people as I have walked, with my friends (not alone so don't start that), from randoms on the street. One guy once told me that his "dick was as long as my legs" and that I would love the feeling of him in between my legs. ARE YOU SERIOUS? NO I WOULD NOT. GROSS. I do not dress for you, creepy men on the street, I dress for me. I like wearing heels and I like wearing dresses. Get over it. 

Now, I find myself in France. French men are known for being very fore-coming with what they want, which I guess is better than some of the mind games we've all been a part of in America. However, this has led to some also interesting situations here, as I've gotten chased down the street more than once by men who reallllllllly want to ask me to coffee. One guy went as far as running after me after I got away once, followed by him grabbing my phone to call himself so he could make sure he got my real number. (Don't worry, I blocked his number. We're not ever going to talk again). Yesterday, my friend Alexis and I were taking a mid-night snack of falafels and we decided to sit on a bench on the Cours Mirabeau to eat before continuing onto the next club. I'm not kidding you when I say we were legitimately swarmed by French boys. They all kept calling their friends over to look at us like we were zoo animals. Like I'm just trying to eat my falafel in peace here boys, go shave your crustaches plz for all of humanity's sake. 

Yes, all of these situations are frustrating for me. But what frustrates me even more is the reactions people have when I tell them. The year after I graduated my high school banned running without a shirt on. I can't remember what the official reason was, but to me, and my former teammates, it came off as "if anything happens to us, it's our fault for not wearing a shirt" which can easily be linked to victim blaming, which is a huge problem. After getting harassed in Madison, people would tell me to maybe not wear heels and a skirt. Well what if I want to? Why do I have to live in a world where I get harassed for wearing what I want? Why is that okay? And everyone in France tells me to be very careful because I'm a tall, blue-eyed blonde American and men will chase me down the street (which they have). But it's not like I'm doing anything out of the ordinary when I get chased down. The time the guy snatched my phone, I was literally eating a crepe and walking to class. Nothing weird. I wasn't wearing heels, a skirt, or even makeup. Just pants and a shirt like EVERYONE ELSE. Like I can be as careful as possible and I don't think much will change. SERIOUSLY how is that okay?!!!!

OKAY sorry that was longer than usual/super ranty but sometimes you just gotta get things off your chest you know? And isn't that why God invented blogs anyways? ANYWAYS I'm going to Rome next week so come back then--It's probable that I'll be mistaken as an Italian pop star and I'll have to perform in the Coliseum!! And that's gonna be good. Maybe me and my bff Gordo will also share our first kiss on the roof!1!!1!!! Idk I don't wanna jinx anything tho. Just talk to me in a week!!!

yup

au revoir guyzzz! until next week!!!!!!

Sarah

it's super obvious why i get harassed when I look like this

*cough cough* I'm sick

accurate

That's my feelings towards my body right now. You know sometimes you wake up and you feel like a million little people are jackhammering your brain apart? And so your brain starts to drip, liquid form, out your nose and you just want to cry for days? That's how I feel right now. And it is NOT fun because I have to read French and enjoy France and it's HARD when I can't even see straight because the jackhammers won't turn off.

Also, it's weird being sick without the comforts of home ie your parents there to make you soup and listen to you whine. And I don't know about yall but when I'm sick, I like my comfort sick food, which happens to be grilled cheese and tomato soup which also happens to be not a thing here. I like it because even when I can't taste, I know the taste so well it's like real eating. Yesterday was the birthday of my French guy's mama, so we went to her house for birthday festivities. They talked up how great her food was all week so naturally I was STOKED because I'm obsessed with food (in case you've somehow missed that). But when we got there yesterday, I couldn't taste anything!!! Seriously so sad. But they (my french couple) have been helping me out a lot by giving me cool natural French remedies for this! So that helps a ton. Not grilled cheese and tomato soup, but you gotta work with what you got, you know?

So in times like this, I gotta give a shoutout to the best people in the world--the people who have sent me letters recently which I've read a lot the past two days to cheer myself up. You guys rock and I'm so happy to have you my life yay!!!! Someone tell my grandma she made it on my blog!!! Also maybe explain what a blog is...?

My wonderful grandma

My fave man in the world

MONEDAWG

HUBEZZZZ

I'm off to dose up on my Emergen-C (don't worry, the costco size made the maiden voyage with me) and sleep my sickness away (hopefully). I just felt like checkin in with you guys. Call me, beep me, if ya wanna reach me! I'd loooooove to hear from you! Yes, you! It's easy to make my day, I promise.

With love,
A 50% Sarah (and Regina George)