The Best Day Ever!

Most of you probably have no idea who Auguste Rodin was. That's okay, I don't really expect it. He was a sculptor at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. He also happens to be my favorite sculptor. On either side are pictures of two of his most famous works. The one on the left is called la Porte de l'Enfer (The Gates of Hell) and it was never actually finished. Nevertheless, it is one of my absolute favorite sculptures (and that includes classics like the Venus de Milo). My roommate, Callie, and I are standing in front of it. The second is more easily recognizable. He is called Le Penseur (the Thinker). For those of you who have seen Grumpier Old Men, you may recall that Ann-Margaret has Jack Lemmon pose like this for her. She is imitating Rodin. Why do I tell you all of this? Well, it all adds to the best day that I've spent here.
Friday morning, it was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining and it wasn't too cold. Callie and I decided to go to the Musee Rodin. We took the metro there and went inside. The building was nothing special. We went out into the garden and were immediately transported into some sort paradise. Both of the sculptures above can be found in the garden along with many others. We wandered the garden for probably an hour and a half. It's not too big so that was a long time. We had some lunch at the cafe. I had the best hot chocolate of my life there! The food was excellent and the view was spectacular. We could see both the Eiffel Tower and the Hotel des Invalides from our table. After that we decided to go inside the museum itself and see the other statues. I took a long time with this. It was a sort of heaven for me because I love Rodin's work. Plus they had some statues by Camille Claudel. She was Rodin's lover and student. She was also his muse for many years. After he left her, she went crazy and spent most of the rest of her life in a mental facility. This is a sad, dark story, but it adds to the beauty of the sculptures themselves. I was very excited to see them. When I took a picture of the sculpture, I wrote down the name in French and English and then I wrote down the date it was sculpted. You can definitely see patterns. Okay, enough of my nerdiness. We were inside for about another hour and a half. Then we went back outside and decided to imitate the statues. That was a blast and simply hilarious.
About halfway through our imitation series, our friend Sarah called wanting to meet up. We met up with her and did a little bit of shopping. I found the perfect trench coat and so I bought it. It was on sale and classic. I was very happy about this. We stopped at a cafe and had some coffee. After that we had some dinner. We wanted to try to take a boat cruise on the Seine so we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower and walked down by the river. After seeing that we would have to wait a very long time to catch a boat, we decided to just hang out by the Tower a little. After about a half hour, our friend Sean called and asked if we wanted to go to an Irish Pub to watch the presidential debate. We were up for it. The debate didn't start until 3 am but we got to the pub at 1 am. It was mostly just nerdy American students there. It was really fun. We waited around for two hours, just talking to other students and having a drink. I hung out with my friend Joel, who showed up at about 1:30. There was a piano player playing old time music, a lot of ragtime. Then it was time for the debate to start. They opened up another room and we squeezed into the space. I was smashed between Joel and Sean, while Callie and Sarah got lost in the crowd. I saw them across the room and there was no way that they were getting over to us so they just stayed where they were. The debate itself was interesting but full of politics. I didn't like how neither candidate answered the questions. They both just danced around the issue. I gotta say though, my favorite line of the debate was when Obama said "You know, I have a bracelet too, John." That was just funny. I know he was making a point but I really want this to be known as the Great Bracelet Debate of 2008. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to hear what the candidates have to say, although nothing was really accomplished. What was more interesting was the reactions from the crowd. As you can imagine, most of them were Democrats. We weren't allowed to be loud and cheer because it people in the neighborhood would get upset. So we waited until after the debate to discuss.
The debate got over at about 4:30 am. The metro didn't open until about 5:30 am. So, the bar owner made us some chicken and homemade bread and we just hung out. I met up with the girls and they were talking to one of the Irish bartenders about Irish drinking songs. He was very funny. He said, "Irish drinking songs don't exist. We don't like to waste time singing. We would prefer to just get on with the drinking." It was fun. Then he gave us all a cup of coffee for free. It was very nice. Around 5:30, Sean came over and we bid farewell to our new Irish friend (complete with a kiss on each cheek for the girls - as is the custom - and a handshake for Sean). We took the metro to the Charles Degaulle Etoile stop. Callie accompanied Sarah home because she had a little too much to drink and Sean walked me a couple blocks back to the apartment, because it's not a good idea to walk alone when it's dark. Plus Sean's just a gentleman like that. By the time I got up to my room, it was 6:30 am and of course, the market downstairs was just opening up. There was so much pounding and rattling, but I didn't care. I was too tired to care. I plopped down on my bed and slept after being up for 20 hours.