Let the River Run

After dinner on Thursday, we were scheduled for a last minute boat ride down the Seine. It was actually supposed to take place on our second day in Paris, but Professor Blair postponed it because of the rain. All our excursions and activities leave out of the Rue Conde location so Don, Sunny, Gina and I took the seven block walk down to the dorm, umm...in the rain, to meet the rest of the group.

The boat was packed, but we found seats in the open-air part in front, which was pretty awesome. What was not awesome was that the rest of the seats in that section were occupied by a middle-school group of kids from either India or England and who seemed to be traveling without any adult supervision.

As soon as the boat started moving, they all ran to the edges of the boat, blocking all the views. So we also had to get up in order to take pictures and see the buildings. The kids also waved at every boat that passed us and screamed everytime time we went under a bridge, and in the Seine there's a bridge every three minutes. You'd think they'd eventually get bored, but nooooooo. These kids were troopers. We figured it wouldn't even be worth it to push them overboard, they'd probably just swim back on board like freaky tween terminators.

We were so worried that they were going to get in the way that we desperately took pictures every chance we got. Like when one of them dropped their iPod and had to bend down to pick it up, or when they started pushing each other and there was an empty space for a few seconds. I ended up with about 32 pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Not sure what to do with them since I have just as many from last year, and I have to say, it really hasn't changed much.

And then a good old fashioned miracle happened! We started floating past the parts of the river with the pedestrian walkways. Since it had cleared up a little, lots of people were just hanging out and drinking wine and stuff. Suddenly, all the kids ran to one side of the boat. Some kids had just dropped trousers and mooned the passengers. Aaah, those crazy Parisians! Since it kept happening, the kids just stayed in place looking for more butts, and we got a whole empty side on which to relax and enjoy the beautiful sunset. Three cheers for butts!