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

Under the Weather in the Underground.

Oh man, I am sick as a dog. I started getting sick a few days back and I have made it through many different versions of the same crud. I think I started getting sick around the time I made my last post. On the worst night we had plans to go to La Souteraine (the Underground) to see Kendra and stay with her in the school she lives in. I always had daydreamed about living in the schools I went to and here is my opportunity to fulfill those dreams, and I'm sick :( We still had fun running around the school at night. It's one of those things, if we just had more players it would have been some awesome hide and go seek or tag.

We still had a good time. We explored the city which is so medieval that all the streets are circles surrounding the center of the city, and they had big stone gate towers that let you in. We played pinochle one night which was a blast, and acted out a sock puppet play which was equally a blast. Gigi gave me corn rows, which I have a feeling was more fun for the girls than I would understand. (Man I should get Gigi to write this for me, she has a much better way with words than I.) One day they brought me to an old cemetery that was so cool! old mausoleums, plot gates, and memorial frames. Things like I have never seen in the states.

My luggage finally came, so at least I'm able to change my clothes. I had most of what I needed already, so now I just have more stuff. 

All right, the weekend is coming up, so Hopefully I get better, and stay out of trouble. 

I'm Here!!!

I went to see about a Girl.

It was quite the trip, but I'm here and I'm with my girl. 

About the flight, I missed one from Dublin to Paris which allowed me to grab a couple of pints at the airport bar. I had some good conversations with the bartender and a British couple. I didn't get to celebrate the new year on the plane because I wasn't very conscious at any point. It was just too much to stay awake. I made it to Paris and my girl in one piece but my luggage got lost somewhere, which turned out fine because I didn't have to lug it around at all through Paris, and it will just get sent to me in Gueret.

The bakeries are awesome! That's all I got to say about that. I had frog legs and rabbit my first night. It was mediocre. It was in the Latin quarter, which seems a little touristy, so that's probably why it wasn't great.

The apartment we stayed at was really cool. It was in an old building with a tiny elevator. We were on the sixth floor and could see all sorts of sights from the window, so no reason to leave , right? We had a great sun set the second night we were there. It was very romantic.

We had a bad day the day we left. Very rushed, and we couldn't get the money I sent over a few months ago, but we will be back to paris probably for the weekend coming up,  we will get it then. No worries, It's easy living right now.

So currently we are in Gueret at Gigi's apartment. We have walked around town a bit, and have been to the grocery store and bakery. We had a really nice dinner last night in a small restaurant on top of a hill. The streets are narrow and packed with old buildings, which is typical, I guess. I have only seen it in the movies, so I'm still in love with it. I have already entered my first abandoned building, walking home last night, and took a few pictures. I don't have my tripod yet, so things are gonna go down when that comes to me tomorrow.

Some of the regular stresses are getting to me about traveling. I'm having really irregular sleep right now, and Kendra, Gigi's good friend and  co-worker, missed her bus last night, so she slept over, and I only got a sliver of the bed, which isn't her fault, its both their fault.

So all in all its working pretty good so far. I've been having a blast and can't wait to get back out into this town tonight.

Thank you all so much for wishing me a safe journey, I really appreciate it, and it worked. All of the going away celebrations were a blast and we did it right, I might actually want to come back at some point. Thank you thank you thank you to My parents, my brother, my friends and families. Thank you.