It's November 27th and I have exactly three weeks left in Paris. Wow, how the time has flown! Sometimes I still can't believe that I am actually here. I know that in the future, say in five or ten years time, I am going to remember this semester as if it were a dream. At times it seems to pass so very quickly and other times so very slowly. Well, no, it actually all passes very quickly, you just have to move quickly to keep up with it--something that I've surprisingly managed to do. Our program put on a special Thanksgiving dinner tonight. It's a pity there celebrating it a month or two late. They really messed up the dates on that one. I mean, what crazy, disgusting nation eats two turkey dinners with a month of each other. God, no wonder the obesity rate is so high. Nevertheless, it was a delicious meal and rather larger than I'm used to. Living in Paris, I've gotten used to eating extremely small portions which suit my very small stomach. I forgot to mention that while being here I've had to pull my belt one notch tighter to keep my pants on--can you imagine that? Me, even thinner! I'm probably less than 135lbs now which should be just a bit above the average weight here haha. But it's inspired me. Oh Yes! I think I may just have to start Vince DelMonte's No-Nonsense Muscle Building (Skinny guy secrets) come Christmas. Anyway, much has passed within the last three weeks. Let's start with Vienna....
One brisk fall evening I returned home from class at the Sorbonne only to grab my little grey suitcase and set off on an epic journey to Vienna, the land of the Wieners. I was to become a true Wiener for a weekend and I was to enjoy many wieners as well with my good friend Eric Molnar. I had no trouble getting there, the flight was great (flyniki woo!), and I even made friends with two French guys on the train to the city. It is a truly amazing feeling when you can suddenly understand someone talking in a foreign language and then start conversing with them fluently. However, my planning skills only went so far. I wasted quite a few euro on the many different phone number combinations in trying to reach him and finally found a man to help me. Take note* - if you are learning German I suggest that you don't go to Vienna or in that case, anywhere in Austria or Germany. They all speak English very well and will not want to speak German with you! I finally reached Eric and half an hour later (say midnight) we were at his big apartment just outside the heart of the city. On Friday, we started with the city centre which is very pretty. There is one long, solely pedestrian road full of high-fashion shops and nice statues etc. etc. We spent a while in the Stephansdom Cathedral including climbing the tower, viewing the bell (we couldn't figure out why this was the most expensive one), and touring the crypt! Wooouuuuooooo zombies. They had entire rooms that were simply bones and skulls stacked from floor to ceiling. It was actually quite shocking. We went out to a true Viennese restaurant that evening where they decided it would be fun to see if I could tell which piece of chicken on my plate they had cooked. One piece was heaven and the other was pretty much raw. Unfortunately I started with the heavenly one so I didn't get to the raw one until about 90 minutes later. Eric was probably pretty happy about that. The best thing about being Canadian is that when you're given a raw piece of chicken and you point that out, they will give you a delicious dessert for free! Cool! That was only the start of a very long night. Eric's housemates convinced us to go out with them to a club called U4 (pronounced You Fear!) which was actually a lot of fun and not just techno. The electro scene can get very boring. Then we roamed the streets of Vienna around 1 or 2 am and found ourselves in a bar where I tasted the most amazing drink in the world--the swimming pool! It was a dirty-grey, foamy, frothy drink that looked just like a dank swimming pool but tasted incredible! Perhaps I should try a real one. So remember, if you want to look really cool, I mean shaken-not-stirred cool, just order a swimming pool. You won't regret it. Eric and I made a cosy little breakfast the next morning discussing life as an IES student and its many eccentricities. Afterwards, we made our way to the famous Vienna markets. A true spectacle where one can find an infinite number of sausage, delicious appel strudel, and bizarre fruits. That evening I attended my first ever football match (soccer game) and was awed by the amazing passion for football there. In fact I'm not going give any details except for the fact that the entire stadium was covered in a thick green smoke at half-time caused by a few too many smokebombs. This delayed the game for about ten minutes because the players couldn't even see the ball let alone one another. Then, when we (Rapid Wien) won 5-0 and yelled our final "DANKE - BITTE", about thirty flares were set off in the stands. Nothing better. That same night, we searched out the Christkindlmarkt (otherwise known as the Crystalmethmarket between Eric and me) which was spectacular! It was the opening day, not surprising considering it was Nov. 15, and it could not have felt more like Christmas day. Wow! Punch and desserts and candy and ornaments and decorations everywhere. Sunday consisted of a mass at the Stephansdom, a crossing of the Danube, and a march of the Schnonbrun Palace grounds before I made my way back to Paris. When I landed in Paris, I actually got the feeling that I had arrived somewhere that I could call my home. Interesting, eh? Vienna gave me even more appreciation for Paris and the chance that I have here to experience such an amazingly beautiful city. Over the past two weeks I really feel that I have improved my speaking-ability. I am totally comfortable speaking with anyone now and I am very quick to pick up on and remember any words that are new to me which is a very good sign indeed! However, the workload is mounting. The only reason I had a chance to write this blog this evening is because my essay was curiously extended until Monday thanks to a little white lie heh heh. Don't you worry about it but it's certain that I am going to be working just as hard as if I were at Whitman for the last three weeks here. That means I will be fitting in all the things that I haven't done yet in short little periods of free time. I'm confident that I will have reached 100% satisfaction come Dec. 19th but, keeping in mind the fact that I only traveled two weekends out of fourteen, it would be easy to stay here for an entire year. I hope life on the West Coast is treating everyone well. I shall see you all soon enough! Best wishes,
Jasper
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