WOOO!!!!

IT JUST STARTED TO SNOW!!! It was quite the pretty morning, and I was walking around and such but then I came back and I sat down at my desk and there was pretty much a blizzard outside for a good five minutes, but now it's stopped. But there was snow. And there still is a little bit of snow on the ground.

FINALLY, I have something awesome to write about

I went out to get lunch a couple of hours ago. There was this bistro near the metro stop that I wanted to try that looked really good when I walked by it before, so I looked it up online (it's called "Le Verre Siffleur" by metro Alésia) and I saw they have a Sunday brunch and that pretty much made my decision to go there.

Anyway, I had to go to the bank first because I was low on cash, so I took the tram to go to the bank by the metro stop. The tram was surprisingly crowded with old women and rowdy teenagers for a Sunday afternoon, but nothing exceptional. I did the normal thing--popped my earbuds in and shut out the crowd.

So the tram pulls up to the stop and I hop out and hurry across the street to beat the crowd and head over to the ATM, jamming to my iPod, and put in my card and stuff when this teenager (who I saw on the tram) sticks his newspaper in front of the ATM screen and is like, "Can you withdraw some money for me so I can eat?"

I'm thinking, "Shit. Do I really have to deal with this?" and then his twelve year-old buddy comes up and they start reaching in and trying to push buttons and I'm pushing them away but there're two of them and one of me so eventually they manage to push enough buttons to make me withdraw 300€. So at that point, I can't really cancel the operation anymore, so I take my card out and grab the cash before they can, then I run down towards the metro station because they start swinging at me.

Anyway, I made it down to the turnstiles, but not before the little guy catches me once in the face so I end up standing in front of a few dozen French people with a bleeding nose and bit of a fat lip. Two of them were nice enough to offer me help, but by then those two would-be-mugger assholes had run off and I just wanted to clean up my nose and get brunch, which is exactly what I did.

And now, after a wonderful lunch (of scrambled eggs, bacon, a smoked salmon sandwich, fruit salad, fresh squeezed orange juice and a coffee), I am left with 282€, a bloody handkerchief, and a pretty decent story to tell.

Not too much trip left

My parents are gone and now I'm eating like a student again. Such a shame (thank you, parents).

I went to Chartres this morning to see the cathedral. It was pretty and old, but it was also like spending time in a refrigerator so it was kind of hard to concentrate on anything.

Ugh

I don't feel like updating this at all so I'm just going to gloss over some things that happened in the last week.

I went to Besançon for my internship and so I saw how travel shows get made and now I'm much less impressed with travel shows.

My parents are in town and I've been hanging out with them and going to museums and eating at pretty nice restaurants and now I feel moderately fat from eating so much the last few days.

Gloss.

San Francisco Giants, World Champions

Not really anything else awesome going on.

It's Monday today

We didn't have school today because it's Toussaint, which is more or less like Dia de los Muertos but without the awesome sugar skulls. My sleep schedule is all messed up because I've been staying up to listen to the radio broadcast of the Giants games, so I got up at noon today and went to find lunch in the 13th arrondissement, because that's where I read that there were Chinese restaurants and I've been craving Chinese food. So I found this little place and it was fine, but not awesome. Anyway at least I know where there're Chinese restaurants now, so I can try to find somewhere that's good.

The last few days have been a little bit of a bust. Staying up until four or five in the morning is not a good way to get things done. So pretty much the only things that I have to write about from the last few days are times when I went out to find food after waking up late. And studying for the GRE. Studying is not really the right term, actually, so I'm going to go with "browsing a GRE prep book." Turns out that there's pretty much nothing hard about the GRE, as far as I can tell, so I'm not really stressing out about it anymore.

I went to Breafast in America for dinner last night. It's this diner that's run by American people and they serve regular diner food. It was nice to be somewhere that felt a little more like home. Also I was craving that kind of food. Anyway it's a good restaurant and I really enjoy diner food so I'm probably gonna head back later this week and get a patty melt or something, because you definitely can't get that anywhere else.

It also happened to be Halloween last night, which French people don't actually celebrate (in terms of going out and getting candy from the neighbors), but I saw a few people dressed up around town. There was a pirate in the metro and a group of vampires sitting under a tree in the park, and this girl that looked like she might've been dressed up as Alice from Alice in Wonderland but I wasn't really sure. There were also a fair number of people with devil horns and little stuff like that. And a guy in a Michael Jackson mask. Yeah...

Skipping back to last Friday, the six of us who live at the Fondation des Etats-Unis (plus one) had a taco night. It was a successful gathering and a semi-successful meal. If I can make one recommendation for people shopping in Paris in October, it's to not buy avocados. They are not good. And if I can make one recommendation to the people who did the shopping for our taco night, it's to buy more food when you know there're seven people to feed. But you live and learn, I guess. It was the best night ever, everything was great.

So the Giants are up 3-1 in the World Series, and even though I have to be up at nine tomorrow morning to go to my internship, I'm going to stay up and listen to the broadcast because I would be terribly disappointed if I missed the Giants winning.

Allez Géants!

I went to the opera last night. We saw The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart but the behind-the-scenes opera workers were on strike so there weren't really any sets or lighting or stuff. I have no idea why the opera workers are on strike too, but the performers and the orchestra and stuff was all good so it was overall a very enjoyable experience.

Not too much else is going on in Paris. However, aux Etats-Unis, the Giants have now won the first two games of the World Series. I bought myself an MLB.tv postseason account so I can listen to the games at night (my internet is too bad to actually watch them), so the last two nights have been nights of not a whole lot of sleep. (First pitch is at 2am here.) So I'm happy about that, and it always makes it just a little bit easier to wake up in the morning. I'm also wearing my Giants cap around Paris. Gotta represent.

So anyway the grève continues and it is eternally not ideal commuting conditions, but it works out. We had a cathedral class lecture at the Basilique St. Denis on Wednesday and it was really pretty even though it was out in the banlieue and really cold. So yeah. Not too much going on.

It just seems kind of necessary

I have no reason in particular to be writing this post but it seems like everyone else who's written anything about Paris has written it up, so I feel like I probably should too.

I went to L'As du Fallafel ("the ace of falafel," rue des Rosiers, 75004) on Sunday with a bunch of other people. That was probably like the fifth time I'd been there since coming here. Anyway, it's by far and away the best falafel I've ever had, so I've been going back at least once a week. I don't really have anything particularly interesting to say about it except that it's damn good and I want it in my belly right now.

Also it's way better if you get to sit down inside. So wait for a table.

In other news, I've spent all the money I was allotted for food this month, so now I'm spending my own money and I'm finally realizing how badly I'm getting screwed over by the exchange rate. Prices aren't so bad when you look at them in euros but once you do the conversion--WOW. I feel like eating canned soup and baguettes. Except I'm not going to. I am in France, I will continue to eat delicious French food while I can. Like L'As du Fallafel.

Wandering

I went wandering around near Les Halles looking for lunch today and, while I eventually found lunch, I also found lots of other crazy stuff. I'm going to number the things because I can't creatively organize them right now.

1) There was a PETA protest. I think they were protesting torturing dogs or something, because they had pictures of dogs in little cages and stuff, and a bunch of the protesters were walking dogs. It turns out that PETA is equally annoying wherever you go. Maybe even more so in France because people like protesting so much.

2) A mad stylish shopping arcade. I don't really know where it was, but I walked into this beautiful arcade somewhere in the 2nd arrondisment and it was full of fancy boutiques and tea shops and bookstores and such. The Jean-Paul Gaultier boutique was there, too. Then I left and I realized that I was right next to the place we went for our welcome dinner last time I was here (le Grand Colbert), but I didn't get lunch there because it was too expensive. Anyway le Grand Colbert is now my reference for finding my way back there if I need to.

3) I happened upon the Palais Royal, with all of its designer boutiques and stylish people, as well. I took a stroll through there, admiring the clothes in the windows and the clothes on the nearly-as-well-dressed people wandering through the galleries. There were also lots of beautiful young families with babies in designer clothes in the park and I decided that it would be really nice to be excessively rich.

4) I found what appeared to be some sort of Japan Town right next to the Palais Royal, and I got myself a bowl of ramen for lunch there. It was pretty good. There were a couple restaurants that had lines out the door that also made ramen, but I didn't really want to wait so I went to another restaurant just down the street and it was still of an acceptable quality and I didn't have to wait. Anyway I was impressed by the number of Japanese restaurants over there.

5) I found another beautiful shopping arcade (not as beautiful as the first one but still pretty). This one had the Christian Louboutin boutique in it. I just happened to find a really, really, really expensive area, I guess. Anyway there were lots of cool little shops in there too. One of them was a stringed-instrument shop, so I went in and the Lady was death-staring me the whole time so I left pretty fast because I felt awkward.

6) I had no idea how big Les Halles is. It's like any other mall in the US except it's full of French people and French stores. Really full. Like at Christmas or Boxing Day or something (it is Saturday, but still a surprising number of people). Anyway I thought about looking for a scarf or something but I decided against it because I'm cheap and didn't want to bother going shopping.

On an unrelated note, I went ice skating last night with a few people from ISEP and a few people from Stanford. Turns out that there's a significant number of French boys that really like to show off their skating skills, so we had to deal with a bunch of people speeding around the rink and cutting us off and doing stupid stuff. It was still fun though, except my feet really hurt.

And thaaaaaaaat's about it.

It's not High School Musical 3, but...

They're filming some kind of TV show in one of the other buildings here. I noticed it because I saw a bunch of cop cars and red tape by one of the buildings and I thought that someone got killed or something, but then I realized the giant lights and cameras and I was somewhat less excited (though still intrigued). So anyway I kind of want to figure out what TV show it is, but (just like aux Etats-Unis) there're a ton of cop shows here.

In terms of the rest of the week, there was just a lot of school-doing and such. Nothing too exciting that I can think of, except that I went to get sushi on Wednesday because I was craving Asian food. Not that exciting, I know, but it was pretty good quality stuff so I'm happy with it.

It's also been getting progressively colder, which is somewhat nice because that's what I prepared for clothes-wise, but also not that awesome because it's cold.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Bing,

You guys are awesome. Here's a rundown of the extended weekend you funded for us.

First of all, to no fault of your own, the strikes continue. Because of this, we had to take an earlier train than originally planned, which resulted in two wonderful things: first, classes in the afternoon were cancelled, and second, we got an extra dinner in Annecy. Awesome. The strikes are still going, but it's cool not as bad as it was before, so I'm not tooooooo upset about it.

Anyway, the train ride was entirely pleasant and it was quite wonderful to go in first-class fashion. On our arrival we were pleased to find that we had free wifi in the hotel, despite our beds being placed awkwardly close together. Hotel breakfast was also quite good, but I feel like that must just be the French way. I like that aspect of the French way.

Instead of doing things in order I'm going to first describe my meals and then go on to the rest of the stuff because the meals were really good as well. I know you had nothing to do with this except the funding (for which I am very grateful), but I'm including this anyway because this is not actually intended for you but for me.

Dinner 1 (Les Chineurs de la Cuisine. Annecy. Thursday night): Big group of people goes to a place recommended in the packet that Roberto gives us. Place is out of people's price range (more than we're given to spend). People split up into two groups to choose a place to eat. People choose a crappy-looking place to eat. I choose my own place to eat.  Dinner is delicious. Fried-whole little fish, roasted filet of big fish from the local lake. Yum.

Breakfast 1 (Hotel. Annecy. Friday morning): One croissant with jam. One chocolate croissant. Café au lait. One more chocolate croissant. Café au lait. Croissant. Water. Yum.

Lunch 1 (Chez Ingall's. Annecy. Friday noon): Small group of people goes to a place recommended in the packet that Roberto gives us. Place is within people's price range (still more than we're given to spend). Popular lunch spot, hip, wealthy-looking crowd. Scallops wrapped in bacon. Pumpkin soufflé. Ratatouille. Rice pilaf. Tart Tatin. Yum.

Dinner 2 (Le Freti. Annecy. Friday night): The whole group goes to a place chosen by Roberto. Wine. Cheese in the form of fondue. Cheese in the form of raclette. Cheese for two hours. Sorbet. Thank god for no cheese course. Yum. Also, ugh.

Breakfast 2 (Hotel. Annecy. Saturday morning): See Breakfast 1. Minus the last croissant.

Lunch 2 (Chalet La Pricaz. Col de la Forclaz. Saturday noon.) The whole group gets off a bus and goes into a restaurant with a nice view. There's lots of fog. There's no view. Kir. Wine. Squash soup with nutmeg whipped cream. Filet o' fish on top of vegetables. Blueberry tart with rum-raisin ice cream. Meh.

Snacktime 1 (Reblochon farm. Le Bouchet Nord. Saturday afternoon): Whole group gets off a bus and goes to Denis Bastard Rosset's cheese farm. Hahaha. See newborn cow. See adult cows. See cheese. Taste cheese. Wow, cheese. Yum.

Dinner 3 (Le Bistro de Rhône. Annecy. Saturday night): Big group goes to a place recommended in the packet. Restaurant is in the Michelin Guide. Restaurant is out of some people's price range; they leave. Remainder of group tries to get a table. Just kidding you need a reservation. Remainder of group looks for another place recommended in the packet, finds other part of group there. Wine. Beef tail terrine. Veal with mushrooms and mashed squash. Poached pears. Yum.

Breakfast 3 (Hotel. Annecy. Sunday morning): See Breakfast 2. Substitute hot chocolate for café au lait.

Lunch 3 (Chez Colli? Aix-les-Bains. Sunday afternoon): Whole group goes to a sandwich place. Sandwiches look crappy. Group minus JW goes on a boat ride. JW gets lunch. Spaghetti bolognese. Café gourmand. Yum.

Dinner 3 (Pizza truck. Paris 14e. Sunday night.): There's a pizza truck outside the RER station. Pizza with anchovies, capers, olives. Yum. This does not count as Bing trip.

We also went on an interesting tour of Annecy, a bike ride along a lake to an interesting tour of an old, famous bell museum/factory, listened to a lady sing while accompanied by bells, rode bikes back to the hotel, did a bus tour, saw some pretty scenery, did a not-bus tour of Aix-les-Bains, and went (or in my case did not go) on a boat ride. Then we rushed away on a train for which we did not have reservations and came back to Paris.

Good weekend.

Quick update

I'm working on a presentation so this is really just me procrastinating a little bit, but I'm going to try to keep it short so I'm not REALLY procrastinating too much.

The program took us to see Molière's "L'Avare" on Monday night, courtesy of the wonderful Mr. and Mrs. Bing.  It was at the Comédie Française, which is big and famous and old. I'd already been to a show there (because I'm special/already did a quarter here), but it was cool nonetheless. The play is about this old guy who's a miser and his kids who want to get married and the miser (l'avare means "greed" as well as "miser") meddles in their business because that's what patriarchs did back in Molière's day. It was confusing, as plays tend to be when you don't understand what people are saying, but still enjoyable.

Last night was the info session for the Bing trip this weekend, for which I am pretty psyched now. (The Bing's also fund a trip for us to another part of France so everyone gets to experience more than just Paris while they're here. We're going to Savoie (Savoy to all you), in the eastern part of France right next to Switzerland at the base of the Alps, so we're gonna see some lakes and cities and mountains and dairies and bell factories, apparently. Anyway it seems like it'll be fun but I'll write about that more when it happens.

In other news, there's a transportation strike going on right now and it's making everyone's life more difficult. Hopefully it doesn't continue and affect our trip this weekend, because we're taking the train and there's a chance that they might cancel our train, which would be really irritating.

That's about it, so now I'm going to try to work more.

Merde

I stepped in it. It must be inevitable. I've spent more than a hundred days in Paris, counting last time, and probably walked more than two hundred miles, and finally, at long last, I have stepped in a pile of dog poop.

Anyway, I've done some legitimately touristy things here in the last few days. Yesterday morning I went to the Musée des Arts Decoratifs, which is this privately owned museum attached to the Louvre. They had this show about 1970s-1980s couture so a bunch of us Stanford folk did a tour of that. Our tourguide had a glass eye, which was moderately creepy, but she seemed to know her stuff and she was wearing an all-denim skirt suit. And she was giving a tour about fashion. What? Yes that really happened.

I also went to Versailles this afternoon with a group of students and Stanford alumni who now live Paris. They have a club and a debate team that competes with other American university alumni groups in Paris. (cool?) So, being a fancy-shmancy Stanford group and all, we got a private tour of some parts of Versailles that other people don't get to see, like the opera that Louis XVI built and this private chapel and this room exclusively for the King's hunting dogs that also happens to be bigger than my bedroom at home.

There was also this modern art exhibition at Versailles that reminded me a lot of this. But really it was this. It also happens to be the same artist that did these. Oh, French people, you like such weird artwork. (I recommend clicking on all of those links.)

So a couple other things also happened. They are not particularly exciting, but I'm going to write about them anyway because I'm trying to keep track of what I've been up to.

First, I started my internship yesterday. Turns out that Point du Jour is considerably larger than I though (like 40 people instead of 5), and that I probably will have to do a good deal more work than I expected before. That's cool though, because it seems like it's going to be pretty cool and I'm essentially working on a travel show, which is not a bad thing to be working on as far as I can tell. I also might get to go on a shoot with them somewhere in France.

The other thing that happened is that I went to this French guy's apartment last night because he was having a party for a bunch of the ISEP kids and Stanford kids. It was pretty sweet. The apartment was balling, and in a baller neighborhood as well (on rue de la Roquette, right near Bastille and all these sweet bars and restaurants). Anyway it was not actually that special because it was pretty similar to an American house party except there was hella cigarette smoke inside, and it was in an apartment. Go figure, it's France. Also I stepped in dog poop on the way back from that. Lame.

Another really not important thing that happened is that I actually tried the third-best baguette in Paris. It was good. Maybe the best baguette will be spectacular.

So now it is Saturday evening and I'm going to go find food. It will not be a baguette.

Bell pepper ice cream

Métro Ledu-Rollin. Bistro des Peintres. Tarte Tatin d'aubergine, glace de poivron rouge. Quality.


I am now officially doing an internship with a small production company called Point du Jour (http://www.pointdujour.fr/index.php?page=101) working on this show called Amis d'en France. It's more or less a travel show hosted by this American expat and a French guy. Pretty cool, I think. The name of the show is a play on words, which the French are apparently super enthusiastic about (amis d'en France ~ ami's d'enfance, meaning "childhood friends").


Anyway, I went to Notre Dame today for class and learned about it. It was interesting. There's a lot more that goes into a church than you realize just by looking at it. Maybe not so much more than if you looked at it really carefully and you thought about all the details, but more than I had previously realized at the very least. So now I'm considerably more impressed by that. Also medieval construction in general.


I feel like my blog is lacking pictures, so here's a picture that someone else took of Notre Dame on a much prettier day than today:

It's all so French...

I went on a walk yesterday after lunch with this other guy who lives in the Fondation. We walked from our metro stop to the Stanford center, which figures to be about two or three miles according to Google Earth. We went a not-totally-ideal way, but we saw some pretty cool stuff, including this park right next to the Luxembourg gardens with a big fountain and a nice view of the Senate building. The trees in the park were all trimmed into the shape of T's, which was pretty funny. There were also ping pong tables there. I don't know why, but it just seemed super French. I liked it.

We also found another market street just one stop away on the RER and there were tons of people selling all kinds of vegetables and fish and cheese and cookwares and stuff. This one seemed way more legit. There were also a few brasseries and bistros along the street, so we went back there for dinner and I got a really good duck confit with mushrooms and potatoes. I'm not normally a fan of mushrooms but these were pretty good.

Also, I went to an ISEP party in the basement of some bar near Odéon. It was, quite surprisingly, a lot like an awkward frat party. Lots of drunk people, all the girls grinding up on each other, half guys trying to get with the girls and the other half of the guys being loud or just being awkward, then a couple people making out in the corner. And the song the everybody was the most into was Empire State of Mind. Super funny. The only different thing is that at any given time, half the people would be outside smoking cigarettes. Typical French.

Anyway I met a random guy from the Sorbonne when I was there and I think my French was semi-passable. That's the good thing that came out of the night. The other not so good things that came out of the night were finding out about Stanford football and the Giants losing. Lame.

I love naps

Naps are wonderful.

That is all I really need to say.

Wait, what's school?

Turns out that there're classes in Paris too. Hasn't been so bad--I've been shopping a course on Tintin and I'm taking a class about cathedrals and the Middle Ages. I also had French class today which seems normal enough. Anyway I'm probably going to drop the Tintin class and do an internship in some sort of French media and an independent study about French phonetics, so I'm looking at 3 days of class (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) plus meetings at random times. It's looking like a pretty fun quarter of academics, at the very least, as it very well should be in my opinion.

With classes underway, I'm more or less settled down to life here. Been wandering around and doing a little bit more exploring--I went to the 15th arrondissement today for an internship thing and there was a giant farmers'-market-plus-clothing-plus-random-housewares-stalls thing along the whole street. They were selling tomatoes and fish and cheese and meat and DVDs and underwear and all kinds of stuff. It was super random but it was also pretty cool just walking by all the stuff.

Anyway, I was over there because I'm in the process of transcribing this guy's interview in a French documentary about the history of RKO studios. The guy they interviewed is Joe Dante, who directed one of the most excellent films of all time, Gremlins. Just kidding about the most excellent film part, but not about him being the director of Gremlins. How they chose to interview this guy, I don't know, but it's a moderately interesting subject for a documentary so it's pretty cool to just watch it.

We also met our language partners yesterday. I got paired up with this girl who seems pretty cool, but anyway a bunch of us Americans and a bunch of them French people went out together so I didn't actually hang out with her that much, but I got to hang with a bunch of other French people which was definitely fun. So we went and got beers and wine and stuff at the supermarché and then took it all over to the Eiffel Tower and hung out on the lawns there and chatted about n'importe quoi. Then I went to MacDo and discovered that the fries in France are not nearly as salty as they are in the States and therefore are not nearly as good, either.

So it's getting close to the first weekend and it looks like there might be a transit strike, so I'm staying put this weekend, more or less. Time to walk around and find a good café, I guess?

Ben Affleck isn't always a wet towel

I was pleasantly surprised by The Town. I was even more surprised when the credits rolled up and it said "Directed by Ben Affleck." Maybe there's a director in Hollywood that I've never heard of that's also named Ben Affleck; it's the only reasonable explanation for that movie not being a total trainwreck. Or maybe he has some grain of talent hidden somewhere under all that sucking.

So after the movie, (the six of us at la fondation all went), we went to try out the dinner at the Resto U (it's like a regular dining hall, but a thousand times worse). It's absurdly cheap, cuz you can get a meal for 3 Euros, but it's also the worst 3 Euros you'll ever spend on food. Anyway, I tried to eat there but it was unbearably bad so I went off on my own to find a real meal. The way I see it is that you don't come to Paris to eat in a cafeteria, and if you did, then there's something wrong with you.

The search for a restaurant turned into a very pleasant walk around the park next to the Cité U (Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, if you cared), which turned out to be really pretty and a good find. There was a big pond with a bunch of birds in it, and I happened to walk by a two of those birds doing it on a log, which was pretty funny. Truly a city of love. So it's a nice park and I might go hang out there during the day if I've got some reading to do and the weather's nice outside.

I found a real restaurant near the metro station which was of acceptable quality and got a real dinner, which was really the first traditional French non-breakfast I've had since I arrived. Duck confit, wine. Solid. The meal tasted particularly good because I was not only eating proper food, but I was saving my self-respect at the same time. Maybe it's kind of pretentious for me to say so, but I like to think that I have some kind of integrity regarding the kind of food I eat.

(Sidenote: I love Jack in the Box, taco stands, and Bugles filled with Kraft Easy Cheese, but I would not eat the food at the Resto U. Think of me what you will.)

Today we did the rest of our orientation stuff. It was not particularly interesting because I already knew everything we covered, but it's nice to be back in the centre and feeling like school is getting under way. I also got an excellent lunch at this boulangerie, so I'm being progressively more satisfied by the food. Good thing, because the first several meals were not so impressive. I'm hoping to find another good dinner tonight, even if that means eating by myself again.

Just as a cultural observation, I feel like it is way less weird to eat by yourself in Paris than it is in the States. I see a much larger proportion of people in restaurants dining alone. Particularly old men. But if this is the case, maybe this is not such a good thing after all?

Anyway, we've now gotten through the first weekend and pretty much all of the orientation activities, we've got our bank accounts set up and our NaviGo passes charged, and I'm finally ready to face Paris like a real Parisian. Or maybe not a real Parisian, but at the very least I'm ready to go like an American student who's already spent a quarter in Paris.

Round 2

It's getting close to 3pm and I've been settling in at la Fondation des Etats-Unis for just about a day now. Got my own room, nice view, pretty close to a movie theater and some supermarkets and cafés and such. It looks like it's a pretty decent place to live and I'm living with pretty decent people as I've seen so far.

SO, here's a really quick recap of the past few days. I got on a plane on Thursday morning and had an entirely uneventful trip to Paris, arriving Friday morning; it's kind of like Thursday didn't exist because I didn't really do anything except sit for fifteen hours, then I ended up in a different time zone so it worked out to be what is kind of like a whole day. But I got to Paris and RER'd in to the hostel where we had orientation which was also entirely uneventful (because I've done it all before).

Anyway, I'm now in my room, I've got three bottles of wine and a jar of nutella, some cookies, juice and other some other snacks and I'm feeling right back in the groove of being in Paris. It's pretty cool to be able to just jump right in this time, but it's also pretty weird because I'm old and jaded and everyone else is pumped and wants to go out and I'm like, "non merci, je suis trop fatigué et trop vieux." Dommage. I showed some people over to the Quartier Latin on Friday night cuz they wanted to go get food then go out drinking but then I just went back to the hostel and slept.

Saturday was more orientation, which was even less eventful than the first day but then I moved in here which was pretty cool because I've never been to this part of Paris before. I walked around some this morning and got un café et un croissant for breakfast at a little café qui s'appelle le Rouge Pomme. This old French guy came in while I was there and said, "Bonjour" to the barman and the barman automatically got him his order of a café au lait, a glass of water and a croissant. I want that to happen for me. Maybe I'll start going there more often.

Since moving in here I've been settling in and catching up on emails and such, and all the kids who're staying here (there're six of us) went out for dinner last night and found some random Italian restaurant near St Michel which was pretty good.

I've also been waking up really early, which is kind of annoying but also maybe a good thing that I might try to get used to because I can totally get stuff done when I wake up early. Like today I got up at seven-ish and went out and got myself breakfast and went to the supermarché and stuff all before 11. Anyway the RER goes right under my building so that also contributes to the waking up. We'll see if it lasts.

So that's about it. I'm probably going to the cinéma later to see The Town with a bunch of other kids from the Fond, then maybe braving the crappy 3 euro cafeteria. Hopefully I'm pleasantly surprised?

Vroom vroom vroom, vroom, vroom. I love NASCAR.

United Airlines has a pretty lousy selection of music and
entertainment. I'm skipping through channels during my flight and I
come across the Middle America channel. They're playing a country song
(by a mystery artist--tell me if you figure out who it is so I can
send them hatemail) that goes "Vroom vroom vroom, vroom vroom. I love
NASCAR."

Seriously? You can't come up with something better than that? Probably
not, since you love NASCAR...

Anyway, I'm going back to Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. Wooooooo iPod!

I'll be back...

I'm going back to Paris in the fall. So awesome. I don't really have anything to say about it right now but I'm excited.

Look for actual, meaty, full-of-juicy-goodness updates in the future, probably starting in August or September.