Your Blood (Honey)

I’ve been on a sort of hiatus for awhile. I haven’t had time to finish up describing my travels. I don’t know exactly how to capture the rest of East Africa, but the previous post gives a the general feelings of the trip. For further insight into the trip it might be best to check out my Flickr album, and my Facebook album, for a more complete picture. At this point I don’t think I have the patience to recount the entire trip. I do think that it’s, possibly, the best trip I’ve ever taken–certainly one of the most insightful and rewarding, if not always pleasurable and luxurious.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I also visited Germany. Pictures of this trip can also be found on Flickr and Facebook, and I encourage you to take a look at them if you’re interested. As I’ve began to do lately, the pictures are followed by longer descriptions than usual making it have more of a photo essay feel. Anyway, I think they capture some of my favorite parts of the trip.

So, my travels are complete. I captured them to the best of my ability, and I hope they are useful and enjoyable. Now, I’m back in Bloomington, and I’m looking forward to making new and interesting posts.

I described East Africa as like the old American Wild West. Why? Well, it’s pretty warm and dusty. The roads are pretty bad. The stores are all hole in the wall. Things are never what they seem, and things are rarely used in the way you’re probably used to. The law is there, but there are other powers in control, and justice is more complicated. You’ve got to always be on your guard, and you never know what’ll happen next. A lot happens in a month, and I don’t have enough time to write about it right now, but I just wanted to get started so that the ball will keep rolling. A full outline of the trip starts in Nairobi, moves towards Uganda’s Jinja, Kampala and Fort Portal. Then down to Uganda’s Southwestern cities before crossing into Rwanda at Gisenyi on our way to Kigali, and nearing the end with a long bus all the way back to Mombasa that took us 34 hours before making our way to the Funzi islands and then back to Nairobi for my flight home. Talking about the trip at this points works best as a stream of interconnected memories and facts.

First things first: Yes, according to contemporary knowledge, a vast majority of the individuals in East Africa live below the living conditions what we’re used to. The countries in this region have large gaps between the wealthy and the poor, and the poor are not treated very well by the government. However, things are changing, yes (for the better isn’t my field of study, but I’d like to hope that it is). Also, these are people, just like you and I, who are trying to live their lives. They don’t need you to always feel bad for them and express how you are more advanced than they are (in fact, it seems like some “development workers” [in quotes because it's a term I went to Africa with a vague idea of, and left with an even more vague idea of] are concerned with just this). Needless to say, it’s complicated there. So, that said, I really enjoyed myself, and I think anyone can. But it certainly is more dangerous, and not the average middle class tourist destination.

The clouds are magnificent. The national parks and reserves are absurdly expensive. ‘Absurd’ because the locals who live near them usually don’t ever get a chance to go, despite living near them their entire lives. On the flip side, Bill Gates flies in to see gorillas and then leaves before anyone even knows he’s there. This is the sort of disparity you get used to quickly, for better or for worse. You get called a Mezungu by everyone, it almost seems like it’s the only thing kids learn in school (if they all had schools to go to). Don’t fool yourself though, the reverse racism is not OK, it just fuels more problems later. Mezungu doesn’t mean “white person” it means “white person with money.” And so you often find yourself paying “Mezungu Prices,” unless you bargain down some. That said, things are still terribly cheap–unless you go to a resort bar, then you’ll be paying approximately 14$ for a Pina Colada (don’t ask how I know that). The wildlife is everywhere, there are monkeys at Red Chilli Hideaway Hostel (located in the huge capital city of Uganda: Kampala). Well, not everywhere. I visited Queen Elizabeth National Park and saw tons of wildlife, even on the way in and out of the park (even though, apparently, a large army came through and killed most of the wildlife about a decade ago). We even saw a lion at night on the road out. This is likely because the sun heats the dirt road all day, and at night the lions come and hang out on the warm dirt roads. We saw a safari vehicle in the ditch, drove past it, and viola! 10 feet from a lion (you’re gonna have to trust me on this, I accidentally deleted the ghostly dark picture. Also at Queen Elizabeth we saw: hippos, crocs, water buffalo, birds, and more birds. OK, I stand by my original statement about wildlife being everywhere. I occurred to me that on our first major bus ride from Nairobi to Kisumu (southwestern, on Lake Victoria) we saw zebras, and more monkeys just on the side of the road. I think at various parts on the trip I also remembered seeing black horned antelope as well. Speaking of wildlife and Kisumu, that reminds me of a story (one of the most memorable).

We arrived late night is Kisumu and we were pretty tired. We got a tuk-tuk to a resort from our guide book. By the way, whenever I say “we” I’m referring to my friend Jack Killen and myself. Jack Killen studies African Development work, and has been in Kenya for something like 8 months. Back to the story, a tuk-tuk is a sort of large motorized tricycle with an enclosure on the back for passengers. Generally speaking there are only a few types of transport: the tuk-tuk, the boda-boda (motor cycle, or bicycles with seats on the back for passengers are both referred to as this), the matatu (a small bus that fits about 12 people, but is often crammed with more [I once was crammed into one with 25 people, 5 kids, and a goat], and which plays loud rap or pop RnB music), and a regular old taxi. The middle of those four are the cheapest, and what Jack and I usually used. So we got on a tuk-tuk and made our way to the resort. It was rainy season, which I think varies from country to country because the climates are quite different, but it was in Kenya–and as such, it was not tourist season. We usually had our pick of the properties as a result (whether hotel, camp site, or hostel beds). When we arrive we picked a dreamy and romantic spot for our tent and set it up. It was the first night we were sleeping in the tent, and only 2 or 3 days sense I had arrived in Kenya (this is sort of another story, but Jack wasn’t really happy in Nairobi, and decided it’d be best to leave sooner rather than later). We then went to the restaurant on the grounds, only to discover after trying many selections, that our options were limited to two: Fried Fish with Ugali, or Fish with Sauce and Ugali. We had that, and a beer. Ugali is a sort of maize based carbohydrate. They eat it as a main staple in their diet throughout Kenya (in Uganda it’s Matoke, a plantain dish that is strikingly similar to Ugali). It’s sort of like white, bland, playdough. You smash it in your hand and use it as sort of utensil to pick up other food on your plate. Throughout Africa the diet is quite limited most people eat ugali or rice and then one of several things: sukoma (green cabbage stripped and boiled with spices), cabbage (white cabbage, similar to sukoma), chicken, beef, or fish. Then there is chapati, which are like savory pancakes with tons of oil, and some other bland fried dough things. And, that’s really about it as far as the staples of most folks diets. So anyway, we had a beer and some ugali and fish. After this meal it was getting pretty late so we decided to turn in. I fell asleep and woke up at about 2AM because of strange little pinches (very little, almost like a piece of dirt just rubbed a hair on my skin the wrong way, or something). I didn’t have my glasses on, but I sat up and looked at the top of the tent. It was swirling with dark grey shadows lit by the moonlight above, I think it was almost a full moon–but not quite. For a second I just sat there, because I knew whatever it was was bad, and I was going to have to deal with it, which I was too tired to do. So eventually, Jack leaned over and asked me what the deal was. I tried to tell him that there was a million insects on top of the tent and we were probably going to have to do something about it, then I put on my glasses, and realized they were ants. Must have been millions of terrible crawling ants of all shapes and sizes. How they got into the tent, which was well sealed, I have no idea. We were only in our boxers at the time. At first Jack was like, “just go back to sleep man,” but apparently my side was worse than his. I asked him to switch places with me to see how what it was like, and the ants did not like this, the began to attack us (note to self, do not move until absolutely necessary). So, we grabbed our pants and ran out of the tent at full speed, the ants had one the first battle. There were bandas (I think that’s the word for little square open-air sitting areas), so we hid under one of them. We put on our pants, only to realize an instant later that they had already be infiltrated by the ants. We literally had ants in our pants. So we danced to get them out, but that failed, so we took them off. We then spent the next hour or so trying to fend of mosquitoes and figure out a way to get the ants out of our tent. The best options ended up being to take the tent, un-stake and shake it out, and move it under one of the enclosures–but even then, there were some residual ants we had to sleep with that night.

The next morning we asked the guy who rented the space to us about the incident, he said it didn’t happen all that often, but they were called “Safari Ants” and sometimes even attack houses. Yeah, how about that. Anyway, it was a good story, even though we only got like 4 hours of sleep that night. Overall, there is definitely a lot of wildlife, everywhere, in Africa–it can’t be underestimated.

I have to leave in a few minutes to get to Berlin. I’ll be spending a few days there with Monica before we have to part, and won’t see each other again until back in Bloomington. I really can’t wait, but I wanted to get a start on this before I felt guilty. I’ll try to post more about East Africa later, but I’ve got other things I’d like to write about as well, including Berlin probably by the time I get back. Also, the first of two installments of photographs from the trip are up on my flickr page, so I hope you have time to enjoy them. To Germany!

Last week I finished filming Milk and Pineapples, written by a friend of mine from Ireland named Samuel Steele. I should be uploading the film in a few days, but in the mean time cross your fingers for us to win awards in the 2 Days Laughter Short Film Competition (just found out about an hour ago, we are definitely short listed). I’m also about 90% done with (In) Determinate. I come home on June 17th, and I should be in Bloomington around then (if all goes to plan) working.

Also, at the beginning of last week I bough tickets for Nairobi. So I’ll be going to Africa for the month of May. I’m not sure whether I’m going to bring any form of communication, so I may be out of range for awhile while I’m over there. I’ll stay with Jack, and we’re thinking of traveling to the surrounding countries as well. I also just got back from my second (MUCH NEEDED) trip to visit Monica in Aix-En-Provence. I miss Monica really bad already.

This time I opted to stay overnight at a hostel before the early flight. A great decision, if even for 4-5 hours of crappy sleep—it’s always better than the cold floor at Stansted. I saw a milk truck, it was around 4:50 when I left to catch the bus to Stansted. You could have made delicious french toast out of me, I was pretty stale. I spent a lot of the trip reading Murakami’s “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” which is pretty dope. Regardless, I arrived fine a few hours later in Marseilles. We started the trip by sharing a couple beers and an entire “trois fromage” pizza from Pizza Capri. So delicious! That day was pretty much about food, because the main thing we did later that evening was get some more fresh ingredients for dinner. For which we made two salads, a goat cheese potato salad and a cucumber-tomato-feta greek salad. What what.

The following day we went to Marseilles. We stopped at the Aix market, which happens three days a week. I had seen part of it briefly before, but having seen the food side more extensively, I can now say it’s easily one of the best parts (if not the best part) of Aix. We got some tapenade, and took the bus to Marseilles. We first visited the Basilica Notre Dame de la Garde when we arrived. Neo-Byzantine architecture is the shit. Outside of the building is probably the best view of Marseilles, particularly on a beautiful day, like the one we visited on. And inside the building is filled with ex-votos, including, but not limited to: war medals, toy boats, and paintings and pictures. After this we decided to take a ferry on an island tour to If and Frioul. The coolest part of this was that we were in the Mediterranean Sea, but the chateau (Made famous by the Count of Monte Cristo), and Frioul (a.k.a dog Heaven) were both very cool too. When we got home that night, it is well worth mentioning, we had steamed artichoke for dinner—dipped the pieces in melted butter with lemon. I hadn’t had that for years and years before, and though this artichoke wasn’t the best, it was a fantastic meal.

It’s now March 22nd, Sunday. Today we used old french bread to make (legitimate) french toast. Had it with fresh copped strawberries, banana, maple syrup, and local lavender miel. Holler. As you can see I focused mainly on food for this entry, I think I’m hungry—plus Monica and I know how to eat. After a nice breakfast with Carmen, Monica’s roommate, and their friends Frank and Katie, we headed off hoping to get to Mount Sainte Victoire. But, the bus was over crowded, so we had to wait for a little over an hour for the next one. We had pre-prepares sandwiches: sesame french bread, goat cheese, tomato, greens, and Provence spice mix (note: Monica is right to say that the lettuce should be used to buffer the tomato—so as not to allow the bread to get soggy). We shared one of the sandwiches while watching a bike race on the Rotonde. It was pretty comical. After the official race with skin-tight-suit racers, there was a public race for an IPod featuring children on rent-a-cycles and old men in barrets. We climbed to the second of two peaks at Mount Sainte Victoire (unfortunately we were too late for the second one, which would take a lot longer), and at the other sandwich (You will be able to see pictures of this soon on facebook). The mountain is famous also because Cezanne often painted it. Now, importantly, what we had for dinner when we got back: perfect eggplant and pesto pasta with side salad. When cooking eggplant, I have learned from Monica, it is best to salt it about 30 minutes prior to cooking, and squeeze them into the sink before putting them into the pan. There is a delicate technique to cooking eggplant, and this was perfectly prepared. That night we went to see “Watchmen” dubbed into French. What a cool experience! Every time I mention it to someone they give me this look like it’s a bad thing, but seriously, it wasn’t. It was an interesting experience. A lot of the world watched Hollywood movies dubbed into their language. The voices are different, not as good as in the un-dubbed movie (Rorschach’s in particular). I understood probably about 20 words said in the movie, excluding names and English words that don’t translate. But, I’ve already read the graphic novel, and heard about what was changed, so I knew what to expect. SPOILER: I decided I didn’t like the change in the ending, why blame it on Dr. Manhattan when you could just have a huge monster? Also, the on-screen version of Ozymandias was terrible compared to what I imagined of his comic book counter-part. Still, it was pretty much what I expected.

The next day we had some pain-au-chocolat, not the first I ate on the trip, but the first I’ll mention. God I love pain-au-chocolat. You cannot get a real one anywhere outside of France, it seems.  This day was spent fairly leisurely, hanging out with friends in Aix (more Carmen/Frank/Katie). We we went to Flunch, a distinctly French experience. Well, actually it’s sort of an American thing in French, but done the french way. Flunch is basically a cafeteria where you purchase one meal, and they give you a plate (basically for a second meal because you can put so much food on the plate) for a buffet bar. It was really bad food, but again, a good experience. It reminded me of MCL, but like the food was even less good. That stuffed me up for awhile. Speaking of French experiences, at some point I got to try Pastis with M’s friend Steven. It was really good. We had it at an outdoor cafe where you can people watch and talk, that’s pretty French. I also spent a portion of this day walking around Aix and enjoying the city, some of which you can see on Flickr.

That’s the bulk of the trip. I didn’t really want to leave. But frankly, I’m already looking forward to being back in Bloomington for the end of college.

London Pt. 2 was really cool. At this point I’d still like to go to the Tate Britain and Kew Garden, in London. Other than that, I’ve done practically every main museum (some multiple times). I regret none of them. For this trip we went to the Victoria Albert museum which was also awesome. They had a weird pop-up book by Andy Warhol in the photography section. We also saw the Japan section, to appease my love for Japanese culture, and then we checked out fashion and Jewelry. The swords and canisters in the Japanese section were so sweet. Everything had so much intricate detail and specificity in ancient Japan. I liked the Jewelry section a lot also, and tried to take pictures even though we weren’t allowed. Monica and her friend Margaret had to leave to go to Dublin so we only got to spend a few hours together, but they were amazing hours. Later that night (this was last Friday, the 20th) I had Mexican food night with the roomies. Awesome. I made some pico de gallo that was pretty dope if I may say; but also enchiladas, burritos, and chili were consumed. I’m changing dope to dose, from here on out, for slang for “really good”.

I also went to Oxford last Saturday with Matt, which was also dose. First thing we did when we got there was go to the covered market and get a good lunch at a place called “pieminister.” It was really good, I had one with mushrooms and asparagus. They have Tabasco, among other sauces, on the table; a.k.a two thumbs up. I had one with minty pea stuff on top and mash on the bottom with gravy around it, like a moat. The whole thing looked like a castle, and it was wayyy good. Though, bland, in my opinion, but that’s sort of growing on me. A lot of “English food” is simple/bland, compared to mexican or indian, but it’s still delicious. Maybe it’s more of a “carb-y” taste.

After that we went to the Oxford Botanical Garden. I never pass up an opportunity to check out botanical gardens. If I could go back and do it all over, I’d be a botanist. It’s not too late, I suppose, but maybe once I’ve paid of my college loans by making movies. I LOVE exotic plants: Lillis, bluebells, various cacti, insect-eaters, orchids. We saw all of those things. We also saw Thoreau’s favorite tree, a hundred year old cacti, a bunch of medicinal plants, and a lot more (even some Canadian Geese, they must love it in England—they don’t need to fly anywhere).

Then we walked around the field behind Christ Church College. This is where Harry Potter is filmed. But, we didn’t go in, because it was a bunch of pounds to basically see a place that looks like the Collins LLC dining hall at IU. Oxford is composed of some 38 colleges, which are all basically like Collins-es. They have about 300-400 people, and they are old buildings that look pretty. It’d be a great place to go to school if it weren’t for all the damn tourists. I know why they charge them to get in—it must be REALLY annoying having a whole bunch of people walk through your courtyard and dorm while you’re trying to study. Regardless, it was a really pleasant town.

After doing a bit more walking around and enjoying the fantastic weather, Matt and I checked out the Science Museum (or was it “Museum of Science”). They had an astronomy instrument exhibit which took up the whole building that was fantastic. I’m very fascinated by old instruments like orreries, telescopes, microscopes, sundials, and armillaries. They are really incredible looking in that old-regal-scientific-metalwork sort of way.

We also stopped in this old pub that C.S. Lewis, Thoreau, and the like, used to hang out at called “The Eagle and Child” (referred to by the locals as ‘the Bird and the Baby’). But we didn’t stay there, instead we went to a cafe next door and I had a vegan pastry called a “Moosh Bar” while we read the Times. Then we almost got lost, but ended up being early for the bus home anyway. Great trip, in all, pictures up by the time you read this most likely.

I have started editing the documentary I’ve finished filmming. There is still another project I’m hoping to get finished with a friend of mine, Sam. And the competition is slow churning, but I can’t complain, it will happen. I’ve been stressing out a bit about what to do this summer, but there is a possibility I might do some travelling in Africa with my friend Jack (if I can do it cheaply, somehow). But I want to do SOMETHING with my summer. I’ve considered/looked into internshups, but I’ve also considered doing WWOOF. Either way, I need to get my act together. I also re-designed my resume, and it looks beautiful. The dates for a second trip to Aix and (if all goes to plan) a trip to Berlin have been set too! I’m going to try and pull out the stops to get things going while I’ve still got time left here! Peace

Monica visited over the past weekend, and we had an incredible time in Canterbury and London. I think this is maybe my fifth or sixth time in London, but it it gets better every time I go. In Canterbury Monica and I visited the cathedral, got lion flavored hot chocolate and a Belgian truffle milkshake, visited the farmers market, and had a fantastic 6 course dinner with a bunch of friends. This was all after Monica arrived early, however, because of a travel plan mix-up. As far as that 6 course dinner goes, here’s what we had: Jonathan’s Perfect Spanish Omelet, Sagan’s Falafel Sandwich with Roast Vegetable Couscous, Liz’s Goat Cheese Quiche, Monica and my Broccoli Raab and Nicoise Olive Multigrain Pizza, Liz’s Delicious Cookies (“melting moments,” sounds awesome, tastes even better), and my own Simple Apple Tart.

The following day Monica and I caught the bus to London. By the time we had checked into a hotel in London it was already getting late. We walked through Hyde Park at sunset on the evening of our Anniversary, the 14th. This is our 2 year anniversary. Hyde Park is a happening place, particularly on Valentines day…or maybe it just seemed that way because we were there.

The previous night Monica and I had exchanged gifts. Two notable gifts apply to the description of the trip and cannot be left out as a result, those were: a suit for me (yup, you read it right!), and a dinner at Mildred’s vegetarian restaurant in Soho. The suit is a process that we started right after our walk through Hyde Park. We went to a Topman’s landmark store and used their selection of suits to find the closest fit to me, so as to tailor away the imperfections later. Unfortunately, in one of my various trips back to consult with Monica between my dressing room and the door, someone took my room and subsequently my guidebook was lost (and/or stolen). Bummer. This made it slightly harder to get to Mildred’s but some very concise and good directions from Theo lead us right to Mildred’s.

I have nothing but good things to say about Mildred’s. The line was long, and I think Monica and I were cranky and hungry, but it didn’t take nearly as long as I thought to get a table on valentines day at the restaurant; which notably, doesn’t take reservations at any time. We started off the meal by splitting a bottle of the house wine, the name of which I don’t know, because it was in Italian. Then we ordered an aperitif: Chargrilled artichoke crostini with lemon aioli . A simple but incredibly delicious way to whet our appetites. For dinner I had the “sundried tomato, tarragon and kidney bean sausages served with celeriac mash, braised red cabbage and rosemary red wine gravy”, while Monica ordered the “burger of the day (which was a grain burger) with fruit relish and basil mayo served with leaf salad and fries,” we also ordered Corn Bread and split everything down the middle. It was a really good meal, then we went home and cracked open some Champagne we bought from the Canterbury Farmer’s Market that the stall owner described with: “some fantastic local fizz, that.”

The following day we woke up for the free English Breakfast at the hotel. It was fairly bad, to be quite honest, but technically free. It could have used some veggie sausages, I certainly could have made a better version, but I digress. After catching a cooking show on British morning television where they were literally teaching people to cook fish and chips (talk about stereotypical, and with a “wee dollop” [about a stick] of butter—eat your heart out Paula Deen), we left to start the day. We started the day late by walking through the Big Ben/Parliament area, across the Westminster Bridge, to the London Eye. The London eye is pretty dang amazing. It’s not wonder they decided to keep it, it really is the best view of London. I had never been on it before and really enjoyed it. Took lots of cool pictures from the unusual angles provided by the Ferris wheel style pods (However, they’re on Monica’s camera, as are all the pictures from the trip—so I they won’t be up on Flickr right now).

Walking along the Thames is always a popular attraction, but tucked away behind the main walk Monica and I found a special Valentines Day Weekend Slow Food marketplace. Talk about good timing/serendipity! We sampled all kinds of awesome food, including much to my delight a Naga (9/10 on the hot scale) salsa. Awesome. We settled on buying some Baklava, and another Baklava type pastry, from one of the stalls. Needless to say it was pretty sweet (pun intended). Afterwords we continued our planned path towards the Tate Modern.

My second visit to the TModern was far better than the first. This is because of two exhibits that I didn’t get to see the first time. Firstly, the HUGE room that was empty before was now filled with several great new themed installations. The new “Unilever series” pieces were put together by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerester and titled “TH.2058.” It included a video installation, a Calder piece, a huge weird looking spider with egg sack, and a bunch of mattress-less beds with post-apocalyptic books attached, among other things. The other exhibit that made the second trip particularly special featured the structuralists Rodchenko and Popova. They explored their own theoretical limits within painting, and moved onto more popular art forms like graphic design and architecture. My favorite piece was the cover done for a book by Trotsky titled “Questions of Everyday Life.” It was a pretty brilliant exhibition.

Right outside the Tate is a beautifully designed pedestrian bridge across the Thames to St. Pauls Cathedral. It was just past sunset, and the sky was still a little blue, as we walked towards it. After a quick walk (very quick) around St. Paul’s and it’s fenced garden, we hit up the Underground to head to Brick Lane (aldgate east station). This experience at Brick Lane was even better than the last! I had heard that you could haggle, and I tried to haggle pretty hard. This man gave me three deals, and I took the third one just by saying “I don’t know, I haven’t even looked at the other restaurants down the street. I’ll tell you what, I’ll go down there, and if there isn’t a better deal, I’ll come back.” We got two rounds of drinks, two appetizers, rice, naan, and two main courses for ten pounds. I’ve heard that it’s possible to get a free bottle of wine, but I was weak and gave in at the two rounds deal. Anyway, we got Onion Bhaji, Vegetable Samosa, Vegetable Balti, and a Tomato Jhool, which were all incredibly delicious and filling for the cheap price. We were pretty knackered (another British term) by the end of the meal, and bought some digestives (which are much more expensive in France) for dessert, and called it a night.

Notes. Monica was sick when she arrived, now I am sick. Uncool, but, go figure. And I’ll be seeing her again on Friday because she’s going to visit relatives in Dublin and staying a quick day in London. Alright! On Saturday, I’ll be going to Oxford with Matt, which will also be awesome.  On Sunday, I need to finish a paper I am about to start. I also start capturing footage and editing over the next week or two. Needless to say, this term has been significantly busier.

The internet/computers are an easy distraction, and can easily become a large vice. I have no problem with distractions, I love them—within reason. I think I’m about due for a balancing of my computer usage time. Anyway, this is my excuse for not making as many posts, I’ve been trying to par down and observe my overall comp/net usage to get more satisfaction without feeling like I’m missing something.

Last week it snowed. It was worse in London (about a foot I heard), but here in Canterbury it was maybe just an inch or two. They shut down school for half the day, but the buses were still running and everyone was out-and-about having snowball fights, so I imagine the closed it mainly for fun purposes. England claims up to 3 billion pounds in lost revenue, but I had no such lost income. I went to town to a (French-)Mexican restaurant called “Cafe Des Amis.” They have a lunch time 50% off discount for students, which is unreal. You can get a fairly large plate of food for about 2 pound 50. Fantastic experience! The food was delicious, I had a very non-Mexican pesto and roast vegetable quesadilla and several kinds of salsa. The best part was the salsa’s. They were so good, the closest thing I’ve had to good salsa sense I got to Kent (without having to make my own), woo hoo! Found a new favorite place.

They started selling more Cadbury eggs around England in preparation for the Easter holiday’s. I say more because they sell Cadbury eggs pretty much year round here. It’s pretty sweet if you’re into that. No ‘peeps’, though, and there is a serious lack of other Easter candies. Again, there is a lack of ‘holiday spirit’ here. I couldn’t prove it before, but now I’m positive that people don’t seem to get as excited about holiday’s here. That’s cool though, to each their own. As for me, I think I like being sold holiday spirit, and I have faith that America will continue to think of innovative new ways to do just that. Speaking of things being less important here, most people don’t care at all about the Academy Awards. I would say that I’m just a bit biased, but it is an American award ceremony, and aside from a few film students, several people have told me they don’t even know what it is. Same with the Super Bowl, no one even mentioned it besides maybe one or two Americans around me. I suppose all this makes sense though. However, having grown up around it, it just drives in the point that I’m not at home. I don’t know where “home” is specifically, but I can tell you that it is in America. I still miss America, friends, and family a great deal. I’m quite ready to get back to life there, but I’ve still got several more months to be positive about and getting the most out of my opportunities.

Groundhogs day rocks. The movie, and the day. Which is also something that’s basically a joke over here (though, it’s a joke in America too). Originally I had planned to see the movie at the theater last week, there was a showing at the campus cinema. However, it snowed that day and America got 6 more weeks of winter–so the cinema closed. Instead I watched it in my room with a bunch of folks. Fantastic movie, one of my favorites, and an annual tradition for me.

Last but not least, as far as events from the past week, I traveled to Edinburgh in Scotland. Edinburgh is beautiful, and if it’s anything like the rest of Scotland, I have only pleasant things to say about the home of Gordon Brown. I took the overnight bus from London with friends Kat, Matt, and Sagan. The bus ride is almost exactly 8 hours. It’s not easy to sleep, and our bus ride out was particularly hard because of someones alarm. No one got up to turn it off, including me unfortunately, and it went off at weird times throughout the whole trip. Even now I’m wondering, “What was with that damn alarm clock?” We stayed at the Globetrotter Inn, which is about a 15-20 minute shuttle ride from the city center. This is possibly the best hostel I’ve stayed in, rivaling only the Hostel (Fort Mason Hostel) I stayed at in San Fransisco two years ago around this same time of year. Beautiful beach view, and relatively easy access to public transportation.

First we visited the Edinburgh Castle, and saw a 21 gun salute in honor of the anniversary of Queen Mary of Scots first day as Queen. The castle was nice, well worth the 10 pound entry fee if only for the view of the surrounding areas and over-the-top museum exhibits. I did try some Scottish Whiskey, but that stuff is sick unless you drink it super slow. Another highlight from the trip was our visit to the National Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery, respectively. Matt and I had some great soup at the restaurant attached to the former, the proceeds of which (as with most museum cafe’s and restaurants) goes back into the museum. There pieces by Titian, Raphael, Seurat, Van Gogh, and more. I love art museums.

The ride home was much better, because besides not having an alarm clock, it also had a lot less people. I did take sleeping pills on both trips. In my opinion this is a good idea for any time you’re going to be in public transportation for a long time. It helps you sleep, and most of the time if you’re taking airborn or nyquil or the like, helps to keep you from contracting everyone else’s germs. And with that, I’d like to mention a few quintessential travel items I’ve found useful in my trips in and around England.

• Inflatable Neck Pillow. You’ve seen these, you blow them up and then it fits around your neck like a donut with a bite taken out of it. It keeps you from straining your neck while sitting upright. It doesn’t take up much space when deflated, and if you don’t like pain (like most people) it’ll start paying itself off after your first trip, I guarantee it.
• Ear Plugs. If you’re staying in hostels and traveling around random people these are fantastic. I just took some from the shop at WTIU before I left, and I can’t tell you how much they’ve helped me. Not just while traveling, but also at home—it can get really loud at 2AM on a college campus!
• Pocket Knife. Knives are a bigger deal than cigarettes or Alcohol in England. I’ve been carded for buying a kitchen knife. Regardless, a pocked knife is a crucial item to have. You never know when you need to cut a nagging thread, or some cheese, or an apple. Get one with a bottle opener if you know what’s good for you.
• Small/Light/Convienent Laptop. Matt recently bought this really really small computer in Canada for something like 300 Canadian dollars. It’s absurdly cool. It’s the most efficient thing ever. You can watch movies, browse the net at cafes, and write down whatever in one tool. I love my laptop, and I can’t tell you how useful it is.
• A Digital Camera. This is an obvious one. But, I’d like to mention an extra use I’ve found. Sometimes you may find yourself faced with information that you’d like to have access to later. Like shop times, or movie times, or prices for food, or whatever. If you’re really crunched for time, and your camera is detailed enough (mines just 7.1 megapixels which I think is pretty standard nowadays), just take a picture.
• A Small Lock. And make sure it’s a pretty good one. This can solve a world of problems. You never know when you might need a lock, it’s just handy to have around. I use mine all the time at hostels.
• Mini Sewing Kit. This may seem obvious, but it took me a long time to realize the everyday usefulness of these little things. Particularly in our increasingly frugal times, you’ll find it’s much easier to spend half an hour sewing up a loose him rather than buying new clothes. These kits just make it really convienent wherever you are.
• Sleeping Bag. I don’t have one yet, so I can’t say much. But there has been a lot of times where I wish I had brought my sleeping bag somehow. Particularly if you use services like “Couch Surfing,” or stay at backpackers hostels, or go backpacking for that matter. And with that.
• Backpack(s). A light one, AND a heavy one. I only have a day pack and a normal pack, but the choice makes life much easier. I use my light backpack for groceries and produce from the farmers market and T regularly. Simple, but time tested.

One final note. I recently watched some episodes of a PBS series online. They can be found at e2-series.com. The one on Food Transportation basically sum’s up the most important points that can be cleaned from Michael Pollen’s book “The Omnivores Dilemma” that I consistently rave about. This series is brilliant beyond just food though, and I would highly recommend it to anyone concerned about current issues in energy consumption and the state of the global economy.

Another particularly busy week. I’ve sort of slacked on going to trampolining, and I had an expensive flake on a competition—electing instead to take a trip to Edinburgh next week. The week following next, Monica will visit and we’ll spend time in Canterbury and London. I can’t wait, it’s going to be so sweet. I’m trying not to plan anything because there’s too much I want to do, and I don’t want to feel stressed out! Plus, it’s not like it’s hard to find something fun to do in London—and by now I know Canterbury really well. Less than two weeks!

This week I was honored to alter a composition of mine from “Unfolds,” titled “Bijutsukan” (which means in Art Museum in Japanese), to help soundtrack a video for the GSLC about the Epigenome. The video will be up soon, and I’ll definitely share it when it comes up. Harmony (my sis) gave me the opportunity, thanks! Helping anyone learn about science, in any way, is something to be gracious for. Science rules!

Also this week, and last, I’ve been going to climbing club as much as possible. Climbing is great, but I feel like I’m actually less good than the first day I showed up there—but that’s probably just my imagination. I am getting even more into bouldering (which I mentioned in a previous post), and I’m thinking about getting some proper gear.

The short film competition planning is going well, hopefully I can crank out some fliers this weekend. Filming has been good, hopefully I’ll get a laptop soon to start editing—I’m hoping to finish the rest of filming in the next two to three weeks. Besides that, I’ve been watching a TON of movies and trying to catch up with the Oscar picks (which are always conveniently released right at the end of the year). My favorite so far was ‘Doubt’.

Here are some English words and phrases I’ve learned about, heard, and/or have started saying:

“You Alright?” or “Are you Alright?” or simply “Aaright?”
Generally, depending on the context, you just answer this with a nod or yeah. It’s sort of like “What’s up?” Except they use that here too.

“Mate”
Sometimes I say this, it just feels right. At first it was sort of just a cool thing, but at this point it actually sounds appropriate in many situations. (i.e. “yeah mate,” or “whats up mate?”)

“…Isn’t it?” or “…Wasn’t it?” or “Didn’t it?” (et cetera)
Added to the end of a sentence it generates a sort of “I think” feel. At first it made me a little frustrated, because I assumed it was like not taking responsibility for your observations or opinions. But it sort of is, that that’s a good thing, we seek confirmation from others naturally. It gets used a lot in the classroom and academic setting.

“Love” (as in “you aaright love,” or “thanks love”)
I still don’t use this much. I have some sort of mental block on the word because I feel that it’s somehow special, or separate from everyday, everyone, everywhere use. However, I’ve had several people say it to me—in shops or secretaries or the like. Usually its been service oriented and a female saying it. Not trying to make any insinuation, it’s just my observation. Anyway, I like it…it makes me feel warm inside.

“Nice one”
It basically just means “thanks” or “cool man” or something of gratitude. I haven’t, usually, heard it used it for instance you do something particularly special (like get a bulls eye with a bow and arrow).

“…then”
As in “goodbye then.” I think it just sounds slightly friendlier, which sometimes can be lost in the precision of language.

“Proper”
It sort of means the same thing. But is used more often. For instance, “but I was never in a proper class,” if you learned a language on your own instead of taking a class. But, I’ve also heard it used as a way to up the enthusiasm in something as in “that’s proper good.” (though I might not have heard this phrase in particular, I have heard something similar) I like this one a lot too.

EDIT: thought of another one

“Sorted”
Can’t believe I forgot about this one, it’s pretty crucial. Every time I saw a “Sortie” sign in France, which means “Exit” I thought it set “Sorted.” Sorted means, sort of, “resolved”, “figured out”, or “solved” etc. It’s pretty useful.

ALSO:

~ “Actual” ~
Like, as an emphasis word. It’s really only used in certain circumstances, like extreme agrivation. As in: “What in the actual fuck!?”

Second term just started last week. This term I’m taking Avant-Garde and Experimental Cinema, and The Works of A Single Director: Alfred Hitchcock. They are both fairly incredibly so far, I’m really really enjoying them. The screenings in other classes also look excellent this term. I’ll be going out of my way to try and sit in on those.

Aware nominees came out for the Oscars last week, and I’ve been trying to catch up on them. I liked The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, but I don’t think it was the best movie of 2008. I still contend that it was Wall-E, though I haven’t seen all of the picks yet. I also watched Frost/Nixon, and I think that it’s the best acting I’ve seen from the options (so far). Anyway, still got some work to do, and then I need some additional time to ruminate on it all. An additional note, I recently reviewed my “7 movies a week” plan over the last several months and I’ve actually surpassed my goal!

Also, last week I found a replacement pen for the Micron, which I’ve been pretty much brand dedicated to since high school. The pen is extremely light, small, and a felt tip, generally used for drafting I think. But, I love these pens for numerous functional reasons in addition to being aesthetically pleasing—namely, being able to put about two times the amount of text in any single space. Anyway, “uniball” makes a fine line micro felt tip called “unipen”. It’s superior to the micron in only that it’s slightly more minimal in design (black with white), and it has a viewing window on the cap. No joke. There’s two little windows on opposite sides of the cap so that you can look inside and see the miraculously small felt tip. But this is all small potatoes unless your a pen connoisseur.

Over the last month or so I’ve started to film a new movie (a documentary). I won’t give anything away, but I’m really hoping I will even be able to finish it here. I’ve managed to find access to the resources I need for filmming and pre-production, but I’m a bit worried about post-production (a.k.a. finding a full new copy of final cut and a laptop/mac/hard-drive to edit on). So far though, it’s coming along very well, and I’ve worked with some really fantastic people. The tentative title is: In (determinate)

Also last week a friend of mine, Liz Vogt, made me the most delicious and nostalgic strawberry cake. As a child, I used to want a strawberry cake every birthday, and generally I’d get it. But, for the last few years I not only didn’t have any, but basically forgot I even liked strawberry cake. So, when Liz asked me what kind of cake I wanted for a late birthday present, I pondered it for awhile and put that as my top priority. The resulting cake was no ordinary birthday cake (I think it was an adapted version of Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake, like this one, only not). It was dense and moist and naturally strawberry flavored. It was very delicious, only, there was a lot of it (as always) and not enough people to eat it fast enough—so now there’s some (very unfortunately) stale cake in the kitchen. Mmmmm, so good.

And more on the subject of food, I finally gave in and tried the British version of Mexican food. One word understatement-of-the-year: mediocre. Another word I’d use to describe it would be expensive. I paid 10 pounds for veggie fajitas. It wasn’t that bad, just, well, mediocre—overly “OK”. I ate at a place in Dover called “Amigo’s”. It was really empty for a Saturday night, which is a bad sign, but Dover is sort of a boring town for night life, so I suppose it was pretty par for the course. Perhaps I’ll try another place in England (preferably London) eventually. Moral of the story, I really don’t want to live in a place, for the long-term, unless there are solid Mexican joints around. I can’t honestly say I ever stopped enjoying meat, though vegetarians sometimes say that they forget what it tastes like and eventually completely lose interest. In the same way, I don’t think I can forget Mexican food, I will always crave it even if I have to give it up.

Even more food information, which I’m proud to say takes up a good percentage of the thoughts that define my private life: I’ve been really enjoying smoothies. The best (and the only) household-appliance purchase I made in England so far : a 5 pound blender from Woolworths as it was liquidating its stock before going bankrupt. After several different concoctions I’ve decided that simple tastes better to me in regards to smoothies. Smoothies also are a simple way to barely process something at home. You can eat basically whole foods and vegetables, and if you buy them locally, it’s good for your neighbors in the food business, and economic in terms of lessening overall energy consumption, too (this sentence was a reference back to my several month infatuation with the writings of Michael Pollen). Sometimes I think it was be even better to just do a minimal smoothie. As in, ONLY oranges. But then, unless I enjoy the texture of  baby-food (which I might, I need to think about that), I guess I should just eat an orange as is, if that’s what I really want.

Now moving past food, I went to my appointment at NHS finally. But there’s a problem. I don’t have a cyst in my mouth anymore. Where did it go? I don’t know, maybe I was just stressed out by moving to another country (probably), and that eventually passed and I calmed down a bit and it went away (probably). Then an even better question: when did it go away, and why didn’t I cancel the appointment? Well, I sort of just wanted to go to the appointment to see what it was like, and I can’t diagnose myself so I figured I’d let the doctor tell me what it all meant. The cost was that NHS now has a pretty thick file on me (waste of paper?), and I may have wasted time that someone else could have used for a real problem. When I got there (which was just a short and convenient bus ride away). The building was sort of de-saturated, maybe run-down, or maybe the paint was just natural colored. It looked clean, very clean, just not super-modern and state of the art. There was construction going on, and not that many patients around. Also, there was no one at the entrance desk, I had to consult a map myself (this was at 3:00 on a Friday). Signs eventually directed me to the section of the hospital where my “surgery” was to take place. It was very straight forward, the administrative staff asked me what my name was right out (they were sort of impatient actually, but who cares, they are stressed no doubt—they had files all around them, practically drowning in the things). I sat for a few minutes in the lobby watching a movie on my ipod surrounded by about 10-15 people, some of which who filtered through as I waited. There were plenty of hand sanitizer squirt-bottles taped to the wall informing me to stay clean. After maybe 5-10 minutes a woman came out, called my name, and I followed her back, as per the usual check-up routine. She sat me down and asked me some questions, to which I provided probably too much information about where I thought the cyst came from and why it went away. She told me that it was an inflamed gland (or something like that), and that it was nothing to worry about: she could either cut out what small “nodule” I had left or leave it sense it’s practically un-noticeable at this point. I chose the latter, and left. This was the maxillo-facial part of the hospital. There was no talk of money, never credit cards or anything like that, when patients leave they don’t talk to the administrative staff again. Instead, one simply drops of a white piece of paper (an “exit form”) type thing in a little box and walk away. However, the admin. folks did look pretty busy when I walked in, and just as furiously working when I left. For me though, no money due, no sweat, sweet. Still, I hope I don’t have to go back there, not just because I don’t want to be sick. In the end I still felt sort of guilty about taking up the time and beaurocratic paper, despite getting information I didn’t previously have, and about not paying for it. But really, I shouldn’t care, that’s probably pretty standard procedure, and after all, at least I didn’t have to have my lip cut open. One more thing, though. I asked my doctor if she’d ever seen Michael Moore’s documentary supporting national health care, “Sicko.” She told me she hadn’t seen it, and didn’t watch many movies. Understandable. I thanked her very graciously and left.

Second to last thing, I got a cool new housemate. He’s from Switzerland and his name is Jonathon (but pronounced in the French way). He studies economics, and is an Erasmus student.

And today, I order groceries online for the first time. I received a coupon for free delivery (basically, that’s what it turned out to be). Two housemates and I just purchased some groceries three hours ago, to be delivered tomorrow morning. It’s sort of weird, but fun, to shop for groceries online. We’ll see how it goes, but despite the overall convience, I think I’m conservative in that I’d rather see, touch, and then purchase the food in person. It’s been a busy week.

My second trip to Brighton was great, though lonely. I was already lonely from leaving M/Aix, but I then went on a trip alone to see a concert alone. Regardless, the trip was worth it.

Highlife opened for Animal Collective He was pretty good, better than a lot of opening acts I’ve seen. He played sort of introspective songs, crooning into a perpetually delayed microphone. A.C. was mind numbing in concert. They stopped maybe twice throughout their performance, and a third time during their encore. The songs sort of bled together and I could only pick up hints of what song was being played because it was mostly new stuff which I’m just getting used to. I think they opened with Bluish, and I’m positive they ended with Leaf House. The whole thing was like expanding waves of repitition that slowly get bigger or smaller, like waves or ripples, but optionally in reverse (from wider to smaller, instead of from smaller to wider). Personally I think the bass was too much, but I blame Concord 2 for that (though I read that this is a common problem at A.C. concerts).

It was also really cold and windy, but walk along the beach to Concord 2 is beautiful. Concord 2 is underneath the street on the beach in an old building whose original use is a mystery to me. The following day I walked from the hostel (the only one in Brighton) to Queens Park, and then back into the city in the “North Laine” area. This area reminded me of the Height-Ashbury area of San Fransisco. Lot’s of hip kids and shops that have their consumer mentality down to a science. I ended up buying a bunch of stuff I needed, everything except a wallet and salsa, the ladder I will need forever. On the way out of town I saw a Banksy stencil–the one with two male cops kissing. In case you’re wondering it’s your first left out of the train station’s main entrance/exit.

Back to classes on tuesday.

I think if you took the meaning out of the term “vision quest” it would vaguely fit my unknowing psyche for the duration of this trip. I went through a roller-coaster of emotions, physical states, and environments. At points exploding with insecurity and anxiety, not just at the airport, and at other points obsessively slow. At this point, however, I feel incredible refreshed and optimistic–though tired and out of shape from all the pastries and stuff .

Here’s the point to point (expanded, contracted, edited) from my week in southern France.

Thursday, January 8th

• I walked over at 5:30AM to see that my twice re-scheduled flight to Marseilles was once again canceled. At this point, I had already cried, felt self pity, eaten very little, and thought about dropping 50 pounds for 8 hours of sleep but decided against it. So, wanting to be heading anywhere close to Monica I took the best option: Grenoble.
• At 10:30 (20 minutes late) I left for Grenoble. Tried to sleep on the plane and failed. Tried watching “Goodbye Lenin” and failed. Met an anonymous person to follow via bus to the train station in Grenoble. The bus ride revealed, to my surprise, grandiose but mysteriously fog enshrouded mountains and cliffs that hugged the town. Ate a crappy french Hostess type product, which was a chewy waffle coated in chocolate. It was delicious, cheap, and curbed my so-bad-you-can’t-feel-it-but-ultimately-self-imposed hunger.
• I also read a lot of The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins. I’m still only about halfway through, taking my time and slow-reading it (my favorite method of reading books, though I don’t know if I’ve ever really done it). I would recommend the book to anyone remotely interested in religion. I would also, in the same sentence, again mention “No god but God,” because in a realist sense, I think the long term goals of both the writers are similar in many ways. They want to make the world a better/more-informed place for everyone to live in, they are interested in social progress. Anyway, I won’t bring it up again, but I did read this a lot this last week.
• Enjoyed about 15 minutes of Grenoble and then an incredibly beautiful train ride at sunset to the TGV Gare Aix-En-Provance. On this train ride I met an PHD candidate in micro-electronics from India who had been traveling as long as I had been trapped.
• I arrive in Aix-En-Provance!!! After a short wait at the train station, Monica arrived in a taxi to pick me up from the train station, and took us back to the Aix-En-Provance city center! This wasn’t as exciting at the time, because I was half there, and I think Monica was stressed (in more ways than one) and worried as heck about me. But we made it!
• After picking up some bread from the bread store, we had dinner with Monica’s roommate Carmen and her visiting friend Ethan. A delicious, cumin-y, vegetable soup with homemade stock and Parmesan Reggiano on top (the bomb).
• Afterwords Monica gave me my Birthday/Christmas gifts! Travel and hotel paid for and arranged for a trip to Nice! She also got me a special birthday cake, well, three. Miraculous pastries from a local patisserie, and some local bio (organic) champagne! One was chocolate and dome-ish, another was flan-y, and the third was air-y and cake-y. They were so amazing and rich that it took us at least an hour or two to finish them.

Friday, January 9th

• Woke up late, thank you very much. Bought some more bread and had a delicious egg scramble with feta, red onion, sun dried tomatoes, and wonderful locally grown and prepared black olives.
• Lounging and talking with everyone, I got to meet Nicole, a friend of M and Carmen’s.
• After a short trip to Monoprix, Monica and I started on a delicious Risotto recipe (slightly modified) from a New York Times article. It turned out absolutely perfect.
• Another friend came over, Frank, from the same program. He talked with us, as Monica and I stretched our dinner until half eleven, and then we continued talking until 2AM (part one of me getting too excited while talking and saying stuff that’s wasn’t true, and regretting it pretty bad later [slow down man]). Then sleep.

Saturday, January 10th

• At 8AM Monica and I checked to see if the buses were running yet. They were. But it should be mentioned that they weren’t for half the day before. I can’t stress how bad of luck snow in Marseilles is! Later, when talking to a hotel agent, Monica and I would for the second time be informed that this hasn’t happened in AT LEAST a decade, maybe close to two. And, for only two days, it’s just a testament to the fact that ANYTHING can happen while your traveling. Bad luck happens!
• We slept for a bit longer and then caught a bus to the TGV again, where we picked up a train to Nice. The most beautiful noise in the world can be heard about once a minute at the TGV stations in France. It was designed that way, so peopl don’t go insane hearing it (contrary to the one by Ryanair at Stansted, which drove me freaking crazy (partly for other obvious reasons).
• The train ride to Nice was SO beautiful. The water is the most brilliant blue (hence the name: Cote’d Azure), and the entire atmosphere of Nice and Aix simply cannot be captured accurately on film. It is the fluctuation of shades of Gold that the nearby sun lays adrift in the tropical air. But it may be other things as well, it’s hard to say.
• At the hotel, punctuated by a late realization of hunger, we found out a vegetarian restaurant (which was included in my birthday gift package) was booked up and closed on Sunday. This was a grave disappointment, which at the time seemed so sick and terrible. But, it wasn’t that big of a deal, and I’m going to go back and visit M again anyway, so we’ll just go then.
• After walking to the beach, still hungry but loving every minute of it, we wandered attempting to find a special sandwich shop. We walked right by it and got lost, and when we came back retracing our steps, and found it, we realized the cause of not noticing it. A very distracting, and popular, pizza place. We decided to eat there instead (a wise decision because the recommended sandwich shop had very few vegetarian options).
• WHOA, pizza good. I got an aubergine (eggplant) pizza (which is common and a good representation of Provencal cuisine, I was informed by M), and she got a quatre fromage (4 cheese). Both were to die for, but I think the cheese was more extreme in it’s flavor. When in doubt, get cheese in France because it’s always going to rock really hard.
• Monica and I then walked around the city a bit, enjoying the weather (which, did I mention, was basically sweater weather. though everyone was wearing fur coats and stuff, which is another story—regardless, they must have been burning up). We saw the old chateau, and the pier, and the restaurant that we couldn’t visit, beautiful Nice skylines, and more!
• We then visited the Nice Cinemateque. The economics of film in France is quite interesting. In a sort of paradoxical relationship, the more money that the government puts into the education its’ citizens and providing means for them to produce uniquely French films, the less money and international acclaim the countries filmmakers and industry receives. I could quote a more accurate depiction of the paradox from my French Cinema book (by Susan Hayward), but I won’t—just name check it as you can see.
• We decided to sign up for a membership and see the movie (the only American movie playing there all month! talk about lucky!) Zodiac. After killing some time watching some music videos and having a ginger ale at the local bowling alley, we got some crackers, cheese, and fruit, and went to see the movie. Zodiac was great! We both loved it. It was fantastic, it really kept you guessing the whole movie even (spoiler!) through the credits. I’ll say one thing more about this fantastic film: Hurdy Gurdy Man.
• After a walk home and some French TV, sleep.

Sunday, January 11th

• Woke up late again, thank you very much, again. Man, I love vacation. We decided to go to Monaco. That’s right, up and decided, awesome.
• After failing to find a good train at the station we decided on the buses, a wise decision, because it was only 1 euro each way—and a ridiculously pretty beach cliff side bus ride at that.
• Somehow, I think we were frustrated. I think we both wanted to go to the Jardin Exotique, but couldn’t decide on the most efficient method of travel. This was fueled, once again, by hunger. So, we stopped at the pier and had a fantastic Sunday, and then mounted a large hill to find the buses to the garden.
• 1,000’s of cacti! So many cacti, and a cat (a saucy a lynx, really). Which helped to make a beautiful photo shoot with Monica. Somehow, by the time we finished looking at the garden it was already time to catch a bus home to catch out train back from Nice to Aix. So we did. With exquisite timing.
• For dinner when we got home we had leftover risotto and soup and we made some simple pasta with pan fried zucchini and balsamic vinegar. (We also had a second conversation with Ethan and Carmen, where I got too excited again and said some bad stuff about Enneagram for no good reason other than insecurity. This was ironic, because I felt like a ‘3,’ and at the very least could have told myself that I should slow down to avoid paradoxically becoming a number by refuting their non-existence. Moral: again, slow down man.) Sleep.

Monday, January 12th

• For lunch on Monday we had delicious sandwiches, Monica’s proclaimed “best vegetarian lunch in Aix.” They were so excellent. Provencial black olive bread, delicious brie (I think), tomato, pesto, spinach (I think). Then, instead of being done with lunch, we went on to have the best slice of pizza in Aix from Pizza Capri, two slices of trois fromage. Delicious. And then, not done yet, we shared a cafe macaroon. Whoa. This is the best stuff of life.
• Monica had a test this day, she took that while I worked on/finished my papers. This was a majority of the day, and thankfully, because it was a load off to not have the papers in the back of my head.
• We had dinner with Steven, another friend of Monica’s. He made us dinner and I drank too much alcohol (slow down, part three. this time I was less talkative, and more just intense, which is in a lot of ways, worse. but oh well, I got over myself eventually.) Steven made us a fantastic dinner that he described with: “it just makes me feel good.” It was simple and wonderful, bringing out the flavors of individual elements that too often go unrecognized in most other dishes. It was quinoa (nyt: “superfood”), avacado, special olive oil, and perfect romaine lettuce. What does lettuce taste like? What does quinoa taste like? I think these are things that even people who have tried them have trouble answering, but not us! For dessert Monica and I got a crown cake and some cookies, they were pretty good, but not as good as Steven’s dinner. Sleep.

Tuesday, January 13th

• I finished the movie Goodbye Lenin, which was good. For lunch Monica and I got sandwiches at this special shop that is only open at really strange times. It’s sort of like subway, but owned by a local, not boring and mass produced, and had special sauces. I got mint sauce, and M got curry sauce. Superb. We ate in a park, it might have been called the Verdan Jardin—but I’m not positive.
• We then explored around Aix a little bit. I was shown the IEP, and the Cathedral across the street. I also go tot see an organist practicing there, I watched him for a long time while Monica was doing some business at the IEP. At a nearby park we watched a bunch of old Frenchmen play this game called Pétanque, it’s kind of like bachi ball, but with big silver metal balls. It was pretty cool. Then, after a few minutes at an office with Madam Conway, an exchange teacher and organizer for M’s program and fellow film enthusiast, we went to get me some shoes. I bought the coolest shoes, they are like comic book pumas, I hope you get a chance to see them.
• Dinner: mango, garlic, ginger, and vegetable thai-style stir fry with leftover quinoa. I have neglected to mention that M and I had spent a lot of the trip snacking on chocolate that I gave her for the holiday’s. This night was particularly special because it featured the “balsamic” chocolate that I was real interested in, and we had a bottle of local Aix-en-Provence wine which was super great.
• Sleep, after a few episodes of Mad Men season 2!

Wednesday, January 14th

• Woke up and watched Sponge Bob and Pink Panther in French. Cartoons in French!
• We had a petit de’jure (might make a point here to apologize for any french spelling errors). This is a breakfast with a pain-aux-chocolate, a piece of bread with butter and jam, a petit cafe, and at the place we went incredible fresh squeezed orange juice. Pretty cheap too.
• Then we got some bread for sandwiches we’d make later, and went home. The best parts of the trip were just spent doing monotonous activities around Monica. Like reading, or walking, or watching tv, or doing homework, and especially making dinner. We did some of this. Watched more Mad Men, and made sandwiches. Huge sandwiches, with roquefort and brie cheeses and spinach and olive oil and things. So good. I saved some for the plane ride home.
• Took the bus to Marseilles airport, quite pretty. There’s lots of red rock cliffs on the way out there. Said goodbye to Monica and didn’t cry until the moment that I actually had to let go, then it came.
• The trip home was absurdly smooth compared to the flight out. I watched two movies: Dead Man, and eXistenZ (which was disturbing in it’s recursive-ness)I even caught an early Easybus shuttle because the Ryanair flight was early, and had time to stop for a pita with salad and hummus at a kebab shop near Victoria station.

I miss France and it’s small city center streets and everyday grocery shopping. I miss Monica. It’s time to go see Animal Collective in Brighton.