Virtually Home

I feel incredibly conflicted. The last few days has passed in a haze of nostalgia and trying to see everyone before they or I leave. After the British girls left, I met up with Lucy and some English/Italian friends at Jardin Publique. The weather was beautifully hot, and I stayed in the shade so as not to make my sunburn worse. I went to open mic night at the Connemara for the last time, which was pretty sad. I played "This Year" by the Mountain Goats and U2's "One", that last with Lawrence Collins and my friends Nath and Clémentine singing along. It wasn't the best rendition, in part from my lack of preparation and in part from their lyrics covering my tab on the music stand, but it all worked out. We played some more guitar in the park across the street after the bar closed. I walked home. It stormed a bit that night, and a cold front came in. It's now in the mid 60s at midday and pretty cold in the morning and the evening. Last night was Wednesd...

The day passed slowly yesterday. I watched some (terrible) movies. I read some Philip K. Dick. I did some yoga and worried about my upcoming final and exposé for the history of France under Louis XV on Wednesday, neither of which I can study for due to my lack of book and notes, the campus being closed, etc. France conspires against my productivity. The evening was much better. The bar by the cathedral was having a party for its owner's birthday, and a local band I'd met at some open mic nights around town was playing. They played an hour set, during which they debuted a new song and played a lot of my favorite covers. We all conspired to meet up at the Black Velvet later on, and parted ways. I went with some people on a guitar-fetching and kebab-buying run to the neighborhood south of Place de la Victoire on Cours de la Marne. We even stopped to buy some Kronenbourg. I taught them the English phrase "beer run". You know. Spreading the American college culture. ...

Last night I dreamed that my parents were looking for kittens, but could never find one suitable. So they decided to clone our old cat, Tatertot, which, for some reason, made me really angry. I kept insisting that it wasn't fair to get the same cat as before, but then he was too cute to stand against and I went with it. There hasn't been a lot going on lately, in the way of school, and then suddenly I have tests and presentations and a lot of Italian to study this week. My history test will be one question on "a character" from any time in the reign of Louis XV, which I think is a kind of ridiculous topic, considering we're talking about a 60ish year time period, with multiple wars on two continents and a constant stream of changing financial ministers and foreign allies, not to mention mistresses, legitimate and illegitimate children, etc. We'll see how it goes. Apparently the French kids are also being tested over five random dates from the time period, bu...