Despite Europe's many charms, It will always stand out in my mind as a place of thirst. Thirst, thirst, constant, parching thirst.

A desperate mental measuring of the tiny, expensive bottle placed before me to be partitioned among my companions. The wave of horror when realizing that a bottle is heavily carbonated and no more able to quench my thirst than ever-present alcohol.

Water, water, there will never be enough water here.

I will always go thirsty.

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We strolled past the Louvre and through the Tuilleries gardens. The snow was packed down so well by the thousands of passing feet that it looked like the marble statues were ice skating. Everything was blindingly white. We finally ended up at the large ferris wheel they have constructed at the edge of La Place de la Concorde, where we pooled our change and shared une gaufre avec chocolat (a chocolate-covered waffle). We were torn between the ferris wheel and les bateaux mouches, but we finally rushed down to the Seine to buy tickets for the river boat.

I had la soupe du jour and a baguette and he had a pain au chocolat, and we drifted down the Seine beneath the many-storied bridges as the sun slowly set behind the Eiffel Tower.

He tasted my soup and munched on his pain au chocolat.
"You know that country song?" he said, "About Paris and Rome?"

"You mean, and I want to go home... ?

"Is that how you feel now?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Naw, now I'm having fun.

I might feel that way tomorrow."

He looked at me with a peculiar expression. I knew if I were Katie and not me then this moment would be perfect for him.

"I miss you, you know..."

We scurried off the boat and strolled down the avenue towards les Champs Elysees. Most of the restaurants were closed since it was late on Sunday, but you could still see the restaurant owners inside enjoying a meal with their friends.

We found a small place, beautifully decorated with dark wood and red furnishings. I requested a corner and we sat on a red velvet couch around a small square table. I ordered frogs' legs for myself and roast duck for him and we split them. The frogs' legs tasted like almost pure fat, and it was strange to tear their little perfectly-formed calves and thighs off of their fragile little bones and pop them into your mouth. The duck was dark and oily and delicious. I ordered us a grande bouteille d'eau, which little did we know would only be about a liter and cost nearly $10. Other than two older men having an animated conversation and several bottles of wine and the restaurant owners, we were the only people in the place.

We meandered down to les Champs-Elys�es, where the avenue was still lit up brilliantly for Christmas, with the shining ferris wheel at one end and L'Arc de Triomphe in la Place de l'�toile at the other. I had to resist the urge to burst into song:

Je m'baladais sur l'avenue le c�ur ouvert � l'inconnu
J'avais envie de dire bonjour � n'importe qui
N'importe qui et ce fut toi, je t'ai dit n'importe quoi
Il suffisait de te parler, pour t'apprivoiser

Aux Champs-Elys�es, aux Champs-Elys�es
Au soleil, sous la pluie, � midi ou � minuit
Il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux Champs-Elys�es

In this case the rain was just holding off and it was closer to midnight than noon. We bought some fruit and cheese for breakfast and chocolate bars and petites bouteilles du vins for when we got back. We waited for a bit while the manager had to pry open the cash register drawer with a pair of scissors. I managed to buy us each a week-long metro pass so we could feel free to flit about the city during the rest of our week.

He offered me one of the little plastic glasses he had in his bathroom. I declined and he smirked. "My grandma don't need glasses," he recited, "she still drinks from the bottle!"

Needless to say, we were drinking, and one thing led to another, and the next thing I knew I was back in my room reading "Breaking Dawn" until I passed out at 9 pm.

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I am going to Paris.

I will return in ~9 days.



mood: cookie-desiring
listening to: Enrique Iglesias
watching: Martian volcanoes erupting

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Well today's the day before Abstract Day, one of our biggest days of the year. My adviser wanted me to do some calculations, so I took the opportunity to use the back of a nearby envelope for some literally "back-of-the-envelope" calculations.

In other news, Independence Day is a freaking awesome movie.

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"If you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."

---The Little Prince

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In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn't improved my opinion of them.

Whenever I met one of them who seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:

"That is a hat."

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.

---The Little Prince

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Be it extremely emotional, controversial, messed up, or whatever, this entry has been password protected.

If you know it, enter it; or, ask me for it.

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2008 was very good to me. I learned some things, met some people, and traveled around the world with my friends.

Here's to you, 2008.


As for 2009, I like you already.


ps-- I can't shout. The shoutbox is not working for me. I can't let it all out. The SB is not one of the things we can do without.

Come on. I'm talking to you. Come on.

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