The French Connection

My first week of classes ended well enough. It's going to be a real challenge to keep up, but it's going to improve my French so much. I'm completely pumped to get into a routine here. I continue to search for a boulangerie/patisserie that I will frequent.

I joined the handball team at school. I decided it would be better to do something I wouldn't do in the states. I know no one on the team, and nothing about the game, so it's be a real learning experience. It turns out that I love it! It's played on something like a basketball court, with small soccer-like goals. The handball is like a smaller, heaver soccer ball covered with a resin that makes it slighty sticky. You can't take more than 3 steps without bouncing the ball on the ground (a bit like dribbling) or passing it. Then you try to throw it in the goal, or bounce it off the ground into the goal, etc, staying behind a line. Although unlike basketball, it's pretty much full contact! You can hold, shove, disrupt, bear-hug, etc., although you can't just full-out tackle anyone. I'm excited to get better at the sport.

My friends studying in London came to Paris this weekend to visit me and see the city. Needless to say, we had lots of fun. Probably too much fun. It was a big success though. I'm going to try to remember what happened each day. Here it goes...

Thursday Night:

• Party sponsored by my school. Heard they were amazing, was not let down. 17 Euro cover, but free drinks, rave-like light show, music with bass so strong you could feel it move through you...
• Took metro home when it re-opened at 5:30 am

Friday:

• Visited Eiffel Tower as reality check: yes, you really are in Paris
• Enjoyed lunch of crèpes, sandwhiches, croque monsieur, etc. near place Trocadéro
  
• Saw Arc de Triomphe and beheld the hurricane of traffic of which it is the eye
• Strolled down Avénue Champs Elysées, and browsed in some stores, got reprimanded for picking up the 2000 Euro gem-encrusted high heels (whoops)
  
• Crossed into Tuileries gardens and got intimidated by the size of the Louvre, put it off until Saturday
• Saw Notre Dame, went inside and was put into a trance by organ music and duet of chanters

Love the Arc; me in foreground

Beautiful, vaulted interior of Notre Dame

Friday Night:

• Hopped from bar to club to bar in St. Michel, a chic area in the Latin Quarter
• Decided to actually catch the last metro around 12:30
• Parted ways with Londoners, except that when I got home, I realized my friends were going to a house (actually apartment) party nearby
• Joined them
• Left house party, girls (Sam, Amy, Jessica) move on to second house party, guys (Michael, Victor, Eddy) go to find a bar in Bastille area
• Guys find a bar after several attempts, and meet group of French people. Made friends with Chloe the Business student at HEC (another biz school)
• Go to another bar with Chloe and crew, meet over-enthusiastic Rugby Afficianado who rambles for 30 minutes about how team spirit differs in America and France, complete with pokes in the chest for emphasis and showers of saliva from poorly-pronounced english.
• Leave the bar, finally go home to find girls debriefing in Amy's room over champagne, join them
• Stumble/crawl/roll down the hall and into bed, realizing that I wouldn't wake up in time for the next day if I went to sleep, and so conversed with Victor and Eddy from 8:30 until 9:30 or so

Saturday:

• Acknowledge that it was an unbelievably poor decision not to sleep
• Meet girls near their hostel to see Sacre Coeur Basilica, went inside, saw the view from the hilltop there
  
• Take the metro to shopping area near Havre-Caumartin
• Browse in Galerie Lafayette and about 8 shoe stores, then noticed great Techno music being played for a huge crowd in front of the Opéra as part of the "TechnoParade"
  
• Walk in circles around the Opéra trying to get bearings
• Finally found way to Louvre, entered, made B-line for Mona Lisa (fr. "La Jaconde")
• Saw Mona Lisa
• Unimpressed, went to see crown jewels, awesome ceilings, Winged Victory, spectacular ceilings, Vénus de Milo, great ceilings
• Acknowledged that we were impressed
• Starting walking back home, got escargot and wine from a café with a view of the Seine, loved it
  
• Got baguettes, brie, goat cheese, and champagne from grocery near home as a snack, ate it immediately thereafter
• Boat ride down the Seine at night, saw eiffel tower lit up blue, and on every hour for 10 minutes sparkle like millions of camera flashes
• Saw the colors f Paris reflect on the rippling Seine like a living Monet painting

Basilique du Sacre Coeur

Louvre and Glass Pyramid

Awesome ceilings in Louvre

My favorite thing in the Louvre, The Winged Victory of Samothrace

Fantastic ceilings

Snack on the Seine

I really do think the water looks like a painting, especially since it's a little blurred

When the sparkles are going, it's almost undescribable. So cool.

Saturday night:

• Debarked the boat, went to a bar and had a round of Pastis 51, an awful licorice-flavored liquor that one mixes with water, and is obligated to drink it from time to time while in France
• Took metro to Left bank, and my favorite bar so far in Paris: The Hideout (a.k.a. the Irish bar)
• Ordered round of beers, agreeing that the Paulaner was outrageously tasty
• Went to settle bet with bartender over whether he would remember my name
• Lost bet, bought bartender a Jaegerbomb, friends joined in
• More Beer
• Went to Bastille area to get food and by chance ran into the rest of Team Texas in generic sandwhich grec restaurant at like 5:00 am, exchanged stories of the day over pita and french fries
• Realizing lack of sleep lately, decided to get at least a few hours

Sunday

• Went to Eiffel Tower to go up before Londoners' train
• Got really disappointed that the lines were going to take too long
• Left, dejected, for train station
• Got pastry and coffee at train station, bid friends farewell
• Got home, realizing that a few hours of sleep in as many days is completely unreasonable
• Slept until 7 pm
• Deciding to relax, got dinner of pizza and red wine at a place near the Eiffel

So, that's just about everything. It's been a long weekend, especially considering the lack of sleep. Tomorrow, I'm meeting Eddy and Victor at school to plan out some trips we want to take (Brussels might be happening next weekend). I also have Handball practice tomorrow, so I'll need to rest up tonight and tomorrow during the day.