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Archive for March, 2007

My Trip to Paris, Part I

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

            Spring Break 2007 was definitely one to remember; Paris is a beautiful city with a ton of awesome stuff in it.  There were 10 of us maybe I’m not sure I didn’t do a head count, because quite frankly I wasn’t too concerned!  I saw so many wonderful things that I don’t even know where to begin or what was the best part.  I think the entire trip was a great time, although it had its ups and downs.  I learned a lot about:  my fellow classmates, teachers, community members, and people from all over the world. 

 
            When we first landed in Paris, I think I had culture shock, everything is so different yet similar to things here in the states.  Yes, the states, I’ve never referred to where I live as the states before so that was quite different.  One of the many people selling things on the street, think Polexs in New York, asked me where I was from and I replied “America”.  I guess I wasn’t technically wrong, but then he asked, “Canada? Brazil? United States?” and I kind of felt weird about it.  So maybe through my journey to Paris I have a better understanding of where I’m from, maybe?  I’m not sure.

 
            I took a ton of pictures, which I am still going through, and need to upload soon.  My camera didn’t take very good night pictures so I’m a little upset about that.  I also went through 12 “double As” in a week, so I’m researching new cameras because it is time for a new one.  I want to get a camera with a rechargeable battery.  It was a lot of fun taking pictures, but I don’t think pictures do a lot of things I saw justice; it is just overwhelming the amount of history they have in France. The Louvre was amazing!

 
            The sites, sounds, and smells of Paris were remarkable, but I truly feel that the people of Paris and the world that I saw there was the most interesting part.  This was my first time out of the “States” and I realize that we, Americans, are an interesting breed.  I really felt that we stood out, just by the way we walked down the street – and how loud we were, that we were Americans.  Everyone was speaking so many different languages:  French, English, German, Japanese, etc etc.  It was truly a melting pot of cultures in Paris.  I imagine back in the early 1900s or even earlier when a lot of people immigrated to America it was like that.

 
            I’m writing this blog in parts, so to update the last part I wrote, some pictures have been uploaded to flickr and please view my last post for them. :)   I would do it all again in a heartbeat, because it was such a great experience.  I miss Paris, but I shall return one day and be reunited.

 To be continued…

Spring Break 2007 Photos

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

Site Relaunch

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

So after much downtime on my site I decided to redo things. I was tired of trying to write my own blog software and photo software, so I went with:

The installation of these software packages was a great experience; it had some hitches but went over fairly decent. I also hacked Zenphoto to use my WordPress Theme – which I kind of enhanced the classic WordPress Theme to accommodate what I wanted. Also installed the Zenpress plug-in for WordPress so I can easily add images to my posts. :-)

There are still things on the site that need to be finalized such as:

  • The WordPress Theme
  • Photo Integration

I’m going to add a del.icio.us plug-in sometime to display my del.icio.us bookmarks. yum.

I guess I’m fairly excited, ok very, that my France Spring Break is only one week away! I’m also pretty scared.

Farewell,

Brent

fifth-poise

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