Paris and Stuff
1. The past week or so before Thursday:
It wasn't anything too memorable, mostly since I can't really remember much of it. I've fallen into a routine here, which is nice, but also a little sad as it means that time has begun to (and will likely continue to) go by at a rapid pace. The highlight was Thursday night, which ties into our little sojourn to Paris.
2. Thursday
The evening started off with us all (flatmates) cooking Chinese food under Ethan's guidance...Ethan actually did most of the work, but I can pretend that I was useful. We had teriyaki-ish beef, lamb, Chinese bread, and potatoes cooked Chinese style. It was solid. I tried to introduce them to Smirnoff and OceanSpray cranberry juice, but it didn't go over too well. There was a club party for our group of flats later that night, so we surfed from flat to flat, and ultimately ended up in our kitchen and proceeded to, in the wise words of K$sha: "get a little bit tipsy." The club was aigh't but I wasn't nearly cool enough for it. Maggie and I ended up walking back early and she came up with the brilliant idea of getting a fried cheeseburger. It wasn't tasty.
Here's the fun part: I came back home to find a flatmate passed out and twitching on the corridor floor, put him to bed, took him to the bathroom on his suggestion, and waited for the inevitable. Meanwhile, flatmate number two comes storming in heavily under the influence and says, with a pained expression on his face: "Georgiy! I kissed so many ladies!! I didn't even know some of their names! Sad face sad face sad." An hour later, I decided on attempting to combat my newfound insomnia, and failed miserably at it. This is around when flatmate number three comes back about as happy as the other two, knocks on my door, and asks me if I "would like a cup of tea" (at 3:30 AM). Did I mention that I love my flatmates? Like, a lot, a lot? Five hours later (4 hours of sleep later), it was Paris disembarking time!
Time for a shower and dinner break. I'll be back soon, don't you worry.
3. Paris:
We rode a doubledecker(!) to the airport, got there two hours early, conversed, and then there we were. Our hotel was pretty swell considering it cost us (Euro Symbol)34 a night, and Paris ended up being pretty straight for a gay city (Get it? I couldn't help it...sorry). The first night, we walked around a bunch, went on a giant ferris wheel, and saw the Arc de Triomphe. I had tartar for dinner, which was surprisingly tasty. We came back to the hotel, got a couple bottles of vine, and played stupid games.
We woke up early on day two and I had trouble falling asleep again, so I spent the first part of the day feeling a little blue. Aside from that, the jour was perfect. We spent four hours at the Louvre, explored the Latin Quarter, saw Notre Dame (which, for the record, is beyond words), and went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower (where I got to do something I've dreamt of doing for years). It's funny how insignificant these few lines seem, given how incredible the actual experience was. Paris is a remarkable city, perhaps the best one I've ever visited. The trip was so short and we did so much that it almost feels like we didn't actually go there. And being back here now only strengthens that feeling. I also got to practice speaking French a little bit, which was great, though a bit disappointing given how much I've forgotten.
We woke up early the next morning to catch our flight and I had some trouble falling asleep again, so I think I've slept a total of 15ish hours over the past three nights. Sleepy Georgiy = sad, cranky Georgiy. Waaaaaaah. I think that more or less sums up Paris. Bestie, chocolate bear, Molly, Tay-Tay, and James, if any of you guys are reading this, we absolutely have to go there and stay for a minimum of two full days (three nights).
4. Arthur's Seat:
Most of you know that long runs are my cure-all for everything. Well, feeling dirty and groggy, I decided to run up Arthur's Seat: the biggest of a series of hills overlooking the city. Run up is relative term as I ended up dying half way there, but fgjkgfjkjk! The view rivaled the top of the Eiffel tower. And the best part is, I ran into and conversed with an elderly Englishman from Newcastle, who happened to be semi-fluent in Russian. Then, me being me, I got horribly lost on the way down, ran through all sorts of peaks, valleys, etc, found myself next to a loch, then finally came down on more or less the other side of the range. It was wonderful in every way.
5. Grand Summary:
All in all, everything's dandy. I'm just so gosh darn fatigued. I'm also dreading Valentine's day a little bit. SOMEONE BE MY VALENTINE :-( Prerequisite: must not make fun of me for wanting to watch Love Actually (hi, Harvard girl :-D).
It wasn't anything too memorable, mostly since I can't really remember much of it. I've fallen into a routine here, which is nice, but also a little sad as it means that time has begun to (and will likely continue to) go by at a rapid pace. The highlight was Thursday night, which ties into our little sojourn to Paris.
2. Thursday
The evening started off with us all (flatmates) cooking Chinese food under Ethan's guidance...Ethan actually did most of the work, but I can pretend that I was useful. We had teriyaki-ish beef, lamb, Chinese bread, and potatoes cooked Chinese style. It was solid. I tried to introduce them to Smirnoff and OceanSpray cranberry juice, but it didn't go over too well. There was a club party for our group of flats later that night, so we surfed from flat to flat, and ultimately ended up in our kitchen and proceeded to, in the wise words of K$sha: "get a little bit tipsy." The club was aigh't but I wasn't nearly cool enough for it. Maggie and I ended up walking back early and she came up with the brilliant idea of getting a fried cheeseburger. It wasn't tasty.
Here's the fun part: I came back home to find a flatmate passed out and twitching on the corridor floor, put him to bed, took him to the bathroom on his suggestion, and waited for the inevitable. Meanwhile, flatmate number two comes storming in heavily under the influence and says, with a pained expression on his face: "Georgiy! I kissed so many ladies!! I didn't even know some of their names! Sad face sad face sad." An hour later, I decided on attempting to combat my newfound insomnia, and failed miserably at it. This is around when flatmate number three comes back about as happy as the other two, knocks on my door, and asks me if I "would like a cup of tea" (at 3:30 AM). Did I mention that I love my flatmates? Like, a lot, a lot? Five hours later (4 hours of sleep later), it was Paris disembarking time!
Time for a shower and dinner break. I'll be back soon, don't you worry.
3. Paris:
We rode a doubledecker(!) to the airport, got there two hours early, conversed, and then there we were. Our hotel was pretty swell considering it cost us (Euro Symbol)34 a night, and Paris ended up being pretty straight for a gay city (Get it? I couldn't help it...sorry). The first night, we walked around a bunch, went on a giant ferris wheel, and saw the Arc de Triomphe. I had tartar for dinner, which was surprisingly tasty. We came back to the hotel, got a couple bottles of vine, and played stupid games.
We woke up early on day two and I had trouble falling asleep again, so I spent the first part of the day feeling a little blue. Aside from that, the jour was perfect. We spent four hours at the Louvre, explored the Latin Quarter, saw Notre Dame (which, for the record, is beyond words), and went up to the top of the Eiffel Tower (where I got to do something I've dreamt of doing for years). It's funny how insignificant these few lines seem, given how incredible the actual experience was. Paris is a remarkable city, perhaps the best one I've ever visited. The trip was so short and we did so much that it almost feels like we didn't actually go there. And being back here now only strengthens that feeling. I also got to practice speaking French a little bit, which was great, though a bit disappointing given how much I've forgotten.
We woke up early the next morning to catch our flight and I had some trouble falling asleep again, so I think I've slept a total of 15ish hours over the past three nights. Sleepy Georgiy = sad, cranky Georgiy. Waaaaaaah. I think that more or less sums up Paris. Bestie, chocolate bear, Molly, Tay-Tay, and James, if any of you guys are reading this, we absolutely have to go there and stay for a minimum of two full days (three nights).
4. Arthur's Seat:
Most of you know that long runs are my cure-all for everything. Well, feeling dirty and groggy, I decided to run up Arthur's Seat: the biggest of a series of hills overlooking the city. Run up is relative term as I ended up dying half way there, but fgjkgfjkjk! The view rivaled the top of the Eiffel tower. And the best part is, I ran into and conversed with an elderly Englishman from Newcastle, who happened to be semi-fluent in Russian. Then, me being me, I got horribly lost on the way down, ran through all sorts of peaks, valleys, etc, found myself next to a loch, then finally came down on more or less the other side of the range. It was wonderful in every way.
5. Grand Summary:
All in all, everything's dandy. I'm just so gosh darn fatigued. I'm also dreading Valentine's day a little bit. SOMEONE BE MY VALENTINE :-( Prerequisite: must not make fun of me for wanting to watch Love Actually (hi, Harvard girl :-D).