Jour 32-33 American Diner Hangover and the Catacombs

Friday was dreadful.

First off, I didnt go to bed until 8:30 a.m. as I had previously told you. Secondly, when I was awoken only 3 hours later by Libby and Jordan, they wanted to go get food at their favorite place in the entire world... an american diner in france. Typical. I was feeling like shit, but I was hungry, so I opted to go.

Not a good idea because when you have a lack of sleep and are hung over, the last thing you should do is walk about town and eat greasy food. I ordered a cheeseburger which was ok. If in the states, i would of much rather had a REAL cheeseburger from Steak N Shake or something. It just didnt hit the spot, and I thought I was going to vomit the entire time. After, we went back home and Libby and I passed out from 3 to 7. We didnt do much of anything Friday night. I could not go out, nor could anyone else for that matter so we went to the grocery store, ate dinner, and screwed around all night on our computers.

Saturday. Jordan, Libby, and I decided to wake up really early in the morning to go visit the Catacombs which are only a metro stop above us. I've been wanting to do this because it sounds so cool. The Catacombs are an underground network of tunnels dating from the 1700s where millions of bones are located. They are from cemeteries all over France that were dug up and put down there because of problems with the land and coffins/graves rising from the ground. Thus, they put the bones all down there and created a massive cemetery out of it. Also, there are bones of the deceased from the French Revolution. It's definitely a must-see.

We got there at 10 a.m. and cruised along the long tunnel ways. You definitely cannot be taller than 6 ft because the ceiling of the passage ways are not tall. After descending 180-something stairs below ground and walking through long passage ways, we get to the entrance of the bones. There are walls of bones built with femurs, tibias, fibias, skulls, etc. Name a bone and it was there. Creepy, but neat because they made like artistic motifs with the bones. Jordan, Libby and I didnt take it seriously though, and at times picked up bones and played with them. There were times i'd pick up a femur and pretend to beat jordan with it, or take the head of a skull and place it on mine. Weird, no way! We had sanitary gel with us anyway. We were there for about an hour and a half and then left to do some vintage shopping.

We went to the Hotel de Ville area and hit up 3 vintage stores. I ended up finding nothing, and this is because all of the stores have clothes thrown around the room everywhere. Its impossible to find anything! We were over it quickly and just headed back to the FEU in time to get ready for the Cirque d'Hiver.

In our program, API bought all the students tickets to the famous Cirque d'Hiver. It is a year-round circus act that is very famous in Paris. It's much like Barnum and Bailey. We got there late of course, but the layout of the building resembles that of a circus tent. The building is circular with 3 floors for people to sit. In the middle is a massive ring where the performers act. To the side is a band stand where dancers will perform and they will play random 90s tunes. There was every act you could think of: contorsionists, trapeze artists, gypsies, llamas, lions, goats, horses, dancers, etc. All acts typical of a circus. I really liked it. It was a amazing what people can do with their bodies! There were these two girls that were ripped and one girl could balance the other on her head and walking up a ladder! Some crazy shit! Of course, we got cotton candy while we were there. We had to fit the part!

After 2 hours, we all went home and didn't do anything. We were really exhausted from our long day and just wanted to hung out. Paris can be very tiring on the body! There's just too much to do!