Château de Chantilly

I went here with the international club at Ieseg (my school)... I didn't want to go but I didn't have anything else to do... plus a couple people (one of which didn't show up) seemed like they wanted me to come. I spent the majority of the day with Maria, a girl from Estonia. She's pretty nice and doesn't seem to be compelled to talk non-stop... so I felt pretty comfortable around her.

This castle was completely destroyed during the Revolution. Having said that, isn't it amazing that you can still see it? Somebody decided to rebuild the thing. And that is about all I remember about this castle. It was nice. I'm a little disappointed though, they had a kangaroo farm there and I didn't get to see it. I didn't realize it was there until it was too late. They also had a horse museum (or something of that sort) with real horses.





It was pretty neat as it had water surrounding the whole castle. It was built on a rock.
















I think this is where the stables were.

























































The initials of the owner: Henri d'Orleans.

















I just have to say that I love this picture... it is by far the coolest one I took at this place.

A Dry New Years

I WANT YOU...

to have a Happy New Year...

I think it's apparent that this blog brings out embarrassingly new levels of cheesiness in me. I don't quite know what to do about it.

Anyhow, for those of you that don't know, Georgia has a wonderful law that doesn't allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays. Because of my poor planning, I didn't make the connection that New Year's Eve was on a Sunday this year and we had nothing to drink for this celebration. It was a dry party. So make note of the lack of cups and alcoholic beverages in all these pictures. I did, however, go to Target and buy "A Party in a Box" for twelve people. Well, there was only five of us...so we had double the fun... with no alcohol and no food.

Look at the stuff all over the place, clearly it was a wild party.











Me, Johannah, and Emily










They look drunk, but they're perfectly sober.

















There is simply no excuse for such behavior.


























Lindy Lou, my parents dog, is the only one that maintained her composure. This was her first new years... it was also the first time she had to go up and down a set of stairs... which was pretty humerous.







Just a little side-note:
I leave in two days for France... and I still don't have my visa... I'm freaking out!!!

Christmas Lights

Since most of you can't ride around with me to look at them...

Most of us saw this one last year, set to the Trans-Syberian Orchestra (or something like it, I'm not really sure):


Set to the THX & Pixar theme:


And in case you just *need* to see some more videos with Christmas lights synched up to music, here ya go:


Merry Christmas!

The Ikya Lamp Series...

Yep. Things I do when I start to get bored...

Christmas Party with Frank

For the past four years, I've gone to these Christmas parties with Frank at the Capital City Club here in Atlanta. A fine opportunity to enjoy good company, good food, and good wine.

I don't really like this picture, but its the best one I have from the Christmas party with Frank.

This one, from 2004 is waay cuter.

So Frank is my boss. If it wasn't for his help and patience, I'm not sure I would have made it through my undergrad. This much is true. Hopefully, he'll let me work for him again over the summer....

Happy Thanksgiving

This is about as fancy things get at my house. My brother-in-law was quick to comment on how the silverware actually matched this year.

On the menu this year:

Turkey & Gravy, Macaroni & Cheese, Mashed Potatoes, Mushroom Barley (mmmm), Squash Cassarole, Yale Beets, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans with Almonds, Fresh Cranberry Sauce, Jello Salad, and Key Lime Pie. And of course, Sweet Tea.

I would just like to say that I was thankful that my brother, Darren, couldn't make it this year so we could put mushrooms in everything. It was so tasty.

I think this is the first year I got to grate cheese with one of those "new-fangled electric cheese graters."













You could not imagine my excitement. I've been grating cheese and peeling potatoes since I was five years old. I'm quite bitter that Ted hasn't taken over these duties yet.

In short, this is me at my "highest and best use" when it comes to cooking.





The turkey...







I'm talking about the one on the right...





Eeeeww....























We were somewhat comatose after the dinner. Marc looks like he was on some serious drugs...it was just turkey...I swear...




The newest addition to the family. This is Eli Wilson Paden. I'll try to give him a proper introduction later.



This was his first Thanksgiving...and he looks a bit scared... I think he was a bit upset that he isn't allowed to eat solid foods yet...


My face looked like his when I saw how much my dad was eating...

Eli and my Dad. It seems his mood still hasn't improved.

Lille

Quite honestly, I've been kind of lazy since I've been in Lille. It's now Thursday...the only day I walked around the city was on Tuesday. I have no good excuse for this behavior. I'm just taking it easy and enjoying the fact that I don't have to do much of anything right now.

Here are some pictures of Flo's apartment, these are especially for my sister who could never imagine having a refrigerator that small... she wouldn't know what to do.















If I were nice, I would take some other pictures of his apartment to show that its really not *that* bad. But I'm not nice. So this is what you get.




So, here are some pictures of Lille.








The Opera House








They are having an Indian Cultural Exhibit in the city right now. This is something that they do every 2 years...they pick a country and honor its culture, music, and art. I think this is only the second time they've done this.















Here's Lille's newest train station:


Well, correction: the train station is at the bottom, that big building is a bank.
















This is the side of some HUGE mall.

Another correction:

this is attached to a mall...but if you go inside this part, you'll be in an office, or school, or hotel...

Bruxelles

It should be of no surprise that we got lost repeatedly in Bruxelles as well. I had this brilliant idea that we should drive to our next destination rather than take the metro, since we'd get to see more of the city that way. What a mistake that was! It seems that Belgium doesn't embrace the usage of signs quite like France does. We were lost. When we tried to leave the city, we got lost.

Bruxelles is home to the European Commission and to the Council of the European Union. Their Parliament is also held here occassionally. Apparently, I didn't find these buildings interesting enough to take pictures of them. The famous building, I saw first at Mini-Europe...and then we walked passed it when we were trying to make it back to the car.

Aside from getting lost, we did make it to the Atomium.

Its quite large. Oddly enough, there was a barbie exhibit inside it. Flo was thrilled. This is the view from Mini-Europe.















This is inside one of those tube-thingies.

















Standard bad pictures of us. This is a requirement for all blogs, I've noticed.
















So yeah, we went to mini-europe. Initially thinking it would be really cheesy and lame....it was most definitely CHEESY...Flo acted like a five year old in there. I have more pictures of Mini-Europe than anywhere else we went in Belgium.

Some hot babes on the beach - miniature style. This one's for you, Roberto!


Mini-Chenonceau...I got to see the real one over the summer.





Here we have the real, full-sized Bruxelles. I saw the miniature ones before saw the real thing. We were looking for these buildings the night before, we must have been 6 blocks away from them.

Brugge

Here we have Brugge. Located in Belgium, it is a city that dates back to the Romans. A major trading port until a nasty storm changed the shoreline. Known as "The Venice of the North." A city where nearly everybody speaks three languages: Flemish, French and English.


This the center of town, the market place. Something that is odd...there is a Belfry...but its not a church. This is the town's city hall.

It seemed like there were bells chiming every five minutes in this town as this is not the only belltower in the city. There are something like 30 churches in the area...I can think of about 5 of them that I know had bells. It was quite nice and charming. This belltower played a part of different songs every fifteen minutes, one of which was by Beethoven.

We took a tour of the belltower. It is 83 meters high (272 feet). It has 47 bells inside it, and 366 steps. As you got closer and closer to the top, the stairs got smaller and narrower. It was scary. A lawsuit just waiting to happen!





Some inner-workings of a huge clock.




















The view from the top.











Brugge at its finest! Things that you see just walking around the place.






















They had some crazy names for all their streets. Not to mention that their roads were so confusing, we got lost any time we went any where. I say this without exageration. EVERY SINGLE TIME WE GOT LOST.



THEY HAVE CHOCOLATE BOOBS. Any place that has chocolate boobs can't be that bad, right?



















Next we have the Welcome Church of Our Lady...which houses the "Madonna & Child" by Michaelangelo.

























You can click on any of the pictures and they will get big. Real big.

Also, some links to learn more about Brugge, in case you're interested:

Official Brugge Tourism Site...

Wikipedia - Brugge