France, Part 2
I don't even remember where I left off. I think the last thing was about the club...We went the second night in a small group and paid waaaay too much for drinks. The next night, our two chaperone-ish people said they were going out and would like it if all the kids came out with them. We all danced, I left early with a few other people and got food. The remaining people had a dance-off and I wished I was there. You know, it's really sad that I can't remember what has happened on what night. Ok, I think I'm up to speed.
So, the next night, which was Friday, half of us stayed in Dijon and the other half went to Marseille (forgive me if that's spelled wrong). Those of us that stayed went to see the Da Vinci Code. Acting wasn't up to par and I didn't really like Tom Hanks as the lead, but I've been opposed to it since it was announced. However, the storyline is still very good and it made me want to do a bunch of research. If you've already read the book, it's amazing. If you haven't read it, then you might get a little confused when you see it. We saw the movie in English with French subtitles, but they didn't subtitle the French parts (obviously) and the Latin parts were subbed in French...Sooo, that means I missed about half the dialogue, but it wasn't that bad. After the movie, I think we went to dinner...Yeah, that sounds about right. We went to the most French restaurant we could find and all had a hell of a time trying to figure out what they actually served and then trying to order. It was great. We tried escargot, which was an interesting experience in a good way and I tried duck for the first time. It was a great dinner and we all shared. Afterwards, we went to the cafe next door to the hotel to have some dessert which was AMAZING for the most part. One of the girls ordered a tiramisu, but it ended up being a different kind than what she expected. It tasted like I had shoved some flowers in my mouth and ate them. We hung out in there for a reeeeeeally long time, which kind of sucked. We were inside and every single table, except for hours, was smoking. I ended up getting a really bad headache and smelling kind of bad. We hopped over next door to our hotel and I was about to call it a night. Matt came over to my room and asked if we wanted to still hang out at a bar or something. My roommate decided to stay in and I went out with Matt, Mike H., and Nikki. We were trying to find the Irish Pub, but Matt wasn't having a good day when it came to directions. We first ended up walking in a big circle, passing our hotel. Then we walked around for another hour going into parts of town we had never seen. The entire time, Nikki and I were freaking out while Matt was verbalizing our fears: "Ok guys, this is the part where we get raped and mugged...It's ok, Michelle will be the first to go...If anyone asks, Michelle will be the sacrifice of the group" And so on and so forth. He was just joking around, but it was kind of driving me nuts. We finally got back to our hotel and Matt ends up saying, "All I remember was that it was by the campus dining hall." We go in that direction and find out that the pub was no more than 7 minutes away. It took us over an hour to find it. Way to go guys, way to go. Matt has voluntarily taken a back seat when it comes to directions from this point on.
This brings me to yesterday. Even though we all need our sleep, we got up semi-early to go down to the market place. Let me just say that it was the crappiest weather outside in the morning. Rain all over the place. Did I mention that the marketplace was mostly outdoors? Yeah. Not cool. We walked around for a bit, picked up some gifts. We soon went our separate ways to either do more shopping or nap. OH! Before we went our separate ways, we went to a restaurant and ordered some crepes. Those were simply AMAZING. Especially the ones with ice cream. Which I got. I want more...but that's beside the point. Separate ways and whatnot...I ended up taking a nap and it was very good. We all met up around 3 and walked over to one of the local churches to enter the crypt. I was expecting something huge with lots of tombs. It ended up being only one accessible room with only one tomb. It happened to be that of the church's patron saint, St. Benigne (or something like that). It was kinda cool, kinda creepy, but pretty darn awesome. After the crypt, we walked over to the Musee des Beaux-Arts. Let me just say that artwork is amazing. Though I'm not quite sure what exactly I'll be learning as a Classical Studies minor (hopefully), going to the museum got me even more hyped for that stuff. It's amazing to see art work so perfectly preserved and restored. Imagine looking at something that has survived centuries. I can't even describe what it's like. I'm going to flip the eff out when I'm at the Lourve (I can't spell in French...the art museum in Paris). While we were there, there was some sort of weird exhibition art going on...someone was saying that it was their goal to make the visitors uncomfortable, and it worked very well when they sat in the doorway. We stayed till closing and then went off to dinner. It was sooo much better than the raw "steak" and french fries we had been getting for the past couple of days. They had vegetables. It's been so long since I had vegetables and a fully cooked meal. It was by no means French cuisine, but it was more satisfying. After dinner was another nap time, which I took some advantage of. We regrouped at about 10:30, pre-gamed because drinks are too expensive and went out. As we walked out of the building, we ran into April and Pete, our two chaperone-ish people. I say ish because they're very laid back and they hang out with us sometimes. But, last night was a very special occasion, because Pete proposed to April! When I heard, I got teary eyed. I'm seriously so happy for them. Pete asked in the cutest way, too. Time for backstory! So, Dijon is something like the 18th visited city in France. This means that not many people speak or understand English. I knew that it was going to be somewhat frustrating to not know the language, but I had no idea it would be this bad. And I feel like such an asshole when I walk in trying to talk to them in the few phrases of French I know and then just breaking down and trying to communicate in English. April was feeling much the same way. Maybe even more frustrated. So, Pete and April wanted to see the crypt, but by the time they got there, it was closed. Outside the church, Pete asked April something in French. She was sitting there without a clue of what he was saying. So, Pete was like, "Oui o No?" "Oui, oui, now what are you asking me?" At this point he pulled out the ring. Seriously guys, that is the cutest thing ever. And definitely something for the hopeless romantics out there. Everyone was banking on Paris, but Pete said he couldn't wait. Awwwwww :) To celebrate, we all went out to the Irish Pub we were at the night before and had some celebratory drinks and cigarettes. I will never smoke again...except for that one last hookah. But seriously. It's the worst thing in the world. If I'm drunk, I'll get the urge to smoke and I have no idea why I'm like that. But it wasn't just me, it was everyone. My excuse is that it was in celebration of the engagement. Eventually, we split up again, and the group I was with decided to go to the club while the couple and the other 3 did their own thing. The club was packed, unlike the past few nights I'd been. I wanted to buy another drink that night, but I knew I couldn't take it after I thought about it. I felt kind of bad for not buying a drink since the owner let us in for free again, but what can you do? Dance to shitty music, that's what. That took up about another two hours. On our way out of the club, we were stopped by a group of French guys. I totally thought that this was the part where we got mugged. It was also kind of creepy because they said they saw us at the pub either earlier that night or the day before, I'm kind of fuzzy on details. One of the guys kept saying that he had a girlfriend in San Jose and that he was a good boy and that he was flying to JFK and wanted to know what he could do in 10 hours (has a connecting flight). While we were talking to them, we ran into some Americans that are doing a play throughout the week. One of the guys in the group, maybe the director or something, said that he'd get us in for free. Definitely taking advantage of that offer. They left and we were once again stuck with the French guys. I made my way around to get some of our other group members to tell them that we were going to split. In doing so, one of the French guys stopped me and started hitting on me. Said something about everytime I look at the stars, I'll think of French love...or something like that. He had a heavy accent and I wasn't too sober. Then he pulled me closer and kissed me on the cheek. He was cute (I think) and it was probably the closest I'll ever get to a guy saying romantic things in a foreign language, but I was getting really sketched out. We made our way back to the hotel and called it a night.
Which brings me to today. Woke up at 12:30, went to lunch at 12:45, and now I'm here. After this weekend, the rest of the trip should fly. We're going to Switzerland on Tuesday, lectures on Wednesday, wine tasting thursday, lecture on Friday, then PARIS! Can't wait!
So, the next night, which was Friday, half of us stayed in Dijon and the other half went to Marseille (forgive me if that's spelled wrong). Those of us that stayed went to see the Da Vinci Code. Acting wasn't up to par and I didn't really like Tom Hanks as the lead, but I've been opposed to it since it was announced. However, the storyline is still very good and it made me want to do a bunch of research. If you've already read the book, it's amazing. If you haven't read it, then you might get a little confused when you see it. We saw the movie in English with French subtitles, but they didn't subtitle the French parts (obviously) and the Latin parts were subbed in French...Sooo, that means I missed about half the dialogue, but it wasn't that bad. After the movie, I think we went to dinner...Yeah, that sounds about right. We went to the most French restaurant we could find and all had a hell of a time trying to figure out what they actually served and then trying to order. It was great. We tried escargot, which was an interesting experience in a good way and I tried duck for the first time. It was a great dinner and we all shared. Afterwards, we went to the cafe next door to the hotel to have some dessert which was AMAZING for the most part. One of the girls ordered a tiramisu, but it ended up being a different kind than what she expected. It tasted like I had shoved some flowers in my mouth and ate them. We hung out in there for a reeeeeeally long time, which kind of sucked. We were inside and every single table, except for hours, was smoking. I ended up getting a really bad headache and smelling kind of bad. We hopped over next door to our hotel and I was about to call it a night. Matt came over to my room and asked if we wanted to still hang out at a bar or something. My roommate decided to stay in and I went out with Matt, Mike H., and Nikki. We were trying to find the Irish Pub, but Matt wasn't having a good day when it came to directions. We first ended up walking in a big circle, passing our hotel. Then we walked around for another hour going into parts of town we had never seen. The entire time, Nikki and I were freaking out while Matt was verbalizing our fears: "Ok guys, this is the part where we get raped and mugged...It's ok, Michelle will be the first to go...If anyone asks, Michelle will be the sacrifice of the group" And so on and so forth. He was just joking around, but it was kind of driving me nuts. We finally got back to our hotel and Matt ends up saying, "All I remember was that it was by the campus dining hall." We go in that direction and find out that the pub was no more than 7 minutes away. It took us over an hour to find it. Way to go guys, way to go. Matt has voluntarily taken a back seat when it comes to directions from this point on.
This brings me to yesterday. Even though we all need our sleep, we got up semi-early to go down to the market place. Let me just say that it was the crappiest weather outside in the morning. Rain all over the place. Did I mention that the marketplace was mostly outdoors? Yeah. Not cool. We walked around for a bit, picked up some gifts. We soon went our separate ways to either do more shopping or nap. OH! Before we went our separate ways, we went to a restaurant and ordered some crepes. Those were simply AMAZING. Especially the ones with ice cream. Which I got. I want more...but that's beside the point. Separate ways and whatnot...I ended up taking a nap and it was very good. We all met up around 3 and walked over to one of the local churches to enter the crypt. I was expecting something huge with lots of tombs. It ended up being only one accessible room with only one tomb. It happened to be that of the church's patron saint, St. Benigne (or something like that). It was kinda cool, kinda creepy, but pretty darn awesome. After the crypt, we walked over to the Musee des Beaux-Arts. Let me just say that artwork is amazing. Though I'm not quite sure what exactly I'll be learning as a Classical Studies minor (hopefully), going to the museum got me even more hyped for that stuff. It's amazing to see art work so perfectly preserved and restored. Imagine looking at something that has survived centuries. I can't even describe what it's like. I'm going to flip the eff out when I'm at the Lourve (I can't spell in French...the art museum in Paris). While we were there, there was some sort of weird exhibition art going on...someone was saying that it was their goal to make the visitors uncomfortable, and it worked very well when they sat in the doorway. We stayed till closing and then went off to dinner. It was sooo much better than the raw "steak" and french fries we had been getting for the past couple of days. They had vegetables. It's been so long since I had vegetables and a fully cooked meal. It was by no means French cuisine, but it was more satisfying. After dinner was another nap time, which I took some advantage of. We regrouped at about 10:30, pre-gamed because drinks are too expensive and went out. As we walked out of the building, we ran into April and Pete, our two chaperone-ish people. I say ish because they're very laid back and they hang out with us sometimes. But, last night was a very special occasion, because Pete proposed to April! When I heard, I got teary eyed. I'm seriously so happy for them. Pete asked in the cutest way, too. Time for backstory! So, Dijon is something like the 18th visited city in France. This means that not many people speak or understand English. I knew that it was going to be somewhat frustrating to not know the language, but I had no idea it would be this bad. And I feel like such an asshole when I walk in trying to talk to them in the few phrases of French I know and then just breaking down and trying to communicate in English. April was feeling much the same way. Maybe even more frustrated. So, Pete and April wanted to see the crypt, but by the time they got there, it was closed. Outside the church, Pete asked April something in French. She was sitting there without a clue of what he was saying. So, Pete was like, "Oui o No?" "Oui, oui, now what are you asking me?" At this point he pulled out the ring. Seriously guys, that is the cutest thing ever. And definitely something for the hopeless romantics out there. Everyone was banking on Paris, but Pete said he couldn't wait. Awwwwww :) To celebrate, we all went out to the Irish Pub we were at the night before and had some celebratory drinks and cigarettes. I will never smoke again...except for that one last hookah. But seriously. It's the worst thing in the world. If I'm drunk, I'll get the urge to smoke and I have no idea why I'm like that. But it wasn't just me, it was everyone. My excuse is that it was in celebration of the engagement. Eventually, we split up again, and the group I was with decided to go to the club while the couple and the other 3 did their own thing. The club was packed, unlike the past few nights I'd been. I wanted to buy another drink that night, but I knew I couldn't take it after I thought about it. I felt kind of bad for not buying a drink since the owner let us in for free again, but what can you do? Dance to shitty music, that's what. That took up about another two hours. On our way out of the club, we were stopped by a group of French guys. I totally thought that this was the part where we got mugged. It was also kind of creepy because they said they saw us at the pub either earlier that night or the day before, I'm kind of fuzzy on details. One of the guys kept saying that he had a girlfriend in San Jose and that he was a good boy and that he was flying to JFK and wanted to know what he could do in 10 hours (has a connecting flight). While we were talking to them, we ran into some Americans that are doing a play throughout the week. One of the guys in the group, maybe the director or something, said that he'd get us in for free. Definitely taking advantage of that offer. They left and we were once again stuck with the French guys. I made my way around to get some of our other group members to tell them that we were going to split. In doing so, one of the French guys stopped me and started hitting on me. Said something about everytime I look at the stars, I'll think of French love...or something like that. He had a heavy accent and I wasn't too sober. Then he pulled me closer and kissed me on the cheek. He was cute (I think) and it was probably the closest I'll ever get to a guy saying romantic things in a foreign language, but I was getting really sketched out. We made our way back to the hotel and called it a night.
Which brings me to today. Woke up at 12:30, went to lunch at 12:45, and now I'm here. After this weekend, the rest of the trip should fly. We're going to Switzerland on Tuesday, lectures on Wednesday, wine tasting thursday, lecture on Friday, then PARIS! Can't wait!