Road Trip 2012: Land of Enchantment

Oh my goodness, I have gotten so behind. In terms of days, we are still less than halfway through, but it feels like we are already on the home stretch! But for now, let's journey back a few days, when we explored New Mexico....

Our time in New Mexico was centered around Santa Fe. It brought us a healthy introduction to the geological splendor that is the Southwest, which we have been thoroughly enjoying at its fullest in Arizona. After making camp, we basically had a night in, with a brief stop at Olive Garden. Something about being on a road trip has us both mentally geared towards all of the Americana chain restaurants. Thus far, we have made stops at Sonic, Dennys, Olive Garden, Dairy Queen, and I think Katie got something from a Burger King at one point. A stop at Chili's is also likely. Hopefully we will return to our senses soon, but in the meantime, Sonic makes darn good mozzarella sticks.

Our full day in New Mexico started with a journey to Taos, an artistic community about an hour outside of Santa Fe.

Some cool freeway decorations

Camel Rock

The Road to Taos

Just your average freeway overpass

Preliminary research suggests this might be Frijoles Canyon

Once we got there, we realized that we knew little of what to actually do in Taos. We just knew we were supposed to go. So we wandered around Old Town, in and out of shops (met some excellent shop cats at the bookstore, Mable and Little Trouble), and had organic smoothies in the sun.

A little corner off of Old Town Taos

On our way back, we stopped at a pretty little pull-off, and attempted to get some bubble pictures a la the Grand Bubble Tour of Scotland, but our bubbles were not cooperating. You get a single picture of me show-boating instead.

The middle of the afternoon was occupied with a matinee of Snow White and the Huntsman (highly recommended, btw), and in the evening we wandered around downtown Santa Fe. An energetic and aggressive search landed us free street parking, and again we sauntered in and out of shops. Sadly, no jewelry even close to our price range, but we did meet this lovely donkey statue:

Donkey in Downtown Santa Fe

And we hung around the tiny cathedral. A building across the street had some sort of rooftop club, so it is possible that I may have busted out a little bit of the Cupid Shuffle on the cathedral steps. I don't admit to anything, but I also regret nothing.

Up the next morning to make the drive to Flagstaff. We are already pros at handling 400-mile drives in a single sitting, though we vaguely have intentions to make more frequent stops to walk around and stretch out. After the first two days, our bodies have settled quite nicely into the routine of things and no longer yell at us for keeping them in Candy (my car) for hours at a time, but we know we shouldn't take advantage....

Coming soon: the geological marvel that is Arizona!

Little Moments: Minuit a Paris

I just walked in my room from seeing Minuit a Paris. I guess it must actually be called "Midnight in Paris," because all of my French professors keep referring to it in English, but the only promotions I have ever seen for it are Parisian.

I'm not actually very versed in my Woody Allen, so I wasn't really going to bother seeing it, but everyone insisted to me that seeing it in Paris is a must-have experience before I leave. I am SO glad I listened. First of all, you should see it regardless of the city you are in. It's a wonderful, sweet, adorable movie with a lot of intelligence and heart. Someone described it as Woody Allen's love letter to Paris, and I think that is apt. But having lived here for the past 5 months, it was extra special, I think. During the opening montage, I kept checking off whether I knew exactly where each snippet was. I knew a lot. Not all, certainly. There are many areas I haven't spent much time in. But give me another stay here, maybe living in a different arrondissement. I'll get it down.

Part of me wishes that this had come about about three months ago, when I was feeling annoyed by pretty much everything in Paris (that feeling is long gone, trust me). But there is also a certain melancholy to the film that fits nicely with my last week. It's evening now, so I will be erasing today on my wall- 5. Four more days. Wow.

Paris, it's been a life changer. Je te remercie.

Cultural Short: Popcorn

Popcorn is distressingly scarce in Paris. Through much scouring, I have managed to locate one kind of very small microwave popcorn at one store, and also very small bags of regular kernels. I actually haven't tried them out yet.

At the movie theatres, they of course do have popcorn, in much smaller servings. It is offered "a sel" or "a sucre"- with salt or with sugar. No butter, sadly, but those Central folk who enjoy kettle korn are happy campers.

On a tangent, I have also yet to find any regular M&Ms, just peanut ones.

These are both probably very good things for my figure, but they are just a tad distressing when I want to curl up and be L'Americaine!

Movie Night

I actually have two movie nights in a row.

Last night, in lieu of heading out to a club like the rest of the Central folks, two other girls and myself peeled off for a new tradition: finding American movies! They have French subtitles, so we still feel a little virtuous. Plus, our supervisor tells us that we are supposed to spend a third of our time just having fun, and not worrying about French. So really, we were just following orders.

We found Love and Other Drugs (Love et Autres Drogues), in one of a series of five theatres that surround what I gather to be Montparnasse Square. Between the 5 there are some 26 screens, I believe, showing a combination of American movies in English with French subtitles, American movies dubbed in French, and French movies (sadly, without English subtitles). Very cushy seats.

While we mainly expect to see the movies in English, we also have plans to go see a French Bollywood-esque musical that is coming out in February. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is called and post a link for you, but I will update once I figure it out!

And on the walk home, I learned that one of the girls is, like myself, obsessed with finding good interpretations of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Both of us hold the ShakespeaRetold with Rufus Sewell and Shirley Henderson to be the ranking movie adaptation thus far.