STUDY ABROAD 13:
Paris
July 19th, 2009:
I "woke up" at a little before 6:30 am after going to sleep after 4 am. I packed frantically and also frantically looked for my camera, but never found it. We said goodbye to our hotel and to our little nook of London known as Euston, and boarded the bus headed to St. Pancres station. We were all so tired, but couldn't ignore how much this train station resembled the setting for a George Orwell novel, except with trains in England, not India. St. Pancres is full of cameras and modern flat screen TVs much like 1984. We boarded the Eurorail and it swiftly whisked us off of the Isles of Britannia and onto the continent.
We had been warned of pick picketers upon arrival in Paris, to the point that the teachers were really annoying us with their warnings. So to whom else would a non-English speaking, one eyed gypsy, homeless person with a cat on his shoulders ask for money? Me, of course!
"Koelen, now that there is a pickpocketing gypsy Koelen!" Professor Simpson said aloud to me like I had no clue what was going on. He's always reminded me of a Doctor Seuss character.
I just walked away from the guy but kept my eyes darting around: by this time the teachers had me paranoid. Obviously Eartha was not feeling the same effect.
She neglected to pee the entire hour and a half trip in the Chunnel and decided it best to leave her bags completely unattended on the train platform and go back onto the train to pee! She's lucky that a., she didn't get arrested being suspected of doing anything to the train, and b., that her fucking bags didn't get stolen! After all of those warnings, she still didn't get it. I was the one who noticed her bags just sitting there on the platform and so I decided to stand centennial so no one would mess with her shit.
Felix walked by and must've recognized the bags as belonging to Eartha.
He looked at me, clutching my bags, and then at Eartha's bags and then back at me again. He simply shook his head and said:
"If this was the wild, Eartha would been eaten by predators a long time ago. Natural selection would have selected her!"
I literally almost peed my pants when he said that! Because it was true: Eartha, being the oldest person on the trip at age 45, was completely clueless. I pitied her.
There was a coach bus waiting for us outside the station and we all piled on. It took us through the heart of the Parisian ghetto, and that was very disheartening for our first trip to France. We literally were driving through tent cities on either side of the street and were praying that we maintained all four tires in perfect working order! Yes, very depressing and disheartening. But out of the abyss, came the Mecca: our hotel is fabulous! It is literally night/day compared to our hotel back in Euston, though not in as great of an area. The hotel is modern with a pool, bigger rooms, free internet, free gym, and cool modern decor. We checked into our rooms then decided to walk around and familiarize ourselves with our new city.
We took pictures of everything!
We walked to Le Bastille and back and a few hours later, we were in our hotel lobby ready to go to dinner.
We met our guide, Pierre, and he seems very cool and nice. We had our lovely dinner together and then set off for the Latin Quarter. Pierre and Professor Zusman hung out with us the whole time, which I thought was pretty cool that they were keeping up with us. (Though Pierre looks to be about 23) Tonight made me realize how grateful I am to be hanging out, as a gay man, with a bunch of straight guys. We are all acclimating ourselves to different lifestyles and teaching each other that our differences are what make us special and important.
We ended the evening walking by Notre Dame. That and going out for drinks in the Marais.
Thus far: J'adore Paris!
