3 posts tagged “giverny”

I was going to write this post last night, after a nice dinner with my cousins. Instead, I let Anna convince me to go to a club with her and some of her students, which turned out to be a very bad idea. I had mildly twisted my ankle in the evening, but didn't think it was a big deal. After two hours of standing and dancing, I was in pain and had to take a cab home. I woke up this morning, having slept with it propped up on a pillow all night, and realized that I'm fucked. I leave in under 20 hours for Croatia, and I can barely walk. I tried calling the two osteopaths I know here, but neither is answering their phone since it's a national holiday. Fuck fuck fuck. I also have no way to ice it, since my freezer is completely frosted over and I can't fit my ice tray in. I tried scraping off some freezer burn into a plastic baggy but it melts too quickly. Fuck.

Assuming that I'll be able to pack and get myself to the airport AND to my hostel, I'll probably spend the first two days in Dubrovnik recovering from all the strain. And I wanted to go hiking! and climbing over rocks on the beaches! and nude snorkeling! Fuck.

In other, less depressing, news, I have learned to knit. I was going to take a picture of my creation and post it, but it's all the way over there and I can't stand. So just trust me, Lee Ann is a very good teacher. So far I've only learned how to cast on and the knit stitch, but purl is coming and then I will be a knitting machine. Pics TK.

Last week's Parisist goodbye party was a big success, despite the unbelievably bad service at the bar. My favorite line, after we'd waited about 45 minutes to order more drinks, was when the waitress said, "What I don't understand is why you didn't order everything at once." Um. It's a second round. We ordered some drinks, and we finished them, and now we want more. So French.

Here's Michael giving me his sexy face, while Meg giggles at her incredibly long list of dirty French words:

And Anna and Rion, both with bizarrely wide-open mouths: Anna's parents were visiting this weekend, and the four of us went to Giverny on Friday. Yes, I've already been there, but I thought it would be nice to see the gardens 7 months later. The flowers were all completely different, obviously, and it was beautiful, but way too crowded. I would definitely recommend going back in September or October, since it's lovely and nowhere near as crowded. Here's Giverny in April:
Allen left Paris yesterday, so Sunday night Anna, Allen, Daniel and I went out for a last fling together, for cheap Indian food. And then yesterday was my last day teaching at school. I had only two classes, and one of those was a party. Leaving school was a bit anticlimactic, since none of the teachers I work with were around and no one really said goodbye. I just turned in my keys, cleaned out my cubby, and left. Meh.

I took a picture of the entrance:

And here are my two favorite classes, TES2 and 1ES2:
There's a few kids that I would definitely like to stay in touch with: Lea and Cecile, Clemence and Justine, Leslie and Elie, Marion and Esther, etc. I gave them all my email address, and some of them are going to be in New York this summer, so I really hope I hear from them.

Assuming I can leave tomorrow, which I think I will (it's just pain, right?), I'll be spending the next 11 days on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. Beaches, seafood, hiking, and lots of lolling. I love lolling.

So it turns out I wasn't able to upload photos because I was using an ancient version of Firefox. My bad!
Here, then, are some pictures from last week's trip to Giverny:

I recently read a book by an American woman who moved to Europe for a year. On the train to Giverny, she met her soulmate. So of course I had incredibly romantic ideas about my day. While I didn't meet the love of my life, I did have a great time. I haven't had a day to just relax in ages. Before getting to Paris I was crazy with all the packing and moving, and since I've arrived there have been nothing but running around, so it was really nice to wander around Monet's gardens.

The train to Vernon takes about 45 minutes. There was an extremely elegant French woman quietly picking her nose across the aisle from me, which kept me entertained. I shared a cab to Giverny with three large Texan women, who were hilarious. Once at Monet's house I took dozens of pictures of flowers. Even at the end of September they're beautiful! I know, I know, I have to post them. Soon!

It was pretty cool to see the Japanese bridge in person. Once inside Monet's house, the highlights were watching the security guard chase a black cat up and down the stairs, and the French high school girls primping in front of every mirror. I continued on to the Museum of American Art down the block, which had a boring exhibit on Homer and a cool exhibit on American art from 1860 to 1930. The weather could not have been better: blue skies, a bit of a breeze, and maybe 80 degrees.

I strolled down to the church where Monet is buried and left a pebble on his grave (a Jewish tradition). I unfortunately could not avoid laughing when I noticed that the company who made some of the gravemarkers posted their website and phone number on the marble! Do you think there was a price reduction for the advertising space?

Back up the hill to get a glass of Normandie cider overlooking the hills, reading and writing post cards. You all know how I love my cider! I think this stuff spoiled me for Woodchuck.

I caught a ride back to the train station with a waiter who works at the museum restaurant, and passed out on the train. All in all, it was a very good day.