Yesterday after I finished talking to you I had to leave for the concert. I met Leila and Callie downstairs at 8:23 to walk over. I knew we were in trouble when it started pouring a few seconds before we left. It only got worse as we walked to accent. All the other students were already there huddled under their umbrellas in the doorway. We took a head count and then walked to the bus stop. I've never waited for so long for a bus; maybe it was just the rain that made it feel like forever. We were all ready to bail, except Mindy of course, when the bus finally came. It was so crowded that we barely fit on. A steamy, rainy bus is never pleasant.
Mindy assured us that the bus would drop us off near the bar and it would be no problem. HA! We walked up countless hills (Paris should really be called the city of a thousand hills) until we came to a small corner bar. We trodded inside and found seats in the back of the bar. Mindy's husband met us there. The waitress was not happy to deal with a thousand, non-French-speaking Americans who didn't want to order anything. Leila, Callie, and I finally decided to go to the bar. The girls ordered tequila sunrises, which they said weren't very good, and I got a small Stella. Then the "band came on".
It was a singular guy with an acoustic guitar. It was like nothing I've ever heard before. Half of the song was singer-songwriter and the other half was screamo with blaring feedback that literally startled us. That's right. I didn't say half the set. I said half the song. We took to trying to decipher the scary, phallic paintings on the wall. I did appreciate that he sung in English and covered the Killer's song Shadowplay. Otherwise it was a bust. Mindy said that we only had to stay until ten, and then we all filed out into the leftovers of the finished rain.
This time we took the metro. It was the two, which none of us had ever taken before, but we figured out we could take it to Nation then go two stops to Gare de Lyon.
We wandered home wet, hot, tired, and slightly drunk. I was in bed by 11.
Fast forward to the sadness that was this morning. I just wasn't feeling life at all.
During class, instead of our usual "je suis allé", we got into groups of two and had to say one sentence about emotion, one in future proche, and one in passé composé about our partner. Raven said that I was cold. I guess Julien said something about me being cold that wasn't a very nice comment because our professor said "Julien don't make fun of her for being cold". What an asshole. This did not put me in a good mood for the rest of class. At least I got an A+ on my composition.
During French we had to copy the Victor Hugo poem "Demain, dès l'aube". Something about the gray day and copying a really sad French poem in cursive was really moving to me. My soul felt at peace.
Demain, dès l'aube, à l'heure où blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m'attends.
J'irai par la forêt, j'irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.
Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées,
Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos courbé, les mains croisées,
Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.
Je ne regarderai ni l'or du soir qui tombe,
Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur,
Et quand j'arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur.
I came home during my break between classes and started to work on my French homework. I had ravioli for lunch. I left for pop a few minutes early so I could print my paper which turned out with weird margins despite my trying to fix it. Mindy said that next time she wants us to have proper margins on our papers but this time she'd let it slide. The only thing interesting to report from pop was that I talked a lot. I was really proud of myself for talking as much as the other chatty students in class. My comment even made it up on the board! I said that Evariste's La Revolution sounded like a comic strip.
We are supposed to decide on an album for our final papers (which constitute a lot of our grade). I asked Mindy if I can write about Petula Clark despite the fact that she's not French. She's going to allow it.
I came home and couldn't seem to focus on schoolwork at all. I finished studying for French. I read half of Horne chapter 13 and then was going to edit my histories paper. I got distracted and ended up googling Petula Clark songs for an hour. I've decided to write my final paper on "Hello, Paris" from 1964. I didn't know that Petula Clark sings "C'est si bon". I've been singing that song my entire life, and now I get to write a paper about it.
I was still singing "C'est Si Bon" in my head as I finished reading about the fall of the monarchy in France. Such sad reading. I then edited my histories paper and googled a potential excursion for tomorrow. I'm going to try to go to the Musée Rodin for the 1,000th time. Maybe I'll be successful tomorrow.
I just so happened to click on a video by Alt-J called "A Take Away Show" thinking that it was a new song. It turns out that it's a series. Bands do acoustic/unusual renditions of their hit songs while walking around Paris. I started listening to the video of Beirut performing "Nantes". It was speaking to me. I read the video description and found out that it was filmed in Oberkampf. I googled where Oberkampf was and found out that it was a pretty easy 34 minute walk from my apartment. I suddenly got this urge to go there. It was already 6:50 by the time I got the urge, and I was suppose to Skype with my mom at 8. I sent her an email telling her that I'd be late and left the house.
I started walking like my feet had wings. I had a sense of urgency for the first time in my life outside of rushing to class/appointments. I walked to Bastille, turned on Richard Lenoir, and started walking. The area is actually pretty nice and very hipster. Cute bars everywhere. At one point I looked up and saw a cathedral in the distance. How could this still be the 11th?! I walked and walked on Richard Lenoir until there was suddenly a fork in the road and the street I was on became Voltaire. I came walking and found that Richard Lenoir picked back up in a slightly different direction.
I walked passed Richard Lenoir park and then saw the sign for Oberkampf out of the corner of my right eye. It was only number 50 and I was going to 96. I kept walking up the steep hill. Oberkampf took a weird turn and I followed it across three crosswalks. I passed a wine bar with a sign that looked like graffiti. It was a girl holding a glass of wine to her lips and another glass in her other hand, and the bottom said "santé (health". I would have taken a picture if it hadn't been a busy neighborhood and my bent over body wouldn't have taken up the entire sidewalk.
I walked to 96. It turns out that the backdrop of the song was a billboard. It is different now. I took a picture and walked back home. It's a weird thing to be guided home by the light of the golden angel on top of the monument in the Bastille.
The billboard
I came home at 8:10 and had already missed my mother's email. I stayed online, jazzed from my new adventure, until she messaged me at a few minutes to 9. It's almost 11 and I'm not tired at all. Maybe on second thought….
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