Epic French Musical is EPIC.

Ad for the show in a metro station.

Okay so background had already been covered. I'm a nerd and fell in love with this thing in 2004 and it's the entire reason for my trip to Paris. And the reason I broke out into a stupid grin whenever I saw an ad for it in a metro station or randomly thought about it while I was walking around yesterday. I swear to god yesterday was so long and I thought it would never be time for me to go. But I went. Early, in fact, because I had to pick up my ticket since they don't ship them internationally.

Bought a program because I'm a super nerd. :) And sat in my seat, 8 rows from the stage, slightly to the right side, and freaked out for the next 40 minutes. I was literally shaking the whole time and couldn't stop grinning like a fool. I mean, I was excited to see Les Mis in London. I was super excited to see RENT over the summer with two of the original cast members. There are no words to express how excited I was about seeing this show. It was a teeny bit weird because it's the first one I've gone to alone, but holy god did I enjoy it.

The one thing that threw me off was that they'd tweaked the show a little to update it and such. Nothing major, and I knew they'd added a few songs, but they'd changed some of them slightly or moved them around a little so I, being the obsessed fool that I am got confused because I know all of the songs and all of the dialogue and would be like "omg that's not right!" It was still really good though.

Romeo and Tybalt were the same guys as in the original. I feel like there was someone else too? One of the more minor characters? Never mind, there can't be. I'm just crazy, don't mind me.

I died a little inside when my favorite songs came on. Just sitting there and being like "Oh hey, I'm experiencing this LIVE!" was incredible. Absolutely incredible.

One of the best parts was after the show. I went and hung out at the stage door (with a bunch of French people) and watched all the actors and dancers come out. And the principal cast? They were all super nice! I got autographs from like, 8 of them I think? Romeo, Benvolio, Mercutio, Tybalt, the Prince, Frère Laurent, Juliette... I feel like there was someone else but I can't remember right now. Oh well. And I got my picture taken with the first four. EEEEEE. I know, I'm a huge nerd but whatever. I look super awkward in the photos but whatever haha. I wound up like, thrusting my camera at the nearest person each time and being like "Hey take my picture k? K." But everyone else had friends there taking their pictures so I did what I had to do. =P I kept wondering if it was okay though. Like if it was real. But they were all so nice and were like "Yeah sure pictures are cool!" And I waited til someone else had done it first each time just to make sure. It was weird because when we got autographs after RENT, everyone just lined up and held out their programs, and each of the cast members came out with their own sharpies in hand, went down the line mechanically, and peaced out. And there weren't even a lot of people there. Here there were significantly fewer people, sure, but there were no security people watching us, and the cast just came out, said hi to everyone, talked to everyone (like actual conversations, not just "oh hey"), took photos with people, joked with people, stayed until they'd signed whatever everyone wanted.

You can't really see the autographs in the photo. Wish I'd had one of my nifty silver sharpies.

Romeo

Benvolio

Tybalt

Mercutio

It was really awesome. Really. Really. Awesome. The entire experience was just surreal and crazy and I loved it. I love my life. =D

I will probably update this post later, or make a new post entirely, about the new version vs the old version, just because I'm that much of a loser. But I bought the stupid really expensive CD set, so the first few times I listen to it I'm sure the differences will bother me and I'll want to talk about them all anyway. =D I know only one person will care (if that), but I'm gonna do it anyway, so there. Nyeh. =P

Gargoyles, Museums, and Dead People, Oh My!

Took this guy with me. Siggy the Frog is my Chapter's mascot. I definitely got looked at funny for wandering around taking pictures of a stuffed frog, but it was fun.

Ignore the lameness of the title. Kthx.

So Friday. Left the hostel around 10 to go do fun touristy things. I finally, finally went up Notre Dame. Except I failed a little. The very, very top (as in all the way up one of the towers) is closed between 11:30 and 2:30 for security reasons. My guess is glare from the sun? But yeah. You go up one tower and across, and then you can go to the very top of the other tower. This fact eluded me, so by the time I realized you could go up the other tower it was 11:28 and they weren't letting anyone else up. Whoops. I could have gone back later (and paid another 5 euro to go up again), but the guard there said it was the same view, just that you could see all around because, dur, it's all the way at the top. So I decided against it. There's nothing super distinctive about the Paris skyline except that monstrosity of a skyscraper. I got up the cathedral and saw one of the bells and that's okay with me. Considering that's the one thing I hadn't been able to do the last two times I was here, I think I'm okay with never coming back to Paris again unless someone wants to pay me/pay for me to do so. (Or unless the other musical I like decides to come back again, but that's a longshot.)

Hey, it worked twice so far, right?

After the cathedral itself, I went to the crypt underneath. I had always thought a crypt was a place for dead people, which this wasn't. But I just looked it up on dictionary.com and found "a subterranean chamber or vault, esp. one beneath the main floor of a church, used as a burial place, a location for secret meetings, etc." You learn something new every day. Anyway, the crypt was just like, "oh hey look at this old stuff that used to be in this spot." Because every new generation of Paris was built on the older ones. So there're remains of Roman houses and baths or something, and of a road that used to run from the cathedral until someone decided to widen it, and there are stairs and walls of houses that used to be there. It was pretty cool. I knew France had Roman and other ancient-people things in it back in the day, but I guess somehow I never thought of Paris as being that old? Or something like that. Turns out there was an ancient city called Lutece. Cool beans. You can't really see any of it anymore obviously. Cool just the same.

From there I walked down the river to the Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute). The only reason I went was that we were supposed to have an Arabic test on Friday (which we wasn't scheduled for that day when I bought my tickets) and when I told my prof I'd be missing it he was like "Okay so go to this place and go talk to people and give us a presentation on it." And then on Wednesday he changed the date again. Awesome. The place was pretty cool but it was basically just the museum, a bookstore, and a reading room/library thing. None of the employees there were of Arab background so there was no one for me to talk to or anything. I don't know if he'd been there before or was just assuming that I could talk to people there. So I have nothing to talk about on Monday. This is going to be fun.

From there I wandered. Got quasi-lost, in that I didn't know where I was but I really didn't care. Stopped and got a kebab for lunch. Oh god, I'd missed those. Listened to people speaking Arabic, but I couldn't make out a whole lot and I have no idea what dialect it was. Partly because I was listening to all the conversations at once and because the radio was up loud. At least I recognized it as Arabic though. Whee. Wandered more. Picked a direction and walked. Because I am that awesome. Found a metro station.

And went to the catacombs. Spooooky. The stupid building wasn't marked though, so I stood on the corner looking around for a minute or two. Had been eyeing this one building thinking that had to be it. Then an old French man came up and asked if I was lost. I said not really, just looking for the catacombs. When he pointed at the building I'd been thinking about, I was like "Of course!" And he laughed and went away. Yay for cute old French men. He was probably just wondering why I was chewing on my sunglasses. So yeah. Catacombs. Woooo.

Tunnel to get to the catacombs. Two guys walking behind me were humming the Indiana Jones theme.

Not gonna lie, I was a little creeped out. And by a little I mean... pretty creeped out initially. They're all made up of skulls and tibias, it looked like. I couldn't see any other bones. I was confused. I don't have too many quality photos though, because you can't use your flash down there and obviously it was pretty dark. It smelled funny too. Gee, I wonder why. I also had the wrong idea about them though. I'd somehow been under the impression that like, someone had one day gone underground and was like "OMGWTFBBQ there are bodies down here!" But no. They just moved all the people out of various cemeteries. Less epic story, but it was still pretty cool. Though if I stood and looked at one section long enough (like more than a few seconds) I would get creeped out and have to move on. There were all kinds of inscriptions down there. Most were in French, but some were in Latin and I was really bummed when I couldn't read them. Sad face. They were all about death and whatever though. (Duh. As opposed to what, sunshine and rainbows and unicorns?) When I left the catacombs I was a ways a way from where I started, so I played the "let's wander til we find something" game. And I wound up finding my way back where I'd started. I win.

Came back to hostel. Got food. Changed and peaced out to go see Roméo et Juliette!! That will get its own post because I am that much of a nerd. For srs.

Peek-churs

BREAKING NEWS

I'm not coming home for the summer. =D I just got an email telling me that I got a Critical Language Scholarship!! I don't know where I'll be yet, but I'm going. I still need to take a placement test before they decide the location. I want to say chances are I'll wind up in Morocco because of my experience there already, but we'll find out later.

This is definitely the best weekend of my life. Oh my god. I don't really use the email address I applied with, but checked it on a whim today even though I didn't expect them to send the email on a Saturday. So glad I did. So glad.

I'm going to do a happy dance now. Maybe.

Happy Birthday to Me~

I'm currently finishing enjoying the most expensive birthday present ever. One which I've given myself. I'm in Paris! Whee!

Junior year of high school my French teacher made us listen to a CD of a musical version of Romeo and Juliet that she'd bought. Most people were less than enthused, but I, being the nerd that I am, fell in love with it. To the point that I downloaded all of the music, copied the DVDs that my teacher had of it, and then translated the entire thing for my best friend so someone could watch/enjoy it with me. (I learned a lot of new vocabulary that way. Super nerd!) Fast forward six years: while playing around on YouTube when I was in France last spring, I discovered a new song from the show. Why? Because they'd updated it as it was almost ten years old. And I also discovered that it was going to be back in Paris this spring for the 10th anniversary. Fast forward again to like three weeks ago: I'm killing time in the computer lab between classes and on a whim I check the website for it. I have no idea what made me think of it, but I'm so glad I did. Oh hey, it's playing in Paris from 2 Feb to 4 April. Bam, I'm there.

I left Ifrane on Wednesday right after my class got out at noon. Spent the night in the Madrid airport. Flew out late that afternoon and got to Paris Thursday night. Spent yesterday wandering around, saw the show last night, spent today wandering a bit, and am peacing out early tomorrow morning. (But not getting back to Ifrane til like 8pm because discount airlines' schedules are made of epic fail.)

This has definitely been one of the most epic weekends ever. I swear I've been in a good mood since my plane landed. I don't think I've stopped smiling. This is the first time I've really traveled anywhere by myself and I LOVE it. And I think I really needed to get out of Morocco. Or at least away from AUI. It's hard to get away from there for an extended period of time because it's up in the middle of nowhere and there's a curfew and whatnot. And yeah, so I skipped two days of classes. Whatever. (I would have come over the long weekend but I thought I would be in Marrakech so I decided against it. Oh well.)

This has really been an awesome, awesome time though. I don't know why, but I feel at home here. I could never live in Paris because I don't really like it that much, but I feel totally comfortable here and nothing has bothered me at all. Sure it helps that I speak the language, but even still. I have been totally fine wandering aimlessly, jumping on and off the metro, and just doing whatever. Logic probably says I should be uncomfortable wandering around in a gigantic city like this by myself with no one I know in the country, let alone the city, but I'm totally okay with it. It' so awesome. I'm going to stop now because otherwise I'll just keep repeating myself. Posts to come later about my wanderings and about the epicness that was Roméo et Juliette. (SO EPIC.) Photos will be added once I get back to Morocco. God I'm such a nerd.

Birthday Shenanigans

Wooo. Birthday number two in a foreign country. Last weekend happened to be a 4-day weekend. I was supposed to go to Marrakech with Laura but that didn't work out, so I stayed on campus. Again. But it was okay. I got a lot of homework done. Not only caught up on homework, but got ahead. This was important for reasons to come later. =D

So on Friday of the long weekend, I went horseback riding with Lily! The horses are a lot smaller than the horses in the States. They didn't smell so funny either. I approved. My horse did not approve though. It didn't want to do anything at all. It would run like 50 feet when the guy riding with us yelled at it and whacked it, but then it would stop. It didn't respond to anything I said or did, and when I tried whacking it with a stick they guy had given me, it hit me back with its tail. Lame sauce. But it was okay, because I am totally not a horse riding person. Like, it was fun and all but I probably won't go back. Ah well.



On my actual birthday, Lily had a small party at her apartment. One of our other study abroad friends who was here last semester had his birthday that day too. We just hung out and made sad attempts at improvising Pictionary and charades. And sadly, even though the actual holiday was Saturday, no one was selling alcohol on Sunday. :( I'd have been much more annoyed if it had been my 21st birthday though. It was fantastic though; all weekend the weather had been gorgeous after like 16 days of rain and wind and COLD. Thursday-Saturday were sunny. Sunday, however, did not live up to its name. It was absolutely miserable. Rain, wind, cold, sad faces all around. When we went to get dinner I was freezing because my jeans and hoodie had gotten soaked four hours earlier when I walked to Lily's (taxis are never around when I want one) and hadn't fully dried. But I survived. Woo.



More info in the next post. >)

Horsies!

NOM NOM NOM

So today I went to Fes with Lily. For the express purpose of getting a camel burger, finally. And we did.

And it was delicious.

We got smoothies with fresh fruit, and the burgers came with steak fries and salads, which included fresh, crunchy veggies. I almost died. They were so good. We wandered around the medina a little bit, went back to Lily's apartment and watched a little TV, and now I'm here trying to convince myself I want to do homework. But I don't. >>

Photos!

Ew. School.

This is my campus. This is what I walked to class in on the first day of school. It SNOWED. In AFRICA. Huzzah. The weather was nice for one or two days of orientation, and has been cold since. For most of the first week it snowed and/or rained off and on. The snow hasn't really stuck though, which is sad. It's been cold but not so bad since.

Classes so far don't seem so bad. My colloquial Arabic (aka Darija) started this past Tuesday, the week after classes started. Scheduling fail for the win. I'm not really a fan of having another 8am MWF, but the professor is funny so it makes up for it a little bit. I skipped a semester of Arabic and am taking Intermediate I now. It's not so bad, but I have more studying to do to catch up. My other classes are just kinda meh. Interesting in theory but so far not what I was expecting. But considering we've only had 2 weeks so far, there's time to improve. They didn't waste any time in assigning homework though. Have I mentioned I hate reading?

To procrastinate on this reading, I've been watching TV. =P I've become oddly obsessed with Glee and rewatched the 13 episodes at least twice each, some more than that. I've also been catching up on NCIS and The Big Bang Theory, and I've been watching The Mentalist in French. I couldn't find it in English, and I've not been doing anything to keep up my French so hay. Killed two birds with one stone and all that.