Since my last post much has taken place. Jared came and visited for a week and at about the same time I had my busiest stretch of school work. Jared was fortunate enough to come during a week where the weather defied all predictions and stayed extraordinarily sunny and nice. We did a lot of walking and hit most of the highlights of town.

The very next weekend after Jared left, I ended up doing some spur of the moment travelling. Katherine was going to visit Paris, but due to some ticket mix-ups I ended up visiting London and then Oxford from Friday to early early Tuesday morning.

London was impressive. We both immediately liked it and I enjoyed the prolific English, although it seemed to be even more of an international city than Paris. Everywhere we went people were speaking all sorts of languages. I heard at least French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic. There were also some I could not even identify. The Arab presence in London must be big, because in certain parts of town almost every store had Arabic on its sign.

The sites were exciting to see and not too difficult to get to. We walked down Oxford St., the famous shopping area, where I actually bought some new nikes so the shoes I was wearing wouldn’t fall apart. I had tried to buy shoes in Paris but was unable to find my size in very many shoes. London posed a similar problem, but conversing in English made it easier to find which ones they did have in my size. Europeans must still have smaller feet than Americans.

I think my new favorite site is the Parliament House on the Thames river right in the heart of London. It’s next to Big Ben and you can walk across a bridge nearby to get a great view. The other wowing site was St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was expensive to go inside so we didn’t, but experiencing the massive architecture from the outside was plenty.

After watching the famous Cambridge vs. Oxford boat race on the Thames Saturday afternoon we headed back to Oxford. The boat race was fairly exciting, but it’s a lot of waiting to watch two boats go by for less than 30 seconds. When they went past us Oxford was ahead, but Cambridge ended up winning.

I flew out to London but took a bus back. The bus left Oxford at 4:45 in the morning and arrived at Paris at 4:30 in the afternoon. All in all it was a ridiculously long day of travelling, but not awful besides the lack of sleep. We crossed the channel through the tunnel on a train, but the bus just drove onto the train so we didn’t even have to move. The train was really weird. It didn’t feel like we were moving at all when the loudspeaker announced that we were going 170km/hr or something. I arrived back just in time for my Tuesday class (Monday was a holiday for Easter).

I will be going back to London in mid-May, which I look forward to as there were many sites left unseen.

Here is a collection of photos from the trip…

London with Katherine

Today’s post is a big shoutout to my new favorite baby, Anna Caroline Henley. For the record, it has been absolutely gorgeous in Paris the last few days. Correlation? Causation? Either one is a good sign. Now I’ll admit I’m unclear on what my relation to her is called exactly, but whatever it is I’m definitely proud to be a new one.

One thing I do have to point out though. I won’t invade her privacy this early in life by posting her photo, but since those of you reading this blog probably received the same picture I did I can talk about it anyways. I direct you to the picture of her laying down with the white cap. Now look at this…

Uncanny resemblance if you ask me. No doubt this bodes well for her future.

Congratulations to Drew and Diane and all the others who I’m sure experienced bundles of joy upon her entry into this world. I had to pause and reflect for a second upon first seeing her. Miss Anna has started a whole new generation, which is no small feat. Drew and Diane definitely looked the part of parents. Jason definitely looked the part of Jason, except holding a baby. Overall the photos were excellent and hopefully prepared her for a long Patton life of getting her picture taken constantly, an excellent way to welcome her to the family. I look forward to returning to see her, and of course everyone else, in June.

Last Sunday I did something I didn’t exactly expect to find in Paris, go to a gigantic horse track to watch some races. I even placed a couple bets and walked away with a grand profit of a whopping 2 euros, not too shabby. I forgot to bring my camera, but suffice it to say it was a cool visual experience. The stands hold 40,000 people. The only problem was the weather, which was cold and windy. Standing outside to watch the race was exciting but physically numbing at the same time. The horse that won for me was Sans Histoire, which just means “Without History.” I bet solely on the name that time. The next time I was foolish enough to look at the horse’s past record and learned that it’s best to just bet by the coolest name. Others took pictures so hopefully I can get some and post them.

As a literary side note I have been traveling back to the South by way of Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree, a winding portrayal of Knoxville with no discernible plot about someone who has decided to become a fisherman on the river. The book features all varieties of low-lifes and delinquents with hilarious dialog and signature McCarthy style writing. McCarthy also wrote The Road, which made Oprah’s vaunted book club and was recently made into a movie I have not seen, but I did read the book. It was a stark and excellent piece of writing, but Suttree has an entirely different (non?)purpose and pleases on many other levels. As a fair warning, the language and actions are exactly what you would imagine for a bunch of beer and whiskey drinking guys hanging out at bars doing relatively little in life by the river.

Sometime soon I may post some pros and cons of living in Paris compared to living in Atlanta, and also on the things that a native Atlantan might come to wish for in this city across the pond.

I’m going to post some pictures to the Google web album program Picasa as well as on the site. This link should take you there.

Park and Play

This week we have our winter break, and it’s been nice to relax and also get some work done for school. I finally beat the French bureaucracy and got my ATM card. I also visited the cemetery where Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison, and what seems like millions of other people are buried. It’s crowded in there.

Don’t want anyone to think I’m not getting enough to eat. Yes, that’s all for me.

The group taking pictures

Oscar Wilde

This wasn’t even the half of it

Well this morning it is both my birthday and quite nasty outside. In order to bring better weather I’ll post a shot from the hallway I took yesterday.

It rained/stormed on and off today, but in a period of calm Taylor and I decided to wander to a supposed nearby green area in search of rejuvenation. I’m happy to say that there is what could loosely be called a park very close by. The sun was behind the clouds and the scene was certainly not picturesque, but there is a river that winds past and a bunch of trees. It was a nice change of pace from the urban landscape.

Park

This scene should be familiar to Atlantans

Some things remain the same.

Went to the Carnival here in Paris on Sunday. It was essentially a parade with lots of drums and dancers and made for a pretty fun time. Before that I went with Florian to a spot overlooking Paris and got a pretty cool picture.

It’s been a pretty busy week for me. Paris has gotten significantly colder as well. I don’t have much to add, but I thought I’d post yet another picture looking out my window. Could be a series.