Ode To The Ass Crack of Dawn

Good Morning Sun, How are you?

Why do you shine so dimly?

Perhaps you are tired

Maybe last evening you were tipsy

We didn't get much sleep either

Preparing late into the night

Why don't you go to sleep?

Just f*** off and turn out the light

I don't think when Josh woke me up this morning that he knew just how badly he was risking his life. I was so tired and angry that I almost devised an alternative use for the large, blunt Shakespeare compilation that sat near my bed. But instead, I have channeled my rage into song. We'll see how long that holds me for...

As you can see we left London this morning (Read: VERY EARLY MORNING) for Paris via the 5:34 AM EuroStar departing Waterloo Terminal. Our very gracious hosts insisted on paying for our cab fare there which was very much appreciated as London has probably ripped our wallets about as many holes as they can take. The EuroStar travels through a good stretch of countryside both in England and France and makes for a pleasant 2nd Class ride if you are going to stare out the window the entire time (excluding the 20 min it actually takes to cross the Channel. However, the sightseeing can be a little difficult if you've been given a seat where there is more metal than window next to you. I spent the ride bending forward to see out of the small space of glass I had been alloted. I still enjoyed myself and it should be noted that the upper classes (which can be affordable under the right conditions) enjoy many luxuries that would have made the ride even better. That said, I no longer feel the overwhelming need to travel on it again if cheaper arrangements can be made.

We left London so early operating under the assumption that the earlier we arrived in Paris, the more we'd get done. Eh, not so much. We are staying with our friend from high school Ilya who is doing a study-abroad program in Paris before his sophomore year of university. He's letting us stay with him and we are oh so thankful. The only catch is that he has to personally clear all visitors so we can't come and go so freely. So when we got into Paris we couldn't drop our stuff off at the apartment, we had to go to see him at his class, drop off our stuff, go out exploring and come back in about 4 hours and then go home.

In those four hours we accomplished very little. Per Ilya's suggestion we wandered up alongside the Seine (pretty and a LOT cleaner than the Thames) and found ourselves in Central Paris. Our first Paris moment was approaching the center of the city and seeing the back of Notre-Dame in the distance. That was kind of a thrill. We went inside the Cathedral and did a quick once around and left knowing that we'll be back to survey it properly.

After that we basically wandered around the area looking for a Currency Exchange and an ATM. After we found those (with a less favorable rate than we had hoped for, damn economy) we wandered some more only to find ourselves in a hardware store in the basement of a mall. Ooh la la, how cultured we are. It was actually pretty fun though. It was weird having a hardware store in a mall catering primarily to clothes shoppers and Josh theorizes that it's the place where guys can go while their wives and girlfriends shop. Definitely a concept I'd like to bring back to the States.

The time such wasted we realized that it was time to put down the soldering irons and chain cutters and go meet Ilya. For variety's sake we took the other side of the Seine. One of the riverside passages led through this shady inlet where a village of hobos had set up a tent camp. Naturally, instead of hurrying along, we stopped to take pictures. Josh wanted to meet Mayor of Hobotown but that's about all I had patience for and we left. We met Ilya about half an hour late (we blamed it on the hobos) and he was nice enough to say he didn't mind. Once we got back home that was about it for sightseeing. We got reacquainted with Ilya and went to a kosher restaurant where Josh could sink his teeth into some beef. He was so excited for meat and then when he got the burger they had put mayonnaise on it. It took Josh about a minute to scrape it all off and about the same amount of time to down the hamburger. The poor thing never had a chance.

Now that we're back home we should probably sit down and make some plans, but somehow I doubt that will actually happen.