Naked Men, Crazy Men, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame

My poor, little blog has been neglected for quite some time. I've been too busy teaching kids about Pilgrims and Native Americans, singing "head, shoulders, knees, and toes," and roaming the streets of Paris to have sufficient time to tend to my blog. Let's see...

So Paris was beautiful (obviously). Cáceres is in the middle of nowhere and doesn't have an airport, which gave me the excuse to visit my pal, Ellie in Madrid--if only very briefly--on Thursday night before departing from Madrid for Paris in the wee hours of Friday morn.

Althea Outside the Louvre

Upon my arrival, my friend Althea (who's currently studying in Italy) and I ventured to the Louvre to see some fine art and get a break from the bitter cold. (I thought Cáceres was cold but Paris was absurdly frigid). The Louvre apparently has some sort of mall attached, which Althea and I got lost in (surprise surprise) for quite a while before finally finding Greek sculptures, the good old Mona Lisa, and some ancient Egyptian jewelry, which was even more beautiful than the jewelry in the mall section of the Louvre! We also bought 39 euro museum passes for the weekend, thinking we were being thrifty, only to find out that as young, European residents we can get into all museums for free. Please let me know if you want to buy the museum pass off me (for a discounted price!) It's valid until the end of next year. We also poked around Notre Dame for a bit--nice place!

The next day, we hung out with a bunch of naked guys. (There was an exhibition of the male nude at d'Orsay ranging from Renaissance cherubs to a close-up photo of Eminem). We heard there was an amazing falafel place in the Jewish quarter, so when we were done viewing the nudes, we went to the first falafel place we saw there, thinking it was the one and only. But when we left, we saw that the entire street was lined with falafel places, and they all had award stickers, whereas ours didn't. But I thought the falafel we got was great, so I guess that's all that matters. We then went bakery-hopping 'til we were so full we could barely walk. We wandered around endlessly in search of the Picasso Museum, following all the signs that pointed to it but never finding the museum itself. We found out the next day it's closed for renovation...but wandering around Paris is never a waste of time because, as I mentioned, it's quite pretty. When we gave up on the museum, we decided to go see the Bastille, thinking we'd get to witness the dungeon where the poor Parisians were once buried. But when we arrived at the site, we discovered that it had been demolished long ago, and just a monument stood in its place...so much for that! We proceeded onwards to a larger monument called the Eiffel Tower, which some of you may have heard of. We went halfway up it, only to find out we'd be charged a lot more to go ALL the way up it. Reluctant to succumb to this sort of manipulation, we proceeded downwards. Even from the less-impressive height we had quite a nice view! Satisfied (for the most part) with our Eiffel Tower experience, we hopped on a train to see the Moulin Rouge. We were quite hungry from a long day of trekking around, so we planned to eat dinner in the Moulin Rouge area. We soon discovered, however, that the entire area is swarming with nothing but sex shop and strip club after sex shop and strip club. It's amazing to think that they all stay in business despite their hundreds of neighboring competitors. We finally found one of the only restaurants there, and the food wasn't bad (it's hard to find bad food in Paris). However, we were the only customers because everyone else in the area must have been too busy inspecting females remove articles of clothing.

A Seductive Statue Outside the Erotic Museum

Then Sunday came round, and we returned to the d'Orsay because we couldn't miss out on some good pointillism, symbolism, and post-impressionism (most notably Van Gogh!) After seeing the art of dead artists, we went to the Pantheon to see the tombs of dead, important people. We got to stand within jut a few feet of Rousseau and Voltaire's bones! We journeyed onwards to the George Pompidou Center, which looks from the outside like a very colorful factory placed randomly among the shops in the center of Paris. There we saw modern and contemporary art. So we got to travel through art's history all in one weekend, from the ancient Greeks to the post-impressionists to artists who are still alive and thriving. On the way to the George Pompidou Center, I accidentally provoked a crazy man, forcing Althea and I to sprint away from him as he angrily chased after us, until we safely made it onto a metro and zoomed away from his infuriated shouting. Other than that it was a very pleasant day (and other than that guy, all the Parisians I met were very friendly and nice...I kept expecting to meet the Parisian snobs you always hear about but never did).

George Pompidou Center

On Monday morning, I left Paris sad and greasy (the hostel shower was disgusting so I bathed in the sink, which didn't work so well) but also content that we'd had such a lovely trip.

As for other updates...the weekend before Paris, there was a Medieval Market here in Cáceres so two of my friends who are teachers in the nearby city of Badajoz came and visited. Unfortunately, the market didn't really seem all that medieval--there were just a bunch of stands selling things I didn't need and shouldn't buy. But on the plus side, a yak was wandering around, and I got to pet it.

I have a class of kindergarteners, four different first grade classes, a fourth grade class, a fifth grade class, and a sixth grade class, as well as eight private students...but I'm finally starting to learn some of the names and get to know some of the kids (although there still kids who will say "hola" to me on the street and I'll have no idea who they are). But that's been fun. There's nothing like being in a bad mood from having to wake up so early and then being swarmed by first graders all wanting to hug you. But it's not all perfect. It still bothers me that none of the gypsy kids have class books. ("Gypsy" sounds weird to me, and I know "Roma" is the politically correct word, but that sounds weird to me, too). They clearly miss out on learning and practice, and by fifth grade they're very behind and have a much lower level of English than the rest of the students. The other day, a gypsy girl in kindergarten asked me "where's my book?" when I was passing out the books, and it was heartbreaking to see how disappointed she was when I told her she didn't have one. She then proceeded to scribble with a black crayon in three of her classmate's books, and I knew I needed to reprimand her but absolutely hated having to do so, because if her parents had bought her a book, I know she'd be sitting there, writing in it, and causing no trouble.

That's a sad note to leave on, but I don't have much more to say, and I think the post is long enough. So with that, I'll bid you adieu.