It's A Small World After All

Hello Everybody!

Happy Saturday! I have some cool/funny pictures from yesterday's Versailles trip, but not that much to say about it. So this may be a skinnier post than usual. Oh! But I do have a little story to tell you. So here we go.

Yesterday I met several people from my program in the dorm lobby at 10:00 am and by 11:00 we were on the RER on our way to Château Versailles.

We were able to get in for free with our passport (we needed to show our visa) and our Sciences-Po student ID!

Before walking through the castle we checked out the gardens. I've been to Versailles before, but never in the gardens because last time I was here it was March and it was raining,.. and it was cold. On this day however, it was sunny and never strayed outside of 65 to 70 degrees.

We walked over to one side of the gardens, went down the steps, and found a bench to eat our lunches on next to the very tall hedges. In the picture below you can see the huge squares of water in the distance. I'm not sure if I should call it a pool or a lake..because it was neither and both of those things at the same time. What you can't see is that there were tons of people sitting on the grass, and it started from where I took this picture, all the way down to the end of the water.

We fed a few garden cats as we ate.

After spending a couple of hours wandering the gardens and eating food, we needed a nap.

On the grass that bordered the "pool-lake" there were groups of students and families hanging out all over the place. It was so cute! There were people sitting on the grass all over the place. They had boat rentals (for 11 euro..) and we saw a couple taking one out and paddling near the swans.

So here is where it gets interesting- apparently Versailles (back in the day) was a place where contemporary art was valued and displayed frequently. In keeping with the tradition, from 2007-2010 Versailles has been the home of a Japanese artist's exposition. It leaves in December. The art was all over the rooms we walked through, and the biggest one was outside in the garden. It was called Buddha something. The pieces were interesting, but I'm not a big fan of modern art. They were definitely cool to look at, but the setting sort of clashed with all of these crazy pieces. Especially once inside.

Here is another piece that was inside. This one is a tame example:

This one was called "Flower Monster:"

After we'd spent almost 6 hours at Versailles, we were all exhausted and ready to catch the train home.

Today! (Saturday):

For lunch today a few friends and I visited the Indian quarter!! We found a restaurant that looked good and ate there. I got my usual: Chicken Tikka Masala. Everyone agreed that the food tasted different than usual but that it was still good. I ate way too much and decided I need to do something light for dinner tonight.

In the metro on the way back I saw something that brightened my already good day:

HARRY POTTER POSTER!!! WOOOO.

Ok so..yesterday at Versailles this American guy with a big fancy camera asked me and my friend to take a picture for him in the hall of mirrors, and then he took a picture of us. We asked where each other was from, exchanged niceties, and then parted. As he walked away, I noticed that he has the same black Air-walk flip-flops that Tom has. I know because I helped Tom pick them out last summer on the Payless website. "Hm.." I thought "...that's funny." Today after Indian food I was on the metro, and I was staring at the floor as we made our next stop. I saw all the pairs of feet walk on, and one of them was wearing the same flip flops! I looked up, and it was the SAME GUY. He had the same huge camera and was taking pictures through the metro window. No way!!! What a small world. I took 3 stalker pictures of him, including one of just his feet. I don't know if he recognized me. I was standing right next to him speaking in English to another one of my friends, and he didn't seem to notice..even though I just saw him almost exactly 24 hours earlier.

Hahaha. What a small world!! I absolutely had to get documentation. Too bad I don't have a picture of him from Versailles.

Well, I'm about to go run and grab a LIGHT dinner. :-) Catch ya later!

Love,

Hillary