Sometimes the World Waits

Blurry magical things have been happening.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am, in fact, alive.

On Saturday, we left for Paris.
The details of the last big adventure.

Paris is about 6 hours away from Ste Croix, and so we drove the first half Saturday afternoon. That evening we camped out at this farm in Lorraine. Xavier has another aunt (he seems to have a handy supply of them when we need to stay places..) who lives in a near-by village, and we went to her house for dinner that evening.

The next day we drove the rest of the way to Paris. By some sort of miracle, my family has friend's of friend's that have an apartment in Paris, and who were also going to be on vacation. Thus, we stayed the weekend in their apartment, which is just outside of the first zone of Paris.

After getting settled in, we began. The first thing we did was go to the Grévin museum, or in other words, a wax sculpture shrine to pop culture and historical figures. I was a little mysified as to why this was so important, but it seems to be very very popular here. It was interesting to see how they portrayed all of the characters, and moreso whom they chose to portray.
I became acutely aware of my nerdiness when I realized that I was most excited to see Picasso, Dali, Obama, and Orson Welles. Not Micheal Jackson.
After that, we went to Montmartre, and walked around looking at artists and shops.
The final destination of the day was the Arc de Triomphe. This was after we decided we couldn't walk all the way to the Eiffel Tower, and that the Arc would suffice instead. By the time we arrived, it was dark, but because of all the city lights, the sky looked blue against the illuminated Arc. I must admit that the location of the Arc is one of the scariest driving locations I have ever seen. It looks like a mad dash from all directions to get where one is going, all swirling around the huge monument.

The city of Paris is beautiful. All of the streets are lined with shops and restaurants on the ground level, with apartments above. There are so many different characteristics packed into the place -- regal, majestic, romantic, formal, ancient, commercial, yet sincere. Basically, I am a pro at creating contradictions in my own descriptions. They are, however, acurate to the best of my ability. To me, being able to see all of those things at once is what makes Paris especially extraordinary.
Of course, it also helped that we spent each day treking across the entire town.

On Monday, we went to the Louvre! I have been waiting to step into that museum for a long time, and strangely enough, it wasn't the Mona Lisa that struck me as amazing, but rather the unexpected things. It is a great feeling to turn a corner, and discover that you are face to face with a piece you remember from a class once, or something that caught your attention in a book.
Favorites? The Winged Victory of Sampthrace, The Raft of Medusa, Madonna of the Rocks, The Odalisque. Thank you Roediger.
Thousands of years of history and expression in 4 hours is tough work. But, I had been looking forward to it for awhile. Very enjoyable.
That evening, we went to the Tour Eiffel. I did not expect to be so amazed by it -- something so publicized and commercial. Nonetheless, the magnitude and prowess of the tower is mind-blowing. We climbed the stairs to the highest level possible, and watched the sun set over Paris.
That is when I, like most teenage girls, fell in love with Paris indefinitely.

The next day was Bastille day. It was also the day I realized that I completely forgot the Fourth of July. I apologize U.S.A., except not really.
Xavier and Tim woke up early to go to the parade on the Champs élysées. The rest of us stayed at the apartment and watched the military processions on T.V. I am glad to report that, like all parades, it was better on screen that standing for 2 hours.
In the afternoon, we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral. I was yet again awe-struck by the intricacy of the architecture, and the amount of work that went into creating it. I am always puzzled by things like that, but I will save the religion stuff for another day.
The big event of the day was in the evening. Johnny Halliday (like the Micheal Jackson for French people?? Except not a creep who changed his skin color and molested kids..) gave a free concert on the Champs de Mars, which 1.5 million people attended (including us). After that there was a huge fireworks show with the Eiffel Tower, because this year is also the 120th anniversaire of its completion.

It was one of the most hectic nights of my life. There were people everyone, people of every sort imaginable. The music was pretty good, even if we could only halfway see the huge televisions broadcasting the show. The Fireworks were even better -- probably the best display I have ever seen. The show incorporated all of the major dates since 1889, when the tower was finished. History played a major role in each section, which I thought was really cool, and all of the music, lights, and rockets followed their own themes.
Unfortuneately though, trying to get home was a nightmare. Imagine 1.5 million people suddenly trying to take the metro. And then consider the fact that all of the metro stations in the proximity of the Champs de Mars were closed for security reasons. It was like we were being pushed along in a river of people, speaking 10 different languages, going 100s of different places.
I felt simaltaneously exhausted, intrigued, terrified, and ecstatic (and yes, what I said about contradicting descriptions is true here as well).
When we finally reached the apartment, we headed right back out to drive home because Sylvie had to work today. I spent the night sleeping in strange configurations on the floor of the van. It was, however, the shortest long car drive I have ever experienced.

And now.
Now, everything is almost back to normal. Except that in 48 hours I wont be here anymore, but somewhere in transit over the Atlantic.
This blog entry is already excessively long, so I will write another entry with closing thoughts later.
The only thing I want to include here is an explantion of this entry's title.

I find that I spend a lot of my life waiting. Waiting for letters, for mealtimes, for buses, for grades, for actions, for tomorrows.
Waiting for nothing in particular.
But, sometimes, I am certain that the worlds waits as well. My entire trip, my adventure, my voyage, might just have been waiting for me all along. Waiting to be discovered.
As I was standing on the Tour Eiffel, watching Paris meet its shawdows, that belief filled me up.
It was a moment of perfect clarity.
Sometimes the world waits for you.