females.

yes the woman is a wonderful enigma to us all.

being a woman (one of the only times i will refer to myself as one...i'm still stuck in the mindset of being a person, a girl, an individual...a woman is what my mother and grandmother are) i still find it a task to explore the workings of a female mind. Not to discredit the opposite sex and not to say that we are SO very, but there are differences between the two.

however, though that plays such a major and minor role in many peoples lives i find that this work of fiction is something that can truly please the masses.

MY BRILLIANT CAREER.

i have not even reached the halfway mark in this novel and have already so many questions and so much interest in the outcome of the prose. if this could be any hint of how rich the writer, a famous Australian writer: Miles Franklin, expresses herself let it be so:

"I was discontented and restless, and longed unendurably to be out in the stream of life. 'Action! Action! Give me action!' was my cry. My mother did her best with me according to her lights. She energetically preached at me. All the old saws and homilies were brought into requisition, but without avail. It was like using common nostrums on a disease which could be treated by none but a special physician."

do yourself a favor...try this book when you get the next hankering for a more than amazing female author who could definitely have taught her peers a few lessons.

In the Spirit!

so i'm quite positive that we have all know about and have seen the lovely, little, handy-dandy notebook known as moleskine.

you know::: notes, quotes, pockets for everyday paraphernalia you deem it necessary to keep, jotting down those music threads that might escape you, and hell even pulling out your watercolors for the little wonders...

well for a while now i've seen the little “city notebooks” that they seem to be selling at the Strand in New York (highly recommended if you've never been...hours have been spent there!) every Barnes and Noble...well since they came out.

and finally...
finally!

i found a reason to purchase one!
...though it is not for me...

in the spirit of giving and really wanting a friend who is coming to visit me soon in boston (once i return from my excursions of which he will be a part from serbia through london) to thoroughly enjoy this town for what it is...i decided to get him one. I also cleverly disguised the city notebook for boston amongst a cute little book about berlin art, getting around germany, and vanity fair (no, not the magazine). i went up to the counter to ask the salesgirl where vanity fair was in the bookstore and she gave me a completely blank stare and pointed to the magazines. i then suggested that i was looking for the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray (what a name!) and she totally snapped out of her daze and took me to where it was. in my own attempts to try to get insights into other cultures i like to try and read a classic piece of literature, famous author, or novel set in the place that i will be visiting. its really a nice way of making sure i get the classics that interest me (more so than most contemporary literature) read and thought about the country/city/region i will be heading to a bit more.

i'm so excited...the city notebook for boston sounds and looks and feels (?) so promising! Plus, the real deal-maker for me was the fact that the maps even show::::

MY NEIGHBORHOOD!

huzzah! so...thank you moleskine for recognizing my neighborhood.

and now it is time to finish preparing things before I head out in T-minus 3 days and counting. still awaiting suggestions for Frankfurt, Munchen, Budapest, Berlin, Koln, London, Serbia!

BONUS:::
some favorites/books that I have read in the past /am reading for some of the adventures that i've made/will be making:::

-The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson -read before going to the Caribbean, Guadeloupe, to work on an excavation, drink rum, and be in the hot hot heat

-Solitude, Victor Catala and The City of Marvels, Eduardo Mendoza -read before going to Barcelona, city of wonder!, on two separate occasions

-The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway -read before going to Spain at a different time.

-The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho -read before taking a jaunt to Marrakech, Morocco

-Faust Books 1&2, Goethe -have read before i take this journey to Frankfurt (where Goethe was from)

-”Deutschland,” Heinrich Heine -of which i posted last summer and am glad to have read before taking this excursion!

huzzah!

I have finally finished my third year at Boston University. I had my third final today in LF 455: the Nineteenth Century French Novel. It FEELS fantastic. I took a nice little bike ride to celebrate being finished. It is the official first night of summer tonight!

It's always nice to have a feeling of completion -an end to a fantastic year. However, the things I always look forward to are the free time for the people I care about and the projects I have put off because of the daily grind and the work demands for classes. But the thing I really look forward to the most about summer: reading the books I really want to. I already have the first three set up and I CANNOT wait. They are:


These have been on my waiting list to read for a long time and I will begin Deutschland tomorrow.

Additionally, I get to have my first "official" training day at my new job tomorrow. I am now employed at a shoe boutique on Newbury for a Spanish shoe company called Camper. I'm pretty excited about it. The company is really cool, I know I will have fun, and I really love the shoes (which is cool because I get free pairs like these!).


Anyways, I hope all of you are enjoying your weekend as I now am. Don't forget to call your mothers tomorrow since its their day and all. Time to celebrate the commencement of summer.