Walking the Red Carpet!

Thursday arrived and the film festival was well on its way. In French class, our teacher had recorded the opening ceremony the previous night so we watched that and then discussed it. I felt a little bad because she taped it for us and no one was super excited about it. I meant, it’s interesting, but it’s one of those things that is really only cool if you were watching it as it happened. Oh well though.

After that it was lunch and then Art History. I turned my paper in for that class. Other than that, the class was uneventful. After Art History it was time for French Civ. The class was long and boring as usual. Teresa got a phone call and left class about five minutes before it was done. When I went out, I discovered where she had gone, to get in line for movie tickets. They were handing out tickets for an Irish film and a Chinese film, there was one ticket left for the Chinese one, which was the line that Teresa was in, so she got me to join. I now had a ticket for Summer Palace, which was premiering on the Red Carpet that night! I was very excited! Though, I felt a little bad because I was doing it without Rachael. But she was ok.

After bouncing around the room for a bit, I had to give my mom a call and let her know what was going on with me. Including my going to a movie on the Red Carpet! When I got off the phone, it was time to start getting ready. Rachael did my make-up and my hair. It was a lot of fun. And she did a very good job. How do I know? The reactions of the other girls when I met up with them in Teresa’s room were all pretty positive. Well, there I waited for everyone else to finish getting ready, then those of us going to the movie went down to the courtyard to take pictures. The group was Teresa, Courtney, Heather, Lauren S., Kyle, and me. The crazy thing was all of us girls were wearing a different colored dress! It was pretty exciting.

After picture time, we took a taxi van to the Palais (save our feet just a bit being in high heeled shoes). It was awesome when we got there. Our movie didn’t start until 10:30, so we were pretty early. There were photographers that took like 8 million pictures of us. Granted they were trying to sell us the pictures they took, but it made you feel like a celebrity hounded by the media. We even took pictures with a couple of giant security guards. It was a lot of fun.

Eventually, we decided we should get in line so we could get good seats for the movie when they started letting people in. There were more people who took our picture while we were standing in line. Out of control!! Finally though, the big moment arrived, it was time for us to walk up the red carpet! I don’t know that it was a defining moment of my life, but it was pretty exciting. I mean, how many times does the regular person get to do something like that? I enjoyed it while it lasted.

We had pretty good seats in the balcony. The movie, itself? Well…it was a Chinese film with French and English subtitles. And I think it was looking at sex and love. There was a bit too much sex for me to really enjoy the film. It was also really depressing and I didn’t really get the point. And when I say there was a lot of sex, holy cow, there was a lot of sex. And half of the time, I wasn’t sure why we cared that these people were having sex. So my verdict was that I didn’t like the movie, but I enjoyed the Red Carpet experience.

When the movie was over, we made the long walk back to the college. I did it all the way in heels. I was rather proud of myself. Usually I shed the shoes as soon as possible, but I did it all the way that night. Rachael was already asleep when I got back, so I had to be pretty quiet, it was like almost 2am. But that was my first trip, exciting business!