Checking in

Hey Ya'll, this is just a State of the Union address. Not a whole lot has been happening here, or at least we didn't travel to three other countries or get deported from anywhere. We have been mostly hanging around Gueret and enjoying the spring like weather and taking bets when the hill sides will turn green. We fed the ducks the other day at the lake, 
It was nice and fun. The french ducks seem to be way more aggressive and territorial than the ducks in the states. There was a lot of duck on duck crime.

We have also been going to the market in Gueret every once in a while. It's very nice, and it's nice to see the locals in a hospitable mode. The have chickens on rotisseries that you can smell down the street.
We met a nice american couple at the market last saturday. We were hoping to be able to hang out with them but the guy seemed a little on edge. We have e-mailed them but they haven't sent anything back. They live out in the sticks, and they come into town to use the internet at McDonalds so maybe they haven't got the e-mail yet.

 Gigi's friend Jason and his girlfriend Meg came to france not long ago. They got here the day I was deported. We hung out in Gueret for a couple days which was fun. We got them a little too drunk to be traveling the next day but the managed quite well.

We also have gone on many walks around town. This was through some trails near town. We brought a couple bottles of wine and cookies and had a picnic. The weather has been so nice.

Another fun thing we have been doing is traveling to Limoges which is near by. It's just an hour long train ride from here. We went to shop and enjoy a city bigger than ours. There is a river that run through the town so we played a stick dropping game on it that Kendra taught us. We didn't bother to get sticks so we used the cigarette butts under foot. I lost.

Our friend Benjamin had a concert in Limoges that we went to see. It was fantastic. He had a few clarinet solos in a piece called yiddish rhapsody. It was great and moving, I hope we get a copy of the song before we leave.

We also have had a few dinners out on the town, and went to the movie theater for my first time. It's a small theater, but one of the most comfortable I have ever been in.  We saw the wrestler, which was great. I really liked it, Gigi didn't so much. We have also seen Synecdoche, New York which was SO good. It was written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, who is a genius, but he likes to mess with your mind.

We have also been watching Six feet under which is also a mind scramble, and eating so good. Gigi has been making some awesome breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, and I have been masterfully cleaning up behind here. It all just been stunning work all around. We have been playing a lot of cards. Gigi is something like 7 of 8 in wins for pinocle. She pulled a win right out from under me the other day. I had to make 3 points and she had to make nearly 50 to go out so I gave her the bid, and she puts down a double pinocle, and aces around, and wins on her going out. I was a bit distraught. 

Well it's really nice to keep in contact with everyone. Keep keeping in touch. Gigi's family comes this saturday and will be in Gueret Wednesday. It will be her mom, sister, brother, and now her Grandma too! It will be great fun, and the food will just be getting better and more plentiful. 

Birthday Party!

Well it was in February, so this is a little past due. I wanted to be able to use it before I showed it off.

Gigi gave me a Steel Dobro Guitar. It's beautiful.

The story of it is the best part. We walked by a music store in Gueret and saw it in the window. It was marked down -70% and we immediately loved it. We went in and played with it a couple times, and I said I would buy it by the end of January if it wasn't sold by then. I would fantasize about it and think about playing it in town as a pan handler just for something to do. I was really excited. So just before the end of the month it was still in the window, and we were about to head to Paris, so this was our last chance. The thing is in France there are only sales on things in January and July, and more often than not, they are great sales. So since this was the end of January we figured this was going to be the end of the discount. So on the way to the train station we stopped by the guitar shop. Gigi spoke to the guy and went back in forth for a while. It was a little longer than I thought it should be. Then the news, it had already been sold, and Gigi was trying to figure out a way for us to buy over the price because it was still in the shop. The guitar man said in english to me, "I'm sorry but it has been sold." which I thought was weird because that guy never spoke english to me. The train ride to paris was a long one. I was fairly disappointed.  Time had passed and it came up to my birthday. Gigi, Nick and I had spent all day traveling around on my birthday, hanging around Paris, enjoying a rugby party on a train, getting stopped by the police for cocaine, which Gigi told them we had, and eating at our favorite creperie. When it was time to crash we did so in La Sout at Kendras school. I was pooped, but the girls were gitty. Kendra and Gigi did the birthday song and dance then Gigi pulled out my gift, my brand new guitar. I was floored. I liked it so much the next morning I broke a string right away. It has since been replaced. Gigi pulled a fast one on me. The day we went to buy it right before we left for Paris Gigi was speaking to him IN FRENCH and buying the Guitar and arranging to pick it up at some point, then she told the guy IN FRENCH to tell me it was sold. That guy wasn't a good actor looking back on it, but he had me fooled and so did Gigi. I was surprised she was able to keep it a secret. Then in the mean time she had snuck it from Gueret to La Sout using her friends. What a tricky lady.

 I have learned some things, and I'm trying to fine tune it, but here is a sample.

Not keeping up

I still have to blog about our adventure to Barcelona and England, and I just haven't got to it yet.

here are some links to the pictures though.

Barcelona One

Barcelona Two

England

Paris AGAIN, and Jim Haynes

Deported

What a weekend. Don't I start every entry like that?

I went to England this weekend to work with Gigi's aunt and uncle on their mastif kennel. I was so excited to have something to focus on, and I would get to play with huge dogs too...  

Like this one:

This is Twelve, he's from Italy.

Well at any rate, I flew to Stansted, London from Limoges, France and it only took a little over an hour. When I got there I went up to customs and did the stupidest thing ever, I told the truth. I had been so excited about this for a while, and I have been telling everyone about it. So when the customs lady asked me what I was doing in England I answered, "Staying with the in-laws, In fact I'm helping them work with their dogs until they hire a new aupair." They said they were sorry but they needed to further investigate my stay in England. They don't let people in to work and I should have known better to tell them about that. I even told them it wasn't paid, it was just me helping out my aunt and uncle. That doesn't fly either. Another big flag I believe was that I am currently unemployed.

They brought me over to a counter to search my belongings. I was very surprised what they questioned me about. They pulled out my gloves which are old construction gloves that I got from the new 35W bridge. They said they looked quite worn, and I said yeah, I've had them for a while. I also had all my French homework, and in all those papers I had blank work visa papers for France. That sucked. I have since thrown those away in disgust.

The odd thing was that they were so sweet the whole time. They probably knew from the second I opened my mouth I was gonna be deported.

They brought me to the detention center at the airport and put me in a "interview room." They asked me all the same questions again and took my finger prints and a few pictures and searched my person. Nothing invasive, which was a bummer.

They then put me in an even bigger room with a few people who sat around looking very pissed off, and playing on the TV was Hot Fuzz, the English movie about police. I thought it was ironic. 

It wasn't long after I sat down they came down hard with the second round of questioning, "Do you want something to eat? Something to drink? Candy? Coffee? Tea? Juice? Crisps? We have sandwiches, do you want a sandwich?" They were more hospitable than anything I had ever experienced. I actually thought they were trying to drug me or something. In the middle of Hot Fuzz they pulled me back out and told me I wasn't going to be let into the country, and that I will be staying in this room until 8 the next morning. Needless to say I was PISSED! I was being really cooperative and nice to everyone, but then I turned on a dime.

The thing about the hospitality was that it was coming from the people holding me, immigration, and not customs who had denied my entry into the country. So, even though I was pissed, the people who I was surrounded by had nothing to do with me not getting in, so they didn't deserve my attitude. 

Time passed really slowly and people came and went all day. I watched 6 movies and finished my book "Franny and Zooey". I watched Hot Fuzz, and a bizarre documentary on the Rolling Stones called Sympathy for the Devil. It was messed up, it started with girls in white night gowns being murdered by militants, and then it had a comic book store run by Nazis. I was the one to put it in, and after it got really weird I asked everyone if I could change it. Everyone stared blankly at me. No one spoke english. As I went to change it, a man in his fifties stopped me and gave me a thumbs up as two militants fought over an unconscious girl on the TV screen. I kept my eye on him for the rest of my stay. After that I watched The Great Escape in Italian with an Italian dude. I watched Top Gun, and then Mission Impossible Two. Two Tom Cruise Movies back to back. It was then I knew I was in Jail. Oh, and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe was somewhere in there. I didn't make it long enough to watch West Side Story and, my favorite movie as a child, The Flight of the Navigator, so I stole them. You know, just to show England what happens when they deport Alex Finseth.

To sleep I pushed two benches together so I wouldn't fall in my sleep. I finally dozed off around 1 as the "guards," if that what you would call them, started a Denzel Washington Movie. I woke up around 4 to them playing Trouble, and that god damn dice bouncing around its little dome over and over again. I asked them if they would stop and they looked at me blankly for way too long and kept playing.

They eventually had a shift change and got me ready for my plane. They went off and checked my bag for me. They told me that I wouldn't get my passport back until I landed in France, and that I should just ask the flight attendant for it. That's when I recalled a conversation we had about their procedure when they were deporting some one. More often then not, if you ask for your passport, they just give it back, but if you are going to be arrested or shuffled around more they won't give it back. That haunted me for a while. 

Victor, his peers call him Jesus because he was a priest or something, brought me to my plane. He actually was ordained in Minnesota, and right after they told me I wasn't getting into the country I went and laid down on a bench, he called me into his office area and asked me "Do you recognize this?" It was his MN state ID. I was so angry that all I could say was, "That's great," and I pivoted on my heal and went and laid down again. I felt bad, he's really sweet, but I was in no mood to be cordial. I felt like all these people had this job of watching deportees just so they could have friend for a few hours who couldn't go anywhere.

Well, he brought me to my plane, and walked me past the whole line of people waiting to get on the plane, so I got a seat before anyone else. I felt privileged. We flew back, and as we were getting off the plane I asked a flight attendant for my passport back. They told me that the pilot wanted to speak to me. I started freaking out that they weren't going to give me my passport back and they were going to deport me back to the States. I popped my head into the cockpit, and he said, "You're Alex?"

"Yeah I'm Alex"

"Oh you're a Finseth. Are you Norwegian?"

"Yeah, I'm from Minnesota, but I'm of Norwegian decent"

"Oh, I'm Norwegian. Your name is popular there"

"Oh"

"Well here's your passport"

All I could do was thank God that I had my passport in my hand, and as I stepped back from the cockpit there's customs again right their with their guns, and they want my passport. Shit. They sit me down as the rest of the plane unloads. They ask me why I was sent back to France, and I told them thats where I came from. They hold onto my Passport and ask me to follow them. Double shit. We take a long walk into the airport and there is the whole plane load again standing in line. Customs walk me past all of the passengers again. We get to baggage claim and they ask if I had a bag, and told me to grab it. I grab it and they hand me my passport and told me to have a nice day. SCORE! Home free.

It was a long process that I don't want to do again. I spent $200 bucks for two plane rides and a bunch of shitty sandwiches. Thank God they didn't ask me to pay for my ticket home. Apparently it was on RyanAir.

Oddly, for the longest time, I thought this was a prank that Aunt Jo was pulling on me, because I got her really good when we stayed with her a couple weeks ago. She threatened to get me back so bad, and I felt this would have been appropriate punishment, but no it wasn't her prank, so I still have that to look forward to as well.

Now to move on to the next thing, because there is no chance in hell I'm going to be able to get back into England this year.

c'est la vie.

Losses

Just tonight Me and Gigi... I mean Gigi and I found out we both lost grandparents. She lost her Great Grandpa James and I lost My Grandma Mildred in the same night. We spent the day in the woods not knowing anything had happened, then we came home and both made the phone calls in which we found out about our losses. 

It's amazing we are having these experiences together. I don't know if it makes it easier or not. We are both being supportive and thats what counts. 

Keep our families in your thoughts and prayers.

Friday the 13th, Valentines, and My Birthday

It's been a long time since I wrote, so the past couple of weeks will be in sections to save my sanity. 

Pictures

This is the weekend of February 13th, 14th, and 15th. Being Friday the 13th, Valentines Day, and My Birthday. It was quite the eclectic weekend to celebrate. It was also the weekend that Gigi's Brother Nick joined us, which was a great treat to have a third from Minneapolis.

Friday the 13th was definitely that. Some very bizarre occurrences. First of all it was the day we were to wake up and travel to Paris to celebrate Valentines and pick up Nick. When we opened our window we found that it had snowed more than we have ever seen here, just over night. We had to tromp through it all the way to the train station which isn't very close.

The next bizarre event was one that bared fruit for us. We were just scooting along on the train and as we passed another train we got the usual startling SWOOSH that gets Gigi and I to jump every time. A split second after that a window on the opposite side of the train from us shattered right before my eyes. Apparently two broke during this incident, and we were asked to go sit up in first class for the rest of the train ride. Score.

Once we got into Paris I was hungry and tiered so we went to our apartment that Gigi booked for us, which by the way I am so grateful for all the lovely things she has done for us through all of this. She books all the trains planes and apartments and they are the most beautiful places imaginable. She is so selfless when it comes to this "party planning" it's quite admirable, and I am such a lucky boy to have such an awesome girlfriend. Thank you Gigi.

This is our apartment, that came with a great little hammock chair. After freezing our butts off for a while we decided to blast the heat and go grab some snacks before going out for our Valentines dinner which we were doing a night early so we didn't have to subject Nick to the cuteness.  It turned out to be champaign and McDonalds. We're a classy couple. It did save me from a hungry and tiered tantrum.

After snacks and eye gazing time we went to dinner in a cute little restaurant down the street. It was so Parisian, and fabulous. We had wine and I had something cooked in bones, which is new for me. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of it, but if I had it my way I would have some one fallowing me around with movie cameras.

After dinner we made our way down to the Eiffel Tower, because even after a few weekends in Paris, I haven't done anything appropriately touristy. We brought in Valentines day under the tower kissing and cuddling. It was perfect until the 4th or 5th vendor came up to us, grabbed Gigi's arm, shoved roses in her face and in a screech yelled "I love you" with his buck teeth stretched out at us. We were mid-kiss.

We had also Spotted Batman and The Joker down by the tower, It must have been still Friday the 13th somewhere.

The next morning we woke up nice and early to pick Nick up at the airport. This would be Valentines day Proper. We grabbed him and brought him right to the train station. It turned out to be a busy school holiday so most the trains were all booked up, but we grabbed one on the later end. That gave us some time to walk around Paris for a while.

Nick was able to get some Steak Freet which he was very excited about since his plane landed.

We spent the rest of the day wandering by the River Seine and just around. We grabbed some Champaign to drink in the park, and stayed warm by shivering and rattling our teeth. It was a lot of fun, and nick got many opportunities to skate around Paris.

After a long day of wandering we were looking forward to a  nice long train ride to La Sout to sleep and rest. We get to our car and there was barely any one on with us... until about 5 minutes before shove off. A HUGE family joined us in our car blowing whistles and shouting with paint on their faces and french flags over their shoulders. They were celebrating a French win in the Rugby game that night. The adults were tanked. I step away from the party for a second and when I came back Gigi's got a cup of whiskey going. They poured us all a drink and we join the party. We talked to everybody, and practiced our french. It was tons of fun. the drinking was endless, and when it got close to the end of the road for us they filled out cups zealously. Some one took a liking to nick and gave him a corkscrew, and french scarf, which was the most generous showing that we had seen in our whole stay here. We left the train with hugs and High Fives and walk into the train station where there were 8 cops, some with machine guns ready to great us. "I guess they don't like us drinking on the train" Nick said. I walk through the crowd of brass with out any word then Gigi, then the second Nick walks in they pull him aside. The head cop starts asking some questions and Gigi answers for Nick. He asks for Nicks passport and then asks more questions and Gigi says Yes to the Wrong question, and a puzzled look comes across the cops face. He asked if Nick was brining in cocaine. The correct answer to that question turns out to be No. We all laugh and the cop lets us go.

The fun never seemed to stop. After that we had dinner at the famous Creperi of La Sout

I scored with my crepe, and every one seemed pretty happy as usual. Just deliciousness. After Dinner we head back to Kendra's school for retirement, and I was surprised to an awesome birthday present from my darling Girlfriend. The trick she played on my was about as priceless as the gift, but I want to premiere the gift to everyone the right way, so it will be coming to a blog nearby soon. Now all of this happened Valentines day. To us it seemed like days on end.

The next day being my birthday was understandably spent resting. Nick slept till nearly 4. We had a wonderful Curry for dinner before heading back to Gueret. We were spent.

Thanks to all of you for the great birthday wishes, and as you may see it was a Great Birthday. I love you all.

And here are some pictures from this weekend if you didn't get enough.

New Website!

I have a Portfolio of a website for my photography, and thats what I have been spending my time doing for the last few hours, so it's an update on my trip as well, so there.

Here it is

K. Alexander's Eyes

Picture links

Oh, here are those album links

Here for Paris

Here for Bordeaux

Here for some others

A Vacation of Sorts

We didn't so much go on a vacation but on a picnic (first week in a while with out a vacation). If anything it was really a vacation from reality. Well at any rate, let me explain.

Gigi and I came to La Souteraine for the weekend to hang out with Kendra. I wore a suit. The only reason I wore a suit was because I brought two to France, and haven't worn them, so I figured I would make an excuse to wear one. So this weekend I have been walking around in a three piece suit. We used to get heads to turn walking around in casual clothes, but when we walked into the grocery store yesterday, everything shut down to make sure we were appropriately stared at. Also walking through the full playgrounds to get in and out of the Kendra's apartment gets us stared at like we are bizarre celebrities or something. 

We wanted to pick up picnic stuff from the grocery store for doing laundry at the laundry mat. The initial plan was to get a pizza, but both pizza places were closed. So we picked up a spread and headed to the 5 machine laundry mat. We arrived and there was 1 guy sitting alone waiting for his clothes to dry. We start our laundry and cover the folding table with our cheeses, bread, cider, olives and other snacks, the three americans of varying height and one in a suit. People came and left as we sat, ate, and played cards. The owner came in, said bon appetite, and left immediately. When we felt appropriately full, we felt bad for the mess we made with all our food, so Kendra went to her apartment and picked up some brooms and a dust pan, and then three americans (one in a suit) swept the whole laundry mat, while a few locals sat and watched with puzzled expressions on.

Other than that, business as usual over here. We have been swimming a lot at the community center, watching movies, planning trips, and not working a whole lot. Not a whole lot of picture taking, has been going on, but I'm sure that will change soon again. I put some albums up on facebook, I will put links below, but I don't know if it will work for non members. we'll see.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2639480&l=067ae&id=13948936

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2639082&l=51f51&id=13948936

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2634632&l=15555&id=13948936

Well if it doesn't let you connect with the link just copy and past it in your address bar. It looks like it should work..

Love you all 

Ceviche To Circus in Bordeaux

Life is good in Gueret. I'm getting quite cozy in this cozy little town. I just downloaded the Super Bowl, and I know who won, but I'm gonna get me some beer and enjoy some football pretty soon here. I just bought a new sound system for the apartment, and you can hear it in every room of the place... I mean you can hear it in the room that is our place. We did some remodeling last night and now both Gigi and I have a work place that isn't the bed or the dinner table. We went swimming last night, which we hope to make an every day activity. It was really nice, and a speedo is required (I look fantastic in it! YEAH!) Also required is an obligatory douche. It's french for a shower, but I thought it was too funny to let it go.

Well we went to Bordeaux since I last wrote, and my gosh, my head is still spinning. 

This is what it looks like when we travel. I got a seat where the window opened up enough for my head to stick all the way out, So I took a lot of blurry pictures from my seat. We also snuck a little bottle of low grade rum on the train to make the ride a little more eventful, it worked.

It was raining once we got to Bordeaux, The streets are paved with beautiful black and tan stones that glisten when wet. The city is utterly breathtaking. It's filled with statues and arches, old buildings and monuments, and the churches inspired me to be a better catholic, and thats saying a lot when just architecture inspires you that much. The city has a rail system that is hard to comprehend. It has a third rail so there is  nothing cluttering over head, but you can walk on it and everything. There is no constrictions on crossing the rails anywhere, even at the platforms. Then most of the open rail way is grass. it looks like there are three rails just imbedded into the perfectly manicured grass. It's truly a beautiful public form of transportation. You can see the rails in the above picture. the third rail is marked in some places with little white tiles.

This is Sebastian our host. You can guess if its him in the above picture or the below. Him and Gigi were friends when Gigi went to school in France a few years back.  He's a great host and made us feel like his home was ours.

When we got into town  he met us at the rail station, and we walked home in the rain, I'm sure slack jawed at the sights. When we got to his apartment he offered us beers, and we offered to teach him pinochle. We drank a few and played. I remembered our low grade rum, and thought to offer it to him, he opened it, smelled it, and laughed at us. then he pulls out this: 
Its seven year old rum from Cuba. He poured us shot glasses and we sipped on the mana from heaven until it was half gone. I'm guessing we don't get it in the states.

After a while one of Sebastian's friends came over. She was so sick she couldn't speak, I don't know why the poor girl didn't just stay in bed for the night, but unfortunately it didn't take much for me to catch her cold, So yes another vacation, where I was sick as a dog. So for our first night together Sebastian took Gigi, Kendra, Andrea (Sebatian's friend) and I ought on the town, first stop McDonalds. No hating on the choice, you gotta put something in your stomach before you go out clubbin'

I got something I never seen in the states, A CBO, maybe standing for Could Barf it Out, and to wash it down, and inch tall beer

After the Don's we went to a club filled with the high schoolers of Bordeaux... and a washing machine (seen below), We had some fun and drank a few beers, but didn't stay long, We ended up going back to the apartment and hung out, it was a lot for just getting into town. 

The next day we woke up ready to hit the streets and see Bordeaux, we let Sebastian sleep, he stayed a little later at the club. It was a beautiful dry day in the city. Its not far from the ocean, so it stays a little warmer. The whole reason we were able to take an extended vacation was because all of france was on strike on thursday, so the girls didn't have to teach. Needless to say we ran into the parade of people protesting a few times, and saw some odd sights like 8 riot police standing around shooting the shit and a huge cloud of smoke bellow down the street at us.

This is one of my favorite buildings from my trip so far. We had no idea what to think of it when we first saw it. Its just these huge Acorns standing on stilts with little steel stairs leading up to them. I thought maybe it was a science project or museum, but it turns out that they are court rooms. It blew my mind. Like, Why? Court rooms.
On our first run in with the protest We saw a huge cloud of smoke down one street and decided the best idea was to walk toward it. I was really hoping to see some hippie get tear-gassed and served his lunch on the end of a night stick (I'm kidding)(maybe). all it was was a road flare, and this guy kicking it around (above). It was used to direct the parade. The huge march of people was still the sight to see. I wish we could get this organized in the states to stand up for what we believe in.
We ended up chilling by the river for a while, and hid from the protests going on around us. mostly hiding from the loud speakers and blow horns. Kendra took her hand at my camera, and did a nice job, but with a subject like this (above) how can she go wrong.
We ditched the streets and jumped into a snooty little restaurant to have lunch. It was delicious. This was Gigi's lunch (below) I had a steak that was still bleeding, perfect. I could have eaten the china.
After lunch and a horrible stab at shopping. EVERY ONE and their mother was shopping in the shopping district of town. PACKED. Well, after all that, and some frustrations, we walked home to put up our feet, and noticed that the large church near Sebastian's was open to visitors. We checked it out, and could barley stand its affect on us. I think we all had a moment of clarity in there. It was cold and so peaceful. We could see our breath, where out side it was warm enough to where a hoodie, or maybe even a t-shirt. We looked around, and spent time meditating, I found some very beautiful answers. The picture below may be a little misleading, I felt like it was darker in there.

After we left the church we went home and  hung out and got ready for the evening. We felt that after our McD's dinner the night before some vegetables and grain would do us good so we picked out a Indian resturant for dinner. The place was almost empty, and we shortly found out why, the server and owner, was a major humbug (insert assorted swear words here). Just a bad attitude, and on top if that he skipped giving us one of our dishes, and questioned wether or not we really ordered it, when it was plainly written in the middle of our tab.

After that we went down to the Irish pub for a couple pints. We wanted billiards, but better than that got pub quiz night. not trivia, they apparently don't know what that is, it's a quiz. We won a few drinks off of it, so that was nice, and after it was over we played a game of billiards. Interest was eventually lost and I started knocking around balls. I tried the Poolhall Junkies trick shot and made it once, which is really freaking hard with such small balls. But some guy saw me doing it from the bar, and asked "what the hell are you trying to do?" I showed him, and he said I was doing it all wrong. He was drunk and a little bull headed. He wanted me to guess where he was from, I couldn't tell from his accent, but he kept saying that we have the same enemies. So duh, he's Dutch.  His name is Scott and his tribal tattoo means natural born killers, It's also possible that he had a plate in his head, or had taken a knife to it or something. He bought us all multiple drinks and picked most of us up at some point. That;s him with the glasses on his head. He's a sweetie, but I'm sure fragile, he gets into a lot of fights, but was a teddy bear to us.
We left the pub to go to another bar and somewhere along the line I got distracted by a crack in a gate and took the below picture. I tried to tell everyone what I was doing, but after only one text my phone died. It made Gigi very worried, and she spent most the night searching for me. (Sorry my Love)
We regrouped at the apartment, and I got a firm talking to. My tail was firmly between my legs the whole walk home, especially once I found out the late night bar that we were meeting at was closed (must have lost track of time)

The next day we woke up nice and early, around 2:00 in the afternoon. Sebastian had offered making ceviche, and we were not about to let him off the hook for that one. So we walked him down to the grocery store, on the beautiful 66 degree day in January that we slept away. This is it below, shrimp and two white fish ceviche, with a pisco sour. all very Peruvian. Then we had Chicken and rice which was just great. We ate until we were fat and complacent. 
Well another big plan for the weekend was to see the circus, and this being our last night it was also our last chance to see it. The first day we tried to get tickets to see it with Sebastian and Andrea, but it was already sold out that day, so we let it go, but after hearing Sebatian's experience we found new zeal to go see it. So after our delectable peruvian dinner we tried our luck again only to get shut down one more time. We threw our hands in the air and went to find Kendra at the statute near by, she didn't want to go to the circus, she was just going to be hanging out around town. So we hung out together, and tried taking a family photo, and now I know what that stereotypical father feels like while trying to get every one to sit still for a picture.
After the photo NON-opportunity we wanted to go back to the river and see it at night, so we walked past the circus one last time, and while doing so we caught a glimpse of the tigers pacing in their cages. I ooh-ed like a little kid and wanted to sit and watch them pace, thats when it came out that for two euro we could see all the animals in the circus zoo before the performance. I jumped at the opportunity. We walked back to the line and bought our zoo tickets. On our way through the dark parking lot I jump to a halt and put my arms up to guard the girls and whisped as calmly as I could not to move, there was a fierce lion sipping from a puddle in the parking lot not paying us any attention. My jump startled and scared the girls, it sent their hearts racing. The lion didn't stand anywhere near a foot tall, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't so much a lion as it was a long haired tabby, but I saw in its eyes how fierce it really was. The girls chastised me for being so cautious around such a beast, but I guess its the female of the species that likes to live so dangerously.

We checked out the zoo and almost petted the elephants trunks that were outstretched to us, We were so inthralled with the animals that we thought we would give getting ticket one more chance, AND IT WORKED! The family standing in front of us were sent away, but we got the last two tickets. Finally Gigi and I got a long awaited romantic date for just the two of us, and I didn't know I was waiting for it until it happened.
The Circus was amazing. There were slack rope walkers (didn't know they existed), tigers, a lama that jumped three donkeys, a juggler, a clown guy, a bird wrangler ect. It was so much fun. the acrobats swung lasso's, rode unicycles, they threw large pots around. a couple swung around on ropes over the crowd. It was no cirque du soleils, but thats what made it charming.

After taking that all in, we went back to the apartment to find Kendra and Sebastian with some of Sebastians friends hanging out. We joined them and drank some beers. A few more people showed up and it turned into a smorgasbord of languages crossing the room, really it was mostly french and spanish, but everyone was trying out different regional dialects and accents, which was fun, but most of it went right over my head. It was getting late and we had to leave early the next morning, so after the crowd went out to the real party which was just a warm up party for the party that was going to take place the next night, I crashed.

And we find the protagonist of this blog right back in good old Gueret taping his toe to latin music and enjoying the music of pots and pans clanging from the kitchen. Its such a triumph to get this out after every trip every other week, I'm sorry if its over whelming to read, and I'm sure it deters some to read it, but its good to get it all out there and to feel some what de-briefed.

Well, Nick comes next week, which means barcelona, and london. My birthday is coming up, and I believe its my first one away from home, but I'm sure we will be celebrating it the best we can.

Love to you and congratulations to making it through this blog,

Lord Jesus Christ, Have Mercy on Me

HAIR

Gigi cut my hair, and we both love it. The debate is who loves it more at this point. It's fun and NOT mortician-y so we got that going for me. except maybe for the pulse line falling flat in the end, or maybe thats thinking too much.

Paris Outside the Apartment #2

So this is the second installment in the Paris adventure, So if you want to read the first part first, move down to the next Blog entry.

After we Left Sacre Couer, we walked through a little tourist village behind the church. There we met more friendly artists who wanted to chill with us, and draw portraits of us. I love a town that loves to share its art with the people.

We found a little cute restaurant to grab a beer and a taste of food. There was a silly guitar artist who wanted to share his art with us as well.  We ordered a little pate, and some drinks and he asked where we were from. We said America and he turned his back and walked away. Nice folks here.  I guess he didn't understand us is what Gigi is telling me. He eventually joined us at our table at the worst time possible and decided to sing  La Vie en Rose to us. I enjoyed my libations and we went a walking. We ran into this church which had a beautiful St. Genevieve stain glass piece. This was the pulpit... until I stole it for our apartment.

We saw many foods in windows, this is one of the more colorful and expensive ones. These were 22.50 euro a piece. That's $$$.

 This is some of the Graffiti thats EVERYWHERE, apparently there is no budget for getting rid of the stuff. When you ride the trains you can go through small towns where the population is a goat and there will still be tons of graffiti facing the track.

This was our second tourist spot destination. It's an odd little commercial area with a huge mall (on the right) The mall was full to the brim. It was saturday afternoon and it looked like everyone in paris was there. Everything is on some crazy sale all through January, but there are no other sales until the month of july and thats it two month long sales. Thats the arche de triumph down the center there and it's perfectly lined up with this square terrorist proof building in the next picture. I saw the building in an architecture magazine, and was hoping to see it ever since I knew I was coming here. So one picture is looking one way and the other picture is looking the other way

So by this time we were getting hungry and tired so we headed back to the apartment and grabbed some chinese and vegged out for a while.

So Saturday night we went to Fleche d'Or or as I was calling it Felching Door to see Delta Spirit. We were hoping to get there before they went on even though the show was scheduled for 8:00 to 6:00 in the morning. They were setting up and strumming their instruments as we walked in the door. It even gave us time to grab our drinks at the bar. This was one of the coolest venues I had ever been to. It had a huge bean shaped bar right in the middle of everything and it never took long to grab a drink. It sat over the rail road and had the back area look over it. I would definitely recommend checking it out for any show if you come by this way.

The Delta Spirit show was so perfect. They played awesome and all my favorite songs. Those guys can put on a show. They tried speaking a little french which was funny and when they spoke english it didn't seem like it went over with the crowd so well. It was all fun and funny. So afterwards there were some young angsty french acts which weren't so appealing so we cooled off on the patio. Eventually members of Delta spirit came out and we started talking to them since we spoke the language to speak.  

It was really nice to be able to speak to some american folks. We don't get that chance often, and I was surprised at how much I missed it. Matt was drunk and said some shit like Sara Palin was from MN. We laughed at him and made a bet that she wasn't. We got a couple beers out of the deal. We shot the shit for hours, about MPLS, which they will be playing soon at the 7th street entry, and Australia, and accents. Eventually it came out that I was a mortician, and some of the guys were fascinated, which is cool because my favorite subject to talk about is MYSELF, Duh! (which couldn't be more obvious with this extensive blog) 

We left the band late that night, they had to pack up and we needed to catch our last train back to the apartment. They said they wanted our number so they could call us to hang out the next day... they never called. like it mattered, we had shit to do and needed to get out of town. The band manager was so impressed with my mortician stories that he yelled out to Gigi that I was a guru, and that he would be telling my stories forever. We still don't get the Guru line.

We crashed hard again, and woke up in enough time to be late for another train. We were so late in fact we resorted to grabbing a cab. I just remembered what made us late, lunch and a pair of really odd bloody mary's. They came with only grapefruit on the rim of the glass and an umbrella. we drowned it with enough tabasco and salt and pepper to make it some what recognizable. It was still really nice to have something from  home.

We grabbed the train with both Gigi and I not feeling great. We closed our eyes and let the train take us away. We woke up in enough time for Gigi to beat me for the second time in a row in pinocle. I taught her way too well.

These last pictures were oddly placed, but it was our apartment in france. The one is a court yard in the middle of it all. I guess the more windows the more money. Thats your lesson in real-estate for the day. Use it.

Good bye for now. Gigi and I had an really good dinner tonight. It was doctered up spanish rice, and the doctor was IN tonight, delicious.  I might surprise her with a sunday in a second. Get ready for another huge post in a week. We will be going to Bordeaux tomorrow for a couple of days. We will be staying with Gigi's friend who is a bartender, and DJ, So free drinks for us. We'll be staying at his place with Kendra too. So other than a few expenses Like the thirty six euro train ticket. It will be a relatively cheep trip. AND I got a new hair cut for the trip too, I can't wait for you guys to see it, It is one of the craziest haircuts I have ever had. CRAZY

Paris Outside the Apartment #1

What a great weekend, I feel like I did paris right by actually seeing it this time. We got in around 5:30 Friday night and went directly to the apartment to eat with one of the nicest families ever. We knock on the door and say hello and immediately get a beer put into our hands. Max is the husband, he's about to retire, and become a house dad. Lamia is his wife who is a very pretty lady who helps immigrants of france become legal. She also makes bomb coos coos with her hands. They have three kids, Sarah is 14, Sabrina is 5, and SO cute, and little John is 1. He slept through most the night, but made a late appearance.

They gave us a chance to unwind in our own apartment for a while before dinner, and around 8:00 we went back downstairs. We had more than a couple beers as we talked about philosophy, and our feelings about immigration and things like that. I wasn't so much apart of the conversation because this family mostly speaks french. Max can pull out some english every once in a while with the help of Gigi.

 Sabrina was being quite shy which surprised Gigi, because last time they were there Sabrina was quite in love with Gigi. I broke the ice with her by drawing on my hands, little butter flies, and faces with big ears, then two faces that spoke to each other in mumbles. She disappeared with the pen for a while and came back with drawings ALL over her hands. Dinner started some where around 9:30, and I was starving. A huge bowl of coos coos, with vegetables, chickpeas and chicken legs. We enjoyed a few bottles of wine, and a big cheese platter for dessert.

 Sarah, and Lamia feel asleep while Gigi and I played with Sabrina and talked with Max and

 drank more wine, my head hurts just thinking about how much we drank that night. We crashed with out much hesitation after that.

The next morning we woke up (eventually) and went to get the cash I had sent a while before I left the states. We tried to get the money the first time we stayed in paris but Gigi didn't have the right kind of identification. We spent a while in the money gram place and tried to reason with them to no avail. I was even there as the money sender, and they still wouldn't give it to us. It was one of the more frustrating events of my trip so far.

 So we thought this time would be different. Usbank told us that all Gigi needed was an ID, and we had that, So we went back and filled out the slip leaving some space blank, some transaction ID number. we get our number called, and the guy says he can't help us, We don't have the ID number and it's been past 45 days. I was about to shout and spit, then the girl sitting next to him interrupted and said she remembered us from the last time and that she would help us out. SCORE! We were so lucky she was there. Gigi was about to cry when we finally got out of there. S that left us with 1400 Euro in our pocket walking around Paris. Thats not safe in all sorts of ways.

We Stoped by McDonalds before dropping the money off at the apartment. I wanted to go to a McDonalds in Paris for more than one reason, but mostly because of Pulp Fiction. "you know what they call a Quarter Pounder with cheese in France? A Royal with Cheese" "You can get a Glass of beer in McDonalds, no little paper cup but a full glass of beer" Well we order and the beer tap is out, and you have to pay to "Drown that sh*t in mayo" so we got our royals with cheese and felt a bit cheated.

From there we decided to be tourists and check out some sites. We went to Sacre Couer, and upon entering the gate I made 8 new best friends who all urgently wanted to talk to me about their art of string tangling. I'm sure they were so friendly because they saw that I was an artist with my camera. I felt a bit raped, but I left with my wallet and  most of my belongings. We climbed up many stairs to look over Paris and walk through beautiful Sacre Couer. No pictures, I didn't bring my sneaky Camera.  

Tourist in Paris

Heading out to Paris today at noon. We have a lot of fun stuff planned, Tonight we will be having an authentic Nigerian dinner with the people that look after the apartment that we will be staying at. Then tomorrow we will get our long awaited money, and go bike shopping. At some point I know we will be drinking beers and having a "Royal with Cheese" at a near by McDonalds. Saturday night we will be going to the Delta Spirit show with Eva, the lady we have never met, but stayed at her place last time we were in Paris. Lastly, I will have to do some touristy things because I guess its the thing to do???? Whatever, I think we have plans to see the Eiffel tower, and I wanted to go to the "down town area" I guess it's not really a down town, but there is a huge building that is just a square with no middle part, I want to see it for myself. I guess its the latest in terrorist proof technology, because if you try to hit it with a plane you fly right through it, and feel too cool to kill people because you automatically turn from terrorist to Stunt plane driver. Nice. And if I haven't said it before I will say it now, Aperently the place we are staying at is a palace, so thats always nice. I will look into this and report back. 

I have made sandwiches and a jar full of black russian love, so we should be taken care of for our train ride into the city.

Right now I'm listening to Fleet Foxes and Randy Newman??? I didn't know that dude swore?

New plans can be fun too.

What a weekend! It left me to exhausted to write earlier, but now I am rested and ready to splurge all about it.

We had planned on hanging out with Kendra in la Souteraine, then Hanging out with Elena in her town. Elena is another teacher in the girls program. To our surprise we had a plan change. Norma, an american woman who had bumped into Gigi a few times around town, called and invited us to have dinner with her, and some friends from the area at her Chateau in the woods of La Souteraine. How could we pass it up?

(I'm watching the Inauguration as I write this, I'm so Happy and so Excited for our new President. I am finally proud of my country again.)

So Gigi and I headed to La Souteraine. 

Kendra, Gigi and I had dinner friday night at a small restaurant called The Creperie. It was FANTASTIC. I want to eat there every night. Check out the Food Blog we have coming up. It's a mash.

After dinner we went down to the local Irish pub called Loch Ness. We grabbed a couple of scotch beers and played billiards for a while. They played some Babyshamblers and we asked about them. The bartender ended up giving us the CD out of the CD player after it finished playing. We thought we would return the favor and gave him a City on the Make CD. Not much later we hear it playing over the sound system. After a while Gigi headed back to the bar to see how he liked it, and she caught him rocking out and air guitaring behind the bar. Needless to say, he liked it.

The next day we sat anxiously waiting to be picked up and brought to the dinner. We received a call that we will be having lamb for dinner and will be picked up soon, but we need to stop by the vet and pick up a lamb to save it. (???) No not the same lamb. We were very confused.

We got picked up and swept off to the country side. We toured the castle and got lost in its magical presence. So many unique rooms and even more unique bathrooms. The place was huge, and very easy to get lost in.

After our tour we were tucked into the Library and were visited on and off by our hosts. Mostly Rini, the birthday boy. This guy was so cool. He brought us wine and snacks and other guests through the evening, but with the intermediate check ins we started to feel like we were in a social experiment, and he would go leave to watch us on the video cameras or something.

Dinner was awesome. The lamb was slaughtered just a few days earlier, and there were a number of courses. Wine flowed and jokes were thrown from one end of the table to the other. The party went till one or so, and we were exhausted by the end. I know I missed something, but it was an event that we couldn't have ever expected.

So now we are back to real life, and enjoying the calm. I have been joining Gigi for class the past couple of days, and thats been a lot of fun. The kids are so cute speaking english in their french accents. They are always very excited to see me, and have tons of questions.

Well back to the inauguration. We are having a party tonight, and the plan was for me to make "Barack of Lamb", but we have no way to make that so we are making Obama's Favorite food, chili, and for dessert champaign and obana splits.

OBAMA DAY!  

Missing...

Sorry I have been absent of my bloggings lately. I can't say I have been up to a whole lot, but I'm sure once I get writing I will contradict myself shortly.

As I have mentioned before, Gigi and I were hoping to get a dog that we met a few days ago. The dog, Tina, was out in the yard and her owner Bruno was cleaning out the house. We played with Tina a bit, and Bruno came over and talked to us for a short while, and offered us the dog. We left a note the next day to tell him we were interested. Long story short, for the past few nights we have been getting messages from him, around 3 in the morning, confessing his love to Gigi... SHUT IT DOWN! we're walking away from this one.

Last night Gigi and I went to the community center to listen to a quartet of strings. It was beautiful, and the boys were easy to look at as well. It was an awesome event, and the room was full of families, and young children. It's nice to be in a small community that values the fine arts. So now we have found out what our night life will consist of, having a cocktail and heading down to the community center for a performance. There is a hip-hop project coming soon.

I went to the bakery today, and spoke enough french to get a baguette. I'm proud, and Gigi is prouder. She's gonna send me to do all the grocery shopping now, I just know it. Another first, A protest walked down the street today. It was a small one. It was all high schoolers. I don't know what they were protesting, but they thought I looked funny popping out of our apartment hole to take pictures.

Gigi's making dinner right now, and between now and that last statement we have finished dinner, and it was awesome. Speralina D'alsace Noodle, with sausage, broccoli, and green pepper with green curry powder. 

Oh, and what a few weekends we have planned for ourselves. This weekend, we are going to visit Kendra, and eat at a really good restaurant called the Craperie, and have king cake with another couple, Then we will be making it over to Aubusson to visit Elena who is another english teacher from Moscow. Lots of traveling around this small area on a bus, but it should  be quite the experience, then the weekend after we will be going to PARIS, and staying in a palace of an apartment.  Not as good of a view as the last one, but its two stories, Huge, and of course its owned by someone Gigi knows, so we probably won't be paying a dime. We will finally be getting the money I sent over, like a month ago, and we plan on buying bikes. We have been shopping this little shop on-line, and have picked out our favorites. They're used, and very european, so I will be sending pictures of our little buddies once we get them. Bikes have been missing from this plan for a while, and they need gears because this town is hilly. 

Well thats enough for now. We have been listening to Andrew Birds new album, and it's fantastic. I remember hearing the song Anoanimal at the walker's rock the garden, and I love it even more now. check it out, and I think we will be seeing Che tonight. I didn't know that it's a two part movie. We also have been listening  to Akron/ Family, and thats really good as well. of course Bjork too, and Chicha Libre, Delta Spirit, Emily Haines, The Gap Band, Grizzly Bear, Peter Bjorn & John, Rory Gallagher, Solid Gold, Thom Yorke, and Gigi's favorite Youssou N'Dour.

Get it and plug in.

Bye for now.

Shocked like an ASS

Hello Everyone!

What a last couple of days. I'm still working on getting this sinus infection out of my face, and I hope it doesn't last much longer. I've been turning into a retired old man. My afternoon walk is the highlight of the day, and I love it. Todays walk will be the highlight of the week. 

It has been warming up, and it's turning into hoodie weather. To Embrace the sun we went for our walk right after lunch. We started off into the country side, and right before we crossed THE line from city to country we spot the cutest friendliest dog in a yard, and since the french don't seem to be the most personable people, we decided to take the time to make a new friend. She loved us up, and we loved her back, she would get so into it she would practically pull her body over backwards to try to get the pets in over the fence. Her owner Bruno (more like a dog name if you ask me) came out and immediately asked if we wanted her (we did) He's selling the house and the dog stays there all day with no one because he has moved into an apartment and can't keep her there. We have the same predicament. So after we left we pondered, Maybe we could rent the place until he finds a buyer, and then we could have the dog too.

We kept moving but before I move on Today I fell in love with a dog, yesterday I fell in love with a guitar. It was a Dobro lap steel guitar, and boy does it have a sound. My fantasy is to sit out on the porch this summer with tina at my feet and my guitar on my lap playing some blues like there is no tomorrow.

So anyway back to our walk. We cross the line into country folk territory and come across a stream, and with my affinity to running water I had to stop and take a million pictures, and with my susceptibility to running water it made me NEED to pee. 

So I let the mood move me and started taking a leak sort of under the road behind a bush and up came a pair of granny feet (Gigi would like to add "her curious eyes shortly fallowing there after") I don't think she saw anything. ANYWAY, we make our way back up to the road to find the owner of the feet. 

(This may be an unfair picture, she wasn't THIS crazy. she looks like a Sith Lord)

An old lady all bundled up in all beige around 70 years of age. She proceeds to banter like no ones business in french to Gigi, which is surprising because we haven't been able to get anyone to say hello to us on the street. She talks to Gigi about the power lines of Gueret, and the two oldest houses in town, she also insists to walk us to, and show us the interstate (???) She started picking up that I didn't speak french so she tried her hand at english, which was not bad at all. It was better than my french. She was a professor in Limoges, and has lived in Gueret for the past 7 years since her retirement. 

As she walked with us, I continued to take pictures (this is my favorite part of this story) I see an ass in a doorway and I can't resist taking a picture.

 I walk up to the fence which is just a mesh fence with a nylon rope running across the top. The donkey hesitantly walks up to me, and jumps a bit when I lower my camera. I reach over the fence to lure the donkey closer. He sniffs at my fingers, and right as I touch the bridge of his nose ZAPP! At first I thought it was a static shock, then quickly realize that that nylon rope isn't so much a rope as its a charged piece of devastation. Man that sucked. I swore up a storm which didn't faze our guest walker a bit, which was nice.

We continued on towards the freeway with the professor chatting off Gigi's ear, only stopping to check if the english she was sprinkling into her conversation was correct. We parted ways with our new friend once we made it to the freeway, and gave her a head start so we wouldn't cross paths again.

The walk back was a little less eventful, we crossed a domestic abuse situation, and thats it.  A brood of kids were crawling over a fence away from a screaming man wielding a piece of terra-cotta, which apparently came off his roof. I don't know how the kids broke a roof three stories up, but they did. Unfortunately the kids I believe were squatting with their mother in a house with no windows, and a large power cord roped through the open front door. I tried to take a picture of the ragamuffins with out being too rude, cause they were cute kids even in the condition they were in. We didn't get far before we heard from behind us a woman SCREAMING at the top of her lungs, point blank range in the kids face. She was saying she was going to call the police, and what brats they were. It brought back warm feelings of me and the crew being yelled at by grandmas neighbors for running around the apartments, throwing ice chunks at cars, breaking retaining walls, and the like. Oh, how it is to be young. Thank god we never did it in France, cause that lady sounded brutal.

We ended the walk with a stroll through the cemetery. It was quite lovely with the sun going down. It didn't last very long, because like the old retired man that I strive to be, I knew a nap wasn't far away.

Other than that, We have been playing a lot of pinochle, and watched plenty of movies. Vicky, Christina, Barcelona was the latest, and that was fantastic. It's Woody Allen's latest, and it is beyond sexy. We had a painting session to express our emotions (and bodily functions) We also have been eating good, and look forward to our dinning Blog "Eating out Guertet" with sequels to fallow such as "Eating out Paris"

Well you all got me here safely with your wishes, could you wish away my cold? More importantly we just found out Gigi's friend Brianna's dad just had a hospital visit, and my good friend Sam has recently lost a grandpa and a cousin, so if you could keep these people in your prayers and thoughts, they will do the same for you in your dark times.

LOVE -K. Alexander