Finally France

OK, I am finally getting to tell you all about my visit to Paris a couple weeks ago. Overall it was quite interesting to be in Paris, the city much proclaimed by many. I have to say that I was not particularly impressed. I do not know why that is. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that I do not really speak the language, or because so many people told me that they did not really like Paris Or perhaps it is because I do not have as much of a connection with Paris as I do with, say, London, New York City and Berlin. The Once and Future Flatmate said that she was not surprised since the two of us ‘tend toward the Anglophilic side, and you can’t love both France and holly old England, can you?’ As true as that might be, it would have been nicer to have liked the city a little better. Oh well, you cannot like every city you meet, even if it is in Europe.

Other than that, Betsy and I are quite lazy when it comes to being tourists. We did all of the requisite Paris tourism things: Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Louvre, Champs Élysées, Arc de Triomphe, the Tuileries. I have to say that Notre Dame was quite cool, I had no idea that it was on a little island bit in the middle of the Seine. The river– surprise, surprise– was the highlight of the trip for me. We spent quite a while walking along the Seine, and it was quite nice.

One amusing thing is that in Place de la Bastille there is a restaurant named Indiana. Of course I took pictures of it. The pictures, by the way, are now uploaded and can be accessed by the link call ‘Paris’ to the left. I may or may not ever get around to annotating the pictures, but, if you ask me, most of them are pretty explanatory. Either you will recognise the landmark; or if it is a gardeny area (and by gardeny, I mean tan gravel – probably another reason why I was not too enchanted with Paris was the lack of a nice green garden to sit on, except at the Tower), it is probably the Tuileries; and if it is a body of water, it is the Seine. Another note about the pictures, if you bother looking at them, you can see that I was up to my usually trying to be artsy antics. Sorry in advance. I also seem to have been quite taken with the Tour d’Eiffel, despite that fact that it is really quite ugly.

There is not much else to tell about our weekend in Paris. As I said, we are sort of on the lazy side. Keep an eye out for the next post, whose subject will be the week before last, while I was on holiday while my mother was here.

Sometimes you wonder what people were thinking.

Then again, sometimes you really, really, really do not want to know. At all. I know I said that I would start with France, but do you remember hearing about that American tourist who decided to go for a walk in Nürnberg without any clothes on? He claimed that he thought that Germans did that all the time. At the time I wondered where this guy had gotten that crazy idea. Well, maybe he had talked with the guy that was seen this afternoon walking along the Mittland Kanal northwest of Wenden-Braunschweig. He was not wearing a stitch of clothing. Luckily he was on the opposite side of the Kanal from where three guys and I were rowing. The boys, of course, thought that it was hilarious. And I, naturally, thought that I am always the lucky one. (Read: Oh my God, I think I have been scared for life... again.)

Two weeks later...

Yes, It has been two weeks since I last posted. Sorry to the very small un-named number of you that rely on this site to pass your boredom (though I really am not sure how this blog qualifies for boredom alleviation- more like boredom induction) while at various activities (read: work). It has been a busy couple of weeks, and I promise to start bringing this site up to date. For a quick overview of the things that I will be updating you on: Paris, Mother's visit, second trip to Berlin and a ton of new (and old) pictures that I have not gotten around to putting up online yet. So, be patient for just a few more days, and this weekend (which is free for once) you will get your fix of my larks on the continent.

Am Ende der Maifeiertage

Today is the last of the Maifeiertage (May – mostly Easter-related – holidays). Since the first of May, there have been three holidays: Maifest, Himmelfahrt, and Pfingsten (May Day, Ascension, and Pentecost). Since Maifest and Himmelfahrt occurred on a Tuesday and a Thursday, respectively, they also included Brücketage – bridge days between the weekend and the holiday, that, while not officially off, most everyone took off anyway. So, in summary, the month of May had two four-day weekends and one three-day weekend.

Since this is the last official day off in a while, I figure I should stop procrastinating (by now you should know that this is one of my more prominent qualities) and really say something of substance on this forum, instead of the random bits of fluff that I have been posting lately – all of those holidays are hard work, and do not lead to a lot of free time for extensive blogging. Speaking of which, I will eventually get around to uploading the pictures that were taken at Maifest of the burning man, etc, and other random pictures that have been taken, most notably, at the Autostadt in Wolfsburg, where I went on the last holiday weekend. I also hope to get some pictures of the Bootshäuser (Boathauses) and around the city at some point, but it had been scattered thunderstormy for the last couple weeks, so I never get around to getting out to do it…

Just to bring you up to speed on things here: I have just about two months left before I head back to the States. I am just about done with my main project for work, and have a large internal report to look forward to writing in the next month in a half. Crew is going crewingly, last week we were able to get out in an eight and it felt really good to be sweeping again after months of scull (there might still be hope that I will not lose my newly found stroke from last semester). This week is Excursionswoche (Excursions week), hence there is no class and I am off to Paris on Wednesday and then my mother will be coming in on Monday for a week. (I have twenty Urlaubstage – (paid) holiday days – I might as well use them.) Then I am back to the grind, finishing up the last bits of things that need to be done before I leave.

Better than a Ham Sandwich

If any of you are familiar with my novice coach's favourite sentence 'A ham sandwich could row that seat better than you.' (He had some other favourites, but they were not sentences, nor repeatable.) Then you might be interested to know that a Ham Sandwich is running as a write in canidate for Prince William County (Virginia) Commonwealth Attorney. Saying that Hamilton 'Ham' Sandwich, Esq. 'will perform with the same skill and tenacity as the current office holder, and best of all is incapable of engaging in personal vendettas against political enemies.'