Paris Again Again

…and in conclusion, I am still in love with Paris. I can’t help myself. This time we went without being coddled and I still felt the ease as though I could wander the streets of Paris for days without ever being bored. To be honest, I think part of it is the grandeur and elegance of the architecture in even the simplest of places (yeah, yeah, I know we only went to the “nice” parts). Basically it is settled that, after I become a multi-millionaire, I am definitely buying a house in France.

My mom and I managed to get to our hotel on the subway and walking in the dark (without looking at a map) and wandered the city. We saw the big sites – Louvre, Musee D’Orsay, Notre Dame, Arc D’Triompe, Eiffel Towel plus other random buildings like the Justice Building, and the Paris Opera House. We also encountered a couple street concerts which were cool. I realized that after traveling around like a stupid tourist for about two months now, that I have little compunction about my behavior. You want a croissant? Okay, I am going to order it and I am going to try to be polite but ask for it in English. Deal. The unfortunate truth is that a white (in other words a non-immigrant) fairly educated person knows English in Western Europe. I have only encountered two people thus far, who likely didn’t have high school educations, that I couldn’t communicate with adequately. I guess I am equally angry about the lack of language education in the United States and grateful for historical English and particularly, the more contemporary U.S. cultural imperialism. Yay for hegemony! I mean, What?

In contrast, this weekend all I heard about from the News Sources available to me was:
-The Dollar Sucks and has reached an all time low
-The U.S. is in a recession, the job market is falling, unemployment will only rise in the next year (when we are trying to find jobs), and the price of gold is rising.
-With an unpopular president and bad economy, it is never been a worse time to be an American in Europe (If this is a bad time, its not so bad)
Although I also did read on the Tram (in Dutch) that Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck held a fundraiser for Obama in Boston.

My mom and I also took the train to Versailles and toured the inside. It was beautiful. It is incredible how many more tourists they were compared to a month ago. I almost got run down by this woman in a wheelchair. What I liked about Versailles is that they had free audio tours so I knew a bit about what I was looking at. I also left just wanting to know more, which is always a good sign.

I am wondering, is secularity “neutral”?

I confess in the U.S. I hate ham. It is disgusting. But here (generally Europe) it’s delicious. I only bring this up, in light of Easter, and because I have had good ham everywhere.

Today after class, my mom and I went to the Van Gogh museum and then I became a big tourist. The number one sign of a tourist here is people carrying around a blue Van Gogh poster thing. That was me today. I wanted a poster that said “Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam” to remember my time here. After the Van Gogh museum we wandered a bit, went in a few shops, and got French Fries. Also, in general, I think so far my mom has gotten a pretty good taste of Dutch food. On the day she got here we got Indonesian and yesterday we got Dutch Pancakes, today fries and she has already had stroopwaffels.

Well, that is all for now. I am busy trying to finish up my homework.


Yes, there was a Hilary for President Sticker on a Streetlamp in Paris.