Good Ol' Paris

I have just returned back from a relatively wonderful weekend in Paris. I say relatively because it rained for a good portion of the trip and there were a few individuals who made it a bit unpleasant when we did groups things like tours. This first picture is from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, on Wednesday I went and saw Othello and this is my friend Whitney and me before the show began. It was PHENOMENAL!! I'm not a huge fan of the story of Othello, reading it anyway but the performance was just superb, even though I was standing for 3 hours and 2o mins. Tuesday I went to see Mary Poppins and I confess I was a little bit disappointed, the special effects and set design was really good but the story was a bit different than what I was familiar with, not to mention the added scene in which the children's toys become angry, life-size scary clowns and what not. I did not clap for that scene. Friday morning at 11:15, 47 people, myself included, boarded a coach to head to the Waterloo station where we would take the Chunnel (Channel Tunnel) to Paris.

At 11:20, prior to departing our meeting place, 2 girls realized they had forgotten their passports. Finally at 11:30 we were on our way and it took us an hour to get to the station. Traffic was horrendous, but we got to the train and boarded on time. The train ride was about 2 1/2 hours and was a little cramped but for the most part pleasant. Another bus took us from Gare de Norde to our hotel which was attached to the Gare de Lyon train station. My next picture is Paris 10 mins after arriving at our Hotel. In case you are not able to tell, it's pouring in the picture and it rained some part of every day.

I roomed with a girl I met on the train through a girl in the class I'm taking and a group of 5 of us traveled together. We ate dinner at a little pizza place near our hotel and then walked around the city. I ended up being the navigator as I was basically the only one who could effectively read a map. On our way back from Notre Dame, about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, we got banana and nutella crepes with the assistance of a nice old man who helped us order.

The next morning all 47 of us took a bus tour around the city, one of the instances where I was annoyed by some people in the group who began drinking the day before on the chunnel and are still going tonight, they haven't been sober since Friday. Our guide for the tour took us to Luxembourg Gardens, the Eiffel Tower, the tomb of Napoleon, etc. and ended at the Louvre. Because the Louvre is so big, my friends and I made a few short stops inside to see the crown jewels, the Mona Lisa (which you are no longer allowed to take pictures of at all) and the Venus de Milo. This picture is me being a goof at Luxembourg Gardens, our first stop where we almost left 2 people, at our second stop we almost left 2 more people, our guide forewarned us that if we were not punctual we would be left behind. Apparently they didn't get the message.

I left my friends at 1 because Friday morning I received an email from Mike saying surprise how about I come spend the day with you in Paris on Saturday so, still believing it to be a joke I went to my hotel to see if he was actually there and SURPRISE there he was, sitting in the lobby. He had arranged everything spontaneously at the last minute with the help of his mom and his aunt. Although I was a bit distressed by our inability to communicate with each other, it was a wonderful suprise and I'm so glad he came. We walked around for a while and got some lunch and then went up the Eiffel Tower with the group and took a riverboat tour. It was beautiful, but it got cold with the rain.

This morning, we went to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur before Mike had to leave for the airport. Unfortunately, we had a little trouble finding it and walked around for about 30 mins before finding it. We got ham and cheese crepes and banana and nutella crepes for breakfast and then took pictures. And as quickly as he had arrived, it was time for Mike to go. I walked him to the metro stop that would connect him to the RER and then to the airport and said goodbye with the hopes that maybe he'll be able to come visit in London. I seemed to improve my pronunciation of the few phrases I knew in French like no merci to the people trying to get me to give them money or buy things from them and bonjour.

I was glad to get back to the cleaner city, where they speak English. However, those same people that were intoxicated the entire trip bought several bottles of liquor on the train and when we left the train one girl was so drunk she had to have someone carry her bags and then proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs while passing lines of people in Waterloo station. I was mortified to be associated with this horrible example of Americans. To top it off, we had to stop on the 20 minute bus ride back to South Kensington so 2 of the drinkers could run to a bathroom because they were sick. Overall, I enjoyed the trip and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go again. I think I appreciated what the city had to offer much more this time around although I much prefer London-there's substantially less smoking.

This coming Saturday I'm going to Bath for the day and I may be arranging to have lunch with a friend from home who is also studying abroad. Somewhere in there, perhaps tomorrow which is a Bank Holiday, I have to write a paper due Wednesday. This week is supposed to be more like the weather I expected, rainy and cold. I miss everyone and I'm thinking about you all while I'm here in London and while I was in Paris!