And So It Ends.

Hi all. I'm back in Paris for the third time in 2 months. I took the Eurostar in from London on Saturday, and I actually ran into another old friend of mine in the train station shortly after I arrived. I was looking for an ATM, and happened to glance over at him as I walked past. He saw me too, and we had one of those, "Hmm...you look familiar, but I think I'm just going to keep walking" moments, but then he turned around, tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was Jodi. Well, I was, so I said yes. It turned out to be my old friend Tom, who dug with me at Arago Cave in August of 2000. After I broke my ankle, Tom totally helped take care of me, pushing me around in this horrible old and rusty wheelchair we found, and shared in my horror when I found out that in France, when you break a leg or an ankle, they're so scared that you'll develop a blood clot in your leg (from keeping it immobile in the cast) that they make you inject yourself once each day with blood thinner. In the belly. I'm being totally serious. Everyone has to do it. (I asked around.) They wouldn't let me leave the hospital until I had purchased enough pre-loaded syringes and promised that I'd stick myself with one each day. I tried to explain that I was Canadian, and we don't do that, but it didn't work. I even offered to call my brother (a med student at the time) and have him explain to them that this wasn't necessary. But no dice. I lasted 4 days (that's 4 needles in the belly! That I gave myself! Me! Needles! In the belly! I almost fainted with each one. In fact, I'm feeling a little weak even writing about it now...) until I broke down and called my mommy to help me get home.

But anyways. It was great to see Tom again. He's been living in Ireland for these past 6 years, and still doing archaeology. He came to Paris for the weekend with his wife and brand new 9-week-old baby girl. She was very, very cute :)

Tomorrow I'm going to see the fossils in the Musee de l'Homme, and that'll be the very last stop on Jodi's "Grand European Fossil Shapesnatching Tour, 2006" (t-shirts are a good idea, jer ;) My trip is coming to an end. On Wednesday morning I'm taking the train back up to Brussels, and I'll be flying back to Champaign a few hours later. So, I'm very sad to say this, but I think this will probably be the last post on the blog. Well, at least until Melissa does another keg-stand. Or unless if miracles really, actually do happen and I get some more travel money... ;)

Thanks to all of you who took the time to read & post comments! It can get lonely traveling around by yourself, and your comments kept me from feeling too far from home and friends. I'll be getting back pretty late on Wednesday, so those of you who want to call (mom: this means you), might want to wait until the next day.

I leave you with pretty pictures of Paris:



Around the Saint-Michel area:





Les Jardins du Luxembourg:









For Frida:

Shapecamming in Torino:



Today was amazing. I saw all the fossils I wanted to see in the Natural History Museum and more (including the original Piltdown material!), had no equipment problems whatsoever, and got to talk with the anthropologist whose books got me interested in Neandertals & paleoanthropology in the first place (without excessively gushing all over him too!)

A very good day :)

For all of my fans out there who keep requesting more pictures of me (and I'm truly flattered - really, I am ;), I keep meaning to post a photo of me shapecamming a skull in Torino, but I can't seem to remember to bring that photo with me to the internet cafe. Tomorrow, I promise.

I got to Paris very early on Monday morning. It took 2 trains, but after my 5 train journey from Italy to Spain, this was nothing. I made a friend on the night train from Hendaye to Paris who wanted to know why I was traveling with my entire house. (Except he pronounced it "ouse" because he was French. Hee, "ouse". Ah, the French ;) It was a holiday the day I arrived, so most things were closed. I wandered around the city a little that first day, but I was tired after traveling all night and I crashed early.

Yesterday I went to the Institut de Paleontologie Humaine to see the skull of Qafzeh 6. The Institut is located in this really amazing old stone building:



Inside was just as gorgeous. Beautiful old staircases, wood floors, tall ceilings. The room that I was in had lots of really large glass display cases, just filled with casts of fossil skulls. It was great. The guy who came to meet me at the door turned out to be someone I had known from when I worked at Arago Cave in the summer 2000. I didn't recognize him at first, but he recognized me. (Actually, this happens to me quite a lot. When I was 15 years old, and at summer camp, my then-boyfriend's mom had come up for Visitor's Day and recognized me immediately from when I was in nursery school -- or it may have been kindergarden. Apparently, our parents had carpooled together back then, or something like that.) I guess I haven't changed much in the last 6 years either (hopefully I've aged since kindergarden), although the last time he had seen me, I was hobbling around on crutches after having tripped and broken my ankle. Not fun. I don't recommend it. But it was nice to see him again and talk about that time, the site, and the people I knew there. Small world.

Later yesterday evening, my friend Sandrine had a little goodbye party for Alek, an Azerbaijani guy we knew from Dmanisi. Alek had been in Paris for a little while, undergoing some training at Sandrine's lab. There was another guy there who'd worked with us in Georgia too, so it was a nice little reunion. By the end of the evening, I'd been communicating in French for an entire day -- not very easy for me to do yet. I hit a wall around 10pm and just couldn't speak it anymore. Good thing the party didn't go so late ;)

Today I took the Eurostar to London. I didn't have enough time the day before to do my usual take-one-bag-to-the-train-station-the-day-before-and-store-in-a-locker -so-that-I-can-easily-take-the-metro-there-again-the-next-day-and-not -have-to-pay-for-a-cab, so I ended up taking a taxi to the station from the hotel. It turned out to not be too expensive, and even better than that, it gave me the opportunity to meet "Taxi Claude".

Taxi Claude drives around Paris in this white minivan loaded with stuffed animals, candies, condoms, and a minifridge packed with water and juice. He's got this binder full of newspaper clippings about him and his cab, along with love notes from various women around the world, which he's very eager to show. Taxi Claude sings out the addresses and names of each place you pass, and he'll point out good restaurants where, if you mention his name, you'll either get a free aperitif or a discount on your meal. Taxi Claude showed me where Charlie Chaplin's daughter lives. Taxi Claude shaved 3 € off my cab fare. I liked Taxi Claude.

Now I'm in London. I love London. I. Love. London. Tomorrow morningI go to the Natural History Museum to see a bunch of Neandertal and modern human skulls. I cannot tell you how much I've looked forward to this visit. If I'm going to geek out anywhere on this trip, it'll be here. Cross your fingers that I can keep my cool ;)

Here's the museum:



Here's another photo because I really love this building:



I walked around London a little today. Saw Buckingham palace, walked through St. James garden, and went into to Westminster Abbey (I love that place.) Here are some photos: