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Dear Volcano,
You have tried to ruin my spring break. You shut down European air travel, and stranded Alec in Dublin, and thus put an end to my Switzerland plans. But aside from my occasionally freaking out when reading up on the latest flight information, YOU, dear Volcano, have not managed to ruin my Spring Break. I went to lots and lots of parks, and had innumerable picnics, and went to cafes, and enjoyed spring time in Paris. So THERE! I bet you are jealous, because you are stuck in Iceland, and I get to be here. Muahaha.
Love/Hate Relationship,
Colleen
(Pictured: Rodin Museum gardens; the girls stranded in Paris picnicking in the Bois de Boulogne; classy Thursday Tea Time at Two)
No, not jiberish. That is actually the name of the volcano that is raining on my spring break parade with lots and lots of volcanic ash. Europe is a no-fly zone, and airlines are losing $200mil a day due to the lack of business. All French airports were closed through today; now all Paris airports stay closed through the weekend while a few others in France open up tomorrow. I believe that the UK, Ireland, Netherlands, and much of Eastern Europe are still no-fly zones through Monday. My friend Alec is still stranded in Dublin, and will be at least through Tuesday. I think I may have to end up scrapping Switzerland plans (even though they are by train) because I may have to find an alternative way to get myself to Athens other than flight (like night train to Italy, then ferry to Greece), and this would take several days. Hoping that the airports open ASAP so that all will be back to semi-normal for my flight next Sunday, so that this doesn't need to happen. Basically, I'm currently really stressed out and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it....just wait, and see. In the meantime, I've been watching this drunken scottish man say e
xactly what i've been thinking:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tweetmeme/youtube-sky-news-i-hate-iceland
Trying to keep myself busy in the meantime, though, which isn't too hard. I went to Giverny, and it was a lovely lovely day-- Brit, Briana and I rented bikes and biked the three miles from Vernon to Giverny. We explored Monet's gardens and house, then meandered down the road to the old Hotel Baudy, which is where a lot of the american artists stayed when they went to Giverny to paint with Monet for a bit. It was a very lovely day in the country-- it was so strange to have complete strangers sa
y "bonjour" to you as you passed on the bike path, or have a super friendly waitress who jokes with you have the time! Today, I did some research then went to Pere Lachaise with Brit. It was really quite overwhelmingly large, and we didn't have a map, so we basically just struggled to find famous people tombs for a few hours and only succeeded in finding Oscar Wilde's and Delacroix's. Then we went and met up with other friends in the Luxembourg Garden to enjoy the sunshine and rant of our hatred for Iceland for a while. Tomorrow, we are planning a picnic in the Bois de Boulogne, where we will rent canoes and explore! I guess life could be worse.
Speaking of, my host mom was so cute-- she told me that I could invite some friends up to the Chateau for the weekend, so that we aren't "stuck with nothing to do in Paris." I actually started laughing when she said that, and responded "Yes, because Paris is sooooo boring. Life is sooooo difficult being here!!" So I guess that if worse comes to worst, being stuck in Paris wouldn't be the most atrocious way to spend my spring break. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed because Greece would just be soooo amazing! Wish me luck!!!
Iceland decided to have a ginormous volcanic eruption yesterday. This is all well and good, but the natural powers that be could not have chosen a worse day to send thousands of tons of volcanic ash into the sky-- it was the first day of SPRING BREAK! So basically, everyone is trying to leave their part of Europe to visit another part of Europe, and anyone who was planning to do this by way of plane is royally screwed over. My host sister, Chloe's flight was cancelled to Scotland, so now she's trying to find trains to London then to Edinburgh that don't cost five thousand euros (which they all do at this point). Meanwhile, my friend Alec, who was supposed to fly into Paris today, is stuck in Dublin at least another day or two, though rumor has it that Dublin's airport will be completely shut down for five days. This would be bad, since in five days Alec and I have train tickets to Switzerland in four days. Eek!! If anyone has a small boat they would like to shuttle people between Ireland and Paris with, lemme know. We may be in need of such a thing.
Meanwhile, I've had a great week in Paris and plan on having an even more exciting weekend. I went with Sweet Briar to Matignon on Monday, which is where the Prime Minister lives! We saw him in the window, and we saw his small children playing in the yard (speaking of, quite a nice backyard they have, no? <-- ). It was soooooooooo cool. We sat in the conference room where all the foreign dignitaries (sp?) sit, and my friend Craig sat in the chair of the PM himself!! Cool, no? I thought yes.
And then today, seeing as I won't be playing tourguide for Alec, I'm going to Giverny with Brit and Brianna. We're training there, renting bikes, biking to Monet's house, and spending the day exploring the gardens and picnicking there. Should be absolutely lovely! Pictures to be posted soon! I'm also going to try to see tourist sites that I haven't made it to yet while in Paris this weekend. The goals are: Rodin Museum, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, and Cimitiere Pere Lachaise. I can't wait!
I should be writing my paper on fascism in Italy right now. I should. But i am procrastinating. I really don't know why I am doing this, because the paper is due tomorrow, and I still need to write another page and a half, 1.5 spaced, and its midnight. But then I felt bad, because I haven't posted a blog in over a WEEK (because I've been writing papers on fascism and colonialisation, oh boy). Anyways, few updates for you for now, and more stories to come.... mostly, its semi-nice out! Hoorah! I went adventuring through the Jardin des Plantes for the first time like a week ago, and little did I know that it has a zoo with several thousand animals. It's 8Euro, but good to know that there is a zoo in the 5th arrondissement, no? Sidenote: there is also a FREE aquarium at Cite de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, which is out in the boonies at Metro Porte-Doree.
THEN last week I had many a visitor! Joel Cohen was in town, staying with his uncle for the week, and we shopped and ate lots of food and all these things one days in Paris. During the weekend, there was a GENEVA REUNION in Paris, aka Caroline and Joey came to Paris to hang out for three days (51 hours, to be exact). It was absolutely amazing to chat with people from home and to reminisce about Geneva, Sue Khaleaiff and Alfies together. Furthermore, the weather was about as lovely as its ever been here, and we frolicked through parks for most of the weekend. It was most enjoyable.
My final comment for now is that I have tried to channel this upsetting "vampire diaries" addiction into something intellectual-- so I went out and bought Dracula at Shakespeare and Company, a bookstore along the Seine (right x from Notre Dame, rive gauche) that sells books in English. The store was AMAZING. It is really cute and small, and has tiny rooms packed floor to ceiling with shelves upon shelves of any book you can imagine. I just learned today that it was one of Ernest Hemingway's favorite places to hang out, and I can see why. Anyways, I need to get back to this paper writing thing, because when I'm done writing, I can read more Dracula! Hoorah!!
This weekend was the epitome of laziness. I did not do enough work. I did not go to the library. i did not run every day. I did not have too many cultural adventures. Instead, I was lazy. I ate lots of delicious food, I watched lots of Vampire Diaries (I know, I'm still upset by this...), and I went out to lots of swanky places.
But despite the fact that I became basically noctornal this weekend, staying out til 5am, albeit by accident, and waking up at 2pm because my host family wasn't here to judge, I still had a very french weekend I think. So here we go...
On Friday, we celebrated Kristin and Jasmine's birthdays at Kong. Kong is Carrie Bradshaw's (Sex and the City) "favorite" bar in Paris. It was...expensive. And tiny. But it was indeed swanky. We witnessed the employees (who were dressed in tuxes or cute dresses and heels, and occasionally danced on tables and couches with patrons) change the leather covers of all the couches from the "dinner" leather to the "nightclub/bar" leather. Sillyness.
From there, it was off to "THE" most exclusive nightclub in Paris, called The BC (pictured). I should explain what the BC is. It is a small, dark, pulsating box, filled with wealthy, attractive young Parisians, who are all spending far far farrrrrrrrrrr too much money on drinks. Christina and I tagged along with her French friends, thus got in for free, didn't have to spend a centime, and basically just danced all night. But this adventure to the BC got me thinking. It is tiny, and it is expensive, thus it is exclusive. I have come up with a new business venture. I shall paint a large cardboard box black, put in on the Champs Elysees, allow only 1-3 people in at a time, and charge 100Euro a drink. Then IIIII shall own the most exclusive nightclub in Paris. What now, BC??
Saturday night was a relaxing evening with friends, then Sunday night it was time for another grand soiree (we have Monday off of school for easter). After waiting in line outside (which was quite cold) for 2 hours, we discovered that we would not be able to get into Club Neo, (which we had already bought tickets for, mind you), because the Prince of Saudi Arabia had spent 22,000 Euro on Champagne, and basically bought out the club. Whaaaaaaaat a jerk. So instead, we had an American moment and literally ran up the Champs Elysees to get fried deliciousness from McDo before it closed at 2am. It very, very much reminded me of weekends at BD on the South 40 back in the freshman day.
Today I woke up to reality, and realized I had to do some form of work. So Christina and I peer edited our lit papers in the Trocadero gardens, overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and then I went off to research for another paper by scoping out memorials across the city. All in all, good day. And a good weekend. But alas, now the 4 day weekend is over, and it's back to class...
Ah, the bateaux-mouche. I survived. So did Christina. We survived. Which is always good. I guess overall it could be described as slightly boring, slightly awkward, and quite chilly. In this picture, you can see Christina, and the infamous Eduardo himself. Ah, Eduardo. I think it was about this time of the bateaux-mouche he asked us if we had found any french boys as of yet in Paris...at which point, we both tried to make it alllll too clear that we are not in any way interested in making french friends of that sort. Friends only, Eduardo!!! Nothing More!!!!!!
And then the week began, and I had visitors! The Rasich's were visiting Paris, and I showed them around the 5th a bit. I think they resented me because I made them walk more, after they had already walked a good 2 hours that day (oops....) But it wasn't my fault that we had to walk so far, because there was a DEMONSTRATION of sorts in front of the Senate, which is the way we were walking. Apparently, it was artists demanding more money. We'll get to that later.
That evening, SARAH COHEN and the cohort of cohens (and amy heard!) arrived in Paris, and it 'twas a GRAND adventure. We saw the Eiffel Tower light show, and seeing them be really excited about it made me appreciate it more-- normally, its just what I pass on the metro twice a day :-) We met up again on Tuesday, and ventured to Montmartre. The only bad thing about this is that we were then caught in a rainstorm, and got completely and entirely soaked. I then had to dash of to class and bid the cohort of cohens (and amy heard!) farewell, as they were off to Normandy the next day.
...Alas, my soaked jeans and soaked shoes and soaked soaks did not bode well for me. I then got very sick, which is no fun. What good DID come out of this was that I spent the next day in bed, far to exhausted to contemplate doing work, and mindlessly watching tv online. I caught up on this season of Project Runway...and...I am ashamed to admit...started to watch the Vampire Diaries. In fact, I may be waiting for episode 10 to load right now. Oh dear, this is bad news. *Face of shame*
ANYWAYS, my only other updates are:
1- I got a french haircut! And it was terrifying! I dont know how to say haircut-y things in French! My hairdresser thought I was an idiot!! Like really! And while my haircut turned out great, the color......scares me right now. It's not so auburn and more so...red. And the color keeps coming out in the shower. I don't think thats supposed to happen. I have strange and terrifying visions of my hair turning candy apple red. Eeeeeeeek. I shall keep you updated.
2- There are a lot of riots/demonstrations going on as of late, and all right around the vacinity of my school. I've seen two this week- the first was the artists demanding more money, and the second was the communist party and the illegal workers protesting...something? The moral of the story is that France really likes to protest things, but its not at all what I expected them to be protesting. More details to come on this thought process, but as for now, I'm fairly disappointed with France and the causes it demonstrates for. What happened to Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite? Hrmph.
And with that....back to Vampire Diaries. Don't worry, I realize how ridiculous I am....
