…And On Saturday Morning I Write Blogs
If I put my week in a box it would resemble this.
Cinco de Mayo. Mmm is the only word I can think of when reflect on last Saturday’s greatness. I had a burrito for the first time in over 8 months. For those of you who know me and my love for burritos, you can guess that I was pretty ecstatic to break that involuntary burrito fast. I went to this quasi-American/Mexican restaurant called Indiana with Tina (goes to American University in Paris/my church) and one of her friends. We had awful service…but I had a burrito (washed down with a typically Mexican corona) which trumps all (burritos wipe away tears). We stole matchboxes and spent our walk to the Gelato place flicking matches. After meeting some more of her friends and watching the girls attempt to climb this sculpture of a head, we had as Tina would say “the best gelato in Paris.” I guess it was pretty good, but I’m not gelato expert, I just judged by the simple fact that it tasted similar to the gelato I had in Italy.
Moving on, Sunday I met up with Brittney (exchange student in Beauvais) for Free Museum Sunday in Paris, where we managed to choose two of the few museums that weren’t free to attempt to visit. Not all was lost, as our third pick was a charm (the Centre Pompidou). As it is the modern art museum in Paris, we had some fun playing the “what is the meaning of this painting?” game. After she headed off I met up with Taro from church to munch on Falafel. For those of you who didn’t know, there was an election Sunday night in Paris, so Taro and I were interested to see if we could find large groupings of people so we could watch some mischief happen. Taro, being an architect, suggested we check out the Socialist Party headquarters, which was designed by Fredrich Niemeyer (who I guess is a famous architect). Confused at our arrival by the absence of people, it took a few minutes to realize that it was in fact the Communist headquarters we were looking at. Socialist, Communist, sometimes even the best of us confuse them. After seeing some interesting architecture (but no riots), we had a beer at a hoppin’ café/bar. Taro is amazing. If you ever get the chance, hang out with him.
My cousin Melanie came Monday through Tuesday, and my history teacher’s absence made it possible to spend the whole day with her Monday. We haven’t seen each other in almost two years, so it was awesome to catch up on what we’ve been doing in our lives. We had some Kebab then walked around Montmartre. As I arrived at her hotel a few minutes after she did, she was a bit jet lagged, so we headed back to her hotel where we took naps/watched a documentary on the foreign unit of the French Legionnaires (yes, contrary to popular belief, France does have some semblance of an army). We then picnic dinnered by the Eiffel Tower and proceeded to watch an interesting French movie. I spent a good part of the movie translating for Melanie, as although she took French immersion, had a little trouble understanding (but I had trouble as well, as it felt like half the actors were speaking with croissants in their mouths). I’m not sure if the people behind us appreciated it, but oh well.
Tuesday was a pubic holiday, therefore I didn’t have school. Melanie’s plan was to visit the Louvre (which I forgot was closed) in the morning and then meet up with me later. The Louvre was not open, so she had to just chill for a couple hours then try to figure out my awfully confusing drawing of the Louvre to figure out where to meet me. After a short walk, we met up with Paul from my church to go on one of his amazing bike tours. Melanie’s maladroit-ness on the bike aside, we had a wonderful time seeing/discovering Paris with Bike About Tours (http://www.bikeabouttours.com/). If you are ever in Paris, go on one of their tours. You get to see the city in such a different light than you do walking as well as learn as much as you need in a few hours to appreciate the city. Tuesday night was another fantastic, multicultural dinner at Paul’s. Of those who ate, there were one American, one American/Canadian (me), a Canadian, a Kiwi, a Japanese/German, an Irishwoman, and two of Paul’s French roommates. Conversations flowed somewhat randomly from English to French as all of us “foreigners” spoke French. The sense of community was amazing, as it is every time Paul has others over for dinner. There is power in a meal-shared.
The rest of my week was comfortably slow. I discovered some things. Like that I can save money by buying frozen food for lunch and cooking it at friends’ houses. Or that spending a few hours reading with a glass of wine in a café is a perfectly appropriate way to spend a Thursday (and Friday) afternoon. But most importantly I learned that, senioritis is most definitely worse the second time around, and that these three weeks of school that remain may be the hardest/longest of the year. Oh high school, I’ve had enough of you for one lifetime, please leave me alone.
37 days.
Brent
If I put my week in a box it would resemble this.
Cinco de Mayo. Mmm is the only word I can think of when reflect on last Saturday’s greatness. I had a burrito for the first time in over 8 months. For those of you who know me and my love for burritos, you can guess that I was pretty ecstatic to break that involuntary burrito fast. I went to this quasi-American/Mexican restaurant called Indiana with Tina (goes to American University in Paris/my church) and one of her friends. We had awful service…but I had a burrito (washed down with a typically Mexican corona) which trumps all (burritos wipe away tears). We stole matchboxes and spent our walk to the Gelato place flicking matches. After meeting some more of her friends and watching the girls attempt to climb this sculpture of a head, we had as Tina would say “the best gelato in Paris.” I guess it was pretty good, but I’m not gelato expert, I just judged by the simple fact that it tasted similar to the gelato I had in Italy.
Moving on, Sunday I met up with Brittney (exchange student in Beauvais) for Free Museum Sunday in Paris, where we managed to choose two of the few museums that weren’t free to attempt to visit. Not all was lost, as our third pick was a charm (the Centre Pompidou). As it is the modern art museum in Paris, we had some fun playing the “what is the meaning of this painting?” game. After she headed off I met up with Taro from church to munch on Falafel. For those of you who didn’t know, there was an election Sunday night in Paris, so Taro and I were interested to see if we could find large groupings of people so we could watch some mischief happen. Taro, being an architect, suggested we check out the Socialist Party headquarters, which was designed by Fredrich Niemeyer (who I guess is a famous architect). Confused at our arrival by the absence of people, it took a few minutes to realize that it was in fact the Communist headquarters we were looking at. Socialist, Communist, sometimes even the best of us confuse them. After seeing some interesting architecture (but no riots), we had a beer at a hoppin’ café/bar. Taro is amazing. If you ever get the chance, hang out with him.
My cousin Melanie came Monday through Tuesday, and my history teacher’s absence made it possible to spend the whole day with her Monday. We haven’t seen each other in almost two years, so it was awesome to catch up on what we’ve been doing in our lives. We had some Kebab then walked around Montmartre. As I arrived at her hotel a few minutes after she did, she was a bit jet lagged, so we headed back to her hotel where we took naps/watched a documentary on the foreign unit of the French Legionnaires (yes, contrary to popular belief, France does have some semblance of an army). We then picnic dinnered by the Eiffel Tower and proceeded to watch an interesting French movie. I spent a good part of the movie translating for Melanie, as although she took French immersion, had a little trouble understanding (but I had trouble as well, as it felt like half the actors were speaking with croissants in their mouths). I’m not sure if the people behind us appreciated it, but oh well.
Tuesday was a pubic holiday, therefore I didn’t have school. Melanie’s plan was to visit the Louvre (which I forgot was closed) in the morning and then meet up with me later. The Louvre was not open, so she had to just chill for a couple hours then try to figure out my awfully confusing drawing of the Louvre to figure out where to meet me. After a short walk, we met up with Paul from my church to go on one of his amazing bike tours. Melanie’s maladroit-ness on the bike aside, we had a wonderful time seeing/discovering Paris with Bike About Tours (http://www.bikeabouttours.com/). If you are ever in Paris, go on one of their tours. You get to see the city in such a different light than you do walking as well as learn as much as you need in a few hours to appreciate the city. Tuesday night was another fantastic, multicultural dinner at Paul’s. Of those who ate, there were one American, one American/Canadian (me), a Canadian, a Kiwi, a Japanese/German, an Irishwoman, and two of Paul’s French roommates. Conversations flowed somewhat randomly from English to French as all of us “foreigners” spoke French. The sense of community was amazing, as it is every time Paul has others over for dinner. There is power in a meal-shared.The rest of my week was comfortably slow. I discovered some things. Like that I can save money by buying frozen food for lunch and cooking it at friends’ houses. Or that spending a few hours reading with a glass of wine in a café is a perfectly appropriate way to spend a Thursday (and Friday) afternoon. But most importantly I learned that, senioritis is most definitely worse the second time around, and that these three weeks of school that remain may be the hardest/longest of the year. Oh high school, I’ve had enough of you for one lifetime, please leave me alone.
37 days.
Brent
1 comment:
burritos also pay your rent, but then you're in their debt, which means you're in their pocket.
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