Yummy in My Tummy

I haven't taken full advantage of the culinary treats that Paris has to offer (much to my friend Tim's dismay I am sure), but what I have consumed has been surrounded by good conversation, great people, and gorgeous scenery. This context has been far more delicious than eating alone in a fine restaurant, for sure.

Let us start with the alcohol . . .

Absinthe . . . This place was divey and creepy and a lot of fun. I think this is where Anthony Bourdain came when he did the Paris/Absinthe episode. Fortunately or unfortunately, the absinthe didn't have any crazy affect on Brandon or I, but we did enjoy trying 4 of the less-typical absinthes: Monmarte (Austria), Moulin Verte (Germany), Roquette 1797 (France?), & Brevans Hr Giger (Germany). My favorite was Monmarte. The process of making the drink is a lot of fun. They put the absinthe in the glass, then put a spoon w/ holes over the top of the glass and a sugar cube is placed on the spoon. Then water slowly drips over the sugar until the sugar is gone. You then taste the concoction and add some fresh water to it. It is an experience!

Wine . . . The wine is cheap cheap cheap and good good good!!! I brought wine with me almost everywhere. I drank wine in front of Notre Dame, the Opera, the Sacre Coeur, the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, etc. Some Heinekens made appearances as well.

Food . . . What they say about the baguettes being ridiculously good and cheap is true. Bread is everywhere and it is well worth the sugar intake. It is also a fabulous vehicle for delicious cheeses and meat pate-deal-ios; This sealed the deal for me.

For example, Brandon, Fabienne, & I had a massive picnic at a park near their apartment yesterday. Fois gras, 3 different types of meat pate-deal-ios (I really can't remember the names of these things), some wine, cheeses, figs, baguettes, some other weird thing I picked out with cheese and tomatoes in it, etc . . . The park was lovely and it was a warm, sunny day.

Another fabulous meal was made and eaten at Brandon & Fabienne's place for a nice dinner party with their friend Antoine. Brandon made duck w/ fig sauce and some potatoes cooked in duck fat. YUM!!

ESCARGOT!! Yummy-town for sure. The hardware is difficult to master, but the effort is worth it.

The 2nd best meal I had after Brandon's duck was the Sri Lankan place Brandon took me to: Dayaany (affectionately known as "Mama's"). I had "The Devil" I think it was called (lots of meat and spicyness), and Brandon had something called the "Coti Roti" or something. Sorry, I have a terrible memory and I don't take notes very often.

Yumminess was had, and all the stairs in Paris are doing their job of keeping this sugar-addled body from growing in size. Now if only I could get a big mug of black coffee somewhere . . .

Paris; Why I Won't Kiss You

 (Or, How to Improve Your French in Sessions of 20 Minutes or Less)

So I thought it was going to be ONE funny story . . . and then it started getting out of hand.

It is truly mind-blowing how hard I have to work to convince Parisian men that I won't kiss them. The persistence astounds me. My most logical arguments are no match for their egos (and/or their perceptions of american women?).

After some experience with French come-ons, I have found the common approach is as follows: 

• Tell an (American?) girl she is beautiful at least 3 times, preferably once every 5 minutes and perhaps adding several "tre"s in there will really butter her up.
• Try to pay for something/everything - if this is not possible in the circumstances, go to the next step.
• Remember: You don't have to show interest in anything but her looks. Just stare a lot and get your face as close as possible and keep repeating "tu est tres belle, tres jolie", maybe even throw in a "je t'aime" (I love you) or two to really up the ante.
• Then go in for the kill:
• (a) Ask/tell her to kiss you/express desire to kiss her or ***
• (b) Plain just go for it. ***
• ***If you are refused - (Quel concept!) Just ask "Why?" and no matter what she says, what BRILLIANT logic she comes up with, keep pushing ridiculousness upon her until she breaks or walks away or punches you in the face. She can't refuse your charm for long.

"Non" most definitely does not mean "No" to these guys. Well, it may mean "No", but "No" is never enough. Always the response: "Am I ugly?" . . . and I can't say yes because they are all attractive I guess, but not for me. Maybe that is the key! "YES. YES, YOU ARE UGLY!"

Needless to say . . . the next time I am told I need a real french kiss or that someone I met 2 minutes ago loves me I will cut the b****. Come to think of it, I do have a cute little knife on the end of my eiffel tower wine-key I bought in desperation my first day here. How fabulous a weapon for such a task - My cheesy tourist souveneir doing some damage on a cheesy come-on designed for tourists. I just hope to be wearing an american flag bikini with a bunch of freedom fries hanging out of my mouth at the same time.
 
Or I could just shove a cheeseburger in their mouth. To eat one without a knife and fork would be heresy and they would be so confused I could escape into the night with my sanity intact.

Or a plain "Je suis une lesbian" should do the trick.

Regardless, it should take far less than 20 minutes next time.

The Obligatory "What's In My Pack?" Post

In the world of long-term-travel blogging, there is always a "What's In My Pack?" post, so here's mine.

The typical backpacker or flashpacker will tell you to travel as light as possible, get the stuff together you think you will need and then cut it in half and bring twice the money, and be fully prepared to lose all of it via theft, accidents, carelessness, etc. As far as stuff goes, I think I walked an okay balance of bringing too little and too much but this IS my first RTW trip.

Here's hoping it's juuuuuuuuust right!

My bag weighs: 22.6lbs packed

The Backpack: I chose a very small backpack. It is supposedly carry-on size: 46L Osprey Porter.

The Day Bag: (What I would carry around with me during the day and with me on trains, planes, etc: A Swiss Army made camera/laptop messenger bag. It's quite secure and not easy to slice into.

WHAT I AM BRINGING:

Copies of important documents, my passport, a debit card, an amex credit, a visa credit, my driver's license, a fake "wallet", a few combination locks to lock my bag and hostel lockers up.

Clothes:

• 2 Long Sleeved shirts
• 2 Short Sleeved shirts
• 2 pair pants (quick dry, no wrinkle type material)
• 1 long skirt, 1 knee-length skirt
• 1 pair leggings (double as sleepwear)
• 1 cardigan (nice)
• 1 sweatshirt
• 4 tank-tops, 2 of which have the shelf bra
• 1 bra
• 2 pair sports socks, 1 pair long socks, 3 pair slip socks
• Beanie, Faux Leather Coat, skinny black jeans (all 3 to be sent back when/if I get to India/SE Asia)
• Cross Trainers & nice (but odd) looking "earth" walking shoes (the ones I was planning on wearing got holes in them at some point recently, which I only noticed on Sunday night when it was raining at the coast. I had to make a mad dash to the mall yesterday to find new ones)
  

Electronics:

• Used Netbook w/ cover
• 120GB Zune (mp3 player)
• Headphones (courtesy of woot.com)
• Kodak Playsport Camcorder/Camera (can go 10ft into water)
• Various SD/SDHC cards
• Canon Powershot 
• Plug Adaptor w/ USB port
• Card reader
• Wristwatch: cheapo water resistant digital w/ alarm

Toiletries:

• The usual bare minimum stuff plus:
• Travel towel
• extra TP, tampons, q-tips
• bare makeup, face & body lotion, extra hair thingies

First Aid & Wellness Kit:

• Ibuprofen, pamprin, prescription pain killers
• Water purification tablets, Oral rehydration salts
• Immodium, Exlax, Cipro - if Delhi Belly lasts too long
• Itch reliever for the bug bites
• (hardcore mosquito repellant to be picked up abroad)
• Neosporin, Adhesive Tape, Assorted bandaids including liquid bandaid
• Tweezers & Wet Wipes
• Hand Sanitizer
• Sunblock

Odds & Ends:

• Travel umbrella
  
• Sleep Kit: Eye mask & Earplugs & Silk sleeping bag liner
• Collapsible bowl & knife/fork/spoon set
• Journal, mini-notebook, & pens
• Mini sewing kit with several safety pins
• Over the door hanger
• Small drawstring bag (empty) for laundry or whatever
• Headlamp & mini flashlight
• Scissors
• ziplock baggies of varying sizes
• Inflatable Hangers
• A few packs of laundry detergent
• Compass

I think that's it!

It will be interesting to see what stuff I get rid of, find useless, really wish I had, and find extremely useful! I'll let you know as I go!

I believe the world revolves around me.

I believe the world revolves around me.

Before you get too excited about evil conceit and self-importance, let me explain what I mean . . . I am one who loves to learn and loves the process of discovering or attempting to hash out different ideas. I know that I can never fully step outside of myself and experience the world to gain complete objective truth (if there even is such a thing). I'm not even sure if that type of "truth" would appeal to me anyway, since the most interesting and meaningful truth I've ever known is experiencing and gaining access to the context of a person and the beauty of their inner-world.

In a huge way it is selfish; I gain so much from opening myself up to someone else who is also willing to do the same. The search for those kinds of connections has been my goal and orientation point since I was a teenager. Obviously, traveling (for who knows how long I end up being gone for) is not fully conducive to this type of goal; I'll make lots of short-term friendships if any. So why go traveling, then?

I picked up an additional goal/orientation along the road of life that is equally if not more important to me. In fact, in most ways it is the foundation for the previously mentioned orientation. That's where the development of my own inner-world, (or "lens" that we experience the world through), comes into play in my longtime dream of traveling and my decision to do it now.

Okay, so I'm a bit of an existentialist . . . I admit it. I guess it is kind of my religion - I've found more peace and happiness and felt more love for myself by taking a leap of faith into myself rather than a leap of faith into "another" determining how I should live and who I can become. I can only rely on myself to truly become my best self and hold me accountable. It is a freedom I could never describe. That is what I mean when I say "The question of god is irrelevant". One of my favorite poets is Hafiz, who writes the most amazing poetry of a god who is in everything. I like to leave some room in my heart for that possibility because it is a beautiful and assuring concept, but it truly does not matter for me whether a god is or is not. All I can know or be judged for is based purely on me and what I experience and what I do with this experience. It is scary and daring and may seem lonely to many, but for me it is the most respectable and rewarding.

In my judgment, the success of this way of living is directly related to:

• How hard I work to learn and experience as much and as varied as I can so as to build more facets or "truths" into my lens. 
• Being as honest with myself as I can; how diligently do I pay attention, process, and incorporate it back into my perspective? Am I living up to what I know? 
• Not being afraid of making a mistake. This one is hard for me to remember. I overanalyze and want to be perfect always. It is far better to make a mistake based on your own deliberation and choice than live a perfect life based in part or solely on someone else's judgment and direction.
• Realizing this is a never ending process . . . destroying and creating, destroying and creating. I will never get to a point where there is no room for improvement or additional perspective and knowledge. Like Nietzsche's Three Metamorphoses: Camel, Lion, Child. (Hence, the title of this blog. I will post a very basic explanation of this soon)

Traveling outside of my comfort zone; experiencing completely different cultures, environments, and people; imposing the challenges of the unknown and constant change . . . all of these things will bring me a wealth of opportunities to grow exponentially.

Now, I don't want to be disingenuous - I'm not coming from a high and mighty place here. I'm lost. I'm all over the place right now. I've experienced a lot of foundation-crushing in the past year that my head and heart need to work through - a failed engagement, the dramatic ups and downs of dating, and recently losing my job (without which I probably would not have the self-confidence and ability to handle wild change that long term travel requires).

I learned more about myself and gained more self-respect in 4 years of constant change and facing increasingly brutal challenges than I could ever fully explain. I love what "sink or swim" did for me in my time with my previous employer. I see this new journey as a self-imposed "sink or swim", and I hope more than anything that I come back with a richer world revolving around this marathon swimmer!