Friday, June 30, 2006

Intelligent Wood Elf

According to the Red Book of Westmarch,
In Middle-earth, Havilah Krump
was an Intelligent Wood-Elf

Elven Name Possibilities for Havilah Krump
The root name suitable for feminine and masculine is:
Sirithlot
Another masculine version is:
Sirithlotion
More feminine versions are:
Sirithlotiel
Sirithlotien
Sirithlotwen


Hobbit lass name for Havilah Krump
Goodchild Bushey from Woody End

Dwarven Name for Havilah Krump
Kîm Poolbrow


Orkish Name for Havilah Krump
Shagkûl the Plunderer

Adûnaic name for Havilah Krump
Saphthânbaâru

Thursday, June 29, 2006

What the?

Angel, Kate, Bronwyn, and or Bernadette, do any of you girls know what this is?

Blog trading? How did my/our blogs get put on this thing?


I was just casually scanning my sitemeter and noticed I had a hit from Estonia, so I check the refering URL and I got this: http://blogshares.com/blogs.php?blog=http%3A%2F%2Fhavilahs.blogspot.com%2F

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Finishing the Polish girl adventures and renewing the bleg for a place to sleep on the East coast.

Where did I leave off? Oh right my boss said that i didn't have to stay that evening so I could go get ewa from the airport, but i didn't have directions. Ugh; Thus i called my ever handy jeebs and asked him to print me off a copy from the net. But his printer isn't working, so he actually hand wrote 3 pages of directions for me and I stopped by his house in the centre of Paris before heading out on my long trek up North to Beauvais airstrip.

I got there around 11, supposeddly 15 minutes late for her arrival but ctually I ghad to wait 30 minutes more before she got out of the security section. When she walked through the automatic doors I saw her start scanning the crowd of waiting people expecting to see jb waiting for her with a sign. She actually passed me right up! So i tackled her from behind with a bear hug and she was totally and utterly surprised! It was great.

We started the long drive home at about 11:45pm and talked about jobs and men and our ex's in Ireland and basically all that had happened between now and last june when I had left. Shortly after 12am I looked at my gas meter and realized that I was running on empty so I figured I shoul dexit and refuel. It was only 15 minutes more to my place, but I didn't want to risk it. I exited and started to pump the fuel, when the pump stopped and I looked over at the windo to see what the guy inside was doing, and to see if I could get him to turn my pump back on. he waved for me to come over; I did and he said that after midnight it was a prepay service only, so I said ok and handed him my 10€ and after I finished pumping my gas drove off. Here is the first adventure with Ewa: I turned onto the little road that lead back to the on ramp of the Auto Route home and there were PO-LICE all over the road! ugh! They have quite an infestation here in Paris, but so far have avoided contamination, and or contact with them all. However, not on that night! that night i was signalled to pull over and I started quietly freeking out! i didn't have my drivers license with me!!!!!! it had been stolen from me when shopping about 3 months ago. I never told the family, because I knew they would make me stop driving and I really didn't want that to happen. So, I tell ewa to be really sweet and distracting. The cop asks for my insurence and my driving papers and I hand him over alll the papers I have on hand and play dumb about not handing him my license. I had givenhim all the car papers and i had passed along my visa papers and my passport. I asked him to repeat things a few times when he was asking me questions and I explained that I was a fille au pair and that I didn't speak french very well, so if he could speak a little slower it would be better. He turned to Ewa and asked if she could speak french, ewa was curious at why this cop was pointing at her and speaking in a language that she didn't understand. So she asked me what he had said and I told her in english, she decided that then is a good time to try and distract the guy and i don't know flirt or something and she asks him if he speak English! Oh NOOOO Ewa! NEVER NEVER EVER ASK A PARIS COP TO SPEAK ANYTHING BUT FRENCH!!! It is a major insult to them. They hate it when all these foreigners expect them to cater to their speaking preferences. I start freaking and tell Ewa to be quiet and not ask him that, so she goes. 'Oh, maybe Deutsch! Sprekenzie Deutsch?' (Oh lord have mery on me, I am try ing to get her to shut up, but she just doesnt get it, French people hate German people! Why would they speak German?) "Oh God, oh God, she is gonna get us killed!" Is what is running through my head but I keep smilling at the cop all sweet and innocent like and telling Ewa to be quiet. The cop takes a puzzled glance at these two weird foreign girls in this french licensed car and asks me who Bruno Delile is? Bruno is the father of the kids i take care of and the one the car is licensed to. I tell the cop as much and he decidedes to take a walk around the car and look for things he can write a ticket for. he comes back and tells me that Bruno has to get the front bumper fixed because it was a bit smashed it due to the last nanny. I say 'ok, I'll tell him' and the cop waves us to drive off.

My oppinion is that he just didn't know what to make of all the papers I jammed in his hands at once. Some were in English, some were in French so he figured that it must be ok if I had that many papers and just let me go.

The penalty for driving without your license in France is an immediate fine of at least 45€ and if it can not be proven at the time you are pulled over that you do indeed hold a valid drivers license then you are subject to immediate arrest and your car is towed away. I had no license with me, and besides that I was American, so there was absolutely no way for the cop to be able to check and see if I did indeed hold a valid license in Wisconsin, Etats-Unis. Luck was with me that night, even though Ewa asked if he spoke the two most hated languages. lol


Adventure no. 2: Shopping with Ewa for over 4 hrs straight. UGH!!!! I was dieing by the end of it! Normally I am ok for shopping for up to one hour, but when I don't have any money, and I am tired from being up the night before, I really don't like shopping, and especially not for 4hours with out a break.



Adventure no. 3: Being asked by security guards to put our clothes on and get out of the park. Yes! We were actually kicked out of my own residential area patch of grass, because we were laying in the sun. Ewa was in her bra and panties, they looked like a two piece swim suit to me, and I was in my swimsuit and wearing a skirt. Anyways i guess we were just to hot for the guards or something... they kicked us off the lawn and made us leave the communal area completely. They didn't believe that I lived there when I told them my address. I think that this is due to the fact that I have such a bad American accent! Annoying.



Adventure no. 4: The death of my car. On sat night at 11pm we wanted to go dancing so we got in my little car and drove into the city. However, 5 minutes away from the little dancing place that inew, my car started doing something strange. When I pushe don the gas it didn't go! AAAAHHHH!!!! I was in the middle of fricken Paris and my car was dieing fast. I could get it fast enough to shft into second gear but not fast enough to go the speed limit of 50 K/hr. I parked it and we walked the rst of the way to the bar. The bar closed 35 minutes after we got there and we had the chance to dance to only one song before commenceing the long trek back to my semi broken car to see if she felt better and wanted to take us home or not.
We arrived at my car around 12:45am and started to take as many back roads as I knew to get us home without annoying every single other driver on the road that night. However after driving kinda in a big circle for about 20 minutes I figured that I should jsut admit to my self that I really only knew one way home and that that way was gonna be hell, but we had to take it. Peripherique! Speed limit is 80 inmost places but when you get closer to my place it is 110. Ummm, so here are these two girls dressed to the nines in skirts and heals, driving along the side of the Peripherique at 25 an hour and geting honked at and propositioned fro about 3 hours with out relent. I was so scared that we would get pulled over by another cop and this time have no luck. Anyways to make our long drive a bit shorter to read about. What normally would have taken us 25 minutes to drive took us 3 hours.



Adventure no. 4: I forgot my keys at the families house so after our extremely long drive home arriving at 3:45am We were locked out side of my apartment. That was great. It was way to late for me to go banging on the families door, but we were dead tired and had no other resource. That was until Ewa remembered that she had left my balcony door open a crack because she had been smoking out on it. So we walked around to the outside of my building and looked up at my balcony ledge. A good 12 feet off the ground. hhhhmmmm.... I am about 5ft 7in and Ewa is at least 5' 9.... hhhmmm.... yup you guessed it. I went down on my knees ewa climbed onto my back. I started to stanc up slowly and she lunged for the edge and the railings. She caught it barely and I stood up super quickly. she stood ON my shoulders and got a better grip, but she couldn't swing her leg up high enough to get on the edge and pull herself up. She stood ON MY HEAD and wobbled my poor neck back and forth trying to get up; And then just as my poor, mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted body was about to crumble to its knees, she got her foot up and scrambled onto my balcony. The door was open and she walked through to my front door and let me in.


Adventure no. 5: Wake up Havilah! It was 5:45 am but Ewa thought it was 6:45 am and that Jb was late for collecting her and taking her to her flight. I had forgotten to recharge the battery on my phone and I have no other working clock in my apartment. So, I woke up and walked outside to find a clock to make sure that she wasn't late and if need be call and wake up Jeebs and tell him to move his behind into 5th gear and get here now! But when I went outside the only person I met was a little old man waiting at the bus stop. I asked him what time it was and he said "6am on the pill miss" but in French. At which point I wanted to scream at Ewa that I didn't have to work for another hour and a half and that i wanted to sleep!!!! But I couldn't. She was tired too, after our adventures from the night before, and she also had to work that day when she got back to Dublin, so I said nothing and we waited till Jb arrived at 6:45, on the pill, and took my beloved Polish girl to her flight. Which took her back to Ireland, and a safe distance from me.

I hope you can all understand that it was a very tiring weekend!

Next post might detail last weekend when I climbed Mnts. and Volcanoes in the center of France and the paragliders we saw and how we were practically paragliding with Jeebs giant kite. But maybe I will just leave it at that.... Yeah probably.

Anywho I am glad that I am caught up a bit better now, and all I can say about the future is that I am getting really excited about going to see Angel and Bernadette, and my Uncle Dave and Aunt Bethany, and hopefully ALL of New York City! Woohooooo!!!! Only 8 days left till I am on my home soil!

By the way thanks to everyone who has tried to help us find a place in New York, or on the east coast. We have places to stay for all but the nights of the 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. We're hoping someone will host us through the couchsurfing sight, but we have no promises yet... No worries though! It is summer, and heck, we've never tried sleeping like bumms on benches before! Might be fun!? Who knows we might try heading to Canada by thumb. Jb wants to see Montreal, or maybe we could get to Niagra falls. That would be cool, but I am still kind hopeing that someone can just give us a couple of couches and we can stay in one city for the 5 days. In other words: KEEP A LOOK OUT AND IF YOU FIND A PLACE FOR US TO STAY, TELL ME!!!!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Where the hell is Matt? Jibi's first post on Havilahs blog...



Second part

Life is never dull when you have a Polish girl with you.

Ewa, my Polish friend whom I met last yera in Irlenad, came to visit me last weekend. I am going to write down all of the crazy things that happened to us while she was here, but I am slightly afraid that you will all think I aml lieing... Itwas just that flippin' crazy!

Lets start with Thursday night:
Ewa's plane was scheduled to arrive at Beauvais airstrip at 10:40pm. Beauvais airstrip, which is aprox. a 1 hr drive from Paris and my home takes care of all the really cheap flights unlike Charles de Gaulle Airport which is just inside Paris. I had told my boss, Lydie 3 weeks ago, as soon as I knew that ewa had the ticket, that I hade a friend coming into town on that thursday and that i would need to get her from the airport, well as it happens on that same Thursday night Lydie had just booked tickets to some theatre... She said she needed me to babysit. I said, "Oh, ...umm, ok I will ask J.b. to go and get her for me."
J.b. was alright with the idea at first but on the Wednesday night before she arrived, I went through my email again to get the exact details and it turned out that she was arriving to late for J.b. He had an important exam on Friday morning and needed to study and then get a little sleep, and so the late arrival posed a real problem for him. I started to get a little worried, but figured that I shoul dbe able to to talk himl in to going, but Thursday afternoon he gave me a call and told me that there was a bus that shuttled people back and forth from Paris to Beauvais, but that it arrived in Paris at Midnight. Would I be able to collect Ewa from the city at Midnight became the question. Thus, I rang Lydie at work and asked if it was possible for me to leave and pick her up. At which point Lydie said , 'Oh, I forgot to tell you! You don't need to babysit tonight, you can go get your friend when you want, I will be home lik enoirmal.'

*Pause for Havilahs stare of silence*

Thanks for telling me Lydie.

Plans were quickly re-made that I would indeed be going to get Ewa
that evening in Beauvais. I just needed the Mappy directions to the airstrip.
Only problem was that I didn't have the passwor dto the computer so i couldn't get online to get the directions.


More to follow.... I have to get off line now I am at J.b.s and he wants to try and upload a video on my blog, so I wioll finish teh adventures of last weekend after this weekend.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Oh, Thank you, *bow* thank you, *curtsy* thank you all so much! (Exit stage left)

Ok, so I am not sure how many of you are able to remember that
I sing in front of Notre Dame for change, but yeah, I do. And as most of you know I am a pretty darn good singer, right? So it came as only a little bit of a surprise when fter I had figured out the optimal spot to stand, actually just infront of the tower you climb up to see the gargoyals, and the beautiful view from the top, that I started earning at least 16€ per hour and usually more like 20€. Now mind you that that is in ONE hour and no more, though sometimes a little less.
Because I have been stopping by for "my hour" almost everyday for the last 2 weeks, I have become pretty accustomed to people: staring at me, coming over and examining my music without asking, making faces, pretending to sing along, asking me to sing hip-hop and or techno songs, and in fact I have gotten quite accustomed to my songs. I can sing everything in my black binder, without the help of my black binder. (The binder refered to is not an ex-Ave Maria Music binder stolen at the end of my first semester....really..... well, ok so it is! But they'll never get her, or her two sisters, back! Mwa ha ha ha ha!!! They're mine all mine!!!! But, umm, don't tell Mrs. Fedoryka, please.)
So anyways, now that you all get the gist of my usual hour of singing I would like to include, here after, my most adventerous and interesting little encounters as well as funny and odd events which have occured during "my hour":

1.)
Lets talk about money!
I have said that the average is about 20€ per hour. this is a nice little chunk of money you think to yourself, but let me tell you about my Top 2 amounts of money I have gotten in a single busk.
Best day: 59.93 €, 3.20 Swiss Francs, and .25 U.S cents, was earned in the course of a very sunny two hours of singing Monday the 5th of June, between the hours of 4 and 6pm. Second best day: Yesterday, June 8th, I sang for one hour from 3-4pm and I walked away with 36.62€. I was given more than that, but a bum stole some. That story follows in my Interesting People section.

2.)
My list of foreign currencies that have been given to me
while performing
"my hour":
An American Dollar bill as well as numerous quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies originating from my home land.
One mexican Dollar Coin,
Three Swiss Francs and one 20 cent piece from that land of goats and Heidi.
About three British Pounds as well as several pennies.
Fifty cents worth of Slovaquie change.
One R from Brasil
A coin or two from Denmark...and the list goes on!
That's just what I can remember off the top of my head.
If you want to collect foreign money try being a busker in a very touristic city.
3.) The interesting people I have met!
Now lets see... I got asked for dirctons to McDonalds yesterday by a group of odd Aussi chicks, but that is a regular occurance.
No the real fun people are the ones who stop by and listen to my whole rep; and then want to talk to me after.
I met a very nice lady from Columbia or Peru last month. She was in town visiting her friend who happened to be married to a french man. I was singing Mozarts Laudate Dominum and she started singing quietly along. I was astounded that she new it at all. When I had finished I turned to her and said I've never met a person who knew that song before! She didn't speak French, I tried in english, she didn't speak english... So I told her friend in French and her friend translated into Spanish my wonder at her knowing the song.
Turned out the lady is a musician as well, though I am not sure of what instrument, and that she is also a faithful Catholic. She loved my singing and asked me to continue, so I sang her A.L. webers Pie Jesu, and she almost started crying. She wanted to know why I wasn't in an Opera House or at least on my way to one, but I had no answer. She wanted to know where I had bought all my beautiful music, I explained that I got it while I was in school. SHe said that she had heard that Pie Jesu before and that she would like to find the sheet music for it, I said that I knew it so well that she could simply have mine. She was very grateful, gave me at least 4€ in change and we exchanged emails with teh promise that if I were to ever come to her country I would stop by and see her.
I just wish I remember what country she lives in.... lol
I met a 70yr old Brazillian man with a Doctorate in Sociology who gave me 15€for two songs and after a cup of expresso. He said his name was gabriel and that he was sent to me to bring good news. While we talked about the problem of the youth in the world today, especially in Europe, of how they all just expect their parents to take care of them. He told me how he had struggled to finish his highschooling attending night classes because he had to work for his living. He told me about how he worked every job imaginable throughout his Bachelors and Masters degrees, and how he had gotten his Doctorate in Sociology here in Paris, while living in an attic apartment where he shared the toilet and shower down the hall with about 10 other people.
He was impressed that I had enough gumption to go out on the street and sing for my money, but he was more impressed with the theology that I had studied.
He asked me if I would come speak to his youngest son, 15yrs old, who has never worked a dya in his life for any of the money he has, and who although very inteligent is uncertain of his faith. I said I would be honored, so we exchanged phone numbers and addresses.
Yesterday I was in the middle of singing Adorate devote, with a fair sized ring of people around me, when a homeless man came over to me and started looking over my shoulder at my music. He mumbled something not nice and then looking at my money bowl bent down and started taking my change! I stopped singing and said "No, no Msr, that's my money" in French and tried to take the dish away from him. He physically pushed me to the ground and left with a handful of my money. While he was leaving he shouted something like 'You bitch, you can sing for more money!' I was all shook up and pulled my dish under me and started crying. Immediately at least 5 people came overto me and tried to comfort me. One person gave me a 10€bill, others forced 2€ coins into my hand, while one nice American lady practically gave me a hug and told me that he was just a drunk! That I shouldn't stop singing because I had such a beautiful voice and that was why she had told her husband to video record me. A young man, about 18 or 19yrs old, came over and said that he was very sorry for me and that what had just happened was the meanest thing he had ever seen happen in real life. He gave me some money and waited till I had recuperated enough to sing again.
After getting my bearings again and singing my little heart out I was just finishing "my hour" when a women came up to me and asked what the last song I had just sung was, in broken French. I said "pardon," because I couldn't understand her french. We started talking in english and it turns out that she is a Philosophy teacher in Upstate NY very close to Syracuse. Her husband happens to be a very good claranet player, from flippin' LaCrosse area WI, who has studied at a whole buch of famous schools and was now teaching as a Professor of music in Binghamton University.
She was standing way down the street when she heard my singing on the wind and she said she just had to come and see who was singing. We really hit it off they are a great couple. I asked him about the Vocal program that is at his school and he said that it is exceptional and listed off all the places that the students have gone on to. I sang him Laudate Dominum and he said that I had a beautiful instrument and that if I were to go to his school I would be serious competion for all the other soprans.
They gave me a whole list of contact info. for them and told me to meet them agian this Sunday at a little musical spectacle where they would like to introduce me to some french singers they know and at that time see if they have heard back from the lady he knows who heads the vocal program at
Juliard and Binghamton Universities.
The man, Timothy Perry, can be seen on this link he is the smiling bald conductor in the middle of the bottom of the page.

It was a very interesting hour, if I do say so myself.

Sunday, June 04, 2006

1......

BLAST OFF!!!!


I am now 22 years old.
Why do I feel so old? Probably because after you turn 21 there are no more eagerly anticipated birthdays, and I just passed up that year.
Life is supposed to suck from here on out.
I hope everyone is wrong.
Happy Birthday to me!
Born to be Wild
By: Steppenwolf
Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way
Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space
I like smoke and lightning
Heavy metal thunder
Racin' with the wind
And the feelin' that I'm under
Yeah Darlin' go make it happen
Take the world in a love embrace
Fire all of your guns at once
And explode into space
Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild
We can climb so high
I never wanna die
Born to be wild
Born to be wild

Saturday, June 03, 2006