Nikki's European (mis)adventures

Paris, jour deux

This morning I woke up just in time to get a call from Seattle from my mom. Are you eating ok, sleeping ok, walking ok, talking ok, dressing ok? Yes, mom, yes, oh, all except for the dressing part.

I seem to have packed all the hobo clothes apparently, according to my mom. I cleaned your room and found all the nice clothes. What did you bring? You better dress nice. Don't look like a hobo at your uncle's house. "Oh, what, you mean I can't walk around in my boxers?" My brother wanted to know. "Oh by the way, mom, my pants have holes in them", I said. My mom hates us, or at least how we play with her.

Lounged around for a while and listened to music while my uncle went crazy. Do you know how to take the Metro? Do you have money? Do you know how to use the key? Can you get in? Have you learned your alphabets? Quan and I were like, let's get outta here before he gets spontaneous human combustion running back and forth worrying about us.

The sky cleared out as we walked around Paris, looking for an English bookstore to buy a guidebook. I was doing what comes natural for a girl: comparison shopping. Hmm which bookstore has a better selection and better price? "Hey, you know what, when people ask me what Paris was like, I'll tell them the bookstores are excellent", my brother said.

Sat in front of the Musée d'Orsay for 45 minutes waiting for Alice and Kuang, and played the "Spin the American tourist" game. It's like that scene from Indiana Jones, The Holy Grail, where Indiana is like, you'll never find him, and you see the guy walking around asking, "do you speak English?"

After lunch we walked to the Arc de Triomph, where two Chinese top secret agents parachuted down to meet us and asked us to perform a top secret mission. We were to buy them Louis Vuitton purses and wallets, because they can only buy 2 per passport. Alice and Kuang went, me and Quan were held at a gunpoint as hostages.

Interpol agents were on the rooftop, talking in their sleeves and recording everything. They entered the store, Alice and Kuang got snobbed out, and agents discovered their identities. Alice hung on to her LV wallets while being dragged on the floor by her hair, kicking and screaming, "400 Euros per wallet, what a bargain!"

Actually, two Chinese women asked if we could buy them LV stuff, and Alice and Kuang got adventurous and were denied, snob style, by the sales people.

Climbed up Arc de Triomph to see all of Paris. Well, more like, to see all of Paris traffic. Other people may go up there for the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur, Quan and I are up there to watch how six lanes of cars, motorcycles, and bikes merge into one big blob, and how they sort themselves out. Every second is an accident waiting to happen. We were perversely fascinated by that possibility.

It started to rain, and Alice and Kuang were leaving town, so we hung around for a little bit and headed towards the Louvre, where it was closed and there was a private party. The people making the movie "The Da Vinci Code" were there, scoping out the place. So don't forget, when it comes out, I was the original extra cast.

Anyhow this has been a super long day, and there'll be many long days yet to come. I'm signing off here. Tonight we'll take the train down to San Sebastian, and then into Lisbon.

See ya later.

ps. I love bagels.

posted by Nikki Chau @ 1:32 PM