Think Big

Above: Joel and Tash looking conspiratory

JK thinks big when it comes to gift giving. He thinks big a lot of other times too, but I'd say this feature of his personality is really highlighted around holidays such as birthdays and Christmas. You may recall the thoughtful the handcrafted ampersand as an example. Well, this year for my birthday he FLEW MY FRIEND NATASHA HERE FROM SEATTLE TO SPEND THE WEEKEND WITH ME. It was the best conspiracy I have ever benefitted from. He sent us off to spend the day together with his polaroid camera. I PROMISE to scan them in so you can see them. Just not tonight.

Beth and Tash on their way to Capital EX



Beth making out with a corn. And twirling his silk in her fingers.

Ha ha.

London: The Last Europe Installment

• First meal in London: theme song from Notting Hill plays in the empty pub.
• Sushi and Starbucks on Shaftsbury Avenue
• Letterpress extravaganza at Covent Garden
• Fish and chips and disgusting gravy. Also, room temperature beer
• British Museum of Natural History Gift Shop: Should I buy a miniature bust of Charles Darwin?
• Awww, Joel loves little birds
• Flashback to Paris: thirsty pigeon falls into the pond
• Hunting for peacocks in Holland Park. We find the most boring peacock of all time
• pints of cider over ice at the Churchill Arms. No celebrities spotted.
• Hey, remember that trip to Europe when Bethany ate meat salad twice?
• Jamie Oliver's restaurant: when the appetizer comes on a cutting board you know it's going to be good
• Tate Modern: big table and chairs make me feel like a little kid
• Millenium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral
• 20 pence for a toilet. Don't tell Kaeli!
• Camden Market feels just like Whyte Ave
• Coffee at Flat White in Soho
• Harrods London - I mistook it for Buckingham Palace
• Krispy Kreme donuts in Harrods? Weird. But tasty.
• Cruising on the double decker night bus
• Three o'clock in the morning at the bus stop Joel discovers the yogurt has spilled all over his cameras.
• It's not white. It's oat.
• 4:15 a.m.: 30-something man walks past in a plaid suit and orange dress shirt...is it Elton?
• Soundtrack of 4:30 a.m.: "Sugarlumps" for JK, "Ain't no Sunshine" for BB
• Apparently other people are awake at 4:30. Who knew?
• Joel drinks 5-hour energy followed by a latte. All before 4:30 a.m.
• Free breakfast on Eurostar first class trains
• Joel loves butter
• Joel: "I am the world's best traveller! Oh wait a minute...where are my boarding passes?" Bethany: "Over there on the floor of the airport".

Status Updates from Europe continued

The Paris Installment

• Spotted in Paris: man with shoulder bag containing dog with pink highlights in its fur
• Falafel in the Jewish quarter involves big beards, black hats, and tasty tasty-ness
• Oo! Oo! Look at the dancer on the stairs! She's dancing!
• Dancing, singing French man sells umbrellas and other delights
• Coffee in France is not as good as coffee in Edmonton. Consolation = finding the archetypal donut in a "Beignet de creme"
• At the Pere Lachaise cemetery we see a concerned locfal proceting Oscar Wilde's tombstone from getting any more kisses from tourists with red lipstick
• The super sleuths find free toilets at Starbucks in Paris
• Role reversal as Joel navigates the appalingly large department store like an old pro and Bethany freaks out because it's too overwhelming
• Collette: wealthy hipsters of the world unite!
• Lawn chairs for all at the gardens of tuileries palace
• Free bathrooms at McDonalds
• My Paris shopping consists of one pillowcase
• Meet me at the Eiffel Tower. Wear white. All white. And bring your friends.
• Man dangles cherries over his ears and yells en francais from behind his fruit stand at the Paris market.
• Man dances with a goldfish bowl on his head
• National day of music in France is more like cover bands playing "Proud Mary" all over the city. We heard it three times!

The Mont-St-Michel Installment

• Not enough seats on the train ride to Mont St Michel. I stand for an hour
• Settling nicely into tourist mode, we contemplate purchasing a likeness of the abbey that is made of chocolate
• Train ride home from the Mont takes 3 hours. We pass the time by turning up the iPOD volume to MAX and putting the earbuds in Joel's nose to test the vibrations

An interlude in the status updates

This is a video that we recorded in Annecy, France. We love Kerry!

The Journey to Annecy, France

• How to spot fellow Eurail pass travellers: Beer and bananas at 9 a.m.
• Thought we didn't need a reservation for the train. Oops, that'll be 30 extra Euros.
• Annecy's got hills like Huemoz, Switz.
• "In France, the train rides you!" - Joel Kelly after an exceedingly unpleasant experience at the train station.
• After train ticket nightmare, I buy a leather jacket on impulse.
• Maxi pain au chocolat is bigger than my head.
• Hot hot hot weather by Lake Annecy.
• Swimming in the lake. Not all French beaches are nude.
• Remember how bad that baking-soda-water was? Bleh. Never buy mineralized water in Europe. Ever.
• Death by fondue. Cheese babies are a whole new breed of food babies.
• Paddle boating on the lake results in sunburns all around.
  

Note: the central photo features Joel beginning to digest his cheese baby.

The Germany Installment

• German man on train doesn’t realize Mel speaks fluent German and pontificates to the rest of the people in the train car that we are “American Scientists” and “Obama-sisters”, whatever that means.
• It’s fun to push the button on the bread dispenser at the discount market. Fresh pretzels!
• Walking on a Roman road in Cologne.
• Funf beers please! Joel’s pronunciation of five is misinterpreted as fifteen
• The lotus effect was discovered here.
• Beethoven's place of origin is in Bonn. No photos allowed so we purchase a miniature bust.
  
• Germany smells so good at night.
• 12 different kinds of schnitzel!
• Kaffe and Kuchen in Bonn!
• It's raining in Cologne. We take refuge under a Starbucks patio umbrella.
• Going 170 km/h on the autobahn. Nearly get cut off by a slow-moving van.

Status updates are the new way to journal

After being on hiatus from journaling since early 2006, I have discovered a new way to journal. I was a committed journaller through university, but hadn’t been able to sustain it in the past few years. Sometimes I was fine with that, but other times I really missed having the record of my thoughts and activities.

Before I left for my trip, my mom gave me a little journal peppered with Oscar Wilde quotes, so I packed it and thought I’d try to use it. I find Oscar Wilde’s quotes pretty amusing, and his grave is in the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, so it seemed fitting.

Without meaning to, I started filling the little journal with one-line snapshots of what was happening, and decided that this was a manageable way to capture a few of the noteworthy events of my trip. So, I decided that to share my trip, I would blog some of the ‘status updates’ that I wrote along the way.

I’m starting with my arrival in Paris and trip to Strasbourg to meet up with Joel at the Chemistry conference and will continue on with the other parts of the trip in subsequent posts.

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Was serenaded by French accordion players on the train ride in to Paris.

Ran into trouble – no train reservations are available for Strasbourg and I’ll be four hours late meeting Joel but have no way to get ahold of him to let him know!

Old nun on the train laughs at me when I fumble with my suitcase.

Nun proceeds to pull a rectangular prism wrapped meticulously in foil out of her purse and shake it thoroughly. After several minutes, she opens it carefully and drinks the tetra pack full of chocolate milk that was inside the foil. Strange.

Within the hour, said nun pulls a water bottle wrapped in foil out of her purse and does the same thing. Doubly strange.

Walking to the hotel and run into Joel on the street! He was coming to find me. Fancy meeting you here.

Hey, remember that time we followed a trail of rice on the street and got a free macaron at the end of it?

Man in straw hat feeds us slices of Munster cheese off his knife at the Saturday market in Strasbourg.

Marie Antoinette slept here.

Our answer to the question what does royalty do?: make babies and colossal mistakes.