Basketball, volleyball, the rest of Paris

The Dayton Flyers won their season opener over Chreighton this afternoon, 90 - 80. It was quite strange not being in the stands for the game (I did get a little homesick...) I wasn't able to find a video feed online, but I did catch Larry and Bucky's dulcet tones on their online radio broadcast. Here are some random thoughts on our team.
Dayton has been ranked in the preseason for the first time in decades, so we get professionally-produced videos such as this to get us pumped up.
A lot of the preseason hype focuses on how little we lost from last year. After making it to the second round of the NCAA tourney, we only lost one senior (Charles Little) to graduation. Still, some of the statistics the powers-that-be choose to highlight are a little ridiculous. Example: "The Flyers return 10 of their 11 top scorers from last year." Among these "top scorers" are those such as Paul Williams, adding a vital 2.2 points per game last season. (Caveat - I fully expect Williams to be much more productive this season. He's already had 9 points in the season opener. Still, it just kinda shows how meaningless that 10 / 11 stat is.)
Chris Wright played a great game, scoring 25. Right behind him, the sophmore Chris Johnson seems to have broken out, scoring 18 and grabbing 15 boards.
I saw the highlights video afterwards, including London Warren's insane assist leading to a Marcus Johnson slam (15 seconds in). I watched that part again at least twenty times. If we can keep up that kind of game, we should be pretty good this year :)
This team almost didn't seem like Dayton. Last year, our identity was a defensive and athletic team. We out-jumped and out-rebounded the other teams and completely harassed them on defense (especially the point guard combo of London Warren and Rob Lowry, who are more or less clones of each other defensively, and on amphetamines). But for gravity, our shooters couldn't have hit the floor last year, but our defense really made up for it. Last season, we only scored above 80 four times and gave up more than 70 five times. (And I think only four or five teams were better than 40% shooting last year. Chreighton shot 48.3%)
Dayton shot 72.2% from the charity stripe today. Quite refreshing after for years in the 50, 60% territory.

So far, it's been a good week for sports (go Cavs!) Friday evening, the volleyball club went to Dublin to play IT Tallaght. We won the match in three close sets (scores of 25-21, 23-25, and 25-22). I was used as a libero during the match and had a very good time. I had a few particularly nice diving saves.

I actually have homework to do this weekend, which is a huge change from what I've become accustomed to.

I'll try to finish up Paris tonight :)
Thursday, I spent the day travelling around with Micheal, the English couchsurfer. In the morning, he showed me around Ile-de-France, the business district of Paris. With all of the skyscrapers, it felt much more like home. We walked around the northern / middle section of Paris and took a look at the Centre Pompidou and the Bastille. We both were hit with a strong craving for chocolate milk, so we set out on a quest to find some (we had to look through three different stores.) We drank it sitting on the steps of the Hotel De Ville and discussed EU politics. It was classy.
Afterwards, we left to see Luxemborg. The building itself was not extraordinary, but the gardens surrounding it were. The trees were brilliantly colored and crunchy leaves covered the pathways. My only complaint was that some of the trees were trimmed into square shapes, which I found unnatural and immoral. We then walked around the Latin quarter and checked out the Pantheon (or, "The Least Impressive Monument in Paris).
Micheal and I went our seperate ways afterwards and I met up with Julien again. We went back to his apartment and ordered Dominos pizza (it's much better in France - something about the cheese). We spent the rest of the evening chilling, playing video games, and watching the the Royal Tenenbaums.
Friday was Louvre day. Since this was one of two days with bad weather, it turned out to be a pretty good decision. Unfortunately, the metro from the business district was undergoing repairs, so I had to walk an hour into Paris. The Louvre was fantastic. Works of art where everywhere, although my favorite part of the museum was the museum itself. The wall decorations, facades, ceilings, and architecture were at least as beautiful as most of the pieces contained therein. I did get to see most of the famous pieces, such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, but I was a little unimpressed with them. Too much hype, I suppose. On the other hand, the section of Egyptian artefacts and the preserved living quarters of Napolean III were fascinating (Napolean's rooms defined opulence.)
Wondering around a museum for five hours tends to make one thirsty, so I met up with Julien at a pub (surprise!) He was meeting up with some friends for a birthday celebration. I also met Aviv, an Isreali who would be staying with us Saturday night. Good craic.
On Saturday, I treated Julien to lunch. I figured that I haven't really been to a French restaurant that week and I probably ought to while I was in Paris. Julien took me to a place that did traditional Southwestern French cuisine. I had a very nice duck dish (perhaps scallop de canard avernogne, or something like that) with ham, cheese, and potatoes. Julien had foie gras, so I tried a bite of that.
After lunch, we explored the graveyard Pere Lachaise Cemetary in honor of Halloween. It was a very beautiful graveyard that's been around since the seventeenth century.

Oscar Wilde was amoung those buried here. His grave is covered with lipstick from admirers. Between the feeling of the crisp autumn wind on my face and the cemetary's silence, I found a feeling of perfect contentment.
We met up with Aviv in the evening before heading off to a Couchsurfer party at the train station in Montparnasse. At this point in the week, my French had become almost proficient. I could make out almost half of what people were talking about, then guess the rest. But after anyone's been drinking, this ability fades rapidly. Thankfully, people were mostly happy to speak English (especially the people I met from Canada and California). After that party died down, we went to another party at Julien's neighbor's apartment. It was a much more relaxed affair (perhaps because it was already one-thirty in the morning), but very enjoyable.
Sunday was my last day in Paris. I hadn't been inside Notre Dame during daylight hours, so I paid a little visit. Enjoy some shots of the exterior.



Immediately after this last photo, it began to rain. Since I had to wait five hours for my bus, I was quite fortunate to find the coolest shop in Paris - Shakespeare and Company. This is an amazing bookstore. Bookshelves or ceiling-high stacks of books surround you. All of the titles are in English. The owners take the position that books are meant to be read and provide you with several comfy chairs and couches to do so.

I spent the afternoon going over a book of e e cumming's poetry and a collection of food essays from the New Yorker. (I must apologize for the substandard quality of these photos. My camera was on the fritz since Tuesday and I wasn't able to take enough pictures to get quality shots.)

They amazingly have a piano in the upstairs reading room and they encourage people to simply come up and play whatever. I was treated to several impromptu jazz concerts while reading, which was the perfect capstone to my week in Paris.
The flight back was okay, once I boarded. Before that, it was a nightmare. I waited in line for security for half an hour, at which point I was told to go to the back and wait again (another flight needed to get through before me). I managed to get onto the plane five minutes before it took off.
But even when I landed down in Dublin, my vacation was not over. I didn't get to the train station in Dublin until eleven in the evening. Since it was a Sunday, there was no late train to Maynooth. I had to spend one last night in a nearby hostel before I made it back. On the bright side, this hostel offered soda bread as part of its free breakfast. Also, everyone spoke English, something I won't quite take for granted so much anymore.