We arrived on Thursday the 29th after leaving on an 11 am Eurostar from King’s Cross. Got in at 2 pm after a very pleasant train ride – Loveline is the best traveling companion. For the first night we were staying in a hostel on Rue D’Alsace. We asked a man for directions from Gare du Nord as we couldn’t find it on our maps. He told us it was way down in the 6th, by Saint Germain. This turned out to be false, we found out, after a very long walk with our heavy messenger bags. We saw lots of beautiful stuff on the way, but we saw that Rue D’Alsace had been right around the corner from where we started.

The hostels have been perfectly nice, I was surprised. Get a lot for what you pay for here. The Metro has also been a revelation. Very cheap and makes it very easy to get around.

So Day 1, the 29th: Dave has never been to Paris, but he’s an excellent travel companion. Good natured, easy to please, and appreciative of what he’s seeing. We saw Notre Dame, Tour St. Jacques and the St. Michel area as we walked around. We ate dinner at the Cafe Bonaparte in St. Germain. Dave ordered a Croque Monsieur and his reaction was loudly audible – he loves them! He has eaten three or four now, by my count. That night we also walked around the Louvre and Tuileries before heading back to the hostel.

Yesterday, the 30th, we woke up and switched hostels. While we waited to check in (after another long walk which could have easily been avoided, this time by metro), we ate a good lunch and got some pastries. We sat and watched a guy practicing bocci by himself – it was scary how accurate he was.

We took the tube to the Eiffel Tower and actually waited in line for the hour-plus to get on the elevator and took it all the way up to the top. Annalisa and Dad and I had gone to the second floor before, and I don’t think Dad would’ve been happy on the way up to the 3rd floor. I had trouble with it, but once we got up there it was really beautiful. The floor up there is metal plates, which sometimes without warning dip when you step on them – very disconcerting, although it was harmless. We got lots of good photos.

Afterwards, we tried to get into Napoleon’s Tomb at Les Invalides, but it was closed. Still, the oustide was nice, and the weather was gorgeous all day. About 80 degrees and sunny. We then tubed over to the Luxembourg Gardens, and watched six guys play bocci at a very high level. They also clearly knew each other well and were laughing and joking as they played.

We had dinner at a place called La Fontaine by St. Michel. Our waiter was very energetic and presented everything with a flourish. He complimented my French, as well. The steak and ice cream I had were both delicious. We headed down to the Pont Des Arts with some wine to enjoy the Friday night party out there, and to walk along the Seine and the Ile De La Cite. Very crowded, but it was fun. One French kid played Hit The Road Jack on his guitar and sang it, and I don’t think he quite understood the words…

I am now writing this from the Internet Cafe on Rue Git-le-Coeur, which my family will know. Breakfasted at Le Clou, and then headed over to Cluny. It was free as we were students, and yes, Mom. I got the rabbits. I was joking with the cashier in French about how my mother insisted I buy them, and she commented that Mom has a “passion” for rabbits. I explained, “Just THESE rabbits.” (They were on sale too, I’m just not sure how I’ll fit them in my bag).

The museum was very nice. Not sure why I threw such a tantrum about it when I was 8 or 9. Next was the Conciergerie, which was sadly a bit disappointing. Smaller areas than I remembered and the displays were kind of in disarray. Some things were missing that I remembered as well. Oh well, the main hall was still cool and it didn’t take long.

We also then made it into the Crypte of Notre Dame, and then inside Notre Dame, where I ran into a friend from Emory and there was a big choir singing. I’m going to insist Dave try Escargots tonight. He seems hesitant, but open to the suggestion.

I also had a long conversation last night in French with a security guard from Monoprix. He was from Africa and was very interested in America, and seemed to love the idea of it, and wanted me to give him authentic slang phrases in English. I tried my best. He complimented my French, and asked me which was better – Paris or New York. I said sometimes one, sometimes the other. He was stunned. He kept saying how New York had nicer buildings, and I agreed that they were indeed bigger, but not always nicer. Then I told him perhaps Chicago has nicer buildings than both. Really a difficult question. Who was better – Ted Williams or Lou Gehrig? I’d be happy with either one.

Off to Belgium tomorrow!

Tanner arrived early in the morning on the 26th, and left early in the morning on the 28th. In between, he told me a lot of stories about his semester in Africa, and showed me pictures and videos he took while down there. Highlights included photos of the summit of Kilimanjaro, a video of a scorpion stinging the lens of his camera, and about 6 lions falling asleep up against their jeep.

He was pretty worn out, understandably, and so we spent a lot of time just catching up and watching The Simpsons. Dave did join us as we headed down to the Tower Bridge area and looked around. We also met a friend of his from high school who is studying at Oxford and had a great dinner and an hour or so at a pub.

Today Dave and I checked out the Tower of London. The first time I’d been it was about Sophomore year of high school and I went with my family. It was some absurd heat wave and I remember squabbling and overwhelming heat.

Today was a little gray, but otherwise very pleasant. The White Tower has now been opened to the public, and serves as an armory. The revelation here was that James I had been given a suit of samurai armor by the shogun of Japan around 1610. This seems so unbelievable to me, and I got very excited about it. The trees were covered in new leaves, ivy covered the walls, and the whole experience was wonderful – except for maybe the entire school of French children who seemed willfully and hatefully unaware of their surroundings.

They have added a monument for notable people executed at the tower, and a big display of the crown jewels. There was a diamond there that was about the size of an apple embedded in a scepter. Huge cases of just enormous solid gold objects, clearly made “because we can”.

We also saw a little staged combat performance which was a bit silly, but fun. I’m glad they do those things.

Tomorrow I am off to Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam and will return late on June 4th. Then I have a day to run last minute errands, pack, and say good-bye to London as I return to the states on the 6th.

Annalisa has sent me the first third/half of the trip in bulleted event form, and did so several days ago. The delays are on my end as I have just finished my sixth paper of the semester, and I’m about to start in on the seventh. Both are due tomorrow. How’s that for time management?

To give a little taste of what will be coming, here’s a small thing that happened to me and me alone while I was in Paris.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The rest of the family was returning to the hotel for a few hours before dinner, but I still had some energy, so I decided to go for a walk with the promise of meeting them again at St. Germain. My goal was to see how close I could get to the Eiffel Tower by walking along the Seine in the hour and a half or so that I had. There were enormous amounts of people sunbathing down by the banks of the river, and I made sure to walk along the actual bank for as long as I could.

I got very close to the tower before I decided I would have to turn back. On the way back I saw an Asian man with very large, bulging eyes and a shaved head walking along the road in the opposite direction on a very crowded street. I glanced at him and looked away, not wanting to stare. For the next five minutes until he was out of sight, he kept staring at me over his shoulder. I kept looking back in disbelief, assuming he would have stopped, but it was like some horror movie where a character reveals they an swivel their neck 360 degrees.

There are some weird people out there.

I arrived back in London this past Sunday after traveling on the continent with my family for about 18 days. Fortunately, all three other Schaefers besides myself documented much of the trip, and I will be able to use their bullet lists to reconstruct the interesting elements of the trip for any readers that haven’t vacated these premises forever.

I picked up a paper from a professor today, and I was very pleased with the results. He was asking me what I thought of the History department, and I was glad to honestly tell him that I enjoyed my History courses here quite a bit. Then he was stunned to hear that I found UCL under-computerized. He said he remembered when he first started working here 11 years ago and essays were hand-written.

I will soon start posting from the beginning of the trip and work through it. It all seems a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I’m glad to be back, and even more happy that it’s sunny and beautiful here, and even MORE glad that summer is on the horizon.

My family arrived in London early this morning.

For background, before I turned nine my family took our first trip to Europe. It was such a resounding success that we spent 2-3 weeks in Europe every year for the next 5 years, and six in total. So, for me to be in Europe the past 3 months without them has seemed strange. Sightseeing doesn’t quite seem to count without their presence and commentary. It was very refreshing to have their enthusiasm here again.

I met them at their hotel near Gloucester Road, which is in Kensington, a very posh area of London. I gave them the presents I had picked up for them in Denmark and Dublin, and then we headed out to a patisserie for lunch. Next we took the tube over to Leicester Square and walked down through Trafalgar Square, and down around Parliament and Westminster Abbey. On the way back we hit up two different pubs, one for a drink, and the next for dinner.

The conversation as always leaned towards the artistic, and whenever my Dad and I could sneak a moment, the White Sox. A wholly satisfying evening, and we have two and a half more days in London before we fly out to Rome. Very exciting.

I’ve spent most of the past week reading and dealing with various obligations. Today’s project has been to get my signatures and information on lease and rental agreements sent back to the states. Unfortunately UCL’s printing network has been down for about three weeks, and internet cafés that I’ve checked don’t have scanners. One of them said it did on the sign, but the employee informed me that the sign was false.

I’ve also spent a good deal of time listening to the archives of Loveline, the old radio show with Adam Carolla and Dr. Drew. Adam’s ability to come up with analogies and witty phrasings is really staggering. I’m envious of his off-the-cuff wit, and it’s really a pleasure to listen to.

My family arrives in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I believe. I’ve been looking forward to their arrival ever since I arrived on January 2nd. Dan will also be in Rome and Florence around the same time we will.

I may be most excited to see Lausanne. It’s up by Lake Geneva, and has several Roman ruins nearby.

Between communicating in the big annual Fantasy Baseball Draft on Sunday, or keeping up with friends from home, Skype and iChat both offer free video and voice communication. It really is remarkable that this capability comes default with a Mac computer, and very cheaply on many others.

Watch this, guys – as a twenty year old I’m about to wax poetic about how technology has changed in my lifetime.

Ten years ago, when I saw Starship Troopers (a hilariously terrible movie), there was video communication between parents and their college-aged son away from home. This was supposed to be way in the distant future, and when I saw it I thought, “We must be so far away from that being possible.”

Well, here we are, and I’m already angry at it when it doesn’t work perfectly.

Yesterday was a trip to Harrods to buy gifts for my young cousins. I don’t want to give away the surprises, but it should be good stuff. It’s hard to buy for them, on the one hand, because you don’t want it to seem like one sibling got something better than another, but if you just get them the same thing it won’t be as special. I tried to walk this tight rope.

Andrew and Molly always got us the best gifts when I was a kid. I will reiterate here what I told Andrew, that I will repay them by giving stuff to their kids.

Yesterday I actually went to the first Catholic Mass of my lifetime. Being that it was Easter Sunday, and most people are gone for the weekend or vacation, activities are limited. My friend David is a pretty devout Catholic, and I accompanied him to Westminster Cathedral for the seven o’clock. The building really was ornate and nice to look at – there were a lot more mosaics than I would have expected. That’s more of a Byzantine/Greek Orthodox sort of thing, but I suppose there’s bound to be some overlap.

I didn’t follow along verbally or take communion. I did, however, reflect on the people I care about, and I enjoyed the Priest’s homily. He was a very soft-spoken person, and he talked a lot about how the resurrection is not some scientific, logical fact. He said that the story goes that the first people on the scene – Jesus’ close personal friends – were confused by what was happening, and didn’t quite understand things for a while. It had to sink in. Likewise, he says Christians should not pretend it’s something easy to understand, and that it’s difficult to believe, and it takes trust.

It isn’t a religious point for me, but I liked it as a literary and philosophical point.

I did go up and when I crossed my arms to deny the communion, one of the priests still put his thumb on my head and said something like, “The lord bless and protect you.” It was pretty clear I didn’t know what I was doing but people were still very welcoming.

I think I’ve lived far too long in my life without religion to want it at this point. My friend Dan describes me as “a secular humanist who has replaced God with his parents.” But, I was curious, and I think I can appreciate why it’s important to the people who are religious a little bit more.

It’s not for me, but it doesn’t terrify me as much as it used to.

This is the earliest Easter that I can remember in my life, and if the statistic Annalisa cited to me is correct, Easter won’t be this early again until 2290. When that comes I’ll compare and contrast the two, deciding which one was better.

It has been remarkably cold the past few days, perhaps the coldest since I’ve been here. The good thing is that it snowed for about two hours this morning. It didn’t stick, the ground was too warm, but it was really beautiful. First snow I’ve seen falling in a long, long time.

Happy Easter, all.