Not that anyone has noticed, but I just did an entire set of entries with titles based on interrogative words. This is the last one. (It's "Where," and I've already done Which, How, Who, What, When, and Why.)
As I write this, I am sitting in the French class I happen to attend just to pass the time and once in a blue moon speak French that nobody understands, since they've never had prolonged exposure to the French accent. (It's like how when I'd speak English in my class in France and still nobody would understand me.) I signed up for it hoping to be of some help for the teacher, though it's really been more useful for furthering my own agenda and (supposedly) studying and doing homework. Except in truth, most of the time, I am just attacked by a terrible nostalgia.
I mean, here the teacher is talking about Paris, a city everyone knows about but doesn't really know, and she just handed everyone each a map of the city, a map that I have come to fondly recognize, and asked everyone to find certain monuments.
The first one was the Notre Dame. In my head, I found it in the center of the map, on the Ile de la Cité, in the 4th arrondissement. It didn't even take a second. The second one was the Louvre. I moved westward of the Notre Dame, staying on the banks of the Seine, to find the Louvre in my head, in the 1st arrondissement. Now they're looking at the Invalides, Napoleon's tomb. It's somewhat southwest of the Louvre, on the other side of the river. While I haven't committed the arrondissement to heart, I can tell you to get off at the metro station Varenne by taking line 13, or Invalides by taking the RER C, though if you're specifically looking to get off closest to Napoleon's tomb rather than the military museum, Varenne would be better. Also, Varenne is close to the Rodin museum, and there's a replica of The Thinker in that station. Oh look, the Place de la Concorde is on the other side of the Champs-Elysées from the Arc de Triomphe, as Joe Dassin sings, "Et de l'étoile à la concorde, un orchestre à mille cordes..." The Sacré-Coeur basilica is located on the top of the Montmartre Butte, in the 18th arrondissement. It's the artists' quarter of Paris. Get off at Abbesses, Lamarck-Caulaincourt, or Blanche (the latter if you want to see the Moulin Rouge). Hey, now it's the Opéra. North of the Louvre, metro stop Opéra, line 7, among a few others.
Ugh
I can't believe I still remember this. It's been more than 5 months since I left France. Just goes to show how much I still think of it.
More than a desire to go back to France, it's really just an irrepressible longing to be in a big city again, exploring its museums restaurants parks public transportation systems nightlife etc. with some equally adventurous and energetic friends.
My mind constantly wanders off to destinations I have never been to, like Mumbai or New York or Cairo, and destinations I once roamed, like Prague or San Francisco or Manila, while my body stagnates in this classroom. Life's too easy and comfortable in the suburbs. I want out. I want a real challenge. I want to get lost. I want to feel terror and elation beyond my wits. I don't want my imagination to intoxicate and pollute my reality, I want my reality to be more incredible than I could have imagined it, like it is whenever I find myself in a strange and exotic place.
It'll happen again eventually. I'll attempt to content myself with dreaming for now, and keeping myself sane by reminding myself of all the fantastic things and cities and people that did happen this year. Which I will, of course, write about in another entry later.
As I write this, I am sitting in the French class I happen to attend just to pass the time and once in a blue moon speak French that nobody understands, since they've never had prolonged exposure to the French accent. (It's like how when I'd speak English in my class in France and still nobody would understand me.) I signed up for it hoping to be of some help for the teacher, though it's really been more useful for furthering my own agenda and (supposedly) studying and doing homework. Except in truth, most of the time, I am just attacked by a terrible nostalgia.
I mean, here the teacher is talking about Paris, a city everyone knows about but doesn't really know, and she just handed everyone each a map of the city, a map that I have come to fondly recognize, and asked everyone to find certain monuments.
The first one was the Notre Dame. In my head, I found it in the center of the map, on the Ile de la Cité, in the 4th arrondissement. It didn't even take a second. The second one was the Louvre. I moved westward of the Notre Dame, staying on the banks of the Seine, to find the Louvre in my head, in the 1st arrondissement. Now they're looking at the Invalides, Napoleon's tomb. It's somewhat southwest of the Louvre, on the other side of the river. While I haven't committed the arrondissement to heart, I can tell you to get off at the metro station Varenne by taking line 13, or Invalides by taking the RER C, though if you're specifically looking to get off closest to Napoleon's tomb rather than the military museum, Varenne would be better. Also, Varenne is close to the Rodin museum, and there's a replica of The Thinker in that station. Oh look, the Place de la Concorde is on the other side of the Champs-Elysées from the Arc de Triomphe, as Joe Dassin sings, "Et de l'étoile à la concorde, un orchestre à mille cordes..." The Sacré-Coeur basilica is located on the top of the Montmartre Butte, in the 18th arrondissement. It's the artists' quarter of Paris. Get off at Abbesses, Lamarck-Caulaincourt, or Blanche (the latter if you want to see the Moulin Rouge). Hey, now it's the Opéra. North of the Louvre, metro stop Opéra, line 7, among a few others.
Ugh
I can't believe I still remember this. It's been more than 5 months since I left France. Just goes to show how much I still think of it.
More than a desire to go back to France, it's really just an irrepressible longing to be in a big city again, exploring its museums restaurants parks public transportation systems nightlife etc. with some equally adventurous and energetic friends.
My mind constantly wanders off to destinations I have never been to, like Mumbai or New York or Cairo, and destinations I once roamed, like Prague or San Francisco or Manila, while my body stagnates in this classroom. Life's too easy and comfortable in the suburbs. I want out. I want a real challenge. I want to get lost. I want to feel terror and elation beyond my wits. I don't want my imagination to intoxicate and pollute my reality, I want my reality to be more incredible than I could have imagined it, like it is whenever I find myself in a strange and exotic place.
It'll happen again eventually. I'll attempt to content myself with dreaming for now, and keeping myself sane by reminding myself of all the fantastic things and cities and people that did happen this year. Which I will, of course, write about in another entry later.
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