Days 15, 16, 17 and 18: Sick Time Catch Up

I am only just beginning to recover from a brush up with something which may or may not have been the plague, which is why this post is going to be a whole bunch of days all mushed together.

Day 15 was Bastille Day in Paris, their 4th of July (or 5 de Julio for my Venezuelans out there). The original plan was to go early and get a stop by the parade. However, apparently there was no way we could ever be early enough, and by the time we got there things were already pretty full and uncomfortable. A couple of people stayed in line but 3 of us decided to go out an go hunting for some breakfast.

Luckily for us, the little cafe that we found also had a TV, that was playing the parade. So we got  alovely, warm, sitting down, hot chocolately view of the parade. But that wasn't the best thing we saw that day. Not even close.

The best thing we saw was this.

That's right. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. A whole day before it came out too. It was spectacular.  We followed that up with a viewing of the Harry Potter Musical and have a very very lovely free day.

Day 16, was not a free day, and the plague was still strong with this one, but we had to go off to a place called Blois, which is just rife with palaces. Apparently it was a ver popular vacation locale for the royalty back in the day, so they jsut built a TON of castles. It was quite lovely, but the best parts of the day had to be the boat race (My team won, despite me, not because of me) and the lovely farmer's market.

I honestly can't say much about Day 17 because I spent most of it in bed, just trying to fight off the plague monster.

And now today, Day 18 was a bit unique because we got to spend the day with Holocaust survivor, Joseph Weismann. He was a sweet old man, who fed us lots of delicious breads and cheeses and I'm pretty sure was having a great time getting half the class drunk on French wine. It was a little nerve-wracking because a friend of mine had written a speech for when we were going to present a medallion to him, but a) the medallion never came and b) it turns out I was supposed to translate and say the speech in french.

My Hero

With some help from the professor, we managed to get a workable translation, and in the end my presentation was well received, even thought I currently sound like I like to smoke 20 cigarettes a day and follow it up with a shot of sandpaper.

We leave for Normandy tomorrow, so posts may become exceedingly erratic, well... more so since the plague isn't quite gone yet, but I'm trying to ignore that.

Expecting a visit from this charming gent soon.