The sites of Paris

So since I am not working much right now, (and by much I mean at all! lol) I decided to do some sightseeing. I am trying to get in everything I have wanted to see for the past 3 years and been putting off. So today I went to the Catacombes and quarries. Let me just start by saying I wasn't really sure what to expect. I mean I know it is a bunch of bones and such but had no idea how many. So first you go down these spiral stairs (for a good 5 minutes non stop). I def got a little dizzy. Then you read a couple of plaques talking about what the underground quarries used to be and then how they were turned into catacombes b/c the quarries under the left bank of the river caused so many problems with the cemeteries that were above them. Then you walk down a winding tunnel with very little light for about 10 minutes. Then you get to a door that above it says "Stop. Here is the Empire of Death" (that is the translation anyways). And then there are the bones. And not just a few but millions and millions and millions. They are just stacked all the way along both sides. Every now and then there is plaque that will say these are the remains from such and such cemetery. Basically what they did was remove the remains from the cemetery and smush them all together in an area of these underground quarries. It is crazy. And then you walk for a good 20 mintues through the winding paths of these remains. It is quite humbling actually. By the time you get through it all, you realize that despite what your belief of what happens after life may be, in the end your body is no more. The bones were just there. Like no big deal and all stacked on one another. Some of them were famous people or at least well known people of France but you would never know which ones because they are all burried there anomonously.
A couple of tips of anyone who may be planning to visit this somewhat depressing but definitely interesting site. 1) Don't wear open toed shoes. Because it is underground, there is water that drips from the ceiling sometimes and there are puddles so be careful. 2) If you don't like the dark or get anxious in it, a flashlight might be a good idea (could help with photos too as no flash is allowed). 3) It is probably a site that is better to visit with another person but overall is definitely worth visiting. Enjoy!!!

Back in Paris

So again, it has been awhile. I swear, one day I will get better at this :)
The rest of the summer was great. Lots of fun, some interesting events at work, good times with friends, but all in all a great time home!! So now I am back in Paris. The flight was long and had some interesting events. For example, when I got to the Toronto airport security the guy saw my Western sweatshirt the guard scuffed at me. I told him I had also gone to another university and he said that his son goes to Western. It turns out the boy didn't do so well his first year! lol After my long flight to Warsaw I had to go through security again. This time, the guard looked at my bottle of buckleys medicine. He didn't believe it was medicine so made me take some there at the security! lol Can't say I've ever had to do that. Another hour wait and then a two hour flight and I finally landed in Paris. I got home and had to wait for my landlady to come home. I sat in the hallway with all my stuff. She came home about an hour later and I got into my apartment and started to unpack. I had to bring up some boxes from the storage. I unpacked a little and then headed to bed. The past week I have spent catching up with friends here, getting my bearings again and enjoying the beautiful city!! To top things off I went to a concert on a boat last night and tonight I am going to watch an Opera at a movie theatre! lol More details to come!!!

Being back home in Hamilton

So I have been home for just over two weeks now. Things have been pretty crazy and super busy too. I flew home on a Thursday night and then went to work on the Friday morning! It is nice to be home but as usual a little weird. I am starting to finally get back into the swing of things. This summer (or at least so far) has made me really wish I could get settled into a real routine. Get a real job, a place to actual call my own! lol It is nice to see my friends and family though. It is weird though as most of them are starting to move to places just outside of the city but still close enough. Work is keeping me busy. I am happy to be back at the camp again and getting super excited for the camp to start!!! Our numbers are a little low, but I can't wait for next week. The campers show up on Tuesday and I am looking forward to a summer of fun times. As usual it will be stressful and sometimes frustrating but in the end it is the best part of my year!! Yes I know, some of you who are reading this will chuckle at that comment as I do complain about it throughout the summer but once the summer is over, I miss it. So it is worth it!! So here is to a great summer of fun, campers, hot weather (like the 33 degrees it is supposed to be on Tuesday! lol), family, and more fun!!

Watched a movie with Ethan Hawke

So the family I babysit for is connected in the film industry out here. The husband is a director for a small company out here. Through his work he has made friends with many actors and directors and such, plus the fact that he can speak English is a big bonus for those in the industry that don't speak french but are in France for filming and such. One of said friends is Ethan Hawke. He was in town the past few months filming a new movie and Sebastian (the husband) asked him if he wanted to present a film and have a discussion about it with the audience afterwards. So being the family's babysitter, and Sebastian knowing that I have an interest in film, he invited me and a few friends to come to this film presentation. So Saturday morning at 11am, me and two girlfriends went to a small little theatre in Paris and waited with the rest of the audience for the showing of Point Blank (a 1967 Lee Marvin film) to start. As a guy was explaining that after the film we would be able to discuss the film with Ethan, I happened to turn around and look towards the door and who should pop their head into the theatre but Ethan Hawke. We made full eye contact and I even got a little smile :) I then told my girlfriends who also turned around and smiled at Ethan, and then of course giggled. It was quite clear that we were the north americans in the room! lol So Ethan presented the film and then he went and sat in the balcony of the theatre and we all watched Point Blank. It was actually a really good film and I really enjoyed it. Then afterwards Ethan came back to the main level of the theatre and sat up front and did a question and answer period for a while. It was pretty neat to sit there and discuss the film with him. It was interesting to hear another actors perspective about the acting within the film and on the film as a whole. Afterwards, Ethan was a sport and signed some autographes and even took some pictures with people. It was quite a quaint little event and a pretty cool experience. Gotta love having random connections like that :)

Boys II Men Concert in Paris

So this may sound silly to some of you but I went to the Boys II Men concert on the weekend. Too be honest I was a little sceptical but it was actually a really good concert. I had a lot of fun and knew more of their songs than I had realised! Lol They did an amazing rendition of Lonestar’s Amazed. (Which it turns out was offered to them by their record company but they didn’t think it was good for them at the time so they passed it up. Too bad, since Lonestar made it a number one hit and got a Grammy for it! Lol) They also did some the Beatles, the Four Tops and even Aerosmith. The odd thing about the concert was that it was in Paris and although most of the crowd were French, the band spoke maybe one or two words in French and that is all! They also did a lot of speaking in English; you know explaining their songs and such, which must have been frustrating for some of the French people, especially those that don’t know very much English. They even did an explanation of the song Mama and told people to call their moms on their cells and hold them up to the stage, they even took a few of the phones closest to the stage and sang into the phone. Again, may not have meant very much for those who don’t understand English! Lol But the funny thing was, and I think someone forgot to tell the band, but the following morning was France’s mother’s Day!! Quite fitting if you ask me. They also did another song which was a love song and then handed out a dozen roses each to the crowd. But the thing that amazed me the most was that anytime they would ask the crowd to sing along and hold the microphone out over the crowd everyone would sing the song in English and it sounded amazing. There was one point were they sang the entire chorus and it was perfect English. You would never have known that it was a mostly French crowd.

Just my luck - mor about Portugal!!

This trip has been full of randomness, in a really good way. First, when I arrived on the Thursday it happened to be the only night of the week that the bull fights are on. I am not a supporter but it is a very honoured Portuguese tradition that I wanted to experience. (I will describe it in detail in another blog for those who are interested). Secondly, on the day I went to tour one of the castles in the city, there happened to be an extreme bike competition that actually went through the castle grounds. They rode down the stairs and did jumps off one of the walls. It was pretty cool to see. Thirdly, despite having booked a bed in a 10-bed dorm at the hostel they said there was a problem so they put me in a 4-bed dorm but charged me the same price. Not bad. On top of that, they didn’t put anyone else in my room despite quite a few people being put in the other 10-bed dorm on the same floor. So I had a 4-bed room all to myself. Fourthly, my second last night Lisbon’s football (or soccer) team “Benfica” was named League Champions for 2010. I am not even sure how to explain the festivities of that night. People crowded the streets wearing the teams’ scarves and jerseys, there were people hanging out of their cars with flags and signs, floats, double-decker buses filled with people, etc. There were people honking and screaming and climbing street lights and statues everywhere. At some points the entire crowd of people, children, elderly, teens and adults, would all jump up and down, chanting. Of course, I didn’t know exactly what they were chanting but the words campeao and nos sumes were repeated a lot. With my French and English I was able to figure out that they were chanting “We are the Champions”. It was pretty clear. There was a semi-truck bed that had a DJ and lights and sparkles and people were going crazy. It even had a fireworks display. It was such an amazing thing to witness and to be in the middle of. There were hundreds of people filling the square where we were. It is indescribable and something I’ve never seen before and will never forget. And finally, despite the difficulties it caused, it is pretty cool that the Pope arrived in the city where I was and drove past where I was staying.
Overall an amazing (and much needed) trip!! Thanks, Omas and Bucky!!

Volcano and the Pope

It seems odd to have these two in the same sentence but they both caused major problems for my return from Portugal back to Paris. Luckily I was still able to catch my flight out of Lisbon but it was iffy for awhile there. As of Sunday all flights out of Lisbon were cancelled. So I started looking into other options. Basically at the time, my only option was to take a train to the French border then catch another train up to Paris. Might I just add that it was going to cost me 67 euros from Lisbon, all through Portugal and Spain to the French border. Then it was going to cost another 97 euros from the French border to Paris. I knew the French were greedy but really?? I can cross 2 other countries for 2/3 of the price to not even cross the whole of France. Anyways back to the travels themselves. So this 2hour train ride left Lisbon everyday at 4pm. I had to work on Wednesday so I was going to need to take the Monday train. Unfortunately it was already full as of Sunday morning (which actually ended up being a good thing). So I booked a ticket for the Tuesday train, which meant I was going to miss work on Wednesday. However, Tuesday morning, as of 8am, my flight was scheduled to go so I headed to the train station to try and return my train ticket. It took FOREVER for me to get there since with my luck, the Pope was arriving that day to give mass in the main square. Of course, most of the buses weren’t running in the area I needed to go and neither were the metro, thus I walked for almost 45 minutes to get to the train station. Luckily, when I got there I was able to return my ticket. As I was doing so, a lady at another window was looking to buy a train ticket to Paris. So instead of me being charged the 10% administration fee, I got a full 163,20 Euros refund. But they wouldn’t put the money back on my credit card, he just gave me cash, it was a little odd. However, I then had to walk another 45 minutes just to get back to the hostel. I then noticed that people were starting to line up along a street near the hostel. When I asked the guy at the hostel why, he said because the Pope was going to be driving down the road next to the hostel. Great, what did that mean for the buses? I.e. how do I get to the airport? Luckily I gave myself some extra time. I waited for 30 minutes for a bus. The cool thing though is that I got to see the Pope, well his Pope-mobile anyways, as there were a lot of people between me and him and he definitely didn’t go slowly at all. I feel bad for all those people who lined up for at least an hour because it literally took 3 seconds for him to pass by.
However, once at the airport things weren’t over yet. I got to check-in with an hour before it closed but hadn’t paid for my checked bag so I was checked-in but had to go to the ticket office to pay. Unfortunately the ticket office only had 2 windows open and was the same place where people were transferring their missed flights due to the volcano the previous day. Needless to say I waited for about 45 minutes then finally I went to the window (simply to ask if I was actually in the right place) and the lady saw the baggage voucher I had and since I was paying in cash she took me right away. Sweet!!! So I returned to the check-in desk, got my boarding pass, headed to the long line at security and finally made it to my gate as they were calling for final boarding. So in the end it all worked out. Plus, despite the ticket office telling people the flight was full I had an entire 3 seat row to myself!!! Another wild adventure!