{la petite princesse}

is this pointless or is it just me? i love the luxe goods too, but come on!
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spring has sprung! it's apparent that the seasonal gods have finally laid the smackdown on winter; warm weather, sun, twittering birds & blooming flowers have taken over in frankfurt! thanks to the time change (in europe this past sunday, in the usa later on, i think) it is no longer dark out when i leave work, and it was so perfectly beautiful out yesterday evening as i walked through the park in front of my apartment building, i half-expected bambi to burst out of the lush green foliage.

but spring also brings a fever with it-- one that causes daydreaming, a strong desire to skip carefree through flowery meadows (think monet) wearing this seasons' new short sleeves and skirts, and intense procrastination, apathy, and lack of discipline. and, ummm, on that note, i'm going to get back to work...
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fellow intern dan & i just got back from a much-needed "kaffeepause," courtesy of that lovely machine that concocts complimentary beverages to give my fellow works and i enough energy to forget that we work 16 hours a day. i never thought i would become a coffee-drinker, but you heard it here first: God bless the café au lait & cappuccino.

actually, the reason i needed caffeine today was because i had much fun with friends allison & brittany last night! we met up at the börsenplatz starbucks (i felt it was symbolic of the globalization of germany & my world-travelling friends needed a little amerikanisches tlc by way of frappuccino) and walked around by the hauptwache & alte oper (p.s., also noticing to my horror that one of my favorite attractions, the gigantic light-up soccer ball commemorating world cup victory in the square a few weeks ago is gone!). we had dinner at a converted station place (sampling frankfurter äbblewein & grüne sosse) and had some great conversations. afterwards we strolled to my apartment, looked at digital photos & talked.

eventually it was time to part ways as their youth hostel was going to close for the evening, but i had a wonderful time with allison & brittany and cannot wait to see them again! both are doing so well in copenhagen and i am impressed with their attitudes & adventures! girls, come back and visit anytime! hopefully see you in copenhagen soon!

in related good news, two more friends from copenhagen/iu arrive on thursday: adam and rael. will be a fun few days with them as well (p.s. your girlfriend ratted you out adam, i know what you're planning and it's not gonna work! haha) :)
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the oracle of starbucks says that i am "high maintenance"... ain't no shame...
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part II...but the fun doesn't stop there! when i got back into frankfurt, i received a call that brittany & allison (who are studying abroad in copenhagen, denmark this term) had arrived with their class trip in the city!! i took a quick cab over to their hotel & was finally reunited with my lovely friends! it was soooo great to see them!

the three of us & a friend of the girls found the only restaurant/bar open in germany on a sunday night and spent a few great hours catching up & laughing in the cozy pub (and allison had her first german kristallweizen!) at 1am i had to head back but we are going to meet up again tonight when i get done with work (we are appropriately going to meet up at the starbucks in front of the deutsche börse/stock exchange) & go from there.

how fortunate i have been this weekend to meet up with so many close friends & receive emails from other good friends when i got into work this morning! :) have a great week, everyone!
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i hope everyone had a great weekend! lots of friends travelling for the past few days: claire in toronto, nick at duke, mom & danielle at hope college, dad in los angeles, molly in italy, and allison & brittany in... frankfurt!! (will get to this one in a moment)...

i took the train down to münchen on friday night after work, arriving with bag of skis, boots, hiking backpack of gear, and vogue magazine at midnight. met up with good friends norman & joe but called it an early evening (2am) as norman & i were going skiing the next morning. we woke up early on saturday morning & left his awesome münich apartment with the periwinkle-colored "cadet" to drive to the salzburg region of austria where we had planned to go skiing. en route, after crossing into austria, we decided to go to innsbruck (just south of salzburg & slightly north of italy) instead. so we drove to the town, stopped at a gas station and asked where we should ski. the attendant pointed us towards the glaciers & off we went, following signs on the autobahn. after having purchased lift tickets to the stubaier gletscher (p.s. how is it possible to pay only €28 for the best day of skiing in my life??) we drove the winding mountain paths to the foot of the gondola, which we would take up to the summit.

after the spectacular 15 minute ride to the top, norman & i found ourselves above the clouds on the glacier. i cannot describe how beautiful this place is. i can only say that God undoubtedly lives there. the only things in sight are rows and rows of rocky mountain peaks, a low blanket of clouds, sheets of snow as smooth as icing, and snowflakes in the air glittering in the sun. the day could not have been better. snow was perfect, sun blazing & company great. i haven't experienced skiing like this since we lived in switzerland years ago. see the livecam

we skiied the entire day, braved the moguls & powder, & through some hard battles with slopes realized that the mountain always wins. unfortunately the resort closed at 4pm, so we sulkily took the gondola back down to base camp (and reality), posed for some championship photos, loaded the gear & after debating driving to italy for dinner, wisely decided to drive back via innsbruck. we toured the town a little bit & then got back on the autobahn. we were back in münich within two hours & after a lovely dinner, we both fell sound asleep.

the next morning norman & i met up with our friend hiroko & three of her german friends, had a fun sunday brunch (enjoying great company & speaking german) & walked through münich's englischer garten taking advantage of the sun and spring weather. at 4, it was time for me to catch my train back to frankfurt. i was sad to go but had loved the visit!

am now slightly sunburned, feeling more fit & extremely happy :) what a weekend!
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i hope everyone has a great weekend! am off to visit n.g. in münchen/münich this weekend & plan on skiing tomorrow somewhere in southern bavaria :) also wonderful, brittany, allison & rael are coming to frankfurt on sunday night! can't wait to see them sunday evening & monday night!!

leave a message & will catch y'all on monday :)
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weekly bizarre quiz update! "which book of the Bible are you?" i thought this was nice! i am the proverbs! :)

but not to disappoint, here's another one! "which old school nickelodeon show are you?" "clarissa explains it all" still speaks to my heart, but i totally loved this gameshow!! yay early 90s!!


You are GUTS. You love to be "xtreme"
and you love peril. You probably enjoy a good
sip of Gatorade now and then, too.
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many thanks to miss allison for being so sweet & offering to register in certain classes for me & then dropping them so she could save a space for me in them!! so kind! (see registration hysteria from yesterday)

good news! the hoosiers do take fast action (but maybe not on the basketball court)... the nice lady at the registrar's office has written to me that she is "reinstating" me into the system & that within a week, I will have a registration spot "that is fitting for a student with 111 credit hours"-- so maybe will get in classes after all!

the scary question is, what would have happened if i had waited until april to ask about reg. problems instead of starting out in february? eeek!
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congratulations in advance to claire & joe!!
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well, i have to say, my university has finally shocked me: apparently, i have not been an iu student this entire spring semester, and have instead been (in their eyes), missing-in-action... because although i am currently completing an internship/co-op semester, i was never registered for spring term. so that´s why i never got registration information. which makes me look like an idiot. because apparently registering with our infamous "business placement office" for an internship semester isn´t the same thing as actually registering for an internship semester. if that makes sense.

so now i don´t get university-acknowledgment that i was over in frankfurt working for six months (which is ultimately fine, because you can bet it'll still be on my résumé). but it may also mean that i have to register for senior-level courses (with small class sizes, might i add) at the same time as the freshys do... and we all know what that means. oh, and i'm sure there will be a few more curve-balls thrown in there somehow...

three weeks, 47 emails between academic advisor and myself, 4 long-distance international phone calls to the registrar´s office, 11 emails to it services, and 3 conversations with overseas studies have finally culminated in this conclusion. thanks, bloomington, thank you very much.

the m.i.a. student has returned.
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good news about orlaaando, courtesy of nick & imdb... now if they could only find some way to work jude law into it as well...
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"resist the swoosh" ... charming nytimes story with a new view on college basketball:)
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me: if carrie bradshaw can be 'the old woman who lived in her shoes,' can i live in my handbags?
mom: you know, you can measure your whole life in your handbags
me (scrutinizing collection): ... and now, the question is, are we moving on up or just getting cheap?
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the mobile-text-message mystery has been solved, thanks to adam s.:

"Do you really think I was sober enough to
dial anything on sant patricks day, after all I am 0% irish."
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andrew sullivan had a brilliant response to jayson blair´s book (former new york times reporter who fabricated dozens of stories, took two top editors down with him & dreadfully harmed the paper´s reputation)

why should we care? it´s the nytimes! and more importantly, given that we are all desperate for quality information in these uncertain times, we should demand it!

ok, i´m done :)
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heh! so i am really embarassed that i took this quiz (which male celebrity are you going to marry?), which my friend sent me, but all the same, i thought it was terribly funny. (had both a free moment at work and bad judgement). so naturally it´s here for all three of my readers (most especially miss claire) to see:


You are going to marry Orlando Bloom. He will always treat you right and is very romantic. He will do anything for you. He is very polite and has deep brown eyes and is very good looking (which is another plus!). He can make anything cheesy look really hot (like sliding down stairs on a shield shooting arrows or wearing pointy ears for example). Congrats!!

(i didn´t write that last bit, f.y.i.)
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since this journal was set up to communicate better with friends, i have added comment links, so you can post a message to respond or just to say hi! i would lovelovelove to hear from you! just no naughty words, s'il vous plaît!

don't be shy!
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this completely made my day:

which Teen Girl Squad member are you? (reference to homestarrunner for the unenlightened)


I´m cheerleader! "SO GOOD! Heyhey, try being less
bossy though"

i'll take the hint :)
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overheard in office #3.41 of the corporate finance/m&a/health sciences division:

scene one: two interns at computers furiously researching important information on internet

jens-christian: you know what?
me: what?
jens-christian: i really like the name glaxosmithkline.
me: me too.

end scene
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ooookay you might be bored right now, but i shall post the rest of the trip anyways. :)

day three: sadly, molly had to leave on sunday to get back to rouen, but mom & i certainly enjoyed her company! our train would depart at 5 on monday, so we decided to walk all around town, notably to the boulevard saint-germain, which we walked for several hours. had lunch at a lovely café famous for providing jean-paul sartre & his pals with refreshments a long time ago (to be repeated with n.t.?). was very nice & afterwards stumbled upon the musée du cluny, which had an amazing collection of medieval texts, statues, bowls, saucepans, keys, coats of arms, helmets, chairs, jewelry, tapestries (more on this in a moment) & daggers. was tempted to stage a swordfight right then and there.

the last (and surprising) part of the expansive exhibit was a room with five tapestries known as "the lady and the unicorn." as mom explained, the first five represented the five senses: touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell. the sixth, and most grand, is thought to represent a sixth sense, probably that of love. i cannot put into words how exquisite these were, just as i can´t do justice to any of the pieces of art or sights seen in the past few days. it´s amazing that several lifetimes were invested into the weaving of the tapestries. the beauty of each piece really is amazing.

after the cluny & more walking-around, it was time to go... went back to the gare de l'est & settled in for a six hour ride back to frankfurt. mom & i had a wonderful time in paris, and were very appreciative to be able to be there in the first place--it was truly special to be there with mama! :)
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it is a beauuuuutiful day in frankfurt! mom and i got back late last night from paris, where we spent a three-day weekend. here´s the rundown:

last friday, left work at 8:30pm, took subway home & quickly packed and then mom and i took the "nachtzug"/night train to paris, leaving from frankfurt at 10:50. because we had purchased the tickets only that morning (as is the case with last-minute trips) there were no sleeping berths available, but instead two places in a little cabin for six people. another german couple, two americans (a lady who just arrived from texas and a man stationed here in the u.s. army), mom and i stuffed ourselves into a mini room and though rather packed, it was a pleasant ride to paris (also much longer than usual as it made some extra stops). we arrived in the paris-est train station at 7am and took a taxi ride to our hotel, the normandy, which was a block from the musée du louvre & the tuileries. we enjoyed a nice breakfast there & headed to the louvre for a guided tour, courtesy of mother, who knows just about anything there is to know about art. it was wonderful to have time to walk around, appreciate both the beautiful & bizarre & hear mom´s comments. after a refreshments break, my lovely friend molly arrived! after not having seen her since august, and it was really wonderful to finally catch up in person! the three of us then toured other galleries and were enlightened by mom´s knowledge of delacroix & ingres. my contribution to the intellectual discussion included the ranking of cherubs & baby jesuses by cuteness and adding unscholarly but accurate comments about depictions of battles, baths, etc. etc.

we spent the rest of the afternoon poking around town, and later molly and i found the second starbucks to hit france (frappuccino is the same en français!) near the opera house & soaked up some américanisme, took the métro to some stores, ended up near the notre dame cathedral, met a very niiice southerner leading a bike tour (the future mr. molly w.), and had dinner with mom at a café.

the next morning, molly went off in search of a few friends (including colleen from iu/dg, who both of us hoped to meet up with), and mom & i went to the musée d'orsay, which had an amazing collection (though this description obviously doesn´t do it justice... as with the louvre, you just have to see it for yourself), & especially lovedlovedloved the renoir, manet & monet sections. both of us were happy beyond belief to be there.

we later met up with molly again at the notre dame (who had spent the morning sightseeing & in st. sulpice), and sat down among the congregation hoping to attend a mass, and-- even better-- listened to a talk/sermon by a cardinal... in french. molly and mom understood his messages of hope and peace, especially important & profound after the horrible events in madrid this past week. i tried very, very, very hard to listen and understand but the only word i picked up was "ici," meaning "here," which didn´t get me very far (later, molly: "umm, i thought i saw you nodding off a few times"). nonetheless, i conclude that it was a very important spiritual endeavor, and have since rededicated myself twofold: to iu´s "connexion" church service (more understandable for me) and to the study of french (having given an under-whelming performance in last term´s beginning french class with madame ninnan-jankovic, which in all fairness was one of 15 classes last term in germany, i plan to take français °1 next term and let molly help me with my assignments). to clarify, by the way, i am aware that the fact this site is in french makes me look like a boîte à outils :)

day 3 updated later...
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say what you want about martha, but i still admire her.

good things (no pun intended) from this nytimes article:

"When Barbara Walters interviewed Martha Stewart in November, she didn't ask what kind of tree Ms. Stewart would choose to be, as she has done before with celebrities. It would have come as no surprise if Ms. Stewart had said oak, the strongest and straightest of trees. But she probably has more in common with the apple tree, an American icon with fruit that is alternately sweet and tart and capable of turning up as an old-fashioned dumpling or a fancy tarte Tatin.
...
...Ms. Stewart's talent is not as a garden innovator, but as an appropriator, an arbiter, a distiller, a teacher. "She's done what every good educator should do, and that is to make people stretch for more than they might have originally hoped to achieve," said Marco Polo Stufano, the former director of horticulture at Wave Hill, the public garden in the Bronx. "She is fascinated by anyone who can do their job well: someone weeding, a shoemaker, a short-order cook."

Whether Ms. Stewart is being penalized for being a powerful woman is the stuff of other columns, but anyone who rises high would appear to be fair game. Perhaps it is her unflappable demeanor, digging a hole while wearing just the right Wellingtons, or extolling the glories of terra cotta that make her a target. "People who try to do their best, especially in areas where taste and aesthetics are concerned, are often pegged as snobs," Mr. Stufano said."

the last part isn´t a good thing, and although i agree that people should be punished for insider trading if found guilty (for her, yet to be determined), it´s amazing how she has been targeted, even without a verdict yet.
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another good thing frankfurt has to offer... and an interesting case study
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mother & i are going to paris this weekend! am taking monday off of work, and so will spend saturday-monday in the city! there´s nothing better than going to the musée rodin, louvre & d'orsay with an artist and most excellent companion!

also wonderful is that i will see two wonderful friends, molly and colleen! am thrilled to be with three of my favorites for a whole weekend!

o the luxury...
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happy birthday, lauren!!
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cutest email from dad ever!

1. CONGRATULATIONS
2. great idea
3. you are awesome!
Love,
c diDDy
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i am so excited & looking forward to go back in bloomington for last two semesters! happiness cemented, too, by talking with roommate yesterday & realizing again how many good things are in store for next year (this year too, but starting in august, it will be nice to have so many good friends in one place and be a little closer to other good friends scattered around)

am so anticipating fall 04/05 that i have planned out my schedule for the next year (in between job assignments) and decided to pick up a third major :)

roommate, brittany & ayako on board already, but does anyone else want to take the following: g303 (game theory), x420 (business placement office mischief--sadly no choice in the matter), l470 (bus. law class), either l250 (law for the arts), l411 (international business law), or w321: visual literacy and document design?? as you can see, i´m big on scheduling classes with people this year. :)
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mom is coming to germany today! was very excited to pick her up at the airport at 12:20, but found out from a 3am email from dad that someone on the flight from chicago was very ill and the plane had to be re-routed to boston, and from there, carry on to frankfurt. so poor mother will arrive five hours late... nothing like 14 hours on a plane for a flight that usually only takes eight... still, better safe than sorry, eh?
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victory at the office! call me research-sensei!
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new german phrase, courtesy of fellow "praktikant" jens-christian:

[es war] "als tiger gesprungen und als bettvorleger angekommen"

it jumped up like a tiger and landed as a rug... what i think this means is that an idea or project started off very strongly but ended up flatly. we had a bit of trouble communicating the idea correctly, i think, but you get the idea. :)

p.s. great new german word: "kaffeeschwein" (coffee-pig, apparently? f.y.i. not applied to moi)
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decision-making is not my strong suit (though it always has to be done) and today made the spontaneous announcement of a decision that was important to me and made a while ago (but never finalized or formally announced). now that that´s done, it´s very nice to know that one is supported :)

very nice email from roommate & dad-- thanks!
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monday morning, am back at work in frankfurt. i had a wonderful weekend in sasbachwalden, a small town near achem and baden-baden in the schwarzwald (black forest) region in southern germany. i visited some family-friends who i adore and had a great time! i was so glad to spend time with them and it was nice to get out of the city for a while and be in this beautiful area.
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this is brilliant! i love japan!
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for danielle, especially: "for these men, lots of guts but little glory"-- great nytimes story about male practice players on top women´s basketball teams.

"I remember my first day, I was afraid I was going to hurt somebody because they're girls, plus they're famous girls from national television," Mike Harrington, another UConn practice player, said. "Next thing I knew, I was lying on my back. If you don't watch out, these girls will run right over you."
...
"I love it when one of our guys gives one of the girls a shot in the ribs and pushes her out of the way to get a rebound," UConn Coach Geno Auriemma said. "I've noticed that when the ball goes to the other end, I often see that same guy coming out of the pack with one hand over his eye where he got whacked. I just crack up. It's not about a girl playing a guy, it's about two kids asserting themselves as basketball players."
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umm... does anybody know how to put pictures in here? desipite having taken two computer classes (one about html and xml), i apparently don´t know quite how it works...

if you are a computers genius, please send wisdom to cnconsta@indiana.edu thank you!
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this is an amazing article in today´s new york times. it demonstrates journalism at it´s best: looking at a topic (in this case, the war in iraq) from a unique angle-- here, from the perspective of body-washers who prepare the deceased for a proper muslim burial.
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"alles ist so unendlich einfach, so unendlich schön" - friedensreich hundertwasser

more of his writings and paintings available at his website, in english & german
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hello!

after reading the brilliant ponderings of blog-king n.t. and m.w. in france, i decided to jump on the bandwagon (what a horrible expression, but couldn´t find a better one) and start a mini site of my own to better keep in touch with friends.

may i humbly submit la petite princesse :)

much love, camille
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