devotion to blogging. and some insomnia.

typing this on the computer in the paris flat which has something wrong with the keyboard such that what looks like an "a" key for instance actually types an "f"; "b" types a "p"; and so on. i am getting faster but am still only up to about 15 words a minute...

my last day in kiel was very mellow; i said goodbye to kate in the morning, and then went for a run which turned into a walk around the botanical gardens because i was feeling lazy. then a trip to the art museum to go look at greek pots and heads and then to the train station to get to hamburg to catch my flight. i was ready for them this time; i shoved the laptop and my heavy notebook into the waistband of my jeans, umbrella and camera tied to my belt, books packed under my jersey... lo and behold, no overweight luggage charges. i unpacked myself into a dutyfree carrier bag, went through security and got on the plane. so silly. they are so strict about not exceeding 25 kg checked and 8 kg hand luggage and only one piece of carryon blah blah blah then you are allowed to buy as much heavy crap as you want in dutyfree. ???

anyway. i arrived safely at the flat in paris late last night; it is quite beautiful and very comfy and the only real downer has been the discovery that some artistic baggage handler stole all my paints which i am trying very hard not to care too much about (only moderate success so far). they also failed to close my palette box after taking the paints and an oil sanguine pencil escaped and wreaked havoc with several favourite items of clothing grrrrr but i have decided that i will donate the extra karma to the universe in thanks for the election of obama and call it a day.

today i went to the grand palais to see the two exhibits currently on there - picasso et les grands maitres and emil nolde. i was unwowed for the most part by the picasso and the nolde (although it was cool to see the nolde just days after having been in the exact part of denmark where he lived) but woweezowee les grands maitres were cool. i saw several velasquez paintings, goyas (incl. la maja desnuda), and ingres, including one i had done a master copy of, so that was fun. i also got to see french people being rude to each other, which is weird - argenton chateau was so gentle i sort of forgot about the whole paris thing - but at least so far they have been ruder to each other than they have been to me.

B&F arrived late tonight and we had dinner at a little pizzeria before bed. not sure what the plan is for tomorrow - make it up as we go along...