This past Saturday, in continuation to our campus bonding activities, we had a historical landmark scavenger hunt. Rather annoying to participate in a competition after a night of drinking, but Stephanie, Korissa, and me broke off into a group and walked to Le Hotel d'Invalides. This is where Napoleon rests, and is not actually a hotel. There are plenty of places here that have "hotel" in their names but are in no way hotels. Since I was a hungry zombie, we then had lunch at probably the cheapest pasta restaurant we ever hope to find in Paris. 4.50 Euro was quite a bargain at this rate. We proceeded to walk to the Eiffel Tower, and mid-way there, we stopped to have coffee at a cafe. The actual Eiffel Tower is unforgivably overwhelming, so unbelievably beautiful. We sat in the garden that faces it for half an hour, while we gave up on our scavenger hunt. Seeing landmarks in such a rushed way, being allowed 2 hours to run around Paris proved to be quite stressful and again, annoying, since I am set on seeing these places on my own terms, at my own pace. At some point, we decided we were still in the game and sprinted a mile to campus, only to place third and receive no reward. After, we went to a cafe where the waiter had a panic attack when we re-arranged the chairs (which all face the street). Cafes are very much adapted for people-watching here. I tried escargot for the first time, which is very similar to calamari, but delicious and garlic-y nonetheless. Us girls agreed to have a calm Saturday night after the hectic partying we had done already. We walked for 20 minutes to an area bordering the Sienne and facing Notre Dame, to find a place called 'Latin Corner' which, we soon learned, was not at all Latin, nor located on a corner. This 'Sexy bar for crazy night' closely resembled a male strip club, only with much more sexual harassment than typical. One of the bartenders (which were scantily clad in boxer briefs) hopped the bar and wrapped Stephanie's legs around him. Another, pushed her face to his crotch. This was demure when compared to the penis cakes girls choose to eat while they are cleverly placed on said bartenders' laps, or the grinding and bra-removing and sexual advances the bartenders perform on their customers. We sat, open-jawed watching our bartender, take off the shirt of a particular bachelorette, pick her up, and flip her to simulate 69'ing. Needless to say, should we not have been having a 'calm' night, we would have owned this place, but that is an event being saved for this Thursday. We then went to a 3-floor bar/club, had some shots, danced, and smoked cigarettes on the first floor (which was a foggy, concrete-walled, smoking room). Half of our team then left, so Steph, Lucas, Korissa and I stuck around a little longer, and on the walk home we stopped by another bar. The French have their music on lock, but people certainly don't let loose as much as Americans tend to do at bars/clubs. Which is probably because people are not into binge drinking quite as much, not that this is a bad thing. Sometimes I question how much we are living up to the "ugly American" stereotype as we are singing and dancing with each other. Several impromptu dance sessions and versions of "Steak Night" later, we were back on campus, once again at 5 AM.
On Sunday, Steph and I headed to a local Hindu festival, that we failed to reach because it ended one hour-and-a-half early. So she, Lucas, and I went to a neighborhood near the Pantheon to have lunch. 4 Euro later, we were enjoying massive paninis and Coke Zero. We took pictures at the Pantheon, which is also absolutely beautiful, much like every humongous, ancient structure here. I can't believe that people had the means to build such things before the modern world, as they surpass anything we may have presently built with our advanced technology. We then walked a block to the Jardin de Luxembourg, with it's cube-shaped trees, lovers, and mini-sailing-boat-filled pond (every boat being comically tagged with different countries' flags.) We headed to the Sienne, and sat down at a cafe, where we stupidly ordered 2 medium cafe au laits without looking at the menu prices. My 9 Euro cup of coffee nearly gave me a heart attack. Vanessa and Christa joined us and we walked to Notre Dame. We took pictures at Pont Zero and went inside the church. Let's just say that St. Pat's ain't got nothing on Notre Dame... to say the least. Then we went to the garden behind Notre Dame, and looked at the locks placed on many of the fence-embroidered bridges on the Sienne. These locks are often engraved, and are attached to commemorate the love and commitment between couples. We bought some postcards and took suggestive pictures (because we're 12) at the Rue de Chat Qui Peche, which is the most narrow street in Paris. We then had Gyros on the same block where Latin Corner is located (which looks almost normal in the daylight, minus the bras hanging from the chandeliers.) Exhausted, we made the 20-minute walk home.
Monday was the first day of class (!) My two classes in Paris, Metaphysics and Religions of the World, should allow for a lot of meditation while I'm here, but 8AM-12PM class is a little bit brutal, particularly when we sit in one room for that period of time. After class, I went grocery shopping, since lunch is not provided at our school, and I can't afford to go out to eat every day. It's extremely hard to find something dependable to eat for lunch when your diet doesn't entail bread, and you don't have anything to work with aside from a fridge and a microwave. This stressed me out a lot but I was able to find some bargains, shop for the week, and only spend 20 Euro. Then, Steph, Vanessa and I sat in my room for countless hours relaxing, listening to music, and uploading pictures. I felt a little pathetic for sitting in my room while still having all of Paris to discover, but this break was much needed. Before dinner, we walked to Zara, where the clothes are considerably more chic than in the US, and we walked the streets, where the men are considerably better-looking than in the US. Dinner was a shit-show, as we only have 30 minutes to grab our food daily, and beat the 50 or so people on our campus to the rush. Then all the girls gathered in my room to plan our future Eurotrips within Europe. In the spur of the moment, we booked plane tickets to Amsterdam for this weekend. This is of course exciting, but the whole process left everyone so drained. Mainly because we all feel so jaded from the constant running around we've been doing, and the 400 or so Euro we've each spent so far, after simply 5 days in Paris. Regardless, the trip is planned for Friday morning, and we are set to slum it up with our backpacks for the weekend. I've decided to keep the traveling outside of the countries I visit to a minimum, because as it is, 5 weeks is not enough to discover a city, and I am not here to backpack (or break the bank.) After this weekend, I would like to go to London at some point while I'm in France, but stay in Paris for the remaining time. I've been feeling very uneasy lately, which is probably attributed to the stress, adjustment, jetlag, and constant planning. I'm hoping that I can ease some of that tension today, after we visit the Montmarte, and after I take a much-needed ME day and zone out facing the Eiffel Tower to write in my journal.
More laaater!
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