paris, part three

Christmas day!

We got up, had breakfast (more cheese, more bread, and more jam, which I could never get tired of) and distributed presents. Then it was time to get dressed and head out for sightseeing, with the Arc de Triomphe first on the list. The Arc is a monument for those who died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It is massive, solid, and screams at you to photograph it. The weather that day was the kind you dream of for outdoor photographs: clear and sunny with a piercing blue sky and occasional thick fluffy clouds that reflect sunlight artfully in backgrounds.

I couldn't stop clicking my camera. I abused the panorama function to no end. I zoomed in on everything, took pictures of everything at five different angles, and even when we left I wasn't tired of taking pictures of it.

Away from the Arc and toward the Louvre is the Champs-Elysees, one of the most famous streets in Paris. It's lined with cafes, designer clothing outlets, and apartment buildings with gorgeous architecture. We stopped for lunch in a cafe (more delicious Western food!) and then continued until we arrived at the outskirts of the Louvre, which featured a ferris wheel and an Egyptian monument placed on the site where people used to be beheaded. (Good times, France.)

We did walk onward to the Louvre, and stopped for several photos, but we didn't go in that day.

We moved onward toward the river, and Notre Dame, stopping only to look at a famous bridge covered in locks. People write the names of themselves and/or the people they love on locks and then put the locks on the bridge. I believe there are other bridges around the world that are like this, as well.

Notre Dame was really cool, though annoyingly big, as it was almost impossible to get a full shot of it in its entirety. We also weren't able to go inside, as the line was tremendously long and we had other plans (namely food). What bummed me the most was that the catacombs were closed. (I am creepy and like to see the final resting places of the dearly departed. The cemetery on my college's campus was one of my favorite things about the place.)

Soon after, it began to rain, so we went back to the apartment and had dinner.

My mother and sisters wanted to go on a bus tour of the city at night, but when we went back we couldn't find the stop to get on the bus, so we ended up walking home. We got some lovely night pictures of the Pyramid at the Louvre.

paris, part two

So, day two. After seeing the Eiffel Tower, my mom and sisters and I went home and slept. The three of them got up early the next morning because they had planned a trip to Normandy, which I had declined attending. This was for three reasons: a) I knew I'd be jetlagged, b) I'd been looking forward to a peaceful day in France for a month and knew I'd need it soon after I got to France (and I was right), and c) I knew that going on a side trip with my family that would include an itinerary and a fast-moving pace would likely cause me to become agitated and a bit murderous. Which, let's face it, nobody needed during a trip to Paris.


So they left, and I spent the day doing what any world traveller would do if left alone in a cute Parisian apartment with good wifi: I watched a metric ton of Doctor Who.

Yep. I sat on my ass and watched TV on my laptop. There was a point when I showered and dressed and went outside for a walk and ate food and bought groceries and made dinner, but mostly there was a lot of Doctor Who.

(Below are pictures to prove I went outside that day. I swear to God you can aim a camera in ANY DIRECTION in Paris and get a good shot. There are, like, no bad pictures in Paris.)

The next day I was expecting my family back around 2pm, and when that did not happen (nor did I hear from them) I got really worried that something had happened to them. Or, even if they were okay, I worried they were stuck somewhere sans internet and wouldn't make it home for Christmas, which was the next day. I didn't realize how deep-seated or horrifying this idea was to me until I went outside in the early evening and, upon seeing my mother walking up the street with her suitcase, began to sob.

Because the Paris trip to me was not about Paris. I mean, it was about Paris, but if we'd gone anywhere else I wouldn't have given a damn because I'd have been with my family for the one major family holiday of the year. Not being with them for fucking CHRISTMAS was basically more than I would have been able to handle. It would have been hands-down the absolute WORST Christmas in the history of ever.

Fortunately, this did not happen, thank God. My mother and sisters returned with amazing pictures of various places they'd been and stories of many detours and travel frustrations, the latter of which I was glad to have missed out on.

I can't remember if this was the night that my sisters made mushroom risotto with chorizo (spicy sausage that is OH MY GOD) and we all watched Midnight In Paris, but it did happen at some point and I'm going to add it in now. I found that I really enjoyed Midnight In Paris, and it did not hurt to be squished onto a sofa with my family at the time of watching.

Long story short, Christmas was saved, and we went to bed soon after dinner so we could wake up early enough to go somewhere the next day.

paris, part one

I left for Paris on December 21st from Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan, which is a forty minute train-ride south-west of Xinzhuang. You already know about Taoyuan from the previous post, so I won't go into it. I left on time, though, and had an easy flight to Shanghai.

Once in Shanghai, I quickly learned that I could not access the internet because I didn't have an "international phone" through which to receive the password. (Coming back from Paris, I found out that all I had to do was ask about it at the front desk.) My layover was short, though, so it wasn't too big of a hassle, and I did manage to change some TWD into RMB, the Chinese currency, and buy a snack. I needn't have worried about food, though, because I was well-fed on China Eastern's flight.

Oh, China Eastern. I got to know them very well in that week, seeing as I had about three separate flights with them. The planes are very nice, and I was elated to find that I had a mini TV all to myself, on which I could watch movies, TV episodes from select shows, and play games. I immediately began watching movies, some of them only halfway through. I was drunk with power; on my long flight to Taiwan six months ago, the only movies available were four previously chosen ones that were played on screens overhead, automatically, during the flight. To now have the freedom to watch whatever I wanted whenever I wanted was intoxicating.

Fancy screens not pictured here, I took a picture of a shorter flight.

This turned out to be a good thing, because sleeping on a plane without one of those fancy curved pillows to support your neck is, for me, an impossibility. I had people fall asleep upright in their seats barely leaning back and I tell you I don't know how they did it. Leaning back gave me a crick in my neck. Leaning against the window gave me a crick. Curling forwards put my arms to sleep. Pulling my legs up put my feet to sleep. Nothing I did allowed me to sleep for more than two hours at a time, so to say my slumber that night was disjointed and erratic is to put it mildly.

I was still pleased enough to take a picture of my ratty, haven't-had-a-shower-in-almost-a-day-now self.

I also found out the hard way that there was just enough wool in my sweater to make me itch after I'd been wearing it for over twelve hours.

At least I was fed well and had entertainment, so when we landed in Frankfurt, I was tired and a little disoriented and sick of sitting, but not strained to the point of irritability. I successfully navigated this new airport, my third in twenty-four hours, and made it to the gate of my last flight.

In both Frankfurt and Paris's airports, everything was in both the local language and English. However, what I noticed was that even though German and French were both foreign languages to me, the fact that everything was still written in the Roman alphabet was comforting beyond belief. I've been awash in a sea of a language that I cannot hope to work out phonetically based on the writing, and while German and French can both be tricky if you have no experience (as far as I can tell, French likes to ignore vowels and consonants at whim), but at least with these I could make a stab at it. Also, all the food was Western, and I hadn't realized how much I'd missed it until then.

Moving on, though. I survived my flight out of Frankfurt and landed in Charles de Galle International Airport in France. I was temporarily freaked out about using the train system to meet my family, although fortunately Charles de Galle airport believes in free wifi and my family was able to tell me which ticket to ask for. So I bought my ticket, found the train, and got on.

I was really relieved to see this over the doors, because it looks almost exactly like the MRT-line guides on MRTs in Taipei, and when I looked at the map of the Paris metro system, I thought, "Oh, wait, I understand this, I can do this. Thank god." 

The train ride was long and the weather was cold and I couldn't believe I'd forgotten how cold weather could get. It stuck its sharp fingers between the doors and froze my feet, and thank goodness I was wearing a sweater and had a thick scarf as well or I'd have really been done for. I made it safely to the correct station, however, and my family met me at the gate.

There was a lot of hugging. It was probably one of the best moments of my year, seeing them all again, and it was magical. My mother had come from the States, my youngest sister had come from another area in France, and my other younger sister had come from Spain. Yet there we all were, together in Paris for Christmas. That whole week I was in disbelief that "Christmas with my family in Paris" was actually a chapter of my life.

We all hopped another train and arrived at a station near the apartment we'd rented. The building was cute, the elevator up to our floor was adorably tiny, and the apartment itself was so quaint and French that it made me want to confiscate it and mail it back to myself in Taiwan. If I could have a French apartment in Asia, I would be happy. (Partly because indoor heating.)

That very evening we went to see the Eiffel Tower. I have now been to the Eiffel Tower. I have seen it from a distance, and I stood beneath the massive arches of its legs. The enormity of the Eiffel Tower's size is something you cannot be prepared for. You walk toward it, and you have to keep walking toward it, and if you want a picture of it from beneath the center, you have to walk a very long distance just to get there. I was very thankful for my new camera because pictures with my old one wouldn't have turned out half as clear.

After standing under the Eiffel Tower, we went to a nearby cafe that my sisters and mother had researched previously and heard had good food. We were not disappointed.

We then went home, and after going through our various night routines (which included lots of internetting, the place had wifi), we went to bed.

Stay tuned for the next part of the trip!

paris saga update

I'm in Taoyuan International Airport two hours before my flight leaves and only just now realizing how wiped out tired I am. Forgive any inconsistencies or odd trains of thought in this post, is what I'm saying.

It's always a relief to get through the first round of check-ins and security screenings with flying colors. It's even nicer to be ready for your flight two hours early. I'll be boarding my flight to Shanghai Pudong International Airport around 6pm, and I think the flight will be leaving at 6:45 but I'm not sure. My boarding pass shows an earlier time and half of it's in Chinese, so I'm just gonna be there at 6pm and call it close enough.

Once I'm in Shanghai, I have a three-ish hour layover until my flight to Frankfurt, Germany, at which time I have a two hour layover until my flight to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France. The flight from Shanghai to Germany is twelve hours long, so that'll probably be the one I'll do most of my sleeping on. I have a window seat for the first two flights (SCORE) so hopefully that sleeping thing won't be as big a pain in the butt as it was when I was coming to Taiwan and sitting by the aisle.

Taoyuan International Airport is amazing, btw. I'm at gate D8 and gate D7 is, I kid you not, a mini museum exhibit dedicated to the puppets in this Chinese drama that's apparently really popular here. I've only ever seen bits of the show in TV or pictures of the puppet characters on book covers at convenience stores. At gate D7 there's a display case with six enormous puppets posed theatrically, and up close they are incredible. My interest in this show has just been piqued.

There's also an electronics store with a giant Gundam in a glass case. So, you know, I think Taoyuan is winning at being an airport.

As I was going through security, I realized how excited I was to be travelling again. Just being in an airport is exciting, it's a portal to the rest of the world. That I'm going to Paris, of all places, boggles my mind. I don't think I'm going to believe it until I step off the plane at Charles de Gaulle. Sometimes I can't believe I've been to all the places I have: Chicago, Indianapolis, NYC, Japan (a six-hour layover counts!!), Taiwan, and now France and Germany (a two-hour layover counts!!). By the end of this trip I'll have money for France/Germany (Euro), the US (US dollar), Japan (yen), and Taiwan (New Taiwan dollar, or kuai). That's four kinds of money for five different countries.

This means something to me because previously, I would collect money from family or friends who'd been to other places. All that currency is in a plastic cup in my bedroom in the US, and I never categorized it so I don't know where it's all from. But the NTD has legit value to me. It's currency. The USD has legit value as currency. And after five days in Paris, I'm pretty sure the Euro is going to be "legit" currency as well. To me, you're really getting integrated into a culture when the local currency becomes something you can quantify in terms of your daily life. In the US, I'd think of expensive items in terms of how many tanks of gas it cost. Here in Taiwan, I think of it in terms of meals, because that's where the bulk of my money goes. I already know that when I get to France, the first thing I'll do is look at how much the average meal costs and budget my money around that.

I think I'm rambling. This is probably something I should write a separate post about, costs in Taiwan and how to budget while you're there. The point is, I'm becoming (dare I say it) international, and I'm learning how to travel. Which I like, because I want to travel more. Although I'm starting to love Taiwan and could see myself living here for another year, I already know I really want to go to Japan still, and my long-term travel journey won't be complete until I've done that. But even after Japan, I don't worry about what I'll do. I no longer feel like the world is closed, or that possibilities are beyond my reach. The world is so open, so full of possibilities, so full of places to expand your life.

This Paris trip is good. I've been starting to feel trapped by my job and the cold of winter and it'll be good to remember that I have the ability to move, that I'm autonomous. I can go anywhere.

And I'm going to Paris. :) See you in Shanghai!

an american in paris: the saga begins

I'm going to Paris for Christmas. Tomorrow.

I know I've not been around on my blog in... forever, mostly due to two things: a) the weather in Taiwan getting cold and dank because it's winter, and b) my mood taking a nosedive due to said cold and dankness. Also, I've been drowning in children more than fun experiences, so I haven't had much to discuss at length since getting my camera.

That is all going to (hopefully) change in the next few days. Because, as previously stated, I'm going to Paris for Christmas. Tomorrow.

Christmas shopping has been finished, so now all that's left is making sure I have all my proper documents and can fit everything I'll need for five days into a backpack that might be smaller than my college school bag. (I'm not taking a suitcase.) Also I have to hope that China is the same as the US and doesn't count a purse as a carry-on, because for the amount of odd crap I'll be fitting into it, it may as well be one.

My packing strategy as follows: organized chaos.

That black bag is the wondrous bag that will carry my belongings to France. I've already resigned myself to having to buy cheap nightclothes in Paris because nothing else will fit in my bag, and I'll be wearing my only jeans on the flight. (I plan to buy more jeans in Paris, if I can. I could probably find jeans that fit me here in Taiwan, and I'm willing to pay more, but I want to see if I can find something in Paris, anyway.)

One of the nice things about this trip is that it's allowed me to give myself permission to actually buy things. Like a coat, and two new shirts, and some really cute earrings. I am addicted to a particular earrings stall at the nightmarket by Taipower station and if I go back one more time (which I may) I'm pretty sure the girl there is going to start recognizing me. I can't help it if she's selling stuff I love.

I've been afraid to buy things up until now because many stores don't have a place to try things on, and I'm continuously worried that I'll pick something that doesn't fit or fits badly or looks awful on me. You can't really take things back to the stores where you bought them because you're dealing in cash 99% of the time, so there's no receipt, and a lot of items can be found at another fifty stores and stalls. What's nice, though, is that I am literally getting better at evaluating merchandise and buying good items through practice. In Taiwan, people who linger in a store or at a stall more than five seconds are considered fair game for sales tactics, so you have to see what's there and make up your mind about it quick. You have to listen to yourself and figure out if you're looking at something that "speaks to you" or is just interesting. Shopping around here, I'm learning how to listen to myself and it's really cool. :)

I also finally got my hair cut, and finally found a stylist who not only speaks English but is the kind of person I trust doing my hair. She (her name is Diane) was recommended by a friend, and although she lives by Fuxing station (which is about an hour's worth of travel from my place in Xinzhuang) it was totally worth getting up at 8am this Wednesday morning to go see her. Diane has one room in her house that is the salon, and because it's in her home it has a very cozy and intimate feel. She has two dogs and two cats, all four of whom were wandering around, and one of the cats politely demanded I pet her. I had previously sent Diane pictures of my hair at the time and what style I wanted, and she basically gave me exactly what I've always wanted. I am so excited to be going to Paris with this haircut, and I will be going back to Diane for every haircut I get between now and my last day in Taiwan.

In the mean time, I need to finish making sure I have all the odd ends I'll need on my trip, like money to change and a print-out of my plane ticket receipt and my passport.

Also, I'm going to go to the gym for a last-day-before-vacation workout, and to weigh my backpack on one of the gym scales to see if it is under 5kg. (I doubt it will be but I'm hoping.)

Off I go!