Okay, where did I leave off. Right...Day 4
Day 4 - Graduation day. We got up slowly since we were out drinking the night before. You know how you get up and feel like you are going to be sick but your not but wish you would just get it over with so that you could feel better, well that is how I felt. I showered, changed and had to get something to eat before everything started. We ate at Burger King on base (nutritious breakfast I know) and then went to graduation. Tim looked like the professional camera guy with all the camera equipment that we had. He had 2 cameras and a tripod with the video camera. There were a couple of people that came up to him asking him to take pictures of them and he had to tell them that he wasn't the guy that they were looking for, it was kinda funny. It was hot as hell with the gown and such on and it probably didn't help that I wore my hair down as well, but that is when it looks best to me anyways. We were in the back room for a while fixing our hats and hair and they were showing us how to hold our hoods. I'm sure most of you know but for those who don't you get a hood for getting your masters. Another interesting thing is that you wear your tassel on your left. The turning of the tassel only takes place at your bachelor's graduation. Didn't know that??? So we are standing in line, there are only about 50 or so people that came. It was kinda ghetto in a way. See you had to register to graduate so that they could put your name on the program but there were still people that didn't show up. So when you were in the little back room they gave you an index card and you were told to write your name and degree you received on it. When you walked on stage you were to hand it to the speaker so that he could say your name as you walked on stage. Okay so it is slightly ghetto, but to make matters worse they give us neon colored index cards. So here we all are holding our hoods and these neon colored index cards. Anyways the one person that was coming from England never showed so I was kinda on my own. It sucked but what are you going to do, I went for me so I guess it wasn't a big deal in the end. Well I was the last one in my group to walk since my last name is R now. Even if it was still N, the last person before me was Myers so it didn't matter either way. The guy who "hooded" me (they do it on stage) was one of my teachers that I had for several classes, he was also the one that I got drunk with the night before. He made me laugh so in my picture I have chink eyes, a shiny forehead, and my gown wasn't sitting right so I looked pregnant when I'm not. I also got stuck on the end again, which was both good and bad I guess. I was on the end at the Chowan graduation as well. It makes it easier to take pictures though. We didn't leave the way we came in so I go stuck in between a bunch of MBA students and it kinda freaked Tim out cause he saw all this blue and then maroon and then here I come a lone blue person again. Did you also know that you don't wear cords for your masters either, only bachelors?? Anyways, we had some food which was pretty good, the cake was VERY dry but I liked the meatballs. By the time I got to the food most of it was gone but that's okay, I had cheeseburgers before I got there so I wasn't starving. We went back on stage and took a few more pictures of me then we left and went back to the hotel and took a nap.
When we woke up we decided we were hungry again and took a cab downtown because we had planned to stay down there and watch the World Cup Final in a pub between Italy v. France (Go Italy)! We at the saddest excuse for a Hard Rock I have ever seen in my life. The burger was tiny and the fries were as well and you couldn't even buy the hurricane glasses like we have done at previous Hard Rocks. The store was at the back of the restaurant and it was the old bar with someone standing behind it. It was sad really. Tim got a t-shirt and shot glass and I didn't want anything at all. We left there and walk around a bit more. Took some pictures on the Old Bridge and then went looking for a pub to watch the game. We found one and it was pretty good, we were in there with a bunch of Italian fans so it worked out well. It was a good game and we both had a few drinks. After Italy had won we got a cab back to the hotel. The ride home was crazy. There were people in the street yelling and cheering and beeping their horns. It was a big party, it was pretty cool but we were tired and well we just don't party like we once did.
Day 5 - We got up early and went to the base to do some laundry and get something to eat, we were both getting low on clothes considering we were going through 2 pairs of underwear a day because of the heat. We got finished and headed off to Paris. The drive was pretty but expensive. Usually when we drive back to NY we have to pay a few tolls, we got a different route so we don't pay as many but normally it is about $15-25 roughly (it has been a while since we made that trip). Now at 2 different places in France (the damn French) we paid about 14 euro which is close to about $20, now remember we did this twice. Then we had about 4 or 5 other tolls that were like 2 euro or 4 euro give or take. So all in all we paid about $60-75 in tolls, just to drive in France. Not a fan of the French either. Anyways, pretty view etc, we get to the out skirts of Paris. Now before I starte this part of the story I want to let you guys in on a little secret.
NEVER DRIVE IN PARIS OR ANYWHERE NEAR IT!!!
Now we had the GPS with us and if it wasn't for that we would have never found our hotel but it does have some down sides to it. For example when you go under ground or under several very long wide bridges. But what I would hoped that it would do was once you got back into an open area again it would catch up rather quickly and well it didn't do that. It pissed us off greatly and well it didn't help us to find our hotel any quicker. So since I'm not the greatest at using that contraption I drove and Tim navigated. We were suppose to be at our hotel at 6:30 pm give or take some time. So we are driving on the highway around Paris and I'm listening to the British lady on the GPS (it talks to you and the person talking was a British lady) and I'm turning and getting off where it tells me to until I ask a question to Tim. Am I suppose to get off here or the next one I asked? The roads were kinda close together and it was hard to tell where the British lady was trying to tell us to go. Tim said get off here, so I get off the highway and where do I end up, in a parking garage. So there is no other way to go but in it and I got my ticket and well we had to pay 1.50 euro to get out of there. Nice huh? That isn't even the best part. So we got back on the highway and we are finally getting close to where we are suppose to be and the British lady says enter round-a-bout and take the 3rd exit. Okay, well what she is calling a "round-a-bout" was a huge cobble stone square about the size of Squirrel Park with traffic light going around it. In England there is kind of an understanding when you drive around a round-a-bout. You stay in your lane when you go around. Not in Paris!! It is a free-for-all and a race. You get to the light and it is a race to the next light. It was crazy, I almost hit someone and about gave Tim a heart attack, which was kinda funny in a way. Anyways, we missed our exit not once, not twice, but 3 times. We tried every exit except one. The best part was when I was trying to get over to where we were suppose to get off, there are about 3-4 cars cutting across from the far left lane. Sitting at the light in this "round-a-bout" if the cars were lining up that was great but if they weren't than that was okay too. A stop and go race. (Mind you I tell this story better in person than writing it so sorry if I jump around). So we finally get off at the right exit on the so called round-a-bout and drive where we are suppose to. Then the British lady tells me to turn again and well it must have been the wrong turn and what do I get stuck behind, a garbage truck on a one lane road. So after following him for about 2 miles, stop and go we finally found the street where our hotel was on. I park the car on the street and Tim goes to the hotel to find out where we are suppose to park. Well since there is no room to put a parking garage they have put it under ground. Pretty smart if you ask me. We park the car and then go and try to figure out how to pay for parking for the next 3 days. We get to the office and of course the guy in there does not speak English. So we decide to wait until the morning to deal with that. At this point is about 8:30 pm, 2 hours after we were suppose to be there. We get to the elevator and it is the size of a porto john. It was fun getting up there with 2 big ass backpacks and 2 camera bags. We are on the top floor of the hotel. We get up to our room and I walk in and just start to laugh. It was smaller than the one in Amsterdam and guess what, NO AC!! Funny huh? Our room was in the roof so part of the room was slanted and they had the remote tied to the night stand, it wasn't even a good remote. Anyways, we dropped our bags and went to the Eiffel Tower. The subway was pretty good I guess, about the same as it is in London I guess. We got off and started to walk torward the Tower, you can see it from far away. It was much bigger than I thought it was going to be, I don't know. We took a few pictures and then went to find something to eat. We found this little restaurant and I had a salad and Tim had duck. It was the best salad I think I have ever had, no kidding! Then I had a crepe for dessert. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and passed out.
Okay will try and finish this today but no promises, might have to do a part 3 or 4. Sitting at the computer is just not me anymore. Have to be in a mood I guess. See you again later....
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