la nouvelle parisienne

about day six....

2009-02-15T17:37:00.001-08:00

SO I MISSED A BIG PART OF DAY SIX: before class sami and I are having a meeting with our landlord to draw up the contract. After much confusion as to where exactly we were meeting, Samantha and I finally sit down with M. Aimard at the Grand Hotel. Which was hysterical for sami and I because we were just at that hotel a month earlier for the gala. And it was nothing but debauchery then. Pushing and shoving to get in, more shoving to check coats. Drunkenness, and when it was all said and done, a lot of passed out French kids. All over the fancy hotel reception. This time around it was nothing but class. Minus the fact that Samantha and I are carrying our very large bags with all of our clothes that we’re living off of with us. c’est la classe. In any case, we show up to the meeting and make up the contract. And then when he hands us the contract he says okay, so the money. Samantha and I look at each other. And then back at philer. (NOTE: at this point he is asking us for 9000euros, or $12,000 in cash.) We explain to him that we didn’t know we needed to get the cash. To which he replies that if we don’t have the cash, then he can’t give us the contract. He was also a bit angry at this point because we had misunderstood. In any case, we reschedule a meeting for the following night, and say goodbye. This means that Samantha and I have to come up with 12,000 dollars in one night. And day. And to top it off, it’s martin luther king jr. day in the US. So naturally, all banks are closed. Great fun for us. after calling back home and figuring some things out, I decide that I’m going to just do a money transfer. Samantha on the other hand is going to try to get cash from her relatives since he wanted it all in cash anyway. Also, the banks here don’t let you pull that much money out at one time. You need to give them a 36 hour notice before you do that. We didn’t have that kind of time. Regardless, here is where our night with the boys starts. (the other day six entry) now onto the eventful day 7…

clarification of big spoon and little spoon...

2009-02-15T16:54:00.001-08:00

so, it came to my attention after i posted the blog, that some of you may be unaware of what big spoon and little spoon are. here is the dictionary definition according to urban dictionary:

1. big spoon little spoon

When spooning; the spooner on the outside with there back being untouched is known as the "big spoon" usually this person is bigger...The spooner on the inside with their stomach being untouched is the "little spoon" usually this person is smaller in some way.

clear? i hope so.

day six : chez nacho.

2009-02-15T16:40:00.000-08:00

DAY SIX: we wake up with good spirits and head off to our first day of class. This is sami’s first day of French class at all, because she didn’t have any French classes last semester. She was a bit nervous, super cute. in any case the class goes off without any issues, so we decide to celebrate by heading down to the school bar! We have a few cheap beers. Love the school bar and its cheapness. Then we get a message from our friends that says, hey, want to come get dinner with us. sami and i agree that that sounds like a brilliant idea. So we wait for them, then head off to find something to eat. And of all the places that we could go in this wonderful city, we go to macdonalds. Sami and I sit and watch the boys eat (neither of us were in the mood for macdo) and the boys and us wind up talking for about 2.5 hours. Ridiculous. All the while sitting in mcdonalds. After that, we get on the metro and sami and I mention that we need to go back to the banlieue still tonight, and one of the boys we were with throws a fit. Tells us we can’t and in his words exactly, ‘IF YOU GO HOME LIKE THIS, YOU WILL BE RAPED OR ROBBED.’ etc. etc. super sweet and cute. so sami and I, after much debate, decide to stay the night in paris at our friend’s house, Nacho. So in any case, we head back to Nacho’s to drop our stuff off, and we decide that since we’re staying in paris and we don’t have class until 130 the next afternoon we may as well go out and celebrate! Clearly. So we change clothes, and head out on the town. Making a stop at our friend Omar’s house so he can change too. After much hilarity on behalf of cultural miscommunications we were finally off to the bars. After a few drinks, it was back to nacho’s house for the big sleepover!!! Samantha, me, Nacho, and our other friend Edu. So after sitting around and hanging out for a long time, it was finally time for bed. We pulled out the couch and all settled down to sleep. Sami and I sleeping normally on the bed with edu sleeping at our feet. (see diagram below)

So, now that you understand how things were laid out in the bed, you will understand our issues better. So sami and I weren’t really tired so we were doing what any normal girls to at a sleepover, goofing off, gossiping and giggling, and edu really wanted to sleep but we weren’t letting him. But that’s besides the point. Sami and I quieted down for a bit, and then all of a sudden we hear this rustling sound. So sami and I say, ‘Edu???’ and he says, ‘yes?’ ‘are you making that noise?’ ‘what noise, this noise?’ and he rustles his feet again. So we say, ‘yes, that noise! Edu are you moving your feet?’ and he says, yes, it relaxes me. just like a 6 year old little boy. Too cute. so after a bit of time, sami and I finally decided that we couldn’t handle edu sleeping at the foot of the bed anymore. Mostly I couldn’t handle it because I couldn’t stretch out at all. So after a tickle match between sami and I versus edu we tell him that he should move and come sleep in the middle so that way we could all stretch out. After some argument we finally succeed in making him move to the middle. All was fine and dandy and off to bed we went. Until sometime in the morning, or the middle of the night when I get hit repeatedly by edu. I roll over and say ‘what?’ ‘what do you want?’ and in response I get edu fanning himself and sort of grunting, in an attempt to tell me that he’s hot and needs the covers off. Since he woke me up I was a bit grumpy so I respond with a, ‘so take your pants and sweater off.’ He does and after a quick rustle of his feet he’s back to snoring the night away.

Oh! I forgot something. Big spoon and little spoon. Samantha and I were discussing big spoon and little spoon before we went to bed. Edu, being from spain, and Spanish being his native language, did not understand that. Our friend Ignacio, who’s house we were staying at attempts to explain it in Spanish, but edu is still a bit confused, so in order to clear up exactly the difference between big spoon and little spoon, Ignacio came out of his room and his bed, and decided to demonstrate to edu (using him as little spoon) just exactly what big spoon was.

day five. dear god, i have so much to update still...

2009-02-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

DAY FIVE: So this day was mostly a lost day for us. The party from the night before ended at 5am, per a normal ESCP party, so it was down to the metro to wait for the first train to arrive. This is where we seem to make a lot of friends. 5 or 6am while waiting for the metro. At this point sami and I are in our, ‘hey do you need a roommate?’ phase, where we keep asking everyone whether or not they need a roommate, and if they do, if they want to live with us. tonight was no exception. While waiting for the train we meet these boys named Yoann and Jean, brothers in fact, and we get to talking to them. They seem nice enough, and we talked to them for about 45 minutes while we were waiting for the train. So we ask them if they would want to live with us, to which they both then began to fight about which one of them would be able to live with us. after about 10 minutes of argument they settled on a rotating schedule of week on and week off. Meaning: one of them would live with us for the week, and the next week the other one would come. Brilliant plan at 5am I tell you, brilliant plan.

In any case, we make it back to our current home – the hotel – and ask the deskman (the nice one) what time checkout was for the following afternoon. He says noon. It is currently 630 in the morning. so in response sami and I say, ‘can we have a wake up call at 1130 please?’ he laughs, and agrees. And it’s off to bed. We get the wake up call in the morning, and start rushing to get out of the room and shower in time. Still with no idea where we’re going. We get all ready, and packed and sami and I look at each other and say, I really don’t feel good…. Wanna just get another night? Yes, yes we did. So we head downstairs, tell the front desk person, and the cleaning ladies that there’s no need to clean the room, and head back to bed. 4pm rolls around and we decide we best be getting up for the day.

Sami’s cousin calls and we decide that we should move our luggage out of sami’s old apartment and into Tanti’s (sam’s cousin) house in the banlieue (the suburbs). So we head across town to go do that. The new girls in sam’s apartment open the door and proceed to give us a death stare. Like what the hell are you doing in my house again. SCARY. In a valiant attempt at gaining brownie points with the girl I tell her I think her shoes are cute. NOTE: They were not. And she was not amused in any case, so alas, no brownie points awarded this round. So sami and I quickly packed an overnight bag for the next night in the hotel, and then started to re-organize all of our stuff to pack up and take out to VAUJOURS. The new home of our luggage until we move into the apartment on the 2nd of feb. so we drag everything down and pile it all in the entrance to sami’s old apartment. And the amount of stuff we’ve managed to accumulate is just obscene… so in any case, tanti comes, and we pile everything into the car. It was like a real live jigsaw puzzle. Hilarious trying to watch tanti drive away with everything, and just enough space in the car for her to sit in the driver’s seat. Soo funny. So off she goes, and off we go to Royal Pereire to celebrate one more step on our ridiculous journey toward apartment living. After a few beers at our favorite haunt it was back to the hotel to go to bed at a reasonable hour for our first day of classes the next day.

below is a photo of where vaujours actually is. it's the little yellow part. paris is the white part in the middle. it's one hour outside of paris by metro. ew.

DAYS THREE AND FOUR.

2009-01-27T17:32:00.001-08:00

DAY THREE: it is now Friday of our first week of adventures. And after the escapades of the night before we woke up at 430 in the afternoon. Not a time very conducive to finding an apartment… oops. Made a few appointments to see some apartments for the next day and then we decided to just sit in our beds and do nothing for a bit. So we play spider solitaire – our new obsession – and watch our new favorite TV show MOT DE PASSE.
Note: mot de passe – is a tv show exactly like password in the states. So pretty much sami and I sit and try and figure out the definitions of words based on the clues that the contestants give. More or less it’s our really nerdy way of improving our grammar in a really ridiculously fun way.
So.. we sat online, played spider solitaire and watched ‘mot de passe’ for like 3 hours. Real amazing. Then, off to where our suitcases were being stored for another round of clothing. Then off to sami and my favorite haunt, ROYAL PEREIRE, for a beer or four. Then back to the hotel, drunk, giddy, and confused about all that had already happened after only three days of Parisian life take two. More internet and French TV. After that, it was bedtime. And yes, that was our entire day.

DAY FOUR: This day we awaken with high hopes, and three apartment showing appointments. WOO HOO. After a quick shower sami and I are off to the first showing. I feel like crap the whole way there. and then on the metro I start to get even worse because of my motion sickness. So by the time we get to the first apartment I feel like just laying down on the street and curling up into a ball. But I go in anyway, where I am then overwhelmed by the smell of paint. Apparently the woman is re-doing the apartment. Anywho, its super cute and we ask the woman if she’s willing to sign an 8 month lease. She more or less laughs at us in our face and says hell no. strike one.
At that point I can’t take it anymore, so we head back to the hotel to go take a nap/vomit (me). let me just say, that was the best nap I’ve taken in ages. So after like a 4 hour nap it’s off to our next appointment. One of our showings was already rented earlier that day and the other apartment is in the 9th arrondissement (Area) in Paris. And it was amazing. Something out of an IKEA showroom. Except in a good way. It’s huge. Two couches. Dining room. Living room. CABLE. A DRYER!!!!!!! (those don’t exist really that often in france, fyi) sami and I tell the landlord that we’ll take it immediately. He says he’ll call later. Back to the hotel. I get into the bathtub, and while I’m in there I hear sami talking on the phone, and then I hear her scream…. WE GOT THE APARTMENT!!!! He picked us!!! So after a very trying first few days of homelessness in paris we finally had something to hope for. Only issue: can’t move in until the 2nd of February. Oh dear. Oh well, another problem for another day. After much yelling, screaming, and girly giggling we decided it was time to go get ready to go get dinner and go out to the school party that was going on that night. we decided to head back to visit our new friends at pizza pino. We got the pizza pino equivalent of star treatment. Free drinks and extremely attentive servers. At one point, sami dropped her chapstick and got up to look for it, and literally, I’m not kidding you, literally every single server rushed over and asked her what happened. It was as though the world was ending, and yet it was a case of a tube of dropped chapstick. Hilarious. After our joyous reception chez pizza pino we head off to meet up with one of the Americans and her finnish friends and then to head to the party. All the while in a mood of elated giddiness because of our good fortune with the apartment. And then sami lost her phone at the school party. Something always has to go wrong. Oh well, since then (it has now been nearly two weeks) sami and I have been sharing a joint phone. Along with the rest of our lives. And a towel. (to be explained in the near future…)

the continuation. DAY TWO. (it's long...)

2009-01-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

DAY TWO: so sami and I get up and go to school to do some stuff, and then we head off to meet the girl who needed to see our apartment.

But now this is where the story gets interesting. Sami and are sitting on the metro, talking in English. And at one point sami looks at me and says, those girls in the back of the metro are talking about us. so I’m going to look at you, and then look at them, and continue speaking in English, just to let them know that I know they’re talking about us. Anywho, that happens all the time, people talking about us that is. In any case, we’re walking through the hallways to our transfer and sam tells me what the girl looks like that was talking about us, so I turn around, take a peek at her. Awful highlights in her hair by the way. In any case, sami and I walk up to the platform to stand and wait for the train. The girl who was talking about us comes up right next to sami, way too close to be comfortable and stops and stands. So I look at sami and we sort of switch spots so that she’s on the other side of me and we move down the track a little bit. The girl follows sam. Creepy. So I look at sami again and say, hey, I’m thirsty let’s go to the vending machine and get something to drink (mostly so that we can just walk away from this crazy girl).

Well, that plan didn’t work so well, because crazy girl follows us and gets in sam’s face and starts saying (all in French no less) ‘you know me, you recognized me on the metro. You know me.’ pointing her finger in sam’s face and starting to yell at her. Sam is like, i have no idea who you are. I have never seen you before in my life. Crazy girl keeps yelling. Then she changes from saying that sam knows her to saying, ‘you stole my bag. You stole my bag. You bought that from my mother, and you stole it from me.’ (NOTE: Samantha has a real louis vuitton bag) (ALSO NOTE: what this girl is saying makes as much sense to us, as I’m sure it is making to you right now) Crazy bitch keeps yelling at us switching between everything that she’s said previous, and then throwing in a new one: ‘ you know naima’ to which sami and I keep saying, no we don’t know you, we don’t know naima. At one point I interject and get into the conversation (if you can call it that) between sami and the girl and say, no, she bought the bag in the US, not from your mother, it’s not yours. To which I get a swift reply of ‘ta geulle’ and a hand in my face, basically meaning shut your face – both with words and a hand motion to go with it.
At this point the crazy ho grabs sam’s bag by the handles. And I love little sami dearly, but she’s not the strongest person that I’ve ever come across, so I get in there and make sure that I have a hand on the bag too, so that way there’s two of us in there versus the one girl. Well the girl starts to get a big violent at this point. Trying to pull and such. So I grab her thumb on her free hand. Without a thumb, you really can’t do much. Needless to say, she gets pretty pissed at me. Tries to elbow me in the face actually. Winds up hitting her elbow on the wall. In any case, at this point we’ve gathered quite a crowd around us. No one is really helping though… finally, this nice man comes up and says ‘I’m with the RATP (the metro staff), I’ll call security and we’ll get this thing worked out.’ With that the girl calms down a bit and lets go of the bag. So I get out my phone then and call the cops. Except at this point I’m too shaken up to speak French, so this nice woman calls for me. We explain what happened to the metro guy and he listens intently. The crazy bitch says her part of the story, all the lies that is, and he listens. Then this really nice woman comes up to us and says I saw the whole thing while riding with us on the other metro car. And more or less verifies our entire story. Even says that the girl gave her purse to her friend and told her to wait above ground. obscene. At this point the girl says something to the extent of I need to go get my telephone, I need to go get my telephone, you better be here when I get back! To which sam and I respond with ‘okay’ utterly confused, and shaken up, with adrenaline pumping.

Another nice guy who apparently saw the entire thing went to go find the girl after she didn’t show up for about 5 minutes and came back just saying that it was ‘voleuse’ which means stealers in French. So sami and I wait around for the cops, who by the way, apparently don’t think its necessary to come for a simple act of theft on the metro. Alas. After waiting for about 15 minutes for both absent parties to show up, we finally head off, a little less steady, to go meet up for the apartment showing. While in the metro sami and I realize that even at one point during the whole fiasco the crazy ho checked inside the bag to make sure that it was a real ‘vuitton’ and to make sure that she wasn’t wasting her time and energy on a fake thing. Dear god. All we can say, is it makes for a great story now, and thank god it was our second semester in france and not our first, because if this had been our actual second day here ever, I have no idea what I would think of Paris then. But I still love it. Mugging and everything.

DAY TWO, PART TWO: so unfortunately our day of ridiculousness isn’t over. So after the mugging fiasco sami and I head back to our hotel to decide what to do next. Not long after we get a text message from the Texan girl that sami knows from back at home, Jennie, and she says that all the Americans are going to the Erasmus club (foreign people club) called MIX. Which happens to be right close to our hotel. So sami and I decide that there is no better thing to do after the day that we’ve had except to go out and drink and dance with random European foreigners. Wonderful. So off we go after a jolly half bottle of vodka—yes, between the two of us—yay us. we get to the club only to find out that the LAME Americans have in fact, already left. Losers. In any case, as we’re walking up to the club this nice fellow, named Vincent, comes up to us and asks if he can get in the club with him because it’s hard for boys to get in. we of course say yes, and start up a fine conversation with the young man. Turns out he’s in Paris for a ‘stage’ which means an internship, and he’s looking for a place to live. Sami and I immediately offer a room in the apartment we were thinking about getting (the first one we saw the first day we were here… the French girl didn’t want to live in that one, and we were desperate for an apartment) in any case, our new friend Victor tells us that he will let us know in a day and a half whether or not he can live with us. (he later found a place to stay with a friend) in any case, we go into the club, proceed to take numerous photos with unknown people. Dance the night away and slightly forget our sorrows for a few hours. But then it’s back to the hotel at 430 with a hunger pain rumbling in our stomach.

NOTE: the deskman who’s working the night was there the night before and treated us as though we were absolute morons, and then proceeded to tell the rest of the staff that we were in fact, morons. This is known because the next morning after sami and I stayed the first night she went down to ask a question about re-booking, IN FRENCH, and the woman when she was done talking with sami said, wow, you can actually speak really French really well. Real cool dude. Real cool.

In any case, we get back to the hotel, after taking a taxi no less, and ask the jerk deskman where we can get food near the hotel. Or just get food within a reasonable distance. His response was to laugh, and then tell us that everything was closed and there was no possible way we could get food now. So sami and I, disheartened, return to our room. While sitting we begin to think, we’re right by a train station, there HAS to be something open. So we go downstairs again, take a taxi right back where we came from – club MIX, right next to the train station GARE MONTPARNASSE – and what do we find… an open restaurant called pizza pino. It was near closing time that we got there (5am) so they made us our pizza, and then all the waiters sat down near us and started talking to us. We make new friends, and wait with them for the metro to open again (530ish). We all head downstairs and go to the metro, and once we get there sami and I realize that we both don’t have our metro cards. OH NO. well our new friends tell us that’s no issue, they have a police metro card. So we go, OKAY! Sami and I make our way back to the hotel then. Upon our arrival, the jerk deskman is still there, and sami says to him, ‘there was a restaurant open! Pizza pino!’ and then walks away. To which I then say, ‘yeah! And a lot of others too!’ and then we walk, with our heads held high, to the elevator. We sure told him.

Team AMY and SAMANTHA: 1
Team stupid desk man: 0.

In the morning we had quite a laugh over that. Oh, and the fact that about 10 minutes after that sam had to go back downstairs, shoeless because her feet hurt, to inform the deskman that we would actually be staying another night because we didn’t want to have to checkout in less than 6 hours. Yeah, we’re real cool.

so i suppose some clarifications are necessary...

2009-01-27T15:27:00.001-08:00

so i suppose that some of you are thoroughly confused at this point as to what is going on with me.

here are the necessary clarifications:

1. i am not going to milan second semseter.
2. i decided to stay here in wonderful paris. i love it. why ruin a good thing?
3. i went home for christmas. and surprised everyone. not even my mama or my papa or my lindsay knew i was coming home. GRAND FUN. everyone should try it sometime.
4. i really did go to egypt and i will post a few pictures soon just to prove it. as for stories, best to just ask me in person so i can talk your ear off for the better part of two hours rather than type for the next eight in order to get them all out.
5. gros bisous = big kisses
6. do not panic for me after reading my day two post. i am alive. and functioning. and still having loads of fun despite being banished to the banlieue.
7. banlieue = parisian suburbs = horrendous = a bit ghetto
8. ghetto = http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghetto

for further clarifications and questions, please email.

the beginning of our first two weeks here. DAYS ONE AND ZERO.

2009-01-27T15:20:00.000-08:00

So at this point and time I’m not even sure where to begin with this story. This story that actually takes up a week and a half of my life back here in fine EUROPA. Well so I suppose I’ll start at the beginning.

Day One: Sam and I arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport. I get in an hour before sami and wait in the airport baggage claim in some back terminal somewhere. American airlines gets some back ass terminal, clearly getting the shaft because they’re not European. OOOH I FORGOT SOMETHING.

Day ZERO: so I get on the plane from Madison to Chicago, and there’s literally no one on the plane with me. it’s about half full. Which is nice. So I’m sitting looking at my ticket and all of a sudden I realize that the transfer between my flight in Chicago is only 45 minutes. So I’m like oh no. but the flight goes on and the flight attendant woman reads off where everyone’s gate changes are and PHEW I was only just a few (or so I thought) gates away. So I get off the plane and am walking to my gate, and I see a starbucks, and immediately think, oh no, I’m going to be in Europe for a really long time (where starbucks just really isn’t as good) so I had to get one last American starbucks drink. So that was pit stop one. Then I make it almost to my gate, and decide that I best be peeing before I get on that tin can thing we like to call an airplane where you can’t even turn around in the bathrooms. In any case, I do that, and I make it to my gate finally. I literally sit down and they start boarding the plane. Not 30 seconds after I sat down. RIDICULOUS. And yet totally amazing. No waiting. When does that happen in Chicago? Yeah, that’s right, never.

Anywho, I get on the plane, and I’m one of the last ones on the flight because I’m in the section right behind first class, so we’re the last to board. I get on and see that I’m seated next to a nice lady. Except in my section of about 50 seats, there are about 12 of us. literally. Totally amazing. I got 3 whole seats to myself. Which would have been amazing had I been able to sleep at all on the airplane, but even one sleeping pill couldn’t knock me out. So I sat and listened to a fuzzy French version of Ratatouille. Ahh, the joy of airplane flying.

BACK TO DAY ONE: so sami and I reunite and have a wonderful reunion. Get her bags and then proceed out of the terminal to go find her cousin who is supposed to come pick us up. We find her and then she tells us that we need to go back to her Chinese restaurant in the suburbs of france, a terrible, horrible place called Vaujours, that sami and I will later in this blog get to know better than we ever wish we had. Enough of that nonsense though. We go back to the Chinese restaurant. Where we then wait for TANTIE (sam’s 47 year old cousin who we have endearingly named tantie) to work the lunch shift. TON-TOHN (sam’s cousin-in-law) was with us too. Later in the story you will also meet sam’s real aunt who we call grand-mère (grandmother in French).

In any case, we go back to the Chinese restaurant, and all sami and I want to do is go back to her apartment, put all our traveling stuff down and take a big ‘ol nap. But we wait for tantie to finish her lunch shift, eat some Chinese food, and do some much needed internet surfing/apartment hunting. Sami and I have some luck with apartments and actually get one woman on the phone who tells us that we can go see it later that night. So sami and I hurry our little butts up and get on the RER to go back into paris. Make it in to paris with just a little bit of time to spare. We go see this cute little apartment right in the 1st arrondissement (section of paris). Right near the big shopping center called les halles. Adorable little place. We’re immediately in love. But we have to talk to the other girl who’s gonna live with us and see what she thinks. Well, so we call her, and set up another showing. But that’s another day. This day continues by us going back to sam’s old apartment. (note: we’re under the impression that we’re going to be staying in this apartment until we find a new apartment) We’re walking up on the sidewalk and of all people who do we run into? Sam’s old landlord, who proceeds to tell us we need to give him the set of keys that we had and that we should be getting our bags out soon. To which sami and I respond with, oh no. So much for that plan. So sami and I go into the apartment and quickly pack a bag with her landlord PIERRE watching our every move. Scary I tell you. So sami and I leave with a small bag packed, and no place to go, and no idea what to do. So to solve issues we go to McDonalds to use their free Wifi. Off we go.

(see photos below for our feelings on our situation...starting with hope and fading to despair)

At MacDo we buy two beers and proceed to search hostelworld.com to find a place to stay. We find this nice hotel, only issue is that it’s all the way at the end of line 12 waaaay down south in paris. Literally not near anything, to the point that it takes 45 minutes just to get to school. so awful. But that’s all done for day one, we went to the hotel and went to bed.

i haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

2008-12-07T04:21:00.000-08:00

hello all.

so its been ages since i've blogged. sorry for that. its incredible how fast things get going at the end of the semester here. school is super different from at home, because at home, yes finals are busy, but its just a couple of exams. here, its exams, presentations, papers and everything, piled into two weeks (mostly one). so i've been working my butt off on getting all that done. but i'm almost done now (TUESDAY!)

i'll be posting more frequently now, and i'll write some past blogs so that everyone can know all i've done over the past month. : )

off to the land of karfu and ramses. of cleopatra and king tut.

2008-11-02T16:46:00.000-08:00

So perhaps my most exciting tidbit of information that I have to share with the masses is that this Friday, in precisely 105 hours, 21 minutes and 2 seconds, I will officially be on my way TO EGYPT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For a 10 day vacation. Complete with pyramids, mummies, a bazaar, camels, sand, and 80 degree temperatures. (do I need to mention again just how truly excited I am)

I checked my schedule and that week it turned out that all but one of my classes was going to be cancelled so I figured that I’d take a long vacation to somewhere that required that much time spent. Contemplated Dubai as well, but then when I was looking at prices for hotels dubai came in at around 70 dollars a night whereas Egypt clocked in at about 3 dollars a night. I was sold. So booked a flight. Going with my friend Jason. Cannot wait. I’ll write all about it once I’m back….. but here’s a preview.

(pretend that’s me in the photo)

menagerie

2008-11-02T16:00:00.001-08:00

So I went to the zoo the other day. Of all the amazingly cultural things I can do in paris, I go to the zoo. Very apropos. Well lets just say it was one of the absolutely coolest things I’ve seen here so far. I mean besides amazing museums and grand architecture. It was the weirdest zoo I’ve ever been to. I walked in and the first thing I saw was a bunch of red pandas, which I’d never seen before so I was off to a good start to begin with. Continued walking and encountered loads and loads of birds and little deer like things. I swear the one thing about the zoo is that they pick the 30 things that they want to exhibit and then elaborate on those indefinitely. If they had one species of macaw they had 10 different species. For example they had 6 different types of owls, and 5 YES 5 different species of vulture. I didn’t know that many types of vultures existed in the world.

One thing that was equally as thrilling about the zoo is that all of their exhibits that need tanks (such as amphibians and reptiles) were all housed in these buildings that looked like they could’ve been old science halls. It was like something out of a 1950s movie. (see below, you’ll understand) also, they didn’t feel bad at all about housing two different types of animals in the exact same cage. A python and turtles for example.

Also, I think the entire 20 other people that were at the zoo must think that I’m totally mental, but I kept walking around and cracking up hysterically at the things that the zoo deemed necessary to exhibit.
EXAMPLE: they have a bunny rabbit and guinea pig exhibit. LITEREALLY guinea pigs. And their pen was bigger than the goats’ pen. Needless to say when I saw that I laughed so hard out loud that people openly stared. Guess they don’t have guinea pigs as house pets….

EXAMPLE TWO: they also have a raccoon exhibit. Again, I was laughing so hard I was in tears.

After it was all said and done I had spent a brilliant 3 hours at the zoo, and I had taken over 450 photos. Nothing like paying 5 euros for an entire afternoon of entertainment.

le tournois du rugby

2008-11-02T15:57:00.000-08:00

Hello all.

So after a big long week of school off I suppose I’m ready to start blogging once again. I’ve had a couple of rugby matches now. And its absolutely brilliant. After the last game I was bleeding from my right knee and my left knee looked like someone took a mallet to it and just beat it. It was purple and green and blue. Totally ridiculous. But rugby really is loads of fun. We had a tournament on Thursday and it was an all day thing. 6 different schools. And each school brought a girls rugby team, boys rugby team, boys and girls soccer. In any case, we tied our first match and won our second and then ran out of time to play our third. Which was lame. But in any case, ESCP wound up winning the entire thing, the whole gosh darn tournament. Needless to say there was much celebration both on the bus ride home (the games are an hour outside of paris) and afterwards in the school bar. Very fun. Oh, and some famous track star was there too, but alas, my French culture is a bit rusty. Apparently he can run fast. Much other than that I’m not sure who exactly he was.

ahhh amsterdam

2008-10-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

I headed off to Amsterdam last weekend on an impromptu sort of… well, everyone is leaving except me, so I might as well go somewhere….kind of a thing. This girl that I know from school Martha and I went. We arrived and put our stuff down and immediately went off in search of all many things that Amsterdam has to offer. We passed the rest of the weekend in a sort of hazy state of consciousness.

And I think that perhaps the most quintessentially ‘amsterdam’ moment we had was the first night that we were staying in our hostel. Our roommates came home at 6 and 7am. The first arrivee managed to get into his bed, and then he began the oh so noticeable sounds of vomiting. On himself, in his bed, right next to me. I think he managed to hold it all in until he got to the toilet though. And it was histerical trying to listen to him getting back up into his bed. There were no ladders for the bed, so it was hard even when you were sober. Needless to say, it took about 4 tries. And one or two falls. But he made it. Then the other roommates got home at 7ish. One of the guys started talking on his phone to his ‘mate’ back in Australia. The conversation went as follows:
‘oy, dude, I can’t come downtown, I’m in Amsterdam.’
‘no, I’m in Amsterdam, but dude, the walls. They’re eating me.’
‘okay, I’ll talk to you later, I’m gonna go find a place to hide so the walls can’t find me.’

Hilarity I tell you. I wasn’t even upset that I hadn’t gotten any sleep. Met everyone the next morning and actually wished that they would’ve stayed for another night. They were super nice, and cute. So lame they had to leave. Anyways, only in Amsterdam…..

le foot!

2008-10-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

We went to a proper ‘football’ match the other day. Meaning soccer for all the folks back home. It was a France vs. Tunisia match. We all piled on the RER (metro thing) and it was absolutely packed with people all heading to the game. It arrived at the station and it was just exactly like a mass migration to the stadium. We got out of the maylay and over to the side. Prepared our beverages (vodka mostly) and began the duty of preparing ourselves to be with a bunch of really really drunk football fans cheering for two teams that we really know nothing about. It was brilliant. We showed up a bit late for the game. Made new friends outside the stadium that wound up sitting right exactly in front of us by one row. Totally fun. Oh, and did I mention we were in the 9th row right behind the goal? And also that it only cost 10euro. Because, we were, and it did.

It wound up being just exactly like an American football game back home. I got really drunk, barely watched the game, and socialized a whole bunch. Although, I never missed a goal! Tunisia went up first, and then I realized that the entire stadium was for Tunisia. Literally, there were about 500 France fans, and the rest 19500 were all for Tunisia. We were a minority for sure. In any case, we cheered for Tunisia, we cheered for France, we pretty much just cheered when we got to. France won though, so we got bragging rights in the end. It was chaos back on the RER afterwards too. It was absolutely packed to the gills, I don’t think another person could’ve fit on the train. Seriously, I have lost any semblance of personal space here. Well, after arriving back in paris it was off to the bars to celebrate the win. And then off to bed come 5am when I realized that it was still Tuesday and I had 6.5 hours of class the next day. That was fun. I even seem to remember something about dancing on a table with a girl from ohio. But I’m not sure how accurate that is……

deux chateaux

2008-10-24T13:04:00.000-07:00

So last weekend I took a trip with the group that runs my housing (ACCENT) and we went to two chateaux right outside paris. The first one is Fontainebleau, which was an old hunting lodge back in the time of kings and queens, and the infamous napoleon. The thing was absolutely massive. I think it has 1500 rooms and such. And every king or nobleman that lived there added on a different part of the chateau so the whole thing was pretty much a hodgepodge of every type of architecture imaginable. And the thing is, the chateau was in utter disrepair and the French govt couldn’t afford to fix it, so until last year, no one could get in it. And even still today some of the rooms are still under plastic while they’re trying to update them. Oh, and while we were there a modern art display was going on throughout the entire chateau, so at one point you walk into a room and there’s an elephant upside down, balancing on its trunk. Another room has a cat that’s floating on the ceiling because its attached to a helium tank. Very very odd. Also, Fontainebleau was the last place that Napoleon was before his exile to elba, so he actually gave his farewell speech in the back courtyard. Interesting tidbit of info.

Okay, so the prettier, and overall just better one of the two chateaux was by far vaux le vicomte. The story goes: this man, Nicolas Fouquet, who was the minister of finance back in the days of King Louis the 14th, had this chateau designed by three men. Le brun, le vau, and le nôtre, who were ‘THE’ designers of the day. They made this absolutely fabulous chateau, and in order to celebrate Fouquet threw a lavish party to celebrate its completion. He even invited the King, who actually showed up and everything. Well, Louis the 14th was a rather immature person, and throughout the night became more and more jealous of this amazing chateau, so much so that before the party was over he had Fouquet arrested, and the three designers kidnapped. Fouquet was taken to court for something ridiculous like heresy, or something, more or less, just for the fact that he had a better chateau, and the court freed him, but the king overturned the ruling and instead sentenced him to death…. Or maybe it was life imprisonment. Either way, no more sunshine for mr. fouquet.

And on the subject of him taking away the designers… well, he kept them hostage until they designed an even greater chateau for him…. Namely, Versailles. Go figure.

oh, and did i mention that vaux was used in not one, but TWO movies. man in the iron mask and count of monte cristo. and for all you celebrity gossip people, it was also where eva longoria and tony parker got married. and no lies, there's even a little display about their wedding at the chateau. totally ridic.

i'm going to disneyland!

2008-10-16T02:06:00.001-07:00

Last Friday, carly, sam, and jess, and victor and I all traveled the one hour outside of paris to go to Disneyland Paris. And for this I must begin when we got off the train. So we had to take the RER, which is the suburb train. And for that we technically went out of range of the validation of our metro passes. Well so we get up to the exit… and realize this fact. So we look around, there’s no one who works for the metro that we can talk to. literally, no one. But I had been reading all about Disneyland in my travel book and it told me that to go out to Disneyland should only cost about 8€. Which is totally fine. 8 euro, big deal. In any case so we go find this machine where you can buy tickets. And we ring up 5 tickets, and you know how much it tells us that’s gonna cost. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE EUROS. That’s correct. 125€. Hell no. so we don’t buy those, and go look for a person again. This time we instead find a sign. (note: by this point another couple has joined us in the search for a way to exit.) so the sign says, more or less: your ticket will not work. You bought the wrong one. Tough shit. No go buy a ridiculously expensive ticket from the only machine in the entire place which is right behind you. Oh, and no, there is no one here to help you or to talk to.

So we have a pow-wow and decide that we’re just gonna try and sneak out behind some nice people when they’re leaving. Also, for anyone who hasn’t been on the metro in paris, this is common practice. But the timing must be right because the doors shut very soon after the first person walks through, so only about 2 people at a time can go. And doors will shut on you (or your luggage) if you’re not through in the allotted time that they give you. Its very fun to watch. In any case, jess tries to sneak through, she was the third person. There was a couple in front of her who were using the same ticket. Needless to say, she didn’t make it, and instead walked smack into the door. Made a huge noise. We cracked up. Totally hilarious.

Well so then we decide that we’re going to just buy the tickets. Except we try that and carly’s card gets rejected twice. So on to plan C…

So we’re still just standing around in the metro station. Unable to get out. There’s another couple still there in the same situation. And we start to watch the exits again. We notice that there’s a handicapped/stroller exit on one of the sides, and that if you time it right when someone is coming in, you can sneak out. Needless to say, we try it. The first time, we had the timing off, and the woman with her stroller took too long to get through so jess made it through, but we all got stuck again. So we wait around for another two minutes or so and a business man comes up to the door. The remaining 4 of us, along with the other couple, are all standing right near the door, ready to bolt through when it opens. Door opens, we run. We all make it. And the business man just stares at us with this, ‘oh I am so not amused’ look on his face. But you can’t tell me that that man has never hopped a metro in paris. Its practically a right of passage here.

But anywho, after much amusement and adventure just trying to get off the stupid train we arrive in Disneyland!!!!!!! Disneyland paris is very very similar to Disneyland or Disneyworld in the states. Different castle, different country, but all the rides, all the characters, everything is identical. EXCEPT, Disneyland paris isn’t popular so there are NO LINES. Not a one. Longest we waited was 15 minutes. Absolutely brilliant. Oh, and Disneyland paris is missing splash mountain. Real lame. In any case, we were by far the oldest ‘kids’ there. but we acted just like little kids, we even bought Minnie and mickey mouse ears. So so so fun. Also, everything was decked out for Halloween so there were pumpkin-headed painter statues all over that were ‘painting the town orange’. Just something fun and cute for the holiday that no one seems to care about over here. (really its awful, I have yet to see a Halloween decoration, or for that matter even a freaking pumpkin)

So we spent the day in disneyland, and then it was off to the metro again to attempt to get back on the train without a ticket. This time sam got stuck in much the same fashion as jess did earlier, but she made it, and we didn’t get caught. It was a perfect Friday.

classy dinner parties

2008-10-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

So before one of the fiestas at school the girls (sam and jess) threw a dinner party and we invited pretty much everyone we know. (there were about 15 of us there) it was amazing. Everyone brought food or liquor or wine. We drank, we ate, there was paella, pasta, tomatoes and mozzarella, Jason made curry. It was a feast for starving poor children in paris. And there was plenty enough to drink. Needless to say, so so so so so fun. Can’t wait until we do it again.

more school parties...

2008-10-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

So my school literally has a party at least once a week, and I say that in utter seriousness. This past week they turned the entire school into a dance club. Complete with smog, lasers, two dance floors, three bars, and porta-poties. I managed to leave my ticket at the girls house, as ususal, so sam and I made the pilgrimage all the way back across the city to go fetch it. And finish some more liquor along the way. (I have a vague recollection of giving some nice teenager on the metro the rest of my drink because I didn’t want it anymore… ) in any case, we make it back to the party, can’t find a one of our friends. So we hang out the two of us. and then we get separated. I wound up with sam’s camera for a long time, somehow, which wound up being really amazing because the next morning when none of us could really remember what happened we looked through the photos, and it turned out to be a pretty good documentation of everything that happened. Turns out I talked to 3 random boys who go to school where I go, I don’t remember them, I don’t recognize them, but I’m sure they were nice because I apparently talked to them for the better part of an hour. Oh the joys of drunken, un-remembered friendships. Oh, and on a funnier note, it was really slippery, and many people fell down. Myself included. About 6 times.

Oh, and on an even funnier note, at the end of the night there was a really nice boy on top of the bar…. In his birthday suit. Man I love my school. nowhere else will you be allowed to convert the entire school into a dance club, and then allow entire nudity because everyone is so belligerently drunk at that point that no one finds it weird, or wrong, or really out of the ordinary. In fact, two nights before this party, I was down in the school bar, and another nice young fellow (on a dare from one of his friends I’m assuming) got naked too. The French. Nudity. It goes so well together.

chateau, chateau, chateau

2008-10-15T16:51:00.002-07:00

The gang and I went to tours a few weekends ago (seeing as I’m an absolutely awful blogger, this is far out of date) and we went and saw loads of chateaux, including chenoceaux, Chambord, Amboise, and for a random turn of events, Leonardo da Vinci’s old home. Pretty much amazing. I’ll let the photos talk for themselves…

Le Clos Luce (daVinci's house)
Amboise

Chambord
Chenauceaux
Also, the last photo (which will be posted as soon as i get it...) is the ‘supplies we bought for the three days we were gonna be there. I really enjoy that the people I’ve met have the exact same sorts of priorities that I do…. It’s brilliant.

team time

2008-10-15T16:51:00.001-07:00

So for the classes that I’m taking here, the grades tend to consist of one of two things. Either the class will have an end of the year exam, and 100% of my grade is based on that, OR I will have a group project. In my marketing and communication class (in French) we have a group project. So the teacher is lecturing for the first half of class, and then we have a ‘pause’ (a short break), we all come back from the pause and the professor then says, alright, now find groups and start coming up with some ideas for the project. And my first reaction was, well shit. So three nice people sitting near me turned around and we sort of formed a group. They all started talking to one another throwing out ideas for the project. And the entire time I sat there with this stupid look on my face. And then one of the girls looks at me, and says, ‘well, what do you think, what ideas do you have.’ To which I managed to muster the response… ‘well, ahh… I’m American, so I uhhh, don’t really know French brands.’ And they all sort of go, ‘oh. Well.’ And that was that. Me, the sole American, with loads of frenchies. Oh joy. And when I talk with each of them one on one I’m fine, but the second that you put all of us in a group together they all talk so fast that most of the time I just sit there mute, like the awkward staring person who sits alone in a corner at a party. Yeah, I’m that guy. Entirely devoid of a personality because of a lack of vocabulary. Alas, things are going better now though. They have started to say to one another, ‘hey guys, maybe we should talk slower, I think she’s lost.’ (note: this is only after I start to get a really really really super confused look on my face, and cease to talk) but on the bright side, they’re all super nice when I can understand them.

techno + parade = brilliant

2008-10-15T16:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, so this is where the story (meaning the ridiculousness that is my life in paris) gets even better. We wake up on Saturday morning. Me spooning Samantha in my lower bunk, and a very cute French boy (Seb) sleeping in my upper bunk. (Something I could wake up to everyday and be totally content with) in any case, seb and we wake up, and more or less the first thing out of his mouth is ‘do you guys want to go to the techno parade?’ to which we respond with a resounding, ‘what the hell are you talking about?’

Turns out there’s this thing once a year in paris aptly named the techno parade. This glorious concept was elaborated upon by seb, when eddy asked him, ‘what’s a techno parade?’ the conversation was something as follows:
Eddy: ‘what’s a techno parade?’
Seb: ‘do you know what techno is?’
Eddy: ‘yeah’
Seb: ‘do you know what a parade is?’
Eddy: ‘yeah’
Seb: ‘ put them together. It’s something like that.’
And that it was.

Jess, eddy, sam, seb and I arrived at the techno parade (all except eddy and I dressed in the clothing choices of the night before). Pretty much if I had to sum it up it was a massive pack of adolescent teenagers between the age of 13 and 16 drunk and high on ecstasy dancing to really massively loud techno music that was being played on a sort of driving float-bus-thing that had a world famous dj on it. Pretty much awesome. Oh, and there were people climbing on just about everything they could to either get a better view or a better dance floor. And when I say they were climbing on everything I mean it—telephone booths, windowsills, construction crates, cars—you name it, they climbed on it. It was totally ridiculous, and nothing like anything I’ve ever seen back at home. Moving DJs, meaning they each had their own floats and such. Totally bizarre. Only in paris.

friday night.

2008-09-30T16:46:00.001-07:00

So. Now comes Friday night. Friday night we don’t go to the bar for the first time, I think, since we’ve been in paris! Now, that doesn’t mean we didn’t have our fair share of fun. It just means we didn’t pay 9 euros for a beer. In fact, we paid nothing. Man I love house parties. Parisians need to have more of them. If only I lived in a proper house… in any case… one of our new friends from the park (the really cute blonde guy in some of the photos – Sebastian) told us about one of his friends’ house party that happened to be a five minute walk away from our place. Needless to say, we went. This nice guy named Amory, and his girlfriend Amelie (which sound eerily similar with a French accent – for the longest time I thought they had the same name which led to a large round of confusion and me going, ‘what’s your name?’ ‘so you have the same name?’ ‘oh, it’s different?’ ‘how?’… or something along those lines) and their third roommate amory’s sister welcomed us into their homes, and fed us wine. They were super nice, and I do hope we see them again sometime soon.

But, alas, they ran out of wine, and another one of our new friends from the park, ashik, told us that he had vodka, tequila, whisky and beer at his house—to which we responded with a resounding, where’s the nearest taxi? So off to the taxi stand we went. After a trek across most of the city, and into the very lively and interesting ‘turkish’ section of paris we arrived chez ashik to a welcoming shot of vodka. Yum. Tequila shots and the like followed. Then before we knew it, it was getting to be morning so the girls (sam, jess and I) left, escorted by our new friend Sebastian (seb), back to my house to get a ‘good night’ sleep. You know, like normal people who go to bed at 7am.

my school throws 'school-sponsored' parties

2008-09-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

Dear lord the debauchery never ceases. This weekend (meaning two weekends ago when I started writing this post for the first time) started on Thursday after Jessica and my first day of rugby and didn’t end until, well, it never really does end in fact. In any case. On Thursday was the school’s first party. (yes, our school sponsors parties. It is amazing) it was at this disco called red light, which was small, and packed to the gills – see photo.

There was dancing, and flirting, and more dancing, and laughing, and a bit of fighting. Oh, and did I mention there was an open bar? Man I love my school. The party went all night, and into the morning. Some of us lasting longer than others… (we don't know her)

I’m pretty sure that along with 20 other strong people we closed the club down at 5am or so.

(hooray for the Americans!) The party continued far into the night with a final bedtime of 830 or 9 or so in the morning. So much for being a proper person with a normal Thursday night bedtime… I went to bed after most people had already been at work for a bit. (this tid bit of info was pointed out to me by one of such workers….sucker) : )

days in the park.

2008-09-30T16:19:00.001-07:00

So I’m pretty sure that this happened before a few of the other things that I’ve already put into the blog, but hey it never hurts to back track, right?

So… in the not so distant past, oh say a few Sundays ago or so, it was absolutely beautiful here in paris. I mean, really gorgeous. So we get the brilliant (and when I say brilliant I really mean it!) idea to go hang out in a park. Michael, victor and eddy and I go and join the crew that’s already been sitting in the park for awhile with their new friends from that morning. There’s wine, and conversation (in 4 or so different languages if I remember correctly) and a bit of leftover brunch from that morning. We meet loads of people, who are all amazing and super nice. And they go over and recruit a few random strangers to come over and join us. note: these people were invited solely on the fact that they had musical instruments and could therefore be our entertainment for a little bit. Needless to say, it was absolutely fantastic. Love the park. Can’t wait until we get one last nice day here so we can have one last hurrah….

(don't they all look so european? i love it. i love this place.)

musical entertainment

the blob on the left side is a couple going at it in the middle of the park... paris is the place for lovers right?

ahh the joys of cross-cultural team sports

2008-09-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

So Jessica and I had a brilliant idea during orientation week. Let’s join a sport. But me being me, and her being her, we get this brilliant idea to do something that isn’t offered in the US. so what do we choose… rugby. Yes, I am officially a rugby ‘baller’. Although I’m still a bit hazy on the rules. Mostly I run around saying. ‘quoi?’ (what?), and ‘ici’ (here) although when I get the ball I’m still not really sure what to do, so I pass it real fast like it’s hot potato or something. Oh, and the best part is, on the first day of practice I went up to the coach and said something to the extent of, ‘she doesn’t speak any French (while pointing at Jessica)’, and his response was (in french no less) ‘oh well, I suppose she’ll learn real fast because I don’t speak a word of English.’ Needless to say, it’s great fun. Because he’ll try and explain something and then look at me and say, ‘translate for her will you?’ which then turns into me saying, ‘well, jess, he said something about holding the ball near your chest, and another thing about holding it out at arms’ length, and something about one of them being better.’ Then jess will say something like, ‘well which one is better’ to which my response is, ‘I have no idea.’

This goes on for most of the practice. On occasion I have literally no idea what the man has said, or any of what the girls are talking about so jess and I stand around really really super awkwardly and just watch them until someone does something. Then we figure out what we’re supposed to be doing through our powers of deduction. Mostly it involves a lot of running.

I’m thinking that maybe eventually I’ll learn enough French to know the rules, but that’s still up in the air… good thing we don’t have games until November…

VIVA LA MEXICO!!!!

2008-09-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Sam and Jessica have a roommate, Ana Paula who is from Mexico. And apparently Mexican independence is on the 16th of September. Not on cinco de mayo like many people think. (turns out that they just won a really big battle on that day, and what a better reason to party than because of a big battle win, right?) in any case, ana paula invited the girls and us to go to this really big party for Mexican independence. Naturally, we agree. Who wouldn’t want to celebrate Mexican independence by drinking copious amounts of tequila on a Monday night?

We all go to the party. Sam, jess and I are way too dressed up, but whatevs.

And it’s margarita and cerveza, tacos and tortilla for all! Super fun. Mariachi band and everything. The Mexican ambassador came out and riled up the crowd and everything. The one thing that was so so so fun about the whole thing though was that none of us could really understand what was going on because everything was in Spanish. Well, I take that back, eddy and victor could because they’re both Mexican, I could get a bit from my broken Spanish, but Michael, Sam and Jess were a bit lost. But Ana Paula had warned us a bit about what goes on. Pretty much there’s just a lot of yelling that goes on. The ambassador (or whomever) comes out and yells viva ___________ (insert appropriate important Mexican political figure here, such as Hidalgo, etc) and the crowd responds with VIVA! And that goes on for about 5 or 6 people, then the ambassador goes VIVA MEXICO! Crowd goes, VIVA! This gets repeated 3 times in a crescendo and gets really really REALLY loud on the last one.

Needless to say, it was so fun. Whether or not I understood anything that was really going on… VIVA!!!!

bateaux mouches

2008-09-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

Team texas and us have had many grand adventures so far here in fabulous paris. One of which was our truly touristic act of going on one of those boats that goes up and down the seine called a ‘bateaux mouches’. Pretty much what it is is just a boat that goes up and down the river, pointing out all the famous landmarks, and repeating the same sentence about them in english, French, german, Spanish, Italian, Chinese (mandarin), Korean, and Japanese. Although, it actually is pretty cool because you get to see everything from the river which is not a normal perspective of such things. I’d recommend it.

Oh, and we classed it up by providing our own wine as an accompaniment to the beautiful scenery, oh, and by getting yelled at by some eastern European women because we were standing in the way of their photos, and they were too lazy to get up and move, instead they just felt like yelling at us and calling us stupid American children in polish. It was great fun!

oh, and the pope was in town giving mass at notre dame and the boat goes right past. so we were closer to the pope than most of paris. pretty much awesome.

(pope on the screen, well, kinda, in theory)

coldplay in PARIS.

2008-09-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

so on the 10th i saw coldplay in paris. it was unbelievable. victor and i had seats waaaaaaay in the back of the stadium, but we were in the first row right over one of the entrances. so pretty much no one in front of us, good view, it was great. and the best part is, at one point, the band ran up into the stage and was running around on the aisle right below victor and i and we thought they were just going to run around the whole stadium, but then they stopped at the doorway right before ours (so close) and performed right there. needless to say i quickly hopped over seats and wound up about 15 feet away from coldplay as they performed 2 or 3 songs. it was amazing. enough said.

(what's going on there? is that coldplay right next to where we're sitting? why yes, yes it is...)

team texas toast and eddy

2008-09-22T05:55:00.000-07:00

so i figured i best introduce our new friends who i love dearly dearly dearly, and am so truly happy that i met them and get to hang out with them every day.

there's jessica, samantha, victor and eddy. jess, sam and victor all go to university of texas - austin, and eddy goes to university of illinois - champaign urbana.

(sam, jessica, and i with the really intense gendarmerie police at the techno parade)

(michael, me, sam and victor at the park on a nice sunday)

(from left to right: lovely german girl i dont know the name of, ana paula (sam and jess' roommate), another german i'm not sure the name of, sebastian (a french boy), eddy, michael, me, sam, and victor)

they are great, and paris wouldn't be the same without them.

(victor, morgan (a parisian), jess and michael)

i suppose this one should be called, school, or lack thereof...

2008-09-22T05:39:00.001-07:00

so orientation week. technically two weeks ago, but alas, i'm a bit behind the times. michael and i show up the first day and attend the first orientation part. then comes coffee break. we meet a few people during that break. little did we know that they would turn out to be some of the coolest people we know, and the ones that we spend pretty much every day with. after coffee break we had the first of a 7 part lecture series all about france and paris and studying there, and what exactly that meant. i cannot even begin to explain to you how truly and utterly boring it was. awful.

so we went back home for lunch after the first one, decided to stick it out for one more, but this time came prepared for the boring-ness, (i was equipped with a good book, the rest (meaning texas kids) with laptop computers). at one point the teacher asked about where the americans were, naturally we raised our hands, looked around at what we were all doing and proceeded to crack up. half of us were on laptops. i was reading a book. jess was listening to music. there was a sleeper or two, and a couple of us were drawing. oh and we were in the back row. oh and, everyone else that was there (meaning non americans) was taking copious amounts of notes and paying close attention. we were a bit of an embarassment. so after class number two, we proceeded to skip the rest of the week of orientation.

note: we did make one valliant attempt to attend class on thursday afternoon of orientation week, but it did not materialize and we proceeded to drink mimosas in the school courtyard instead. oh and then we went to lunch and drank wine. and then it was happy hour. and then it was time to go out for the night. overall, a successful, school-less thursday.

also: as for the first week of class, my first two classes were cancelled. so i only had half the amount of class i was supposed to have. so far school in paris has been non-existant and i'd like to keep it that way.

orangerie

2008-09-17T01:46:00.001-07:00

so far, after having been here for quite a long time, michael and i have truly done nothing cultural with the exception of one 1.5 hour excursion to a musuem - the orangerie.

the orangerie was a perfect choice for our first museum trip though, because i've never been, and it has absolutely fantastic monet paintings. just beautiful. those amused us for about an hour, then we quickly walked through the rest of the musuem, which was somewhat lacking in my opinion, and went for a coffee. ah the life of a parisian.

les marches

2008-09-17T01:21:00.000-07:00

so michael and i got in on a thursday, and by sunday we've already been shopping. we went with our new friends (his roommate jason, his friend lindsay, and their friends maggie and barbera who happen to be 50 year old ladies on study abroad) we first headed off to the marche' bastille, the largest market in all of paris, which happens to be approximately a 7 minute walk from my house each tuesday and sunday. it's like the farmer's market, except totally better, and way bigger. i'm going to be forever jaded once i get back...

in any case, we went and shopped there, and loaded up on stuff. everything and anything you could possibly want. all vegetables, fruits, tons of cheese and eggs and diary. seafood and meat of every type. it's really amazing. so after that we treked back home, dropped off our goods and headed out to the end of the metro line 4 to a place called marche' aux puces, which literally means market of the fleas.

we get there, and have to walk through a bit of a seedy part of town where everyone is trying to sell you fake gucci, prada, etc. bags, watches, scarves, anything you wanted of a fake designer brand was there. oh and they were also awkwardly selling corn on the cob that had been cooked on old shopping carts transformed into little open fire pits. very odd, but i saw many self-respecting people eating it, and enjoying it, so maybe one of these days i'll have to try it.... maybe.

so the marche aux puces turned out to be this market for literally every type of old thing you could possibly want. it was a veritable outdoor antique store spread out over an immense track of land. it was huge. i got bored because antiques aren't totally my thing, but i amused myself by taking photos, until i got really yelled at by a group of shop owners. and that was the end of the market for me. so we left, went home and made a wonderful lunch with all of our new purchases.

le pigeon

2008-09-17T01:10:00.001-07:00

so i live in a gated community. more or less. we have our own courtyard, and it requires a passcode to get into at night. (two passcodes and a key scan to get into my building actually) in any case, we have our very own resident homeless man. we call him 'le pigeon' (the pigeon in english, clearly) he earned his nickname for two reasons.

one: he is a creature just trying to get by living in the city through leftovers, and other people's kindness. (this being the more philosopical, and deep reason that michael's roommate jason came up with)

two: he talks to pigeons (this being my reason)

with that being said, i really don't mind him. he never talks to me when i walk past. never is creepy. although he does pee in the staircase up to the promenade plantee next to me which is a bit annoying if i ever want to go up there for a walk it reaks of pee. but i suppose, what's he supposed to do. he is also, we decided, one of the upper echelons of homeless-ness because he not only has a mattress and blankets to sleep on, as well as a bag full of groceries. he also lives in a gated community, and under a bridge. i'd say that's living the high life if you had no proper house....

gay pairee

2008-09-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

so at last, we get to paris. after many adventures and many new friends. and a big long debate that i had in my head about whether or not i should stay at sidsmums for a bit longer, because why really did i need to get into paris 3 days before orientation.... in the end i decided i better buck up and just go. we had a big long conversation with a nice man on the train about the politics of gabon from a nice man who had been born there. it was rather amusing, and i've never learned so much about gabon in my life.

anywho, after our eye-opening african education michael and i got off the train and proceeded to make our way to the accent center. little did we know the weather was going to be so frigid. i was dressed for the south. shorts, and a tank top. it was cold in paris. in any case, we make it to the ACCENT center (the people who run our housing) and they give us a lunch. (so nice what 7000 rent for 4 months will buy you, one whole free lunch) in any case, michael and i had been on the train all morning so it was delicious. we even got cookies. : ) after lunch they hand us our keys and say okay bye. great fun it was trying to find the place hauling our luggage all over.

we get to the residence and meet michael's roommate, jason, who is fantastic. love him to death. we also met the other guy from the states who's doing the exact same program as us (staying with ACCENT and attending school at ESCP-EAP) his name is eddy. he is also hilarious and amazing. in any case, we move in and start to get situated. they gave me a room that's meant for two people, so i've got bunk beds and a really huge bathroom, and two windows!!! and my towel heater works!!! only downside: i live right next to the RA (the person who yells at you if you do something wrong). oh well. we had ortienation the next day where they told us that we're not allowed to have alcohol in the room, and we also can't have guests after 11pm. i am proud to say that both rules were successfully broken after day 2. : ) (aren't you proud mom?)

(photos of the apartment: one side and then the other)

sidsmums

2008-09-16T03:53:00.000-07:00

hello all,

so i'm sure at this point you all think i've fallen off the face of the earth never to return. alas, that is not true, i am just an utter failure at this 'blogging' thing. in any case, i suppose the time has finally come for me to update and regale all with tales of my adventures.

sidsmums was really amazing. one of the days we were there we decided to go to this little 'cave' which means wine cellar in french. the store was two towns over in pomas so a hike was in order. we went through our town, preixan, through the next town, ruffiac d'aude, and finally through vineyards, along the highway and across a bridge into the final destination, pomas. all told about 6 or 7km. we get to the store and the lady informs us that we are more than welcome to try any and every type of wine before we need to make a decision. needless to say, we did. made the walk back much more enjoyable in fact. so we hiked back to sidsmums, 20 or so bottles in tow. (note: there were 5 of us, it wasn't just michael and i) after we got back we all got ready to go to dinner. we dined at a wonderful place called 'chez leon' which despite it's quite fancy name, was nothing more than a truck stop along the highway. but let me just say nothing like a truck stop back home. they had a full salad bar spread, you got to pick from duck or steak for your second course, and then they had an entire dessert bar. all of this is accompanied with copious amounts of FREE wine. it was brillant. and i think the most fun part about the whole thing was that it was in the next town over so we had to walk along totally pitch black dark french streets, all the while under the brightest and most amazing stars i've ever seen. later that night we decided to try the wine that had been made so close to us. i think when we woke up in the morning there was one lone bottle left. it was a good night.

the kicker was though, that michael and i had decided to go into carcassonne that day, and in order to do so we needed to catch a very early ride into town. it was an experience i'd rather not be repeating any time real soon. a big white van hurtling over the french countryside and around round-abouts. whew, i was quite glad when we got there.

michael and i got out and began our trek up to the walled inner city. we made it most of the way there and then saw a side path that looked like it might lead to a good photo. it did. but rather than climb all the way back down and go around the castle we just decided to keep walking up this hill (clearly not an entrance) and try to find somewhere to get in at the top. it wound up being just fine, and actually more fun than a conventional entrance into the city.

in any case, the city was gorgeous. just how you would picture an old medeival city to look. winding streets. small shops. everything done in stone. totally cool. a bit touristy, but what can you expect. michael and i just walked around most of the day, enjoying the sights. we stopped for a traditional languedoc (the region of france) lunch. we got this thing called cassoulet. which pretty much means a leg of duck in a pot of beans with a really delicious sauce. needless to say, delicious. got back on the bus to go back to sidsmums and spent a very nice night out in the country under the stars with new friends... and more wine.

the next day was our last day there. we went for a bike ride. sat around in the warm sun. read our books, and painted. jan (the woman who owns sidsmums) thinks that each of the people who go through it need to leave their own mark. so some people have painted things on the outside of the building. others have painted the keychains. others have gardened, made signs, painted random things that are now in the yard, etc. while we were there it was cigarette pots. which was pretty much a terra cotta pot turned upside down with the bottom below it so that people could put their cigarettes in that and cover it with a rock so that it didn't smell and no butts wound up on the ground. i was lucky enough to be able to paint a pot.

it's the night sky with a bunch of consellations hidden on it. all the constellations are written on the inside of the pot so people can know what to look for while they're searching. so fun. i dont think i've painted in years. later that night jan got a group of italian boys who were staying the night. they were beautiful. and at one point i came down to the lower bunk to find the whole lot of them outside on the street in their 'pijamas' smoking. and when i say pijamas i mean just their boxers. totally histerical. i come around the corner and go, 'oh hi!' super nice though, talked to them until early in the morning in broken italian french and english. oh, and the night was celebrated with a mini bottle of absenthe because michael and i were leaving. (the absenthe tasted eerily similar to the pastis we had drank in montpellier a few days earlier...) any who, the whole day really was the perfect end to the stay at carcassonne.

the next morning we were off bright and early at 7am to paris to begin the real adventure.

'oh little town of carcassonne' - (preixan)

2008-09-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

so the train ride from montpellier to carcassonne was hell. two hours of sleep really didn't cut it. so i fell asleep on the train there, easy peasy. BUT, during the ride, somewhere between narbonne and carcassonne a train had electrical issues up ahead of us, so needless to stay we had to stop. which was fine and dandy because i was asleep. and then they decided to turn off the air conditioning to save energy. still could've been fine... thing is, there are no openable windows on fast trains any more, so no air conditioning = hot box. and we were stuck for an hour. alas, we survived, slightly more smelly than we originally started out.

so we make it to carcassonne, and we had already talked to the woman in charge of our hostel (jan) and she said she could give us a ride out to the hostel (Sidsmums) since it was about 10km (6 or so miles) outside the city-proper. we killed some time looking like quintessential 'backpackers' sitting outside the train station surrounded by our loads of luggage. brillant photo i tell you if any one had taken one. two kids, 8 bags. real classy. in any case, we get picked up by jan who is this super cute british lady. started the hostel with her son (sid... hence sid's mum's aka sid's mom's) anywho, she picks us up, and we head out of town to the hostel which is nestled in this really small town of about 200 people or so named preixan.

the hostel turns out to be this little haven of english speakers in small town france where it feels like a second home. jan is the mom away from mom, and there's even a pet dog (georges - pronounced with a french accent) and a pet cat (jim, jimbob, jimbo, or anything in the near vicinity). so pretty much it turned out to be this perfect little place that michael and i never left. we planned on spending a bunch of time in carcassonne and wound up only spending maybe half a day there, the rest of the time we spent either at sidsmums or in the near vicinity. it was absolutely a vacation and such a great place that i cannot wait to go back. (more to come in detail, but the computer is dying... as always)

oh the general debauchery.

2008-09-02T14:00:00.000-07:00

so i'm not quite sure where to start with this one...

... it all begins in an irish pub at around 4pm. we walk in because a guinness sounded absolutely brilliant, and we'd been walking around montpellier all day. also, i havent' really said much about montpellier yet. its' filled with students. absolutely packed. and it's super gorgeous. and just an amazing city. pictures are on facebook for anyone who wants them. in any case, back to beer. we walk in and order two itty bitty beers on accident. don't fret, we managed to make up for it later in the night. anywho, we start talking to this nice guy next to us who literally looked like something out of an indiana jones movie. literally. (see below)

alright, so talking to him we learn loads. he's an antiques dealer. he has four sons. his wife died recently. one of his sons is named 'naughty nick' so naturally i'm interested. in any case, we wind up talking to him for the next oh i dont know, long time. eventually some of his friends come.

the drinking continues. we move from guinness to this thing called pastis, which as it turns out, is mildly on the same field as absinthe. tastes like licorice. i have two. finally 9 or so rolls around and all of us have yet to eat so the decision is made to head off to a japanese restaurant. and since we've been drinking with andrew and the rest of the crew (dom and mark and janine and rob) for the past few hours we're apparently invited to join in.

after a rather confusing walk through the back streets of montpellier we wind up at this little japanese restaurant that is packed with people. after rounds of sashimi, and other things that i dont know the name of (as well as a few bottles of saki) dinner is over and the tab is being picked up by andrew. (don't worry mama, i thanked him profusely, he wouldn't let us pay either, we tried hard)

after dinner it's time for a change of pace, namely more drinks at a place called the cubanito bar. naturally mojitos. so after a few of those and some dirty girl scout shots (bailey's and creme de menthe) poor little ol' michael couldn't handle it and he wound up throwing up in the bar. so i got to walk him all the way back to the hotel and we got to the hotel and i was like, 'okay, do you think you can make it from here?' (note: all he had to do was walk to the top of the 4 story building and we were the only room on the top floor) and he goes, 'no, can you take me?' so up we went. i tucked him into bed, and then did what any self-respecting good wisconsin girl would do. i headed back to the bar to hang out with the new friends. under strict orders of drunk michael to, 'take lots of pictures' because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to remember them in the morning. : )

off to the bar i went, only to return home in the wee hours of the morning to get about 2 hours of sleep before we had to be up and on the train to carcassonne. and that's another story...

where's montpellier...?

2008-09-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

so. it's been awhile. lots of goings on here across the pond. to say the least.

alright, so in any case, on our last day in valencia (meaning the morning that we woke up and had to be out of our hotel at noon) and we still didn't have a place to go. we foray to the train station at the pleasant hour of 8am with the idea that we'd go to carcassonne. the guy behind the window selling tickets pretty much just laughed at me. so no go. and so my response was, well, can i go anywhere in france then? and he went yeah, montpellier. next thought: where the hell is montpellier? turns out it's in the south of france. near the coast.

alright, so we get on the train and get to barcelona to change trains. all the time still trying to figure out where we'll be sleeping that night seeing as we hadn't planned to be in montpellier (or anywhere near it for that matter). we wind up talking to this really nice old man named Roger who told us that when he'd booked his hotel that morning there'd been one other open room. so in any case, we get off the train with him and walk to his hotel right up the road. no vacancies. but instead of him just going, oh to hell with it. good luck children, he instead talked the consierge into calling a hotel around the corner, and having them send over a helper to help us get there, and to help us with our bags because they had vacancies. it couldn't have been any better. so we get to our hotel. 5 flights of stairs later, we have a room! just michael and i in our own room again. top floor. totally perfect. we went out for a drink. had a blowout fight. and went to bed. next mornign everything worked out though. in fact i think it sort of helped in a sense. we've been getting along fairly well now....

tomatina and all it´s bruises

2008-08-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

(note, none of these photos are mine, mine are still on my disposable camera that i have yet to get developed, so when that does happen, and when i'm near a scanner, i'll put some of my photos up. that is if they turned out at all...)

so today was d-day. the tomato fight of the century. before i begin, let me just tell you, i am covered in bruises. my hair is in dreads, and i keep finding rogue pieces of tomato all over. it was so fun.

the day started at 5:15 to go check the email to see if the new friends we made got the email that we didn´t need to store anything at their apartment and we wanted to meet them at the train station instead... they didn´t. so up michael and i got and started our way to go meet them on the very outskirts of town. got to the metro. unsuccessfully tried to buy a ticket on the wrong computer (it was 5am, so no surprise i was having issues) and then after we finally got a ticket, we realized that the metro didn´t start until 6:15 and that´s when we were supposed to be meeting our new friends. so we bailed on that plan (5 euro well spent) and decided to just head off to the station and hope that we see them there.

we get up to the ticket office and ask the guy for two round trip tickets to buñol. (all the while michael and i were panicking about whether or not we´d have enough money to last the day. i´d brought 40€ and he´d brought 50€ and some american dollars.) so the guy prints our tickets and says 4,15€ per person, round trip. needless to say we had plenty of sangria spending money afterwards. so skip the boring part... train... yadda yadda yadda... and we´re in buñol!

immediately we get off the train and spot a stand that says cubalitro sangria (translation huge ass glass of sangria) 5€! so happy was i. so we buy big sangrias and water bottles and make new friends named stingray, t-bone, and jukebox (i have no idea their real names and they dont´know ours. in no time at all i was christened ´tsunami´and michael became ´whiplash´. loves it. so we hung out with them for the better part of the morning. got a photo or two with em also. i think. not really sure what all i´m gonna wind up with photos of since it´s a disposable one that has to actually be developed. how ancient. we eventually make it to the plaza after downing some form of meat in bread as our pseudo breakfast. mind you this is around 8am.

so first off down in the plaza is this thing where people climb up a greasy pole in an attempt to get a ham off of the top of a telephone pole. (why, i´m not sure... ) in any case the thing winds up being a total free for all with people standing on other people´s heads, shoulders, legs, anything that they can get a foot on. needless to say, with 95% of the people trying to get up the pole being men, i obviously had to give it a good ol female try. so all of a sudden here i am hoisted up onto the backs of total strangers, climbing my way up a mountain of people. standing on others´heads shoulders legs. whatever. and i, little ol me, made it all the way to the top of the pile!!

needless to say it was a pretty surreal experience being on the top of a 30 person pile. then the entire crown started cheering for me because i was the only girl and i was fairly high up on the pole. never in my life, and most likely never again will i have 40,000 people cheering for me. so fun. and totally amazing. so in any case, managed to lose all the boys for periods of time, then would randomly spot them all over in different places all around the pole. michael got stuck right next to the pole for a while and was the very bottom of the tower. quite a feat. literally. tens of people, all trying to get a place on the top of the pile, so he got feet on his head, on his shoulders, in his mouth. nastyness. no way i was getting near that. but alas i continued to help in the mayhem for the next 2 hours or so until the tomotoes started flowing.

then the real action started. i managed to get onto the shoulder's of stingray for a bit to see the beginnings of the action, which was amazing. in any case, buñol doesn't have very large streets and there were dump trucks, LARGE dump trucks that would come through filled with tomatoes with people on top throwing tomatoes at the 'innocent' spectators such as myself. and only if you were very lucky would the tomato truck stop in front of you and drop it's load. let's just say i was lucky. that was also when i lost my shoes. first one slipped off, and i tried to sort of find it, but i was being squished by the other hundreds of people trying to get tomatoes so i gave up and considered it a loss. but alas! i still had one shoe. for about 3 minutes and then i lost that one in the 2 feet of tomatoes i was standing in. so no more shoes for amy.

the fight started getting a smidge violent at this point. there was shirt ripping and lots of pushing and shoving involved. oh and fire water hoses. cold water hoses. anyway, the fight only lasts for an hour so i sarted to make my way to the side to sort of get out of the crazyness and catch my breath for 10 minutes or so before i sarted back. (note: at this point i have lost everyone, and am surrounded by a sea of red strangers who all smell like spaghetti sauce) so i watched the sea of people for a while, then joined. managed to find some loner shoes for the ride home (albeit they were both left feet, but hey, at that point, who's counting.) oh, and necessary for the ride on the train home is a shirt. no matter how stained or ripped, it needs to be a semi-functioning shirt. so i took my shirt, entirely ripped in half, and made a sort of robe-shirt. and tied it so it would stay without me having to hold it. very MacGeyver (sp?) of me if i do say so myself. : ) anywho, michael did the same with his shirt and we joined the sea of people back to valencia. i stopped and got rinsed off (before i met up with michael back at the train station at our 'meeting point') which was a thoroughly interesting experience because this man would take a hose and just sort of put it wherever he thought you 'needed' to get rinsed off, all the while a crowd of about 50 men are chanting 'camiseta! camiseta! (t-shirt! t-shirt) in a half-hearted attempt to get a girl to take it off and reveal her ever so sexy sports bra. very fun.

anywho, back to the train. everyone got on and immediately passed out. sans myself because i got stuck standing for a long while. but alas, made some new 'temporary' friends on the train, and eventually made it home for a long pink shower. and a lengthy well needed nap. another day well spent in the land of spaniards.

besos.

estoy aquí

2008-08-26T05:06:00.000-07:00

i´m alive. that´s a start right? had fine flights from madison to chicago and chicago to zurich. the airport in zurich was super high tech very pretty. in any case, we got into barcelona fine and got our luggage etc. found a train, made it to the train station. and then realized we had 2.5 hours to sit around and do nothing. tried to take a nap, got yelled at because i looked homeless i guess. (i feel as though that seems to happen a lot to me when i want to take a nap) in any case, got on teh train and wound up sitting by 3 americans-i made new friends! we convinced them to to go buñol with us for tomatina so we´re meeting them at the train station at 6:15 in the morning tomorrow. that´ll be interesting. in any case, when the train ride was all said an done i´d been traveling for a full 24+ hours. needless to say, we watched a spanish game show, accidentally watched some spanish porn, and called it a night. the room turns out to be one that we have to ourselves which is nice since we won´t have to worry about our passports getting stolen while we´re at tomatina. only downside is it sort of smells like dirty socks. that you got re-wet. its gross. but i was just too tired to care, and passed out just the same.

okay today we woke up at 10 after a power 11 hours of sleep. (never have i been so happy to be horizontal) michael and i decided to just sort of wander around the old city and just wind up wherever our feet took us. we finally wound up at the main cathedral. it was gorgeous! we started the endeavour into our european exploration climbing a 20 story belltower. (think stone spiral staircase that has a railing on one side, but 2-way traffic. it was a shitshow to say the least. pretty much in order for it to work, one person had to lay flat against the inside rail, and hold on so they don´t go tumbling down the stairs while the other person squeezed behind holding onto the railing. great fun. for 20 flights. anywho, made it to the top and discovered just how out of shape i really am. (i mean i had my suspicions, but holy woah) at least i didn´t pass out like one poor lady. i suppose that´s one good thing. from the top we could see the whole city of valencia... and then my camera died. oops. after we descended the same stairs and started the whole adventure over again. although, we met fewer people on the way down, it was still just as scary because this time we were the ones holding the inner thing whle others went past. alas, we got down safely (no broken bones) and decided to do the really nerdy listening tour. but hey 4euro to see the holy grail, who can turn that down. (really, the holy grail. i had no idea it was in valencia, but hey, when in spain, right?) so yeah, i saw the holy grail. and i took a really awesome picture with it. (i´ll post things later, i don´t have my cord, oh yeah, and my camera´s dead...)

anyways, besos y hasta luego.

2008-08-23T13:41:00.000-07:00

hello all. leaving countdown is at t-minus 0days 22hours 24minutes and 31seconds.

dear lord. i'm so unprepared.