| | Spent the weekend in Toulouse but didn't really do that much. Did a few things that got me thinking (sorta):
Saturday
- Went to an English Pub called The London Town for a few pints at 5pm.
A bit early in the day to start drinking but the weather was a little
rainy so we didn't feel like walking around. As you can imagine we were
the only people in the pub when we arrived. Chris and Dass said the
place was pretty similar to a traditional pub in London.
Thought: Never seen a pub like this before. Need to get out more often.
- After the pub we still had an hour to kill until the Indian
restaurant we wanted to go to opened. So we went to a bar around the
corner called La Maison. The pitcher of 'punch' we ordered was pretty
good and so were the giant roasted peanuts w/ skins still on them, but
the highlight was the curried olives.Yum.
Thought: I never really liked olives until I came to France. Need to learn the recipe for Curried Olives.
- Had Indian food for the first time in nearly a year. Really enjoyed
it. Afterwards we went to the Frog & Rosbif pub that served its own
microbrews made onsite. I'd had enough to drink already but apparently
everyone else had room for much more. These three guys - 2 Californians
+ 1 French/Jew/wannabe American - sat down with us. We started talking
but about 5-10 minutes into the conversation I didn't want to talk to
them anymore. I realized I didn't like them very much at all.
Johnny was an ok guy. It was just that he had a cynical sense of humor
that wasn't funny and he seemed a bit too proud of the USA at times.
Jesse was way too proud of graduating with an MBA from NYU and being a
bond trader in New Jersey. He acted as if he was so knowledgeable of
the world because he "lived and died by The Economist." The French guy
was just weird and really drunk.
Thought: I really hope I'm not like those 3 fools. Is that what
America has to offer? People who don't realize they're telling lame
jokes and just keep on going? Johnny told some jokes about the English
vs. French and Chris told him they weren't very funny but Johnny didn't
believe him. Arrogant people who think they know so much more than they
actually do? The Economist is a good magazine but there's more to the
world than one magazine. I was really disappointed.
Sunday
- Woke up late and ate a really tasty kebab for lunch. The pita bread
was way different from those back in New York - toasted, caramel color
on the outside with a few sesame seeds. The meat was shaved directly
off the huge block of meat and not preshaved in a bowl.
Thought: Good
- Saw Fahrenheit 9/11. It was the first movie I've seen in English in a
theater since I've been here. By the end of the movie I forgot I was in
France and was a bit confused when I heard people speaking French.
Thought: The documentary was pretty convincing though clearly slanted.
Michael Moore has his heart in the right place, fighting for the
underdog and such but I don't trust him completely. I
thought he was a bit misleading when he suggested the Bush
administration was tipped off about the 9/11 attacks well in advance.
He didn't discuss the intelligence briefing he referred to but if he had it
would have shown there were no specifics in the report. Also,
while Moore did a good job in showing how ugly war is he ignored the
good things that have come out of the war - building new schools,
homes, utilities, etc. and how the majority of Iraqis are in support of
democracy. But perhaps that wasn't the point of Moore's documentary.
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| | Posted 7/12/2004 11:00 AM - 24 views - 1 comments
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