my stay so far.

My trip to France, even though it has not really started, has been amazing so far. I have seen all the monuments I feel like one wants to see when coming here. However I would like to give a visual explanation of my stay. So here I will try to blog about my experiences and adventures.

La Sainte-Chapple, (Sainte-Chapelle Chapel) is a beautiful and large church. Build in the 13th century, this great work of architecture was the first site that we saw.

The line to get in was amazing, But it was well worth it.

This Church is very important because it is the home to many relics that deal with the death of Christ. The lower level, used to be just for the commoners.

Above: the ceiling of the lower floor. notice the colors

above: a statue. notice the stain glass windows

above: une photo de moi

the palatine chapel

this second level of the church was used for the personal use of the king. several if not all of the original work however has been destroyed. because it was built in a time when many people could not read, the use of stain glass windows as used. you read them left to right in an S shape. the ones taht we saw went from the beginning to the end of the bible through pictures. one cannot help but notice the beautiful artwork as well.

above: the second part of the church. notice the construction and restoration going on

above: the winding stairway. we had to use this to go up and go down. these were used in the past for servants to serve the king

above: some floor work.

once we left the building we saw this door, beautiful decoration:

after leaving the church, we went to the former. this place used to be connected to the upper part of the church so that the king would not have to leave to walk outside, and thus keeping his privicy. I will show you the other part, however this in another blog my fellow readers! any questions pls feel free to ask! i still have to show you:

-Notre-Dame

-Madeline Church

-the Opera

-the trenite church

-the vendome square

-the tuileries gardens

-the concorde square

-les Champs-Elyses,

-L'arch de Triumph

Paris

My long awaited trip from France is finally here. Upon my short stay, and trip from the United states, I learned a few things quickly: they are as follows:

1. The Humphrey terminal is very small and does not have enough things for me to choose from to eat.

2. I like the icelander stewardess. I like how they dress, look and smile. They have good costumer service.

3. I should be sure of myself next time I want to do anything, I should have had my headphones with me so I could avoid the crying baby.

4. The Iceland airport is sleek and clean. It is quiet, and reminded me of a movie. I loved the open doors, and I could tell that I wasn't in the States because alcohol by the bottles were being sold everywhere.

5. I've learned that the stereotype about Minnesota nice is not a stereotype, but a fact. Going into the French airport, and even the Iceland one, people were less likely to help and assist others. simple things such as excuse me, or being cut off when walking is the norm.

6. CDG airport is all that you heard. it looks very high-scale and fancy. It was beautiful ( as all of France is).

6. I learned that the French are bad drivers for real. I heard a lot about this, but actually seeing it first hand makes me nervous. There are no rules, that are followed. So be CAREFUL when crossing the street.

7. I can have a French conversation with a native French person who does not know me, or speak english in France! I did this a few times today, and I feel happy. (Well it was only once, when asking for the internet code, but I felt proud of myself. )

8. There are A LOT OF Mercedes Benz in France! That should not be surprising because they are from a European country, but in the States, these cars are seen as a luxury, where as here, the postal delivery truck is one. with my love for these cars, I found myself loving this city even more

9. There is a lot of diversity in the place that I am living. Around us are many different nationalities, including my AFRICANS! Seeing the first lappa and headtie made me feel like home.

10. I learned that me and my family are actually closer than I thought. I was the only one to have my whole family there to see me off, and to me that seamed like the natural thing to do. I also called my whole family the whole time. I thought that this part was interesting.

tomorrow:

la sainte-chapelle, la conciergerie et notre dame

goals:

talk more french

speak to the locals

dress like a French person

that is all for now, I have major jet lag. pictures to come!

Mean Girls; my analysis of teenage gangs

below: the cast of the show gossip girl. this show is based on drama and lies,

another perfect example of mean girls in action

Mean Girls.

I could leave this blog at that and have a million girls, teenagers and women know what i'm talking about.

I don't know if guys notice this type of behavior in girls or not, or if some girls notice it in themselves. I myself can honestly say that in high school, I was lucky enough to have a group of friends that was not into drama, or maybe we were not cool enough to be into it. Here are some things that I have noticed in mean girls:

1.Chasing "drama." Websters online dictionary defines drama as, "A state, situation, or series of events involving interesting or intense conflict of forces." For whatever reason, girls like to be a part of this. I feel that it gives them some sort of mental high. They are happy when they are mad, it makes them feel in power because girls are supposed to be dainty. This is a way that they can show their assertiveness in this way, maintaining their "girliness," but satisfying that need for power and aggression.

2. Attract attention. I feel that they have a need for attention in any sense. A girl could even fake what she is doing, acting or feeling so that others may notice her. She feels good when people talk about her, and her alone. She may take things that are little and blow them out of proportion, and skew the truth to others so that she looks like the victim. She may do things that are negative towards others, and let others know, so that the public realizes that she shows no fear. etc. Girls will do many things for attention, and to be talked about. For those girls who are not in the "it crowd," they may want to do something to get attention so that people will notice them in hopes of getting in with the "it crowd".

3. Mean girls may not know that they are doing these things. I feel that most mean girls are caught up in these actions of deliberately sabotage others that they never think about what they are actually doing, as stated before, it is like a high that they are in, or a trance, they are dazed, their rational thinking is confused. They do these things they feel like because it's the "right thing to do" or the thing to to for their benefit. These girls may be a part of a clique and feel so good from that sense of belonging, and never question what the leader is making them do. All they know is that from past experiences, this type of behavior feels good.

above: this generic pic portrays girls being mean to another one. they aren't doing anything,

but any girl who sees this pic knows that something nasty is going on

4. The meanest girls know what they are doing. These are the ones that you have to watch out for. These girls are not under the impression of following others, rather they are the leaders. They may be doing this because:

a. They like to be followed by other girls

b. They love the power

c. They are making up for something that is missing in their life.

These girls are rarely happy in the notion that you and I know it. They gain happiness through the pain and suffering that others feel because of them. They have blocked emotion and feeling bad for those of their sufferers. They will test the loyalty of those who are their followers, just for fun.

Does that sound familiar?

To me, cliques are like gangs. I know people may think that this may be the extreme, but they have all the same characteristics. Loyalty, a leader who is never questioned, one carry outs missions to feel the praise of others, as well as to feel a closer bonding of a group, many people are "hazed" through this process. Not all teenage cliques are this extreme, or violent, but at one point in time, they portrayed some sort of aggression/ "meanness" towards another group of people or person.

lets take a look from the movie trailer of mean girls.

This clip sums up the school semester of a teenage girl. Regina is the queen bee, and threatened by Cady, who is honest. Towards the middle, Cady understands what it takes to be a part of the group, and what it takes for her to maintain her "status" she even plays dumb, for a boy (lowering herself for a boy, she must play the innocent female who is being saved by a boy) the two girls never fight, or even get in an argument, but we all know that these girls do not like each other. Frenemies in the truest form.

This behavior isn't just something that is seen in little girls and hormonal teenagers, adults do it too. This makes me think that people being "high school" is a state of being, and not a phase of school. Watch this clip from the bad girls club.

You will get more analysis if you watch the show. However, this small clip and what the girl comment about how natalie always sys she runs LA, who is she trying to convince? us or her? This is an interesting line, because it poses the thought, maybe Natalie is just an insecure person who needs to show and act out in aggression. Through out the season, these girls act out the same way as the characters do in mean girls, reinforcing the notion of "high school" is something that continues way after.

I feel like this type of behavior is in girls because of gender stereotypes. Girls are not supposed to be physical or loud. They are supposed to be dainty. As a result of this, they let out their agression in different ways. Men do it physically, women do it mentally. They play mind games with each other, which in my perspective is more hurtful than anyother kind of pain. A girl will play and twist the mind of another girl, and teachers may not notice. Friends may know whats going, on but be so caught up in the drama that they might not care.

But maybe im just saying that because I don't want to be definied as a mean girl, or someone who was a "bitch". But I feel like I can honestly say that I wasn't. however it is something that I will never know.

I can say this however, since entering college, I can definitely say that I have expirenced more rumores, hurtfulness and "mean girl syndrome" then i can ever remember having in my life. I don't understand why this is. but having had this expirence finally in my life, and seen girls be mean to other girls, i feel that now, I am able to comment on how women are.

above: Hidi form the hills. not a mean girl. She is a wanna be mean girl. She would be the girl that is mean.

I suspect she acts the way she does because of how girls treated her in the past. she would fit into number 3

So what does this all mean? what do we do with this information? For me, I just want you to know, how some girls are. How they act and behave. Perhaps this will stop the cycle of meanness that this society has towards each other. Also, being a victim of meanness, I want to say that it hurts really bad, and sometimes people may not intend to be that mean, but I think as a general rule, just don't do it. Kidding around is one thing, if you know the person, but there is a fine line between that and being mean.

Do I think that girls will stop? No. But maybe we can start a diologe about it. I feel that this is really the only way to solve the problem for girls. Because of the fact that it is more of a mental thing and a psychological fight more then anything else, that is the way it can be countered. It will take a slow process of course, but I feel strongly that one of the ways to diffuse this is by breaking down gender steryotypes.

Signing off for now, hope you are more in the know ->kime p