Tonight CEA was hosting a farewell dinner for all of us at a restaurant in Paris' most famous mosque. I had every intention of going and so at exactly 6h10 I left my flat to make my way to the RER station.
As soon as I walked out of my door, the air was filled with loud noises that ended up being a seemingly endless stream of French supporters of the Algerian World Cup team walking down the side of Parc Montsouris. Deciding to brave the crowd and not speak any English just in case there was any negative sentiment remaining from the Algerian loss to the American team, I walked alongside the park until I came to a line of French SWAT officers. As soon as I approached the spot where they were standing, they began to move and bring their transparent shields in front of them to barricade people so that the metro wasn't overfilled. Thankfully I and my 2 roommates just made it past their shields in time to crowd into a non-active metro.
So it seemed that dinner was impossible as it was by this time 7h00 - 15 minutes past the time of our reservation. Any attempt at finding another route would take us at least an hour to get there.
So we admitted defeat in the metro and walked home, a walk that would have been only 7 minutes had there not been SWAT and rioting Algerians but one that ended up taking almost 30.
So farewell, farewell dinner. My baguette ended up being just as nice as I opened my bedroom window and grew happy in the fact that I had chosen not to brave the metro once the voices escalated to a near deafening level just before dying out.
As soon as I walked out of my door, the air was filled with loud noises that ended up being a seemingly endless stream of French supporters of the Algerian World Cup team walking down the side of Parc Montsouris. Deciding to brave the crowd and not speak any English just in case there was any negative sentiment remaining from the Algerian loss to the American team, I walked alongside the park until I came to a line of French SWAT officers. As soon as I approached the spot where they were standing, they began to move and bring their transparent shields in front of them to barricade people so that the metro wasn't overfilled. Thankfully I and my 2 roommates just made it past their shields in time to crowd into a non-active metro.
So it seemed that dinner was impossible as it was by this time 7h00 - 15 minutes past the time of our reservation. Any attempt at finding another route would take us at least an hour to get there.
So we admitted defeat in the metro and walked home, a walk that would have been only 7 minutes had there not been SWAT and rioting Algerians but one that ended up taking almost 30.
So farewell, farewell dinner. My baguette ended up being just as nice as I opened my bedroom window and grew happy in the fact that I had chosen not to brave the metro once the voices escalated to a near deafening level just before dying out.
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