Paris, Je T'aime!

Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a huge spike in readers from French-speaking countries on this blog.  I credit this mostly to Hello It's Valentine!  A beautiful blog by a lovely girl who chose to put my link in her sidebar.  In any case, I am so glad to have all of you!  I actually speak a little bit of French, and would love to get better.  While I was living in London last year, I had the privilege of traveling to France, Belgium and Switzerland, where I actually got to use it a little. 

Now, I live in an area of Brooklyn with a lot of French speakers!  Many people in my building are from Haiti and Martinique, and sometimes greet people in French before they really think about it.  They are generally shocked when I can actually say something back to them.  We get menus and church advertisements underneath our door that are entirely in French, and even if they are something in which I am totally uninterested, I try to read them.  Because there are so many users of French, I hear it a lot, and it's made me quite a bit better, and very motivated to become fluent!  (And to possibly visit more French-speaking countries!)  Sometimes, I'll hear people in the grocery store, or wherever,  having a conversation, and start giggling.  Danny then turns to me all confused, but he speaks a good amount of Spanish, so I am in the same situation when that language is involved.  We're even.

In any case, to honor all my French speaking readers, I have compiled a group of photographs from our trip to Paris last spring that I would love to share!  I know that lots of other countries besides France use French, but it seems fitting.

Also- please see on the sidebar, I included a little poll, asking whether I should start posting my text in French as well as English.  If you have an opinion, please let me know.

Pour voir ce même texte en français, s'il vous plaît regard au dessous des photographies. 

Au cours de ces dernières semaines, j'ai remarqué une grande quantité dans les lecteurs des pays français-Parlant sur ce blog. Je crédite ceci surtout à Hello It's Valentine ! Elle est belle, et a un blog magnifique. Elle a mis mon lien dans son encadré ! Je suis très content que vous êtes ici !

Je parle francais un petit peu, mais aimerait parler français mieux.  Pendant que j'habitais en Londres l'an dernier, j'ai eu le privilège de voyager en France, Belgique et Suisse, où je l'ai parlé un peu. Maintenant, j'habite en un secteur de Brooklyn avec beaucoup de haut-parleurs français ! Beaucoup de personnes dans mon bâtiment sont d'Haïti et de Martinique, et quelquefois ils saluent des gens en français au lieu d'anglais. Ils sont généralement choqués quand je peux dire quelque chose à eux en français.  Nous obtenons de menus et des annonces d'une église au-dessous de notre porte qui est entièrement en français, et même s'ils sont quelque chose dans laquelle je suis totalement indifférent, j'essaie de les lire. Parce que tant de gens parlent français, je l'entends beaucoup, et je suis motivé pour apprendre à parler français mieux !  (Et je veux visiter de pays plus de-français parlant) ! Quelquefois, j'écoute des gens qui parlent français dans le supermarché, et je ris à leur conversation drôle.  Quand je ris, Danny devient confondu. Mais, il parle l'espagnol assez bien, et quand nous entendons quelqu'un parle espagnol, il peut les comprendre, et je ne peux pas. Nous sommes égaux.

En tout cas, j'aimerais honorer tous mes lecteurs qui français-Parlant ! J'ai compilé un groupe de photographies de notre voyage au printemps dernier de Paris. J'aimerais les partager avec vous. Je sais que beaucoup de pays autrement que français d'usage de France, mais cette poste est pour tout le monde ! 

Aussi- s'il vous plaît voir sur l'encadré, j'ai inclus un petit sondage, demandant si je devrais commencer à poster mon texte en français de même qu'anglais. Si vous avez une opinion, s'il vous plaît me permettre de savoir.

Je m'excuse de ma grammaire terrible!!!  Je ne suis pas aisé en francais...

Merci beaucoup mes amis!  

Thank you very much my friends!

Miami Remnants

As the weather starts to warm up, finally, I'm finding it really easy to look back on our January trip to Miami! It was so lovely, warm and sunny there... ah... I just want to go back.  I loved that city, and honestly, I had no expectations going there at all.  I knew it would be neat, but it far surpassed anything I could have thought of.  Very nice.

Remembering the warmth and happiness also made me remember something else... that I still have about seven million photographs from that trip that haven't made it onto this site!  Due to laziness, internet failure, etc, I've been pretty bad about posting consistently, and new photos have gotten in the way.

So, then, let's usher in some spring with palm trees, parrots and beach, shall we?

Miami, Florida, USA

Photographer Feature: Lauryn McCarter 2

Lauryn McCarter has been featured on Travel and Toile previously with pictures of Prague and Budapest. She has just graduated from NYU and returned to America from a semester in Prague. These pictures come from two trips to Denmark, including a pilgrimage to Elsinore (Helsingør), Hamlet's castle. More of her photography can be found at www.halftrue.tumblr.com.

Cathedral
Copenhagen/København, Denmark

Copenhagen Botanical Gardens
 Copenhagen/København, Denmark

  Elsinore Castle
Kronborg Slot, Helsingør, Denmark

Kronborg Slot, Helsingør, Denmark

Kronborg Slot, Helsingør, Denmark

 Nyhavn, Copenhagen, Denmark

Internet Issues...

Hello Darling Readers!

I'd like to apologize for not posting the past few days, and not loading up a proper post for today.  My internet has been really sketchy as of late.  The connection keeps failing.  Easy things like checking email and posting twitter updates works, but uploading photos... just seems to end in a total fail.  The page freezes and then, I can't do anything. These problems seem to be getting better, and I hope to be able to post something either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Also, this connection problem is getting in the way of my using Facebook and Photobucket, so there have been no Facebook updates, and photos I have done for people have not been uploaded.  If we have done a photo shoot within the last week, the photographs are edited!  Yay!  ... I just can't upload them.

However, it's getting closer to spring, and I was in a really cool film yesterday.  I was dressed up like a hipster, dancing around with a bowling ball in a warehouse turned bowling alley/ club in Williamsburg all day yesterday.  It was awesome.

Love you all!

~Emily

A Bridge Is a Transitionary Device

"A portal is a transitionary device of sight or sound that functions as a sort of third gravitating body between the this and the that, pulling us toward itself, allowing us to bridge into the unknown from the known."
-Roy H. Williams

This bridge is one from the known to the unknown for certain.  For, it goes from Manhattan... to ...Brooklyn.  
Ruh roh.

It's funny- Brooklyn is fine.  I love it.  But sometimes when I mention to people that I live in Brooklyn, I get that look, the look that asks me why?   People sometimes seem to wonder why on earth I would ever want to do that to myself. I mean, I went to college in Manhattan, and obviously would have found that it was superior, so why would I leave?  Why would I want to live a forty minute subway ride away from the East Village instead of a ten minute walk?  Or, a walk right outside my doorstep?  What could I possibly see in a world that isn't Manhattan? 

Sometimes, when this happens, I feel kinship with Steve from Sex and the City.  For those of you who watched the show, you know what I mean.  For those of you who didn't- Steve is Miranda's boyfriend, and he lives in Brooklyn, and works as a bartender.  For her upper class friends who all have "real" jobs and live in, for example, the West Village (Carrie), this is pretty much remarkable.  She is quoted once as saying, "Brooklyn?!?  Cabs don't go there!"  I mean, they do.  Cabs totally go here.  I've done it.  

Then, I also get the people who look on me as some sort of progressive demi-god because I've moved to Brooklyn, like I am a ringleader in the counterculture resistance.  They respond with excited, bright eyes, looking to me as a sort of hipster paragon.  I am nothing of the sort, in all honesty.   I display some traits, but I don't really associate myself with that movement, as I've stated on here many times.  

I've had people respond to me with statements like "Wow, Brooklyn!  I've really got to move over there".  

... You know why I moved to Brooklyn?  Two reasons.  

1. It's a lot cheaper than Manhattan, and 2. My boyfriend lived here.  

I have an apartment that costs wayyyy less than most of its type in Manhattan, and live in a nice little suburban feeling neighborhood, less than ten blocks away from a giant park.  Yes, it takes me forty minutes to commute into midtown, but I live in an area with all buildings less than seven stories high, and lots of houses.  There's lots to do here.  I found my favourite Mexican food place in the city just a couple blocks from my apartment (it's called Flatbush Latin Grill, and it basically makes me drool).  But, yeah.  Definitely didn't move here to be/ look cool.  Moved here because it's cheaper and feels more like a neighborhood than a concrete jungle.  I love it.

Anyways... I should probably get off my soapbox now. 

Have some photos!

But, in conclusion- Brooklyn is great.  Some neighborhoods are better than others, but it's great.  The one I live in is fantastic.  You can indeed get cabs here.  They will even take you here from Manhattan.  Brooklyn is generally cheaper, and just living here does not make you cool.  It just makes you thrifty :)

Unless, of course, thrifty is your version of cool.  Which makes you pretty nifty!
LIKE THIS T-REX!

The images in this post are some photographs of the Manhattan Bridge, one of the three that one can walk, or drive, train, bike or cab(!), over to get from Manhattan to Brooklyn. I walked it, and I took these photographs.  They're from the same day as Hipsters on a Roof and A View From the Bridge.

 Manhattan and Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA