The Rotary Exchange students from the Berlin Brandenburg region (plus one student from England) travled to Paris, France for 5 days. We rode overnight by bus there and back with the idea we would sleep inbetween the regular bathroom breaks every 3 hours. (Ya that worked out well... I am still trying to catch up on my sleep!) I sat by Qia from Indonesia on the way there and by Jeremy from Canada on the way back, but we moved around some and talked to everyone, and Jeremy did some stand up comedy on the way back for the bus. He had me laughing for much of the trip and is probably one of the most talented comedians and natural leaders I have ever met. He always kept the group together with fun "camp style" games and intellectual conversations. And Qia was great to sit by because we shared all of our food, and tried to speak only in German. She is an incredible photographer and took many pictures along the way with her 35mm. I am looking forward to her posting a few. She showed me pictures of her home in Indonisia and shared some great stories.
We stayed in a Hotel next to the Red light distrect which we walked through to see the famous Moulan Rouge caberet-dance hall and dance the can-can in front of it. (We also watched the movie on the way back and Jeremy and I softly sang along.) Some looked into going to a show only to find that it cost up to hundreds of dollars per ticket, dress code enforced.
On top of spending one hour in Paris's redlight district, the Rotarians asked us to lie about our age once so our tickets would be cheaper which led to lasting jokes about the sort of values being instilled upon us.
We did some shopping and all bought berets, and Jeremy bought pink boxers which he left in my purse for the majority of the trip leading to some embarrassing security checks. We then proceeded to take pictures with the underwear in front of nude statues in the Louvre. I gave my host mum a burette and I bought "pluto" pants for myslef, which are becomming more and more popular in Europe. They look like Genie pants and are very comfortable.
We switched flags around and dyed Jeremy's hair black. He said he was embracing his latin culture (he wore the Argentinian flag).
We ate crepes, crossants, and yard long bagettes. Lets just say I am lucky I am not on my exchange in France. The food is too good! :)
Jeremy and I danced the waltz in a castles dance hall, I danced salsa to street music (I miss my weekly salsa dancing in Ft. Collins) and we had a huge can can line going on one of the subway trains.
I was dubbed "mom" because I carried everything in my purse, loaned money to Jeremy once. Jeremy was called "dad" and there were many jokes because after the nicknames were awarded we kept seeing chalked babies on the sidewalks around Paris. I beleive we counted 9 total.
I took a group of people on their first ever carousel ride.
We visited many major tourist attractions including the Eiffel tower, Gate of Liberty (which we all paid for Jeremy to go up and take pictures right before they opened it up to the public for free) and the Louvre. At the Louvre I was given a guide sticker and tried in vain to keep the group together which only led to more mom jokes. There were also many jokes about my "guide" sticker as security guards came to talk to me a few times and I explained the religious symbolism in a few paintings to some leading to a new short lived "Robet Langdon" nick name.
Wes from Texas had a "Where's Waldo" looking shirt so we made jokes about finding him aroud Paris. Look at my pictures. I found Waldo!
Although Paris was a dirty city, I loved its culture, energy and overall vibe. But lessons learned, avoid public restrooms (unlike Germany, they are free, but often not worth it), and use caution on the subways (were we were often packed so close that we were literally touching on all sides and the locals attempted to push people off before the doors closed), and beware of street vendors and people offering you things on teh street (Koki, Jeremy and I got majorly ripped off).
Au Revoir!
