At Least Half my Evening was Cool (1-22-11)

1-23-11 (RM, France; Paris, France)

Where to even begin? Yesterday was incredibly long and filled with many ups and downs. First off, David, Valerie, Anna, Nick, and I went to the Pompidou modern art museum in Paris. Most of the exhibit was boring and repetitive crap on canvas, but they had a few good pieces which I found worthy to be in a museum. Usually students are given a free ticket to enter the main exhibit but I guess my age disqualified me from getting the discount. I grudgingly had to shell out 12 euro. Nick commented that, being a modern art museum, there were going to be plenty of giant vaginas and breasts on canvas. Funny because it's true.

After the museum we walked over to a cathedral that was right in the area. I'm not even sure which one it was, but the architecture was beautiful and for some reason I just felt like we should go inside and check it out. As luck would have it, a free concert was about to commence inside. Two pianists were going to perform various pieces by Brahms and Schubert. Our group stayed for a few songs as well as an organ performance. It was definitely a treat.

Following our encounter with the divine, the group decided to get smaller and more rowdy. Nick, Anna, and myself went to our friend Mattieu's apartment in Paris to have drinks, eat pizza, and mingle with friends. The night turned into an impromptu karaoke event when Anna asked me, in a oh-so convincing way by batting her eyes and smiling at me, to sing her a song. I chose the classic, Piano Man, as my first live performance piece. I also had a request from Aleksandra to sing Moon River to her.

Due to the size of Mattieu's flat, it was actually really fun to try and cram as many of our friends into his place as possible. Later in the evening, Mattieu insisted that we all leave and go to a club party located on a boat parked along the Siene. This decision later proved to be, well, mixed.

As many of you probably already know, I hate clubs. Hate 'em. At least being with my group of friends made it more pleasurable than it otherwise would have been and there wasn't a cover charge for IFP students that night. Things went down like they usually do in clubs, drinks got made and were overpriced, people danced, some people tried to dance, etc. Damn it all though when everyone wanted to leave and wouldn't wait for me to get my coat at the coat check. For no particular reason, it took maybe a good 20-30 minutes to get my coat when there were only 6-8 people in front of me in line. Only Ben and Dounia remained outside to wait for me. Thank goodness they did, kind of. The next hour or so was spent walking from the club to another district in Paris trying to find a taxi that would actually take us to Rueil. French taxi drivers apparently hate making money by driving slightly outside Paris. Dounia was finally able to convince one driver to take us all back to Rueil.