Deutchland

Welp, I have exactly 8 hours to go in Germany, before I'm on the train heading to Switzerland. Didn't think time could go by so fast, but it seems like it was just yesterday when was hugging my great German friend Elli after 3 years of not seeing eachother. Some background info for ya folks. I came to Germany to visit Elli for part of my fall break. When I was a senior in High School, she was an exchange student that year. We luckily crossed paths and became good friends. We've been in touch over the years through the internet, but it's been tough with both of us being quite occupied. BUT FINALLY!

It's 1230 right now and unfortunately she had to go to bed already because she has to get up at 530 in the morning for work. I COULD go to sleep tooooo, but I figured that since I have so much to talk about...just from Germany, I should get it out of the way before my Switzerland adventures start. So tonight is gonna be an all nighter.


Well, shall we? Let's start from the beginning!

I was to depart Paris on thursday at 4 in the afternoon. I took the metro to the station of my departure, got out, and started looking for the train station. I walked around for a little then decided to ask someone. I asked for the train station, and the guy kind of looked at me funny, and pointed towards some stairs. As I was walking down I came across some Euroline signes (that was the company I was going through) but they had buses on the signs! So I was a little confused because I thought I was going by train. I came to the ticket area, and sure enough, it was bus. Not a big deal, but I was just shocked I didn't catch this on the eurolines site. Silly me. I get to my bus, ask the bus driver if this bus is going to Heidelberg, and when I say I asked, I mean I just said the word Heidelberg, because I asked in french first, nothing, then english, nothing. He eventually told me "no english" and "a little french" but otherwise he just spoke German. So that was fun! The bus was really nice, and there was only like 10 people on the whole thing. I passed the time playing sudoku, looking out at the countryside, and get like an hour of sleep. Tough to sleep on these things. I finally got to Heidelberg, Germany at 1130, but hey, my friend doesn't live there, she lives in Zwickau. See, I took this eurolines bus to Heidelberg, and then from Heidelberg I took the German train line DB BAHN to Zwickau. The reason being, because that was the cheapest way of getting to Zwickau. Unfortunately, my train from Heidelberg to Zwickau didn't live until 440 in the morning so I had mucho time to pass. I went on a walk first, except that it was freezing out, and really foggy, so that only lasted about an hour. I eventually just went back to the train station and layed down on a bench and tried to sleep. Not very comfortable, but eventually the time had come and I was on the train. It was a little tricky though because from Heidelberg I had 3 switches to make before I got to Zwickau. This is a picture of some building across the street of the train station. It had perdy lights.

Germany countryside from train
Heidelberg 442 depart
Osterburken 612 arrive
Osterburken 616 depart
Wurzburg 722 arrive
Wurzburg 734 depart
Nurnberg 828 arrive
Nurnberg 842 depart
Zwickau 1125 arrive!!!!!

Well of course I ran into problems, wouldn't be an adventure without them! I was on my way from Osterburken to Wurzburg, we get to a stop that says Wurzburg-Sud (south) and I guess I didnt think anything of it and got out, only to realize right away on the ticket it says Wurzburg Hbf (which means the main station) so I had gotten out one stop too early. So I was standing on this platform, all by myself freaking out, because I had to get to Wurzburg to catch my train to Nurnberg. I was trying to decide if I should try walking to the next stop, but I didnt know how far away it was, or if I should wait to see if another train came. Luckily another person came to the platform and luckily she was able to speak in broken english that another train would come in 5 minutes. I get on that train, arrive in Wurzburg when my other train was supposed to be leaving, so Im running through the place trying to get to the platform, get up the stairs, scared to look if the train is still there....IT IS!!! woop woop, I get on, and within a minute the train leaves. Ofta I was lucky. I really have no idea what I would've done if I missed that train. It probably would've screwed up my arrive plans in Zwickau as you will soon find out. Next train adventure! So Im waiting at Nurnberg for the final train to Zwickau, some announcement is made on the speakers, in rambling german, I think nothing of it, but notice that the other two guys at this platform have disgusted look on their faces and start walking away down the stairs to get to other platforms. Im starring at this one guy because I had no idea what was going on, but figured there had been a change, and luckily this guy turns back to me as I continue to blankly stare at him, he motions me to follow him. NICE MR.!!! He starts rambling in German, I explain I have zero german knowledge, and luckily he was able to get the message across to me in english that the platform had changed. I arrive on time in Zwickau, and thus my train stories! On to the epic walk.

Friday

Elli and I had discussed before my departure about what I was going to do when I arrived in Zwickau. She had to work that day until "4". I google earthed the distance and it was 2-3 miles which isn't too bad at all. Me, not wanting to make her parents come pick me up, decided to just walk to her work from the train station. I drew a little map in a notepad and used that to get there. But some more adventurous problems!!!!!!!!! She gave me the address of her work and like I said, I put it in google earth to see how far it was from the station, but I never actually wrote it down. So when it came thursday and I forgot to write the address down, and was running all over the house getting things ready, I sent a final email to her explaining that I wasnt 100% sure where I was going from the train station, but I remember the general area. And I said if that wasnt where she worked, that I would be at this place at 4. And if we didnt meet up, I would eventually find my way to her house!! I also wrote down her home address and phone numbers in the notepad although I just use my cell phone for the time because it doesnt work to make calls. SOOO I leave the train station following my wicked drawn map. I really didnt have any problems locating the roads. I got slightly lost but got right back on track. I came across the Zwickau Stadium and saw it was open so I went inside and took some pictures. I continued on my journey. As I was walking I had a brilliant idea. I remembed entering the address of Elli's work into google earth, and usually it keeps addressed entered saved, and luckily I brought my computer along, even though it's a back killer. Stopped at a bus stop and used google earth to pinpoint my location and saw that the place I was heading to was indeed where she worked! So that made me happy and I continued on. I finally got to the building around 1ish. Elli decided after finished high school last year should was going to do a year of social work. It's and option they have before going to college. I dont know ALL the details about it even though she has explained it to me multiple times (sorry Elli), but she is working with handicap people and really enjoying what she does. Anywho, I parked myself on the sidewalk near the driveway to the building, whipped out some sudoku and some french newspaper game I had recently stumbled upon and spent an hour an a half doing this. Around 230 a car drives up and stops, a lady rolls down the window, and I kind of assume this has to do something with Elli, at least I hope it did because I was kind of scared. I asked if she knew Elli and she was just nodding head, and motioning for me to get in. She couldnt really speak english, but I asked where Elli was and if she had left, and the lady was like yea! So I thought, well are you driving me some where then? But she just drove back to the building and kept motioning me to follow her....so I assumed Elli was still there and hadnt left yet thank god! Sure enough, still there and it was so nice to see her again. Magical :P She told me that her parents were on the fritz because they hadnt heard from Elli about me. SEEEEE, after the email that I sent Elli before leaving Paris, explaining I was going to walk, she sent me another email saying she gets done at work at 230 instead and that her parents were going to come pick me up at the station. WELLL of course I didnt get this because I didnt have internet during my train travels. Elli said that her parents were asking around at the train station if they had seen me and they were calling out my name. I thought this was funny but mighty nice of them. Speaking of nice, I will have a whole paragraph dedicated to the niceness of this family. Jumping ahead a ways but on the same subject, during dinner, this whole ordeal was brought up again because they remembered seeing a BRIGHT....YELLOW...HAT, which was of course me. But I think I was so far off in the distance they really had no idea....and they probably thought who is that weirdo!?!?!

We then drove to the house. Its a pretty typical German house with the brown and white combinations. Elli is modeling her house in the picture. They live in kind of a forest area, trees which are turning colors are all over the place and makes for a very beautiful sight. Met the family and was given a tour of the house. They insisted that I take a nap but I was persistant in resisting. I didnt want to waste my precious time sleeping! and I was too excited to be tired. Elli then took me to the downtown area of Zwickau and gave me a nice little tour with exellent commentary of many of the buildings.




Saturday

I wouldn't have had a problem with just staying in Zwickau the whole time, but I was lucky and got to do some traveling. I went with Elli and her family on a road trip to Leipzig. Her grandparents live there and it was her grandmas bday party that evening for dinner. As we were driving along, we were cruising at a pretty decent speed and it dawned on me that they have the autobahn in Germany (no speed limit road) I asked if we were on it already, we weren't but we would get to drive on it for like 5 minutes. Once we got on the autobahn, Elli's dad let er rip. I would periodically take pictures of the speedometer each time we went faster than before. The record was 170 km/h which is about 105 mph. Not toooo mind blowing but for me it was the fastest I'd been in a car. When the family found out what I was taking pictures of they started cracking up. Silly Americans with the speed limit psh psh

We arrived in Leipzig in the afternoon so Elli and I were dropped off to do some sight seeing. We first went to Völkerschlachtdenkmal, which is a huge monument there to remember the defeat of Napoleon in the Battle of Leipzig 1813. Then we went inside. Elli got a headset for me without asking, but that was nice of her. I could enter the numbers of different areas and in the monument and the tape would explain the area. We eventually made our way to the top...no elevators, and the staircase was a tiny spiral one, so by the time I got up to the top I was a little dizzy. There was a nice view from the top of all Leipzig and thhe surrounding country-side. We next went to the center of Leipzig....after climbing down all those stairs again. There is one gigantic building towering over all, which looked slightly out of place due to all the others being a lot smaller. Elli gave me a nice tour of the city. She has it down pretty pat, she will be going to school there when she finishes her social year of work, so we went to her school and took a lil tour which ended shortly after the information desk said we couldn't be in there. We went to the cathedral were the great Johann Sebastian Bach spent around 2o years conducting there and this is where he is buried. As we were walking we came across a little stand of one of the things the Germans are known for best, BRATWURST!!! We split one, and I must say it was the most delicious bratwurst I've ever had, and it was only 1.50! Bargain! Elli is paying for the magical bratwurst in this picture.

We arrived just in time at Elli's grandparents house for the dinner party, and what a dinner party it was. Walk in the door to see all these people wearing Japanese robes and hates. It was quite unexpected. Elli mentioned earlier that we might be having sushi, but didn't know about the costume party. We joined everyone else and each got a robe. There were about 15 people there including Elli's family, grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins...so there was a lot of food. I can't really go into any detail about what we were eating, but the first picture is a nice overview of some of the food. Elli likes the second picture much, so I decided to post it. Cute one isn't it? It's her and one of her cousins who I have unfortunately forgotten the name of. The third picture is of Elli's family...Dad, brother Richy, Elli, mom, grandma/pa. I missed getting a picture with all of Elli's other relatives but this is a nice one. When we were sitting around the table talking, some how it got brought up that I like chocolate, and Elli's grandpa went and got me this really nice chocolate. Twas very nice of him. And speaking of chocolate, there is much much more to come but you'll have to wait.






Lots going on in Leipzig, and the night wasn't even over. After the dinner party, Elli and I went to visit a friend of ours. See the same year Elli was an exchange student in Brookings, there was another exchange student from Germany. She met him, Sebastian, became good friends, and then I met Sebastian through Elli and became good friends. Sebastian is in Leipzig now because he is studying medicine. Just moved and started there a week before. He is living with another student in a very nice apartment. It was really good to see Sebastian again. The three of us sat and talked for hours and hours. Very nice. Unfortunately, this was all the time we had together, because in the morning Sebastian had to catch a train to his Grandma's and Elli and I were heading to Dresden. This picture is at the train station right before Elli and I saw Sebastian off.


Sunday

Elli and I arrived in Dresden. She has a good friend, Moritz who is going to school there. I had talked with him a little over the internet over the years before this, so it was nice to finally meet him. Elli and I stayed in his apartment which is a little ways from the center. We made some delicious soup when we got to the apartment and also a cake. They took me around the city during the night on Sunday. Dresden is a very historical city being that it was completely destroyed in WWII. Now it's looking pretty good, and the architecture is amazing.


We then went to a bar and played fooseball for quite some time. Moritz showed Elli and I up because he plays with a bunch of people once a week from his school.

Monday

We went to the famous opera house in Dresden and took a guided tour. Unfortunately, it was in German. But Moritz and Elli did a great job of translating for me. It was an amazing place. Lots of history, like the rest of the city, it too was completely destoryed in WWII but was rebuilt. The first picture is of the opera house, and the second of the city during the day time, and the third is Ellli and Moritz being silly.



Elli and I said our goodbyes to Moritz on Monday and took the train back to Zwickau. That night, we met up with some friends Elli works with. We went out to a restaurant. English was pretty tough for them, so Elli had to translate a bunch. But it was a very enjoyable evening and nice to meet some of Elli's friends.

That night, Elli and I were just sitting in her room on the bed when a friendly friend decided to scurry across the floor. It was one of the biggest spiders I had ever seen. It came out of no where, ran to the center of the room, and just stopped. IIIII eventually got it into the toilette. Good thing it decided to come running out of its hiding spot while we were in the room instead of when IIII was sleeping. I slept in Elli's room, and she in her brothers. That wouldn't have been very fun to wake up to mr. spider crawling on me. I took a great picture with a scale!

Tuesday

Finally got to see the famous high school of Elli's. When she was going to school in Brookings we talked a bunch about her school in Zwickau. It's a music oriented school. They still take normal classes science, math, etc. but also have a strong emphasis on music which makes for a super busy schedule. So the year when she was studying in Brookings, was more like vacation for her! She told me how her school was on top of a hill and she had to walk up this hill every day, and her school used to be an old castle. So it was really nice to see this place. I didn't get a very good picture of the school o well. She gave me a tour inside the school. Class was going on, but we caught the students on break so Elli was running into tons of friends she used to go to school with. We then went walking around the school. It's next to a mini forest which is super beautiful and we walked to Elli's favorite spot which is the second picture. We are facing the school but the trees are in the way. There is also a big church next to the school where concerts were held.



Wednesday

Sad sad day. Had to leave at 7 in the morning. I'm sorry if my tenses are throwing you off. Like I said, I stayed up all night tuesday night writing this, but didn't even get close to finishing. It's the 1st now...I'm actually back in Paris, back from vacation and have to write about my time in Switzerland next!!!!! Goodness. Anywho. I stayed up partly so I would be able to say goodbye to Elli since she left super early in the morning for work. Richy came and said bye to me since he left for school really early too. I then had breakfast with Elli's mom and dad. Got everything packed and loaded into the car and said goodbye to Elli's mom. Her dad drove me to the train station. It was very tough to say goodbye to all of them. Thank you so so so so so much Nebe family!!!!!

Chocolate

So I told you I would get back to the chocolate. One night Elli and I were at a supermarket and we decided to get some chocolate for the week. This is what we got.

And then for some reason, Elli's mom decided that I needed MORE chocolate so she went out and bought a whole sack of chocolate goodies. TOOOO NICE
Well the chocolate that Elli and I bought, we didn't even touch it really, and she was going a goober and not accepting any of it even though we both paid for half. SOOOO I ended up taking all the chocolate in both of these pictures home! Sorry the pictures are messed up. I have no idea why they load like this even though when I view them, they are right side up. O well, you get the idea. I'm not buying any more chocolate in PARIS!

p.s. I didn't go back and read this because it's soooooooooo long and I'm a busy boy. So no complaining. Also, everything typed until Saturday was on Elli's German laptop, which has a couple letters switched around.

It's getting cold!

Another long wait I made you do. I'm sorry. This week and last weekend have been pretty packed and I shall gladly explain myself. First off, it's starting to get cold/windy/cloudy/rainy here. Nothing close to South Dakota cold, but it's cold. Had to sport my yellow had and gloves for the first time thursday morning for my photography class. On wednesday I had a midterm in my least favorite class, the louvre (which is sad). Maybe in the future I'll have a write-up explaining myself, but not this time. It went alright I think. So that was nice to get that out of the way. Then wednesday night there was a soccer game, France beat Austria 3-1, so that was good. Alright, let's start with the big events.

Chartres Cathedral

Last friday, my program took us on another adventure, this time to Chartres Cathedral, located in the town of Chartres which is about an hour away from Paris by train. It is a very famous cathedral for it's gothic style architecture...and just being crazy huge. When we got to the cathedral, we spent some time just taking in what we were looking at. Headed inside, saw a massive nave, with a ceiling that stretched forever. But, up towards the front of the cathedral, something didn't look right. As you can see in the picture, which is a terribly taken picture, it almost looks like a picture hanging from the ceiling...it was! Behind that was scaffolding upon scaffolding. They were trying to refurbish some things I guess. But it was really unfortunate that they had to be doing this when we came. We had a guided tour through the cathedral with a pretty famous lecturer. Can't remember his name, but he said he'd been giving tours for 50 years at Chartres and has given tons of lectures in the States too. Due to wanting to keep the noise level down, everyone in the group had to wear these radio headphone thingys that were quite interesting as you can see in the self picture. After the tour, we had about two hours to roam around the city. It was also very cold and windy that day. I treated myself to a nutella/banana crepe. They always warm me up. Interesting story. So when we were waiting for our train back to Paris, an announcement came on saying there had been an "accident" and the train was going to be late. Though we have no evidence, our directors in the group told us that when they say there has been an accident, that usually means someone got hit by a train, either suicide or accidentally falling onto the tracks, and that sometimes they give the train driver a year off vacation (I can't remember if it was a paid year or not) due to being traumatized. But like I said, it's not for sure this happened!







La Fete des Vendages

All of last weekend there was a festival going on celebrating the harvest of the grapes. On saturday I decided to check this out. I went alone due to all my other friends being busy...but they missed out! Each day, they had various events starting in the morning and going all the way to night. The main events were clustered around Sacre-Couer (first picture). Which is a famous church on the top of a hill in Paris, and has a crazy view of the whole city. I get there, and it's practically like the arts festival! The little streets around Sacre-Couer were lined with 'booths' of cheese/sausage/wine/candy/etc just anything and everything. And all of them were giving out free samples. The wine ones were the most popular, people just grouped around them. I didnt want to spend all my time in these groups so I just kept walking and occasionally was offered some cheese or sausage which was amazing! There were soooooo many people though. It was kind of frustrating. The roads are so small, and a mass of people will be walking one way, and another mass the other, so then they have to squeeze by eachother, but THEN you have to factor in the people that stand infront of the booths which creates a barricade for people going one way. OFTA, sometimes I couldn't even move. Just came to a complete stop for like 5 minutes. But, I like lots of people around, so it wasn't too bad. Besides all this food, there were tons of performers, mostly music. I took a ton of videos of these people so I'll have to be selective of which ones I upload. I came to this around 6 because at 8 there was supposed to be a human pyramid event, like the ones you see on tv where they get like 7 levels of people then fall over, but miraculously don't get hurt. Welp, I didn't see no human pyramid. Musta misread something on the events page. BUT, I made up for that because around 10........
Le feu d'artifice!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FIREWORKS!!!!! Right infront of this church, in the middle of Paris. It was excellent. They had huge speakers playing really classic old french tunes, and everyone would start singing along...except me. It was a grand time. The pictures and video don't do justice.



Not sure what that instrument is, but it's great!

Let's bang on drums

Harmonize

Little tipsy are we?

Just to show you all the people around

Grand Finale


Birthday Party

On tuesday was my host mom's son Yann's Bday. He turned 36 and her other son Fabien who is in his upper 20's came. There is a family friend, Camille who has been staying at the house for a while (waiting on his visa to go over to the states, but having difficulties with it). So in total, there was five of us. We started at 8 with some champagne and some goodies. A bowl of baby tomatoes and olives and a plate of some bread thingys. The first picture shows all this and Yann looking at a book he got as a gift, but it's a bit dark.
Around 9, we finally moved to the table. I was told what we were going to eat was a very special dish, and eaten only a couple times a year. It's called Raclette, and I must say, it went straight to my number one favorite dish.





These pictures gives you a grand idea of everything, and I shall explain. Firstly, you are probably wondering who is who!? Left, Camille (he is 22, engineer, super cool, is supposed to be going to MIT to research a new engine) Middle, host mom Eveylne (dont know exact age, very nice). Right, other son Fabien (upper 20's, think he is just finishing up his PHD, very smart, and talks ridiculously fast). On to the dish! The second picture gives you a better idea of what the plate of meat looks like. There was ham, bacon, some meat I'd never heard of, um um and I can't remember the other. Back to the first. So first, everyone loads their plate with meat and cheese. I wish I would've taken a picture of the cheese. There was a massive bowl just fuuuullllll of this cheese (it's also called raclette). In the center of the table you can see this little grill thing. On top, there was a bowl of potatoes and then you can use the top to grill the HAM. I started grilling the other meats and they looked at me funny. They said usually it's just used to grill the ham, but it wasn't a big deal. Next, it's tough to see, but right under the piece of ham on the grill you can see this little handle sticking out of the grill. Each person got one of these square inserts, and you would stick cheese in it and place it in the slot, allowing it to melt, then scrap the melted cheese off with that wooden scrapper you can see on the plates. I learned that if you wrap a potato in some meat then put the cheese on top, it makes for a magical delight. After this, it was time for the cake! It was a small super chocolately/fudgey cake. The video shows us singing happy birthday to Yann. First it's in french, then english, then german (not in the video but later we tried to sing it in spanish) Fabien and Camille were the only ones who knew german, but pay attention to Yann, he thinks german sounds funny so he always just rambles some german sounds out. Sorry about the turning of the camera, forgot it doesn't automatically adjust.

By the time Fabien and Yann left, it was 11:30. Quite the night, but very enjoyable.




My parents sent me a magical package of homemade cookies, nature valley bars (oooooo UNL Hewit Dining Center...I miss my massive bowl of nature valley!) and various candy bars...plus a wonderful note. I finally got this package on thursday. O snickerdoodles how I love you so!

Nuit Blanche

And the close to yet another eventful weekend in Paris!

Friday

At our program's studio, we had a little french tasting night. Cheese/Bread/Wine. My most favorites. There were plates full of different cheese throughout France...organized by regions, bowls of endless bread, confiture (jam) and a plethora of wine (as you can see). There was also a speaker who talked about the different kinds of cheese, where they came from, their tastes, etc. She also talked about the French term "Terroir". Which is like how a specific region has influence on a product whether it be wine/cheese/etc. You can wiki the term to get a better understanding of it! So we feasted for an hour or so on cheese and bread. Some of the cheese were super good while others were much to strong for my taste. I don't know if you've ever tried Roquefort, but that bad boy is a strong one! It's a white cheese with green spots of bacteria throughout. You can see it in the picture. I tried it a while back one dinner with my host mom. Ofta it's strong. I tried it again though at this taste party...my dislike towards Roquefort continues. So after stuffing our mouths with all the cheese and bread that was constantly being shoved into our faces, and washing it down with glasses of wine, the taste party was over. I went to a hookah bar afterwards with some friends (hookah is flavored tobacco). My tummy was going crazy. I mean, when you think about it, I just ate a ton of cheese, stinky cheese, and wine. My stomach punished me with a trip to les toilettes.

Saturday

I found this site a while back called Polyglot, which is a language partner seeking site. You sign up, list the languages you speak, and what languages you are interested in learning, and then write a little bio about yourself. I said I was studying abroad in Paris for the semester and was looking for a person to speak french with, in turn I could teach them english. I've received about 4 messages from other people and finally decided to set something up with this one person. I met her in the afternoon and we just walked around and talked. I enjoyed it much and I think we'll probably meet again sometime in the future.

Saturday night. oooooooo what a night. It was the 8th Nuit Blanche (White Night) in Paris. Tons and tons of art installations are set up throughout the city, I think there is over a hundred, museums and galleries are free and open to the public. Some are only open until a certain time, others ALL NIGHT. And dont you know it, I was up alllll night, but I had to fight for it. I met up with two friends around 9 and commenced our first nuit blanche. There were people every where. Yelling, running around, drinking too much, singing. It was quite funny. I took a bunch of pictures of the different installations and some videos which I shall upload.



Now I know these pictures are pretty terrible (especially the first two) compared to the other blog pictures but I needed them to explain what's going on here. The first picture is of a building which had a massive projection near the ground out of view of spaces pictures and music playing, and up top as you can see, there was this green laser zooming off. The second picture is still at that building but looking the other way. I was trying to show how far the laser went. You can BARELY see it, but it's there. If you look down the street, you see that big white circle in the air. That's how far the laser went. And this WHITE CIRCLE was a gigantic disco ball held up by a crane. Lights were shot up at it and reflected in all directions. I was told the purpose of this piece was to represent the stars in the sky, because in a big city with all the lights it's pretty difficult to see the stars. Thank goodness it cloudy that night for this thing to work. Sure enough, the lights reflected onto the clouds and were moving all over. It was pretty crazy.





This video is of a street band grooving out on the street. There was a huge crowd and everyone was yelling and dancing. It was great!


This is just a picture down the Seine. Perdy lights. Lots of people on the quai's.


In Notre-Dame there was, as you can see, tons of these crystals throughout it. Various sizes and colors. The first pictures shows the line waiting to get in. That was around 11 though. My friends and I saw this line and decided to go some some other installations and then come back. Good idea that was. We returned around 3, and there wasn't a line at all!



Did I make it all through the night? Sure did. See, during the night only two metro lines were running, and all the others didn't open until 6 in the morning. The two lines didn't even come close to where I lived so that was out of the question. The buses run all through the night, but I've never taken the buses myself. Not too familiar with them. So I decided to power through the night with my friends even though I was kind of sick. The past week I've had a small cold and last night probably didn't help that. I started loosing my voice around 4 in the morning. When all said and done, got home and shut the eyes at 6:30 in the morning. I slept until 4 in the afternoon on Sunday. Woke up with a pulsing headache, which I still have. Random cough attacks too. Took my temperature tonight, and dont have a temp so thats good. They say the first sign to the N1H1 is the fever. So I just think it's a pesky cold. Was it worth staying up all night? Bien sur!

p.s. I lost 1/2 a pound during Nuit Blanche from walking pretty much 9 hours straight. That's including having a massive plate of noodles and cheese before the night started, and eating a nutella banana crepe during the night. So if you want to get rid of 1/2 a pound = walk for 9 hours!