It's Rachael again. So life has been pretty hectic. The pace here in the big
city is much different than what I am used to in Frankfort. Katie already
covered the first day of our weekend in Rennes so guess I should update you all
on the second. Well it was a lot of walking, and then some more walking, and
guess what… more walking. My legs should be AWESOME by the time I get home. We
saw a wonderful market and heard some good music from a little group there and
ate more food and mostly just had a day of wandering which was all good. Only
questionable part of the day was when we were heading back to the hotel. It was
definitely a “Taken” moment. Except we were smarter than the girls in the movie
and less naïve, except for the beautiful Katie writing this blog with me. We
were walking and I saw these two or three guys being creeps in and by their
car, whatever perfectly normal. Then as we walk closer the one not in the car
kind of walks towards us from the side and is talking in French, also not too
bad sometimes strangers talk at you. The moment the adrenaline kicks in is when
he is half circled behind us and the other guy opens the car door all the way
and leans out blocking most of the sidewalk. The other Katie and I book it past
and stay pretty much in the road ignoring them since they can’t do anything if
we don’t give them a chance. What does my beautiful best friend Katie (the one
writing on here, just reiterating) do? She slows down and kinda laughs because
she hadn’t seen it all play out and thought they were just sharing a joke and
the one guy was helping the other park the car. Well as you can imagine we are
worried by this behavior and slow down and yell at her and when she gets to us
and we get on another street we have some wisdom to share with her. I was so
afraid of what would happen if she wasn’t aware like that and I wasn’t with her
that I know I sounded angry and had to explain that I was just worried and
upset. Because lets guess what these dudes were saying. You ready? “Hey you
should get in our car. We can drive you to a party. Come on. Etc. etc.”
Apparently neither of the Katies knew what they were saying but I definitely
heard them and was thinking “you wouldn’t take us to a party… what do you think
because we speak English we are that stupid?” It was a moment that would have
been bad for girls that decide trusting strangers is a good thing but
thankfully it was nothing big for us. Mostly it was just an opportunity for me
to remind Katie that one should, normally, just ignore strangers talking to you
and smiling (because apparently here smiling and meeting eyes is a come on).
Other than
that fun stuff Rennes was mostly relaxed. Then got back to Paris and had to
continue with classes. It’s getting a little easier to understand the
professors for the most part but still sometimes if they talk to fast I have
problems. We had a small quiz for architecture and I think we all missed at
least one or two of twelve questions. It wasn’t a good moment for any of us.
Otherwise classes went as they do and I just took lots of notes and had lots of
vocabulary questions. And the wonderful Jeremy is now in our French language
courses. He is so much fun and I love that we got to meet him. Talking about
him I went with him and Katie for thai food tonight and he loves it just as
much as me so it was a wonderful experience. Today we had grand plans for doing
stuff but mostly just wandered, as usual. I slept at Katie’s last night and
this morning we came by my house to drop things off then went out so she could
go to the phone store and figure out the problem with texting with her hostess.
Then we planned to just grab mcdonald’s. I know. Horrible idea while in Paris
but we just didn’t feel like French food. Well it was too expensive and busy so
we decided to do a picnic. Three grocery stores and two arrondisements later we
had some food and got to the Eiffel tower to meet the other Katie, Jeremy, and
Diala and ate our food like we had never seen any before in our lives. Then
this lady walks up asking if we speak English (homeless people ask this so they
know what language to beg in) and a couple of the others just said no and
turned away from her and towards me and Katie with our food spread out on the
bench. Then she looks at me and Katie and in French says something along the
lines of “Give me some bread to eat with this (she was holding a half eaten
tomato) for my meal” or something like that. She didn’t ask it as a question
but I took it as if she had and just tore off a hunk of the large loaf we
didn’t need to eat all of and gave it to her. She bobbed her head and walked
away looking much happier than when she walked up. The others started talking
about how rude and demanding she was but all I could think was well she is
probably really hungry to walk up and ask for some bread and what does it
matter if I give her some and make her day better. She might have come off as
rude because she is tired and hungry. I’m not going to get angry with someone
for not groveling enough for my food. If I can help and it won’t hurt anyone
why wouldn’t I just help a fellow human being. Just because she didn’t
prostrate herself at my feet doesn’t mean she wasn’t thankful or that she
didn’t really need it.
Anyway… after that we just hung out and talked and then went
for aperitifs eventually. Not a bad day but still tired for not having done
much. Tomorrow Jeremy, Katie, and I are going with my hostess (Genevieve) to Fontainebleau
and to see Cyclops. Should be a fun day of exploring and being a tourist. Then
after we get back to Paris having dinner with other Katie and Diala at this
Portuguese place my hostess took me to once. Then lots of studying and maybe a
movie for Sunday (for me at least). I’m always tired but I’m always moving so
it makes sense. Lots of love to my people at home. Hoping the weekend goes well
and I will have photos to post.
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