adidas

I've been thinking about Paris a lot lately. We're going to spend some time there this summer. The last time I was in Paris was 27 years ago. I spent a semester there my sophomore year in college, and turned 19 that November. Good times.

I guess the traditional thing for me to say is, "It seems like I was just there yesterday." But it doesn't. It feels like I haven't been there in about 27 years. :)

I'm excited to show Bob and Claire around, if I can still orient myself. Alas, I'm not known for my sense of direction. But when I lived there, I slept with a big map of Paris taped to the wall next to my bed, so I kind of got the hang of where things were. 

This is Sandro in Paris. He was my boyfriend for a few months while I was there, until he had to go home, which was the saddest day of my life up until then. :) He was Italian, from a suburb just outside Venice. He lived in the same student dorms I did. 

I went and visited him in Venice later in the fall. When I was in Venice, I stayed in a convent with my also-Italian friend Sonia, who had lived in the room next to me in Paris. (I met Sandro through her.) I took the train from Paris to Venice, which is a very long train ride, and when I got there I was exhausted, but they pumped me full of espresso and showed me around.

Everybody's mom kept making me eat and eat and eat.

It's funny, the details you remember. I remember how Sonia handwashed her clothes out in the sink, and I remember her grandma squeezing my cheeks and saying "Bella!" like something out of a movie, and I remember the convent had marble floors. I remember Sonia explaining prosciutto to me, and saying that Americans never wanted to eat it because they were nervous about uncooked meat. And there was a trash strike in Venice, which was embarrassing to all of them, and intriguing to me. I was so surprised that gondolas were just normal, and you zipped around in them as if you were in a taxi in any another city. And we went to a party and everybody was really nice to me, and I was barely awake, just running on espresso fumes and five full meals in one day.

And below, that's me. We were climbing around on the roofs in Paris, which is surprisingly easy to do. I am not sure why we were dressed the same: jeans, red sweaters, and Adidas. I think that was probably accidental. That doesn't seem like something I would do on purpose.

I think I owned that sweater for about 10 years. I really loved it. And those Adidas, too.