My own pace!

Its been awhile, but I could probably tie that into a point for this post today.  Here's what I've been up to the past 1 and 1/2 weeks or so.

That Friday after the museum, we departed for France.  We got a really good price for a hotel and round trip bus ride to and from Paris.  That was probably the only good thing about the trip.  When we got onto the bus, we could already tell the entire trip was going to be sketchy.  It began with the fact that the bathroom on our bus was broken.  Their remedy, to stop a bajillion times along the way.  We suffered the constant stops, and somehow managed to get into Paris 4 hours later than the trip actually should have taken.  Also, due to the uncomfortable seats (They mentioned something about them being sleep chairs), we were unable to sleep.

We bypassed the 15 euro bus tour.  We felt we could explore Paris ourselves without paying this unnecessary money.  So, after our late arrival at 9:30, we were left in the middle of the city, with a stern "Be here at 11:30 or else".  So, we set off in search of a Cafe and then went and saw the Arc de Triomph.  The amount of detail put into this monument was spectacular and there were many photo opportunities to be had down all of the streets that converged at the monument.

After that, we rushed back to the meeting spot, and arrived around 11:05.  We stopped at a nearby Starbucks for some coffee, and waited until 11:20 to go out and wait for the bus.  11:30 came and went.  Then 11:45.  Then 12:00.  Then 12:30.  Finally, at 1:30, the bus arrived and picked us up.  Then, they didn't even apologize or explain what happened.  We just went to the hotel.

The hotel was even sketchier.  It was supposed to a 4 star hotel.  There was paint flecking off the door, the shower barely worked, and there was barely enough room for us to fit 3 mattresses and our luggage.  But I won't complain about it too much.  It was a place to rest our heads.

We then began our adventure.  We had a conveniently placed Metro station right outside our hotel.  We go down, and find out that we can explore Paris via Metro for only 3.45 euro a person.  Not bad.  So off to the Eiffel Tower we went!  To avoid 2 transfers, we got off about 10 blocks from the tower.  The path to the tower led us to this huge park that lined up in front of the tower.  We decided that our time was too short, and we didn't want to wait 3 hours in line to go up the tower, so we took some candid photos in the park with the tower in the background, then headed off to the Lourve!

And... it was closed.  This major attraction closed at 5pm... and we arrived at 5:10.  So, we ran off to Notre Dame!  And was it majestic.  It keeps baffling me that people, many hundreds of years ago, with tools that we now consider completely primitive,  built and painted these amazing structures.  What confuses me even more is that we don't really have anything like it at all in America or that no one builds something like that now.  We have access to tools that would enable us to do these wonders in much less time and for a lot less cost, but no one seems interested in doing it.

And... that's where Kayla, Melanie, and I's night ended.  We were all worn out from the long bus ride and the running around, and we decided to call it a night.  In the morning, we would be off to the palace of Versailles.  (Also, lame note... I lent my camera to Jennifer to get pictures from this really tall tower in the middle of Paris at sunset... and on the train ride home, someone stole it from her pocket x.x)

Our final stop in Paris was the Palace of Versailles.  We had 2 hours to explore it, and we waited in line for an hour to see it.  Except for the fact that we would have needed to spend 5 hours to decently explore it and the gardens (It is said that it took 45 minute to walk from the palace to the far side of the garden alone), I think it was worth it.  I'll post all the pictures we took on our rushed tour of the palace so that you can see what I would fail to explain.  Another prime example of a great work of art that has become history.

That's pretty much it for our Paris trip.  We got back to Nuremberg at 2am, waited in the rain to get picked up, then crammed in a tiny car and drove back.  All in all, I don't regret the trip to Paris, but I definitely want to go back when I have a lot more time/money.

And, other than helping my mom move in, the rest of the time so far these past 2 weeks has been spent relaxing.  We went to a couple water parks, and that's the highlight of that.  I can now go into one of the two things I've been dwelling on some in the free time I had.

My own pace.  I have to go at my own pace.  And, unfortunately, it seems to be a lot slower than most other people's pace.  My first example that comes to mind was the museum trip.  By myself, I probably could have spent 3 or 4 hours in there.  But with a group of 5 people, everyone wanted to go faster.  I wasn't annoyed, since I know that I could have gone at my own pace, but I didn't want to leave people waiting.  Therefore, I went much faster than I would have liked. Because of that, I didn't get as much out of the museum as I wanted.

Other examples would be playing video games with other people.  When playing with other people, or even just being watched, I feel rushed.  Most of the time it happens without me realizing.  I get yelled at because I'm half the map behind everyone, or that I'm exploring some place that everyone else overlooked, and the party decided to engage some monsters and then died without me.

And this increasing of pace has slowly seeped into my entire life.  I'm horrible at reading books now, because I rush through them.  I have to consciously think about reading slowly for me to actually take in all everything that's happening.  I move and do thinks a lot more rushed as well, and it leads to me running into things and knocking things over that I should have easily noticed.  And worst is when I need to search for something.  I will search for the lost object with such haste that I will often overlook it when it is in plain sight.

In conclusion, I am enjoying my trip immensely over here in Germany.  I'm getting to see a lot of art, and learn a little about the history that has shaped the world as it is now.  As for exploring my consciousness, I'm going to be working on slowing down the pace of my life.  I want to live my life my way, and to make the most of it.  Bumbling around and rushing things that I would feel more comfortable doing at a slower pace will lead to frustration and accidents.