last night in Paris

I'm home!

My last few days in France. Eventful.

Yeterday's couchsurfers picnic was moved indoors by the rain in Paris. My hosts (Jeff and his Canadian girlfriend Shannon) and I hit the only open grocery store in Paris - to their knowledge - for supplies for dinner and headed over to meet the Paris peops. I had sent a blanket email to the Paris group asking for a place to stay, as I hadn't planned ahead very well, (perhaps wishing to stay in denial of leaving France for as long as possible) and many of the people at the party recognized me and said hello. It was another event that confirmed my belief in couchsurfers as being some of the best people in the world. There were people there from Paris, of course, Brazil, New Zealand, Germany... and all very friendly, and so interesting. There was a guy from Brazil who was a lawyer there, and had decided to move to Paris to do some kind of work in law and homlessness issues. A phD student in some kind of physics (yeah, in French it's harder to grasp the science words. The evening's drink of choice was the Monaco (beer mixed with lemonade and grenadine) The crowd was boisterous and clearly in for good conversation. If only I could have recorded them. I suppose it makes sense that the people who would open their homes to strangers and stay with the same when they travel would be nice, but it is hard to describe the breadth of their adventures, and the depth of what is shared in this organization. What love one has for the person who offers up a bed at the last minute on a rainy last day in Paris.
The bar closed early, as everything does in Pairs on a Sunday, if they're open at all, so the CSers parted reluctantly. I am sure that the majority of the group went to another location to continue festivities, but it was dinnertime and I was cooking for my hosts and a few people we recruited from the party. Diamana, a Parisian girl who still has family in Mali; Andrew, an American living in Paris, by way of Portland, formerly from Ohio, and Robin, a girl from New Jersey about to start a bicycle ride through France to bring attention to the ongoing strife in Sudan. The tiny Parisian kitchen was pretty cosy with several of us washing, chopping and cooking. We ended up making a lovely Moroccan-type dinner. The discussion was a little challenging. Everyone in attendance had strong opinions, mostly in agreement with one another, but nonetheless the discussion turned more than once into a heated debate over semantics. For instance, Shannon gets offended when Americans call the U.S. "America" because it implies that Canada - and Central and South Americas - are not in the Americas. I get the argument, but the conversation on that topic lasted way longer than was interesting to me. All in all it was a great time. A fantastic end to two months in this beautiful country.

Side note: I have ignored a mosquito for the last time. I went to bed last night knowing there was one in the room, and I woke with my left eye swollen from bites this morning. It was too early to find a regular pharmacy, and I had a plane to catch. I left Jeff's house at 7 and caught the trains to CDG. I checked my baggage, and with 40 minutes to my plane's departure time, I ran downstairs, through an underground parking lot, up stairs to the other terminal and to the pharmacy there, just to find that they didn't have Benadryl. So I have spent the remainder of the day on the plane with this bulb of swollen flesh on my face. People have been kind. I keep wondering what they think. Does it look like a black eye that hasn't bruised yet? It's a little humbling. Which is a good thing. I think too much about how I appear to others, even though I would like not to, and I hate admitting it, even to myself.
The above was written on the plane home. I have more to reflect upon and write, but I leave for Burningman today (Wednesday). More when I return....