#Patrons Saint of One-Way Trips and other trips of which you may never return

[silly-audio]

Finally posting my Laika playlist :D

[theresabookforthat]

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Young Readers

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and this week—May 3 to May 9 —is also Children’s Book Week with the motto “Every Child a Reader.” Therefore, we are celebrating the following glorious stories, for children and adults to share, that honor the rich cultural history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: 

 THE MAGIC FISH by Trung Le Nguyen

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR by the New York Public Library • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Publishers Weekly

This beautifully illustrated YA graphic novel follows a young boy as he tries to navigate life through fairytales. Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It’s hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn’t even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he’s going through? Is there a way to tell them he’s gay?

ANY DAY WITH YOU by Mae Respicio

Kaia and her family live near the beach in California, where the fun of moviemaking is all around them. This summer, Kaia and her friends are part of a creative arts camp, where they’re working on a short movie to enter in a contest. The movie is inspired by the Filipino folktales that her beloved Tatang, her great-grandfather, tells. Kaia hopes that by winning a filmmaking contest, she’ll convince her great-grandfather not to move back home to the Philippines.

PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING by Randy Ribay

A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin’s murder.

THEY CALLED US ENEMY by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, Harmony Becker

A stunning graphic memoir recounting actor/author/activist George Takei’s childhood imprisoned within American concentration camps during World War II. Experience the forces that shaped an American icon—and America itself—in this gripping tale of courage, country, loyalty, and love. Available in a Spanish edition here.

 THE UGLY VEGETABLES written and illustrated by Grace Lin

In this charming story about celebrating differences a Chinese-American girl wishes for a garden of bright flowers instead of one full of bumpy, ugly, vegetables. The neighbors’ gardens look so much prettier and so much more inviting to the young gardener than the garden of “black-purple-green vines, fuzzy wrinkled leaves, prickly stems, and a few little yellow flowers” that she and her mother grow. Nevertheless, mother assures her that “these are better than flowers.” Come harvest time, everyone agrees as those ugly Chinese vegetables become the tastiest, most aromatic soup they have ever known. As the neighborhood comes together to share flowers and ugly vegetable soup, the young gardener learns that regardless of appearances, everything has its own beauty and purpose. THE UGLY VEGETABLES springs forth with the bright and cheerful colors of blooming flowers and lumpy vegetables. Grace Lin’s playful illustrations pour forth with abundant treasures. Complete with a guide to the Chinese pronunciation of the vegetables and the recipe for ugly vegetable soup! Try it…you’ll love it, too!

 WATERCRESS by Andrea Wang; Illustrated by Jason Chin

Driving through Ohio in an old Pontiac, a young girl’s parents stop suddenly when they spot watercress growing wild in a ditch by the side of the road. Grabbing an old paper bag and some rusty scissors, the whole family wades into the muck to collect as much of the muddy, snail covered watercress as they can. At first, she’s embarrassed. Why can’t her family get food from the grocery store? But when her mother shares a story of her family’s time in China, the girl learns to appreciate the fresh food they foraged. Together, they make a new memory of watercress.

The book is illustrated by award winning author and artist Jason Chin, in an entirely new style, inspired by Chinese painting techniques. An author’s note in the back shares Andrea’s childhood experience with her parents.

LAXMI’S MOOCH by Shelly Anand, Illustrated by Nabi H. Ali

A joyful, body-positive picture book about a young Indian American girl’s journey to accept her body hair and celebrate her heritage after being teased about her mustache.

WHEN YOU TRAP A TIGER by Tae Keller

WINNER OF THE 2021 NEWBERY MEDAL

WINNER OF THE ASIAN/PACIFIC AMERICAN AWARD FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

When Lily and her family move in with her sick grandmother, a magical tiger straight out of her halmoni’s Korean folktales arrives, prompting Lily to unravel a secret family history. Long, long ago, Halmoni stole something from the tigers. Now they want it back. And when one of the tigers approaches Lily with a deal—return what her grandmother stole in exchange for Halmoni’s health—Lily is tempted to agree. But deals with tigers are never what they seem! With the help of her sister and her new friend Ricky, Lily must find her voice…and the courage to face a tiger.

DANBI LEADS THE SCHOOL PARADE by Anna Kim

An Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Honor Book

Danbi is thrilled to start her new school in America. But a bit nervous too, for when she walks into the classroom, everything goes quiet. Everyone stares. Danbi wants to join in the dances and the games, but she doesn’t know the rules and just can’t get anything right. Luckily, she isn’t one to give up. With a spark of imagination, she makes up a new game and leads her classmates on a parade to remember! Danbi Leads the School Parade introduces readers to an irresistible new character. In this first story, she learns to navigate her two cultures and realizes that when you open your world to others, their world opens up to you.

FATIMA’S GREAT OUTDOORS by Ambreen Tariq; Illustrated by Stevie Lewis

An immigrant family embarks on their first camping trip in the Midwest in this lively picture book by Ambreen Tariq, outdoors activist and founder of @BrownPeopleCamping. This picture book debut, with cheerful illustrations by Stevie Lewis, is a rollicking family adventure, a love letter to the outdoors, and a reminder that public land belongs to all of us.

THE DOWNSTAIRS GIRL by Stacey Lee

By day, seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady’s maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, “Dear Miss Sweetie.” When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society’s ills, but she’s not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender. With prose that is witty, insightful, and at times heartbreaking, Stacey Lee masterfully crafts an extraordinary social drama set in the New South.

FRANKLY IN LOVE by David Yoon

An Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Honor Book

Frank Li has two names. There’s Frank Li, his American name. Then there’s Sung-Min Li, his Korean name. No one uses his Korean name, not even his parents. Frank barely speaks any Korean. He was born and raised in Southern California. Even so, his parents still expect him to end up with a nice Korean girl—which is a problem, since Frank is finally dating the girl of his dreams: Brit Means. Brit, who is funny and nerdy just like him. Brit, who makes him laugh like no one else. Brit…who is white. Desperate to be with Brit without his parents finding out, Frank turns to family friend Joy Song, who is in a similar bind. Together, they come up with a plan to help each other and keep their parents off their backs. Frank thinks he’s found the solution to all his problems, but when life throws him a curveball, he’s left wondering whether he ever really knew anything about love—or himself—at all.

 For more on these and related titles (for kids and adults) visit the collection Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

[revisionaryhistory]

Three Days ~82

~*~Emma~*~

I awoke to see Sebastian laying on his side, leaning onto his elbow, with his head propped up on his hand. Diffuse sunlight filled the room and clearly showed me his face. He didn’t look sleepy. His face was relaxed with the slightest smile. Who knows how long he'd been watching me sleep. That thought made me smile.

He jerked his head up a little, "Tell me what you're thinking."

"I like seeing you when I wake up and knowing you'll be the last person I see before I fall asleep. And I'm excited about everything in between."

"The Louvre, dinner on the Seine, cabaret. Fun day."

I shook my head with a frown, "No, not what we're doing. I'm excited to spend the day with you." Sebastian closed his eyes, smiled a little wider, and took a few breaths. I knew what he was doing. He was taking in my words, feeling them, believing them. Before he opened his eyes, I moved closer to kiss him. "Je t'aime."

"I know that one." His fingers ran through my hair, smoothing the morning disarray. "In how many languages can you tell me you love me?"

I gasped and held my mouth open, "Just three, but now I have a goal."

"Crazy girlfriend."

I rolled on top of him, "Just about you." I did exactly what you’re supposed to do when you're naked in bed laying on top of a naked man.

I tickled him.

Our tickle fight lasted until we were laughing so hard it was hard to breathe. That and when Sebastian pinned my hands to the bed. "Je veux te faire l 'amour." He kissed me and pressed his erection closer between my legs. "I have a good memory too."

I don't know how it gets better than this. Waking up in Paris, with a gorgeous man watching me sleep, making love, then sitting on the terrace in big fluffy robes having coffee and croissants.

The guide at The Louvre was knowledgeable but a little stuffy. We spent much of the tour hanging back with another couple laughing inappropriately. The museum was incredible and we stayed around after the tour to revisit areas and check out some places not included. Sebastian liked items where I was mesmerized by the vibrant colors of the paintings. Lunch today would become our go-to. Pick up something near to and find a spot to sit in the park. Food and people watching was always a good time.

We headed back to the hotel to fool around before dressing for dinner. On the boat, we were seated by the window. We headed to the upper deck with a glass of wine for sunset. Last night's sunset view was unforgettable for many reasons. Tonight's was more beautiful with the lights of the city and bridges. It was romantic in a more refined way. Last night was casual clothes sneaking kisses in the dark. Tonight was dressed up, high heels, and elegant stemware. Kisses weren't as sneaky in the wide open space. The food was delicious. We started with duck foie gras and Scottish salmon. My main was scallops with sweet potato risotto and seaweed cream. Sebastian promised to save me from the seaweed if it triggered me. He went for a filet of beef, pea pudding, and veal gravy. The aroma from the fresh bread with the cheese course was mouth watering. Sebastian enjoyed my excitement and took more pictures of me eating cheese than anything else except drinking wine. For dessert, we decided one decadent and one fresh. A white chocolate raspberry lychee sphere and lemon basil tart. I nearly had to stab Sebastian with a fork for hogging all the sphere. The return trip was dark. Only the lights of the city and running lights illuminated to boat.

The night included a visit to a cabaret. That the Moulin Rouge was more touristy led us to the Crazy Horse. Still famous, but not the most sought after. We'd been told the Moulin Rouge was over the top and Crazy Horse more subtle. That may be true, but one important detail was left out. The dancers at the Crazy Horse were often naked. Sexy dance numbers, visual effects, and vibrant light shows. At times the lights were the only clothes. Darkness was used strategically as was glow in the dark body paint. What I noticed was all the women were in Louboutin, which lead me to believe the lingerie was expensive as well. There was a part with a very good looking man stripping. It was more funny than sexy. The combination of erotic dance and risqué humor kept both of us entertained

We talked about our favorite parts on the ride back to the hotel. Sebastian opened the door, letting me walk by into the hotel, "Is it wrong that I asked where the lingerie was from?"

"I wondered, but didn't think to ask. I loved the black bodysuit with all the straps."

"So did I."

Imagine my shocked face. You'd have to imagine because I wasn’t making that face. I waited until we were in the room to ask, "Did you find out where this shop is?"

He pulled his phone out and went to maps. A slow smile formed, "About two blocks. Across from Dior."

I folded my legs under me and sat on the couch. "Fun."

He sat next to me. He was fiddling with the bottom hem of his shirt. He was nervous. "Are you running up a crazy credit card bill to amuse me?"

What a sweety. My recent shopping habits didn’t match my teacher salary. I guess we were going to have this conversation. "My grandfather has it set up where his stock dividends are split between the grandchildren. It's paid out quarterly and there's no way to know how much, so I've never factored it into my budget. It goes into a savings account. I have a rule that it's only for fun. I took Angie and Eli with me to Hawaii. After a horrible start to the year, Malory and I went to Key West." I grimaced, "I don't remember much of that trip. And if I want to go shopping I can. I do appreciate your concern." I leaned over and kissed him. "There is a trust fund, but I can't touch that until I'm thirty. That's partly why it was important to go off on my own. I grew up with money, so when Jimmy said I couldn't take care of myself I needed to prove it to myself, even though I know it wasn’t completely on my own."

Sebastian interrupted, "Don't diminish what you’ve done. You started over in a new place where you knew no one or even where to grocery shop. You've got a Master's and accepted into a Doctoral program. Anyone who thinks you can't take care of yourself is wrong."

This fierce defense was very attractive. Money can be embarrassing. I realize I'm privileged, and I try not to behave like a trust fund baby. I would never go shopping as I had with anyone but Angie. I know it was a splurge.

“I just wanted to check.” I wanted to ask what if I had been, but he kept going, and I didn’t feel the need to stop him. “Back to the fun stuff. Is it bad form to buy you a gift that's really for me?"

"For my birthday or Christmas, yes. Otherwise, no. I'm not sure that sexy lingerie that gets you hard isn't as much a benefit to me as it is you."

"You realize you in sweatpants and a t-shirt gets me hard. You in a bathrobe. You in a potato sack."

"I wonder who that says more about?" We laughed and I laid across him, counting on him to support me. "It does make us both lucky."

"Oh, don't I know it."

We spent the next day touring Versailles Palace. We jumped off the tour to explore as soon as we hit the outskirts of the city. When we were out of interesting places we jumped on the metro until we saw something new to explore. Dinner was at this Ping Pong cafe. The food was delicious and fortified us for the play to come. I am just as competitive playing ping pong with my boyfriend as I am on a volleyball court. There was a lot of trash talking. What made it more fun was how truly awful we both were. Neither was sure of the rules so we argued over and made them up as we went. In the end, I lost due to a combination of unsuccessful attempts at cheating and Sebastian being slightly less awful than me. Our overly dramatic antics did amuse nearby patrons and when Sebastian was recognized he was gracious in conversation and signing autographs. We made it to the Pont Alexandre III bridge just as the sun set. It was ornate and a beautiful end to the day.

Next up was a day of museums and checking out wherever in between. We met up with a guide in the afternoon for a walking tour of Art Nouveauarchitecture. On our way back to the hotel we passed by the lingerie shop. A quick discussion later we decided not to go in. It would ruin some of the fun if the other knew what we bought. I also decided I needed to find some sexy underwear for him. I checked; he'd wear them. Dinner was my responsibility tonight. I found a rooftop restaurant with a great wine list and an even better view.

Tuesday, the day before the fashion shows, was the day I was looking most forward to. It was an early start and long trip to Mont Saint Michel. Claire had hired us a car and we napped most of the trip. The town is a tidal island and when the tide comes in it covers the causeway, only cutting off access for about an hour, but still. We parked at the tourism office and took off our shoes for the half mile walk over the mudflats. It didn’t look like a dangerous trek, but apparently, quicksand was real here.

We weren't far into our walk when Sebastian asked, "Is this Hogwarts?"

Our guide laughed, "No, but yes. The movie was not filmed here but as you will see much of the architecture is similar and the street does resemble Diagon Alley."

Sebastian looked at me, "Did you know?"

I shook my head, "I love gothic architecture and castles. Versailles was incredible, but this is a hundred times better. Stonework, stained glass, the high pointed arches." I grabbed onto his arm, bouncing on my toes. "I'm so excited. This is surreal." I held my hand out toward the Abbey. "Look at this, I mean, look at this."

He was smiling at me, "Should take you home to Romania. Lots of castles."

"Don't tease me." I let go of him and walk to stand in a small puddle. The water was cool and the sand squished between my toes. I felt like I was in the bubble from my favorite guided meditation. I put my arms out with my shoes dangling off my fingers and twirled. I stopped facing Sebastian. He had his phone out, pointed at me. "What are you taking pictures of?"

"You." He laughed, "With a castle island thingy in the background."

I heard the guide say, "Your mademoiselle is much more beautiful than the background."

Sebastian nodded, "That she is."

I walked back to them and reached for his hand. He handed his phone to our guide to take a couple of pictures before we headed on.

I was in absolute heaven. Even more so when I saw Sebastian as in awe as I was with the narrow cobblestone streets and stairways that appeared out of nowhere. Our guide had stories and let us lead, only giving direction if we were missing something. He took the lead when we approached the Abbey and guided us through spaces as tiny as closets and large as cathedrals. The arches along the walkway did look like a scene off the bridge in Hogwarts.

Our guide left us at the end of the Abbey tour and after lunch, we walked the ramparts and worked our way around looking at everything and nothing. Talking and laughing.

It wasn’t long into the ride back that I realized my thighs were aching. "What is it with Paris and stairs?"

"There's a fuck ton of them." Sebastian smirked and leaned in to kiss the side of my neck. "I will be happy to massage your thighs when we get back."

"Stretch them out?"

"Definitely."

We both retreated into our phones for a while. Neither had paid attention to them since we got here. The return trip was good for nudging each other to show a picture we took. I texted my chosen family and sent pictures. Sebastian was doing the same thing. He showed me responses on his group chat.

Charles ~ You took her to Paris? Chace ~ You can't take a woman to Paris for a first vacation Will ~ Go big or go home Toby ~ That's it. I need to meet her. Charles ~ Find a date and take the last bedroom in the villa. Toby ~ Chace, wanna go to an island with me? Chace ~ Do I have to put out? Toby ~ What do you think? Will ~ Who has the lube? Chace ~ I bet there's some in Paris.

I'd lowered my phone while I read his. Sebastian pointed to my screen, "What is that?"

"It's that app we made the list on the train."

"You need to send me the list."

"I can do better than that. Can I have your phone?" He handed it over and I went into the app store, installed, and signed into the app under my user name. "Now you can see, edit, add." I kept typing while he looked around. There was more than a sexual to do list. I was currently adding to a notebook called "Moments".

"Can I add to this?" Sebastian was in the same notebook.

"Sure." I bit my lip, "I had a thought. You can say it's stupid or you don't want to."

He put his hand on my leg, "What?"

"I was thinking since we're going to be apart for a while, we could write to each other. Not like texts talking about our day. I'd write things I want you to remember or know. When I'm missing you, I could write a couple of sentences to you or go read what you've written to me. Not any expectation of how often. Just a place for sweet things, sexy things."

I'd gotten the idea while thinking about distance and time zones and insecurity. Perusing old texts is good, but a one-stop place for just love notes is better.

"I love it." He brought me to him and met me for a kiss. "Is this for me or you?"

I had no problem with him knowing I was planning for our time apart. "You saw my love notes from high school. I love them. Texts get lost in a hundred other texts. We can even copy texts over. Pictures. You keep a gratitude journal. This is similar."

"Did you make that up?"

I shrugged, "I doubt it." I showed him how to navigate and create new notebooks. Our first notebook was "Sex To Do" We'd done that together. The one I’d been in, "Moments”, was short form memories. "Holding hands for nine hours with food and conversation.", "Waking in Paris to see you watching me sleep”, "Me showing you architecture", "You showing me artifacts".

Sebastian immediately knew something he wanted to add, I showed him how to create space between limes so he could insert his words. He was going to write in burgundy and me in navy blue. He created a notebook for longer things. He liked to write and wanted a place for more words.

I waited until he’d gotten down a thought before showing him what I'd been most excited for. "Things for Sebastian." I’d already started.

· Te iubesc, Sebasti-an

· I was so lucky to find a lost boy in a grocery store

· You always make me feel cherished and safe

"This one is for battling insecurities. You can read my words and know what you mean to me. You've said you struggle with distance, insecurity, feeling emotionally cut off. I thought this might help keep a connection."

"You've made a security journal."

I thought a moment, "I guess. We've hit a couple of bumps and worked through them. I hoped this may help keep it away over distance."

I watched him switch notebooks and read what I'd written. "Anything I write shows up for you?"

"Yes, once the app refreshes.”

Sebastian looked over with the softest smile I'd ever seen on him. "I love you." The softest kiss followed. "I tell you I'm looking for the perfect moment to kiss you and you create it. I tell you I have confidence issues and you tell me everyone hears that voice. I have a panic attack and you push me to take care of myself. I lay out my anxieties, overthinking, insecurity, and history of shutting women out and you don’t even blink. Now you come up with this way to stay connected with old-fashioned love notes." He bobbed his head back and forth. "More or less." He kissed me. "You want me to feel safe and loved."

I took a deep breath, "Partly." I was telling him my plan to battle his stuff so it was only fair I let him in on mine.

He looked at me questioningly.

"I've never been away from some I love for six weeks. I'm going to miss you and it's going to be hard. This is for me too." I am not going to cry.

His hand went under my hair to my neck, "Are you about to cry?"

"I'm trying not to, but the chance of tears Friday about noon is one hundred percent."

I let him pull me close enough to kiss, "I better get busy." He retreated to his side of the seat, stretching out a leg over my lap, and turning where I couldn't see what he was typing on his phone.

"You realize the whole point is I can see what you write."

"Don't refresh yet. I don't think we should tell each other when we add stuff."

I nodded my agreement.

He stuck his tongue out the corner of his mouth like he was thinking. He typed a bit then looked over, "If I miss you in the middle of the night, I can write you and it will be there when you wake up. I don’t know which I’m looking more forward to. Writing or reading.”

I didn’t either.

[catalinaroleplay]

Gender & Pronouns: Female, She/Her

Date of Birth: November 11, 1989 (30)

Place of Birth: Catalina Island, California

Neighborhood: Ventura

Length of Residency: Native ─ Returned 5 months ago

Occupation: Speech Pathologist

Face Claim: Elizabeth Olsen

BIOGRAPHY

TRIGGERS: Parental Death, Substance Mention, Abortion.

I’m here, I said, and it felt shockingly comforting those words. When I’m panicked, I say them aloud to myself. I’m here. I don’t usually feel that I am. I feel like a warm gust of wind could exhale my way and I’d be disappeared forever, not even a sliver of fingernail left behind. On some days, I find this thought calming; on others, it chills me.

The legacy of the de Beauvoir Family in Catalina Island is prodigious. Multiple generations of the family graced town as they grew instantly to success with ‘Beauvoir Bicycles’. Years of patience and dedication to improving the family company, all of the hard work of their bicycle creation soon hit televisions at the 1982 Tour De France by French rider, Laurent Fignon. Not only did The de Beauvoir Family feel honored by a patron of their formerly migrated home of France representing their company, but the success brought endorsements and demands for an investment of more bicycles at a higher production rate. It caused the company to become known within the States and get used by future Tour De France contenders, Lawson Caddock and Ian Boswell. The promotion was simply the beginning of the success for the de Beauvoir family but as well of unbreathable reputation would soon be those generations to come.

Being born a de Beauvoir may come as a belle, anyone and everyone was full of jealously when the announcement of Jolie de Beauvoir was birthed on the 12th of August 1989, to the future monarch of Beauvoir Bicycles, Pierre de Beauvoir, and Charity de Beauvoir née Fitzgerald. The news of the doe-eyed sea-foam angel laced with honey locks instantly spread around Westlake without missing an entire beat. It was tears of happiness for the young couple. Hell, the birth of a child called for a celebration. Three days alive on this planet and Jolie attended her first official black-tie gala held by her family. Too young to even know what she was experiencing, per her mother words, everyone raved over the birth of Jolie and everyone swarmed her with gifts, lots of kisses and any excuse to take a picture with the newborn child who rumored to have cried her doe eyes out every time a camera flashed. People simply treated her as a doll within her first few days of being alive and present in the real world. Even though she was young and unaware of her surroundings, it was almost as if her gut aching knew more encounters and misfortunes in her life would tackle her as Jolie grew up due to her surname association. It was sadly one thing she couldn’t control – being born into this family but most importantly, having Charity de Beauvoir as her mother.

Misfortune soon rolled over once more. Pierre de Beauvoir, the future beloved monarch of his father’s bicycle creation, passed in a car accident before the paramedics and police could arrive on the scene. At this unfortunate incident, Jolie was only two years old. Memories were blurry. Voice of both of her parents instantly caused her ears to ring at the familiarity of them anywhere near her. It was burdensome for a young toddler, honey slow-growing locks secured in pigtails, dazzling heads with her distinctive taste of designer clothes, Chanel to be exact, to understand what death was or why her mother was crying in the first place. The noise alone made her shut her doe-eyed hues instantly in discomfort in the backseat of her car seat. The day, the accident, the sound of her mother reacting must’ve felt like an eternity to the young daughter. Yet, as the world moved at snail speed, everything of the bond between her mother and herself took an instant sharp change from that day forward. Nights, where Charity tucked Jolie off to bed, turned into her nannies’ responsibilities instead. Any moment and bond they formed before vanished into thin air. Whatever order her mother barked at her nannies, who were raising her, needed to be accomplished or else their heads would’ve been on a silver platter. Only at two years old, not only did Jolie end up losing her father but as well as her mother. It was a bitter beginning to what would be a cruel world ahead for her.

As Jolie grew into her age and beauty, were walking and talking was a first-hand nature without any struggles or assistance, the six-year-old came in contact with a new father figure in her life - Christian Howard. A gentle, dark-haired with facial stubble, knelt down to the petite fair toned girl, instantly bringing her into an embrace as this shown affection had become a rarity in Jolie’s youth from the only parent figure she had left – her mother. It was the first impression of the male which left a lasting impression on the young girl. It was like an ounce of happiness was finally on her side. Even if, as the time Jolie spent with Christian would somehow and someway get ruined by her mother and the toxic comments being thrown at her only daughter. It shouldn’t have been this way. Yet, it happened. It wasn’t as if Jolie did anything to her mother nor did she think so, it was the hostility at every given moment. It was unhealthy for a six-year-old to wish she was never born into this universe in the first place. As Christian became a permanent member of the family, new additions were around every corner. The birth of Jolie’s half-sister, Kimberlin, graced everyone’s life. For Jolie, it was for the worst.

As The de Beauvoir – Howard Family grew further into their looks, everything took a sharp turn in Jolie’s life. Drugs, sex, alcohol, boys – you named it, Jolie got her hands on it and was experimenting. Numbing all of the trauma, whiplash of words etched in her conscious and aching her deep within her soul, all of the substances made her feel at harmony at last. Even though, every night at a glorious evening out, the idea of returning back home to her mother and her half-sister, who started to become an identical version of the monster who has been ruining her life, made her want to scream. Christian, her stepfather, was a different story. The relationship between the stepfather and stepdaughter was the only sense of normalcy in her complicated life. Jolie was aware Christian knew about her sudden use of substances. It was clear by his disappointment at how he looked at his stepdaughter on the evening’s she stumbled into their glass mansion in Crystal Cove in a burst of hysterical laughter and happiness, never shown in her sober state. The teenage rebellion Jolie was encountering would proceed forward until her stepfather became her saving grace at seventeen. On the day of her birthday, when Jolie found out she was pregnant with her then boyfriend’s baby, she came running to the one person who would help her out. Her stepfather.

The secret on that frosty November eve brought the bond between stepfather and stepdaughter together. A promise, pinky promise, which could never be broken, had been sworn between both individuals in the parking dim lot before entering into the sterile office to remove what could be a definite change in Jolie’s life forever. And it did. Not in the way where she would have to commit all of her spare time to raise a child. Instead, to the consuming thoughts rattling her conscience about what life could’ve had planned for her and how Jolie potentially ruined life’s plan. She was never the type to think of these scenarios. As a young girl, she was constantly motivated to become her best self and honor her family surname by being the best and nothing less. If anyone ever found out about her pregnancy, even having a child at a young age and avoiding getting her education, it would’ve been more controversy than needed. That’s why she swore her stepfather to keep a secret. Only between them. Not even her then-boyfriend would find out about the brief existence of his child. On Monday morning, Jolie would attend school as if nothing traumatizing over the weekend happened.

Time after time, Jolie experienced trauma and agony from alternative sources. Left and right. Up and down. Things came flying her way. Every time, she stood tall, all she could feel were her knees were ready to buckle and begging for freedom from anyone who doubted her. Even when she didn’t allow other words to affect her on the outside, those words caused her to lay awake every night. It’s what drove her to accept a full-ride position at Saint Xavier University in the Fall, after high school graduation. While the heaviness of her mother’s words and hatred toward Jolie grew stronger along with breaking from the confines of Charity Howard, there were only a few people whom she would miss – her friends. It was why the decision to move to University out-of-town was difficult. But she begged for freedom. To live her own life without someone breathing down her neck and making her feel worthless. Two weeks before school started, Jolie started on a cross country road trip. Taking stops in cities she would’ve never expected herself to visit. Memories were flourishing. This was freedom. All by herself. The young adult was ready to experience her new life ahead of her.

The past eleven years had been some of Jolie’s favored. Having successfully graduated from Saint Xavier University with a Bachelor of Communications Science. Afterward, achieving a Master’s degree in Speech-Language to fulfill her long-term dream aspiration of becoming a Speech Pathologist. Ever since a young age, being there and assisting others came gracefully to her. The love and passion for the field caught her attention after meeting with an advisor her freshman year of university whilst as they provided her knowledge and fields they thought Jolie would succeed effortlessly in. Putting all of her hard work and effort into her education got her precisely where she wanted to be. Although, she studied and achieved the grades, graduating with Summa Cum Laude, along with the addition of having de Beauvoir as her surname, granted her internships and experiences, unlike other university students. It was never like Jolie took her surname for granted. If anything, she appreciated it. It was just the certain people – her mother and stepsister, who haunted her on the daily even with thousands of miles distance between both of them. Even though, she longed and missed for Catalina Island. After all, only one person could handle glacial weathers for substantial period of time. When her current contract with Northwestern University came to an end, the decision of her future was in her hands. It’s how Jolie decided to return back to her hometown and open up her private practice for her Speech Pathology in her quaint, seashore island of a hometown. With recommendations from the handful of trusted doctors at the Ronald Reagan University of California Los Angeles Hospital, patients flock onto a ferry port to Catalina Island for sessions with the trusted and highly reputable Speech Pathologist, Jolie de Beauvoir. As her work career is feverishly flourishing, the beginning for the doe-eyed seafoam graced, platinum tresses of a female, know the chapters of her future are only beginning. Being thirty years old never looked better on her.

PERSONALITY

Positives: Adaptable | Caring | Hardworking

Negatives: Anxious | Secretive | Stubborn

Jolie de Beauvoir is portrayed by Steph.

[bangtan]

BTS Takes on L.A. With Vogue—And It’s “Hella Lit”

“Whoa, is that Raf?” asks J-Hope—the main dancer of BTS—striding into a chintzy suite in Downtown L.A. decorated with mustard-colored couches and heading straight for the racks of tapered jeans and Western tops in the middle. “It must be expensive,” he murmurs, running his hands over the grosgrain stripes, then calls out to his bandmates as they enter: “Guys, it’s Calvin Klein!” The hotel’s 10th floor has been completely closed off for this week in November to accommodate the seven-member K-pop act on their first major run of U.S. press: James Corden, then Jimmy Kimmel, a historic performance at the AMAs (the first Korean group to do so), and Ellen DeGeneres, with a slew of interviews squeezed in between. On their penultimate day, they hit another milestone, becoming the first K-pop band to book a full-fledged shoot with Vogue, who proposed a fun and carefree tour of the city they had taken by storm. One by one, they file into the room—Jungkook, the youngest, is so striking in person, an audible hush falls when he enters, startling him slightly. He heads straight for the makeup chair to wait for his touch-up, singing softly to himself to pass the time. Other members make a beeline for the pile of snacks on the sideboard: cup ramen and boxes of Pocky, crunchy Cheetos and Fritos, cans of Coke, slices of castella cake, iced Americanos, and thick “body conditioning” shakes in teal sports bottles, individually labeled and lined up with military precision. Raf’s Spring 2018 denim (later shot on the Kardashian-Jenners) is duly admired, then the boys slip out to get dressed in private and return for group inspection. They are extremely particular about clothes: “They are perfectionists,” a staff member proudly notes five times that day. Hems are cuffed and uncuffed and repinned until they hit the ankle just so; Jungkook fusses with a belt to perfect the fit, while Jimin and Suga compare silver chain earrings, left long to brush their collars. Jin walks in promptly, shrugs on a pair of cornflower blue cowboy boots, and sticks a wedge of castella in his mouth. Some 45 minutes later, the boys pile onto one mustard couch and happily recount the highlights from the past seven days—meeting Post Malone at the AMAs, airport Panda Express—and move onto their favorite bit of American slang. “Teach us something!” RM, formerly Rap Monster, the leader, asks. One editor proposes “lituation,” a portmanteau of “lit” and “situation.” Their eyes glow, as though they’ve been given a shiny new toy. “Lituation! That’s hella lit.” And so it was. By now, everything there is to know about BTS has come out in interviews. BTS stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan, or Bulletproof Boy Scouts; last summer, as their U.S. visibility grew, they added the meaning Beyond the Scene. The seven-member boy band debuted in 2013 through Big Hit Entertainment, a Seoul-based entertainment company that has been a smaller player. Initially, their music took more from rap and hip-hop. In 2015, they shifted direction and began to attract international attention with high-energy dance tracks (“Dope”) and EDM torch songs (“Save Me”), but Big Hit remained focused on Asia (This editor attempted to shoot the band that summer, but was rebuffed). Everything changed last May at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, when BTS flew to Las Vegas to accept Top Social Artist in silk Saint Laurent suits and the subsequent flurry on Twitter (the band’s preferred social media platform) made the rest of the world take note. From there, the attention snowballed, and by the time they had scheduled their flights to the West Coast, the press and fans were ready to pounce—on their arrival at LAX, they were greeted by a crush of shrieking girls and boys, who strained against the line of security guards in yellow shirts that had formed a human wall to protect them. The L.A. trip was the sort of pop cultural milestone not seen since the Beatles arrived in New York (or One Direction arrived, well, anywhere), but of different magnitude. For countless Asian-Americans, it has meant everything to see seven Koreans celebrated on a global scale. Back home, Koreans are astonished to see a group of their own go so far (unusually, BTS exploded overseas first, only winning their first daesang, or major Korean music award, in 2016). The boys know it too—over the course of our day with them, they spend a great deal of their time blissfully awestruck by the attention. “It’s still hard to believe it’s happening,” Jin says. “It’s like a dream.” It is 3:45 p.m. and the boys have finally boarded the party bus (how else to travel L.A. with a small entourage?). The final head count: seven K-pop stars, three Vogue editors, a four-man video crew, one manager, one body guard, one translator, one makeup artist, an assistant, and the driver. The rest of the team (three additional bodyguards, two hair stylists and a makeup assistant, more managers, and two publicists) follow in gleaming black Escalades. The bus is lined with leather seats and armed with flashing colored lights and a silver pole at its center. There are snacks here, too: bottles of Coke kept on ice, passed around by the boys, yogurt-covered pretzels, Kind bars, and a bag of nacho cheese Doritos, which Jimin grabs gleefully (“These are my favorite!”). “This is the kind of place where you have a party?” Jin asks, eyeing the pole with some suspicion. Once it is explained that the party bus takes you from club to club (“so the party never stops”), the group is stunned (“Wow, Americans . . . ”). Agreeably, J-Hope plugs his phone into the sound system to play a selection of their favorite songs: “Havana,” “Dirty Pop.” Let loose for the first time in days, with the stress of the AMAs behind them, they seem full of pent-up energy. The bass shakes the walls, and V picks up two discarded Coke bottle caps and pops them in his eyes, grinning and shimmying wildly to peals of laughter. Jin and RM take turns slinking and bouncing around the pole in a dramatic fashion, until every member of the team and crew is laughing, too. Why is BTS so popular? They are far from the first South Korean artist to make a splash in the U.S.—SNSD with their viral hit “Gee,” Rain, who famously defeated Stephen Colbert for Time’s top influencer in 2007 (as voted by fans)—but the attention around them feels different. It comes down to timing: at the right moment, they found a fiercely loyal group of fans called Army, who fell hard, grew fast, and delivered their boys to international stardom. Yet there’s also the current media landscape to consider. It is why the Billboard Music Awards marked a turning point—the media saw the potential for page views, and the exponential rise in coverage that has followed has at times, to Army’s dismay, felt disingenuous. Take James Corden, for example, who drew some ire for pandering to fans. Worse still were those American interviewers who had done no research and asked often patronizing, uninformed questions—“Do you dance?” when they’re known for it. It has been tough for Army to watch wafer-thin interviews, conducted by people who barely know (certainly don’t care) about their boys, only the attention they might bring; in many ways, they have been treated as an Asian novelty. Yet the fashion world appears eager to embrace them on more balanced terms, something the boys like quite a lot. They wore Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent for both U.S. red carpet appearances; they spend a lot of time worrying over watches and earrings and documenting their daily looks. On the party bus, they take careful bites of their mustard-topped hot dogs, careful not to spill a drop. They’re big fans of brands like Gucci, WTAPS, and Calvin (and Raf, for the matter), though in Korea, the price of CK is quite steep due to import fees. “What about a group discount: 30-pack of Calvin shirts for $30, how’s that?” Jungkook proposes, laughing. “Cut us a deal?” Last fall, BTS was accosted by a cameraman outside a famous hot dog stand near Hollywood. The footage went viral and rumors quickly spread that the band had canceled a “meet and greet” for no reason. Of course, the truth is that there never was a meet and greet, but a private photo shoot with this magazine: the owner signs a standard agreement, part of which stipulates the event is closed to the public. Later, the stand’s Twitter account posts the exact time at which the band would be arriving and encourages fans to come. The bus pulls up to see at least three camera crews, including ABC News and TMZ, and a crowd of fans waiting; the shoot is no longer possible. To stick to schedule, the team is forced to move a few blocks away to continue. Eventually, a few cameramen find the new location; one particularly aggressive man begins screaming about his rights to a bodyguard (the guard, not understanding English, is quite literally unmoved). Shooting is forced to wrap, and the boys step back onto the bus. “You’re going to lose all your American fans before you even get here,” he screams after them. “What’d he say?” they ask back onboard. They seem on edge, though mostly confused by the panicked affair. The hair and makeup team rush forward to dab herbal oil behind their necks and offer soothing shoulder rubs. Once his remarks are translated, however, the tension lessens and they laugh. “Tell him thank you for worrying about us!” J-Hope says, smiling. “Yeah, thank you so much!” Even the Big Hit team, though openly displeased, seem privately thrilled. “The paparazzi were here!” one says in passing. “That means we’ve really made it, huh.” Flash back to 2014 when BTS came to L.A. to film a reality TV series, American Hustle Life, where they learned about hip-hop culture. In one memorable passage, the boys are sent out on the street to approach random girls and invite them to star in their music video with little success. Now, it’s security teams and TMZ. A happier scene unfolds at Dave and Buster’s, the adult arcade games chain, where the boys are given an unlimited points card and set free. On a weeknight the floor is quiet, just a handful of families with small kids killing time; not much notice is paid to the handsome group in the back. Jungkook and Jin race to the DDR machine and face off, their patent cowboy boots darting frantically across the mat. Suga and Jimin reach for a first-person shooting game, while J-Hope and RM start throwing baskets. Across the way, V draws the attention of a small kid—”Mom, they were on TV last night!”—and takes a selfie with him, before turning his attention to a machine where you toss palm-sized footballs through different hoops. “Wait, this is really hard!” he says, calling to Jimin to take a turn (Jimin effortlessly throws a few into the correct slots). Their energy is infectious—and seemingly limitless. After shooting has wrapped, and they have politely bowed to the entire crew, the seven boys board their Escalades and promptly return to the hotel. They walk to their separate rooms, change into fresh clothes, and continue an interview that had been interrupted that afternoon. The next morning, bright and early, they appear on Ellen, then head straight to LAX and back to Seoul to begin rehearsals for the end of the year award shows, practicing late into the night. No doubt they are tired, but still, they smile and keep at it. Perhaps the beauty lies on that basic level: just seven young boys, enjoying the ride.

Source

[littleredroseonthevalley]

St. Catherine of Vadstena

Or, Desperate Measures

Summary: Shunned by her lover, driven away by her family, offered a divorce by her husband, Alexandrina turns to the Seamstress for help.

Rating: T -  Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.

Mentions of abortion. Reader discretion is advised.

Words: 1516

Notes: This makes a whole more lot sense if you read St. Paul or, How the Ladies Take Their Tea in Grover and St. Catherine of Alexandria or, The Piety of the Seamstress first, but you should get it just fine without.

St. Catherine of Vadstena is the patron saint of protection against (natural) abortion, but since voluntary abortion is forbidden by the Catholic Church since 1588, I had to make a bit of a stretch to find a saint.

Be as it may, I hope you enjoy it!

“Noticing that frequently by various Apostolic Constitutions the audacity and daring of most profligate men, who know no restraint, of sinning with license against the commandment ‘do not kill’ was repressed; We who are placed by the Lord in the supreme throne of justice, being counseled by a most just reason, are in part renewing old laws and in part extending them in order to restrain with just punishment the monstrous and atrocious brutality of those who have no fear to kill most cruelly fetuses still hiding in the maternal viscera.

Who will not detest such an abhorrent and evil act, by which are lost not only the bodies but also the souls? Who will not condemn to a most grave punishment the impiety of him who will exclude a soul created in the image of God and for which Our Lord Jesus Christ has shed His precious Blood, and which is capable of eternal happiness and is destined to be in the company of angels, from the blessed vision of God, and who has impeded as much as he could the filling up of heavenly mansions, and has taken away the service to God by His creature?”

~ Effraenatam (Papal Bull), Pope Sixtus V, 1588

In Grovershire, within walking distance from the county town, there was a small, simple farmstead, not unlike many others on the sides of the road. What set it apart from all others, however, is that its owner, a certain Mary Beauchamp, a woman famed for her ability to make things disappear.

For Alexandrina, right now, that is all she needed.

She arrived at the house on a rental carriage, dressed on a thick cape, unusual for the summer weather, and carrying a single suitcase.

The front door opened wide for her to come in. Mary needed no further explanation; she knew why that woman came to her house.

“Sit down.” The matron pointed her a cosy armchair. “I will brew you some tea. Would you like some biscuits to go with?”

“No, thank you, madam.” The blonde aristocrat shakes her head softly. “I am too nauseous from the trip.”

Mary suppresses a smile. “Best get used to it.”

The proprietor serves the hot beverage and, while the visitor sips the cup, she inquires, “How far along are you?”

“Six weeks, I assume.” She responds quietly, and then proceeds to the calculations, “The last time I have been with him was April, and I have not bled in May.”

“Some women bleed into pregnancy, miss. ‘Tis not a reliable method of assessing your condition.” The older woman lectures. “You have been with a man regularly in March?”

“Since February.” Her cheeks tint as she thinks of the occasion. “I stopped going to my husband’s bed in October last, and then I met…” She stops on her tracks.

“Do not fret, child. I understand.” Mary smiled softly. “You seem not to have gotten pregnant in February, your stomach is yet to show. How many times have you adjusted your dresses?”

“Once, madam.” She responded. “Last week.”

“I see. Well, I would say you are six to ten weeks along. Which is very good for us, it gives us options.”

Mary stood from her own seat by Alexandrina and walked to the mantle, taking a rather large wooden box. She returns to her seat and places the box on the coffee table and opens it softly.

“Those are herbs used on restellism procedures.” She explains. “They have many uses, and they have many methods through which they terminate a pregnancy. As such, they have varying degrees of dangers associated to them.”

At the mention of the risks, the blonde woman’s cheeks paled.

“Do not worry, as I said you are in luck. Your pregnancy is still early, your child still does not have a placenta.” She picks up a sheaf of dried leaves. “For you, I would recommend this one. It forces your monthly blood. It should expel the baby with it.”

Mary places it on her hands, and Alexandrina admires the herbal medicine, its texture and smell.

“Will I have to eat it?” She enquires, curiously.

“No, we brew a tea with it. It is rather bitter, but we sweeten with honey.” The madam explains. “Of course, the hard part is not drinking it. It will cause severe cramps and bleeding, but you should be fine in three days.”

The young woman drops it like it is hot. “Oh, God.”

“There is another option, of course.” Mary argues. “We can carry it to term. You can stay here in the house, we would care for your health and, when the day comes, I will deliver it and arrange for a quiet adoption. It, however, is going to cost you a pretty penny.”

“I do not have much cash. I carry only some jewellery I could hide on my suitcase, and I will need it for… after.” She informed.

“Well, there is a third alternative.” The matron says, thoughtful. “You can write your husband a letter, pleading for him to take you back, at least for the duration of your pregnancy. I can go there, deliver it and reason with him.”

“I suppose that would be the best…” The blonde argues. “Very well, where do I find paper and ink?”

“My daughter Susan will show you to your room and provide everything you need for your stay.” Mary smiled. “Write the letter, and after, try to have some rest. I am certain I can wear him down to a reasonable arrangement.”

“How can you be so certain?” She asks, legitimately doubting it.

Mary limits herself to chuckle. “Because you are on my living room and not rotting on a prison cell.”

It was nightfall, Mary had left with the letter hours ago and should not return before noon the next day.

Despite the recommendation for bed rest, Alexandrina was feeling too energetic, too anxious to sleep.

Suddenly, a knock on the door and Susan walks into the room, carrying with her a trail with a bowl of supper.

“I brought you supper, Mrs Sinclaire,” She says. “And a book, too. You ought to carve a hole on the floor walking back and forth that much.”

The blonde stops short of her pacing and looks at the young girl sheepishly. “I apologize. I am feeling rather nervous.”

“It is nothing I have not seen before.” The other responds, placing the tray on the bedside table. “Many women in your situation have come here in search of help; some were told off by their husbands and cast away from society, but most were taken back by their families. I trust my mother will find a way for you.”

“Oh, easy for you to say!” Alexandrina argues, beyond herself. “I could very well be one of the exiled.”

The brunette toots. “Well, you know your husband better than any one of us. Is he a good man?”

That was an easy question. “Yes.” For all his boring personality, Ernest was the best man she ever knew.

“Does he care you?” She continues.

That was a harder one. “He used to… before all this….”

“No matter, if he cared if ever so slightly, and if his intent is good, he will take you back.” Susan states, firmly. “Now, eat. I will bring you another candle, it is probably going to be a sleepless night for you.”

As Susan predicted, Alexandrina did not sleep a single moment in the night, having perused the entirety of the book procured for her.

Les Liaisons Dangereuses, it was the title of the novel, as the brunette argued it would be beneficial for her to have some exposure to self-reliant women, even if only characters on a libel.

The morning brought Mary with a carriage, instructed to take Alexandrina back to Ledford Park. Mr Sinclaire had agreed to give her shelter for the entirety of her pregnancy, and would consider assuming the child and providing for them both afterwards.

Before leaving, Alexandrina cried and hugged both women, rejoicing the shift on her luck and blessing them both for taking her in on her time of need. As a token of gratitude, she had gifted them with a beautiful diamond necklace, that Mary hid under the floorboards, to use in case of emergency.

There were good times and bad times for the Beauchamps following the departure of Alexandrina, but there was never a day in which they were so desperate as in to retrieve the necklace.

They caught wind of her death, and Mary lightened a candle for her soul, so she and her child be received in the Lord’s graces and unbound forgiveness.

So, one day, years later, Susan took it with her to dinner at the Sinclaire’s London townhouse. Covertly, she took it out of her dress and hid it between two books on their library, while Ernest retrieved a Shakespeare poetry collection.

It was only fair, Susan chuckles to herself as she thinks about it, she was about to steal the dead woman’s husband, best to return her prized necklace.

Taglist: @catlady0911; @mrsernestsinclaire; @snickette; @tornbetween2loves

[havekiddoswilltravel]

Cuba Travel Tips

Havana, Cuba trip report and pro tips for a safe, personalized family travel adventure to Cuba.

Tips for family travel to Cuba - A guide to exploring Cuba with kids, friends, family or multigenerational groups.

Did you know that you can in fact still travel to Cuba independently?

Updated: July 2019 with new Cuban travel rules.

We cruised prior to the US restrictions. You can however, still enjoy these Cuban tours by traveling by air to Cuba. Keep reading for more details.

Our family of six enjoyed a 5 night Key West and Cuba overnight cruise aboard Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas in December 2018 prior to the cruise ship restrictions. We traveled with four kids ages 13, 10, 7 and 5 and thus felt that a cruise was a comfortable way for us to explore Havana. We’re hooked and already planning a return land trip in order to enjoy more of the island. The Cuban people were gracious, funny and talented. Our guide Dayami is fluent in both English and Spanish and a breath of information about the history, culture, art, music, architecture and food of the island. 

2018 Cuban travel update: The U.S. announced new travel rules for Cuba. Americans can no longer travel to the island under the People to People category as an individual and you're unable to patronized any military - owned business. 

Legal travel to Cuba is still possible under the Support For The Cuban People category and my recommended tours can assist you in planning a safe, educational and cost effective trip to the island. 

Have Kiddos Will Travel Cuba Tours offer: A one of a kind safe, private tour option for those wanting to visit Cuba and experience it like a local.

What we did in Havana:

Dayami picked us up at 9:00 am at the Saint Francis of Assisi Square

(the plaza right across from the cruise ship terminal in Old Havana).

We started with a guided walking tour in Old Havana (about 2 hours) which included:

-       All four main squares

-       Some of Hemingway’s favorite places in the city

-       Handcrafted perfume shop - the perfume is inexpensive and comes in beautiful hand made pottery. 

-       Free entrance museums - our kids loved these museums. We had to drag our 10 year old son out of the art museum. 

-       Cigar/coffee/rum shopping - Dayami was an angel and sat with our kids at a nearby table while my husband and I enjoyed this amazing tasting. I can’t recommend it enough. There was a live band playing during our tasting. In fact, music and dancing was everywhere in Havana. Buy Cuban coffee (I regret not buying more as gifts). Dayami is incredibly knowledgeable about Cuban rum and cigars. We bought two boxes (4 bottles total) of Havana Club 3 year white and 7 year dark rum for approximately 20 CUC. We also brought back 25 (fiftieth anniversary) Cuban Cohiba cigars. We bought handmade individual cigar boxes for the ones that we gave as gifts. 

We did a coffee-rum-cigar tasting/sampling. This service (about 1 hour) is provided by a Habanos sommelier Cuban cigar expert). I highly recommend this tour option. We learned so much and it added to our overall experience in Havana.

After the walking tour, Dayami had a air conditioned car with ready to drive us to the main places of interest in the city. I loved that she was flexible and worked with our children. We took extra breaks for water, snacks and to use clean bathrooms. She knew all of the best places to use the facilities and though I was prepared with my own toilet paper, we ended up never needing it. 

Our family’s personalized itinerary:

-       Ride along the Malecon (sea wall drive)

-       Colon Cemetery (World Heritage Site)

-       Callejón de Hamel (rumba performances/Afro-Cuban religion/art scene)

-       Central Park

-       Capitol building

-       National Hotel

-       San Jose Handicraft market

-       Fusterlandia community/art project

-       Revolution Square

-       Rainforest of Havana (National Park)

-       Bay fortresses and the Christ of Havana (viewpoint)

Dayami made a reservation for us a privately owned restaurant and we enjoyed it. We were lol a bit when we arrived because we literally walked behind a normal looking home in Havana and entered a massive outdoor restaurant which was packed with people and even had a live band. Our total lunch cost was 74 CUC which included drinks, 3 orders of chicken and all you can eat white rice and beans. 

The whole tour was from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, take into consideration that lunch may took over an 1 hour.

What to buy in Cuba:

- While cigars and rum are the main things that people buy when in Cuba, we also bought an amazing art piece (beware that customs will attempt to charge you art fee if you travel back with it in an art tube), engraved leather baseballs, Cuban key chains that I then turned into Cuban Christmas ornaments and a small piece of wood art. We ran out of time to stop by Clandestina, but they do have an online shop that you will not want to miss.

Pro - tips: - Everyone (including children) will need a passport book (not a passport card) that is valid for at least 6 months after your trip. Two pages are required for entry - exit stamps. 

- Each traveler will need a Cuban Visa if you're a US citizen (please research Visa laws for other countries) which cost $75.00 per person. Take your time completing this simple form, as mistakes are not accepted and you will have to buy another one.

-   U.S. credit and debit cards generally do not work in Cuba. Bring cash to cover your stay. The Cuban government requires that travelers declare cash amounts over 5,000 USD. Travelers should note that the Government of Cuba charges a 10 percent fee for all U.S. dollar cash conversions; this does not apply to electronic transactions or cash conversions in other currencies. - US dollar and credit cards are not accepted in Cuba. Do your research regarding how much money you will need and plan accordingly.  I recommend changing money into Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC) before meeting your guide (for lunch, souvenirs, rum, the sampling, etc.). It is recommended that you change US currency to Euros prior to your trip (AAA will do this without an additional conversion fee for members) and then change euros to CUCs upon arrival. At the time of our visit   The official exchange rate (at the time of our trip in 2018) is 0.87 for every 1 USD (due to the 13 percent US dollar fee). The exchange rate for the euro at the time our trip was 1.15.

-  The export of Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) is strictly prohibited, regardless of the amount. When departing Cuba, U.S. travelers are advised to exchange Cuban convertible pesos (CUC) back to US Dollars well before reaching airport security checkpoints to avoid potential confiscation of the CUC. For other currencies, travelers may export up to the equivalent of 5,000 USD. Anyone wishing to export more than this amount must demonstrate evidence that the currency was acquired legitimately from a Cuban bank. - Dayami was very helpful in regards to helping us figure out how much cash we would need for all of our tours, meals, and shopping.

Getting there:

- You can fly to Havana depending on your group size and family needs. We’ve had family members fly and we did an overnight Havana cruise with Royal Caribbean as we were traveling with small children and wanted access to the comforts of the cruise line. Cruising if no longer an option as of June 2019.

Where to stay:

- If you’re flying, I highly recommend Casa Habana for a one of a kind, local Cuban experience. 

What to pack:

- Bring sunblock, hats, and sun glasses. I packed a back pack with safe drinking water, snacks and treats for our kids.- Wear comfortable walking shoes. Havana streets are beautiful, but the cobblestone is hard on your feet. 

What NOT to do:

- Leave your jewelry and fancy items at home. 

- Don't take pictures of Cuban police or military.

- Keep your strong tourist opinions about Fidel, the Castro family, the Revolution or communism to yourself. Avoid discussing politics (history discussions are okay) and you're good.

- There are two currencies in Cuba. The first is the Cuban Convertible Peso CUC  (which tourists use) and is worth 26 Cuban Pesos CUP. Count your change and keep your street smarts about you.

- Don't expect to have access to the many comforts of home. There is almost no access to many of the consumer goods that are common for us in the United States. So, make sure to bring that which you can't live without. If you wan't toothpaste, a toothbrush, toilet paper, hand disinfectant, mints or snacks, make sure to bring them with you. 

- Print out all of your relevant travel documents prior to your trip. I know, we’re digital people but access to technology in Cuba is pretty much nada. If you think you’ll need it, print it at home. 

- We’re big foodies and thus find it crucial to discuss Cuban food in Havana versus Cuban food in the United States and other parts of the world. Due to trade restrictions and general lack of access to ingredients that we take for granted, (our guide Dayami did a great job explaining the Cuban rations to our kids) we found the food to be good enough, but not something to write home about. The saving grace was that our kids love white rice and beans and literally were “starving” from all of the walking. They ate their food and loved it, with no complaints. Pro tip: if you’re traveling to Cuba, pack some salt and hot sauce. You’ll thank me. 

- Book your Cuba tours before you travel. The internet is hard to come by in Cuba and thus, don’t expect to be able to research or use the internet to communicate with tour guides while on the island. We arrived via a cruise ship, and I had all of my confirmation information from Dayami printed and I had confirmed pick up times and location with her while we were in Key West and still had internet service. 

By booking a trusted private tour, you will save hundreds of US dollars on your excursion time while on the island. Our tours are priced per car, not per person for a group of four and can be coordinated to accommodate larger family - group sizes.

- Lastly, let’s talk about safety. We’re a family of avid travelers. Our kids have had passports since they were newborns and we travel extensively throughout the United States and abroad. This cruise to Cuba was our third cruise in 2018 alone and all six of us are Diamond Crown and Anchor with Royal Caribbean International. Even with all of the stamps in our passports, I was perplexed by how safe we felt in Havana. Despite what our history classes and news tell us about communism and Cuba, we felt safer in Cuba than any other place that we’ve traveled to. Use common sense and respect the local culture and you’ll have a blast. 

Havana, Cuba - YouTube

https://havekiddoswilltravel.net/cuba-tours

Check out the link above for a full list of tour options and contact Dayami Interian dayainte@gmail.com to discuss further planning. Your won’t be disappointed!

About Ruth: I’m a wife and mami of 4 active and globe-trotting kiddos. I’ve always loved a good adventure and truly believe that it’s possible to travel with kids. Join me, as I share our adventures and inspire you to get out of the house with your kiddos. Whether you’re planning a family vacation, a road trip or a trip of a lifetime to an exotic destination, I’ll share insights, trip reports and information that will inspire you. Check back often to stay up to date on things to do with kids at your next travel destination.

family travel - adventure - explore - Travel with Kids

[180abroad]

Day 61: Yet More Paris

We decided to spend our last day in Paris visiting a few final sights on the central island and in the Latin Quarter across the Seine.

Starting with a return to Notre Dame, we saw that the bread festival was still running. It was free to enter, so there was no need to ask whether we would take a look.

We got to see bakers preparing breads and pastries firsthand. And of course, the finished products were all on offer. We had just eaten breakfast back home, but we made a note to come back for lunch.

Right outside the tent,where we had left it, was the main facade of Notre Dame. Feeling much better than we did the last time we were here, we decided to linger a bit and appreciate the various statues, researching who they all represented.

We confirmed that the headless gentleman guarding the left portal is Saint Denis, Paris’s first appointed bishop and one of its patron saints. The story goes that after being beheaded by the city’s Roman priests, Denis proceeded to pick up his head and carry it several miles across the city, preaching as he walked. Only after he finished his sermon did he collapse and die for good.

Next, we walked through the side gardens to the Deportation Memorial at the end of the island behind the cathedral.

The Memorial is dedicated to the Jews and other prisoners who were rounded up by the Vichy puppet government during World War II and deported to Nazi concentration camps.

I went into the memorial expecting it to be an interesting side-show to our day’s sightseeing. It turned out to be the main event.

The first thing you see of the memorial is a low, ugly concrete slab with the name of the memorial scratched roughly into the side like the etching of a prisoner on a cell wall. A narrow gap in the slab reveals stairs leading down into a small, drab courtyard.

The courtyard’s concrete floor is rough and uneven, forcing you to walk carefully and uneasily to the long, narrow entryway. Inside, the memorial is dark, colorless, and claustrophobic. And the walls are covered in writing using the same prisoner scrawl. Every detail is intentionally and masterfully designed to make you feel imprisoned and vulnerable.

After squeezing through the entryway, you are immediately faced with the monument’s centerpiece: a long corridor studded with thousands of tiny crystals along each side. Two hundred thousand crystals, to be precise--one for each prisoner deported from France, abandoned by their homeland to a cruel fate at the hands of merciless evil.

On the floor of the corridor is a tomb containing the remains of an unknown deportee, recovered from a Nazi camp after the war.

Moving to the side, you step into a series of rooms detailing the horrors of the Nazi deportation and concentration camp machine.

You see a map showing the Nazi camps. I knew there were a lot more camps than just the famous ones like Dachau and Auschwitz-Birkenau, but I never imagined just how many there actually were. Every single one of those dots is a camp. And even that is just a sampling. Altogether, the Nazi death camp system included more than 40,000 sites across Europe and North Africa.

Another map numbers precisely how many people were deported from each district of France. Somehow, seeing the numbers broken into such cruel specifics makes them even harder to stomach.

By this point we were both starting to tear up in spite of ourselves. No deportees were ever actually held at this site, but it seems to channel a dark power nonetheless.

In another room, the names of various detainment and extermination camps are etched across all four walls. A stark touchscreen terminal presents detailed information and photographs for more camps that we could stand to scroll through.

Next, you’re taken through a black hallway, studded with small brick windows where you can read about each step that prisoners would go through, from deportation to the end.

You also learn about the ways that the prisoners were able to hold onto scraps of their humanity. They would write poetry and Christmas cards with stolen pencils and scraps of paper. One prisoner made a painting with pigments improvised from rust, soap residue, and dried paint chips from his cell wall. He painted it on newsprint with a piece of straw from his bedding.

When they could, individual prisoners assigned to factories would commit acts of sabotage--usually on the order of misassembling bullets so that they wouldn’t fire properly. When caught, such saboteurs would be executed in especially painful and public ways to discourage others from following their example.

Copies of SS documents show the clinical detachment of the officers who ran the camps and the atrocities they casually suggest to improve their efficiency.

As you leave the memorial, the final words etched above the door read:

“Forgive, but never forget...”

Emerging back into the sunlight gardens behind Notre Dame, it took us a while to regain our composure. And we were so glad that we had the chance to visit this amazing and powerful place.

I shudder to think what it will be like to visit Auschwitz and Dachau later this summer.

Life must go on, however, and it was well into the early afternoon. We got some very tasty sandwiches from the bread festival tent, then headed over to walk through the Latin Quarter on the southern Left Bank of the Seine.

Though lined with a colorful mixture of fancy boutiques and ethnic takeout joints today, this was historically a neighborhood of students, workers, and social malcontents. Because of that, it was also where riots and revolts often began, including the failed 1832 revolution that inspired the second half of Les Miserables. Although the specific battle shown in the musical didn’t exactly happen, it’s easy to picture the narrow, winding streets filled with makeshift barricades.

At the center of the Latin Quarter, we found the Place St. Michel with its dramatic statue of the archangel Michael.

Our last destination was at the western tip of the central island: the Palais de la Cite, featuring the still-operational High Courts, the defunct Conciergerie prison, and the spectacular Sainte-Chapelle cathedral. We started with the cathedral.

When you first enter the cathedral, it is spectacularly adorned but a bit cramped--even for a private royal chapel. That’s because the bottom floor was for the servants and other commoners. The lion’s share was reserved for the king and royal family on the next floor up.

One interesting detail is in the ceiling. At first glance, it looks like a night sky. We’ve seen similar (if less spectacular) executions of this concept in other cathedrals. But instead of stars, the ceiling is dotted with golden fleurs-de-lys--another reminder that the king stood above any ordinary person.

Up a steep and narrow spiral staircase, we came to the real show.

Almost every surface of the walls is covered in brilliant stained glass. And the few spaces where the builders were forced to put a support buttress are covered in vibrantly painted sculptures and murals.

It is easily one of the most visually impressive churches we’ve seen, but I have to say it didn’t really do anything for me on a deeper level. The kings who worshiped in it may have been devout believers, but in the end, it just seems like another decadent display of wealth and the glorification of inequality.

Leaving Sainte-Chapelle down a matching spiral staircase, we headed over to the Conciergerie museum.

The main entry chamber was filled with a series of wooden channels carrying water from the Seinne around the building. Apparently it was some kind of an art installation.

Nothing original from the Conciergerie’s days as a palace or a prison remain, but it still makes for an interesting side-trip for history-buffs. The standing displays and free map briefly explain the original roles of the larger rooms. Then they give you a crash course on how the justice system in the post-Revolution First Republic spiraled into a paranoid Reign of Terror--sowing the seeds for Napoleon to rise up on the promise of a return to sanity and stability.

You don’t get to see the actual cell where Marie Antoinette was held prisoner before her trial and execution, but you do see the chapel that her cell was converted into after the monarchy was restored to power.

Exiting the Conciergerie, you find yourself unceremoniously dumped out onto the sidewalk. As we were looking up how to get back home, we unfortunately fell victim to our first scam (not including the bracelet man in Rome, who we paid just to make him go away without threatening us). Fortunately, it was relatively harmless.

The way the scam works is that a pair of kindly-looking women walk up to you while you are looking at your phone or otherwise visibly distracted. They shove a clipboard into your hands and ask you to sign their petition. Not wanting to be rude, you take their pen and fill in your name just to make them go away. But when you get to the end of the line, you see the last column is marked “donation.” Rereading the paper more closely, you realize that it is actually a donation form, and you just made an embarrassing misunderstanding. On the lines above, you see how much other signers donated (assuming that the scammers didn’t just fill those lines in themselves).

Not wanting to back out, you fill in a small amount of money and hand over some Euros. With your money safely in hand, they turn around and inform you that there is actually a minimum donation, which happens to be double what you gave. At this point you’ll realize that this is obviously a scam, but they already have your money--why not try for more?

We firmly declined and just walked away, slightly embarrassed that we had finally fallen for a scam after avoiding them so well to date. (Except for the bracelet guy in Rome, but we just paid him a couple Euros to make him go away without threatening us or making a scene.)

Our embarrassing moment of the day taken care of, we enjoyed an uneventful trip home to enjoy an early evening and a late morning before heading out for Normandy tomorrow.

Next Post: Bayeux

Last Post: Versailles

[marvelousbirthdays]

Happy Birthday, kittyinaz!

January 13 - Steve/Quake/Bucky. I would love fluffy sexy, maybe a start of a fic that involves soul mates if possible? for @kittyinaz

Written by @ladywinterlight

Note: I’m sorry that I didn’t get to smut with this. The soulmate idea got into my head, but I really did have to set it all up. This story is nearly 5k, and is the most I’ve written in months. It may eventually end up a longer story, but we will wait and see.

For now, happy birthday to kittyinaz!

 Marks Of Healing

When Daisy found out that The Winter Soldier was actually Bucky Barnes, she couldn’t help but be both happy and sad at the same time. Sad for Bucky, who’d been tortured for so long, but happy that he was still alive and got a second chance at life. She was too busy dealing with the aftermath of Insight to give it any further thought, so she sent Bucky good thoughts, that maybe he could get some well-deserved peace. The idea that her patron saint and her childhood hero, the original duo of the Howlies, were still fighting gave her hope to get through the rough months ahead.

It wasn’t until Coulson had her in isolation again after her encounter with HIVE that she really got a chance to think about the fact that both Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes were alive. Even when she was locked up after San Juan, she’d been too busy grieving for Trip and thinking about the implications that particular event meant for herself to think about her soulmates. But now, isolated because Jemma was worried about the others infecting her due to her lowered immune system, she had nothing but time to think about her soulmates.

Ever since she had been old enough to understand what a soulmark was, she wondered who her two mates might be. After she’d learned to hack, she checked written records from all over the US and had been both shocked and dismayed when the only matches that came back were for two dead heroes from World War II.

It didn’t make any sense. She researched handwriting manipulation and knew that the handwriting was an exact match - it was impossible to replicate handwriting to that degree if it was another person. Her soulmates were dead men. Eventually, she had resigned herself to the idea that even Fate believed she didn’t deserve a family and moved on.

Even when Steve Rogers had been uncovered from the Arctic and was determined to be alive, she doubted she’d ever get a chance to meet him. She’d already been on her way out of New York when the Chitauri Invasion happened, and driven by sheer terror she had kept going until she was more than halfway across the country.

But while stuck in isolation after HIVE, Coulson was nice enough to let her have a tablet so she could catch up on the news. The first thing she read about, of course, were the Sokovia Accords. Which, in turn, led her to reading about the split among the Avengers over signing the Accords. A little judicious hacking got her more info about the major issues between Rogers, Barnes and Stark. And some information about Black Panther and Zemo, the guy behind framing Barnes for the UN explosion.

A little more research on Black Panther led her to information on Wakanda, and she began to wonder. The Avengers accused of violating the Accords had basically fallen off the map, but Wakanda had some of the best security of any nation in the world as well as very strict immigration and emigration policies.

So she did a little more hacking and sent an email to Steve Rogers’ official Avengers account and his lesser known personal one. She considered copying the Wakandan government or royal family, but she decided that it could cause problems if the Captain wasn’t where she thought he was.

               Captain Rogers,

I know you don’t know me, but my name is Daisy. I did a search on the writing of my soulmarks a long time ago, and your writing came up as the match for one of them. I’m writing you now in the hopes that you may be interested in meeting me. I suspect that wherever you are, security is quite tight. Otherwise I might have just tried to come find you.

I have attached photos of my soulmarks. If, as I suspect, the writing is familiar to you, please do let me know. I will find a way to get to you if need be.

Respectfully,

Daisy Johnson

It took less than a day for Daisy to get a response, and from the tags on the message she knew even she would take quite a while to trace the route back to its origin. The message itself was short but made her smile.

Daisy,

Going to be out and about tomorrow. If you can make it somewhere on the US Atlantic coast, we can pick you up.

Steve

She quickly sent back a response.

Can do. Have a phone, number 612-555-5173. Text me when you’re around and I’ll tell you where I end up.

Daisy

The phone was an old burner from her trip to Milwaukee with Cal, but that was fine. She’d be ditching it after she met up with Steve anyway and no one else knew the number.

Getting out of the SHIELD containment unit wasn’t any more difficult than it had been the first time. She wrote the security on the things, after all. Her first stop was a bank, the second it opened, where she withdrew all her savings into cash. After that, she went to a salon and had her hair cut and dyed, knowing that Coulson would come after her. Since the Accords had recently been signed, she knew that he’d have to, especially with how Talbot looked at her.

She was able to make her way to Virginia Beach, which had a large enough tourist population that she was able to hide more or less. The changed appearance helped some, and half the people on the street were wearing sunglasses so hers definitely didn’t stand out. She settled herself in at a busy cafe and ordered herself some food; not that she was really all that hungry, but it gave her a reason to hang in one spot for a bit and fiddle with her phone while she waited for a message.

She was halfway through her salad when the phone beeped.

Heading to the coast. Where are you? -SR

               Virginia Beach. Little cafe. -DJ

               I’m told we can land on the beach very briefly. Can you get there?

Daisy glanced at the street signs on a nearby intersection and consulted the map on her phone quickly for a landmark.

Yes. I’ll wait on the beach side of the Navy Seal Monument. Wearing cutoff jean shorts, a dark blue tank top, and I have straight black hair.

She didn’t wait for an answer before shoveling her things into her backpack and leaving a tip on the table with her unfinished salad. She’d paid for the meal at the counter, so she didn’t have to worry about waiting for a check. She let herself out of the patio seating area and headed briskly towards the beach.

Though no one could really see a quinjet in stealth mode, Daisy felt it coming as the jet zipped down the coast. The vibrations shifted as it oriented on the monument and slowly dropped to just above the sand. She stepped tentatively forward just as she saw a slash of black appear when the ramp started to open.

Steve stuck his head out when he had enough room to do so, and Daisy didn’t wait for the ramp to finish opening. She ran forward and jumped, using just enough of her power to give her a boost so she could land on the half open ramp. She slid down it and ended up at Steve’s feet. He gave her an appraising glance, then called over his shoulder, “I think we’re set, close the ramp!”

“But it’s not even fully open yet!” she heard a voice yell from the cockpit.

“Just close it!” Steve called back. Then he returned his attention to Daisy. “You would be my soulmate, I presume?” She nodded and let him help her up off the floor. As she regained her feet, she turned her arm so he could see his words written on the inside of her wrist.

“Sorry if I startled you,” Daisy apologized. “I just didn’t want any of us seen out here.”

Steve smiled as she spoke and turned slightly to show her the words she’d just spoken on the small of his back.

With their bond confirmed and knowing she might finally be safe, Daisy put her back to the wall of the quinjet and just… slumped. Eyes closing almost of their own accord. She felt a pair of strong, warm arms catch her before she could slide down the wall, and for the first time since Mack had held her and listened to her babbled apologies, she felt safe.

“What’s wrong, Daisy?” Steve asked in a low voice as he held her mostly upright.

“I’m sorry,” she answered softly. “I… wasn’t… I know you’re my soulmate, and I think Bucky Barnes is too. And I didn’t know who else to reach out to. I’m… I’m not okay. And I’m sorry to put my problems on you too.”

Gentle fingers lifted her chin and when he didn’t say anything at first she slowly opened her eyes. Dark brown met blue, and she saw only tenderness and concern in his gaze. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll get through it all together.” He studied her a moment longer. “You look tired. We should sit so you can rest.”

Daisy found herself nodding agreeably. She hadn’t felt really sleepy like this in days, despite her general fatigue and inability to sleep. So she let Steve guide her into a jump seat and help her strap in. He took the seat right beside her, and she leaned her head against his shoulder after he settled.

Sleep took her quickly.

Steve took advantage of the opportunity to look her over. His soulmate was thin; too thin, really. Like she hadn’t eaten well in a while. She had dark shadows beneath deeply sunken eyes, masked somewhat by makeup but he was close enough to see past it. She did have a lovely golden cast to her skin and the slant of her eyes hinted at some sort of Asian ancestry, but even so she was paler than she ought to be.

Steve wondered just what had happened to her, but knew he would have to wait until they could talk privately to ask. He had so many questions, but he didn’t want to pressure her.

Daisy woke, hours later, to the sound of laughter and the sudden absence of vibration from the engines. She blinked her eyes open and saw a collection of figures that she recognized but never really thought she’d meet. Clint Barton and Wanda Maximoff supported each other down the ramp, their voices low enough that only the occasional murmur reached Daisy. Behind them, Sam Wilson and Scott Lang were apparently trying to one-up each other with prison stories, but the strain around their eyes belied their lighthearted tones.

Daisy was well familiar with that state of being, after all.

She felt hands at her waist and jerked around, then went still as she recognized Steve. He was undoing her safety harness for her. He looked up at met her eyes with a reassuring smile. “C’mon, doll. Let’s get you inside, yeah?”

She tried to smile for him, but she knew it was strained. So she just nodded and reached down for her backpack. A moment later, Natasha Romanov emerged from the cockpit and joined them. She gave Daisy an appraising look.

“So you’re Cap’s soulmate, hmm?” she asked smoothly.

“Yeah,” Daisy replied. “I’m Daisy.”

Natasha nodded. “Welcome to the insanity that is the Avengers. Or what’s left of us, anyway.”

“Um, thanks, I think.” Daisy looked around as they emerged from the jet. Lush, verdant jungle growth contrasted against the cityscape ahead of surprisingly modern buildings. “Where are we?”

“Birnin Zana, capital of Wakanda,” an accented voice responded in a polite tone.

Daisy spun around abruptly to face the voice. It came from a regal looking man with dark skin. His escort, women with equally dark skin and smoothly shaved heads, stood on either side and just behind him. She immediately recognized Prince - no, now King - T’Challa from footage of the UN bombing and afterwards. “Your Majesty,” she said, bowing awkwardly.

He accepted her attempt with a small smile and a brief nod. “I’m afraid your guest is unknown to me, Captain.”

Steve stepped forward, guiding Daisy with a gentle hand on her lower back. “King T’Challa, may I introduce my other soulmate, Daisy Johnson.”

A true smile spread across the king’s face. “Ah, yes, the one who will complete your triad. You are most welcome to Wakanda, Miss Johnson. Soulmates are held in high regard among my people.”

Daisy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. It took all her concentration to display the manners the nuns had drilled into her at St. Agnes, but she managed. “Thank you for your welcome, Majesty. I feel I should inform you, though, that my circumstances are not dissimilar from my soulmates. I have also refused to sign the Sokovia Accords.”

T’Challa shrugged. “One more such person changes nothing. You are welcome here regardless.” He noted the strain around her eyes and waved off any need for a response. “I will not detain you further. Your friends and teammates all need rest and medical care. Please, feel free to see to them. I will check in with you all in a few days.”

“Thanks, T’Challa,” Steve said warmly. “If you need us, you know where we’ll be.”

“Of course.”

Daisy really only wanted to go back to sleep, but she followed Steve’s guidance with slightly stumbling steps. After the third time she almost tripped on a crack in the pavement, Steve swept her up into his arms and carried her. She murmured a protest, but the fact that she snuggled against his chest convinced Steve that she didn’t really mean it. They followed after the group, whom Natasha was leading towards the nearby medical center. Everyone held at the Raft needed to be checked out; Steve didn’t put it past Ross to have hurt his friends while they were in custody.

Daisy roused slightly when the sounds and smells of a hospital caught her attention. “No, Steve, we don’t need this. I’m fine. I just need some rest,” she protested.

Steve looked down at her with big, worried eyes. “If that’s true, I’ll be happy to let you sleep as much as you like when we’re done here. But really, doll, you look like you’ve been through the ringer. Please, just let them check you out? To ease my mind?”

The wounded puppy look, combined with his plea for the sake of his peace of mind made Daisy cave. She sighed. “Fine. But just… don’t leave me alone?” she asked in a near whisper. “I really don’t like hospitals.”

“I promise. I’ll be with you the whole time.”

Daisy’s next protest came when the doctors wanted to do a full set of scans on her - blood work, MRI, EEG, CT… the whole works. “No, I can’t. I mean, sure, draw blood, whatever,” Daisy said to the doctor. “But MRIs and CTs… they hurt my head. Like, badly.”

The doctor looked puzzled. “Can you tell me why?”

Daisy blinked as it took a moment to realize that no one knew her here. She had no medical history with these people, and they had no idea she was Inhuman. So she supposed she’d better tell them. “My powers are to sense and manipulate vibrations. I’m Inhuman.”

The doctor actually looked sympathetic. “I can see why that would cause some problems with our scanners. Would it help for us to sedate you? So you’re not aware of the sensations?”

“I…” Daisy hesitated. She knew the answer was yes; she had experienced it after all. But she didn’t know these people, wasn’t sure she trusted them.

Steve spoke up. “I’m her soulmate. Could I be allowed to stay with her through as much of the testing as possible?”

After considering the question for a moment, the doctor nodded. “During the scans you would have to remain in the shielded area with the technician. But she would be visible to you at all times. Would that be acceptable?”

Daisy let out the breath she’d been holding and nodded. “Yeah. That would be okay.”

Steve sat by Daisy’s bedside in a private room, holding her hand lightly, after all the tests were run. The doctor told him that they’d given her a slightly larger dose of sedative than usual, both to make sure she was completely under and because her initial exam showed signs of severe exhaustion. They didn’t know for sure how long she’d sleep.

Half an hour later, Natasha joined them. “How is she?”

“Still waiting for the test results,” Steve answered with a shrug. “How are the others?”

“Relatively unharmed, all things considered. I suspect Ross was too busy chasing you and Barnes to focus on them right away.” She sat herself down in a chair at the foot of Daisy’s bed, between the younger woman and the door. “You know your soulmate has a BOLO on her by Ross and Talbot?”

“She does? Why?”

“She’s Inhuman, and apparently extremely dangerous according to the military. She’d been working with SHIELD until recently.” Natasha shrugged slightly. “What do you really know about her, Steve?”

“Not much. Just that she’s clearly been through a lot, and that she has soulmarks for both me and Bucky. What more do I need to know?”

“Why she’d be classified as extremely dangerous by the US Military, perhaps?” Natasha arched an eyebrow pointedly.

“She told the doctor that her power allows her to sense and manipulate vibration,” Steve admitted. “They had to sedate her to run the tests they wanted.” Natasha hissed a breath between her teeth. “What?”

“That would explain it. Elementary physics, Steve. Everything vibrates, at the atomic level if nothing else.” Steve opened his mouth but Natasha waved him quiet. “Ask Bruce about it sometime, if you want to know more. Or your soulmate, when she wakes up. I know the basics, but not well enough to explain it.”

Steve nodded. “So, you’re suspicious of her?”

With a shrug, Natasha sighed. “Well, soulbonds can’t be faked so she has that on her side. I won’t really be comfortable until we know more about her.”

“If she was SHIELD, could you call Maria?”

“I will, but that needs to happen quietly. We don’t need her compromised with Stark.”

Steve nodded his agreement. Before he could respond further, a doctor came into the room. “Mr. Rogers?”

“That’s me,” Steve answered immediately.

The doctor glanced at Natasha, but when Steve shook his head he nodded and spoke again. “We have you on record as Miss Johnson’s soulmate. That means that while she’s asleep, we can fill you in on her condition. Is this acceptable?”

“Please,” Steve agreed. The doctor proceeded to recite a long list of puzzling data, both about her test results and her blood work. Steve held up his hand at one point and said, “Can you simplify it for me, please, doctor?”

“Basically, she has all the brain chemical evidence of Acute and Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome but no evidence that she has ever used any kinds of drugs that would cause addiction,” the doctor replied. “Essentially, her brain chemistry is all over the place. She’s too thin for her height and build. She’s clearly not sleeping. She’s likely to have mood swings, nightmares, and otherwise be generally unstable.”

“Is there any way to help her? Or at least ease the symptoms?”

The doctor studied Steve for a long moment, then hesitantly nodded. “There are one or two drugs we might try, but they could complicate her body’s natural healing process. Or… you could try completing the soulbond.”

Steve blushed but continued to meet the doctor’s eyes. “What difference would the soulbond make?”

“In layman’s terms, the creation and continued presence of the bond will stimulate her body’s production of the chemicals she’s deficient in.”

“Evidence suggests that the soul bonded are more emotionally stable and physically healthier,” Natasha added. “A soul bond makes you feel good. If she’s feeling horrible, the influx of the opposite could help her balance.”

“That would require waking Bucky, wouldn’t it?” Steve asked slowly. “We’d need all three of us for the full bonding effect.”

“It would,” the doctor agreed. “But I think it’s her best chance. The drugs are iffy at best, since we don’t know what caused her condition.”

“If it’s what she needs… then I think Bucky would agree,” Steve said decisively. “We should wake him. So we can all talk about the situation together, and we’ll all be on the same page if she agrees to a quick bonding.”

“I’ll see to waking Mr. Barnes, then,” the doctor agreed.

Natasha eyed Steve and Daisy speculatively. “I’ll go with. Barnes should have a friendly face, if not an overly familiar one, when he comes to.”

“Thanks, Nat,” Steve replied with a genuine smile. “I promised Daisy I’d stay with her until she woke up.”

Daisy was still fast asleep when Natasha brought Bucky to her room. She hadn’t even woken when the nurses came to move her to a bigger bed; Steve sat beside her, holding onto both of her hands and her cheek resting against his side. The doctor had said that until they bonded, contact with him still might help her. Steve hesitated, conscience conflicted between wanting to help her and feeling like he was taking advantage in her sleep. So he compromised, positioning them more or less they way they’d been on the quinjet.

Bucky paused in the doorway to appraise the situation. “Stevie?” he asked, his voice low and rough from extended sleep.

“Come on over, Buck,” Steve replied in a low voice, trying not to disturb Daisy. He watched as Bucky stepped up to the side of the bed, looking down at the girl in his arms. “This is Daisy, our third. I’ll introduce you properly when she wakes up.”

“Natalia says she’s why you woke me?” Bucky reached out but halted himself before he touched her hair. It looked so soft.

“Yeah. She should hopefully wake soon; we have a lot to discuss, but she needs to hear it too. But… she’s sick. The kind of sick that needs the soulbond to help her get better.”

Bucky nodded and sat down in a chair on the other side of the bed. “Not sure I can really help. But, if that’s what she needs…” he trailed off.

Steve released one of Daisy’s hands, the one on Bucky’s side of the bed, and indicated that Bucky should take it instead. A faint line of unease faded from Daisy’s forehead, and Bucky watched in surprise as she unconsciously tightened her fingers on his.

“She ain’t at all like Peggy,” Bucky observed after a moment. “That dame had presence.”

Steve chuckled softly. “So does Daisy, just not while she’s asleep. She approached me, you know. Sent pictures of her soulmarks and asked if we’d meet her.”

Bucky grinned. “Good to know she’s got some spine. She’ll need it, the way you get into trouble.”

Steve scoffed. “I’m not the only one, Jerk. Besides, I think she’ll hold her own. Nat says the military thinks she’s dangerous.”

“Ain’t we all?” Bucky asked, lifting one eyebrow.

Daisy began to stir, and the two men fell quiet. Steve stroked her cheek gently, hoping to soothe her back to sleep. But apparently something had caught her attention and her eyes fluttered open. “Wha..?” she asked sleepily.

“Still in the hospital, doll,” Steve told her. “But I’m here, and so’s Bucky.”

“Super soldier buzzing feels weird,” she murmured as she turned her attention to the third presence in the room. “Hi. You were always my favorite, you know.” Her tone indicated that she was still not fully awake, but she blinked when she realized what she’d said.

Bucky chuckled as she said his soulmate words. “Happy to be the favorite of a beautiful gal like you.”

“You mean you didn’t like Captain America best?” Steve asked in a teasing tone.

Daisy shook her head slightly. “The Cap portrayals all had him as this perfect guy. Nobody can really be that perfect. I liked Bucky on TV because he made mistakes but owned up to them.”

Bucky laughed outright as Steve blinked in surprise. “Guess that tells you, Punk.”

“Jerk,” Steve responded automatically. Then he shook his head slightly. “How are you doing, doll? Need something to drink?”

“Water would be great,” she agreed. Bucky reached for the cup on the side table and held it where she could reach the straw without moving. When she released the straw, Bucky set the cup aside again. “I did actually always wish history would teach us more about the real guys, you know. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, not Captain America and the Howling Commandos.”

“We’ll tell you anything you wanna know, doll,” Bucky promised. “We wanna hear about you, too.”

Daisy nodded. “Now that I’m awake, can we get outta here?”

Bucky looked at Steve, who sighed. “We have to talk first, I’m afraid. The doctor came in with your results while you were asleep. I hope you don’t mind that he gave them to me; soulmates count as immediate family here.”

Daisy shrugged. “It’s fine. I’d have probably told you anyway, or let you be here when they told me. So what’s going on?”

As clearly as possible, Steve explained what the doctor had told him. He emphasized that they were extremely hesitant to try more drugs when they didn’t know what had caused her problems in the first place. But that if her best chance was the soulbond, he and Bucky were happy to provide for her if that was what she wanted.

Daisy was quiet for several minutes. Then slowly, in a halting voice, she began to tell them about her experiences with HIVE. She didn’t spare herself at all, freely admitting that under its control she had done things she regretted and gotten several people killed. And that even when her friend had given his life to free her, she had tried to go back only to discover that it was impossible.

“I think,” Bucky began after Daisy fell silent, “that you an’ I have a lot in common. Both made to do things against people we loved by others controlling our minds.” He squeezed her hand gently with his remaining one.”

“And if these parasites messed with your mind, that’s probably the reason for the strange results in your brain scan,” Steve added thoughtfully.

Daisy sighed. “I don’t want you to bond with me because I need help getting over him. I want us to bond because it’s what we all want.”

“Trust me, darlin’, there’s nothing we’d rather do than make you part of our Bond,” Bucky said honestly, a light in his eyes as he held her gaze.

“What God has joined together, let no man break apart,” Steve said. Daisy recognized the phrase as one commonly used in Catholic marriages. “The bond exists, and we have to believe it’s for a reason. Maybe this will help all of us heal. Fully and completely.”

“Steve, too,” Bucky agreed. “Punk was never good at dealing with loss, gettin’ over the past. But I think we can help him with that, yeah?”

Daisy’s expression turned thoughtful and she slowly nodded.

Steve made a derisive sound. “I’m not holding onto the past. I’m enjoying familiar things. Not that noise Tony listens to all the time.”

Daisy chuckled. “Oh, Steve. I think I can change your mind on that front.” Steve looked skeptical. “Think about it. Music trends build upon prior styles. Of course you can’t jump from big band and swing to hip hop and heavy metal. But if we get you there incrementally, I think you might be surprised.”

Steve blinked. “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“I think I do. Trust me?”

“Absolutely, doll. Always,” Steve agreed without hesitating.

“Me too,” Bucky agreed. “You can bring us both up to date.”

Daisy smiled. “I will. I promise. So, now, about getting out of here...”

It wasn’t easy to convince the doctors to release Daisy from their care, but she finally put her foot down and insisted that she was not bonding in a hospital room. So she was finally allowed to leave, provided her soulmates stayed with her for the next 48 hours. She was not to be left alone and they should come back immediately if problems arose.

The Avengers were all being provided with guest housing in King T’Challa’s royal compound until a more permanent solution was found. Steve led the way to his temporary home, where they firmly closed and locked the door.

“You gonna make it through this, doll?” Bucky asked solicitously as he steadied Daisy. She leaned against him, but it actually made her feel more stable and not less.

“Yeah. Just being able to touch you helps some,” she admitted.

“Then why don’t we move this to the bedroom?” Steve suggested in a husky tone. “Get you some full skin-to-skin contact.”

Daisy smiled. “I like the sound of that.”

[affectionforbangtan]

BTS Takes on L.A. With Vogue—And It’s “Hella Lit”

“Whoa, is that Raf?” asks J-Hope, the main dancer of BTS, striding into a chintzy suite in downtown Los Angeles decorated with mustard-color couches and heading straight for the racks of tapered jeans and Western tops in the middle. “It must be expensive,” he murmurs, running his hands over the grosgrain stripes, then calls out to his bandmates as they enter: “Guys, it’s Calvin Klein!”

The hotel’s 10th floor has been completely closed off for this week in November to accommodate the seven-member K-pop act on their first major U.S. press run: James Corden, then Jimmy Kimmel, a historic performance at the AMAs (the first Korean group to do so), and Ellen DeGeneres, with a slew of interviews squeezed in between. On their penultimate day, they hit another milestone, becoming the first K-pop band to book a full-fledged shoot with Vogue, which proposed a fun and carefree tour of the city they had taken by storm.

One by one, they file into the room—Jungkook, the youngest, is so striking in person, an audible hush falls when he enters, startling him slightly. He heads straight for the makeup chair to wait for his touch-up, singing softly to himself to pass the time. Other members make a beeline for the pile of snacks on the sideboard: cup ramen and boxes of Pocky, crunchy Cheetos and Fritos, cans of Coke, slices of Castella cake, iced Americanos, and thick “body conditioning” shakes in teal sports bottles, individually labeled and lined up with military precision.

Calvin Klein Jeans’s Spring 2018 wares (later shot on the Kardashian-Jenners) is duly admired, then the boys slip out to get dressed in private and return for group inspection. They are extremely particular about clothes. “They are perfectionists,” a staff member proudly notes five times that day. Hems are cuffed and uncuffed and re-pinned until they hit the ankle just so; Jungkook fusses with a belt to perfect the fit, while Jimin and Suga compare silver chain earrings, left long to brush their collars. Jin walks in promptly, shrugs on a pair of cornflower blue cowboy boots, and sticks a wedge of Castella in his mouth.

Some 45 minutes later, the boys pile onto one mustard couch and happily recount the highlights from the past seven days—meeting Post Malone at the AMAs, airport Panda Express—and move onto their favorite bit of American slang. “Teach us something!” RM, formerly Rap Monster, the leader, asks. One editor proposes “lituation,” a portmanteau of “lit” and “situation.”

Their eyes glow, as though they’ve been given a shiny new toy. “Lituation! That’s hella lit.”

And so it was.

By now, everything there is to know about BTS has come out in interviews. BTS stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan, or Bulletproof Boy Scouts; last summer, as their U.S. visibility grew, they added the meaning Beyond the Scene. The seven-member boy band debuted in 2013 through Big Hit Entertainment, a Seoul-based entertainment company that has been a smaller player. Initially, their music took more from rap and hip-hop. In 2015, they shifted direction and began to attract international attention with high-energy dance tracks (“Dope”) and EDM torch songs (“Save Me”), but Big Hit remained focused on Asia (this editor attempted to shoot the band that summer, but was rebuffed).

Everything changed last May at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, when BTS flew to Las Vegas to accept Top Social Artist in silk Saint Laurent suits and the subsequent flurry on Twitter (the band’s preferred social media platform) made the rest of the world take note. From there, the attention snowballed, and by the time they had scheduled their flights to the West Coast, the press and fans were ready to pounce—on their arrival at LAX, they were greeted by a crush of shrieking girls and boys, who strained against the line of security guards in yellow shirts that had formed a human wall to protect them.

The L.A. trip was the sort of pop cultural milestone not seen since the Beatles arrived in New York (or One Direction arrived, well, anywhere), but of different magnitude. For countless Asian-Americans, it has meant everything to see seven Koreans celebrated on a global scale. Back home, Koreans are astonished to see a group of their own go so far (unusually, BTS exploded overseas first, only winning their first daesang, or major Korean music award, in 2016). The boys know it too—over the course of our day with them, they spend a great deal of their time blissfully awestruck by the attention.

“It’s still hard to believe it’s happening,” Jin says. “It’s like a dream.”

It is 3:45 p.m. and the boys have finally boarded the party bus (how else to travel L.A. with a small entourage?). The final head count: seven K-pop stars, three Vogueeditors, a four-man video crew, one manager, one bodyguard, one translator, one makeup artist, an assistant, and the driver. The rest of the team (three additional bodyguards, two hair stylists and a makeup assistant, more managers, and two publicists) follow in gleaming black Escalades. The bus is lined with leather seats and armed with flashing colored lights and a silver pole at its center. There are snacks here, too: bottles of Coke kept on ice, passed around by the boys, yogurt-covered pretzels, Kind bars, and a bag of nacho cheese Doritos, which Jimin grabs gleefully, saying “These are my favorite!”

“This is the kind of place where you have a party?” Jin asks, eyeing the pole with some suspicion. Once it is explained that the party bus takes you from club to club (“so the party never stops”), the group is stunned (“Wow, Americans . . .”). Agreeably, J-Hope plugs his phone into the sound system to play a selection of their favorite songs: “Havana,” “Dirty Pop.” Let loose for the first time in days, with the stress of the AMAs behind them, they seem full of pent-up energy.

The bass shakes the walls, and V picks up two discarded Coke bottle caps and pops them in his eyes, grinning and shimmying wildly to peals of laughter. Jin and RM take turns slinking and bouncing around the pole in a dramatic fashion, until every member of the team and crew is laughing too.

Why is BTS so popular?

They are far from the first South Korean artist to make a splash in the United States—SNSD with their viral hit “Gee,” Rain, who famously defeated Stephen Colbert for Time’s top influencer in 2007 (as voted by fans)—but the attention around them feels different. It comes down to timing: At the right moment, they found a fiercely loyal group of fans called Army, who fell hard, grew fast, and delivered their boys to international stardom. Yet there’s also the current media landscape to consider. It is why the Billboard Music Awards marked a turning point; the media saw the potential for page views, and the exponential rise in coverage that has followed has at times, to Army’s dismay, felt disingenuous.

Take James Corden, for example, who drew some ire for pandering to fans. Worse still were those American interviewers who had done no research and asked often patronizing, uninformed questions—such as “Do you dance?” when they’re known for it. It has been tough for Army to watch wafer-thin interviews, conducted by people who barely know (and certainly don’t care) about their boys, only the attention they might bring; in many ways, they have been treated as an Asian novelty.

Yet the fashion world appears eager to embrace them on more balanced terms, something the boys like quite a lot. They wore Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent for both U.S. red carpet appearances; they spend a lot of time worrying over watches and earrings and documenting their daily looks. On the party bus, they take careful bites of their mustard-topped hot dogs, careful not to spill a drop. They’re big fans of brands like Gucci, WTAPS, and Calvin (and Raf, for the matter), though in Korea, the price of CK is quite steep due to import fees. “What about a group discount: 30-pack of Calvin shirts for $30, how’s that?” Jungkook proposes, laughing. “Cut us a deal?”

Last fall, BTS was accosted by a cameraman outside a famous hot dog stand near Hollywood. The footage went viral and rumors quickly spread that the band had canceled a “meet and greet” for no reason. Of course, the truth is that there never was a meet and greet, but rather a private photo shoot with this magazine: The owner signs a standard agreement, part of which stipulates the event is closed to the public. Later, the stand’s Twitter account posts the exact time at which the band would be arriving and encourages fans to come.

The bus pulls up to see at least three camera crews, including ABC News and TMZ, and a crowd of fans waiting; the shoot is no longer possible. To stick to schedule, the team is forced to move a few blocks away to continue. Eventually, a few cameramen find the new location; one particularly aggressive man begins screaming about his rights to a bodyguard (the guard, not understanding English, is quite literally unmoved). Shooting is forced to wrap, and the boys step back onto the bus.

“You’re going to lose all your American fans before you even get here,” he screams after them.

“What’d he say?” they ask back on board. They seem on edge, though mostly confused by the panicked affair. The hair and makeup team rush forward to dab herbal oil behind their necks and offer soothing shoulder rubs.

Once his remarks are translated, however, the tension lessens and they laugh.

“Tell him thank you for worrying about us!” J-Hope says, smiling.

“Yeah, thank you so much!”

Even the Big Hit team, though openly displeased, seem privately thrilled. “The paparazzi were here!” one says in passing. “That means we’ve really made it, huh.” Flash back to 2014 when BTS came to L.A. to film a reality TV series, American Hustle Life, where they learned about hip-hop culture. In one memorable passage, the boys are sent out on the street to approach random girls and invite them to star in their music video with little success. Now, it’s security teams and TMZ.

A happier scene unfolds at Dave and Buster’s, the adult arcade games chain, where the boys are given an unlimited points card and set free. On a weeknight the floor is quiet, just a handful of families with small kids killing time; not much notice is paid to the handsome group in the back. Jungkook and Jin race to the DDR machine and face off, their patent leather cowboy boots darting frantically across the mat. Suga and Jimin reach for a first-person shooting game, while J-Hope and RM start throwing baskets. Across the way, V draws the attention of a small kid—“Mom, they were on TV last night!” the child says—and takes a selfie with him, before turning his attention to a machine where you toss palm-size footballs through different hoops. “Wait, this is really hard!” he says, calling to Jimin to take a turn (Jimin effortlessly throws a few into the correct slots).

Their energy is infectious—and seemingly limitless. After shooting has wrapped, and they have politely bowed to the entire crew, the seven boys board their Escalades and promptly return to the hotel. They walk to their separate rooms, change into fresh clothes, and continue an interview that had been interrupted that afternoon. The next morning, bright and early, they appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, then head straight to LAX and back to Seoul to begin rehearsals for the end of the year award shows, practicing late into the night.

No doubt they are tired, but still, they smile and keep at it. Perhaps the beauty lies on that basic level: just seven young boys, enjoying the ride.

cr. MONICA KIM

[charllieeldridge]

21 Things To Do in Paris: Top Experiences and Sights

When we were Googling things to do in Paris, the first thing we realized is that pretty much every list that came up was the same. While there are a few things in Paris that everyone has to do, like visit the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower, there is so much more to the city than just ticking items off your landmark check-list.

That’s why we visited the French capital with the goal of having some more off-track experiences and trying to get under the skin of Paris. We’ve never been ones to follow the tour groups, so even when exploring the sixth-most visited city in the world, we found our own little slice of it. 

We used recommendations from our Parisian and ex-pat readers, as well as from our local tour guides, hosts and people we met along the way to come up with the absolute best things to do in Paris, including those things that aren’t too swamped with tourists.

In this post, I’m going to list the best things to see in Paris, from the must-visit sights and attractions to the unique experiences that may just end up being your favourite.

Top Sights in Paris

In this post, I’ll break down different areas of Paris by Arrondissement and the best things to do in each. I’ll also give you directions to our top 5 favourite sightseeing walks in the city, which take in pretty much every sight you’d want to see on your first and second trip to Paris.

But just for clarity and ease of reading, here’s a quick list of the sights we’ll cover in this post.

Surprisingly, we were able to see most of these on our short 5-day trip, but you’d be able to see many of them with just a couple of days in Paris. We didn’t feel too rushed, but because we tackled the city in the way I’ll show you in this post, we were able to get a lot done.

The Landmarks

Place Saint Michel The Notre Dame de Paris Eiffel Tower The River Seine Pont Neuf Bridge The Louvre Museum The Palace of Justice Sainte Chapelle Musée d’Orsay Place de la Concorde Sacre Coeur Basilica Montmartre Pantheon Bastille Market The Catacombs of Paris The Wall of Love Luxemburg Gardens Montparnasse Tower Archives Nationales Petite Ceinture Railway Montmartre Cemetary Promenade Planteé

Berthillon The Ile de la Cite Jardin des Plantes Hôtel de Ville The Army Museum The Invalides The Invalides Hotel Champ de Mars Park Place Joffre Statue of Marshal Joseph Joffre Pont d’Iéna Bridge Trocadéro Gardens Palais de Chaillot Arc de Triomphe Ave Champs-Élysées Cour Carrée Square du Vert Galant Marché aux Fleurs Saint Genevieve Jardin des Tuileries Jardin du Palais Royal

… and much more.

The Top Things To Do in Paris

We’ll start the post off with the items that you’ll find on everyone’s list. These are the must-sees and the places to visit in Paris that you probably don’t want to miss. Funnily enough, you won’t see the most visited place in Paris on this list and you probably won’t be able to guess it either.

It’s not the Eiffel Tower or The Louvre… it’s Disneyland. Anyways, on with the list of Parisian things that are worth visiting.

1. Join a Free Walking Tour

This is our best recommendation for getting to see Paris while ticking off some of the major sites and actually learning a lot about the city along the way. There are free walking tours in most major cities in Europe and we’ve done plenty of them over the years.

They never seem to disappoint and the Free Walking Tour in Paris was no different.

We booked our free walking tour with Sandemans and we would definitely recommend the tour. Our guide was Oliver, a theatre major from the UK who has lived in Paris for 8 years.

He was passionate about the city, spoke perfect English (of course), and gave us a lot of great tips about the city, without boring us too much with specific dates and moments in history that we’d forget anyways.

This free walking tour takes you through the main sights in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th Arrondissements such as Place Saint Michel, the Notre Dame de Paris, the famous River Seine, Pont Neuf, the outside of the Louvre, the Palace of Justice, Sainte Chapelle, the Musée d’Orsay and Place de la Concorde.

If you’ve never done a free walking tour before, at the end it’s expected that you give a small tip per person. Usually, €5-10 is fine. 

2. Visit The Louvre

The largest single-building museum in the world and without a doubt, one of the most stunning displays of art and history in the world, the Louvre is one of the main things to do in Paris that most visitors won’t want to miss.

This is evident in the lines. More than 10 million people visit The Louvre each year, so you’ll want to purchase your ticket ahead of time. We bought our “Skip The Line Tickets” through Get Your Guide and we were able to pretty much walk right into the museum without waiting. Well worth the extra few Euro it cost us.

If you’re really into art and history, you’ll most likely want to join a guided tour of the Louve (which also includes skip the line access). Learn more about those tickets here. 

However you get your ticket, you’ll want to have a plan once you enter the Louvre. Everyone has a few things they want to see when they enter. 

Whether it’s the oldest piece of art in the world (8,000+ years old), the Mona Lisa, the $65 million Regent Jewels or the Venus de Milo, if you’re not going with a guide, you’re going to want to have a game plan to navigate the 60,000-meter ² (652,000 square foot) museum.

Dariece and I were in and out in a little over an hour. We had a few main things we wanted to see and that was it. All of Paris is a living museum, so by sauntering around hallways with 60,000 other tourists, we felt like we were losing time exploring the fascinating streets of the city and meeting local people.

Having said that, we’re not huge museum people but the Louvre was one of our favourites for sure. It’s worth adding to your must-see list of things to do in Paris.

Pro Tip: Download Rick Steeve’s Europe City Guides app and then download the audio guide for The Louvre in-app. It’ll give you a good 2-hour tour of the museum for free (but make sure you still get your skip the line ticket!).

3. Take Photos of The Notre Dame

Once demanding nearly a half-day to explore as it was the grandest, most visited and most recognizable religious structure in the world, today the mostly burnt down Notre Dame Cathedral can only be glimpsed from the outside as a decade-long restoration effort is underway.

Nevertheless, getting a selfie from below this towering gothic masterpiece is still on every Paris visitor’s list, so I’m adding it to mine. We gazed at the once grander monolith in awe, more so knowing that it was once even more impressive. 

You can see the Notre Dame from pretty much anywhere in the 4th, 2nd, 5th and 11th Arrondisments so once you catch a glimpse of the tower, just head towards it and cross the bridge for the best view. Take your photo and move on, keeping in mind that you’ll have to return in 10-15 years to see it again once the repairs are complete.

4. Get a Selfie By The Eiffel Tower

Probably the most iconic structure in all of Europe, the Eiffel tower is a pillar that defines Paris. Love it or hate it, it has become the most recognizable part of the city.

Originally built for by engineer Gustave Eiffel as the entrance to the World’s Fair in 1889, the 324 meter (1,063 ft) tall rod iron tower was once the tallest structure in the world.

Today it is the most-visited paid monument in the world with nearly 7 million people buying tickets to enter it every year. But, there’s actually not much reason to pay to go up the Eiffel Tower.

Parisians will all tell you that it’s better to go up the Montparnasse Tower, the most hideous structure in the city. That way, you get a view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower and without the eyesore of Montparnasse itself (more on that later in this post). Having said that, many people want to actually go inside the famous tower. You’ll need a ticket for that, which you can get here. 

5. Climb The Steps of Montmarte & Gaze Up At The Sacre Coeur Basilica

The artistic capital of the city and home to the breathtaking Sacre Coeur Basilica, Montmartre was one of our favourite areas of Paris to walk around. Because it’s set on a hill 130 meters above the city, there are views of Paris from every narrow alleyway and open plaza.

There are plenty of tourists around the Sacre Coeur, but as you get farther away from the basilica there are enough quiet alleyways and narrow streets to get lost in. Having said that, you’ll still want to enter the Sacre Coeur. It’s free and well worth a visit.

6. Walk Along The Seine

The Seine River is a 777-kilometer long waterway and important commercial transportation route that runs through the center of Paris.

Many of the city’s top sites lie on the banks of the Seine so one of the best things to do in Paris is to take the metro to any stop along the banks of the river, get off and simply walk for hours along the broad boardwalks that are built on either side of it.

We have some self-guided sightseeing walks that you can do along the Seine River later in this post.

Less-Visited Things To Do in Paris

These are the things that aren’t completely off-track, but where you’ll find fewer tourists and maybe feel a little bit like you’re in real Paris rather than just following crowds of tourists around. We’ll get to more off the beaten path experiences a little later in this post.

7. Walk Around The Pantheon

We decided to stop at the Pantheon because we were already walking from the 2nd Arrondissement to the catacombs in the 14th (we recommend this 45-minute stroll as a thing to do in Paris by itself). We were pleasantly surprised that the Pantheon area was actually quite breathtaking.

Located in the Latin Quarter, the 18th-century structure was first built as a church dedicated to the patron saint of Paris, Saint Genevieve.

Today it stands as a wonderful example of neo-classicism and yes, the front facade is modeled after the more famous Pantheon in Rome.

Nearby buildings worth checking out include the Gothic-Renaissance church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, the imposing Research Institute Judicial Pierre Raynaud, and the Town Hall of Paris.

All of these stunning buildings are built around the Pantheon, making the entire open area feel like a museum of architecture. Definitely worth a visit, even if you don’t decide to pay the €9 entrance fee to enter the Pantheon.

8. Go Shopping At The Bastille Market

This open-air market is one of the largest and liveliest Parisian street markets and stretches for 10 city blocks from The Place de la Bastille to Rue Chemin Vert. Open only on Thursdays and Sundays from 8 am to 1 pm, if you’re in Paris during these times don’t miss this place!

It’s one of the best markets that we’ve ever been to.

Venders call out the quality of their products from each of their stands which sell anything from meats and cheeses to last year’s Parisian fashions, all under the backdrop of the beautiful Colonne de Juillet looming overhead.

Come here to buy some fresh vegetables, cheeses, meats, and bread and then plan to have a picnic somewhere in the neighbourhood afterward.

9. Descend Into The Catacombs of Paris

Not for the squeamish or the extremely claustrophobic, the Catacombs of Paris are an incredible sight to behold. There are over 350 kilometers of old limestone quarries built in a labyrinth 30 meters below the city, but visitors have access to around 2 kilometers of the eerie tunnels.

You pay an entrance fee of €14, plus €5 extra for the audio guide (well worth the money), and then you descend down a spiral staircase into the depths of the catacombs. If you don’t feel like waiting in line all day, it’s recommended to get a skip the line ticket so you can enter the catacombs when you arrive.

In the tunnels lie the skeletal remains of between 6 – 8 million bodies that were buried here or moved here from local cemeteries in the late 18th century.

The spooky thing about these dimly-lit chambers is that the skeletons, including the skulls, are not behind glass kept out of reach of visitors. This adds to the peculiar experience of walking through a sea of skeletons 100 feet below the city of Paris. This is an experience that shouldn’t be missed for sure.

10. Take a Minute at The Wall of Love

I wouldn’t really recommend a trip specifically for the wall of love, but if you’re walking down from Montmartre back towards the center of Paris (as we did and many others do), then you might as well detour a few minutes to check out this cool blue tile wall.

It has the words “I love you” written in 250+ languages. There’s usually a line-up for selfies forming so just follow the crowds.

11. Picnic with Locals in Luxemburg Gardens

This is one of the most beautiful open gardens in Paris (in our opinion). Pick up a snack from one of the nearby pâtisserie or boulangerie, get a bottle of wine and enjoy the late afternoon sunlight while people-watching in this beautiful park.

We stopped here, along with a stop at the Pantheon, on our 45-minute walk from the 4th to the Catacombs.

12. Glimpse a City View of Paris From The Montparnasse Tower

This is one thing we planned to do but just didn’t end up having time, but we were recommended it from numerous sources and would definitely try to do it on our return.

We decided not to pay the fee or wait in line for the climb up the Eiffel Tower with the thought that we’d head up the Montparnasse Tower for a better view of the city. Many people do this and it’s definitely the best view of Paris.

Offtrack Things To Do in Paris

There are plenty of offtrack things to do in Paris. To us, the best experiences are those with people who actually live in the city. Airbnb Experiences are a great way to have a unique insight into the city of Paris. Here are some activities in Paris you won’t want to miss.

13. Stroll The Petite Ceinture Railway

It might not quite wow visitors like the Highline in New York or the 606 in Chicago, but this abandoned railway (only open to visitors in a couple of sections) is still worth a visit if you want to get away from the crowds and have a unique, peaceful experience in Paris.

The railway is no longer in use and was only actually running from 1962 for a little under a century, but recently more areas have been opening up so visitors can enjoy a slice away from the bustle of Paris.

To get here, enter in near Parc Georges Brassens in the 15th Arrondissement — a section of the tracks known as the ‘Passage de la Petite Ceinture’. Here it’s legal to visit and won’t cost you a penny. Stroll along the tree-lined tracks along with joggers, cyclists, and local families.

14. Browse The Archives Nationales

This state museum of French history and the small gardens that surround it are often called one of the romantic places to visit in Paris. I don’t think I’d go as far as agreeing completely with that moniker, but nonetheless, the archives and the leafy area surrounding it is definitely worth a visit.

It’ll only take you a few minutes to stroll through the gardens and check out the inside of this 14th-century building.

15. Check Out The Montmartre Cemetary

This cemetery isn’t far from the Sacre Coeur Basilica in Montmartre so it’s definitely worth strolling through if you’re already in the area.

Wander past cobwebbed mausoleums, cracked tombstones and some 180-year-old graves with hardly another visitor in sight. 

Tip: Not too creeped out by cemeteries? You might also want to head to Pere Lachaise Paris Cemetery where you’ll find the burial site of Jim Morrison. With more than 3.5 million visitors annually, this is the most visited cemetery on earth, so not very “off-track”.

However, it’s still worth a visit if you’re interested in visiting the graves of Mr. Morrison, as well as Oscar Wilde, Victor Noir, Édith Piaf, and many other famous individuals. 

16. Walk Along The Promenade Planteé (Coulée Verte René-Dumont)

Another abandoned railway! Ever since our visit to New York and Chicago, we’ve loved checking these ones out. Well, the Promenade Planteé is actually the first of its kind in the world. Until New York copied their idea, this was the only elevated park built on an old railway anywhere. 

Here you can stroll in peace, high above the bustling capital below. There are birds chirping, flowers in bloom, trees, ponds and nice areas to visit. The Promenade stretches for 4.7 kilometers from Bastille to the edge of the city, so it’s worth checking this out after a visit to the Bastille Market. 

Best Things To Do in Paris For Foodies

If you’ve been following this blog, our YouTube or our social media for a while, you’ll know that Dariece and I are self-proclaimed foodies. To us, food is one of the best parts of travel, not just because it tastes good, but because it often gives you a unique insight into culture, tradition and family life.

Paris is no different. Parisians take their food very seriously and there are some amazing things to do in Paris for foodies. 

Not all foodie experiences can be enjoyed in a normal restaurant. Sometimes, true foodies have to book a tour or an experience to have their tastebuds tantalized in an extra-memorable way. Here are our top 3 foodie experiences/tours that you’ll have to book a day or two in advance.

17. Enjoy Wine & Cheese Tasting in an Old Wine Cave

Cost: $79 Per Person

4.9/5 ︎(996 Reviews)

Click Here to Book on Airbnb

When we came to this Airbnb Experience we really didn’t know what to expect, but we really enjoyed it. Set in a cave at the bottom of one of the oldest buildings in Paris, this experience is casual, so don’t worry about being surrounded by pretentious wine sniffers.

Instead, it’s just a group of people sitting around and tasting different French regional wines with some cheeses. The host, Simon, is laid back and has no judgment, which is always nice when tasting wines!

18. Take a Food Tour Around Paris

Cost: $96 Per Person

4.8/5 ︎(63 Reviews)

Click Here to Book on GetYourGuide

We ran out of time to do a food tour in Paris, but we have booked with GetYourGuide so many times before on different experiences, so I’m confident that this one would be great. The 3-hour small-group tour takes you through the center of Paris to try 5 different Parisian favourites.

They also tell you where Parisians get their cheese, charcuterie, wine, bread, and pastries. These tours are a great way to add to your list of must-visit restaurants and must-try foods in the city.

19. Join a Chef’s Table Dinner With a Parisian Chef

Cost: $91 Per Person

4.9/5 ︎(502 Reviews)

Click Here to Book on Airbnb

This is one of the best Airbnb Experiences we’ve done to date. Set in an old atelier (art studio) of a famous painter, this experience takes you (and your tastebuds) on a historical journey through the life and times of the artist. 

The French chef prepares a fabulous meal for you as you sit around chatting with other travellers and the chef himself. I can’t tell you what artist lived here, or much more about the dinner because the host has asked me to keep his wonderful experience a secret. So I’ll say no more… other than “don’t miss it”!

20. Dine at Tasty Restaurants in Paris

Speaking of must-visit restaurants, we ate at a new restaurant every breakfast, lunch, and dinner so that we could share with you the best places to eat around the city. Here’s our list of the best restaurants, just in case (like us) one of the main things you want to do in Paris is eat.

Many of these were recommended to us by Parisians and the more local ones didn’t disappoint. A useful tip for finding restaurants more frequented by locals is to search Google Maps for restaurants nearby, then click on the reviews and change the order to “Newest” rather than “Relevant” (that way, you’ll see reviews in all languages). 

Bistrot Victoires

6 Rue de la Vrillière, 75001 Paris (2nd Arrondissement) 4.4/5 (2,023 Google Reviews) €10-€12 / Plate

This little place is one of our favourites in Paris for sure. We popped in during lunch rush hour and the bistro was buzzing. Most of the people were speaking French, so we figured that even though the restaurant is so close to The Louvre, it was a pretty local joint.

When the food came, we were amazed. The duck confit that I had and the roast chicken that Dariece ordered were both fantastic and were under €11 each!

Le Coup de Torchon

187 Rue Saint-Jacques, 75005 Paris (5th Arrondissement) 4.5/5 (155 Google Reviews) €14-€16 Set Lunch (1 Main with Starter or Dessert)

This little place won’t be on most restaurant lists for Paris because very few travellers know about it, but it’s a hidden gem. Located close to the Pantheon in the 5th Arrondissement, this was one of the more affordable restaurants we ate at in Paris.

Try the delicious foie gras salad and the French onion soup to start, and the duck skewers and pasta mains. We had this, along with a cheeky lunch carafe of wine and it only cost us around €28 in total.

Constant Cafe

139 Rue Saint-Dominique, 75007 Paris, France 4.1/5 (1,875 Google Reviews) €10-€13 Starters / €19-€21 Mains, €8-11 Deserts, €37 Set Meals

Run by a Michelin starred chef, we went to this little place around 8 pm one night and it was buzzing with mostly Parisians and a few foreigners. The food was fantastic. Dariece had cream of pumpkin with chestnut soup to start and the Beef Bourguignon as her main.

I had  Escargot to start with the prawn main course. We shared cheese and profiteroles for dessert and all were fantastic. I really can’t recommend this place enough. 

Chez Hanna Falafel

54 Rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris, France 4.0/5 (906 Google Reviews) €5.50 Falafel, €8.50 Shawarma

We actually went to this place accidentally. We were on our way to the more famous L’As du Fallafel and when we saw the sign for “Best Falafel In The World” we just assumed that we were at the right place.

It turned out that this was a pretty good mistake because the falafel was excellent and we didn’t have to wait in line, while the more popular place was lined up around the block. If you’re hungry and don’t want to wait for L’As du Fallafel, then definitely pop into Chez Hanna as they make a great falafel.

Bastille Market

Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, 75011 Paris, France 4.5/5 (250 Google Reviews) Affordable Meats, Cheeses, Fruit, Veg and Full Meals

I know that this isn’t technically a restaurant, but it would be such a shame to miss this place if you’re a foodie. Come here with a reusable bag and plan to pick up some food here and either eat at the market or go picnic on a nearby step and people watch.

The Bastille Market is only open on Thursdays and Sundays but if you’re in Paris on these days, make sure to visit! 

21. Take a Sightseeing Walk On Your Own

Get your walking shoes ready for your trip to Paris, you’ll be walking… a lot. We were putting in around 26,000 steps every day according to our iPhone health apps and our legs could feel it at the end of the day for sure.

The best thing about walking around Paris is that you get to take in the city’s best sites along the way. Here are our favourite 3 sightseeing walks that we did in the city.

Between these 5 independent strolls, you can take in most of the must-see sights in Paris. You can combine a couple of them to make an entire day of sightseeing around the city as well.

The times given below are giving plenty of time to sightsee and people-watch along the way. If you were to just walk these without stopping you could complete the walks much quicker.

The Seine Sightseeing Walk

7 kilometres / 3 hours

Click Here to view this walk on Google Maps

I recommend getting off at the Concorde metro stop and walking from Place de la Concorde to Jardin des Plantes (near the Gare d’Austerlitz metro stop), taking in the sites of the Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries,  Jardin du Palais Royal, Cour Carrée, Square du Vert Galant, Marché aux Fleurs, Love Locks bridge, Pont Neuf Bridge (the oldest in Paris), Berthillon, the Ile de la Cite (a small island in the center of the Seine), The Notre Dame and Jardin des Plantes along the way.

The walk is around 7 kilometers long and will probably take you around 3 hours to complete including time to take photos. Give yourself an extra hour or so to just sit on the banks of the Seine and people watch, which is arguably better than the actual sites.

Walking From the 4th to The Catacombs

4.3 kilometres / 2 hours

Click Here to view this walk on Google Maps

As I’ve mentioned earlier in this post, this was one of our favourite walks in the city. We got off at the Hôtel de Ville metro stop in the 4th Arrondissement, then we crossed the Pont Notre-Dame bridge and headed south towards the catacombs, stopping in at The Luxemburg Gardens and The Pantheon along the way.

If you have time, stop in at Odette Paris sweet shop for a little treat just after getting off the bridge on the south side of the river.

If you’re taking this stroll around mealtime, don’t miss the Le Coup de Torchon restaurant, which was one of our favourite French Bistros that we ate at while in Paris (listed above).

The Essentials of The 7th, 8th

6.6 kilometers / 2.5 hours

Click Here to view this walk on Google Maps

Get off the metro or take a taxi/Uber to Saint-François Xavier where you’ll find The Army Museum. Then walk through The Invalides looping past The Invalides Hotel towards the Eiffel Tower, stopping at Bleu Olive Cafe for brunch or coffee, Notre Patisserie for a croissant or pain au chocolat. And, if you’re here at dinnertime, check out Constant Cafe.

Enter in the Champ de Mars park from Place Joffre street near the Statue of Marshal Joseph Joffre and walk to the Eiffel Tower before passing under it and across the Pont d’Iéna bridge.

From there, check out the Trocadéro Gardens and the Palais de Chaillot, before heading northeast along Avenue Kléber towards the Arc de Triomphe. 

Strolling Champs-Élysées To The Louvre

3.6 kilometres / 1.5 hours

Click Here to view this walk on Google Maps

From the Arc de Triomphe, follow Ave Champs-Élysées towards Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde. Walk Through the Tuileries Garden to the Carrousel Arc de Triomphe and finishing at the Louvre.

If you’re here around mealtime, don’t miss our favourite restaurant in Paris, the affordable and delicious Bistrot Victoires. Get the duck confit!

Montmartre to The 1st

3.6 Kilometers / 1.5 hours

Click Here to view this walk on Google Maps

After strolling around Montmartre for a few hours and checking out the Sacre Coeur Basilica, head down the stairs through the Square Louise-Michel and towards the Wall of Love (Le Mur des Je t’aime).

Then head south and if you’re hungry, stop in at the Chéri Charlot sandwich shop before continuing through the Jardin du Palais Royal gardens, and ending at the Louvre or at the Seine.

Getting Around Paris

Getting around Paris is extremely easy. The best way is to walk, that way you’ll see all of the in-between bits. In Paris, it really is just as much about the journey as it is the destination.

We visited during the transportation strikes in the city, but even with reduced runtimes, the metro and buses were quick, convenient and easy to navigate. I have two tips for you to make your visit to Paris much less frustrating.

First, pick up an Orange SIM Card (for as little as €11 for 1GB) when you land in Paris and put it in your unlocked smartphone. Then, make sure you have the Google Maps app on your phone. Having data and using Google Maps will make navigating the metro system in the city a breeze.

Just type into the maps where you want to go and click directions, then click the public transport tab and Google will tell you where to walk to get to the nearest subway, what times they run at, what stop to get off at and everything else you can think of. I honestly don’t know how we got around before this app.

You can also use your data for calling UBER, reserving tables at restaurants with The Fork (La Fourchette) app, making phone calls and using electric scooters through the Lime app. Getting around Paris can be a bit confusing, but it’s a breeze when you have data and utilize technology. 

More Things To Do in Paris?

Of course, when it comes to things to do in Paris, there is always more to add to the list, but I think that this post gives you enough to satisfy even a two-week visit to the city.

One thing that’s more important than actually seeing the sights is giving yourself enough time to simply feel Paris. Don’t spend all of your days rushing from one landmark to another, effectively wasting your time in queue. 

Instead, give yourself time to wander around the Arrondissements, getting lost in the charm that is Paris. There’s a reason this is one of the most visited cities on earth and if you spend too much gawking at the tourist sites, you might miss it.

Looking for more places to visit in France, check out our list of the best 31 destinations! And, for more on Paris, check out our post on planning a getaway, the best Airbnbs in Paris, and our Paris itinerary for how to spend the perfect weekend in the city.

The post 21 Things To Do in Paris: Top Experiences and Sights appeared first on Goats On The Road.

21 Things To Do in Paris: Top Experiences and Sights published first on https://travelaspire.weebly.com/

[hub-pub-bub]

Before her Netflix series, patron saint of minimalism Marie Kondo first entered our lives through her best-selling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, teaching hoarders and people struggling to clean house how to let go of objects that didn’t bring them joy. With the recent release of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, suddenly everyone was following her mantra, clutching household items to see if there was a spark and, if not, cathartically discarding them.

I watched this obsession sweep through my social media feeds, my friends posting pictures of to-be-donated loot and freshly organized homes. Everyone buzzed with this downsizing energy, until they discovered an aspect of the KonMari Method that didn’t spark any joy whatsoever.

In keeping with her philosophy, Marie Kondo shared that she keeps her collection of books to “about thirty volumes at any one time,” recommending to her readers and viewers that they do the same. But she also acknowledged that “the act of picking up and choosing objects is extremely personal” and that people should go with their gut when it comes to their books—because unlike other clutter, books can serve as conduits for knowledge and imagination. But in the game of telephone that is the internet, something got misinterpreted somewhere and everyone assumed she meant everyone should only have 30 books. No exceptions.

The literary internet exploded: “You can have my books when you pry them from my cold dead hands!” Blogs and opinion pieces proliferated, full of indignant readers decrying this proclamation. A few voices finally managed to cut through the noise and set the record straight, but the manic frenzy had already exposed readers for what we really are: possessive lunatics who could let go of a lot of things, but refused to part with our books. Literary Gollums that wouldn’t let anyone take away our preciouses.

I understood and was sympathetic to this reaction; I too cherish my books. I’ve loved to read since childhood. But I also understood Marie Kondo’s point of view and rationale for keeping her book collection to a minimum. For the past few years, I’ve had, at most, five to 10 actual books in my personal library. Yes, you read that correctly, five to 10 books.

Shortly after college, I moved abroad. With a small moving budget and no job prospects, I had to discard most of my worldly possessions. To that end, I donated the vast majority of my rather large book collection. I did keep a few titles to take abroad, such as my signed copy of David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and a collection of haunting short stories by Jean McNeil.

I lived in Chile for three years, where books are very expensive, incomes are low, and the selection of English-language books is subpar. I knew I would eventually return to the States or move elsewhere—and when I did, I would once again need to downsize my library. So, during my time in Chile, I mostly abstained from buying physical books, relying instead on e-books.

At the end of 2018, the time came for another move and so, with a heavy heart, I turned to my solitary bookcase. On the top shelf sat my meager collection, the other shelves used to display photos and tchotchkes. There were 15 volumes in all: some new, some not.

I took down each book. I fanned the pages through my fingers, held it to my face, inhaled the scent. Stroking the spines, I recalled my personal history with each book: Where did I buy it, when did I read it, how did it impact me? Did it bring me joy?

In short: yes. They all brought me joy. So, that clearly couldn’t be my defining question. But what was the defining question and which books should stay with me?

There were some obvious keepers: the David Sedaris. A few books that would remind me of my time in Chile: a book about the art of Chilean bread, another of native folktales. The Jean McNeil.

Then came the cuts. The books I didn’t want to discard, but weren’t as special or important as others. The ones I hadn’t enjoyed. The titles that had made the trip to South America but wouldn’t return: my Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for example. While I still loved the story, I no longer felt the need to bring the book back with me.

Some of my picks stayed the same even after years had passed, while others changed just as I and my tastes had changed. But, as I placed the books I was donating or selling into a separate pile, I noticed a sense of sorrow blanketing the proceedings. I was mourning my books. Why?

Why are we so attached to our books? As I held and decided the fate of each book, I kept coming back to this question. Why was I attached to these physical objects? Paper, binding glue, a cover. Fairly simple and commonplace. I knew I could easily find replacements for my discarded books, and that, with the exception of my David Sedaris—which he had autographed to me personally—the true connection I felt was to the stories themselves. The books were mere vessels. So why didn’t I want to part with them?

Readers, especially “avid” readers, aren’t exactly known for our rationality. We collect, covet, and guard books the way a dragon does jewels. There’s even a word for having too many books: tsundoku. We say it’s about constantly craving new stories and adventures. Discovering new authors. We justify the expenditures as the desire to financially support writers, publishers, our own neighborhood bookshop.

The simple answer for our attachment to books is that it’s about emotion. Reading a story is a deeply personal and intimate act: connecting or empathizing with the struggles of the characters; being swept along by the narrative; losing yourself in the descriptions of a landscape. And when our feelings get involved, rationality goes out the door. We conflate these physical objects with their stories —and our emotional reactions to those stories—making it harder to separate the two. Any object can be imbued with meaning by circumstance or association, but books more so because of what they contain and how stories speak to us.

“But it’s not just the story!” you may say. “It’s also about the book itself: the feel of its feathered pages, that old- or new-book smell, the weight of it in your bag.” Yes, a book is a divine object, timeless and yet finite in its physical state. A book can be lost, damaged, burned, but the story lives on. Maybe the book was a present from someone special. Maybe it was bought and read during a key life moment. All this can make it harder to separate the raw physicality of the book from the emotional pull of the story. The book is the story and the story is the book. And that’s the complex answer. I too love the feel of an actual book in my hands, but does that mean that I need it? I need the story, that’s why I bought the book. Shouldn’t it matter more the why of reading, not the how?

Living abroad and trying to keep my collection to a minimum while staying up to date with bestsellers and popular reads, I had to turn to e-books, which was a significant departure for me. I’d never been a fan of e-books, and at first I resisted them. I missed the feel of a book, the heft, the sense of satisfaction of slotting a bookmark into place, watching the slow march of pages falling from right to left as I read through the book, accumulating as more and more of the story was laid bare to me. But as I read more ebooks, I gradually understood and embraced their uses: they take up only virtual space, they’re cheaper, and infinitely easier to transport. Perfect for someone who isn’t ready to put down roots like me.

But many lit-lovers scoff at people who use e-readers or who have small book collections, arguing that they’re not real readers or not as “serious”—as if it’s a competition. And much of the culture around literature supports this obsessive book hoarding. The former Shelfari’s Compulsive Book Hoarders website (now merged with GoodReads) required members to have 1,000 books in their personal libraries before signing up. Readers on Instagram display their packed shelves with pride. We love to brag about how many books we have.

So, we can only be good readers and love books if we have a massive personal library? This exposes a blatantly materialist and classist side of book culture. When considering this, I’m reminded of a popular John Waters quote: “If you go home with someone and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them.” When I was younger I took this flawed concept to heart: I shouldn’t be with someone who doesn’t have books because that means they don’t read, and if they don’t read they’re….what? The implication is that if someone doesn’t read, doesn’t have shelves of books in their home to display their intelligence, they’re uneducated and unsophisticated. It’s a very morally superior view, snobbish and condescending. And I reject that.

I’ve lived in a country where most people can’t afford to buy many—if any—books, and libraries aren’t readily accessible. But that doesn’t mean the people I met weren’t astute, engaged, thoughtful individuals. I have a partner who has never read the Harry Potter series—something I once considered a deal breaker due to their childhood significance for me—because they’re too expensive. The ability to own books does not dictate worth or intelligence.

I’ve completely reevaluated my relationship to books and reading in the past few years. I’ve constantly questioned my impulse to buy books, knowing that I’d likely need to discard them, weighing my desire to travel and save money against my love of books. I’ve had to find the balance. I’ve had to fight the urge to accumulate more and more, and instead prioritize story over form.

At the end of the day, I still struggle with it. I will probably always prefer real books. I want to buy a book at every bookstore I visit. My dream home does include a giant library with a cozy reading nook. But my attitude toward reading has matured. I have rejected elitist attitudes. I’ve gotten rid of hundreds of books in my short time on this earth, but that doesn’t mean I love books any less. It means I’m able to let objects go while still treasuring the lessons and morals they gave me. The important thing is that people read and learn. While I hated selling my books when preparing to leave Chile, I loved that I could sell them to other readers. Reading is a solitary act, but the love of reading and literature is communal. How stories get passed down has evolved many times, from spoken word to papyrus scrolls to paper to e-books. But what books convey to readers remains the same: a story, an idea, a transport to somewhere new.

If you want to have a giant library, have a giant library. Or not. It’s okay to only have a few books. Or no books. Or e-books. Let go of books or hold onto them. Do what works for you, just as I found a method that works for me, a flighty reader who has learned to appreciate the convenience of modern reading technology. What sparks joy for me is the act of reading itself and the pleasure and reflection it provides.

ZOE BAILLARGEON is an award-winning travel writer, essayist, and journalist whose work has appeared on CEREAL, Life & Thyme, Roads & Kingdoms, Glyph, Good Mood Magazine, SFR, and Amuse by VICE, among others. She's currently in the process of drafting her first full-length book.

[a-woman-apart]

Change of Plans

I know that this gets old fast, but I have once again had a change of plans.

For one thing, I won’t be going to school at all this fall. My boyfriend thought I needed more of a break, but more importantly, I didn’t feel ready to go to school myself. I would get depressed any time that I thought about it. I was aware that if I followed this course of action- and still wanted to go to my chosen college in the fall of 2019- that I would have to cram all my COREs into the spring and summer semesters next year, despite my admonition that I would never take another condensed summer course again.

He and I argued for a while about things over the phone. He said that even taking the fall off wasn’t enough time, and I reminded him that I hadn’t done anything this summer either. Taking off summer and fall 2018 means that I will have been out of school for six whole months before returning in January 2019. I told him that I felt like “if I don’t go now, I’ll never go” which he thought was me being too rigid and extreme. Then I also told him that I didn’t feel secure moving to his home state if I didn’t at least have my Bachelor’s, which would help guarantee me a good job in the future. He protested that going to school didn’t mean Instajob, and I was being too hard on myself.

In the meantime, I need to now get a job because I won’t be getting grant money for school. The refund of what was left over would’ve helped me get by for a while. We ended the discussion with an agreement that if possible, I would try to find a singular job with more hours, instead of piling a part-time job on top of my current job. I am now in the process of a job search. I am willing to even take a full-time job, even if it means that the school process will have to be considerably slowed down. Having extra money, benefits, and vacation and sick leave would take such a burden off my shoulders.

All this time, I thought that I only had One PathTM to success, but now I am opening myself up to new possibilities. Now instead of everything being focused solely on this rigid school plan, while in the meantime I would accrue debt and struggle to get by financially, now I’m going to try to get my financial house in order and then just take classes whenever I can. My biggest fear was being trapped in a cycle of part-time jobs, with heavy involvement in retail and the food industry, and I am just not about that life. A second biggest fear would be never pursuing writing as a career, or at the very least just not honing my writing skills as much as I could. I don’t need a degree to write, but the college education and internships and rubbing elbows with other writers would help me so much.

I have come so far. Another thing that frustrates my boyfriend is when I tend to minimize my degree. He said, “A lot of the time they don’t need a specific Associate’s, they just want you to have one” and he really is right. I kept saying that my degree was too specialized, that I had majored in music and what am I really going to do with that if I’m not directly doing music? My pride in my accomplishment has been lessened by the fact that I feel like I obtained a degree in a field that I no longer want to pursue. I’m not the first and I won’t be the last, but those college credits count for something. My boyfriend also tells me that I keep “shifting the goalposts” and that’s true. Every time I accomplish something, no matter how great or not, I am always thinking, ‘’Okay, what can I do next?” Dissatisfaction and discontent with myself are some of the greatest hindrances to my happiness.

I can insist as much as I want, “I’m not ungrateful, I’m just ambitious” but maybe it’s a little bit of both. I’m not grateful enough to myself for being able to do these things that I do, but I feel that if I just “rested on my laurels” then I would be unable to have success in life. The bitter truth is that even if I had all the success in the world, there would be a shadow cast over it if I myself was not able to enjoy it. I do think about that sometimes, because it is impossible not to think about it. When am I really going to be satisfied?

I just got through a book of essays by Samantha Irby, a depressed, disabled black woman who manages to spin her tales of woe into masterful humor. She pokes fun at herself, and I can read the pain between the lines, but also the amazing resilience. She writes about finding love with a wonderful woman despite her own perceived inadequacies, about weeping when she had to put down a cat she once described as “having the mark of the beast”, about starting and quitting diets and exercise plans, and about the unfortunate symptoms of her Crohn’s and IBS. I’m pretty sure that she and Issa Rae are my Patron Saints of Awkward Black Girls.

Somehow, reading that book, it made me realize, that even when things are bad, or when things are boring or uninteresting, that things are still happening. There are other people besides me who sometimes make poor diet choices or spend days alone reading instead of going out. Anxiety is a Thing, and it can make you isolate, stress eat, and want to carve your heart out with a spoon. But it’s okay. It really is. You’ll make it through this.

After that small diversion, it’s time to get back on track; what should I do with my life? Honestly, it’s a toss-up between a little extra work just to get by before diving back into school, and maybe looking at more long-term employment that will help me save up for things I need to do. I still have a long-distance relationship to maintain, and plane trips and dinners out are expensive. Also, if I decide to move, that is freaking pricey as well. I’m not going to give up on my dream, but this may be the time to stop pursuing it as though it’s the only thing I can do. It is not, despite my feelings to the contrary. It’s not “go to school now or never go.” My boyfriend is right, I already have a degree and that is worth something.

He’s also right when he says that I need to just chill out. I try to dissect every plan I have into the tiniest pieces and account for any imaginable deficiency there might be in my preparations. I am a wild daydreamer, in that I am a wild imaginer of the worst possible happenings, or the most mundane happenings that could have disastrous consequences, such as me sleeping through my alarm on the first day of work (or any day of work). I worry about being asked questions that I don’t know the answer to. If I must publicly speak or present something, I plan for it weeks- preferably months- in advance, dreading the day when I might not be given that much time. If it can’t be done right, I will probably try to find a way to avoid doing it at all. Whether that is an admirable trait or just another symptom of my “all-or-nothing” mentality is left to speculation.

Whatever comes out of my newfound openness will undoubtedly be the right thing for me. I know that “fate” is probably not real, that there’s probably no real “one thing that you’re supposed to be doing with your life”, just like there doesn’t have to be One True Love. Sometimes, though, things just fall into place so beautifully that it seems too perfect to have happened by accident. A lot of the times it didn’t- there was real work involved. It just seems like more than 98% of the things I am afraid of never actually happen, and maybe that is a fault with me rather than proof that the Universe is acting in my favor. Maybe all along it was just up to me to get the ball rolling and expect good things, instead of the terrible things I usually expect. If the Law of Attraction is real, I should’ve already “attracted” any number of disasters to myself, but I am doing okay, and that’s a great thing.

So, no, I don’t know what I should do with my life. I know I want to write, but I’ll do that no matter what. We’ll just see what happens with everything else. 

[travellovekai-blog]

Just a few hours out of Mazatlan by bus tucked up to the Sierra Madres Occidental lays the colonial town of Cosala magico. Cosala was integrated into the magical towns of Mexico in 2005. This is a small rural community of just around seven thousand people and is filled with many legends and history. Two of my dear friends and I decided to take the ATMazatlan bus it is the only bus that travels directly to Cosala with just a few quick stops. My cost was 150 pesos each way, so pretty cheap. The bus is a little run down but has air conditioning and fairly comfortable seats. The three and half hour bus ride is up into the Sierra Madres. About an hour out of Cosala the roads become very curvaceous. It was a fun ride, I was sort of like being on a swing but going from side to side. 

  Immediately upon arrival, I felt wrapped in a timeless history. The cobblestone streets were filled with seventeenth-century architect. It’s chapels and clay houses, painted in bright colors, seemingly to stand still in time. We found it very simple to get a taxi that took us on a short trip up to the Quinta Minera Hotel where we were staying.

Quinta Minera is a very nicely taken care of colonial style hotel. With two beautiful pools. And plenty of fauna and foliage throughout. For the most part, we all found the attentive service to be nice however when we tried to book various tours it just wasn’t happening. The young lady at the desk was a little rude and basically said there were only a couple of places she suggested. When we asked if she could book the excursions for us she said to get a cab. And that was that. Okay, we’ll figure it out…

We decided to take the first day of our visit to just wander around town and get to know the lay of the land so to speak. Cosala is definitely magical and quiet, it’s very much like being back in time. When I say it’s like going back in time this is no joke they don’t even have a bar here,  we were told there was a small Cantina but it only opened at night and it was MEN only. Yep definitely just went back in time.

If your looking for a bustling nightlife or any nightlife really you may not like Cosala. But if your looking to see, enjoy, unplug and surround your self in a truly historical colonial rural Mexico town this is the place. It has a soft peacefulness to it. Friendly people and genuine environment.

There is a small central plaza, Plaza de Armas with a cozy green space and gazebo. It even had music playing softly from the speakers attached above the surrounding iron gates. Directly across the street is the elegant church of Saint Ursula. According to legend she was a patron saint of the Cosaltecos. Santa Ursula was the maiden of the fifth century, martyred by Attila when she refused to reciprocate. It is a neoclassic building that was built in 1730.

At the opposite side of the plaza across from where most of the food vendors call home is a small Mining and History Museum. It is in an old residential mansion of the eighteenth century. Throughout the museum, you will find antique mining tools and instruments along with some of the mined metals over the centuries. There are also areas dedicated to Sinaloa’s bandits and legends. Make a note if you visit Cosala then this museum will be your go to. If you want to go on any type of tour just stop in here they will set it all up for you. too bad the girl at the front desk of our hotel didn’t share this information with us.  We actually set up our Eco reservation tour here with a fun guide Victor. You’ll get to know him a little better later this week in my next blog.

We found a few restaurants in town and decided we’d tried the El Publito. It was a large three-story restaurant with plenty of outdoor seating. The food was traditional and tasty at reasonable prices. We would of probably really enjoyed ourselves had it not been the height of fly season. The owner of El Publito has a couple of large green parrots one of which was a little boisterous and the other who just hung out in on the railings.

This is a mining town. At one time there were over sixty operational mines. There is now just four running they mine all kinds of minerals including, gold, silver, zinc etc… Many of the residents here still work in these four mines. Others work in tourism, farming, and artisans who are well known for there leather creative skills making amazing saddles, huaraches etc.. They are also artists who are weavers of textiles and fibers who make bags, hammocks and other daily used objects.

The surrounding greenery of Cosala is amazingly stunning, the beauty of the area was something that I absolutely fell in love with. All three of us absolutely adored how quaint the town was. Even if there wasn’t a whole lot to do this time of year. Fortunately, the hotel was comfortable and had a great little outdoor gazebo area where we could play cards in the evenings. I learned to play a game called hand and foot, this is a game that is part rummy part canasta sort of. A new one for me but It was fun and the ladies were awesomely patient with me as I learned. Since there was no bar haha we played cards, drank and had a good time chatting. I would return again just at a better time of the year. We were told late August and September were a good time because that was when the waterfalls were operational. And more tours were available.

Jeff’s Corner

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” Zig Ziglar

Please share in the comments if you have any ideas or questions.

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Cosala Magico Just a few hours out of Mazatlan by bus tucked up to the Sierra Madres Occidental lays the colonial town of Cosala magico. Cosala was integrated into the magical towns of Mexico in 2005. Just a few hours out of Mazatlan by bus tucked up to the Sierra Madres Occidental lays the colonial town of Cosala magico.