The Paris Trip

The days leading up to the Paris trip were semi eventful. March 4^th was Steve’s Birthday. He, like Josh, drank a yard of beer to mark the occasion. But the trip to Paris was approaching quickly and everybody was trying to do laundry. Now, it wasn’t that I was waiting to the last minute to get ready for Paris, I was just waiting to the last possible moment to do laundry (it costs a lot). I had no underwear for the next day let alone enough clothes for an entire extended weekend. Because I couldn’t use the laundry facilities at school, I had to take Nicky up on her offer to do laundry at the Pub. Surprisingly they allowed me to do two full loads and didn’t charge me a dime—sorry pence. Gary even gave me a pair of his old jeans so that I could wash the ones I was wearing. I even told him I would wear my sweats but he insisted. I asked if they would autograph the jeans as a souvenir. Nicky and Gary are awesome human beings.

The next day I had a class trip. We went to Oxford, to watch the Birmingham Royal Ballet. They were performing three suites in honor of Duke Ellington (the Jazz composer). The Shakespeare Suite was the main reason for going, but I enjoyed the Orpheus Suite much more. I have never been to a ballet before, and I would have to say that it is a rather impressive art form. These dancers were incredibly agile and graceful. They had complete control over their bodies; and when two of them came together, the way they played off of each other and moved together defied physics.

I was only able to take a quick nap that night before hopping on a bus at 2 in the morning. We drove to Paris using the Chunnel. What a marvel. The bus drove up into a railcar and a train rocketed 95 miles/hour under the English Channel and plopped us out onto French soil. It looked like something from a Sci-fi movie. We stopped at many World War I sites on the way to Paris. I highly recommend going to see the Canadian War Memorial if you are in France. The thing reminded me of the Kings of Old in Lord of the Rings (the two statues at the edge of that waterfall). It was the most impressive site we visited. We arrived at our hotel after being lost for a few hours. We really only had enough energy to find a place to eat dinner before passing out with my roommates Josh and Steve. The room, however, was cramped and there was no shower curtain for the bathtub, but our windows did provide access to an awesome rooftop that we used to relax out on. A lot of our peers joined us when we told them about it.

The next day I went on a bus tour provided by the school coach service, I spent a lot of money on food, and I figured out what my traveling souvenirs are going to be—patches—I have a Paris and France patch, I just need to grab a London, England, and UK patch to catch up. I climbed to the top of Notre Dam; it was a far better experience and view (believe it or not) than climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I would recommend just doing the cathedral. The Eiffel Tower was really just nice to look at. I went into the Louvre, saw the Obelisk and the Arc de Triumph… pretty much everything. The last night we were there I took Carrie out for a romantic dinner. I even bought a nice shirt for the occasion in a flee market. We walked to Chez Clement in the Opera district. Carrie was embracing the roses I bought her while pinching the back of my arm, which she does when she is excited. She loved them; no one ever bought her flowers before. We ate Escargot, had a duck entree, and shared a crème brulee for desert. The best dinner I had in a long time…

Tips:
Paris was a very beautiful city and almost everyone spoke English.
Don’t talk to Bulgarians who ask if you can speak English, they are annoying beggars or pickpockets.
Not all French people suck asshole, only the non-white French gave me problems (probably immigrants from Pakistan or somewhere around there).
The Paris subway is faster, cheaper, and easier than taking a cab before 10pm.

The bus ride home was funnier than all hell. Brian and Stewart, the two bus drives, were probably the most cynical comedians I have ever met. They worked well off the other. Brian loved singing his own lyrics to songs generally expressing his love to Wendy Hart, our professor chaperone. They loved using mildly gay humor, pretending the two of them developed feelings for each other over the weekend. I am definitely going to adapt them into characters for something I write in the future.

Finally, I want to catch you up to date. I have been writing papers non-stop. I have 4 papers due by the end of next week before I leave for Ireland on travel break. Each one needs to be about 1500 words. My brain is fried. In fact, I am writing this to take a break and recollect myself. I’ll talk to you all after Ireland.