Just Lying Around...

Whitney got home from work today and welcomed me and the weekend by tackling me to the ground! For those of you that know us both and are, naturally, confused, allow me to explain: I was in the final climax of Harry Potter 7. Basically my mind was elsewhere. Oh yeah, and I was completely entangled in this huge feather blanket. (I love keeping our apartment cold just to glory in the central air... Whitney will most likely put a stop to it once we receive our first utilities bill so I've got to enjoy it while it lasts!)

It was a cheap shot and I can assure you all that I shall be revenged. Luckily my laptop lay on the ground near where my head ended up and I was able to get hard evidence with my photo booth app.!!!

Daily Doings

Whitney, Chris, Jared, and I just got home from seeing Okkervil River at the free concert series they have every summer. It was great but concerts always take a lot out of me... Combine that with Radiohead and a TON of apparently sourceless I-15 traffic on the way home and you get one suuuuuper tired Paige.

The crown was necessary to give me the happy energy I needed to finish folding laundry before going night-night.

I call this Whitney's dead fish face. He just gets sexier and sexier with each passing day.

Life in Lyon Update

Went to see Harry Potter yesterday. Can't believe I made it in to the first showing at 11am--there was a bit of a line. But it was about 3€ cheaper so that was good. 

So, being in Lyon (a bigger city) I got to see it VOST which means it's the original version with French subtitles. After sitting through all the ads previews finally started. These were all in French and literally lasted 30 minutes! Previews didn't even start until 11:30! The only good one was for Nissan and featured a dance off between two brands of cars... It's how I thought driving a car should go... maybe I should get a Nissan. Hmmm. I could only find the English version--it was a little different in French. O-well, it's still awesome--it's like Step-up with your car! I really didn't think Step-up could EVER be topped. Wow.

And then there was this preview for "Totally Spies"... Apparently it has had some playing time in the US recently as well, but it is EVERYWHERE here. I just found myself thinking as I watched this preview "Is this really how they (the French) see us (the Americans)?" It is an originally French cartoon (I believe, from the little research I could stand doing) but takes place in Hollywood. Yeah. Anyway, it's very popular here. 

Then they played other previews. I'm not sure if you have seen the preview for 2012 with John Cusack but it's another Independence Day/Day After Tomorrow/Cloverfield kind of epic destruction kind of movie. So of course it contains the typical, iconic shots of important buildings and landmarks being 

destroyed. For example, in the 2012 preview there is a shot of an aircraft carrier rolling over and flattening the White House. I kid you not--there were titters and smatterings of applause throughout the packed theatre... I slide self-consciously lower in my seat.

So, yeah. That was fun/funny/awkward/disappointing. The movie was good. But now it's back to work. Hurray for doing an in depth inventory of my local grocery store! 

My Crazy Dreams

I had a dream last night, woke up (still in the dream) and tried to tell Emily Earl and Brianne Emry (who I was hanging out with) about the dream I had just woken up from. So, for those just tuning in or for the rest of us that are still completely confused... I had a dream within a dream and then continued in another dream where I was trying to tell those around me about the dream dream I had just had... 

It's kind of like the single quotation marks within double quotation marks thing. 

Maybe I shouldn't have tried that weird gree

n drink with the fairy on the bottle last night at a local French cafe... No, not really...

Life in Lyon Update

While I do hope to continue with my daily tales from my Euro-Tour with Brianne, I thought I might as well do a little post about the present. 

Lyon is beautiful and treating me well.

I am quite pleased with my apartment's location--I really had no idea where to live and just kind of happened upon this location and it's been perfect for me. There's a large farmer's market right outside my door on the banks of the river. 

I was a little sad for these bunnies, though.

After doing some yoga in my apartment I thought I'd whip something up...

Here's something I just threw together... ok, not really.

That's a dinner I had the other night with a new friend named Elisa while eating on Rue Merciere (Restaurant Row, kind of a tourist trap place, but worth experiencing). Mom--this is where that bistro is located.

 
A few weeks ago I met Djima. He's a student from Togo and has been very helpful with my research accompanying me to farmer's markets and cafes and helping me out as an interpreter.

Fun times. These are just a few excerpts from my recent doings here in Lyon. I'll talk to you all again soon.

Day 3... Brest: Not the worst place in the world to be stranded

May 7 finds us on a plane from London, England to Brest, France (I'm not sure why I'm doing a sad face... we were basically thrilled expecting to be in Paris by that night!!).

But first we (as in me) have to do some serious rearranging of poundage in luggage. Yes, there are some airlines in Europe that offer CRAZY cheap flights. These cheap prices come at a price, however... haha... There are a lot of extra fees, checked baggage can't weigh nearly as much as it can on US flights, and if your checked baggage is over it's something like 15€/kg over... this adds up pretty quickly. 

I manage to work it out somehow with much blood, sweat, tears, and throwing away of toiletries... We are glad we arrived at the airport so early.

[Ok, this next story has no accompanying photos because we were both freaking out so much that the last thing either of us wanted to do while it was happening was pull out a camera.]

So, we go through customs (very surprised at how little they care after the absolute GRILLING we received at UK customs in Heathrow), find the shuttle to the train station (excitedly nervous to be dealing all in French suddenly), and arrive at the train station with time to spare before our train to Paris departs. We are pretty happy--I'm absolutely euphoric. Brianne is trying to force me to handle as many of the transactions as she can to prepare me for when I'm here alone. I hate her for a few seconds but soon feel pretty good! On the drive from the airport through downtown Brest towards the train station I am overwhelmed by a sense of familiarity and belonging that I hadn't felt since landing in Heathrow. France is familiar. France is welcoming. I kind of feel like I can understand French better than I understood British English... 

[Here's where things go down hill.] We are told at the Espace de Vente (place of sales) by the very unhelpful "English speaking" clerk that there is no way are getting to Paris tonight. Ok. Not much we can do about that. Long story short, after waiting in line several more times with more questions, working with many different clerks of varying levels of friendliness, we set out for a hotel which is hopefully nearby and hopefully cheap... We find it. We check-in. 

The official/very unofficial use of our amazing French count is at about 5! (For those keeping track...)

Now that we're resigned to not be in Paris by tonight--we have our tickets for the train tomorrow afternoon in hand--we decide that seeing a little of Brittany might be kind of fun and cool. We are not wrong.

First bit of fun: this is the elevator in our hotel! We have to use it because we're up several floors of a spiral staircase and I have my huge suitcase. So Brianne and I decide we may as well shove everything in!

Hahahaha!!! It was quite a squeeze... We had to remove our backpacks and stack things vertically once the door closed. We were more than a little concerned that we wouldn't make it up the four floors...

As we are spending unexpected monies on a hotel and other such delays, we decide to find something a little less spendy for our first dinner... so, not this place. But the display is too gorgeous to not snap a quick photo with.

We really enjoy ourselves wandering around Brest that evening. Being right on the northwestern point of the country the air is salty, moist, and cool. It is lovely. We eat and head back to our hotel, check in with family and loved ones, and get to bed later than was perhaps wise... 

London

Ok, I really am sorry. Here, finally, are my pictures from London. Enjoy.

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