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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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...

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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!!!!

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

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.

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...)