TICKETS PLEASE

Just a couple of measly weeks left..
I dont know what happened to the concept of it being warmer the more south you go, but somebody in the administration upstairs screwed it up, because it's been 10-20 degrees and raining the past month.
Great weather for visits. Salli and Ami were over for the weekend, and we took advantage of the dry spell which lasted a couple of hours on saturday and had sparkly in the Jardin de Luxembourg. Sunday we were tragically cought in by the rain in a cafe at Montmartre, drinking red wine.





On Sunday, Sissi came to stay at my place for a couple of days. We went to the Orangerie and Musée d'Orsay. The Orangerie is a museum with two large oval rooms, where Monet has painted four wallsized water lilly paintings in each.



Sissi asked me if she could travel without a ticket in Paris. I said yeah, that i hardly ever saw officials checking tickets, and that it was easy to bypass the gates if there were two of us. And they wear uniforms, so in any case, we could turn back. Well, little did I, or Sissi, know that it was the 'pirate'- campaign for checking tickets. A civilian dressed guy was watching the gates! how unfair is that towards honest cheating citizens.. Well, Sissi tried explaining that she didnt speak english, didnt have her ID and didnt have money. But when they called the police and explained the fee would be doubled when the police came, she caved in.

MUSEUM NON-VISIT

Saturday night all the museums were free, and they were open until midnight or one.
I had been hearing a lot of good stuff about the musée quai branly, an anthropological museum which features large collections of exotic art. Well, so had other people.
At arriving, i at once reprimended myself for my stupidity. The museums in Paris are free every first sunday of the month, so i knew already. I knew that it was better to pay than to try to get in free. The security guards estimated that you had to stand in line for about two hours.
Well, i entered through a cafe and found a smaller (note: not small) line. After waiting for half an hour, i was close to the entrance. It was around nine thirty. this is when the security guards came and told us that they weren't letting anybody else in.
Well, the people were not pleased, having waited for a long time with their kids, having been promised all museums would be open until late. Somebody put forward a rumor that they were closing earlier because there were too many people inside. In any case, the french would have none of it. They gathered around the security guards and started booing and clapping hands. The security guards tried to explain, but the people started pushing them. It was like an uprising. against museum security. Finally, they had to force the door to be able to close it. That's the most action I've seen at a museum, like, ever.
'Maybe these frenchies are good for something', i thought to myself.

BACK UP

So, i sent my computer to be repaired - to Antibes.
I also read the warranty conditions: 'the warranty does not cover improper use of the computer'. i wonder if dropping it off the bed falls under that category..
I also asked how much it would cost me, if the warranty doesnt cover the repair, to replace the screen. 600e plus the work - 'you might as well buy yourself a new computer'. So its pretty much all or nothing (stakes being at a 1000e) now, just wait and see.
Also, it is standard procedure for them to format your harddrive (empty it), for client confidentiality. OF COURSE i dont have backups. byebye all the pictures from Paris. I guess this has to happen to you once before you start taking backup CD's.

One month left!
Seems so little. I should get myself together and start touring Paris while i still have time. Unfortunately i think I'll pass most of my time studying since the final exams are coming up.
tonight all the museums are free, so i have a good excuse for some cultural intake.
Back to the books. I am writing on the demobilization process of the AUC in Colombia.
Ciao!

LAST TRIP

I spent the last week in Corrèzze, which is 500km south of Paris.
We were 30 people altogether, going to a countryside house.
Well, turns out the cabin was more like a mansion; it had beds for thirty people, and was three stories high. It was surrounded by green pastures and forests, adjacent to a small town (called st exupery if i remember correctly).
Alices family (the girl from my school who had invited us all) had recently bought an old jeep, with which we went around the countryside. We even went swimming to a lake.
Cooking for thirty people was like cooking in the army. i made nakit ja muussit, which was a big hit.
We had a great time, and laughed our bellies sore.
On the downside, while playing hide and seek, somebody tripped on the wire of my laptop, which fell off the bed, which busted the screen. Somehow i have a feeling my warranty doesnt cover falling off the bed.

Have a nice weekend.

AMSTERDAM

Well, it was time for the three wise men to get together.
By wise i mean to be sarcastic, by three i mean Allan, Niki II, and me (being, by birth, chronologically the first of Nikis), and by together i mean Amsterdam.






That city is as charming everytime. It manages to combine the calm village look, with its low, small, picturesque and so bizzarre houses, and the buzz of a big city 'where it's all at'. If you don't mind the stoned american tourists, the junkies, pushers, and whores. It has to be one of the few cities where men in suits ride bikes. Riding a bike is so cool.

So, if anyone noticed, the month changed too - that is the time when finnish have this tiny, low-key party called vappu. Well, the Dutch had their equivalent. It was called Queen's Day. It was very much like vappu actually, just with more orange, really tall people. And even though the Dutch have a lot going on for them (boys, the girls are soooooo pretty. and too tall for me), music taste is not one of them. I thought we buried techno in the hellhole that were the 90's. Well, i guess nobody told the Dutch, cause they were all crowded around the hundreds of DJ's in the city playing the same crap, in a complete frenzy.

But the best part was definitely seeing my buddies, and i have to hand it to, and thank, our host Allan for a great time and the effort he put in (with a little bit less stress this time, but with the same old heavy preference for planning. Allans way.) We ate horribly unhealthy and delicious stuff - i now know all the kebab places in Allan's neighbourhood.

So much for the fenzy of Amsterdam, now i am going to the countryside, 500 kilometers south of France with - get this - FRENCH PEOPLE. if you don't get the joke - it's cause french people are a rare species for foreigners here.

P.S. Just came back from boxing. I SO got my ass kicked again. its SO irritating. i guess missing half the classes and being bad at sports will do that to you.

P.S.2. sorry for anybody who tried to call me during vappu, my french phone didnt work there.