Journal 18 Thursday: After about six hours of sleep I woke up to my alarm going off. I laid there for about five minutes before the phone rang with our wake up call, courtesy of Celia. I went to use the shower to get ready for the day. The shower had no temperature setting, so you just had to hope it was warm. Also, you had to hold the button down or else the water would shut off. So, I got to use my knee, elbow, hip, or free hand while I was in the shower so the water wouldn't shut off and leave me standing there cold. After that I went downstairs for breakfast. They served us a croissant, mini baguette, hot chocolate, and corn flakes. After breakfast we were all heading to another museum, hopefully we'd get into this one free; unlike when we were at the Louvre. We got into the second Museum just fine. I wandered around for a little while and looked at the Monet's and Picasso's. I was told to put my video camera away because we weren't allowed to film; this was the first time anyone had told me to my camera away because of the signs, most other places still didn't care. I left the Museum and went to a little bakery with Jeff where I got some croissants and he bought a baguette. After we stood there and ate Jeff went back the Museum and I went back the FIAP, where all my stuff was. I navigated my way around the Metro just fine and got back without any problems at all. Once I had my stuff with me I sat down with a map and mapped out what I wanted to do in France that day. I decided that I would go back to the Eiffel Tower and the Arch di Triumph. I would also walk the street at the Arch because I wanted a picture of the Disney Store there. After that I would head towards the Moulin Rouge before it started to get dark. As I left the FIAP I ran into April, Stephen, Chad, and Sabrina. I stayed and talked with them for a short while; then Sabrina said she'd go around with me for the day to see the sites before she left that night to go back to London. When we got the Metro station we ran into Aaron, Kelly, and Laura. So, yelling across the tracks, we made plans to meet at the Moulin Rouge at 6pm. First on the list of stuff to see what the Eiffel Tower, once there we stopped to get something to eat since we were hungry. I had a waffle thing with chocolate on it... it wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, oh well. We walked around a bit then headed toward the Arch di Triumph. There were flags everywhere celebrating the holiday; they were on pretty much every monument and important building. Sabrina and I walked up and down the street looking at the different stores. I stopped in a couple different places to see what the prices would be; all the clothes were sooo incredibly expensive, I don't think I'll ever shop in France. We also stopped in Planet Hollywood and ended up talking to the guy that worked there for quite a while. He was really nice and told us a lot about the French culture; by that I mean he told us about the different types of people and their attitudes towards everything. It was really interesting hearing him talk about it after living in London for a while where all they do is complain about the French all the time. We finished walking up and down the street; and I was able to get my picture of the Disney Store there. We ran into Sara, Linn, and Annie a couple different times though. The first time we saw them was in Planet Hollywood, and the second time was in a little souvenir shop we stopped in before getting on the Metro again. So after talking they decided to come with us the Moulin Rouge and see it. We caught the Metro over there and the Moulin Rouge was right across the street, as I'd be told. We took pictures and stuff, like normal tourists, and then a couple guys that had been there watching us walked up. They didn't speak any english, and none of us spoke french either. We had to pretty much "talk" by pointing and using hand motions to do stuff. At first I thought they wanted me to take a picture of the two of them, at Moulin Rouge, and then email it. Ok, sure, no problem; I have no problem emailing these guys a picture. Then they "told" me No, they didn't want a picture of them, they wanted a picture of the girls I was with, in front of the Moulin Rouge. So I told the girls that they seemed to want a picture with all them. After more french and hand motions, I was now under the impression that they wanted just the girls, and not them with the girls; at this point the girls were a little confused. MORE french and hand motions and it finally turned out that just one of the guys wanted a picture with ONLY Annie and him in front of the building. She agreed, sorta, and took the picture. He wrote his email address down on a piece of paper I had and they walked away. I immediately started laughing, and everyone else starting to make fun of Annie. She had been getting hit on left and right the entire time she'd been in France. I told them that I should go back home and start sitting around tourist areas, and then see how many girls I could get to take a picture with me on their camera, and then also email to me. It's genius I met up with everyone around 5:40ish when they walked out of the Metro station. Aaron's dad was in France at the same time that we were, so they had all been chillin with him the whole time. We walked back up the Cathedral, but this time we actually made it since Aaron's dad knew where he was going. We stopped off in a little chocolate shop so Aaron could buy some chocolate. The lady that worked there sounded really pissed off and as though she was shouting, but Aaron's dad said she was perfectly fine and happy to talk. I guess the French just sound like they're yelling sometimes. Once at the top of the hill we walked all around, there was a little street market area up there. We sat down at one of the little restaurants to eat dinner. Don't ever drink soda in France, I paid close to $4 I think, when it got the table it was a VERY small glass with LOTS of ice; it was about the equivalent of a double shot. The food was good though, plus we were all sitting and eating together in France. When we left a street vendor came up to all of us, he wanted to do a drawing of Laura. She said No Thanks, but he was really persistent. He asked a couple times, in broken english, saying that he would do a really good job. This time when he finished his sentence, he finished looking at me. I thought he was asking me this time, so I said "Oh, no thanks". "No, not you Jesus" was his response. We all started laughing really hard because this whole trip to London the other students have started calling me Jesus after April started telling everyone how if my hair was longer, I would look like him. So to hear a street vendor in the middle of a little town in Paris, call me Jesus, was hilarious. I'm sure the guy didn't get the joke at all. He said, "You.... no inspiration, only her <points to Laura> or him <points to Kelly>, not you <looks at me> or him <points to Aaron>. Aaron was laughing so hard at this point that he just walked away. We all said "No thanks" one more time, and then went on our way. After that we walked back down the hill and strolled the street, checking out the little mini-red-light district there by the Moulin Rouge. After getting stopped a couple times by people trying to get us into their strip clubs and also bums who stopped us to ask for money, we decided to just head back to the hostel. Laura and Aaron said I could sleep on their floor that night since they knew I had no where to stay. There was a little night life type area around their hostel so we walked up and down the street there for a while before going back to the hostel. I sat and talked with Aaron and Laura about different things for a while, mostly different stories Aaron was telling me. I went next door where more of the students from London were at and chatted for a bit before going back and going to bed. |