Vienna and November

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

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

Update

Hello again, it seems that this blog has lost a lot of priority over the past month but hopefully I can fill you in on most of the important stuff. My parents came last week and were here for seven days which meant I wasn't going to be visiting any ATM's anytime soon. We stayed in an apart-hotel right on the Seine River in the middle of the city which was really nice and a perfect location to go off from there. Unfortunately it was also my week of mid-term exams. Now I know that mid-terms here are nothing compared to Whitman ones, but it was kind of a pain because I really did have to legitimately study for them. On top of that, my mum caught the flu so we weren't up for doing a ton of stuff. However........ we did have a few little tickies for the Paris Masters Series Tournament!!! In fact, we had tickets for all Thursday and Friday so I was super pumped! Truly too bad was the fact that I had 7 hours of class on Thursday and a mandatory play to watch at a theatre that night. Oh well.... I managed to sell my ticket to a sketchy guy around the stadium for 25 euro (a good price after most were wanting it for 10 euro) and waited until Friday. Ok, so we arrive three hours early the next day like hundreds of other people not realizing that the matches didn't start until 2pm. Three hours later we return from doing something else and we get in. The tournament is all held in one big stadium with one centre court and two tiny ones off to the side with zero seating so pretty much everyone only pays attention to the main court. Before each match, they do a light show on the tennis court which is incredibly cool. For example, everything is pitch dark, then there are white lasers that trace the outline of the court. Then, all of a sudden two little paddles appear (as lasers) and they started playing pong on the tennis tennis court. It's hard to explain but very cool. So, first match - Murray vs. Nalbandian. This was a fantastic match! Nalbandian played really well and was very impressive. Murray hung with him of course but lost in the first set breaker. After that, Nalbandian was just the better player. Second match - Davydenko vs. Nadal. This started of ok and my man Nikolay was dominating Nadal 5-1 in the first but then supreme disappointment..... Nadal retires after one set! It's true he wasn't looking up to snuff but it's very frustrating to have someone retire when you've paid good money to watch. But hey... I can't stand Nadal so good ridance. However, if that wasn't enough for one day, prepare for the most crushing, disappointing thing you'll ever hear in your life.................. ROGER RETIRED TOO! NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO.......... My hero decides to pull out of his match 15 mins after Nadal retires and this is the ONE day that I get to watch the two best players in the world! Are you serious?!? Federer didn't even walk on court so I didn't even get a chance to see his divine flesh! To add insult to injury this was the first time in 400-something matches that Federer has retired or pulled out before playing! Not possible, but thankfully, the last match of the day made up for it. Roddick vs. Tsonga! Both of these guys are biggg guys and just kill the ball. Tsonga hits it incredibly flat and doesn't have the nicest strokes but is very powerful. Anyway, Roddick was firing his serve at +230 Kmh (+143 Mph) consistently which is absolutely ridiculous! Sometimes, you actually can't follow the ball with the naked eye and I don't know how any linesman can call a serve like that. Roddick definitely had the upper hand the whole of the match but the crowd was going nuts for Tsonga. They actually got incredibly biased against Roddick after one call that had nothing to do with Roddick but that's the French for you! They are the most badly-behaved crowd I've ever seen, constantly boo-ing Roddick so my dad and I were going American on this one--I'm talkin' "Rob Downey Jr." American on this one. It went down to the wire but Tsonga won it 7-5 in the third set breaker. Tsonga's a great guy too though so we were happy for him nevertheless. Other than that I can't say that I've done anything extremely interesting other than visit museums and hang out with friends in cafes and bars. So perhaps I'll just reflect on some random topics. Hmm, I can't remember if I've talked about this yet, but McDonald's here are amazing! Not only do you get a Royale burger, you also get to sit in a perfectly manicured restaurant with no food on the ground and no grease on the tables. There's two floors (always) and the food actually tastes like food. In fact, it looks like what you see in the advertisements..... plus, sometimes the staff even serve you! On another note, literally everyone has a dog here. If you don't have children, you have as many dogs instead. Furthermore, these dogs are allowed anywhere--shops, restaurants, the metro, etc. and the best part of all, they are EXTREMELY well-behaved. I've only heard one dog bark in the last two months. The only little problem is that dogs can also poo anywhere they want and the owners do nothing about it. Yes, that means that on my walk to the metro every morning I have to step over at least three or four piles of poo just lying in the middle of the sidewalk. Then, by some miracle it's always gone by the next day. I dunno whether some unlucky soul steps in it or whether there's a dog-poo service but it disappears....... I'm going to leave you pondering that one. Until next time when I can recount to you my trip to Vienna!! I'm leaving Thursday and I'm staying with Eric Molnar so it should be a blast.  

Paris just didn't know what hit it when David arrived...

Hello Readers,

I am officially half-way through my program! Holy smokes, the time has gone quickly eh? Let me start with last weekend when David came for two days. Well, I woke up Saturday morning at 7:30am, it took me about 45 minutes to leave my room, and then I took the metro followed by the RER train out to the airport to pick up our friend David. David was actually supposed to arrive at 8:30am and I didn't get there until 9:30am so I was hoping that he just wouldn't be too mad at me or have gotten lost or anything since communication was proving difficult. However, as soon as I get to the gate and call him, I soon learn that he's still a few hundred kilometres away in London!!! Yes, David missed his flight! Oh Davie.... but luckily there was one going out a few hours later. So, that gave me some time to kill in Charles de Gaulle airport so I decided to sit in the little cafe there, order an espresso, and read some French poetry (lol). I'm not exaggerating when I say that either. We're reading "les Fleurs du Mal" by Baudelaire, it's some pretty deep stuff, I dunno if you guys would get it..... don't worry about it. Hahah anyway, David finally arrived with his little backpack on and tennis racquet under his arm. We arrived at his hotel about an hour later (the airport is way outside the city) but I can't judge David's taste in hotel's. Wow, somehow he managed to get a room on the 22nd floor of this 3-star hotel (there's only 4 stars in France) in a great area. The bed was the most comfortable bed I've ever felt.. seriously. Our first outing was to the Eiffel Tower but unfortunately there were waaayyyy to many tourists there and it would've been silly to wait for two hours to go up it. So, instead we bought tickets for the tour buses that go all across the best sites in Paris. A perfect idea for someone like David, who then got a chance to see pretty much everything one would want to see in the span of two hours on top of a double-decker bus. Later that evening we found a nice spot for dinner where David could experience some true French cuisine. We then met up with some other Whitties here in Paris and went to a club called Showcase which is under a bridge on the Seine river--a really sweet location. However, we were flat-out rejected! Hahahh yeah looking back on it, it was quite funny because the two bouncers and one hostess all looked us up and down then said, "Ce n'est pas possible" and showed us the way out. That literally means "It is not possible for you to enter", but they were thinking, "Don't even think about entering our club, you American filth." I think we were just wearing too many colours (wink nudge David jk jk) since colours don't exist here in Paris. I'm serious, the only colour that stores sell here is black; the only colour you EVER see on the metro, on the streets, in restaurants is black. So, if you're not wearing black, you're rather stuck. Hahah there's a little Fawlty Towers reference for ET and Jake. The next day was one of the most memorable days of my life. How is that possible you say? Only one answer - Roland Garros! David and I (very luckily) happened to get to the site just as a tour in English was starting. So, 12 euros later we started the tour, not really expecting much. We started with the outer courts, saw the academy that they have there, saw the numerous underground courts too! Since Roland Garros is the smallest site of all the grand slams by far, they've had to put a lot of things underground. Anyway, we then entered the stadium Philippe Chatrier to see the press room, interview room, players lounge, and even the MEN'S LOCKER ROOM! YAAAA..... which was lined with gold and rich mahogany wood everywhere, not to mention huge leather chairs. Plus, we all touched and smelled Nadal's famous locker (#159), but unfortunately not Roger's.... Then we went even further and we were taken out onto Centre Court of Roland Garros! How amazing is that?! So, naturally, David and I touched the clay, pretended to slide, pretended to be serving, sat in the umpire's chair, etc. etc. After that, David went back to the airport and flew back to London. Well, he actually missed his flight again because there was an accident on the train so it wasn't the smoothest travel weekend for David! But hey, now he's in Italy. 

As for me, I've decided to change my life around and start getting normal patterns of sleep. Hahah, yes too little sleep makes Jasper a dull boy. So now, with infinite reading to do, I will purely choose the most important passages to read so that I can get a good night's sleep and give my brain a chance to translate and speak more French during the day. I must say, the level of french has slipped a little here over the past two weeks for all of us so that really should change. My parents are coming on Monday though and staying for a week so that will be really nice to see them, not to mention the fact that I won't have to spend any money for the next week! Yes. Hope y'all's is doin' real good! 

An Eventful Past Few Weeks...

Hello everyone, I am so sorry that it has been so long since I last posted a blog. I have actually been much busier the last few weeks than I was during the first month of my time here both with work and play. As I was telling of the lack of school in my previous blog, I now have a surprisingly large amount of classtime, in particular at the Sorbonne. The building itself is a classic, old, Parisien building, but inside it's very clean and modern and teeming with students. Both of my literature classes there are five hours a week and consist of two different "cours magistrals" which are just lectures in "le grand amphitheatre" as well as one looonnnggg three-hour session of "travaux-dirigés" which is supposed to be the class analysis of the books but really is just another, longer lecture which is good and bad.... I mean, the students don't really get to discuss the books amongst themselves so the prof. just goes over everything herself but that's pretty nice for foreign students like me since she/he usually talks much more slowly and clearly than any of the students. In fact, there's more foreigners here than you think because it's really weird to suddenly hear a British accent in a sea of French. It's very strange when you assume someone is French (or whatever) sitting next to you, and three hours later, when class breaks, you hear them mutter "Ave never 'ad such a fuhckin' long class in me life". Ok, ok, I'm exaggerating but you get my point. Anyway, I've got seven hours of class on monday and thursday but only about two hours on every other day. This may seem like a lot (or a little if you're Christoph) but I'd much rather endure hearing excellent French while discussing literary masterpieces than suffer the very slow, and often idiotic discussions at IES. Let's just say that some girls here simply came to shop and go clubbing without speaking any French which makes for very difficult discussions in class. So anyway, enough about school..... two weekends ago the entire city was awake and walking the streets of Paris for La Nuit Blanche from Saturday evening right until dawn on Sunday. The night itself was fantastic and just ridiculous in general. I saw an organ concert in Notre Dame, a photo exhibit in a train station, an amazing beam of light that literallly pierced the atmosphere into space (you'll see some weird pics) while playing alien music, several art installations, Mcdonald's twice, and a crazy old guy. Oh, and we (don't include me in the we) went swimming at 3am in a public pool! The next day, I attended the most amazing horse races one could ever imagine for free! Straight out of "Seabiscuit", there was a huge 'hippodrome' with grandstand, women wearing big fancy hats, and men in suits everwhere. My friend and I found seats in the front row of the balcony and let me just say.... BETTING ON HORSES IS AN INCREDIBLE FEELING! With the large sum of two euro in our hands for each race (that was minimum bet lol), we watched six consecutive races and finally, on the last and most pretigious race, we hit some luck. By the way, this last race had a total prize money value of 4,000,000 euro (note that the owners are pretty much all from Dubai) so this was a really big deal. I picked second place and my friend picked third so we both ended up about equal after losing 8 euro on the first five.... big spenders, I know. Skip forward seven days to this past weekend when I went on an IES excursion to Normandy which starts with a classic, classic "jasper" story. Alright, I saw a long play the night before we left (thursday) and so I was up until about one or two packing and making sure I would be ready to leave the next morning. We had to be at the buses around 6:45am so as to leave at 7:10am just so you know. Oh and I live 30 minutes by metro from where the bus was leaving. Well........ I set my alarm for 5:30am.... yup, I was going to wake up, shower and have a nice leisurely breakfast. So, I woke up and it was 5:30am, my mobile was ringing (it's my alarm clock) and in the process of re-setting it for 15 minutes later (you know me) I somehow drifted back to sleep and did not wake up until 6:40AM!!! Looking back on this, it was actually a miracle that I woke up because there was no reason for me to wake up then. Well, thank God that I had packed everything the night before because I jumped into my clothes, grabbed my bag, and took off through the streets of Paris. Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with weaving through pedestrians because that would've been awful. Anyway, on the run, I got a call from a friend who was already there with everyone-- so I told him (truthfully) that I would be there on the dot of 7:10am because I still had a chance. I made the metro, and sat there praying that they would wait. Well... exactly 30 minutes later... at 7:10am I arrived at the bus and the best part of all is that I wasn't the last one! Haha, yeah there was one guy who just slept in and somehow showed up seven hours later in Normandy--no clue how he got there. Anyway, we pulled away a few minutes later while I crumpled into a seat. Normandy was fantastic! We visited the D-Day museum at Caen, the museum of Mulberry harbour (the temporary harbour made by the British around those beaches), and the famous American cemetary (*Saving Private Ryan). We even got to walk down and around on THE Omaha beach where the June 6th battle took place. It's really hard to believe that it actually happened there. Anyway, our hotel/hostel was shaped like a castle and right on the beach, which was great. We (you can include me on this one) swam in the Channel (it was very cold, but definitely worth it), played soccer on the beach, played golf on the beach with a staff member (just a little bunker practice), and even got taught some martial-arts moves by our inebriated-triple-blackbelt-but-now-overweight bus-driver. Awesome! Unfortunately, on the bus ride home, I came down with a really bad cold, and if you know me, when I get sick, I get really sick! Yah, I spent all Sunday in bed, and have been taking antibiotics for the past four or five days. I am better now, and am excited for the arrival of David this weekend. Yes, David is flying in from London Saturday morning to experience Paris in a wild one day and a half visit. I hope I can show him a good time.... no doubt since we'll be starting with Roland Garros and the Tenniseum!

I'm Jasper Follows

You stay classy Walla Walla/Vancouver

School?

Well, I'm back in the land of the living (ie - I have internet again). I've been meaning to write this post for a few days now but, for some reason, my internet refused to work for the past three days. It's really a miracle that it's working now because I haven't done too much to fix it and I was sure that I'd have to find someone to help me with it. Anyway, I don't think that I mentioned it before, but I'm (going) to be taking two of my five courses at the Sorbonne, which is really cool for the simple fact that it's the Sorbonne and hopefully I'll be able to meet some nice French people (ie - girls). So, this past Monday, after my first class at IES, I journeyed to the Sorbonne (which is surprisingly close to my house) and made my way to the big entrance hall along with dozens of other students. Just to let you know, University here is completely different from anything in the US. There is absolutely no orientation, no advisors, no living in dorms to meet other people, and I believe the application process takes about ten minutes -- "Hhmmm, you got an A in literature, you've got nice posture, plus you look like you'd fit in, alright you start in two months". So, that being said, I'm sure that many students standing in the entrance hall there had never even seen the place before. Anyway, there was a man sitting behind a welcome desk so I went up to this guy and just asked him where my literature classes would be taking place. He gave me a funny look which doesn't always mean he doesn't understand, he just thinks there's something wrong with you. Then he simply told me that all literature classes start next week, on October 6th! I didn't even know what to say..... but I can say that that is the perfect example of the French university system. How the hell would anyone have known that? They wouldn't and so everyone would just show up and be told to come next week. Oh well.... I can't really complain since that just shortened my semester to two and half months and gave me another week of "vacation". However, in reality, I have a lot more work from IES than I thought and not being used to work, I always start at 10pm and end up sleeping at 1am, which isn't that good if I'm waking up at 7:30am which is my start time each day. Oh and good news on the tennis front -- I can subscribe to this club that I played at a week or two ago for less than half the yearly price which is very pleasing indeed. By the way, every court except for one is red clay! I might make a grinder yet. Ha, I doubt it but it's certainly good for defense and consistency in general. Now it's just a matter of finding good guys to hit with and maybe finding a pair of clay-court shoes. Mine are so slick I can barely serve without falling over afterwards. This weekend should be very exciting because on Saturday night, there's an event called "La Nuit Blanche" which is a saying for an all-nighter and it's taking place across the entire city. It's not really a party, but more a celebration with tons of performances of all kinds--pretty sweet. Plus, on Sunday I have two free tickets to the "Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe" which is a huge horse-racing event taking place at the biggest "hippodrome" in Paris. So, in a few days I shall tell you how it all goes. I miss you guys and I wish you all the best at the ITA's this weekend. I hope the weather is accomodating!

A cool bird and a painful eye

Hello all, I started my classes this past week which was actually a good thing because I was itching to start just a little bit of work. In the first class that I had, I soon found out that I had already read two of the four books that we were going to read this semester and I didn't really fancy doing them again so I had to change out of that one. My art history class is great, since we will be visiting different museums every week, and history is a welcome change too. So, I tried the other lit class but it was brutal [the teacher thinks we're idiots and most of us (I'd like to exlude myself when I say "us") are]. So, 4 class changes later, everything seems to be figured out and now I'll be taking two outside classes at the Sorbonne. 

I'd forgotten to mention this before, but my host family has one pet and it's a little bird. There actually used to be two little birds but one made too much noise and had to be given away..... anyway sometimes the family lets this little bird named Pimms out of its cage and it gets to fly around inside the house. However, the best part about this is that Pimms really likes flying onto the top of people's heads!! Yes, however bizarre that sounds and/or annoying, it is really cool and makes me want to have a little bird of my own. Pimms weighs practically nothing so you don't even notice he's there, and somtimes he just moves down to your arm and hand and sits there. For example, last week I was reading a comic book in their living room and Pimms just flew onto my head and chilled there for about 10 minutes. I mean..... who wouldn't want a little bird to come and sit on their head right?!

As for the eye, I now have another story/experience to tell which involves a trip to the hospital. Don't worry though....there are no tubes involved. Alright, so last night, Arjumand (the prospective student living in Paris) and I arranged to play tennis at some public courts. We found them and started to play..... Arjumand is a good player and (to Coach) could be a good addition to next year's team, especially if he plays seriously for another year here. We'll see as the semester goes on....anyway, at 2-2 he hit a first serve which jammed me right down the middle so I ran around my forehand (a terrible tactical decision) but I was a little late getting my racquet out. The ball glanced right off the frame and went straight into my left eye, and I just dropped to the ground. I realized this is exactly what happened to Steve two years ago at Conference. Anyway, it honestly felt like the ball had just compressed my eyeball into my brain and it hurt like a bitch. Luckily, there was a nurse on the next court who ran over and took care of me for the next half-hour while the "pompiers" came--this is not an ambulance, but something inbetween..... they're like night-watchmen who patrol the city and take people to the hospital if need be. I couldn't open my eye for the first 30 minutes but once they came I could just get it open and they thought it wasn't abnormally bad. However, the doctor they called insisted I go to the hospital, so off I went with a bag of ice covering my eye. I was very worried that this night I was going to have to pay a huge amount of money to go through all this, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this service was free! France - 1, USA - 0 on that note. Plus, everyone was 99% sure that my insurance would cover any costs. Two hours later, I saw a doctor who took a good look at it and I'm happy to say that it'll be fine. It is much better today and I can pretty much see everything out of it 100%, except for the fact that it's still pretty sore and sensitive to light. How unlucky is that though eh? I should be able to play tennis again in a few days and I'm still praying that I can afford to subscribe to that club I was talking about. Everything else is spendid. Yesterday afternoon, some friends and I had a very French picnic in les Jardins du Luxembourg (a huge park) with several baguettes, various cheeses, a bottle of wine, and Prince biscuits. A la prochaine....

An AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME Weekend

Alright let's start on Friday......... the program I'm in gave us a free tour of the Eiffel Tower which I have never seen before so I thought it was REALLY cool! We got to go up all together and we started by having lunch in the restaurant half-way up the tower. In my opinion, it's one of the most amazing and most beautiful structures I've ever seen. period. So, after lunch, a troupe of us decided to walk the stairs to the next level and that was particularly thrilling/terrifying since I'm afraid of heights!?! However, it had to be done, and funnily enough, I thought we were at the top, then when I was expressing a little too much enthusiasm, some guy told me to turn around and look up. HOLY COW! I was only half-way up the tower so I said "whoa" and was even more amazed. So then, I was hoping that I could walk the rest but alas, the stairs were closed, so I took the elevator to the top instead. To say the least, it was just incredible. I could see forever and paris just looked miniscule, so of course I took many pics--I think I'll just have to start a flickr account. 

Alright let's move on to Saturday....

I was with two other Whitties, another friend here, and her cousin. We were having a picnic in one of the biggest cemeteries in Paris (ok I know that's sounds really weird but that's really normal here since the cemetaries are like big parks and all you have to do is buy some baguettes and cheese. I mean people were having sex on top of graves the whole time... no biggie guys.... that's totally normal) Anyway, we heard about this parade that was happening that afternoon somewhere nearby and it was jusn't any parade, it was a techno-parade whatever that is. So, we started walking to where we thought it would be and we began to see huge numbers of young people (mostly teens) who were all walking in the same direction. This was a little odd but we thought they must be going to the parade so we followed them. Then, little by little, we began to fell vibrations through our feet that were coming from huge subwoofers and then when we got to the street, we saw an enormous truck coming down the street at walking pace. However, this was no ordinary truck, this truck was laden with the biggest speakers, screens, subs, etc. etc. that I have ever seen, not to mention about 25-30 people who were dancing on top of it. All of a sudden the street was absolutely packed with people (all teens again) who were literally just partying in the street! Even more amazing, when we looked down the street, there was truly no end to the number of trucks just like the first one that were coming our way. Eventually, we picked one with the best beats and just followed it, dancing along with everyone else. Let me remind you that this was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon which made it even more ridiculous. By the end, we saw at least 20 huge party buses that passed and the crowd started getting more and more wild mostly due to the alcohol that was being imbibed--guys were selling beers out of shopping carts!! Then, people started climbing onto bus stops and cars and trucks parked in the street. It was NUTS! By the end, about dozen trucks of the gendarmarie showed up and everything was wrapped up pretty well, but I think that will definitely be the biggest "party" I will ever attend in my life.

Moving on to Sunday.....

Sunday was a very memorable day because it was the first time I got to play tennis in over a month!!! Yaaayyyy! In fact, it was not with the contact that coach gave me (that's gonna be friday), but it was with my other contact. I called this club which is about 40 minutes minutes away from me and the guy invited to come and check it out. After searching for a little while, I managed to find it, and I must say it is really charming and very nicely maintained. I immediately saw two guys (my age) playing on the clay and they were very good! I knew this must be a good sign. Anyway, the pro gave me a run-down and told me the prices--hmmmm my hopes faded. They only offer yearly subscriptions and I'd have to pay about 600 euro which is ridiculous for three months. However, he invited to come hit that evening with another dude to see how I played. So, breaking out my racquets, I played with this guy (also 19 yrs old) who was a very similar level to me and we had a great time. I was a little rusty and having not seen clay for three years, I was all over the place, but I think I must've made a good impression on the pro because he said he might be able to work out a special price just for me! Hey hey hey..... my hopes flew high and hopefully by next weekend, I can join for a much reduced price! AALLLLRRRIIIIIIGGGGHHHHH' 

In summary, Paris is the bomb. check out picasa for pics.