Paris

Since I haven't updated my blog in a while, and it would take forever to backtrack and go over everything that's happened to me, I'll just skip it all and move on to more recent things. We saw a few more plays, took some tests (which I did surprisingly well on given the situation here), and that's about it.

This last weekend we left for Paris on Friday morning at 5:45 A.M. so it was obviously a struggle for me. We took the tube to the international train station and hopped on the train for Pairs. It was about a 2 hour ride, and we got to see some of the English and French countryside so that was kind of nice. I ended up sitting by my english/ poetry teacher Catherine, which was really nice. We talked about everything from music to her kids, to the show that I'm directing next fall.

When we got there we went straight to the hotel, and checked in to our rooms. We were delighted at the softness of the mattresses since we're used to dorm room style furniture. After that we headed for Notre Dame for our first Paris adventure. It was so immense and incredibly beautiful. It's so weird having looked at so many pictures of these famous buildings and then seeing them in person... it's kind of surreal. I will admit I immediately started thinking about the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and I had all the songs from it stuck in my head all day. There were cute little cafes around the area including one called The Esmerelda Cafe (by the way, the picture to the right, is me pretending to be a hunchback). We went inside and took a bunch of pictures. The stained glass windows were my favorite. The insane amount of detail on every aspect of the cathedral is insane. After that we went and got some quiche Lorraine, although our family recipe was sooo much better than the slice I ate. If you've ever had it, you know what I'm talking about :)

After that we went and ate the most delicious food in the Latin quarter. We had a 3 course French meal for a set price of 17 Euros. I stuffed myself to the brim, and probably paid way too much for all that food, but how often am i going to eat a meal like that?!

The next day we went to the Louvre, which was so awesome. I saw the Mona Lisa, the Cupid and Psyche status, Winged Victory (which was my favorite), Venus, and so many other famous works of art. I could have spent all day in there looking around in all the different areas. After that we went to the Arc de Triumph and Champs Elysses for luch. We ate at al little Italian restaurant that served the best pizza I've ever had in my life, and we went shopping and saw the huge Louis Vuitton store, which was crazy.
After that we went on a river boat tour right near the Eiffel tower, and they pointed out some historic bridges and buildings right along the river bank. Next we went to the Eiffel Tower, which was amazing. Our program paid for us to go to the very top, and the view was so beautiful, you could see all of Paris. We hung out there for a little while and took some pictures, and then we went out to dinner. By the way- French crepes are my new obsession. So good. We stayed in the area and got to see the Eiffel tower sparkle like it does every half hour or so. (This picture is from the top of the tower. It was cold and rainy!)

We went back on the metro, and when we got off, the craziest thing happened. We were right by our hotel, and we saw that a homeless man had fallen in the middle of the street into a lane. We weren't sure what to do, but we went over there and helped him up, and grabbed his backpack and sleeping bag. He was kind of disoriented, so we sat him down on a nearby bus bench. He didn't speak english, so we had a hard time communicating. We wanted him to just sit down for a little while, but he kept insisting on standing up and trying to walk. He got up off the bench, and stepped away from it, but his legs must have buckled or been really weak, because he fell again, but this time he fell into the thin metal park bench, and hit his head on the edge of it. Blood started gushing out of his head, and he had a huge gouge. It was running down his face and into his ear, and I don't think he really knew what was going on. The phones we had were dead, so we found some women on the street and asked them to call for some medical help, but they were really hesitant to do so. When he was in the street no one wanted to help him either. They must have just thought he was a homeless drunk, but I think something was medically wring with him, because I didn't smell any alcohol on him at all. Eventually they called, and while we were waiting, I ran to the hotel and got some paper towels from the desk clerk, although he was hesitant to help as well. I went back and we tried to get him to stop the bleeding, but he couldn't move his hands and was having a hard time speaking. Eventually the ambulance came and I had to flag it down and lead them to him, because it was a busy area. After looking him over, they said we could go, so we went back to the hotel. It was so scary! After a few minutes I looked out the window and they were leading him away on a gurney into the ambulance car. I wonder it he had a stroke or something. Either way he definitely got a concussion from hitting his head on that bench... what a crazy Paris story.

On Sunday we went to Musee d'Orsay and saw some of the famous Degas paintings and other French artists from that era like Monet. It was really cool. After that we went to Montmarte, and saw the Moulin Rouge and walked around some shops. We ended up eating some crepes at the Chat Noir, which was cool because of how famous that restaurant was. Our waitress was kind of snooty, and I accidentally knocked over a glass and broke it, so I don't think they liked us very much there.

Then we headed back to London, and I have to admit, I really missed it. London feels like home now, so it was nice to come back. We have another week of classes and shows, so I'll try to stay more on top of this blog and update things more. I'm just always really busy. Anyways, that's all for now! Cheerio!