Senior Year Spring Semester Bucket List

It's hard to believe that in a few short months I will no longer be a student at the University of South Carolina. These years have passed by faster that I could imagine and I'm not ready for them to end. In the spirit of making my final semester the best without question and go out with a bang I have decided to come up with a bucket list of things I want to accomplish in my final months at USC. I may be stealing a few from the USC Bucket List, feel free to check that one out as well and make a list for yourself!

Chelsea's List (in no particular order)
1. Eat at Pawley's Front Porch--Yes I know I should have done this long ago....
2. Go to a shag night at Jillians
3. Make 5 new friends that I will actually keep up with after graduation--Harder than you would think...
4. Personalize my graduation cap
5. Go tubing on the river
6. Go to at least 5 baseball games
7. Do absolutely, gloriously nothing but lounge on the Horseshoe for an afternoon
8. Sing Karaoke at Saloon
9. Run a 5k and 10k
10. Make over a 3.7 GPA
11. Figure out if/where I am going to Grad School!
12. Go Hiking
13. Spend an afternoon at the Zoo
14. Learn to play guitar
15. Go stargazing
16. Read 5 books FOR FUN! (at least 2 classics)
17. HAVE THE BEST SEMESTER SO FAR!

I hope this post has inspired you to make a bucket list for your semester as well. Following this, I am sure to have a great one.

Cette vie est bon!
Chels

2013, une année de nouveaux commencements!

     I love the dawn of a New Year! Each one brings with it an insatiable optimism that steers everyone forward, no matter what their circumstances. New Year's brings the hope of change, improvement, promise to the soul of people. It gives you the chance to turn your back on anything unsavory in favor of a new beginning of a story that you get to write. This year guarantees a lot of change in my life, with graduation coming up in May and hopefully graduate school starting up in the Fall.
      Given the start of a new year, there are some changes that I plan to make to start it off with a bang. I bought a year's worth of online guitar lessons on Groupon for under $20! For the past few years I have wanted to learn how to play the guitar but the class has never fit into my schedule due to my other art classes. I don't even want to necessarily be good, just picking on a guitar seems like it would be one of the most relaxing things in the world.

...on a porch

...on the beach

....Anywhere!

     I am also changing up my look for the start of the year. My hair has gotten long and given that it's so thick, I can't do much with it anymore other than put it up. I have decided to go for something like this...

I LOVE this hairstyle on Brooklyn Decker! And once I chop it off, my hair will be a lot wavier since it won't be as heavy. Here are some other ways that she styles it: 

Is this not adorable?! What are your thoughts?

     I hope that you find something new to pursue this year be it a hobby, sport or just changing up your look! The most important thing is to approach each day with the optimism that befits New Years. Approach it like that and 2013 is sure to be the biggest yet for you! Beaucoup de bénédictions à vous en cette nouvelle année!

Chels

Coffee in Columbia

Bon Soir mes amis!
     I know it has been a long time since I have posted, but I've really been missing it recently and have decided to restart with a review! With my first semester of senior year winding down on time but winding up on intensity, I've been going through the caffeine lately like wildfire. There are ample coffee shops in Columbia but only few that I frequent. Tonight, along with my preparation for a management presentation, I had a particularly good coffee drink from Starbucks. I had never heard of a black & white mocha before, but I sure will be getting one again. I'm usually not a fan of Starbuck's drinks, they are usually either  too strong, or too rich, or both for my tastes. I've experimented with pumpkin spice, peppermint and flavor shots to find something I really like and I hadn't stumbled upon anything until now! This drink is seriously delicious. I only recommend it in the tall version though, I feel like any other size could stray more towards the size of being too rich. The other place I would recommend is Cool Beans! Right next to campus at USC, it is a cozy little spot that has great food as well as drinks! My favorite drink is called the perfect woman. Always order in and they give you a huge warm mug of carmel coffee goodness with whipped cream and chocolate chips at the bottom. Also, lets face it, a lot of the reason that I get the drink it so that when they call out "Perfect Woman!" I can answer and be like "Oh thats me!" OBVIOUSLY. I hope that you all have a lovely evening and don't study for finals too hard!

A bientot!
Chelsea

Art, Art! And Art?

Bon soir friends!

     Only 6 more days in this beautiful city before I begin to make the long trek back stateside! In the past few days, museums have been my life! We went to Musee D'Orsay this past Thursday where I was able to see some Monet and fabulous impressionist works! I wasn't able to take pictures while in the museum so I'm going to show you a few of my favorites!

This is Renoir's La Seine a Champrosay, I love the movement and use of brush strokes in this piece! 

Manet's L'Evasion de Rochefort, love the blues!

My favorite painting in D'Orsay, Renoir's Jeune Femme a la violette! She looks beautiful but so mysterious not facing outward with her face lightly covered. Don't you just want to know where she's been and what she is thinking?! I do!!

Obviously not impressionist, but I love this painting called Lambourage Nivernais by Rosa Bonheur!

So apparently I was feeling impressionism and pastoral scenes/cows in the D'Orsay? This piece is called Le Passage du Gue by Constant Troyon. 

We visited my favorite today, the modern art museum or Centre Pompidou! It was refreshing to see different kinds of art today because after the Louvre and D'Orsay, I don't think I could've taken many more renaissance era paintings of people that looked basically the color and texture of uncooked chicken. I looked forward the most to installations because I've always been into those, but here are some of my favorites since we could take pictures here!

Thought this piece was super cool!

What is she pointing at??

Any Warhol-Ten Lizes, 1963

LOVE all the colors! So eye-catching!

A chain link fence redone!

Picasso!

Love the picture especially with my outline, haha!

I am particularly attracted to interesting textures when it comes to art so this museum was perfect for me! As far as the rest of this week goes, we are headed out of the city to Versailles tomorrow and then I still need to go to the Catacombs, Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise, and hopefully Monmartre in the evening to see the beautiful views of the city! 

Thanks for reading!

Birthday, Bordeaux and The Louvre!

Bon soir mes amis!
     I apologize for not posting for a while, it has been a busy few days here in Paris! My birthday was on Friday, our program went on a weekend trip to the wine capital of the world, Bordeaux on Saturday, I had my first french test on Monday and we visited the Louvre today! Its hard to believe i've already been here for 2 weeks! So, since there has been so much going on I will start at the beginning which was MY 21ST BIRTHDAY!

One of the girls curled my hair before we all went out! It looked great before but fell out after about 5 minutes in the first bar which was basically a hotbox. 

Rose and I 

All of the girls plus our new friend Daniel!

Daniel and I

The girls :)

     We started the night at a spanish bar called La Bodega and then continued on to a South African bar which I can't recall the name of, to end our night. It has definitely been the most fun I have had so far!

     After getting back to the apartment at around 3am we proceeded to wake up at 7am the next morning to catch a 4 hour train ride to the coast and spend the weekend in Bourdeaux. What a great way to end up a 21st birthday by spending the weekend in the wine capital of the WORLD! 

The symbol of Bourdeaux! It is 3 croissants intertwined!

We went to a beautiful open air market on Sunday!

Got a little artsy with some of my pictures... I hope you like them! Also, there literally is graffiti everywhere in Paris, it's really interesting! It looks pretty cool on lots of buildings!

Today we went to the Louvre, it really was fabulous! It was almost too fabulous though because I was so focused on getting through and not missing anything that i'm afraid I missed a few things... but I can go back if I want because I get in free to all the museums in Paris because i'm technically an art history student! Pretty Cool! I really enjoyed seeing all of the more famous pieces but as a whole I preferred the sculptures as well as the Grecian and Egyptian art to the renaissance art. 

View from one of the windows!

Obligatory pyramid picture..

SO COOL in person.

This painting is bigger than the apartment we are staying in!

Love me some minerva.

Can you spot the Mona Lisa? I was not about to fight a bunch of sweaty foreigners to see a picture that i've been seeing all of my life.

I have always loved this painting!

Venus de Milo

The rest of this week there are more museum trips to come followed by BASTILLE DAY on Saturday! I look forward to sharing my pictures with you!

A bientot!