Cheers Here’s to Life (on Vacation)

Last week a couple of my friends from the first bus trip, Jim and Zach, came up to Paris early for their bus trip that was leaving on Thursday. So we hung out. Tuesday we met up with an exchange student from Canada who is going on their bus trip, and Wednesday with a Colombian exchange student who was visiting Paris. Good times.

The sound of my alarm Friday morning wasn’t very appealing to my ears, so I turned off the alarm and fell back asleep, waking up at 9:00, exactly when my class was starting. While explaining this to my host mom I was interrupted by the beautiful sentence “oh, don’t worry Brent, I’ll just call you in sick and you can come to Good Friday Mass at Sacré Coeur with me.” The service was a lot different than the somber, candle lit services I am used to. There was simply a lot of singing (no Spencer, we did not sing “our God is an awesome God”). It was peaceful to sing songs, and it was something I really enjoyed although I may have spent more time focusing on my French pronunciation then on what the words really meant. All of this was of course sweetened by the fact that I was in the process of missing 4 hours of science labs, and that the only class between me and vacation was one hour of math later that afternoon. After math I went to Parc Monceau and read for a while, then a little later I met my friends to surprise our other friend Marion for her birthday. We threw her a hoppin’ party, and the night consisted of dancing, fun conversations with friends and new acquaintances, me being hungry as I hadn’t eaten yet, music, and well, an all around super-duper time.

Saturday. I stayed at Andrew’s house because my host parents left for the weekend. We ate Panini. He left. I watched “Ensemble c’est tout”, a French movie with Audrey Tautou (that sentence rhymes by the way). I ate Doëner. I slept.

For Easter, my church went down about an hour south of Paris to the country home of the parent’s of a member of the church. We had a traditional Jewish Seder meal on the Sunday outside in the beautiful sun and warmth. The Seder meal is for Passover, but it works as well for Easter because of all the parallels between the story of Passover (the blood of the Lamb etc) and Easter (Jesus=Lamb of God). The food and fellowship were amazing both Sunday and Monday. Monday I was a little tired after sleeping in a maximum five foot bed Sunday night. The length of this bed also did not help my legs, decimated as they were by the intense soccer match played Sunday. Monday night Andrew and I kicked it at his house, ate some pizza that reminded me of Positano’s (but did not completely reach that level of greatness) and watched 24 and the Office.

It has been gorgeous here in Paris for the last couple weeks, which suits (or creates?) my intensely joyous mood lately. Just thought all you suffering through cold weather in the states ought to know that. In light of this gorgeous weather, yesterday I went to the Musée Rodin. Rodin was a sculptor in the 19th century, and his work is displayed both inside the museum and outside in the garden (thus justifying my going to museum on a beautiful day). The museum is amazing. I fell asleep reading outside on the grass. That night, Andrew’s parents took me, Paul, and Taro out for dinner. Andrew picked out the restaurant, called “Le Timbre”, which means “the stamp” and is called that because it is so small. The staff consists of a cook and a waitress, but the food and atmosphere are impeccable (despite being surrounded almost completely by other English speakers). It was probably one of the last times I’ll get to be with Andrew, Taro and Paul all together, so although it was amazing, it was a little bittersweet at the same time, knowing that my time here is slowly depleting. In other news, after almost 8 months in France I still struggle drinking red wine and keeping it off my lips and/or glass. That is on my list of things to learn before I leave. Along with hangliding. And quilting.

Almost done. Today Melanie (exchange student from New Brunswick) and I went to explore the Versailles Gardens (which are free), as we are too cheap and it was too nice out to warrant a visit in the actual museum. It was such a relaxing day. We vented about the French school system, walked around, fell asleep near the canal (where I got semi-sunburned), ate Sherbet, and eavesdropped on adolescent British girls with funny accents. Solid day. Man do I love vacation.

Brent!