presidential snowball

[31 janvier 2009] <--(i'm doing this because blogger keeps screwing up the dates of my posts...)

don't have much to say right now. lately, i've just been hanging with the IES newbies, showing them around the city, eating food, watching dexter. you know the drill. but my friend elizabeth is in town (she went to depaul with me for a year or two, now goes to school back home in ohio, but is currently studying in bordeaux. and she has a blog), so i'm hoping to spend some time with her while she's around. oh, and you know how i thought classes were starting next week? i was wrong. they don't start until feb 9th. so i have another week to just "be" in paris. which is pretty awesome. it's the neverending winter break. and speaking of breaks: ellen and i are currently planning what could possibly be the single most catholic spring break of all time. i'll keep you posted.

until next time, here's president obama having fun in the snow. enjoy:

superpoop.com

flying under the radar

What's that you say? Cody has disappeared for over a month? Why, that's absurd! Why would he do such a thing? Yeah, sorry about that. I suppose I've gotten lazy. Or maybe my initiative has totally run dry. Either way, I guess I've treated this long break from school as an equally long vacation from the ol' blog. But fret not, I'm here. And we've got some catching up to do.

In the interest of saving time and space (and unnecessary work, I suppose), I'm going to do something here that I normally wouldn't dare: I'm going to cheat. You see, I was about to bore you with a bunch of long-winded posts about my amazing trip with Will to Italy and Ireland, but then I remembered that he already did the work for me, on his own blog. Ah hah! So now I present to you, in his own words, Travels with Liam:

Day 1 -- Roma

Day 2 -- Roma

Day 3 -- From Roma to Galway

Day 4 -- Galway and Dublin

Day 5 -- Dublin

Ok, now that that's out of the way, on to the rest of my winter break thus far:

As you may have guessed from my last post, I spent a good part of Christmas day alone and bored. My host family took off early Christmas Eve for Bretagne, leaving me high and dry in Paris. I did have a nice holiday dinner with friends, though. The parents of three of my friends here all flew into town to celebrate Noël, and they invited me to share an excellent meal with them. It wasn't the same spending Christmas without my family, but my friends made me feel welcome and kept my mind and stomach occupied. We even had home-made mulled wine, which was delicious.

My dad arrived the next day after a long flight from Kansas City, including layovers in Atlanta and Dublin. After waiting over an hour at the baggage claim of Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, Dad was informed by the Air France staff that his luggage couldn't be accounted for. They had records of his belongings up until Dublin airport, where they apparently disappeared somewhere in the ether. Rightfully annoyed, Dad joined me in the airport lobby, where we proceeded to procure a taxi and make our way into the city.

The rest of Dad's visit was excellent. We managed to finagle our way into a cheap hotel near the Bastille for the entire length of his trip. This required several room changes, but at least we were able to stay in the same building. With Dad (the Paris newbie) at my side, I made like a tour guide, trying to give him a taste of what life is really like in the City of Lights.

Highlights from the visit include : A) Getting an incredible view of the city from the dome of Sacre-Coeur Basilica. B) Waiting over an hour in line for the catacombs, having awkward conversations with American tourists, getting the door of said catacombs shut in our faces because we were late, returning to said catacombs the next day, making new friends in line, and finally seeing the bones. C) Searching high and low for used bikes at the Marché aux Puces (Flea Market). D) Narrowly escaping angry mobs, and as a result, finally getting a chance to taste tear gas in the Métro. E) Eating. F) Eating. G) Spending quality time bonding with my dear father. H) Eating.

Since the trip, I've basically been flying under the radar. I switched back from "American Tourist! Yeah! OMG it's Paris!!!1!" mode to "Incognito, Laid-Back Resident of Paris" mode. Despite earlier plans to meet friends in Berlin or Bordeaux, I haven't left the city. Which is nice, because I've gotten a wonderful opportunity to explore the world of subtitled cinema. I think I've been to the movies at least 5 or 6 (or 7 or 8) times this month -- a few of those screenings were part of a 3-euro "Best Films of 2008" deal the UGC chain had going on. I've also fallen prey to the dangerous world of Dexter (a Showtime series about a Miami Police blood spatter specialist who moonlights as a serial killer -- let me know if you want to chat about it). It's actually based on a series of novels by Jeff Lindsay. Luckily, Caroline gave me copies of the first two books (in French) before she left for Rhode Island last month. So even if I run out of new episodes to watch, I can still continue dreaming darkly with the books.

I should also note that a few BIG things have happened recently :

Hope, etc. -- "Change has come to America." Barack Obama. You may have heard of him?

Coupe -- After nearly five months and several inches of beautiful flowing locks, I finally decided to get a haircut. I also figured out that my beard trimmer is not, in fact, broken. So I now come in "Well-groomed" mode as well.

Bienvenue -- The new arrivals got in yesterday, so IES has been restored to the hub of activity it was during fall semester. Among the huge group of spring students is a gaggle of DePaul girls. With this kind of representation, we are poised to take over the city with Vincentian Values and Socially Responsible Leadership. (Also, Laura brought me an awesome beanie embroidered with the word "Detroit". Gotta represent the Ghetto D.)

Aaaaand I think that's it for now. I'm sure there's a lot more I could be writing about (the pros and cons of French cinema snack bars, for example), but I've got plenty of time for that in the coming months. Speaking of which, I've got less than 4 months left before I make the trip back home. So it seems as though I'm on the downward slope. Kind of scary. But class and work are about to kick back into gear, so I'm just going to focus on that for now...

Happy Travels

-- Cody