04/24/2008
So here is the latest. Merry Christmas, either four months late or eight months early. Since I went to Chamonix and Switzerland for Christmas I have done little travel, but have been really enjoying myself here in Paris. Switzerland was beautiful and the snow in Chamonix was amazing. It was freezing, but the snow really made up for it. It was tough to be away from home for the holidays again, but it is great to celebrate in different ways. It seems that in France the trend is to eat seafood for the holidays, which was great. Although I am not a huge fan of oysters, I really enjoyed the salmon that was prepared. Oysters remind me mostly of being caught in a rip tide and swallowing the salt water. I was wonderfully hosted by some family friends, Ginette and Michel and they were wonderful.
Anyhow, I took the night train home and spent New Year’s Eve in Paris. I had some people over to my house for drinks and then we walked over to Trocadero to see the Eiffel Tower. It was a relatively dramatic trip, as we were pressed for time. The group ended up getting split into two, but by some miracle we re-found each other in time to see the tower light up. I think we were all expecting some kind of a countdown, but all of the sudden the Tower started twinkling, like it does every hour on the hour, and I thought to myself, “wow, Happy New Year.” I got out my inexpensive, (I was very close to writing cheap, but seeing as I am trying to give this blog a bit more class, inexpensive seems more appropriate) bottle of sparkling wine. We all toasted and started to leave as there seemed to be about a million people in the streets. We looked for somewhere to go, but Elaine and I decided to call it an early night and head home.
After the winter holiday, I finished up my first semester, and started a new one. I have decided to take less stressful classes this semester, so I am taking to French as a foreign language courses and a few International Relations classes at my school. I have decided to add a major and most likely a year to my education, so I am now going to double major in French and History. As for February and March, I pretty much just stayed in school because I am cool. (Yep, I went there.)
Finally, in April something happened, the sun came out and the weather started getting nice, at least off and on. Who could forget that April snow shower? My parents also came for a visit. It was really nice having them in town and showing them what I knew of Paris, which is still very little. They seemed to enjoy themselves. We went to Versailles, which I have visited before, but this time I spent more time in the gardens. They were beautifully kept. We went back to the Grand and Petit Trianons and saw Marie Antoinette’s hamlet. It is amazing to think that someone could just think “hey, I would like to know what it is like to be a peasant, well at least pretend to know” and voilà a small town is built in the backyard. It was a really nice day, which made the walking even better. The guide book we were using said most people spend about two hours, but we ended up staying for something like 5 hours. We splurged on the audio guides, which were nice and really interesting to listen to, even if my dad and I ended up getting the abridged version. About half way through the tour we realized that my mom listened to the guide longer than we did in each room, but were unable to figure out how to change the setting to get the longer version. Oh well.
Another cool thing that we saw together was the Invalides, where Napoleon’s tomb is. Being the, eh, fan of Napoleon that I am, this is probably one of the coolest places I have been. I have really discovered my love of history here in Paris, which is a pretty neat place to be while learning history. I am mostly learning about France and European history, so it is neat to be able to see where things happened and even the traces left. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, I forgot my camera, so I have no pictures to post, but if you know my parents, I am sure they would be more than happy to show you the pictures they took. I am sure they are far better photographers than I, so you should consider yourself lucky.
While my parents were here they celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary, go mom and dad, so we all shared a delicious meal at La Fontaine de Mars, a restaurant someone had recommended to me. It was AMAZING! I am no gastronome, but I quite enjoyed the meal. Restaurants here are so different from those that I have been to in the States. Honestly, I have never been to a restaurant that needed a reservation, so maybe I have a skewed vision, but here you make your reservation and you have the table for the night. A meal is something that takes several hours and there is no rush to finish, which is nice. A few days later my mom celebrated her birthday, so we were destined for another great meal. I have to admit I have eaten better in the last three weeks than I have in a while.
For a few days, while I was stressed out in school, my parents relaxed with a few days on the coast, seeing Mont St. Michel and the Normandy beaches (at least they were places I have already been to). They then came back to Paris and we had a bit of a slumber party at my house, er, studio. We then took off for a visit to the champagne country, bubbly indeed. It was really cool, but after seeing two Champagne caves, we decided to skip the third and cruise around the countryside and wind our way back to Paris. And yes Aunt Mary-Jo, I would call it a poke-around. We stayed at an airport hotel that night and Dad and I profited from the pool, while Mom played with her new, very cool, PDA. Later we had one last great French meal that night.
The next morning I left them at the airport and as embarrassing as it is, I was sad to see them go. I really enjoyed having them here and I hope they had a great time too. Who am I kidding? You’d have to be crazy to not love spending two weeks with me. Kidding.
Since then, the weather has been unpredictable, but the Météo is predicting the arrival of spring; so, as always I trust them, blindly and ignoring their history of being wrong. I think that this has been my favorite time in Paris yet. It is better than autumn, because that is when cloudy days are the unusual; and while I loved the rains of winter, not wearing a raincoat every day has been nice. Springtime is when we get to look forward to, not expect, beautiful days and I think that makes them even more awesome. The return of episodes of The Office is pretty cool, too. I am now on Spring Break, which is the first vacation time that I have here with nothing planned. This way, I can take more time to appreciate where I am.
So, that’s about it. I mean I even did the awkward bit of small talk about the weather. So now I am looking forward to seeing Rebecca, my sister, and her friends in May as well as to finishing up school and doing some travel over the summer. I hope everyone is well and please don’t be offended if I haven’t been the best correspondent. I would love to hear from you all!
-Kathy
Ps, looks like you made it through another long one! Congrats!!!
