Shells and Bones

Marseille was not as cool as Nice (they'd be upset with me for saying that because apparently the two cities have a rivalry. When we mentioned Carnival to our tour guide she basically implied that Marseille had invented Carnival and Nice had no business celebrating it at all). It was a little dirtier and there wasn't Carnival, so it was already facing a huge loss. Unless Brad Pitt had been there trying to adopt oprhans off the street, it really had no chance.

It was still fun though. A bunch of us went to the Chateau d'If- which is where the Count of Monte Cristo takes place (yay literary reference!)- and took sad-looking pictures in the prison rooms. I also bought the book and started reading it IN the prison, because I thought it would be cool to say "yeah, i read the Count of Monte Cristo in the actual prison where it takes place. Be jealous." Everyone I was with decided to talk in British accents for some strange reason unknown to me, and I'm pretty sure we annoyed all the British tourists on the island with us. Well, they did. I stopped whenever there were people around us. The youth of America: offending one country at a time.

We got to consume some pretty wonderful seafood. I had mussels and fries, which taste better together than you might think. They give you this excessively large plate with what looks like a billion mussels, but they end up being so small that put together they're more like the size of a hamburger patty. It's magical.

We came back Saturday night, and I went to the Catacombes (basically this huge grave with 6 million dead bodies... again, it's the romantic in me) with Giovanni on Sunday. At least, we tried to get into the Catacombes. We stood in line for an hour, but when we were five people away, the guard closed the line and said, "No more people." Giovanni, being the law student that he is, tried to convince the guy that we should be let in. He gave convincing arguments like "We're only in Paris for this one weekend, and who knows when we'll be back? We came from very far away. This was the one thing we wanted to see in Paris."

I applaud his lying ability, but it didn't work and he walked away saying, "I should have tried to bribe him." And this from the guy who wants to be a judge. I know Italy is corrupt, but he might do well in Chicago.

We ended up going to a movie. I think that's the first time I've been to an actual movie theater in France. We saw Milk, so it was in English with subtitles. Thank God, or I would have annoyed Giovanni by forcing him to translate most of the movie. As it was, he ended up asking me about a few words (they swear a lot). I got to learn several new French words through the subtitles that I should probably not post here, but will do me well in the bars.

We then went for a walk (Molly claims this is all we ever do, but why wouldn't you walk through Paris?!), to Notre Dame and along the Seine, which is very beautiful at night. I took a few pictures, so you can all stalk them down on facebook whenever I get around to putting them up.

Now, I'm off to do homework. I have a test this week that I desperately need to study for (I know, I'm ending a sentence on a preposition, which you're never supposed to do. please forgive me). I also have to give a 15-20 minute speech in French on something. Those were the instructions, just "something." I have no idea what I'm going to talk about. The last woman talked about Mexican cuisine and gave us tortillas and tequila. How am I supposed to top that? What alcoholic beverages can I offer the world?! If you have any ideas, please tell me.