Nikki's European (mis)adventures

Paris

In Paree. A wee bit jet lagged. Eating my weight in sugar (mostly bunny chocolate) to stay awake. So much to write. The writer, the starry-eyed dreamer, the wanderluster is fiercely alive. Tout est fermé. It's Easter, so everything is closed. The weather too. It's cloudy and rainy. My brother is severely jet lagging, ie. sleeping like it's still Pacific Standard time.

My dad, paranoid about time as usual, dropped us off just a little early, we only had to wait three and a half hours to board at SeaTac. In my infinite wisdom I left my Lonely Planet book at home. Now it's just a lonely book on the couch.

We'll wing it, I told my mom, I'm sure some nice European guy wouldn't mind my company for a few days. Plus, us American girls have a reputation of being easy. This did not sit well with her, for some reason. Buy a guide there, she said nervously. They don't have bookstores in Europe mom, only bars, and she shook her head at me hopelessly, thinking, where did I go wrong?

The flights from Seattle to Chicago and Chicago to D.C. were bumpy, like a horse ride. Hello, turbulent city. "The Incredibles" were on twice. I caught bits and pieces of it between intermitten sleep bouts, namely when the flight attendants woke me up. Hi, your eyes are closed. You appear to be in deep sleep, but I'm not sure. In any case, tea or coffee?

The long layover in D.C. was sweet, because we got to hang out with Tammy, walking the near empty streets and crashing in one of the few restaurants that were open, which happened to be one of those high class dress-upsy places, where even the servers make you feel like an underdressed hobo.

My uncle picked us up at Charles de Gaule, and he drove us along the Seine, for my brother, really, since, you know, I've been here before, soooo many times, dahhhhling. That bridge! That street! Where I used to run and make fun of tourists. Le pont Mirabeau, which always makes me a poet, stands in the fog, with that ugly steel thing in the background. My brother is so excited, happy as a boundin' sheep, speaking for French that I had heard from him in years. I didn't even know he knew that many French words, even.

My nephew Alex still remembers me from my days of babysitting him. Maybe a little too well. Let's play! You wanna come play? Okay, you stop using computer now, and you come play with me. So, I ate two bars of ice cream, two pounds of chocolate, made houses and cars out of Legos, and played airplane, a game where I pick up a 7 year old boy and spin him around until I am blue dizzy and he falls down giggling, screaming, "again!"

Yeah, and I've spent the day checking emails, mostly from people who might let me sleep on their couches. Oh, and making some small changes on my website. Pretty proud of how I still remember to use the French keyboard. Like I never left. Okay except for the occasional snafus, like, %Hi ,o, so itùs &&M"à and I'm here, itùs so qzeco,e thqt Qlex still re,e,bers ,e: Qnyzqy I love you bye1%

Anyhow my brother's up, so we're gonna grab a taxi and go see Kuang and Alice, who are conveniently in town. Yay!

Later.

"I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now" ~ Edna "E" Mode

Pictures

posted by Nikki Chau @ 9:44 PM