anyway... i arrived in paris on wednesday, i guess it was, at 6:30 am, met an assistant who let me leave my ridiculous amount of stuff at her hotel & sat on benches in random parks, freezing. keep in mind, i woke up at 5am michigan time the day before, had a layover in dulles from 11:30am to 5:30pm, and was without internet until diana helped me find a library (a children's library albeit, but free wi-fi nonetheless). i lugged my laptop around for the day & sat in jardin des tuillieries, watching the kids play on the playground, then wandering over to meet diana & wander down the champs elysees. super-random day. thank god for the friends who helped me along the way. my couchsurfing host was at work until 6ish, when diana helped me lug my bags through the metro & across town, where i quickly met him, dropped off my things, and headed off to the fondue meet-up i had arranged for fellow assistants. i wasn't really up to it, but it was fun to meet some others & have a warm meal. i'd say that the fondue party was quite a success for my first attempt at something like this... we had 14 people show up! we went out afterwards (i still can't believe how i was standing at this point), and if i've done my calculations correctly, i was awake for over 37 hours. hell, i tell ya. nico's couch & hospitality were simply amazing... it has never felt so good to lie down & fall asleep.
the next day, though i was exhausted, was much more productive & enjoyable. cousin derek & i sought out train tickets, cartes 12-25 (for amazing discounts), and portables (cell phones)... we met diana for a pique-nique in jardin luxembourg... oh, funness, and the weather was much more agreeable. a stereotypical picnic, but delicious just the same... baguette & camembert, smoked salmon, green grapes, & red wine (without the aid of glasses, that would've been too classy!). yum. i miss those pique-niques in paris.
after lunch, derek & i met up with his couchsurfing host, laurent, and we walked over to jardin des plantes. upon exploring, we found some expos, the menagerie (most of which was interdit... everything in france is either "interdit" or "ferme," right derek?), and the labyrinthe, where none of us had ever visited. it would be difficult to explain here, but to get to the top, there are tons of little tunnels through the hedges on the hill that you have to shimmy your way through... later we discovered that there's a spiral path, but i think the shimmy-ing way was more fun.
anyway, that night, diana & i went to le roi lion. am-a-zing, as usual. this time it was in french, which was kinda fun, too! at intermission, diana & i took a walk to the monoprix for a snack (or some sandwiches), and ran into some prostitutes as we were literally running back to make it back in time. during the curtain call, the audience even stood up (which never happens in france!)... it was that good.
so yeah, that was my stint in paris... hopefully there will be more shortly. got the chance to meet a bunch of people (assistants, couchsurfers, the like), make new friends, and spend some long-overdue q.t. with some others. magnifique!
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