After a couple of days of readjusting to my time zone, I’m back in Atlanta and the real life of Ranada.  I’ve posted two entries I hand-wrote.

I’m already comparing everything to Europe, particularly Paris.  For instance… the train system.  I’ve always said that MARTA is a disgrace to public transit systems and that it is in dire need of regionalization, but having to wait for TWELVE minutes for a south bound train yesterday to get from the dentist and go only three stops back down to my job, I suddenly wished I was back in Paris again, where I never waited more than 5 minutes for a train and I could get across town without issue, let alone a couple of miles down the friggin street.

My sorors welcomed me home with Popeye’s, pasta salad, booze (lol cuz I had access to plenty of that in Europe), spicy rotel dip, fruit, and cupcakes.  That was very nice and made me feel special. 🙂  Tuesday I took myself to see Iron Man, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I got a shot of creamy crack to make my hair more manageable.  Yesterday, I got a mani and pedi. And I’m going to be able to go home to visit the family in a few weeks.  So all is grand in Ranada Land. 🙂

Dear Diary,

Today was another good day in Paris.  I absolutely, positively love it here.  This morning we did a walking tour of Montmatre, the artsy fartsy part of town (as if the city couldn’t be more art-filled!).  I saw where artists such as Picasso, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh lived and worked.  I saw the still-poppin’ red light district, including the Moulin Rouge (although I couldn’t go inside b/c I’m still a not-rich dreamer).  The tour guide said it looks exactly like it did back then inside and that it costs between 79 euros and 179 euros to get in now.  Wow!  I saw a street where houses cost $1,000 per meter or something crazy like that.  Whatever it was, it translated to a place about the size of my townhouse cost $1,550,000.  CRAZY!! 

I saw a beautiful cemetery where ivies were in abundance (ok, ok, ivies are in abundance all over Paris but still).  The most memorable thing about that is the headstone/bust on the grave of the psychiatrist of the singer named Davida.  He designed it so that he seems to watch you as you walk past him.  Creepy.  A head doctor effing with people’s heads forever more, go figure!

The music here is awesome.  In front of the basilica we passed, we heard the sounds of an accordion, then a violin.  Then I had an omelette fromage and a crepe avec fraise et glace vanille.  Yum.  my. 

After a full day of roaming and wandering, I’m convinced that I have to come back and spend some more time in Paris.  Visiting the museums leisurely, reading books I never knew existed like Le passe-muraille by Marcel Ayme, which is about a disgruntled government worker who discovers he can walk through walls and gets stuck in one after awhile).  There is a dedicated monument to the author in Monmatre of him stuck in the wall.  I think I could take a Ranada Renaissance sabbatical right here in Par-eeeeeeeeeee.  Find a room somewhere like the artists did. 

Something else I’ve been pondering today.  Maybe it’s okay for people to think I’m different or crazy. Pretty much all of the artists except Picasso were crazy, certifiably.  I don’t want to be certified crazy, now, but for real, these “loonies” are considered geniuses and fathers of entire artistic styles and movements.  So maybe crazy just contributes to genius.  Or maybe genius is so genius that it seems crazy at the time.  I’ve already pondered this many times.  It takes guts and prolly a couple of screws loose or just lack of concern about public opinion to be different and “revolutionary.”  The beginning of the revolution never seems glamorous or the next big thing.  Heck, a lot of trailblazers don’t even get recognized until they’ve been dead longer than they were alive.

Well, one more full day in Paris.  I can’t believe my trip is coming to an end.  It was definitely worth my while and worth my entire annual leave bank, lol.  I have learned more than I can ever blog about, although I’ll keep telling trip stories on here until I’ve run out.  People say when you travel to Europe, your life forever changes.  It’s true.  The way of life is different.  I can count how many SUV’s I’ve seen, but I can’t tell you how many Smart cars I’ve seen.  The waitresses don’t rush you at restaurants.  They expect people to lounge and talk and stay for awhile at meals.  When people here say they speak “only very little English,” their skills are MUCH better and extensive than when I say “Je parle Francais un peu.”  Kids get to take field trips to Versaille.  Well, diary, I’m getting quite sleepy.  Until next time!

I promised more stories!  During our free weekend, the black kids went to Rome, Italy.  First of all, getting there was an ADVENTURE!  First we got bamboozled into sharing a bus to Baden Baden with the group that decided to spend a day in Lucerne, Switzerland.  We would have come out better monetarily just using public transportation to get to the train station in Strasbourg and catching one.  (BTW, I am a transportation PRO now.  I’ve used EVERY form of transportation here except a moped. Walking (and walking and walking and walking), taxi, bus, tram, metro, train, plane, boat!)  But it’s ok b/c we wouldn’t have met our friend BJ had we gone straight for the train to the Baden Baden, Germany airport.  BJ is from Florida, but he lived in Jackson, MS, for awhile (small world).  He’s a radio DJ, and he even remembers my dad’s friend Stan Branson who is a radio jock as well.  He’s been living there 6 years and is now a huge DJ in Germany, and after explaining how to get to the airport using a bus (none of us know German), he conversed with us about his struggles as a black man in Germany.  Very interesting.  And we oohed and ahhed over his fly to death 2 year old son Noah.  Oh and before we met BJ, we stumbled upon this cute little cafe where the people were so nice.  And since it was Mother’s Day, all the ladies got yellow (my fave color!) roses.  And I got a REAL ham and cheese croissant.  Like sliced honey baked ham ham, not luncheon meat ham (which I’ve been subjected to for the last week and a half).  But Baden Baden was breathtaking. 🙂

You gotta get in where you fit in in European airports.  In Baden Baden, we thought we were home free.  Nobody was at the terminal so we were chilling.  Then they called the gate.  Oh my gosh.  We had to fight to get on this little shuttle to get to the actual plane.  Then as we realized the seats are free for all, 21 got smashed trying to get off the shuttle.  Folks were running and pushing.  It was like we were in a movie.  It was CRAZY.  We got on the plane, and they made announcements the e.n.t.i.r.e. time.  You can NOT rest on those planes.  Not only did they make announcements, they made them in FOUR languages almost every time.

FInally, after we landed in Rome, it was night time, and the guy in our group thought it smart to figure out the Metro instead of just catching a cab.  I was quasi livid because I don’t like even remotely feeling lost at night in a strange city, let’s not forget in a foreign country.  We ended up walking about a mile from the destination metro stop to our actual hotel.  I felt like I was walking through the set of the ghetto in The Wiz.  There was graffiti everywhere, and the people were scarce on the streets.  Then since it was late, our last chance at food was a Spanish pizzeria, where the pizza had no tomato sauce and they cut the pizza where you want and then weigh it to figure out the price.  Mine wasn’t that great, but I was hungry.

The next day, we got up early and a beautiful day started.  On the way to Vatican City, I stopped at a souvenir shop and got postcards for the people whose address I remembered. Then we got stopped by a “tour guide,” but we were VERY wary.  The line was super long to enter Vatican City through the museum, so it sounded good.  Finally, she assured us that we wouldn’t be paying her but an office and showed us the office, and sure enough it was a great super duper awesome deal.  For 25 euro, we jumped the line, got into the Museum, AND had a guide explaining to us highlights of important stuff.  Y’all, the Vatican is SO beautiful.  Michelangelo is pure genius.  I’m still in awe of all that he was able to accomplish.  His sculptures and his paintings were just mesmerizing.  The Sistene Chapel was amazing.  The Basilika was amazing.  EVERYthing in the Vatican is AMAZING. lol

After we left the Vatican, we found a little cafe in search of real Italian cuisine.  Again, I bombed out.  I ordered meatballs, thinking it was the safest thing there. NOT.  They were too yeasty and they had peas in them.  Luckily, Chris asked the lady could I get something else cuz I was already going through some personal issues that day, and that had tears welled up in my eyes.  I ended up with roasted chicken and potatoes, and it was pretty good.  Then we jumped on a bus and headed to the Coliseum.  It’s so crazy to me that these well known artifacts are just chilling in a regular city.  We didn’t pay to go in, but we walked all the way around it and then explored all the other ruins close by.  After we were tired of that, we got on another bus and headed to the Spanish Steps.  That part of the city looks so romantic.  We sat on the steps for awhile as the sun set, and then we found a little restaurant on the side street.

In the restaurant, we all had Sicilian steak.  It was ok till I got to the extremely pink center.  But I was relatively full by then anyway.  Then when Chris and LT ordered dessert (21 and I had capaccino), the British couple sitting next to us inquired what it was, and a pretty interesting convo ensued…

Ok, sorry to keep y’all in suspense, but I gotta get dolled up so I can finally leave this hotel and start exploring!!

Everywhere I’ve been, my people be hustlin!!!  I love my people, for real.  At the Tour Eiffel, you will find several people, mostly hued people, selling 1 euro Eiffel Tower keychains and other souvenirs, and in Strasbourg, I saw people of color in the plaza selling umbrellas you put on your head.  AND today in the plaza of the Louvre, a guy was “fishing” coins out of the wish pool with a magnet.  Please understand that I am not at all hating.  The only people who got on my nerves were the ones who were preying on English-speaking people by begging with a postcard with words in English.  Man, get you a hustle!  They are BALLING selling those keychains!

Today was an awesome day.  Started off very very very very slow (I hate being inside late), but we ended up going to le cathedral Notre Dame, which was even extra cool because we got there when mass started.  And a black priest was leading the service.  I prayed, prayed, and prayed in there.  Then we went to the Musee Louvre and got info on when to come back.  We plan on going tomorrow evening when it’s tres cheap. 🙂  Then we went and saw l’Arc de Triumphe.  There’s SO much to see here.  Never a boring moment.  I love it here.  Truly.  I can’t believe I’ll be home in 3 days!  Well, I’m very drowsy and I still need to get directions for our plans tomorrow.  So…  A bientot!

Last night after a very turbulent day, we took the Metro to Tour Eiffel and saw it in its lit up and sparkly essence.  It was an amazing experience.  I never really expected to see the Eiffel Tower in person.  I must say I’m a smidge jealous of Europeans because they get educational experiences that they can take for granted.  I would love to just randomly know history facts and jog around the Eiffel Tower as if it’s the MLK Center or something.  The historical monuments are the absolute best–the architecture is AMAZING and so symmetrical here, and it’s normal for them.  It’s normal for people to know more than 1 or 2 or maybe even 3 languages.  I wish philosophy and the classics were more included in our education.  Even when I was watching The Great Debaters, I was wishing some of those concepts were still “normal” parts of our education.  What’s going on with America?  We’re okay with not having common knowledge about stuff?  We’re okay with letting people stop at Algebra II in their education.  We’re okay with people only knowing “American history,” if ou can call the rendition we get in high school accurate.  We’re okay with people not being exposed to ideas of thought.  If I weren’t inquisitive on my own, even with 3.5 degrees, I’d be even more behind than I feel I am.

Yesterday, I bought two books, and I can’t wait to read them.  Both were published by UNESCO.  One examines poverty as a human rights issue and the other examines the transition from slavery to general bondage.  UNESCO was an amazing place to me, as was the U.S. Mission to the EU and the European Parliament and the European Commission.  The way the EU works is so interesting to me because although it works similarly to the US way of doing things, it’s so different all at the same time.  It’s very unique how these countries who have been at war off and on forever and ever work together for peace, even sometimes taking national economic hits to make it work.  On the EU councils and even at the European Central Bank, the powers that be are prevented from serving their national interests but are charged to make decisions for the good of the entire union.  They realize that long term gains come from taking short term risks and even losses.  It’s so amazing.  There are so many parties here, and there are 3 huge ones.  I’m going to research those three when I get back.  It’s crazy to me that they can get stuff done even though at least 5 languages may be spoken at a meeting so there’s a lag in communication at times.  But they make it happen.  I’m very very intrigued, if you can’t tell.  I’m unfortunately missing the lecture today, which is about how France views the EU.  But hopefully, one of my professors will fill me in.  Maybe I’ll go check out Notre Dame though.  Tomorrow I’m hoping to either visit the Louvre or Versailles.  4 more days and I’ll be hoooooome.  I’m actually ready to get home.  Honestly, my patience is wearing thin with these strangers.  But overall, I must say this trip was definitely worthwhile.  I thank God for the opportunity.  Ok, I’m out for now.