that's french for "paris," fyi. (not the spelling, just the pronunciation... duh)
latest venture - china. no jk, france. haha. k that wasn't really funny but whatev, i'm tired. so it's been a while (as usual, get used to that phrase because i'm now an awful journaler, if you want you guys can like bet on what line it'll come up in every subsequent journal - or not, yah that sounds lame anyway). k now that i've gone around the bush like 4 times:
last time i wrote was about temporary states of quasi-unhappiness. all that aside, things have been good. i'm sorry mom - i failed a spanish test. 52. it was hard. but only 10% of my grade and i rocked another (government... believe it or not). i had my first spanish friends experience, which i've otld most people about. but it's a thing called botellon. spanish kids like to go to a park and just drink at night before going to clubs. i got to tag along with my friend richard who lives with a senora who has two twin boys about our age, so he's made friends with theirs and thus i got to meet said amigos. hilarious. spanish adolescents are unbelievable. it was really one of the best spain experiences i've had, at least with the culture and getting to just see 1) what they're like, and 2) how much i've learned in terms of a) language and b) adaptation.
post botellon, i've spent a lot of time doing nothing. trying to pick up school work, and saving money for travelling to dream destinations. side note before i start that anecdote: i've learned to tell what kind of food my senora's making me by what kind of sounds i hear as she's cooking. i mostly can tell by the oil. but first, any kind of egg activity means one of two options: croquetas (made with a fried crust thing out of eggs and bread crumbs), or just a fried egg. next comes the sounds of the oil. a loud sputtering sound means fried chorizo - that stuff goes nuts in the pan. a low simmering or bubbling is usually french fries or jamon york with cheese. empanadas usually come with croquetas so those go with egg noises. any type of machine usage generally turns out to be the puree-er, so that goes to the soup family. if i see her little jar of noodles, it's cocida madrilena (soup as well). spaghetti and chicken are a little bit harder to tell - the chicken can sometimes sound like french fries but a little bit quieter, but it involves an egg batter crust with garlic so the smell gives that away. hot dogs i really don't even bother with cos i pretty much have those 4 of 7 days of the week. but those aften get made in the microwave. yah that throws me off too - sometimes she'll reheat stuff so if it's beeping i hear, well that's where the fun of surprise comes in. i think that's about all. lunches on the weekends are harder to tell cos she makes more elaborate things like a stew type deal, or paella (awesome). if i think of more, in typical fashion i'll chime in and elaborate.
so. ask me what it's like to spend the night in a spanish airport. did that. our flight on friday was at 5:45 am. thanks ryanair (love you too). metro doesn't open in the morning until 6:30 so ricardo and i took the midnight train to the airport and hung out with all the other kids too cheap to pay for a taxi at 4 am instead to catch their flight which probably, if they're anything like us with timing, cost 3 euros. okay more like 16 euros, including the cost of transportation from b.f.e airport beauvais to the actual city of paris (about an hour) which in later scribing you'll find out how it makes the trip back just as interesting. but so arrived at 8 am, actually to the hostel around 11.
turned out to be a cute little place. a little on the outside of the old city but close enough to walk the entire first day we were there. ali (who met us at the airport cos her senora insisted on driving her), rich and i saw the notre dame first. took quasimodo pictures, went to the louvre where we ran into jenna and her boyfriend, got a pleasant surprise of free entrance on that specific day and specific time, and discovered that, as critics and gossipers are correct, the mona lisa isn't really that big, but granted larger than deemed credit. saw a few da vinci's, monet's, napoleonic appartments, egyptian artifacts; pretty darn cool. after that, and in the rain, we trudged back to the hostel to wait for kasey to arrive. she got screwed out of the earlier flight because usually her art class has an excursion on fridays but teacher failed to mention that this week it was a thursday night - she could have come with us earlier. so we found her, and went to dinner at a place nearby.
saturday entailed the true paris tourist attraction - eiffel tower first thing in the morning. took the typical pictures, some not so typical. saw how absurdly long the line was to go up (which i was intent on walking the stairs to save money continue my sparce work out plans), but resorted to coming back later. we walked after to the arc de triomph which i've been wanting to see since high school spanish classes. my class room was shared with spanish and french, and there's a poster of aforementioned monument and i always tried to prounounce it. i always wish i'd taken french. spanish of course is more useful, but i love the sound, and the idea, and the history, and the connotations of the language (don't ask me what the history is i just threw that in there). but i finally got to take a beginners class in college for kicks and loved it so with my minimal and trivial knowledge of the language i quasi helped us get around. so got to see that finally, walked down champs-elysees (street of restaurants and shopping). took the metro to the moulin rouge (it's cool but it's all modernized now, i was hoping for something like the appearance it has in the movie but, eh, not so much - more neon-y) and ate my first, and only, french crepe with nutella = beyond delicious. we went to the basilique du sacre couer, which is located on the top of a hill so there's a great view of the city.
afterwards, we returned to the hostel to shower, clean up a bit, and head back to mr. eiffels tower and see it at night - which is everything it's said to be and more. magical, and cheesy yes, but beyond what i could have hoped for. it still astonishes me that i'm actually in europe, and paris none the less which has been my top travel desire for ever. so we went up the tower to the second floor (top was closed and i was forced to take the elevator because the stairs were closed, but given not having to pay for the louvre and not having time for my other museum, well i splurged on the automatic lift). after the eiffel tower, well it was about 11:30 and we still hadn't eaten dinner. we were lucky enough to find a little cafe/restaurant that was still open and, having saved a pretty decent amount of money thanks to random circumstances, i had a nice french dinner, complete with creme brulee (second to none in my list of favorite desserts).
we took the metro home, slept for three hours, and were up at 4 am to pack and take a taxi to the bus station. once again, metro doesn't open til 6 am in paris, but since we had to take a bus to the airport we couldn't just go early and, as rich put it, make camp, then head for the summit in the morning. so we had a nice taxi driver. paris night-life, contrary to previous word-of-mouth, is a lot better than we though. there were a lot of people out still, riding bikes drunk: paris has a really successful system actually of renting bikes. caught the bus at 5 am, and were on the plane and passed out by 8:25. landed around 10:30, which is kinda cool cos it's about the time it takes for me to fly from school to home. took the metro home; slept for a few hours; ate paella; caught up on eli stone; and well here i am.
one of the best experiences of my life. it was weird to be on the metro and not hear english or spanish, so even though i have a general concept of french, i still felt kinda clueless again which was awkward. even more so when we tried to order food from a bakery without using either language. it made me realize how much i love french, paris, and travelling, and how excited i was that i know so much spanish. weather could have been a little better but i'd go back anyday.
so now, i've got a decent bit of hw to do. two tests this week, a project, less than a month until exams. time is winding down quicker than i though. i'm excited to go home but as expected, this place is finally starting to be comfortable for me. so we'll see how it goes when i have to leave. until then, london to look forward to, and mom and roxy finally got travel plans sorted out. they're coming for 13 days after my exams are over to visit madrid, see barcelona, and then either malaga or one of the islands.
au revoir
ps. i came out 10 euros under budged (heck yah!!) and i really really really really really miss andrew...
