VICTORY!

Yayyyyyy OBAMA! We are all so excited for Obama's win, I had a good time celebrating with the french, but wish I could have been back in the states for such an amazing win, I still can't really believe it. I feel like I can finally state with pride that I'm American, although now I don't know what all the random french people will ask me now that the election is over-Obama vs. McCain was always our main topic :). Gotta go to class now, but will post soon about my election night, hooray!


...And back. So election night was difficult as usual, as Paris is want to be. Kristin and I started out at Porte Maillot around midnight for an Obama party, where we ran into our friends Maura and Lucy. It was huge, so many people standing in this gigantic line; we waited around for like an hour and a half before anything happened, and then chaos pretty much broke loose. Everyone was trying to get in, and it got scary crowded and out of control. They also announced that if you hadn't RSVP'd there was no way you were getting in, so as Kristin and I hadn't we headed out, with Maura and Lucy throwing in the towel as well. As we walked away, we ran into a big group of our Sweet Briar friends, so we decided to all go to a place by the Louvre that was supposedly having an all-night party. We took our friend the night bus, which took forever, and finally arrived, only to realise that the bar had to close at 2 (apparently the police hadn't given them permission to stay open allnight or something). Now we were all pretty frustrated, as it was cold and we were basically nowhere close to any bars, plus everything was closed. Fortunately Kristin had a newspaper page with some info about places to go on the election, so we headed out in what turned out to be the wrong direction. We realized this a good 15-minute walk into it, changing plans and heading on a long walk to a place in the 3rd arrondissement. We finally arrived, by now at like 3 in the morning, and entered the main building/mayor's building of the arrondissement, where there was a big screen set up and a bunch of people crowded into a room watching the election coverage. We shouldered our way in to get a view, and i ended up mostly standing there for two hours just watching Barack pull in the votes. It was really cool, everyone there was so excited for Obama, and there was such a mix of people. Lots of Africans, actually, but also a lot of random French people with a few Americans mixed in. It was pretty great, each time Obama won a state everyone would cheer, so much emotion and excitement. At 5 they closed, giving us all a donught on the way out. At this point we had to wait for the metro, which doesn't open until 530, so we walked around a bit, of course it was drizzling, and found a metro station. We finally caught the metro home at around 6, after an unsuccessful search for public bathrooms, so i got home at round 630, still a bit wired from the red bull i drank to keep myself going. I got home and turned on the tv to catch the latest election updates, and got to see Obama and Biden celebrating with their families on stage, so cool. So yes, that was my election night, tiring but wonderful.
Other than that I've just been studying and stuff for school, and mostly sleeping to make up for the all-nighter that was my election night. Last night, however, Xavier gave me a call, and I ended up meeting him at Montparnasse for a drink after dinner. It was actually really fun, we went to a cool bar and got some delicious German beer, and one of his friends joined us, haha (apparently the friend invited himself, and Xavier couldn't say no). His friend was actually really nice and cute, and it was fun talking with the two of them in a combination of french and english, they've known each other for a long time and we had some pretty hilarious, and interesting, conversations. After the bar, it was too late to see a movie (Xavier's original plan), so we decided to walk around awhile before I had to catch the metro. It was a nice night, a bit rainy but still nice, and Xavier told me a bit about the area and showed me a cute little park, his friend trailing along on his bike. We walked around until a little after midnight, and then Xavier walked me to the metro and sent me on my way, as he apparently lived close by and could just walk home. It was a really nice night, it was nice to get to know him better, he seems like a really cool and interesting guy, and hopefully I will see him again soon :). So yes, there you go, romantic adventures in Paris, juicy stuff, haha. Now I have to go do some work before a consultation with one of the Sweet Briar professors who helps with Literature papers. Then i'm going to see David Sedaris with a couple of friends, yay, i'm very excited. Alrighty then, hope all is well with everyone, love you lots,
Brit