Play time

As I was sitting doing my homework my soeur d’accueil, Yaelle, who is 8 years old, came into my room looking serious. “Are you doing homework? Because I want to play with you.” I was doing homework, but being the procrastinator that I am I figured it would be much more fun to play with an 8 year old French girl. She handed me a pretend telephone and explained that she would have one part in her room and I would have the other in mine. She went back into her room, which is across the hall, and soon my phone rang. “Allo, bonjour….” I had to ask her to bring me a dossier, and then she came into my room, gave me a piece of paper and said that I could call her when I was finished. She left for her room and announced in a narrator’s voice that it was the next day. I called her and told her that I had finished and she came and picked up the dossier.
I had gotten the principle, so we moved to the next level. She called and invited me to have some tea in her room. I walked across the hall. We exchanged bisous, and she sat me down, and offered me tea, cake, and a tic-tac. I left again for my room, with the promise that I would be called again soon.
This is where things got difficult. Without any warning, I became 2 people. She called Hannah 1 and asked if I wanted a dossier, and then said she had another friend on the line and she would call me back. The other friend on the line was also me. Except that she called both of me Hannah, so that I was never really sure who I was and what I was supposed to be saying. And then of course she called one of me, and asked me what it was a wanted. So I got some good work done on my creative/improv reflexes. I had a feeling that this could go on for several hours, so I finally had to end it by saying that I did really have some homework to do. I am, however, awaiting me next phone call.

An American in Paris

The real live Urinetown is alive and well and living in Paris. Throughout my travels in France I came across several bathrooms where I actually had to pay to pee. Incroyable. But, aside from that, and the fact that I caught a rhume, my first vacance was a success.
We started in Paris. The first day there we were overly enthusiastic and decided that it would be much more fun to walk than to take the metro. 6 hours of walking later and I could no longer feel my feet. But we did see the classic sights: Hotel de Ville, Seine, Louvre, Tuileries, Obelisk, Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and the Tour Eiffel. The next day we wised up and became friends with the metro. We spent about four hours in the Louvre and here’s something new I found out: the ancient Egyptians had eyebrow tweezers. I mean, sure, the Louvre’s got the Mona Lisa, The Winged Victory, and the Venus de Milo, but it also has ancient Egyptian hair tweezers…who knew? I also saw the Musee D’Orsay, Saint-Chapelle, Notre Dame, and Versailles.
But these were my two favorite things in Paris: we went to the top of the Tour Eiffel, and the view was amazing. And I saw the inside of the Paris Opera which was incredible. Rather ritzy, and it had a room like the Hall of Mirrors, but even more golden and shiny if that’s possible.
From Paris, we took the train to Caen, Normandy. Normandy was much more relaxed, but I still saw some cool stuff. Caen has a castle that William the Conqueror lived in, two ancient Abbeys (one with William the Conqueror’s tomb) and one ancient Cathedral. I also saw Mount Saint Michel and the Bayeux Tapestry.
My rhume had fully blossomed in Caen so even though it had been fun I was ready to return to Aix. The trains back turned out to be an adventure in itself. The first train from Caen to Paris did not have assigned seats. Correction, it had assigned seats for everyone but us. So we got kicked out of about three different seats throughout the two hour voyage. Luckily the second train was better. I was, however, completely exhausted when I returned as I had been traveling for about ten hours and had taken way too many types of transportation: a tram, 2 trains, a metro, and a car. But vacation was great, Aix is still beautiful, and now I just have to start planning for vacance number 2—I’m thinking Italy.