Sorry II

When I named this post "Sorry", I noticed that the title was part of the drop-down menu of previous titles I've used, which is bad for two reasons: a) I'm apologizing a lot and b) I'm getting less creative.

Regardless, it was brought to my attention that the last post sucked so I thought I'd supplement all the pictures with a couple stories.

I was about to cross the street the other day when a pigeon was crossing the other way. We were going to walk into each other, and there was kind of an awkward moment when we weren't sure who would go first, so I stopped, and the pigeon proceeded to go. I'm pretty sure it nodded at me too, French pigeons are mad polite.

Later on in the day I saw a French guy (I assume he was French) on a moped, with a horizontal striped shirt, with a beret, smoking a cigarette. I would've taken a picture if I had my camera.

And finally, yesterday I made my most unnecessary purchase so far. 3 euros for a bottle of carrot juice. wtf? I don't even drink carrot juice.

Carrot juice can be seen here:

OK, that's it for what's been going on in my life. Carrot juice wasn't even that good.

Wow

So I was wondering how to start this post and so I went back and read the beginning of the post from last week and ended up reading the whole thing. So good, I don't know how I'm going to be able to follow that.

Sooo I waaaas going to post more often but then nothing happened this week so I kind of put it off. Right now I'm taking a break from reading The Epic of Gilgamesh (pretty epic) but I'll do the best I can:

Bobby's last two days in Paris passed by in similar fervor. We decided to go check out Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter. When we got near the area, we saw this "No Holding Hands" sign so we had to stop:

Then we went to the actual cathedral and walked around inside. I don't want to put up any pictures of that but there was this really cool tree in the back:

Then we went and ate dinner at some fancy pants restaurant (10 euros for three courses). It was so good I forgot to take pictures of the last two courses but this was the salad:

Then we saw this dude making giant bubbles in front of Notre Dame. So spiritual:

Then we went out to a bar for happy hour, followed by a trip to my favorite tower:

We called it a night after that. The next day we went to the Musee de Rodin and I thank a bit:

Then to Napoleon's tomb:

Then I had a bike ride home that I attempted to film. I guess my hand was blocking the microphone...probably for artistic effect. Suffice it to say the jokes I was telling were H-I-L-arious (Oh and in case you're wondering, yes the sun was shooting gamma death rays at me. Don't worry though, I'm okay):

Then I had a week of classes, but right now I'd like to take a moment to give a shout-out to the new freshman of The Heightsmen. Yeah! Here are the 4 social misfits that we have to now mold and shape into the respectable singers that we are:

Jonny "Johnny Tsunami" Higa
Bobby "Mr. Rogers" Williams
Sam "F Them" Efthim
Masrur "Masrur Khan" Khan

OK back to important things. This weekend we had a crepe and wine night, I think Cordell took the award with this one:

And skipping over some minor things and hours of reading today, I get to where I am now. And now I will keep typing because I know that when I finish this post, I will have to go back to reading the Epic of Gilgamesh, so I will take as long as I can. Has anyone read it? I'm not sure what's going to happen yet. So far Gilgamesh and Enkidu are kind of friends but Enkidu's also kind of his servant so I'm not sure what that means. I wonder if they'll fight at the end or what. It'll probably be epic. Okay I'm gonna go find out. Payce out, A-Town.

By the way, this is a direct quote from my other reading:

"When Anshar heard how the Tiamat-tempest was rising, he struck his groin, bit his lip, restless, gloomy and sick at heart, he covered his mouth to stifle his groans."

If anybody knows what that means, let me know. Thanks.

I'm Getting Better

I'd just like to point out that this is the shortest amount of time between two of my posts. You're welcome. And I almost named this post "Super Pictures" because of the super amount of pictures that I've included. I want comments! Make me feel popular!

But I still forgot most of what I did this week, so it'll be pretty vague. Classes were good, I spent a total of 5 euros for 4 notebooks, which I was pretty proud of.

At some point, I made fresh-squeezed orange juice and took a picture of it. I don't remember when but I just saw this on my camera as proof. It was probably delicious.

I went to a club on Wednesday for a school-sponsored party but there was nothing out of the ordinary so I'll move onto Thursday.

Thursday I had my Theater Workshop, O Romeo. Then I went to the metro stop to meet up with who? BOBBY who just came over from London and is visiting me until Monday. So we went back home for dinner and made "The Classic" (spaghetti). The rest of the night involved drinking at the Eiffel Tower, hitting on a bartender, and failing at getting into a club for free after waiting in line for an hour and realizing we were both tired and going back home to sleep. (in that order)

Which leads me to today. Today was the most eventful day of my trip this far, and my tired legs can attest to that. We decided that it was our duty as foreign students to take advantage of all the wealth of knowledge that Paris had to offer, so we hit up the museums. First we went to the famous (not really) "Musee D'Orsay". Nothing to tell.

Then we went to the Champs Elysees, the greatest street in the world. After looking around for a place to eat, we settled for a nice cafe and I bought my most expensive meal thus far (a whopping 6.90!). After eating our sandwiches, deserts, AND drinks (I practically feel like I'm STEALING!) (pictured below)

we walked up to the Arc de Triomphe, which was built this year as a tribute to the amazing French national soccer team. It was aight:

The people wouldn't understand that we wanted the Arc in the picture too, but you can just google it and pretend like it's there.

Then I bought a Barcelona soccer outfit for myself, as seen here:

and it was time for our next and final museum, The Louvre.

So we headed over, but not before taking some chique photos at the nearby Jardin de Tuileries (Garden of Tuileries). There were so many tuileries and I'm not sure what they wanted.

So on we went to the Louvre when this ridiculous double-rainbow came out of nowhere:

Then we went inside and I became a sphinx for a little bit, or whatever these things are called:

Then of course, the Mona Lisa. There she is:

On the way back home, we were stopped by the metro police (more like the metro secret agents) and checked for tickets. Throughout the day I'd been convincing Bobby he didn't have to buy tickets and that he should just jump the entrance, so in a way I was responsible for the 40 euro ticket they gave him. But it's all good because I bought dinner (4 euros for 2 pizzas, I feel like I'm STEALING AGAIN!). So we just ate those and are waiting to get tired to go to bed and start over tomorrow. That's all for now, folks! As the great David Hare (who?) said, "Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity, but strong and deep ones have two high tides."

Think about it.

What?

Sorry

I know it's been a while and I hope you'll forgive me. I'm going to start posting in this regularly starting...NOW.

OK, guys, much has happened since the last post. I went to another boat party, slightly less fun than the other one but still good. Then I went to my first club! Yeah! Techno! I ended up having to figure out the nightbus for the first time, in a slightly compromised state, but after going the wrong way a few times, seeing the largest afro I/anyone have/has ever seen/will ever see (seriously, it covered half the person's body so I couldn't even tell what gender they were. They were wearing traditional African clothes and someone tried to take a picture and they flipped out and started yelling so I didn't dare go near) and eventually with the help of a French girl who basically took me to my stop, I made it home at 5 AM.

The next couple days passed similarly, and then Sunday and Monday I took it easy. Sunday night I watched Ocean's 13 on TV. I tried in French first but I'd forgotten everything that happened in the movie so I switched to English. Somehow, the TV had that option.

Last night I watched "Requiem for a Dream" which I'd been meaning to for about 6 years. It was one of the most painful experiences I've been through. Depending on who you are, I think I recommend it.

But this isn't a blog about movies! Or is it?

No, but really, today was my first day of class and it went well. Aside from the French accents my professors speak with, I feel right at home. Development Economics was pretty interesting. Democratic Change and Authoritarian Resilience in North Africa wasn't bad. Try saying that 5 times fast!

But now I have to go to bed. I have an 8 AM tomorrow, and then the petanque (bocce ball) class I signed up for. These French people better watch out, I'm about to skool sum n00bs. Gotta get my rest, I'll need that energy. USA! USA! USA! BOCCE BALL! USA! USA!

And since I didn't include pictures this time, here's a highlight video of one of the epic, classic matches in Petanque's beautiful history. The slow-motion replays are amazing.

Has it really been a week?

I never thought I'd think of Oreos as a luxury. It's been a week since I last wrote on here and I'd say things both have and haven't changed. They've changed in that I'm starting to get out more and met some people from all over. They haven't changed in that I'm still a little unrooted, but I guess that will take a while to change. My French is getting better, I can now understand half of what people say. I'm figuring out how to spend my 10 euro/day budget which isn't as bad as I first thought. I just can't buy Oreos. I'll start where I left off:

Tuesday: There was a party on a boat. It was a lot like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvMt9C4DPu8

It ended at 5, at which point I walked around Paris until the metro opened, and then it took me about half an hour to actually find a metro stop. Then I passed out and went to the end of the line, where I was awoken by a French lady. Then I took it back to my place, where I crashed until 4, missing both Welcome Program classes and my bank appointment. Sweet.

Wednesday: After waking up in the late afternoon, I checked my email and found out that I had failed the Welcome Program. WTF?

Thursday: I went to class and found out you couldn't actually fail the welcome program and that it was just an automated message. Sepanta-1, French Technology Systems-0. Also, monumental evening as I learned how to make pasta. Mr. Sepanta-1, Immature childish Sepanta-0. Not sure if that's a good thing.

Friday: More class. Then I went home and prepared this magnificent feast. You know you want some. And yes, I had all three beverages.

After that, I went to watch the French national team play in Stade de France. Thanks to their recent poor (understatement) performances and the fact that everybody in the country hates them, tickets were cheap. So we went and watched them lose to Belarus. Good times. This is what the place where France became world champions 12 years ago looked like:

Saturday: Missed my last Welcome Program "classes" since I'd already "failed" and they were completely useless anyway. I sat at home for most of the day, then went on a Bateaux-Mouches ride with all the Sciences-Po kids, and afterwards went and hung out in front of La Tour Eiffel (ever heard of it? it's this cool piece of metal). By the way, I'll just iterate this once here: any time I say "hang out", it implies "hang out with wine". It was a great night. There she is:

Sunday: There was a giant picnic for all the Sciences Po kids which was nice. I got to meet some new people. Then we went bar hopping in the Bastille district, it was a lot like Tale of Two Cities. Then we went and hung out on a bridge over the Seine. A little after midnight a group of sketchy guys came and stood next to us, and some of the French kids we were with overheard them saying "they look drunk, they probably won't even resist" so we got up and left. I know, so BA. BTW, got my second crepe. Here is proof:

And at last, Monday, today: I woke up late, then went grocery shopping which somehow took like 3 hours. 26 euros of things which I thought would last me the week. I ate about half of it for dinner...oops.

So now I will leave you with that. Oh and if you watched the link above that I told you to watch, then you were totally rickrolled. And if you didn't, then you're not a dedicated friend and follower of this blog, so shame on you. Now go watch it. Adios amigos until the next post! That rhymed!