off again

au revoir

Last night we (Abe, Dad, Mechas, Helena, Catalina and I) went out to an organic vegetarian restaurant near here, where I ordered a French dessert which turned out to be...applesauce. Uh, ok. But it was fun.

On my last day in Paris, I did...not much. Went to the Jewish museum then had coffee in the afternoon, and Abe cooked up a really good dinner at the apartment.

More than anything, I feel kind of sad right now. A few weeks ago I would have been happy to see home and have  those comforts but right now I just feel like, "wait, not yet!" I'm stressing about stupid little things about the trip home, when really it's just being BACK that I'm not ready for.

I kind of forgot what I do with myself when I'm not traveling.

I guess I'll figure it out, because 24 hours from now, my plane is scheduled to touch down in Chicago....

museuming

Yesterday and the day before I spent most of my time at one museum or another, trying to cram in all the art-viewing within my 2 day admission pass. You might notice if you look at my flickr that I took a lot of painting photos. I'm not posting them here because I don't think anyone else really wants to look at bad pictures of random paintings - it's hard to take a good one with crowds jostling you - I took them to remind myself of what I thought was good/dumb/ugly/interesting, or had good clothes. Mostly that last one.

So the Musee D'Orsay (I am not even going to try with the accents here) is in an old converted train station, and the building is super cool.

The collection is a lot of impressionists and other art sort of around that timeframe. I really liked the painting and also their exhibit of Art Nouveau furniture. I have to say, furniture is definitely the thing that style is most suited to in my opinion. It gets kind of overdone in 2d and the buildings can be a little much for me but I do love the curvy beds & desks. I wonder does anyone make stuff like this anymore to sell, I bet you could make a shit-ton of money at it.

This is actually part of a larger theory I have that if you manufactured, say, cars, that looked exactly like the old "classic" models, and not just vaguely vintage-style, they would sell like crazy. Laurie and I were talking about this one day, making an MP3 player or Ipod case that looked like an old cassette tape. I know so many people who would eat that kind of thing up, including me.

The middle ages museum in a castle-thing on top of some old ruins, which is another good building choice.

My favorite thing about looking at middle ages stuff is when it's completely nutty, like say a drinking horn with chicken feet or a hourse with a spout.

I'm also always interested in why people from 1000 years ago in Europe had such bad posture that they couldn't even make their damn statues stand up straight.

The gallery of disembodied heads and the gallery of disenheaded bodies were in the same room.

So then it was onto the Musee des Arts Decoratifs/Musee de la Publicite/Musee de la Mode, which is like a 3-museums-in-1 deal. I hear there is a good historical collection in the fashion museum, but all they had out was a temporary exhibit of Balenciaga dresses from the early 20th century, which was boring. The Publicite exhibit also did not thrill me (as my grandmother would say.) My favorite, again, was the furniture stuff, especially an Art Deco office and a lot of other rooms put together in the complete style of one era. Unfortunately my batteries died after 3 pictures so I don't have much to look at.

Last but I do not dare to say least, I went to the Louvre. Despite dire crowd warnings it was actually not all that bad, except right around the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. And as soon as I got on a different floor, I was walking through empty rooms.

Celebrity works of art are a weird phenomenon. Why are people insane to see those 2 pieces, who otherwise couldn't tell a Leonardo from a Picasso and don't care, either? Just because they're famous, but why are they famous? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the Mona Lisa isn't great, but I spent like 20 minutes looking at some other Leonardo paintings which the hordes walking by never spared a glance at, and which are just as good, important, whatever.

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I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that for people who are not very much into visual art, they don't know what to look at, especially in a huge museum, and even if they have a painting pointed out to them they don't know where to start with appreciating it. But with a superfamous one like Mona Lisa, they've seen it so many times it's already familiar and they understand what they're supposed to get out of it, so they do get something out of it...maybe.

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Important Art Lesson I learned: No matter what you are painting or sculpting, be it religious, historical, portrait, abstract, or anything else, it is always appropriate - perhaps even necessary - to include a naked lady fondling her own breasts. Seriously. Everywhere.

So then this happened to me.

Man with Cam: Picture? (pointing at self and GF)
(I take their picture.)

Man with Cam #2, nearby: Picture?
Me: Um, you want me to take your picture?
MwC2: No, no. I take sexy video girls in Louvre.
Me: What?
MwC2: I take sexy video. In the toilet if you want!
(I laugh.)
MwC2, offendedly: Is not funny! Is not a joke!

Then he followed me around for a while until I managed to convey to him that I really didn't want to take sexy videos in the toilet. But seriously, what the hell? Is there like a market for Girls Gone Wild Louvre Edition?

not homesick just tired

Yesterday was a nice but kind of uneventful day. I didn’t really leave the house until the afternoon, and then just to walk around a little, see the Arenes du something and visit with some old friends of my dad’s.

Lame as it is, I’m so happy just to sit around doing nothing much that it’s hard to get my ass motivated to go anywhere. Like right now, it’s noon, I got up an hour ago, and I have yet to even finish my cup of coffee.

Maybe I should be making more of a sightseeing effort, but the thing is, I’m exhausted. And I’ll be back to school & work soon enough.

bonne annee

In 2007, I predict I will be spending less time hanging out at euro train stations - because yesterday Abe and I got to Paris, where I'll be staying for a week before flying straight home. But first a few more thoughts on Amsterdam.

Ania & co's house is about 250 years old and right on the Singel canal, just outside the old city walls. I think the architecture of that area is so neat, and the inside of the house too, but Ania says after 30 years she finds the style a little monotonous. We walked around the neighborhood to a market nearby, then got some coffee and apple cake.

At the flea market there was a man with a display of rugs and chairs, and at one point a little girl walked her big dog up to it. The dog sniffed a little and then took a piss all over 2 rugs. The stall owner yelled a bit and then he started laughing, laid a couple paper towels down to soak it up, and put the rugs right back on sale.

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Abe, Eden and I all got little rubber elephants from Ania to remember the day....awwwww.

So then it was goodbye mom (she's off to Israel) and Abe and I made our way to Paris by way of Antwerp, Lille, and more than one local train. It was fine though, and we were here at my dad's apartment in plenty of time for New Years.

The apartment is so fucking nice. Best things about it:
1. I get to sleep in a real bed in a room by myself! (while Abe and Ernie take couches in the living room...should I feel guilty?)
2. Internet access whenever
3. A kitchen w/ a coffeemaker
4. It really is a nice apartment
5. IT'S IN PARIS.

So after resting a little I celebrated New Years Colombian style with Abe and my dad, Ernie, Mechas, and her nieces Catalina and Helena who are visiting Paris at the moment also.

First we played the pictures & captions game, which Ernie calls Picture Description and has very slightly different rules for. (This is not a mandatory traditional New Years thing.)

We also ate pastries from the gorgeous shop down the street. (This either.)

Then we all received brand new yellow underwear (Mechas had 4 styles available, including a "thong or bikini" choice for the girls) and had to put it on, then pack a bag or suitcase with symbols of what we want to happen or achieve in the new year, and at the stroke of midnight, run around the block with it. I included a flip flop for good weather. Outside in this neighborhood everyone went out on their balcony or opened their window and yelled "bonne annee" at their chother, and at us.

Then we ate 12 grapes to represent the months of 07, and drank apple brandy to represent, I guess, how wasted we all plan to get during those 12 months.

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Happy New Year, everybody.

market day

I'm posting from the beautiful house of some friends in Amsterdam. We got the chance to be taken around to a food market and walk around the neighborhood by Ania, Kees, and their daughter Eden and now Ania is generously letting me use her computer - I only have a minute before we have to go meet for dinner, so here's some pictures and I'll try to write more later.

competition

Hey, Abe has a blog too. So check that for an alternate view of the end of my trip...

falafel waffles & ollie bollen

Yesterday was kind of shopping heavy - flea market in the morning, stores in the afternoon. The flea market here is awesome and there's definitely good deals to be had, as well as lots of stinky ass fish. French fries in a cone with curry sauce = goodness. I bought a bunch of fleamarket shit and a black dress, which I now want to alter the top of, hmmm, how will I manage it with only a needle, black thread, nail scissors and safety pins...

The Amsterdam public library is totally kickass with an espresso bar, delicious cheese pastries which you can eat while reading all the newspapers and mags, and free internet for anyone who walks in - plus stained glass windows and shit. Oh and books. In Dutch. Whatevs.

All of the streets in the central area are varying degrees of cute and fun, the narrow buildings are pretty excellent, it doesn't have a lot of monumental crap but it's a nice place to walk around for sure.

Abe came in to Amsterdam Centraal last night and immediately became obsessed with waffles, but instead we went and had dinner at a Peruvian restaurant which was very very slow, and served the world's tiniest pisco sours, but the food was tasty.

also seen above: Happy New Year plants in the local supermarket.

Aside from the lib, which has no USB ports so I can't use it for photo upload, the main places to use the net here are "coffeeshops" which are really more like bars where everyone smokes up. I'm here at the Betty Boop one now. Today it's not too busy but the other night, holy crap, you walk in and get a contact high...I'm going to blame my inability to remember what to post about on that, OK?