Such a Great Week

Griffin left about an hour ago. What a bittersweet week. We had so much fun, and it was incredible to get to see each other again, but now I'm in the same state that I was in at the beginning of winter break - knowing that it will be a very long time until I get to see him again. Although the past two and a half months did pretty much fly by, there is a longer span of time until we'll see each other this summer, and it's hard not to dwell on how long that actually is.

But enough of that. Here's a rundown of our fabulous week:

He got here last Sunday morning, and we just hung around the flat for a while, went grocery shopping, and made tacos for dinner. The film society was showing Brazil, so we went to see that. Then the jet lag overtook him, and Griffin crashed pretty early. The next day we wandered around Oxford, and I pointed out all the buildings that are significant to my life here. Then we went to bed early so that we could get up at 5:00 in the morning to catch a train to London.

I was too excited to sleep though. I think I only got about 2 hours in total. We walked to the train station in Oxford, and then went to London Paddington. We had to take the Underground to the International train station, and then we got on our train to Paris. Through the chunnel. It was a very exciting expedition, but we both fell asleep too soon to know we were under water crossing the British Channel. Oh well.

We had google-mapped our hotel, so once we got into the train station, we figured it would be pretty easy to walk to our hotel. However, Google maps is not the best tool to use in a city without blocks. We didn't want to spend the money on a taxi though, so we just headed in what we thought would be the right direction, and we actually found our hotel relatively easily, considering the circumstances. We were checked in around 2:00, and we picked up a map and decided to go exploring. The area our hotel was in was pretty neat. It was in northern Paris, and right next to a metro station, so that was very convenient. The buildings in Paris are so beautiful. Griffin probably wanted to kill me by the end of the three days because of how often I commented on them. Every apartment has balconies surrounded with decorative, metal railings. I loved them. And there were small bistros all over the place, each one pretty much the same as the last. But they were pretty expensive, so we only went to them a few times.

The view from our hotel window:


After checking in to our hotel, we went to this little hole in the wall pizza/sandwich place. The guys working there didn't speak any English, and neither Griffin nor I speak French, so we had to get by with pointing and sounding out the words. I have no idea what I actually got, but it was some kind of meat sandwich, and pretty good actually. I am not sure if it was ignorant or hot-headed of us not to think about the language barrier at all before we left, but it just never occurred to me. It's true that most people did speak English, but we were on a limited budget, so we didn't go to touristy places to eat, and so three of our meals were ordered with awkward pronunciations and gestures. As convenient as language is (obviously), it's kind of neat that we don't actually need it. Human nature allows us to be able to get a point across with facial expressions and pointing. But it was nice when our waiter or waitress could speak English.

It was raining, so instead of walking, we then hopped on the metro and headed for Notre Dame. The metro system is huge and pretty intertwined, but really easy to navigate. We just wrote down all the stops and line changes we would have to make, and we got everywhere very easily. The second day we were in Paris, I got to experience being squished up next to strangers for ten or fifteen minutes. As good as public transportation is, I'm glad I don't have to do that all the time, because it was just weird.

Our first ever Paris metro ride, however, was so perfect. We hopped on, and all the seats were taken, so we just stood in front of the doors. We were the only ones standing other than this guy who was standing across from us, playing the guitar. He had his eyes shut the entire time, and he was playing and singing Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World. It was a perfectly romantic beginning to our stay in Paris.

We got off the stop, turned a corner, and immediately saw Notre Dame. It is so ornate and beautiful. We wandered around inside for a while and then went up to the top and to the belfry. It was exhausting climbing the spiral steps up to the top. I felt pathetic.




After we came back down, it had stopped raining, so we decided to walk home. We got a little turned around at first, but then we managed to find the right direction. We saw signs for the Bastille memorial, so we went a little out of our way to see that before heading home.

We went to a little bistro for dinner that night.

On Wednesday we took the metro to Champs-Elysees and got something to eat and just walked up and down both sides of the street. I convinced Griffin to wander around the Louis Vuitton store, because come on, we just had to. It's disgusting how expensive the things are in that store. We tried guessing how much a simple t-shirt would be. We guessed around 70 Euros I think. It actually cost around 250. Insanity.

At the end of Champs-Elysees, we ran into the Arc de Triomphe.

Shamefully, I must admit that neither of us really knew what it was, but we obviously recognized it. It is in the middle of a large round about, but we saw people under it, so we went mad for a while trying to figure out how to get across the multiple lanes of traffic. Then we noticed the stairway leading underground to it. Of course. It is really fabulous. It honors all those who fought for France, particularly during the reign of Napoleon. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI is there too. It's pretty beautiful.

Then we wandered down the other side of the street, turned around, and went back down Champs-Elysees. On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we passed the National Gallery and the Petit Palais, which we randomly went into and wandered around for a while to see the exhibit. We didn't know what it was at first, so we were wandering around like fools, and then someone showed us where to get tickets. It was a very random stop, but it had some neat pieces of art. Then we walked across the Sienne and took a look at the Military Museum at Les Invalides. It is an immense complex, and we didn't have time to enter it to make is a legitimate visit, but next time...

Then we continued to wander, picked up some croissants, and then went to the park in front of the Eiffel Tower to relax for a while.

We were already getting exhausted from the trip. Walking around constantly really tires one out. We waited in line for about an hour, and then headed up the elevator. It stopped on the second floor, and we got out to walk around for a bit before going up to the very top. We finished our croissants and took some photos. Then, up we went. And we staked out a fabulous stop on the western side to watch the sunset. It was a pretty cloudy night, but oh well.

We stood in the same spot for about an hour waiting for the sun to set. We had the best spot, and I think people were getting impatient with us for staying where we were for so long when they wanted to take photos of the sunset. But oh well.

Then we went back down, and on our very roundabout and confused way to the metro station, we stopped by a couple of other American tourists who were taking photos, and we asked them to take one of us in front of the tower.

So cheesy, and I love it!

After finally getting home, we ate a random Chinese food place right by our hotel. Then we crashed. The next day we got up and headed over to the Louvre.

I had no idea how enormous that museum is. You could spend a week in there and still not see everything sufficiently. We went to see the Mona Lisa first and then to the Venus de Milo.

After those two, we wandered around Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, French Sculptures, European Paintings, etc. At one point, we were in a gallery full of huge murals, so we sat down to look at them. I remember thinking to myself that if I laid down, I would fall asleep for days. It's remarkable how exhausting only a few days of site seeing can make you.


Eventually, we just couldn't take in anymore, so we left for the hotel. We got something to eat, picked up our bag, and then headed for the train station. We tried to get an earlier train, but they wouldn't let us exchange our tickets, which I thought was ridiculous. So we did a crossword puzzle (Griffin had collected NY Times crosswords to bring because we usually do one together every day) and waited for our train. We got into Oxford around 12:30, and I had forgotten that the buses stop running after 11:30, so we had to walk about 40 minutes home from the train station. Oh well.

We slept late on Friday, didn't do much in the morning, and then went to see Watchmen in the afternoon. Then we made dinner and waited for Chelsey and Amanda to get back from dining out, and we went to the Magdalen End of Term Party together. I had originally wanted all of the Magdalen OSAP kids to go together, but three of them decided not to go, so it was just the three of us and Griffin. I had a lot of fun. Magdalen rented out a small club, so it was just Magdalen students there. Griffin and I just kind of did our own thing the whole night, and on the way home, we got a kebab. They are probably one of my favorite things about Oxford. Paris had them too. The US needs to adopt the kebab stand.

On Saturday we were lazy all day long. Griffin downloaded and burned all of the LOST seasons for me onto CDs, so we watched a couple of episodes. Then we made a romantic pasta dinner, and watched Burn After Reading after dinner. I didn't think it was very good. The characters are creative and funny, but the plot is just lame and doesn't really go anywhere.

Then this morning Griffin had to leave, so here I am, not wanting to write any essays. I only have one week and then I get a month off, but I cannot motivate myself at all right now.