school starts in two weeks

After wandering around Kansas for a month and basically acting as though I was still in France (touring local vineyards, making macarons, having wine and cheese with friends), Joe and I drove north and then east, taking in the sights of I90 (Chicago, Cleveland, tollbooths) and US20 (snowmobile crossing signs, local diners).

Now I'm in Syracuse. It has been raining non-stop, a cashier has asked me, upon seeing my Kansas ID and learning that I'd just moved here, "If you don't mind me asking, why'd ya move here? I've been trying to get out of here my whole life!," and I don't know where to park [see below (seriously, is that a joke?)].

back in the usa

Stopped by Chicago for a fun 44 hours (Danielle and Dave! cats! ethnic food!). Now in Madison with Speef, Dr. Evermor's Forevertron, and beer! While visiting the Forevertron, we talked to Dr. Evermor. He asked us if we'd been to the Garden of Eden in Kansas and then gave us metal rods and told us to go bang on a giant dragon sculpture to make music. Also, since being back in the States (5 days), I've eaten Indonesian, Mexican, Ethiopian, Nepalese, French, and American food. Wow.

dublin, etc

Been hanging around Ireland, putting milk in my tea, and eating at diners which are trying to be American to acclimate myself to the future (ie, tomorrow). In Ireland, Joe and I went to Howth (45 minutes from Dublin), went on a Literary Pub Crawl, saw a play (Love and Money), and drank a few pints of beer . Tomorrow is an 8 hour plane ride to Chicago on Aer Lingus, "Ireland's favorite airline." Oh, my. Looking forward to having friends and family, stores being open 24 hours a day, and dryers.

leaving france forever

I leave France tomorrow. Since the public transit system doesn't work tomorrow (uhhhhhhhh, because of May Day, of course), Joe and I are really looking forward to dragging our bags across the river to the SatoBus stop tomorrow morning (hope that is running tomorrow...).  After that, Ireland!

stockholm and berlin and amsterdam (and a bit of paris)

Highlights of two weeks trip to Stockberdam:

1. Street food: tunnbrödrulle, fried herring, curryworst, beer, falafel, FEBO, vlaamse frites. (winner: Stockholm. fried herring AND a hot dog + mashed potatoes rolled up in flatbread? No contest.)
   
2. NSA Field Station Berlin Teufelsberg: abandoned, graffitied, tons of fun.
   
3. Scientology wedding in Amsterdam:
   
4. Skansen: open-air museum/zoo in Sweden. Saw a moose with one antler, saw a bear eating an avocado, saw a sleeping seal scratch its armpit. Got to ride a boat there!
5. St. Nicolaas Boat Club of Amsterdam: got a canal tour on an old school boat, got to drink beer on the tour, got to sit next to a guy smoking weed who opened my beer with his lighter.
   
6. Brouwerij 't IJ: microbrewery in a windmill. Wow. (link)
   
7. Narrow streets: (Stockholm)
   
8. Drinking beer while reading books in a used bookstore in Berlin run by an aging transvestite. 
9. Touring the parliament building in Stockholm, and having Swedish politics explained to us by our CouchSurfing hosts, one of whom was a politician in the Christian Democrat party.
10. Graffiti: Berlin has a lot of it. Some of it is dangerous. 
11. Liquor stores in Stockholm: Controlled by the state, close at 3pm on Saturday, have a sterile vibe.
12. Haircuts: Not actually a highlight. Joe and I got free haircuts in Amsterdam from a beauty school. We were unhappy with them. Mine was still long enough to try to fix. Now it isn't. (And, unsurprisingly, the second cut was from a lady who had graduated from the first haircut beauty school. Found out mid-haircut. Aaaaaawesome.)
    
13. Food, food, food, food, food in Berlin: Joe and I ate breakfast three days in a row at three different places all with the same menu, owned by Russians. Joe and I ate a lot of hummus and falafel. Joe and I ate at an Eritrean restaurant. Joe and I ate a soup with avocado in it. All ethnic food that is non-existent in France. And, of course, a lot of beer.
    
14. Eating regional specialities at McDonalds in all three cities (see flickr for documentation). 
15. Viktoriapark in Berlin: We drank organic wine from plastic cups by a manmade waterfall, watched teenage hipsters and people walking dogs, and walked to the top of the hill for a nice view.
16. The Andy Warhol exhibit in the Grand Palais in Paris: Not only fun, but you could buy souvenir cans of Campbell's in the gift shop!
    
17. Funny crosswalk lights (the East Berlin one is the best!), no dogs allowed signs, and metro warning signs. 

poisson d'avril

Yesterday, April 1, is known in France as "the fish of April."

In the morning I helped Joe with his taxes, and discovered that (despite the fact that he'd be getting a bit of money back from the government) he still had to pay the Fish Tax of 2008! Oh, no! Quel dommage! Luckily, a fish in Lyon is not hard to find.



At present, all of the chocolate shops here are filled with chocolate fish, chocolate hens, chocolate bears, chocolate ducks with some costing as much as 100 euros! Luckily, Joe's fish tax was not that high and he scored an okay fish for the bargain price of 5 euros.



After procuring said fish, Joe and I had a serious conversation, decided that our fish was lonely, and decided to go take it to a more fishy place. We first walked it through Les Halles (the giant food market where Paul Bocuse supposedly shops) looking for a poissonerie but, sadly, since it was after 12 (noon) on a Wednesday, all of them were closed.



We didn't want the fish to cry, though, so we hopped across the street to Bo Sushi. And, despite the weird sexy menu art, it was pretty amazing. We got a combo plate for 16.50 euros, which came with two delicious cabbage salads and then 18 pieces of sushi (three pieces of each variety).



Front to back: spring roll with avocado and salmon, salmon with "cream cheese," tuna with mayonaise, OMELET wrapped around avocado and "cream cheese," salmo, and finally sesame seed encrusted tuna and avocado.

The waiter was amazingly nice, refilled our water without us asking, and joked with us in English and French!



We got the fish home, let it swim around a bit with some macarons from Seve (in my opinion, the best in Lyon!). And then started eating it when, to my surprise, I discovered that the fish had produced some caviar!!



For real, though, on the 1 April, French school children are supposed to be all sneaky and tape paper fish to their classmates' backs. That sounds like much more fun than American April Fools' Day traditions.

Paris: the land of amazing falafel and just about everything else.

I got to Paris at 10pm Friday and, after drinking a third of a bottle of wine, with a third of a round of cheese, promptly fell asleep (Joe and his mom had already done a full day there - the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the first falafel sandwiches of the trip [from L'As du Falafel -- supposedly the best, though in our opinion not], and so on...). The next morning I woke up to a breakfast (in bed) of chocolate croissant and Nespresso (What else? Ha. Ha. Ha. If I ask my students "What else?" they answer with "Nespresso!" if I didn't know about this ad campaign I would be confused as hell) and then we hit the road. Saturday we wandered the Champs-Elysees, the Marais district (I ate my first falafel sandwich at Chez Marianne [good but not the best], Joe bought shoes, we all lost each other for about half an hour), and went to a great restaurant half a block from the hotel (I tried a snail!).





At this market (the first of Sunday's adventures), I took about ten photos of people with tiny, froofy, French dogs and Joe and I helped Betsi choose a cheese. After that, we went back to the Marais district I ate another falafel sandwich (from Mi-Va-Mi, in my opinion, the best falafel in Paris. they gave falafel balls to people in line! that is service!), and we convinced Betsi to buy a cool looking red jacket/coat. Post-shopping and eating (we also split an awesome borek filled with sheep cheese and spices) we walked to Centre Pompidou and hung out there for an hour or two.





After the museum, it was almost train time, so after some wine and cheese (and after purchasing two more falafel sandwiches [one from Mi-Va-Mi and another from the place that we ate falafel with Speef when she visited], bringing the falafel total up to four for me), we headed back to Lyon. Overall, I'd describe this trip to Paris as falafelici_[t]ous