A Post-Vacation 'Word Up'

Well, I've just arrived home after quite some time away. We went to Wales for a trip, which I'm afraid I won't be writing about for sheer lack of time. However, it was very fun. This week is our break week, and Jon, Marc, Donnamarie and I went to Paris/Barcelona to celebrate our being in Europe and having parents who still send money if we sound hungry on the phone. Here is an abbreviated version of the trip...

Things I Checked off My Life's 'To do' List Over the Vacation:

-Got two new stamps in my Passport
-Got hit on in french. (Ah, bon soir madame...)
-Stayed in one of France's more culturally 'interesting' areas.


-Watched news about Canada in Turkish on TV in a restaraunt in France.
-Saw a two famous ladies at their home in the Louvre. (The other one was two dimensional and smiling.)


-Ordered a meal in french.
-Thought about how much the cities in Canada need to reconsider their lighting schemes.
-Made my own lip gloss colour.
-Bought my own lip gloss colour.
-Walked along one of the most famous streets in the world at night.


-Ordered a bottle of wine for dinner.
-Felt uncultured whilst watching one of my male friends have to try the wine and approve of it before we could drink it. (Didn't know that actually happened in real life.)
-Took Public transportation in another country
-Visited one of the most opulent palaces in the world; laughed at the scaffolding covering some parts.
-Sat in the garden of the aforementioned palace and pretended I was having a garden party there and everyone was my guests.


-Didn't eat at McDonald's while I was in continental Europe.
-Got hit on by Paris, the voice-over personification, during a documentary-type movie.
-Had what can be best described as a quintilingual count to 10 at the dinner table one night.
-Looked like a cheesy American tourist. Took pictures accordingly.


-Actually shrieked a little bit upon first seeing the Eiffel Tower.
-Laughed along with a waiter at Marc's funny Quebecois accent.
-Imitated some sexy Renaissance models. (Left hand on breast, look indifferent.)
-Made two males in their 20's reconsider whether they really wanted to live with women in their future lives.
-Laid on a park bench under the Eiffel tower at night.


-Got lost in Paris' sex district, tried to avoid stopping in the "Sexy Centre" to ask for directions.
-Got turned away at a bar for gay men.
-Got subsequently referred to the bar for gay women down the street.
-Had a beautiful wine/cheese/grapes/baguette picnic in a park beside Versailles.


-Attended a service at the famous Notre Dame Cathedral.
-Walked around a medieval market and did not laugh at the vendor's costumes/wares.
-Later, DID laugh about the vendors costumes and wares.
-Had tea and ate pastries which, by all basic formal logic, are some of the best in France. (At Laduree)


-Bought lunch at a huge Spanish market which had a lot of questionable looking sheep body parts.


-Listened to some Spanish-speaking Jazz singers doing their best at some great English jazz standards.
-Got somewhat lost on the streets of Barcelona.
-Watched Barcelona's best street performers.
-Pretended that the people who had just ripped a plastic emergency poncho advertising a Welsh-language channel in half, and fashioned two new items, were not my friends


-Decided what I'd do if ever forced to become a street performer.
-Saw the Barcelona Football stadium.
-Took a boat ride around Spain's mediterranian coast.


-Two words: muchos sangrias.
-Cured a friend of his map fetish.
-Relied on two of my bilingual friends to do most of the talking on both trips.
-Saw about 3000 "what are they compensating for?"-type statues/monuments.
-Navigated my way out of Spain with a friend who speaks as little spanish as I do. (no habla espanol?)
-Got through customs on the way back into the UK without getting racially profiled. (Evidently this was hard the night we came back.)

Anyway, it was a nice trip and I hope that I get to go back to Europe again in my lifetime. I've been very lucky so far to go twice. I highly recommend either city as being stunningly beautiful, but my new love of life is the Eiffel tower: it's terribly romantic. If you aren't in love with someone in Paris, you probably should reconsider your relationship.

Now, back to the endless schoolwork.