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