We've All Been There-My Alex Band Album Review!

Okay. this blog has absolutely NOTHING to do with France (unless you count the fact that I'm in France..), but I am too excited and happy to NOT post an album review...or more accurately, an ablum "gush", because I will be gushing about how awesome this album is to all of you, my peeps-family and friends :) Because you KNOW that if I was home right now, I would make you ALL listen to it!!!!!! So, since you can't listen to it (unfortunately, right?) until I get home, I am letting you all read about it! I promise I will get back to writing about my time in France in my next blog! I have lots to update on! Now, on to the review!

Okay....so anyone who's been following my life and is family enough to know all about my Alex Band love and hear all about Alex's daily music happenings knows that I've been waiting YEARS for this album to finally drop!! And I would actually be waiting longer if it weren't for a certain wonderful company called Zorbitz. Zorbitz approached Alex about releasing his album early through their new bracelet line, Black Star Bracelets. With each bracelet you buy, you get one free song download from his new album. So 12 bracelets total. I was still going to buy all the bracelets, but I meant to take it slowly and buy one every month and wait to hear the whole album until the actual official release date next year. BUT! Yesterday the codes for the preordered bracelets (I preordered 4) were sent out. And everyone who had bought all 12 bracelets were just gushing and gushing about the album!! And I just COULD NOT miss out!!!!!! It was like...being forced to watch everyone at your birthday party eat your birthday cake while you aren't allowed any!! SO. I bought my bracelets and got all my song downloads last night and I've been listening non-stop to this amazing album!! (LOL my review hasn't even started but you already know it's an amazing album..) So yeah. Just to put this all into perspective.... You all know how hard this wait has been for me! Alex left his record label to go independant. There were so many delays. Honestly, up until last night when without even thinking about it I bought all the bracelets, I thought I'd be waiting until next Spring to hear this album! So, it's literally a dream come true for me!

Now, on to the review!! (which is really long, and I think each song review gets longer too as I get to the end, lol!)

1. We've All Been There: Oh My Goodness!! This is THE perfect song to open an album with!! I've heard the whole thing many times before I got the album (live, of course), so no big surprises. I LOVE the opening notes leading up to "here I am.."! I also LOVE the orchestration leading up to the end of the song-you can hear it SO well, and there's a part where the orchestration sounds SO cool right before that last end part...which I never noticed before in any live recordings. I LOVE it!

2. Tonight: I've heard the live version countless times, plus the demo, plus the first "final" version when it was played on a Richmond radio station a few years back, but I must say it felt so good to hear the final recorded album version! It sounds great! I love how after he sings "tonight" in the chorus, in the background there's like a little echo of it. SO cool! It is so catchy and such a fun song! I can't wait for it to be released as the first single! Alex wrote it 4 years ago with a vampire love story in mind, so I'm sure all the little Twilight fans will love it :)

3. Only One: I've had this song for about 1 1/2 years, on both the EPs, and I thought it would maybe be a bummer hearing it on the album with all the "new" songs. BUT, it's as if Only One has finally found it's "home"! It fits so well on the album and I've always loved it, from the moment I first heard the demo clip of the chorus in one of Alex's Christmas videos to the fans a few years ago. It's one of my favorites and it just feels right to hear it on the album!

4. Forever Yours: Oh. My. Gosh.!!!! I am in love with this song!! Every time I listen to it, I love it more! It's so much more upbeat than I thought it would be, which makes it even greater in my opinion!!! It's also much better than the love songs you hear on the radio nowadays. I LOVE the second verse, I'm pretty sure it talks about Alex and Jen's wedding (I'm ignoring for the moment the fact that they are now divorced! The song was written like 4 years ago and they just recently split.) I don't want to post a lot of lyrics, because I don't want people to read them who aren't family and then post them on websites. But I love it when he sings, "I do, I give myself to you, I do.." You can feel all the love Alex was feeling when he wrote it! And of course, I've got a BF so it's just that much more special to me! It would be a really great song to play at a wedding! Seriously, the whole song is breathtaking! Probably one of my all-time favorites! (even though it is like IMPOSSIBLE to pick faves on this album!)

5. Please: Okay, this song has been an absolute favorite of mine since....like 4 years ago when Alex first put the demo up on his myspace page! I LOVE the opening! He answers questions he asked himself waaaaayyyy back in 2001 in Final Answer. It's so....(can't even explain it!) great how he does it! Please opens up with the answers to the questions in Final Answer (on Camino Palmero) and I just LOVE how Alex goes back to the old song that he wrote as a teenager and practically child, and now that he's older and has learned a lot about life, he can answer his own questions! It's genius, really. But if you don't know The Calling you won't get the same effect (unless you love this album so much that you buy Camino Palmero and Two and then make the connection!) I also LOVE the string arrangement on this song! There's a GREAT part right at the end! I've been waiting to hear the final album version for SO long because I LOVE the last 2 verses (well, it's the same verse, just repeated), and I LOVE the build up leading up to them!! Now I'm in my happy place, doing my happy dance! One of the BEST songs ever! With such a strong message-that really all religions boil down to the same thing. I love how it's basically asking what is the right thing to believe in, because so many people these days don't believe in anything anymore because they don't know what's "right." Just pure brilliance!!

6. What Is Love: Let me first say that from the crappy-hard-to-hear clips of this song from the concerts in Brazil, I really wasn't sure if it would be a favorite of mine. BUT, I LOVE the album version! First of all, the opening guitar part (even if it's just like 2 seconds long) is brilliant! And Alex's vocals are STUNNING!!!! I LOVE how when he sings "tell me now" in the bridge, he sings it higher than when he sings it live. Adds some spice to the song! I just love all the lyrics!! I love the concept of the song-how people are forgetting what love it! I love so many lines but I will only post one short one-"though we rose from the mud, we're drowning in the flood, it goes on and on.." I also adore the piano bit that ends the song. It's brilliant!

7. Love: One word: MASTERPIECE!!!!!!!!!!!! This song might be Alex's absolute greatest song EVER. I'm seriously quite speechless and blown away. I've been waiting since 2006 to hear this song. I heard it at the acoustic show last year in Richmond and it brought tears to my eyes and sent tingles down my spine! This is the song I wanted to hear MOST of all, in it's full-band, final album version. And it is BREATHTAKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Alex's voice sounds PERFECT, so smooth and lovely! When the song started, I got tingles! I love it SO much! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE too much for words to even express the gospel choir!!!!! It fits SO well and definitely adds to the song! It's much different than the ending Alex sang in Richmond, but that was perfect for an acoustic show, and this ending is perfect for the full-band version! Oh my gosh, I'm in love! I can't possibly describe how amazing this song is! Everyone needs to buy it and it hear it for themselves! It is seriously very uplifting. I can't even pick a favorite line....besides the ending part, I also love "but deep within these ashes, there's a healing passion and so I carry on, and somehow I stay strong.." The song was written while someone very close to Alex was sick in the hospital fighting for their life, and it's about how love kept them both going.

8. Leave (Today Is the Day): What a heartbreaking song! It is one of my all-time favorites EVER! It's a breakup song, but not your typical "oh-he-left-me-for-another-woman-boohoohoo" breakup song. And it's not an "I-hate-you-I'm-leaving-you" breakup song either. It's about making the hard decision to walk away from a relationship you desperately wanted to work, but isn't. Which is all the more heartbreaking because Alex and his wife broke up recently :( So you know it's something he was really feeling when it wrote it. It really is a masterpiece! I think it would be a good second single. It's so different, and SO many people could relate to it. The first verse made me cry. I won't post lyrics. You'll have to buy the song :) One of my other favorite lines is at the end of the second verse. Buy the bracelet. Download the song! And then we can chat about the great lyrics! I love this song SO much, perhaps more than others because I know it's something Alex has gone through very recently. I'm SO glad it's on the album! I loved the little acoustic clip we got to hear a few months ago, and the full-band album version is just amazing!!

9. Never Let You Go: Amazing! (please excuse my very small collection of adjectives...Anna isn't hear to help me out) I've heard this song a lot thanks to very bad youtube videos of Alex's shows in Brazil, and I've been waiting and waiting to hear it on the album! The youtube recordings were so bad you could not make out what Alex was saying, and you could hardly hear his lovely voice! And I am pleased to say that the song is every bit as beautiful as I thought it would be! It comes with the "Protection" Black Star Bracelet, which suits the song perfectly! I LOVE the last extended chorus! Makes me want to go to an Alex show and sing along at the top of my lungs! My favorite lyric is probably the chorus. It's just so great :) But I also love the bridge! And also, "I still remember the way you taste, the smell of your skin, the touch of your face.." GREAT concert song!

10. Euphoria: Oh My Gosh!! I've always liked the live clips of Euphoria (and I loved hearing it live in Richmond!), but it wasn't one of my favorites. Until now. It is GORGEOUS!!!!! Oh my gosh-the beautiful opening with the string instruments!! It makes me melt EVERY time!! The orchestration is AMAZING!! You can hear it way better on the album than when it's done live. I LOVE it! The whole concept of this song is brilliant! Besides the chorus, my favorite lyric is the first verse. Here's a preview, "when you take a breath, but you can't hold it in.." I definitely feel a connection with this song, and it will forever more remind me of La Rochelle! Last night, it was dark and I was walking home through the old port (wish I could post photos!). The temperature was PERFECT, and there was a beautiful light breeze that made my face tingle every time it blew past me (hard to explain but I think you get the picture). And the carousel was going, kids were on it, old-fashioned music was playing! And the towers and the old city were all lit up! It was the PERFECT evening!! And I felt "euphoria"! <3>before I bought the bracelets and downloaded the album and listened to the song! But as soon as the song started, I immediately was reminded of the walk home I'd just taken! SO intense!

11. Without You: Wow!! I had only heard a little clip of this song from Alex's "In the Studio" videos on youtube, and I liked what I heard but I really had no idea what to expect in terms of the finished whole song. It's one of my favorites!! It's obviously about being without someone you love (be it a partner, family member, friend, etc..) and just doing the best you can without them. I LOVE it!! Alex's voice is AMAZING!! And I love how powerful the song is by the last chorus!! I love the beginning guitar part! I love the ending because Alex's vioce sounds SO powerful! Hard to pick a favorite line. I love, "I'm a bird without a sky...." and the rest of the verse because it shows how insanely hard it is without that person, but you're still doing your best. And of course the chorus is amazing!! Anyone who's trying to get along without someone will totally relate, "those were the memories that will never die..". Despite what you might think, it's quite an upbeat song :) AWESOME!!

12. Start Over Again: Okay. This might get long...Start Over Again was probably (besides "Love", which I had actually already heard acousticly..) my most antipitated song on this album! I've been drooling over the very few studio clips we have of it, and it was SO hard to wait until the end of the album to hear it! And it was......not at all what I expected! I thought it would be more of a big rock anthem, which it's not. But that being said, I was pleasantly surprised! It is very quiet in the beginning with a slow build up. There's a great instrumental part. Though the vocals following the instrumental would probably have worked better before the instrumental. Honestly thought, now that I've soaked up the song, I ADORE it! Alex's vocals are AMAZING!! Especially in the beginning. (I thought I'd like the vocal part after the instrumental more, but I actually love the beginning a wee bit more! It's so different and lovely!) It's is just....so....spine-tingling when Alex sings the 2nd verse! "Life can bring you up, then steal your luck...." It's just SO gorgeous and when you hear Alex sing it, you know he's "been there", when life seems like it's always beating you up, but yuo just gotta pick yourself up and start again. I still absolutely LOVE the vocals after the instrumental, since I'd been waiting AGES (as any of you who I forced to listen to the clip from the studio video a loong time ago know!) to hear them in their final state (I replayed them about a million times in the "Studio" videos. Seriously.) I've thought for a long time that the song was about Aaron (his partner in The Calling) because of the lyrics to that part. But Alex said it's not about him, and after hearing the rest of the song, I can definitely see that it's not. Though the theme does fit.... I LOVE the orchestration on this song!! In the "Studio" videos, we got to hear some of it from when they actually had the orchestra in the studio recording it, and I thought it was great then. But it's SUPERB now!! It really adds to the song! I LOVE Start Over Again! Not at all what I expected, but I really love it-a bit of spice is good in life :)

Bonus Song: Cruel One: Okay, this song is not on the actual album (it originally was supposed to be, but Alex changed his mind I guess), but I got it as a bonus song for buying all 12 bracelets (because I'm SUCH a great fan!). I LOVE THIS SONG!!!! It SHOULD be on the album! It is so different from anything else Alex has done! (Plus, Emmy Rossum [Phantom of the Opera, people!] does backup vocals and sweet opera singing!) I hope it's someday available for purchase through itunes for all the fans who can't afford 12 bracelets. (I actually bought 14....they were late sending me 2 of my codes for bracelets I preordered months ago, and I could NOT wait a moment longer!! The two extra bracelets will be gifted away..) This song is every bit as great as I thought it would be, and then some!! Emmy's vocals at the end TOTALLY round out the song! And Alex's voice sounds SO passionate, especially towards the end when he sings, "love is a cruel one.." *sigh* I love it!! My favorite part is in verse 2, "like a SHOT *music stops for moment* in the dark I stumble.." SO great!! I really hope everyone has the opportunity to hear it someday, because it's one of my favorites! Family, you will hear it a lot around the house when I get home ;)


I heart this WHOLE album!! It is simply impossible to pick 1 favorite, or even 5, because I love every song so much!! DONT tell my CP or Two cds....but I think this cd is better than both of them...Combined!!!!!! EVERY song is a winner, and there are SO many potential singles!! I can't wait for "Tonight" to come out and for the official album release so that everyone can listen to this MASTERPIECE!!!!! After over 3 years of waiting *patiently*, this album was MORE than I ever thought it could be! Can't wait to play it for you all when I get home!! You will all be waiting SO impatiently for the official album release next year!! Of course, if you simply cannot wait after reading my stellar review, go to: www.blackstartbracelets.com And order a few :) Or all 12 :) After 12, you get 2 bonus songs and a PHONE CALL from ALEX BAND!!!!! Yeah. It's totally worth every penny!!

*hugs*
Kelly

Can you tell I'm really happy?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a Little Update!

Yes I know :) You're all proud of me for getting back into the world of blogging <3

First of all, Happy Friday the 13th!!!!!!!!!!! I bet AMC is playing the movies...... It's been a lucky Friday the 13th for me. (always is, 13 is my lucky number, and there are always stupid "horror" movies on!) Went to my Translation class this morning for 9. The woman from the information desk for the FLASH building then came and put a note on the door. She was like, "Are you in this class?" And I was like, "oui". And she said class was cancelled because the teacher was stuck at the Gare Surgeres (the Surgeres train station, it's the next "major" town over). I'm guessing my teacher lives in Surgeres and takes the train everyday. And the train must have been late. So wooohoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! It did of course suck that I had to get up and GO to the class just to find that it was cancelled. But still. I cannot complain!

I've been doing a ton of reading. I think I forgot to mention this in my last blog: Since there was no class Wednesday and it was cold and rainy out, I stayed in my pajamas ALL DAY!!!!!!!!! Wooo! I have not done that in forever! Even when I'm sick, I like to put jeans on because then I start feeling better (might be mental..). And all I did all day was read and check out book blogs. That's my new thing. I'm sick of searching for books to read at Amazon and Barnes and Noble's websites because the only books that come up are the most popular new ones. And just because they are popular doesn't necessarily mean that they are good! So I've discovered some great book blogs, with great reviews of books I haven't even heard of! And some books I'd heard of but had never thought of reading, but now I want to becaues the bloggers' reviews just totally won me over. Of course, because of this new obsession of mine, mine book wishlist at librarything.com has......like quadrupled! I started using librarything in the summer to keep track of the books I've read and my thoughts on the books, in case I ever want to reread a book (I can see what I liked or didn't like about it and decide if it's really worth the time). But now it's turned into my "books I really want to read when I get home" page. Yeah.....it's pretty sad. I think I have more books in my wishlist now than in my "read" pile. *blushes*

But I've gone totally off topic! I've been reading a lot. Yesterday I set a goal so I could start getting through my books for school. I wanted to read 2 chapters of the Andre Gide book, 1 chapter of a medieval french lit. textbook, another chapter from another medieval french textbook, and start another medieval french lit. textbook! Plus, I wanted to get some pleasure reading in. I set a goal. I decided to NOT procrastinate. And I had all my reading done before 10:00 pm!!!!!!!! Wooooo! And that included computer time :) I'm so great! I'll be setting reading goals for myself everyday now so I get all my reading done by the end of classes. I'm really getting into the Gide book. It's kind of sad, lol, how into it I've been getting. But I'm worried that some of my favorite characters are about to make REALLY stupid decisions!! I hate it when that happens....yeah, it makes for good stories, but it could possibly ruin the characters' lives! (granted, they are not really people....but still!)

Anyway....meeting in an hour with one of the Chinese students. We're gonna chat and practice our French/English. (not my English cause it's good enough!) I will update everyone eventually.

And wooo Happy Weekend!!!!!!!!!!!

PS I got letters from Shannon and Heather! And Shannon-tell Samantha that Maisie loved the letter! LOL Shannon! I can't believe of all the people you got stuck with, it had to be Father Wannabe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost died laughing. Seriously. And Heather-LOL I would laugh so hard if you beat Matt up with a stilletto! (that was his name, right?) I can't believe they haven't hired anyone for the holiday season yet!!!!!! What are they thinking?! You better get yourself that book with the stories about working in retail. Pronto. You'll need it to lift your spirits once Black Friday and Christmas come around!

*hugs*
Kelly

Salut Tout le Monde!!

First of all, let me just say that I am SO sorry that I went a whole week and a half without posting a blog! I didn't even realize it!! Time has seriously flown by since my last blog. Settling back in to classes last week was.....well, annoying because no one wants to go back to school after a break! But it was nice to have something "important" to do again. Let me consult my ever-handy and almost filled (OMG) purple diary from Marsha..

Ok, so as of 11/2, I have a new motivational quote. I was stressed out because of a lot of stupid stuff and a quote from a country song popped into my mind (Heather and the Little One, you KNOW this one!) ahem, "tomorrow's another day, and I'm thirsty anyway, so bring on the rain.." LOL. The quote works great because you realize, "no matter what happens today, tomorrow is another day.." Of course I almost died laughing when I said to myself something about having an umbrella in my purse just in case....because it was about to rain outside before a class..and then I connected it with the song and thought that was just too good. But you might have had to be there to get it..

Oh yes! Guess what happened last Monday?! My stupid CUFLE teacher (you know the one Marsha!) is a dumbass. He told us before break that our Monday class would start at 4:30 instead of 5 now (so we could get out at 7 instead of 7:30!). Well....last Monday we all showed up to class at 4:30. And guess who didn't show up until 5?! Mr. Teacher!!!!!! Turns out, a student had emailed him saying it wasn't fair that one student was able to miss the first half hour because of another class she had. So without emailing us or anything, our teacher decided class would be at 5 still. W.IT.H.O.U.T. T.E.L.L.I.N.G. U.S. Of course we all got up at left at 7 because we'd been waiting for him for half an hour!!!!!!!! The next day, the entire class agreed that for the rest of the Monday classes, we would meet at 4:30. So....this Monday, we all showed up to class at 4:30. And guess who didn't show up until 5?!!!!!!!! M.R. T.E.A.C.H.E.R.!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?! Turns out he forgot that we had changed the time. Not Cool!! Not cool at all!! But we still got out at 7 because we had all been waiting there since 4:30!! Honestly though....I almost have to laugh at how stupid the whole thing was...LOL

Been listening a lot to Alex's new song "A Part of Me". I think I mentioned it in my last blog.....it's so hauntingly beautiful! I could totally see it in the movie "Atonement". And get this-if you've listened to the song, you no doubt know how lovely it is. Well, Alex wrote the song for a movie. It did NOT get chosen for the movie :'( Guess what movie it was?! A movie based on a book by NICHOLAS SPARKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OK WTF?! This song would fit fucking perfectly into a N. Sparks book!! He wrote The Fucking Notebook!! He wrote Fucking A Walk to Remember!!!!!!! Who was the IDIOT who decided NOT to use the song?! Well whatever. I guess Alex is just TOO GOOD for Nicholas Sparks! And anyway, I read on a blog about how low Mr. Sparks is now writing books about Miley Cyrus!! So there! Alex's song will be in another movie! A MUCH better movie I'm sure! *haughtiness* And if you are wondering, the book the movie was based off of is "Dear John". Not gonna be reading that book now.

Ok..enough ranting.....sorry.....just needed to get it out of my system. Remind you of anything, by the way?! Like...for instance *coughcough* when there was a certain *song competition* for *American Idol* and the JUDGE'S SONG WON?!

Seriously. I'm done now.

Okay.....last week I had no internet for 3 days. So if you are wondering where I was, I was trapped in my room because of rain. And I had no internet. I don't even remember what I did to occupy myself. I probably just replayed Alex's new song over and over and over and over and over again.

Ah yes. Last week we U-571 fans celebrated the birthday of Mr. Tyler! He's lookin' pretty young for being so old! (LOL!)

I'm really liking my Histoire des Litteratures class. It's almost perfect :) I bought 4 books for it. 3 on medieval French literature and how the language evolved. And one on religion in France during the Middle Ages. So much fun to read! So I've been reading that quite a bit. Along with Les Faux-Monnayeurs (The Counterfeits, in English..I think) by Andre Gide. I like the Gide book, but I really can't stand Bernard. I love Edouard. I really like Olivier. But I don't understand the tension between Edouard et Bernard! I don't think I missed anything earlier in the book that would explain it....so maybe the narrator just hasn't explained it to us yet. But it is really starting to bug me. I seriously read way too much of that book today just to see if I could find out why they have so much tension between them! OMG Kelly what has happened to you?!

I had THE WORST Arby's craving the other day! I usually don't get bad cravings. But I couldn't sleep. I could literally taste that Arby's roastbeef sandwich with Arby's sauce inside my mouth!! It REALLY SUCKED! To say the least.. and I accidentally passed the craving on to one of the other Americans here! Oops *acts innocent*

Met with the French woman on the weekend. I've noticed suddenly that my speaking is way better. It must have happened so slowly that I didn't realize it until now. But I can definitely say more without thinking now :) On Friday I'm meeting with the Chinese kid who also goes to the woman's house. We're gonna spend half the time speaking in French (he's really good) so I can work on building my speaking confidence and improve my pronunciation. And half the time in English because he wants to travel to the States and improve his English because it's not very good. So that's exciting! I'll try to get a full report on that ;)

I'm considering once I get back writing a guide to study-abroad. Seriously. There were so many things they didn't tell us and so many things we had to go through that we had no idea about. I would seriously give this book away for free to anyone who was going to study abroad. We need someone who knows the TRUTH to tell us what we're getting ourselves into! Because as much as the study abroad offices try, they really don't know.

I read in 2 days probably the most memorable and touching book I have ever read in my entire life. THANK YOU Marsha for leaving it for me to read! Ok everyone-you need to go the store today and buy, "The Five Secrets You Must Discover Before You Die." I am not kidding. This book has changed my life, and I just finished it a few days ago. I have a whole new outlook on living. Buy the Book!! Marsha I will chat with you through email about this as soon as I get the time and energy to write to you ;) But let me just say that you are the best for lending the book to me!

Oh yes! Happy Armistice/Veteran's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had no class :) Can't really beat that ;)

Oh and one more thing-Heather!!!!!!!!!!! Did you REALLY have to:
#1: Post Photos of Ghost Hunters right around Halloween Time When You Know I Am REALLY Missing It?!
#2: Really Need To Get A Photo Of the SyFy Logo On The TV Screen?! You Know How Much I Hate It!

I do love you though, lol!

Much love to everyone! I should get to bed because it's after 11 here and I have an 8am class.

Thank you Heather for registering me for classes! You rock!

Love,
Kelly

Okay! Back from Germany!

The long-awaited blog!! LOL I'm sorry I haven't written anything in forever!! This is going to be a loooonnnggg blog if I talk about every little detail, so I'll just summarize everything as best I can! I can't believe it's already November!! The last 2 months seriously flew by!!!!!!! Just a month and like 20 days left. So weird!

It was so much fun spending time with Marsha! She is a very cool person :) We did a lot of fun things in La Rochelle-we went up two of the towers here!!!!!!! *gasp* I know! I went up towers!!!!! With winding staircases!!!!!!! We also went to this amazing doll museum!!!!!!!!! I took tons and tons of photos, which everyone will see when I get home! I will probably have a lot more to say about all this when I do get home and can show you all the photos of our time together :)

Paris was lots of fun!! I feel so bad that Marsha got sick though :( I hope you are doing 100% better now!!!!! We saw the Eiffel Tower!!! And this beautiful Opera house!! And we went to the Louvre, and saw Notre Dame, and Sainte Chapelle! SO pretty :) Our hotel was adorable too. I would like to stay there again next time I'm vacationing in Paris ;) Marsha taught me how to use the Paris Metro! So I was riding the subway and stuff and it was way cool! I used it to get between train stations when I went to Germany! Thank you so much for teaching me how to use it, Marsha! You are the best!!

Did I mention that Marsha brought me coffee mate?! And she bought me a percalator thing so I can make REAL coffee!!!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!! I love it! I've been drinking real coffee now and it tastes amazing!! Marsha and I had a lot of really nice chats :) It'll be nice to get coffee with you again next time you are in Buffalo! And I can't wait to meet your cats and see your new house <3

Munich was a lot of fun, but cold! About 10 degrees colder every day than La Rochelle.. But I was smart and brought my gloves and hat and some sweaters. I just walked around a lot and got to know the city. It's really beautiful! I'd love to go back someday. The train ride there was nice and easy. And OMG no customs! They didn't even look at passports or anything! So easy :) Which is what I like!
I did some shopping in Munich-bought some cold-weather clothing since it's getting chilly here in La Rochelle. Also bought some cute souvenirs for Jacob. I'm sure he'll love them! What's funny is that when I was in line waiting to pay for them, a song from one of his favorite bands came on the radio! It's a sign! LOL. But I thought that was really weird!

The hostel I stayed at was really nice and clean. And my bed was right next to the heater!!! I could literally reach my hand right next to me and adjust the heating. So I was not cold at all at night :) Amazing! I got coffee and breakfast every morning at the hostel too, so that was great! They were nice and they spoke English too which made everything a lot easier!

I ate a ton of German donuts :) They are AMAZING!!!!! I miss them already :( I also had some sausage stuff but didn't drink much beer or eat at any more expensive authentic German restaurants because I came down with a bad cold and could not taste anything! Why spend the money if I can't taste the food and beer LOL?!

Munich is really lovely-so much old architecture! I took some photos, which you will all see when I get home (because of course I still can't get my photos uploaded to the internet!) I can't wait to share them with everyone because then it would be wayyyy easier to talk about my time in Munich! I went into this one really pretty church and it had like gold ornamentations on the walls! So pretty!
Yeah it's hard explaining the city without showing photos!!!!!! I promise I'll tell more when I get home!

I am currently listening to a new Alex Band song!! It is absolutely gorgeous!! As Debbie on his streetteam put it, "Hauntingly beautiful". So true. I've listened to it a gazillion times already! Go to alexmaxband.com and it is called "A Part of Me", right on the front news page you can download it :) I highly recommend it! It's a duet with a female singer named Joanna, and there is just piano, and I think cello (I think that's what they said it was). Alex's voice sounds just perfect!! I was almost in tears just because of his voice, lol!
Alsoooooo, go to blackstarbracelets.com and listen to a sneek preview of Alex's upcoming album!!!!!!! I finally got to hear a clip of "Love" (heard it acoustically for the first time when I went to Richmond to see him play, amazing!!), and I seriously started crying. It's only 30 seconds, but his voice sounds so pure and full of emotion! I was brought to tears!!

I've also been listening to Adam Lambert's new song "Time for Miracles"!!!! LOL Marsha-it finally downloaded!! It is brilliant! His voice just totally makes the song-there's an insanely amazing part at the end! Everyone should listen to it. adamofficial.com it's the second song in his song player. The first song is his first single from his new album (which mommy is getting for me for xmas right?! she could preorder it so I get the 16-page booklet), which is a very fun dancy sort of song which I also love!! The music video for Time for Miracles is really cool! I love it :)

I promise this won't turn into a music blog, LOL! I've just been doing lots of music listening because it's been pouring here all day and it's that "special" time of the month. Yay.

Much love to you all! If you want to know anything specific about Munich or my time in Paris, ask me a question, lol, otherwise I'll give you all the details about all the fun when I get home and can share photos!

Much love to you all!
Kelly
PS Jacob is so cute! I miss him!