Russie does the getting married thing!

So last Sunday the weather here in Okazaki was absolutely GORGEOUS! For serious gorgeous! It was one of those days in which the idea of being inside just kind of makes you want to go crazy (my dad, I am given to understand, has these days almost every day, but for me, they are quite rare). Soooo, after I got off work (yes, I had to work even though it was Sunday; no day is sacred anymore), I decided to take the day off of life and friends and school and work and have a day, just me and the sun.

This of course started with me doing laundry (I was going to do it Saturday, but it decided to rain all day) - luckily, was able to talk a walk around the lake while the laundry thing was happening. Then I went for a little hike on the mountain before heading over to the park to do some homework and read. With my friend the sun.

I'm really nervous about the fact that Healthy Mate has started selling organic vegan ice cream - it's entirely possible that I am now going to want to eat it everyday. WHY do I have to have such a sweet tooth?

Then I met up with Martin for a little walk around the park

and we found this weird walking panda thing.

And the park was beautiful!

Anyhow, so I had a LOVELY time state side for Russell's wedding!!!!

When I got to California (early, I might add), I was able to meet mom and Donald directly at their gate, and then we met up with Grammers and Grampers down by the baggage claim, and it was a happy reunion!

That night was the welcome dinner, and, despite my jet lag, it was lovely! It was SO good to see everyone, and I had a fabulous time, even if I did have to leave around 9 to find sleep.

There were many comments on how overly skinny and terrible I looked (which I guess means I did), but I suppose that's to be expected given that I was practically falling asleep in my food.

What's important is that Russell and Miranda looked fabulous and happy!

Russie and Miranda opening a wedding gift at the dinner

The next morning I woke up early, as my mother thought it was appropriate to wake up at, like 5, and start chattering away. This was okay. There was lots to do! I somehow managed to get to San Diego with next to no shoes, so we had to go shoe shopping! And, happiness of all happiness, Abbie and Evan decided to come down from Los Angeles to say Hello!

We went to Loving Hut, and the food was delicious, and Evan was happy to learn about the supreme awesome weirdness that is Supreme Master Ching Hai. Though our time together was short, I was more than thrilled to be able to see Abbie again. And to meet the soon to come baby. I still can't believe she's pregnant!

And then, that night, the wedding. On the bay. Absolutely GORGEOUS! And then I ate 6 cupcakes.
I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The happy couple with Mom!

Russell walks down the aisle

Me and Krist with Grammers and Grampers

me and Donnie

The girls with their Daddyo

Grandpa did the wedding ceremony!

The next day we got up for a bay cruise, which WOULD have been super fun had I not had to go off and get all motion sick like. The whole fam was there, though, so despite the sickness, I had a great time, and Donald helped a lot by sitting on the deck in the fresh air with me when I needed.

Getting bay cruise ready with Krist!

Donald goes all Titanic

We got to go see the famous sea lions! They were so cute!

Sadly, this picture of Dad and Tina turned out blurry. :-( Still, I think it's cute!

That night we got delicious Thai food, and even though I got us lost (despite having the GPS right in front of me the whole way there), we had a great time, and the Thai food was mega delish!

Next day: San Diego zoo tour!

The whole gang in the hummer limo on the way there

Dad and Tina seal with little children seals

I look more like an elephant than the elephant bush, right?

Apparently the span of our arms is about the wing span of a vulture

Shawn feeds Russie giraffe. I wish there had been actual giraffes so that you could see how much more Russell looks like an actual giraffe than a giraffe does.

The caged animals were somewhat sad, but for the most part their habitats all seemed very comfortable, and all of the animals were SO cute! I realized recently, though, that I am OBSESSED with turtles. I don't know when this happened - every time I see a turtle, I find that my feelings for turtles grow, and now it has gotten to the point in which I absolutely find them to be the cutest animal in the entire world. So I was really hoping to get to see a giant turtle (and the best would have been to see a giant turtle in the process of eating lettuce), but I was unfortunately disappointed.

Saying goodbye next to the flamingos

Still, the zoo tour was fabulous.

After, we went on a little driving tour, and we got some reinactments of the kiss statue (it's apparently based on a famous picture that I'd never heard of before)



Anyhow, so that was San Diego. Tina pretty much planned the whole wedding, so a HUGE thanks to Tina for making it a seriously awesome trip! I know she put a lot of hard work into it, and that definitely did NOT go unappreciated!

The next day - after some hassling from the baggage people (seriously, I am SO over the way the high terrorist threat is taking away my flying freedoms), I hopped on a plane with Kristen and Shawn to make our way to Colorado!

But this is already super long, so that will have to be for another time!

(Oh, also, I'll make a wedding photo album on Picasa sometime soon - maybe - and then come back and post the link here)

Les visiteurs

So I have been meaning to update this for AGES, but somehow laziness always wins out over good intentions (or blog updating intentions, at least, if we can call them good). I can't help but wonder if anyone will actually ever read my blog anymore or think to read it anymore, given that I am SO bad at keeping it updated. But I mean, I have books to read and Smallville, Cardcaptor Sakura, Death Note, Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl, the Secret Life of the American Teenager, and Privileged to watch. Not to mention Japanese homework to work on and Nintendo DS and Wii to play. Oh and, of course, my job. How can I forget about that? As you can all tell, I am a VERY busy person.

Now, though, I want to write about what a GREAT time I had with Alex here with his girlfriend Janet and then with my mother, grandmother, and sister here.
It was SO good to have them all here, and I am still super sad that they are no longer here.


Alex and Janet arrived on Friday, and I got to hang out with them most of Friday and all of Saturday. It was so good to catch up - and I'm so excited that he's moving away from icky Boston and back to fantabulous New York City where he will be interning in a hospital.



When Mom, Kristen, and Grandma all arrived on Sunday morning, we ate some cupcakes (oishii desu!!!!) and then headed over to Versailles. I thought I had never been, but it all seemed so familiar when I got there, and Kristen informed me that we did, indeed, go to Versailles when we came to France in high school.



On Monday morning, we (= me, Mom, Kristen, and Grandma without Alex and Janet) left super early for Annecy, which is a small fairy-tale-esque city situated right in the heart of the French Alps and at the edge of Provence.




We unfortunately had to walk up a huge hill to get to where we were stay, but it was worth it for the adorable little gite we stayed in and the view of Annecy's castle right next door. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday there, and it was a GREAT vacation! We cooked delicious vegan food, and Mom, Kristen, and Grandma ate crepes every day. On Tuesday morning there was the Annecy market, so we bought juice and olive oil and cheese (not for me, bien sur!) and soup (vegan, ohhh yeah!) and had a lovely lunch sitting in the sun by the river. There was a very persistent bird that sat by us eating the cheese that Mom, Krist, and Grandma threw at him but that wanted nothing to do with the bread.

(I know that this picture is the wrong way, but I can't get Guillaume's computer to do anything about it, so it will have to be changed later)
After lunch, we spent time by the lake and went shopping and met up with my friend Lauren, who was living there at the time. Kristen was going to be having a fake patio party, so we tried on dresses.

Kristen, Audrey, Grandma, Mom, and Lauren in faux patio party dresses

On Wednesday, we had a lazy morning and then spent some more time shopping (and I discovered that Zara actually does sell fairly cheap clothes that I would actually be interested in wearing - shocking!!) and then got fantastic (but unfortunately expensive) massages. It felt so nice to be pampered. Night times there were also super fun - we played games like MASH and wrote lists of questions that everyone had to answer. We learned lots of fun facts about everyone - for example, I learned that Mom's favorite singer is Phil Collins with Peter Cetera (ohhh yeah!) coming in second. And And that Kristen hates having water in her face. And lots of interesting facts about Grandma (that I'm not sure she would appreciate me posting in my blog) as well.



We got back to Paris late on Wednesday night, and Alex and Janet had cooked us a delicious dinner. They had worked on the impossipuzzle while we were gone. I had started this thing a while ago, and I only managed to get some of the border done and a very little bit of the inside. Almost all of the pieces look and are shaped exactly the same. They made some progress - they completed the border and some of the inside. I have been working on it since.

Then I unfortunately had to go to work super early on Thursday. Krist, Mom, and Grammers went to Pere Lachaise, and then when I got home we all had a pilates lesson together. Grandma does yoga, so she was a little nervous about trying out the pilates, but I think she loved it in the end. Afterwars we spent some time in a little outdoor market, where Mom bought a delicious smelling lavender sachet and Grandma tried on these fantastic bendy necklaces (there seems to be no picture :-( ) and Kristen and I tried on lovely hats. Then we got some delicious starbucks vegan mint hot chocolate. Mieum!


Sadly, Kristen then had to leave on Friday right when I got home from work. :-( So we sent Kristen off and then headed over to les Champs-Elysees. We saw l'arc de triomphe and walked down the street that has all of the haute couture stores on it (Mom has these pictures, and I unfortunately don't have them yet). We saw la place de la concorde and les tuileries and then I left Mom and Grandma to explore the Louvres while I went home and cooked us dinner.

On Saturday, Grandma was unfortunately not feeling so well, so she stayed home and rested while Mom and I explored St-Michel and Notre Dame and l'hotel de Ville and le Marais went tourist shopping. We somehow managed to run out of time before heading over to the Eiffel Tower, as we had to get back quickly to go have dinner with Guillaume's parents. It was, of course, delicious, and Guillaume's dad happened to have just put on Phil Collins, which we now know to be Mom's favorite. On our way back, we had to do a quick drive by of the Eiffel Tower so Mom could get out, as she had never seen it before, and you can't come to Paris and not see the Eiffel Tower:

Anyhow, this is getting ridiculously long, so I guess that's it. Mom and Grandma left Sunday morning, and I was sad. The end.

While I Was Home: Lafayette

So, I am getting behind myself here, unfortunately. So much has happened, and I really want to write about it, but I also really wanted to write about my whole trip home. And I just keep having so much trouble finding time to write.

So first - Lafayette. On Saturday, Mom and I decided to go down to Lafayette. Donald has moved there for school, and since Russell was in Baton Rouge, he and Miranda were going to be able to meet up with us there. And of course Aunt Debbie lives there, so we were hoping to be able to see her as well.
We met up with Russell, Donald, Miranda, and Missi for lunch - a sushi restaurant. For some reason, the WHOLE family seems to just adore sushi, with the exception of me. Which is weird, because I'm the one who LOVES Japan. It was sooooo good to see everyone! And it was great to get to spend some time with my mother in the car on the way there and back.

Living in France, we hardly ever get to see each other, and I pretty much only get to talk to her while she is at work because of the time difference. I miss her! :-)
At the sushi restaurant, the brothers, of course, decided to eat baby octopus:

It was really the most disgusting thing ever, as you can see from the picture. I really don't know how they did it.
But oh, they did.


Maybe I am wrong, but I really think that Russell enjoyed it more than Donald.

Aunt Debbie came and joined us at the restaurant for a bit, and it was good to see her. Afterwards, we went to see Donald's new apartment, which was awesome. It seems like he is doing SO well, and I was so glad to see it. He put on awesome music (some Operation Ivy, oh yeah!), and the apartment was covered with posters of Bob Marley. We talked about Russell and Miranda's potential move to North Carolina and looked at houses that they were going to be looking at. Apparently they have now found a house, but I actually have no idea where it is. As in North Carolina or Louisiana or some other state. Hmmmm. . .

So after the apartment, Russell and Miranda went back to Baton Rouge, and Missi, Mom, and I went to Target, and I found seasons 4 and 5 of Smallville on mega sale. Happiness. I also discovered that they are rereleading L.J. Smith's the Secret Circle. More happiness.

Anyhow, great times were had, and it was fantastic to see Mom and the brothers. And now, it is Guillaume's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GUILLAUME!!!!), and there is celebrating to be done.