Bonjour Paris!

So the first day in Paris was spent walking around getting accustomed to Europe and the metro and whatnot. I didn't have much fun. But the next day I enjoyed much more. It started out by taking a walk to the Eiffel Tower with a girl in the program named Heidi. But we didn't know how to get there and we weren't about to use a map! So we wandered around for a while until eventually we found it! It was pretty neat and really big!! After that we went our separate ways because she had something to do. So I walked by the river for a while and it was really nice. No one really bothered me or anything. I just got to walk. There were however 2 "incidents". The first time happened and I didn't really know what was going on.

Here's the story: I was walking along the river and in front of me a woman bends down and picks up a gold ring she found on the ground. She walks up to me and asks, in English, "is this gold?" I said "I don't know". She kept asking me that and then wanted to give it to me and I refused. What do I want with a stupid gold band? She really wouldn't take no for an answer. So after saying it about 20 times I ended up walking away.

Later on in the day and further down the river a man in front of me bends down and picks up the same looking gold ring and attempts to approach me but I did not give him a second glance. He was like "Sir! Hey!" and he even tried to whistle but I wasn't gonna waste my time. It wasn't until after I told the story back at the hostel that someone said they probably were pick pocketers which makes a lot sense. Fortunately, I kick booty-butt so I foiled their schemes!

So continuing on with my walk, I saw a lot of cool statues, the Arc du Triumph (from afar) the obelisk (awesome) Notre Dame (huge) and a holocaust memorial. So it was a very nice walk, long and alone. Then later that night a large group went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it up close when it was lit up. We also brought a bottle of wine to share. I opened it with a corkscrew but have never done it that way before. If you ever do, make sure you have it on a sturdy surface. I was just holding it so it spilled all over one side of my pants, on my shirt, and a little on my jacket. That made me a little peeved. So I went to the bathroom to wash it off as well as I could but it was still a big stain and now with a big wet splotch so it looked like I peed myself... Awesomely, when I got back to my room I used my tide bleach pen and by morning the stain was gone. A good day.

On Sunday, I was going to go to a museum with a bunch of people but then some left early or something and it was whittled down to me and Jasmin. She was supposed to get me at 130 so I was waiting in my room reading.(Count of Monte Cristo; very different from the movie but I like it) I waited a long time, when I looked at the clock it was 215 so I was like oh, nice. I found out later she had taken a 3 hour nap. So I went for another walk this time around Le Jardin De Luxembourg. That was a nice walk too. I walked around looking at the art and listened to a community jazz band for a while. Ended up a pretty nice day.

On Monday a few of us went to visit the catacombs but when we got there, it was closed because all museums are closed on Mondays in Europe so bummer. Then we got lost on the way back, but not badly. That night 4 of us went out to eat with the advisers and Ian said he would buy me a beer so he did. I got some sort of Belgian ale that he said he tried and didn't like, but I liked it.

Tuesday, Carly and I went to the bus station because we are both going to London. So we hopped on the metro and got all the stuff worked out to hopefully have a smooth departure. On the way back, we stopped to find Jim Morrison's grave. It was hard to find because the graveyard wasn't put together quite logically so lot 79 was next to 28 but eventually we found it so that was cool to see. That evening a few of us went out with our advisers again and I had a 3 course meal that was 2/3 really good. The first course I had escargot, which is seafood so why wouldn't I like it? Then I had roasted leg of lamb with au gratin potatos, yum! However, for dessert, I tried to go European style and got saiette au trois fromages, three cheeses with a little salad. The salad was nice, but the cheese was...stinky. STINKY! icky. I started out with a brie which was fine, then moved to a type of goat cheese I think, not too bad either. But then I got to the last one, don't know what it was but it was TERRIBLE!!! I could barely get the piece I ate down. From then on I couldn't stomach the others and ended up giving up. It was bad, but still fun to try anyway!

On Wednesday, we successfully got to see the catacombs and that was nifty. 6 million Parisians are down there. That's a lot of bones... I got some creepy pictures of skulls and whatnot, so that was fun and kind of eerie. Then we came back to the foyer and I have been having a very relaxing afternoon reading on the terrace. Yet another lovely day!

I leave for London tomorrow. I will be taking the bus with Carly who is also going to London. We weren't sure how the bus got over the Channel but when we asked the bus people, they gave us a choice of a ferry of taking the chunnel. We didn't think that would be an option, but apparently it is. So hopefully around 2 o'clock tomorrow we'll be under the English Channel! I'll let you know how it goes.