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RichTheMix
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Name: Rich
Location: California, United States
Birthday: 3/19/1983
Gender: Male
Interests: Goin to concerts, goin to movies, or just goin out, all with friends of course. Tryin to stay in shape as much as possible (which isn't much, but what can ya do?), picking up the guitar slowly and surely so I can play music by all my favorite artists, and can't forget chillin (aka being lazy).
Expertise: I'm an alt/rock connoiseur, but also like techno and am broadening my horizons to include all sorts of music now.
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Member Since:
8/27/2002
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| 11:07 London time: Okay I'm going to try to get five or six days worth of events in one entry, so here we go. Tuesday night, went out to southside and had a round with some friends; it was a good way to start the weekend. Wednesday, I woke up, packed, and headed out to Paris. It took a while to find the train station because we had to walk since there was a tube strike. Got on the train, got off the train, found our way to the hotel, checked in, discovered we had a balcony with a surprisingly good view, walked up to Sacre Couer and got an even better view of the city, had dinner at a crappy over-charging cafe, walked around a whole lot by the Opera, the Louvre, and Place de la Concorde and back to "Apu's" (our local cornerstore guy) to buy some beer. Bryceson had his first beer! We were all stoked that he had his first with us. We waited for Christine, Evangelyn, and Kari to show up because they said they didn't have a hostel booked, so they were going to stay with us, but they didn't show up. Luckily, we stayed up anyway, and Tina came by, chilled and drank with us a bit, then we all went to sleep. Thursday, Tina woke up early to catch her train, Bryceson woke up early for his free breakfast of tea and bread then went back to sleep, then we left to meet the other Christine, Rachel, and Annabell at the Arc de Triumphe, waited for Annabell's friend Alise, went to a McDonalds for food, walked around, went to the top of the Arc, chilled for a bit while the girls went to meet the Heidleberg people, walked the Champs Elysees, met up with all of them at the carosel infront of the Eiffel Tower, got some dinner with all of them at an American style place (I got a pastrami sandwich), went and saw the Eiffel Tower at night, split up, went home to Apu's, finished our 40's in about a half hour, but were too tired to go back out for more, so we slept. Friday, Versaille and gardens were just amazing, got a sandwich from a VERY cute chick at a shop (oh yeah, all this time in Paris, there's at least one REALLY hot chick passing by every... ten minutes or so), ran through the Louvre to find the Renaissance section was closed until December, saw the Mona Lisa, saw Italy people and talked to them for a while (Matt Pond, Dan, and other peepz...), met up with Alise et al for dinner at a French restraunt (had a salad; aren't you proud, Mom?), met some of Alise's friends, split up with the group (so now it's Alise, Annabell, DJ, Bryceson and I), met up with a bunch more of her friends, found a bar/lounge and hung out for a few hours with our only bottle of French wine in France, booked it to the Metro before it closed, went across the street to the hostle for a Heinaken, and then sleep. Saturday, got somewhat screwed on the metro because one of the lines was down, so we walked to St. Chappell (amazing little chapel), walked to Notre Dame (amazing cathedral; there was an awesome mardi gras kinda percussion group jammin outside, so that was cool), walked to the d'Orsay Museam (wow! it was like looking at my art history book! definately the highlight of the trip for me, but everything was good, so it's hard to judge), went to the carosel again to meet people, went to really good dinner at a cafe (I had steak, fries, salad, and the most amazing tiramisu ever), went to the Eiffel Tower to find out you get in for free (all this time I'm freezing because i'm in a wife-beater and a t-shirt), went up to the second floor, froze, met people from Lyon, went back at the bottom, froze, waited for Bryceson, froze, gave up on Bryceson, went to Kari et al's hotel and met up with them for some drinks, walked around the red light district for a bit, went home to find Bryceson was NOT back yet, hung out in the room for fifteen minutes when Bryceson walks in with a Corona and a smile on his face (complicated story, but the Corona was actually going to be used at a weapon, if needed be), sleep. Sunday, woke up, checked out, walked to the Dali Museam (just plain awesome; that guy was a crazy genious), went to the Pompidu Center (I got a picture of me at the fountain like when I was 3 in Paris; aren't you proud Mom?!), saw this crazy version or either Mousetrap or Domino Rally but modern art style with tires and fire (more complicated than I'd care to explain now), got to the train station, got on the train, slept, got off the train, got home, ordered pizza, called parents, left message, here I am, listening to Dave Mattews and chillin. SHWEW. Five days of Paris condenced into a few mere lines for you. All in all: an absolutely amazing time. It was all so surreal that I don't know if it will occur to me where I just was for another couple of days. Thanks to everyone mentioned in here (and probably more, so sorry if I left you out!) for making it a great trip. Good night. | | |
| 12:30am London time: Today was long, long day, but very well spent too. Bryceson, Annabell, Matt, Rachel, and I went to the city of Bath today to scope out the sights. The day started a little later than planned, and thus we wound up just barely making our train on time because it was delayed for all of three minutes. On the train, we saw some lovely countryside and a nuclear powerplant (how's that for juxtaposition of contrasting images, huh?!). Once in Bath, we took the free walking tour given by local historians which took two hours and gave us a great overview of the town. From there, we had lunch in the Abbey's courtyard of good old PB and J sandwiches, apples, and water. Then we went and saw the actual Roman baths and got all the history behind them. It was all surprisingly interesting, but I suppose things are more interesting when you have to pay to see them. Anyway, from there we went to the Museam of Costumes, in other words, a fashion museam, that was dedicated to the history of fashion dating back to the seventeenth century. Then we walked around a bit, found the Jane Austen house for Rachel, but it was about to close, so we didn't pay the four pounds to see it. More mosey-ing and we wound up at a really obscure Indian food restraunt which turned out to be both cheap and good, so that was a pleasant surprise. The last event of the day was a choir and organ performance at the Abbey and that was very cool, but not quite up to par with the evensong at Canterbury or the string performance also at Canterbury. On the train ride back, there was a hilarious drunk guy on the train with his girlfriend and he had a traffic cone which he used to announce all the stops. One such announcement went somewhat as follows: "Next stop is Reading. Reading is the next stop, not to be confused with reading, which is an entirely different thing all together and includes books. If you are going to Reading, please get off the train here." Very good times. I miss the guy already. Now it is time for some water and sleep, so good night. | | |
| 6:51pm London time: Okay, today was a bit too much. A group of us decided to do the tourist sort of stuff here, so we went to see Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Cabinet War Rooms, and St. Paul's Cathedral. Recaps: Westminster is awesome, with the tallest nave ceiling in the land and tons of history. The gothic version of it (which is how it is now) was completed in only two hundred years and some change and is home to the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor. Very nice cathedral. The Houses of Parliament was also very awesome. Sorry, I'm kind of burnt out so the vocabulary is failing me. The chamber of House of Lords was incredible. There's a throne and canopy in there that is incredible. Gold everywhere. The House of Commons was also very cool because that's where our friend Tony Blair does his thing and all that. After those two very good tours, I had a sausage sandwich for lunch (only 1.90!) and our group decided to go home, while the three troopers (Lady Rachel, Eagle Scout Bryceson, and myself) decided to forge on through the sites of London. Next stop was the Cabinet War Rooms. This is where Winston Churchill and his select cabinet ran the opperations of World War II, beneath a large, steel-framed building (I forgot what it's called and used for. Sorry). It was cool to see, but pretty eerie too. From there, we went to Evensong at St. Paul's which was quite a hike, but well worth it. The interior of that place is simply amazing and the choir was great too, though not quite as good as it was in Canterbury. However, that's when the events of the day had caught up with us and we were all suddenly very drained. Although I had wanted to go see Stomp, we all decided it would be best to save it for another day and returned to the house. I'm going to hunt down some food (probably bread, fruit, and Ben and Jerry's) and hang out. | | |
| 12:54am London time: Another not too exciting day, but I'll try to make it interesting. Woke up at 12 or so, showered and headed to a sandwich shop which tured out to be close, cheap, and very, very good. I got a bacon and avocado sandwich on superb baguette, with a chicken samosa (that was too spicey and no chicken), and a Snapple iced tea. Good food that's cheap is great. Then I did some reading for what proved to be an actually interesting humanities class on the Renaissance, a stark contrast to Monday's ordeal. Dinner was at Wagamama's, we saw a sweet Lambourghini en route, and I got the chicken ramen, which proved to be mediocre compared to the chicken katsu. We returned home to two very good episodes of The Simpsons. This brought me to homework, which I haven't done much of yet, since I took a nap for an hour with a couple Sublime albums as the soundtrack. I woke up, read a bit, then decided to go get some snacks at a grocery store a few blocks away. I bought some chocolate covered cookies, some ginger snap sort of things, Cadbury's version of HoHo's (seven for 1.40), two Dime bars (chocolate covered toffee), and a big bottle of Ame Delicate White ("A refreshing fruit drink with Eastern Herbal extracts." It is "gently sparkling" and definately IS very refreshing). And now I have quite a few more pages of Milton's Paradise Lost to read before I head to bed for the second time today, so good night. | | |
| 1:56am London time: Not much to say about today, other than boring stuff, so I'll forgive you if you skip this one. Woke up at 7 for a BHR at Starbuck's (basic human respect; it's a meeting to make sure everything is okay with your roommate), then I had Great Books, which was interesting because I was so tired, but all hopped up on caffine. At convocation, I found out my PoliSci class got cancelled, so I went out to lunch, ran into Tiffany on the way back and introduced her to DJ, who I was with. He now knows about the Mormons and the abundance of food at their house. I then proceeded to take a nap for several hours before waking up for dinner at Bellini's. I had a good chat with Dr. Wilson after Bryceson and DJ left our table. I'm glad it went well because I think he thinks I'm a heathen after having me in his Great Books class, but oh well. A brisk walk back home, and a quick chat with Rylan online got me ready for... homework. How depressing. I really wanted to go to the Sports Bar and have fun tonight, but no. It's homework. I guess I got a lot of reading done, but it wasn't worth the mental anguish. Now, some more reading and some more sleep. | | |
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