Let the Excitement Commence!

Until Friday, nothing truly exciting had happened to me in Paris. I guess writing about a lack of excitement stirred the powers that be into doing something about it. And believe me, they did.

Part 1: The Segway Tourists

Walking out of the Grenelle building, I made my way back home for a bite before the evening’s festivities when I saw another group of everyone’s favorite visitors: the Segway Tourists. What made this encounter expecially amazing was the combination of their form (one wobbly little line weaving down the street like ducks) and the song I was listening to at the time (“El Azteca” by Man Man) which created the illusion of some classic Hollywood black-and-white car chase. It was probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPOEWyUHNO8

(^ This is a link to the song "El Azteca" in case anyone is interested. I'm to technologically challenged to figure out embeds.)

Part 2: The Dead Man

At a little past midnight, we left my friends flat for the closest metro station, on our way to the Back to School Party. Parked outside the metro station was a van that resembled a normal delivery van in every way except one: it had the word “funèbres,” meaning funeral services. What makes the story a little bit worse is that the stretcher and empty body bag the coroners were pulling out of the back of the van were then carried into the same metro station where we intended to catch the train. We went down the stairs of the metro, hoping that the future occupant of the body bag was in a part of the station we would not be entering any time soon. Not so much. The stretcher was poised just at the bottom of the stairs at the entrance, the body bag opened up to receive whatever unfortunate soul was down there. We tried to pass by, but were stopped by the half-dozen police officers standing around. There was no way we were going to wait around to see the body (even if it would have been morbidly interesting), so we left, walking about six blocks to the closest station.

Part 3: Uzo

The Back to School party was held in a club in a Japanese restaurant called Uzo located in the lower levels of the Paris Aquarium. When we arrived outside the aquarium, there was a huge line of students from the school and other nighthawks ready to party. We finally got into the club, but had a much harder time navigating through all the people. (If there had been a legal capacity to this club, we would have exceeded it tenfold.) My friends and I made our way to the bar to redeem our free drink coupons given out by the school – or rather, by the student government association (SGA), which is pretty much the same thing.

The rest of the time at the club was spent dancing with new people, getting back to the bar with much difficulty, and trying to deal with the increasing heat level of the room.

At five o’clock, the party was supposed to end, and by that time, we were tired of the sweaty masses and loud music, so we decided to leave. Even this proved to be a difficulty. Two rather drunk guys started a fight about something, and were dragged out onto the street by the bouncers who, after the fight began to escalate, called the police. The fight broke up before the police came, but they came nonetheless, carting away at least one person too drunk to walk.

Needless to say, when I got back to my apartment at six on Saturday morning, all I wanted to do was sleep. Too much play and not enough work makes Jack (or Jane) a tired boy (or girl).