Home Again

In my past posts you've heard me complain that some of the French are less than friendly... I have heard that Parisians have this wretched reputation and thus was somewhat hesitant about my decision to go...however, what I expected was to be proven completely wrong as most stereotypes often are. Like, "How could I ever have misunderstood?!" but in fact, this stereotype is correct. The French--especially the Parisians--are ASSHOLES. I think it's a conspiracy. Paris is so beautiful, and the first day I was walking through thinking, "Why doesn't EVERYONE live here?!" The Parisians relize this would be the consenus. So I imagine they think, "We must keep zeese 'orrible tourists from swarming our beautiful city! 'Ow can we do zis? Ah, we will be ass'oles to all of zem and zen zey will not come back." Mission Accomplished. As beautiful as Paris is, trust me, I'll be combing the German country-side before I curse myself to deal with their bullshit again.

I last wrote Wednesday, in bewteen my multitide of classes...but after my bright. blood-red, Parisian makeover. Thursday, I had no class and spent the day, by myself, exploring the Musee D'Orsay and the Centre Pompidou, the modern museum. Even though I was alone I kept running into people from the trip, so I'd be staring at this giant mounted cloth vagina (definitely the modern art musuem) and suddenly Laurel would be next to me. The Musee D'Orsay was easily one of my favorite things the entire trip. I took about a million pictures of the Van Gough's and Monets, which in person, are so breathtakingly beautiful the prints look like finger paintings. And the Centre Pompidou, well the building looks like a giant hamster tunnel. And the art itself, was all done by women in some sort of Feminism exhibit. Which was really cool sometimes, but bizarre in others. Cool, movie poster of "The Birth of Feminism" staring Pam Anderson as Gloria Steinem, bizarre, footage of a women in a Burka riding a stationary bike. It was like that, some of the stuff was very cool and tongue-in-cheek feminist, and some of it was like, "wait? What?!"

Thursday night was also a huge amount of fun. About 13 kids from IES went to this International Students Club. First, however, we wanted to sit at a bar and have some wine, there was this sign that said, "Flam's Restaurant" and we were like, "We must eat here!" Mike was on fire cracking jokes like, "Man, why do you always want to go to Flam's after the game?" or "I want to take you out to Flam's!" which don't sound funny now as I write them, but in the situation I was doubled over laughing. And so our group was like, "With a name like Flam's we have to go in." The joke got even better, because they wouldn't seat us. They said our group was too big, but that was could STAND COLLECTIVELY IN A CORNER and be served beer, while loitering over people's food. Essentially, we were denied access from FLAM'S, which is basically Belgian Applebee's. So to us, that was hysterical. And we then went to the quintesstial, adorable French bar, but we kept on saying, "I don't know, it's no Flams's". And then we went to this club, again the joke continued, with us comenting, "we got into the club as a group of 13...but not Flam's." The club itself, as I said, was an international students club, so it was all tourists and lame (we wore stickers with our home country's flag)--but it was a good time and everyone in the group was getting along and having fun.

Friday was my frantic scramble to get everything I hadn't done and seen in. I went to Napoleon's Tomb with Kai, Kyle, Sam, and Steve. And then we had Thai Curry for lunch, which, admitedly, failed at being very French. Then I went to the Pantheon on my own to see Victor Hugo's tomb, also there in the crypt, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Dumas. Then I went and traipsed around Gallery LaFayette, lusting over the expensive designer items I will never be able to afford. After a delicious dinner at Plan B, (complete with Red Wine, thanks IES!) I went with Jessica to a little cafe to have wine and people watch. All in All, it was an amazing little get-a-way, although Berlin is friendlier, cheaper, and way more fun. One of the best aspects of the trip though, was getting to spend time and socialize with people from IES I don't normally hang out with, which is mainly a proximity issue. Everyone on the trip is really interesting in their own way, and really funny to be around. I, however, am looking forward to being able to walk down the street without being looked at like a walking piece of Dog shit (thanks for the confidence boost parisian women!). P.S. New York is still better!