I have had many visitors here! Anne from Trinity came from London for the weekend (when my
camera got stolen), and then Hugh and Elyssa (also Trinity, also from London) were here last weekend with two of Elyssa's flatmates. The only thing that's tough about a host family is that I can't offer anyone housing when they come here, and staying in Paris isn't cheap, but both groups were able to find hotels and it worked out pretty well. I stole this picture of Hugh and Elyssa and me from Facebook. Hugh looks sad, but really he's ecstatic to be with Elyssa and me.Anne had never been to Paris before, so I got to do a bunch of the touristy things I haven't really done since I got here, which was fun...although I drastically underestimated the amount of time it would take us to walk from the Marais, where we were having dinner, to the Eiffel Tower (I figured it would take 30, maybe 40 minutes), and 6K and 90 minutes later, we arrived just as it was closing and couldn't go up. But I wouldn't have had my camera with me to be stolen if she and I hadn't been doing touristy things, so we decided that we had each ruined the other's weekend and were now even.
Hugh and Elyssa were here for Halloween, which means absolutely nothing to anyone in this country, but some of my kind teammates sent me a care package containing, among other things, Double Stuf Oreos and Halloween temporary tattoos, so we all rocked those. I even got the director of my program to put a green witch on her hand.
After Hugh and Elyssa left for a week in Italy (they are on break; I am jealous), I went to see the new James Bond movie with some CUPA friends. I had never seen a James Bond movie before, but fortunately I was sitting with a connoisseur who was able to give me a little exposition before it started, and it was awesome. It was like "24" in movie form, which is a high compliment. It is my understanding that it is not out in the US yet (or at least it wasn't on Sunday), but go see it ASAP.
We also went to a chocolate fair on Sunday, and it was one of the most wonderful things I have ever experienced. It was at the massive French expo center just barely within Paris city limits and there were literally a thousand vendors selling everything from Lindt truffles to chocolate and onion sauce (meant to be eaten with foie gras, bien sur). Almost everyone offered free samples and I ate a ton and was just generally in heaven.
Tuesday night was, obviously, the election. Unfortunately, California is really far away from here, so we all napped during the day in preparation for the all-night festivities. We wanted to go to a party organized by the Young Democrats of Paris or something (the main selling point was that it cost 5 euros, they had big-screen TVs, and they started serving Barack Obagels at 3:00 a.m.), but there were like 4,000 people there and they only had room for 1,200. I made some phone calls (I'm pretty well-connected, but you knew that already) and got us into the American University of Paris viewing party. I'm going to take all credit for that since the other 11 people I was with had no suggestions whatsoever and I'm pretty sure I saved the night. I'm just saying. Anyway, they have a little on-campus pub thing, and not surprisingly, it was packed, but it was a great atmosphere. They served pancakes all night long and everyone in the room screamed the 10-second countdown every time another poll closed and fought about whether or not the Phillies deserved to win the World Series and heckled people from states that voted for McCain (it was a largely blue-state crowd) and it was generally the most wonderful display of Americanness I have seen in 10 weeks. The only thing missing was the Barack Obagels. They gave us a free champagne toast when CNN projected Obama as the winner and people broke out into a spontaneous rendition of the National Anthem and I was sick as a dog (as usual) and loved it all anyway. The metro re-opened at 5:30 in the morning, just in time for me to go home and catch Obama's speech with my host father, who was leaving for work. I slept until 4 p.m. yesterday. The French are ecstatic, by the way. Sarkozy is completely obsessed with Obama, but the people here in general pay a lot of attention to our politics. We have been getting congratulations from pretty much anyone who figures out that we are American.
Then yesterday I went to "Le Mariage de Figaro" at the Comedie Francaise, which I probably would have enjoyed more if a) I could have seen any of the action at all, b) I could have breathed, or c) the chairs were less comfortable and I was less inclined to fall asleep. I picked up on maybe 6% of what was going on. Oh well, at least I understood all of the French subtitles during "Quantum of Solace."
Hugh and Elyssa are coming back on Sunday on their way home to London and my father is coming...next weekend, I believe. So that will be nice.
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