Day 2: I don't feel like being funny today.

le 9 mai 2008 (vendredi)

Today was a total blast (with only one set back). First the bad news: my camera apparently doesn’t charge through the USB cable, so I have to set about finding a battery recharger somewhere in the city. Hopefully I can find one. As for the good news, I found internet and was able to turn in my essay today as well as touch base with home. You don’t know how much you rely on the internet until you don’t have it, but it’s a crutch I’m definitely willing to have if I can talk to my family and friends through it.

We explored a lot of the old city today. It was absolutely beautiful. The old cathedral is amazing. I can’t describe how ridiculously intricate the façade is – there are at least 1000 figures portraying the stories of the saints. We paid €2,30 to climb up to the top of the cathedral and look out at the city. It was totally worth it. The city is amazingly beautiful. Anyone who visits France and wants to see a mixture of both cosmopolitan and old world HAS to come here. There was so much amazing stained glass in there that I didn’t know what to do except gawk. Some woman who was apparently mute came to get me to sign up and give money, but again the whole “Je suis un étudiant, et je n’ai pas d’argent.” (I’m a student, and I don’t have any money.) worked. The astronomical clock was so cool. Most people don’t know this about me, but I am a huge fan of Medieval and pre-Industrial Revolution technology. I really think the idea of a machine totally reliant on mechanical movements is amazing. They had a picture of N. Copernicus on the clock, which made me laugh a little. They also had the zodiac on it, which confused me a little. The clock itself pointed at the part of the world that the sun was rising and where it was setting as well as the name of the saint for the day.

After marveling at the cathedral for about an hour or two, we walked down a pedestrian mall that was very small and old-world feeling. We got gelato that was ridiculously good (I got “orange sanguine et cactus” – blood orange and cactus). When he said it was “deux euros soixante” to my friends, I said, “That’s two sixty,” and he said, “That’s right!” He seemed to be really impressed that I could have a conversation with him in French, and his English was not bad at all. Situations like that make me just stand more firmly on my soapbox that bilingualism is not stressed enough in the United States and that the usual American is way too lazy for his own good (after all, if a European can learn 3+ languages, why can’t we learn at least 2?). We took lots of silly pictures in Place Gutenberg (for those of you who don’t know, the first printing press, made by Gutenberg, was found here in Strasbourg).

We walked down a street full of expensive shops and took in the new European fashions. What seems to be very popular are two different styles: BoBo and Asiatic. BoBo (“Bohemian Bourgeois”) basically means that you’re rich, but you choose to dress like some sort of hippie – very cool style in my opinion, but sometimes a little too 70s. Asiatic is to the extreme. Picture the neon lights of Hong Kong, Tokyo, and any other modern Asian city put together, and then change that into clothing. It’s absolutely amazing. I think the only way you can pull it off though is if you wear the large pink geisha wig that comes with the outfit.

We also ate at this great Italian pizza place (like real Italian pizza). I had Reine Blanche (white queen), which had mushrooms, dried bacon, and some sort of mild cheese. It was really good like all the other food here. I can’t figure out if I’m going to lose weight or not while I’m here. I’m eating really good food but a whole lot less of it. It’s rather confusing to keep count of Calories when they have them posted in kilojoules.

Tomorrow, we’re heading off to the farmer’s market in the morning, and then we’re going to explore “Petite France” (small France), an area of town that most resembles “old-world” France. Also, we ran into Elaine yesterday, so we’re probably going to sample some wine at a local “winstub” (a small, Alsatian restaurant that serves local wines). À bientôt! (See you soon!)