Virtually Home

This is going to be a long and rambling post. Most of it is going to be specific information about the two concerts I saw this week. Don't say I didn't warn you. Last weekend was a rather nocturnal one for me. Sunday night found me trying desperately to sleep "early" and utterly failing until 7:30, which made going to class at 1 pretty painful (and believe me, I know how sad that is). Monday night I didn't manage to sleep until 2 a.m., and woke up on account of a too-early alarm at 4:30 before getting up at 5:30 to start my epic London adventure. It was a really foggy morning. You probably can't tell very well from this photo, but even in the train station there was fog about the rafters. I would have appreciated it a lot more had I not been so exhausted. The train ride to Paris passed in a haze. I arrived at Paris Montparnasse and had to cross the city on the number 4 metro line to change trains (not to mention going through all of the metal detecting...

Yesterday we sort of delayed going to soccer until it was time for kickoff of France vs. Romania. Alex and I made some stir fry out of some bell peppers and mushrooms and chicken beforehand. The atmosphere at the pub was a lot different than it had been for the Bordeaux-Marseille game. I was expecting an even bigger turnout because it was the French national team, but my friend Marie, who is from Bordeaux, tells me that les Girondins et l'Olympique are two of the biggest teams and so everyone is interested in seeing the game. Anyway, Alex and I watched the game for a while and later were joined by Maria. I really much learn the rules of soccer -- again, we scored one more time than they did but our goal wasn't counted for some reason I didn't understand. The game ended at a 1-1 tie, which I guess is okay in the preliminary world cup rounds? Again, I was expecting penalty kicks or something. Afterward we wandered over to Place de la Victoire yet again and met some oenologist...

Even though last night was Friday, we were all pretty exhausted from the week. Alex is sick, and he's been sort of on and off as far as how well he feels from hour to hour. He wanted some rest, and having been up until 5 something the night before, I was inclined to agree. But Maria and I went out to buy her some ciagrettes and ended up getting them at the bar downstairs because all the shops are closed by 9, and that was about when we left. We ended up meeting some really nice people there who invited us to go with them to the rum bar at Place de la Victoire, which is apparently the cool place to be at night in Bordeaux. I hadn't noticed this particular place because it isn't right on the square, but maybe a block down a side street. So after my initial confusion (I thought I understood "rum bar" but the reality of such a place wasn't with me so I assumed I was misunderstanding), we walked over that way. Place de la Victoire is two tram stops away on the way ...