What are They Doing in the Hyacinth House, to Please the Lions, This Day...

We split into two groups for Friday's adventure. Everyone except John & Lauren went out early to hit up Pere Lachaise Cemetery and the Erotic Art Museum (with its nearby shopping xanadou on Montmartre). Lauren & John went with Tina and Kathleen to the hospital at noon to get Lauren's test results which came back with the welcome news that she is only suffering a cold (as of writing she feels one hundred percent better). Following that excursion (which only took 15 minutes) Lauren, John, and Kathleen headed for Pere Lachaise where we ran into the other group as they were preparing to leave. Pere Lachaise is an amazingly large and amazingly full cemetery, there is no breathing space for the dead. We took in the graves of Moliere, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, Abelarde and Heloise, and of course the Lizard King, Jim Morrison who is still surrounded by drug induced hippies even in eternal repose. The grave of Abelarde and Heloise was constructed of stones from their respective monastery and abbey. Their story is of forbidden love, having once been married in secret they became people of the cloth following Abelarde's castration at the hands of Heloise furious uncle. Oscar Wilde's grave is covered in lipstick kisses from his hetero and homosexual admirers. While Moliere and Bernhardt reside in far simpler residences. Following the cemetery was lunch at a pizza joint that was tre bohn. The others will have to report in on the Erotic Art Museum and their misadventures. mahalo, plastic people of the universe

CISI Will Pay to Have Your Remains Shipped Home

BEFORE Reading Any Further: EVERYONE is FINE. In another Paris first our international insurance was put to the test and a few of us got to go see a Paris Hospital. Lauren was feeling less than OK so we decided to use our International Insurance (CISI) and take her to the local big H to get her up to snuff. What ensued was Tina Howe world famous playwright playing pantomines with a French doctor. The doctor consulted Lauren within twenty minutes of our arrival, issued three prescriptions, and blood tests for the whopping total of around 45 dollars or so. They were not quite sure what ailed her so we are going back Friday at High Noon to get her results (that's right healthcare and next day service, and we don't even live here). The hospital was very nice and the doctor was a champ. Following that little adventure we went to lunch where some of us had Escargot (those who did will report in soon). After lunch we went to movie theatre to catch 'the DaVinci Code' to help inspire us through the last leg of our Parisian Adventure. It was a good movie (many of us have read the book) and we saw many now familiar sights. If you haven't read the book skip the next part of this sentence (just so you know, the upside down Pyramid is actually in a shopping mall attached to the Louvre's underground entrance.)

The movie theatre itself was a three story 32 screen wonder with full bar and plush spaced out seats. More than one of us caught a little shuteye through parts of the movie. Once again no A/C.

Lauren is feeling much, much better as of publication (Friday Morning) and her smile has returned. She is doing much better than our dear Atlanta Braves, those of you in Georgia must help the Bravos, they are 2-9 since we left and are now 13 games back behind the METS! Please Tomahawk chop whenever you can!

The weather here has turned for the better. The rain is gone, the sun is back, but HEAT is still lost on the blue line somewhere, we all hope he grabs the third rail. The food is still great, Tina is still a constant source of great stories (ask her to tell you about her gifting war with Christo the designer of the Orange Gates in Central Park this past year etc.). We are beginning to contemplate our return, mahalo, plastic people of the universe

Wine Zombie

Hey, kiddos. This is Taylor here. I haven't written in the blog yet, so I figured I'd give it a go. Yesterday, we went to the Centre Georges Pompidou, a large museum that looked like it was turned inside out. The airconditioning vents and all other inner workings were on the outside, with an escalator in a glass tube snaking up the side of the building like, well, a snake. The inside looks like Ikea and the future collided, flinging cool looking stuff everywhere. Despite the cool exterior, the artistic contents of the Pompidou were a bit lacking, the fourth floor being the only one that was open to humble peon American tourists like ourselves. We tried to see the private exhibitions, but snooty black clad French people blocked our entry. There was some cool stuff though, like a series of four Picasso sketches all done on the same day and a Warhol mural of twelve Elizabeth Taylors. Cool. Outside in the courtyard we were treated to the musical stylings of a troupe of Mongolian minstrels. They all wore traditional gold and purple Mongol garb and all of their instruments had only two strings. One of the guys was able to sing in two voices at once. CRazy stuff. John bought their CD, and I imagine we will all be clamboring for burned copies upon our return. After a period of searching for our whole party, we boarded the Metro and reurned to the FIAP to chill. We had dinner, during which I became a wine zombie and went after John, and we played ERS while talking about how dangerous deer are. Seriously, they're bloodthirsty bastards. By the way, Heat seems to have gotten lost on the Metro, as it rained breifly yesterday. However, he seems to have been replaced by his second cousin, Opressive Mugginess. Heath, Annie, Ang, and I went on a Quixotian quest to find crepes at St Michel. Meh. Later I fell asleep in the lobby while we chatted. And so ended another French day. Au Revoir for now. Mahalo (I don't know what that means), The Plastic People of the Universe.

okay Napolean we get you were big stuff.....well sort of

This is a continued stream of thought from the previous blog... so please ignore the day's lapse. So after John and Lauren left the group we traveled onto the Musee de L'Armee, and Napolean's Tomb. When Napolean died he wasn't kidding. His remains were placed in a tin coffin, surrounded by two mahogany coffins, placed in a lead coffin, placed in an onyx coffin, placed in a finished wood coffin that resembled a sleigh mounted on about 10 feet of finished marble. So in all Napolean's attempts to prove his manhood and importance were well represented in his coffins, although unfortunately for him, his original gray coat and hat were displayed nearby. The coat looked like it might have fit Asa, our 5 foot 92lb. classmate. Oh Napolean, we know your secret. We discovered that when you feel like the heat might make you die, marble is very soft and very cool, so we lounged in the tomb for quite some time. We then ventured on to the actual part of the museum. We all waited while Taylor and Eric searched for the WWII section of the building and then when it could not be found we focused our exploring on the Ancient Armies section. It was full of suits of armour ranging from full grown large men, to small suits maybe for 10 year old boys. There were broad swords, muskets, long rifles, hatchets, maces, and cross bows, Heather enjoyed the cross bows the most since she once owned a nerf cross bow. Eric and Taylor were most intrigued by the sword gun, which had a blade of considerable length and on one side a gun barrel was attaced with a trigger in the hilt of the sword. Ricks Steve's guide to Paris advised that the musem took two hours for women and three hours for men, and he was pretty right. Once everyone met up again, we all returned to the FIAP for dinner and fun. Malhalo from the Plastic People of the Universe. I'm Annie Reeves and you're not.

Qick Burger ain't no Golden Arches

We began the day with class and then proceeded on to the Arc de Triomphe. Built by Napoleon's ego it celebrates the Grand Army's victory at Austerlitz. You get to the top for spectacular views via a spiral staircase that just keeps a goin'. Reaching the top you are greeted by some wonderful views of Paris. The Eiffel Tower is plainly visible and quite breathtaking and you can easily see the 12 main boulevards exploding out from the arch radiating into the city. Away from 'old' Paris is the 'new' Paris with the run of the mill skyscrapers. Looking over old Paris you can see the law in action as no private building is higher than any other. They've been limited to a certain height making for an expansive unobstructed view. Also at the arch located on the ground beneath it is the French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a tasteful memorial featuring simply an eternal flame and fresh flowers placed there everyday since just after WW II. It is unattended however by any sort of gaurd unlike ours in Arlington. Following our respects we headed off for sustenance and regrettably chose to ignore old reliable Ronald for Quickburger. Not a great choice, they were slammed and out of everything and the only menu in the place was mounted in a corner in tiny print. Followi ng lunch we headed to Napoleon's Tomb and the Army Museum. Lauren and John returned to the FIAP because she was feeling under the weather so the report on the Tomb will be forthcoming by another of our number though I understand it was quite impressive and cool (as in temperature). We have been joined by an 11th student on this trip. We don't really like him all that much, because he is always around and makes us so uncomfortable its hard to sleep. His name is HEAT, it is so hot here right now we all feel like Yankees at Disneyworld in August. We have no A/C and so HEAT is always with us. We believe he is also responsible in part for Lauren and Asa both feeling less than great. The METRO while efficient and easy to use is HEAT's best friend. He loves it there and we leave several gallons of ourselves with him where ever we go. We are all hoping HEAT will be leaving us soon or we are going to buy a sprinkler and hose for the FIAP courtyard. mahalo
plastic people of the universe

Rende-vous

Monday we had a short class followed by a trek to the Marais. The Marais is the jewish section of Paris and is populated with many stores often of a more affordable price range than the tourist traps of the Latin Quarter etc. However, being a Monday most of the stores were closed. Being resourceful shoppers however the girls led us to one store which was open, H&M. If we have no money left the last week of this trip, Monday afternoon will be where we last saw it. The girls had a fantastic time trying on clothes, and buying clothes. The guys, not so much. Though we did get to see our first Paris crime when someone shoplifted from H&M and ran away through the side street where we were resting a laurels while the girls made their fashion choices. Following H&M we returned to the FIAP (because we'd been at the H&M for like 4 million hours if it was a minute). After showers and a change of clothes we headed off to the Isle de Cite to meet Kathleen in the garden behind Notre Dame where we were to watch street performers as the sun set on Paris. Kathleen never showed and neither did the street performers. So after waitning around for an hour we decided to eat at a small cafe and take in the impressionist sunset. After food we traveled back to the Left Bank and the Latin Quarter to visit Shakespeare and Co. which is probably the coolest bookstore in the history of bookstores and it even comes equipped with Irish employees. After Shakespeare & Co., there were crepes in the Latin Quarter as well as some street performers finally. Our main interest was a homeless man who looked just like our friend Josh Santamaria and a guitarist playing 'Redemption Song' by Bob Marley. We then got separated on the Subway and had to wait for everyone to catch back up. We passed the time singing a stirring rendition of 'Folsom Prison Blues' for the Parisians. Some say the Parisians didn't like it, but how could they not? mahalo
the plastic people of universe

Shady Lane, Everybody Wants One

Sunday we spent our morning in rest and slumber arising to eat a nice lunch at the Fiap. After lunch we traveled by bus to Luxembourg Garden. The public trans system here is really easy to use and readily available all over the city. With our little free maps we have wandered without major loss of navigation all across this foreign capital. The Garden was very beautiful and well kept (because you can't sit on the grass). We gathered some loose chairs around in a circle and wrote our assignments as we took in the scene of parents playing with their children on a very warm summer day in Paris. Our monologues are all now mostly finished and we are now tasked with writing a small scene containing three assigned characters: a french painter, Bobby Watson (see Ionesco's 'Bald Soprano'), and one of our parents. Tina Howe continues to be a constant source of amusement and fun here in the city of lights. We have all come to prefer her backstreets of Paris, the quieter side of Paris to the hustle and bustle of the more famous avenues and boulevards. The pace suits us all much better away from the touristas (Things always look better from the other side of the Seine). Sunday evening was spent with more languid activity knocking back some bottles of vion while playing cards and writing dada monologues. A short summation of our peaceful respite from being world travelers and plastic people of the universe, mahalo

Skyrockets in flight, beewwwww, Agorraphobic Delight

Yesterday we learned an important lesson in life. Once you've seen one pile of bones with a tombstone written in a language you can't understand, you've pretty much seen every pile of bones with a tombstone written in a language you can't understand. As you may have concluded, we went to see the Catacombs. Unfortunately the Catacombs were somewhat of a letdown. It begins as a very interesting, intriguing place. All of the 'residents' were moved to the catacombs to sanitize Paris as people used to be planted right outside the church doors and things had gotten a bit crowded. The Catacombs themselves are abandoned limestone mines beneath the city and the bones of the deceased were stacked along the sides of the mine in various patterns (because if you're going to stack bones all day you might as well have a little artistic expression and fun while you're doing it). All of the bones were marked with plaques saying where they came from and some had quotes that we were unable to read because of our linguistic ignorance. Alas they were not anything like the Catacombs from Indiana Jones: the Last Crusade and I fault Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg for our slight let down. We are all glad we got to visit the Catacombs thought there were no rats, raging infernos, our buried crusaders. The highlight of the Catacombs was the 'Man in the Iron Mask Rap' performed at the end of the tour by our very own Heather and Erin. From there we headed to the cemetery on Montparnasse. Some of the more famous residents include Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Tristan Tzara, Man Ray, and our very own Eugene Ionesco. The highlight of the visit was our rendition of Shakespeare's 18th Sonnet. Erin wrote it down on a piece of paper which we ripped up and then scrambled in a hat. We then randomly picked pieces out and read them as we let them fall on the grave of Tristan Tzara (reference: Travesties by Tom Stoppard). The revised sonnet will be posted soon. After the cemetery we headed back to the Fiap to get ready for our evening event of seeing Ionesco's 'the lesson' and 'the bald soprano'. We saw the plays at a tiny theatre in the Latin Quarter called the Theatre de la Huchette. This is where Ionesco premiered the plays fifty years ago and where they have played ever since. The theare was maybe 50 seats and maybe a touch under one million degrees farenheit.
Equation for future tourists: Europe=no air-conditioning.
We sweated our way through the performances and were rewarded by some stunning performances. They were very simple productions but also very, very effective. Even thought the plays were performed in French, the clarity of the acting made the intentions and storyline understandable throughout. Following the plays we went to a small brasserie(Liz, spelling?) and ate, drank, and watched the World Cup European style (lots of quietness followed by frightening outburst of noise and movement by the other patrons and Lauren). Following dinner we did glamour shots on the steetcorner and went to bed. For Sunday we plan to sleep and write as our monologues are due on Monday. We hope to go to Luxembourg gardens to R&R while we let the creativity find paper. for now, the plastic people of the universe, mahalo

Lil Kim ain't got nothing on those Nuns

On June 9th the year of our lord two thousand and six we arose from our slumber early in the morn. By the time the cock crowed ten we had assembled somewhat and were prepared for departure. We rode the Metro to the end of the line in St. Denis where we took in the Basilica of St. Denis. This beautiful gothic church stands on an ancient site where the french kings have chosen to spend eternity for seemingly, an eternity. There were many, many famous residents Charles Martel, Pepin the Short, St. Denis, Louis XII, Louis XIIV, Louis XVI, Catherine DeMedici, the Dauphine, Louis XIV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette along with many others. They all mostly reside under a marble likeness of themselves. It was very intriguing to see their last monuments. There were several from before we had double digit centuries. We enjoyed a lunch sitting on the street with ham and cheese on baguettes (spelling?) and of course Coca-Cola. This was chosen over the refined experience of dining at a KFC. We enjoyed a stroll through an open air market and through an amazing meat market where we took in the sight of nearly every butcherable thing on earth laid out for sale. It was very interesting and made many of us long for this option in our own towns.
Next we rode the Metro to Montmartre (mount of martyrs formally mount of mars). This hill (the highest in Paris)overlooks Paris from the north side gazing south towards the Seine River. Atop it on an ancient spot where a temple of mars is believed to have stood is the adornation of the Sacre Cour church. While less than 100 years old the church is none the less impressive. There was a mass in progress as we arrived and we were delighted with the hymns sung by the nuns. *John has taken a short hiatus and Annie is filling in the logging of the rest of the day* After we had our fill of mass we naturally chose to visit the next holiest place in Montmarte, the Moulin Rouge. Once we reached the bottom of the hill we attempted to hurry down the street when Eric was literally roped in by a North African who, after looping strings on his finger, made him a friendship bracelet, then haggled with him to get 2, 50 euros for tying it on Eric's wrist. After Eric's escape we headed down the street towards the Moulin Rouge passing Bohemian Boutiques and Batesseries, then we reached the heart of the bohemian district. Sadly, baz luhrman fans there was no giant elephant outside, but there were plenty of tri-story, 'adult shops'. A special feature of the area is the Musee d' Erotique Art, a museum dedicated to erotic art throughout history. Never having been to Bourbon Street myself I assume that we got the same feel today. After a few pictures in front of the very famous windmill, we took the metro home, enjoyed a lovely dinner at the FIAP, then performed or rather read 'The Bald Soprano' and 'The Lesson' as a group to review for tomorrow nights performance of both plays by Eugene Ionesco at Theatre La Huchette. Tomorrow we will visit the Crypts of Paris, and the Column of Tibias, which is actually a column made of tibias and skulls, as well as the famous cemetary of Montparnasse. So goodnight from the plastic people of the universe and I'm Annie Reeves and you're not.

I Could Have Told You Vincent

Thursday we all slept in a little later and began class around 10:00am. Following our discussion of Ionesco and recieving our assignment to write monologues (which people will be typing up here on the blog, they just don't know it yet) about a piece of artwork we find we set out to the Louvre. We went to our customary Metro stop and waited for our customary Metro train. Which never came. There was something wrong with the line but all we could decipher from the announcements was 'Ladies and Gentlemen' and 'traffic'. So we walked to another line and got on there eventually. We proceeded on to the Louvre that is like everything else here that is famous, incredibly, indefinably big. At least One Thousand miles in circumference (thats just a round estimate). Once inside we all split up to explore this metropolis of art. You could tell a lot about each person by their choices of what to see and how fast to see them. We had from about 12:30 until 6:00 to view whatever we wanted to in the Louvre. Some chose fast and many so chose slow and few. Personally I journeyed to the Grand Gallery to see the Mona Lisa which is the size of a poster from Wally World. The best way for me to describe the Louvre is like falling asleep in your Art History class and wearing your legs out walking around a gaudily appointed maze full of what your teacher and book were just talking about. The 'Raft of the Medusa', 'Wedding Feast at Cana', 'The Dying Slave' and on and on and on. My favorite artifact at the Louvre is a large black obelisque enscribed with the Code of Hamurabi. Cuneiform is far more ornate and far tinier than I could have ever imagined. They had many small tablets covered in Cuneiform writing that were just incredible. They were no bigger than a small notepad and contained probably 40-50 lines of Cuneiform. We all also went to the inverted pyramid in the Louvre, any DaVincie Code fans? The right side up Glass Pyramid of the Louvre is very beautiful, its main flaw is that it acts like a huge greenhouse making the entrance of the Louvre very, very 'warm'. We spent the evening after the Louvre drinking wine and planning the next day, Friday we plan to see the Basilica of ST. Denis where Charlemagne, Dagobert and many other French kings are entombed. Mahalo
the plastice people of the universe