we have a few late arrivals...GO RUN!

...nuff said

sigh, dude i just took an amazing nap. i've given up on trying to wake up early everyday and go to bed really late, and still enjoy england. i'm having a hard time being unconscious in england, as i wanna go see stuff!! oh well...

so...theres this whole paris thing ya probably wanna know about. i went there with my brand new girlfriend liz, shes a great girl..her mamma did a great job...we had ourselvs a jolly ole time. we left cant.terbury around 6:30, to find out the train station (cant.terbury east) was closed. so we had 20 minutes to catch a train from the other station across town, about a 20 minute walk. lame.

so, we grabbed a taxi and i honestly thought i was gonna die...this guy was making sure we wouldnt miss our train. he was an awesome guy though...he took me up to kent and i only had a 20, the fare was like 7.60, and he let me go on 7...he's a good guy...

anyway, so we finally get to the train station, then get to london...and the victoria line is closed. thats the one that takes us from the first train to our eurostar, the one thats gonna get us to france. well, we have to phinagle (literally todd, its the correct use of the word damnit!!) our way around town and stroll the streets of london trying to find our station.....whoo, it was rough trying to keep up with miss walkie mc.power walk! so we get to the station on time.......or so we thought...

then it happened...

we hear from the train...people?...that 'we have two late arrivavls with no luggage, permission for them to run to the train?'...'yes, we can take two more'...holy crap, so walkie talky lady grabs my ticket and passport and tells me to throw my backpack on the conveyor belt and huscle...i thought i needed my ticket to get on the train, but...whatever. then i throw my crap up there, and she gives me my stuff and shows us to the door and tells us to run up that and turn left and RUN!

...poor us

we were running as fast as we could, and as any girl would do, liz packed a bag for only ONE day that was freaking HUGE!! it was fun to make fun of her, but then again she was out-running me so...whatever. well we get to the train, and the guy says.

'way to go chaps, you made it, hop on.'

anyway, get on the train and about an hour and a half later we are in france, and its absolutly beautiful weather. so nice to sit back and chill. we've been go go go here in cant.terbury, and we finally had a chance to sit and relax...eat cheese, drink wine. pretend we knew french. ya know, the norm. well i had an amazing sandwich at some frenchie place, the waiter knew little inglea (i kept calling it ingles, like in spanish, so all the french peeps thought i was dumb...) and he was really nice to us, showed me the best sandwich...he was a good guy

num nums

then we did the arc de trioumph (forgive my attempt of french, i really did try to understand it...) and it was weird to not only be walking down the street where in about 3 or 4 days the tour de france ends..but where the nazi's were marching on when they owned this area. ive seen so many pics of that, it was just eery almost. the arc was amazing though, to see somewhere were also (i cant remember his name) but that black olympian won the marathon in the face of hitler as he runs through the arc de triomph. thats gonna bug the crap outta me. anyway, it was awesome...

...insane

so then it was eifel tower time, where i tripped over a 42 year old man with a 43 year old lady making out like banchies...ok not really but there was alot of making outage. it was so, so, so, so, so, so cool to be standing at that place. the thing that i can't get out of my mind is a picture of hitler standing with the eifel tower in the background. it really makes me feel like i need to go to normandy where the d-day beachs are, just to pay some respect. its a weird feeling hanging out here where 50 years ago all of this nazi stuff was going down. i just wanna find an old guy and have a kronenburg with him and talk to him about it...but thats for a nother day.

just weird

anyway, so on a better note....

after the eifel tower we did the lueve where i found my mommas gift o pear.dis. we didnt actually go in because we had so little time in paris, we just wanted to see the sites and get a chance to come back later. we saw much of the palace for king george (? could be king rick, jeff i dont know, franc?) because the palace is where the leuve was. it was amazing to see the building, it twas gorgeous.

so, we were walking around just strolling paris, amazing by everything. and we came to this bridge where it overlooked the river and the eifel tower. it was freaking awesome. there was a street performer playing a trombone and a drum set downstairs from the bridge. he was amazing....it was amazing...

anyway, so then i got hungry and whiney and tried to force liz to go eat...and then i realized i wasnt that hungry...more tired. wow this is a little too in depth of the trip....

haha, the NEXT day (moving on) we went to notre dame. literally my biggest thing in paris was seeing notre dame. we saw it from a distance a bunch while we were cabbing all around town (expensive, totally worth it) but we wernt that close to it. so its around 11:15 when we walked in and we were just strolling the gorgeous-ness of it, and we noticed that mass was at 11:30. so we literally said what the hell, lets do mass. (which is always a good thing to say when youre deciding to go to church, by the way). anyway, so we sit down and i kinda start to take in the fact that im sitting in mass, at freaking notre dame.

...i think my mamma is crying right now, saying 'wow mike'

wow...

literally, shes tearing up as if it were full house...haha, sorry mama. aaaaaaanyway, so the service started with so many priests, like...5 or 6. they started mass, and was it in english...? no. was it in french...? no. was it in....sign language........? no. it was in flinging flanging latin. which made it that much cooler to hear "in nomine patri, et fili, spiritu santi" which was really catholoic of me to know what that meant. jr can vouch for my catholoic-ness. anyway, so the mass started and i always felt that when the music starts and the priests start walking up that im at a basketball game of some kind. it felt like, ya know they start playing the music when they introduce the players??? no???

at left priest, 5'11" from vatican city...the italian stallion!!!! fatttttttthhhhhhhuuuurrrrrrr mmmmmaaaaaaarrrrrrkkkkkkkkkk

in the middle, down low we've the priest the beast, fathhhhuuuurrrrahhhhhh wwwwwwwwillllllllllllll

at the eucharistic minister, 5' 7" from rome, father jack the mack daddy of mass....

...ok thats definatly enough of that, im sure i've got instant hell for that one. anyway, so mass was awesome, theres a video here, but its all audio cause they played hallelujah, with the organ, it was gorgeouso. then i took communion. it was, really amazing for someone who ALWAYS GOES TO CHURCH to take it in notre dame. seriously, it was really cool to do that. im glad i got an opportunity to do that. i tried to do the profession of faith in latin, haha, that went REAL well. yeah i think i was reading the wrong thing. it was worth a shot. with my luck, i probably told God...

our father, who art in brother the father the almighty. i believe in one holy and hallelujah, lord prepare me to be a sanctuary and bless o lord in these our gifts for we are about to receive from heaven to hills to earth. yeah thats probably what i asked for. good times.

anyway, so church was really cool. then we did lunch, like after church crowds do. we went to a little place i had a cheese omlet, that was...lame. liz's whatever was really good she said, which makes me feel great cause....i suck at choosing french food. then we did wine and met this cool little couple from philly. the guy kept telling me about how much he loves that t.o is in dallas not philly. i kept telling him how much i like it too. they were extreamly nice to us, and telling us how much they loved london...they were cool.


so, we've done eifel tower, notre dame, the leuve, arc de triouph, eaten at a french restraunt, pretended to know french, almost died in a cab, run to our train, got lost, drank wine and ate cheese. sigh, life is shit isnt it??? bahaha, dude so much fun, everything. from our chill time in paris to this moment right now after getting back from having coffee and studying. life is gooooodddahhh!!!

oh yeah, enjoy that heat!