Bonjour

Upon requests of some family members, I have started this blog, so y’all can keep up with me. I’ll start with the background- it’s from my trip to Guatemala over Spring Break. That trip was fantastic. I fell in love with Central America. It was beautiful everywhere, somehow even in all of the poverty.  I hope I can go back soon to there or to any other country down there. Plus, it will put my Spanish to use.

Last week, I was in Paris. It was surreal. Before Guatemala, I hadn’t really left the United States (of course, I’m not counting the few tourist spots in Mexico I had been to). Now for the second time in three months, I was leaving the country, and this time I also left the Americas. Crazy! So we made it onto our first flight to Boston perfectly. No problems, completely on time. We got off of the plane and asked the people at the desk where we should go, and they kindly pointed us in the direction of the international terminal. So we hop on the bus and go to Terminal E to find out it is only American Airlines arrivals. Realizing that we didn’t have much time until our next flight left, we had to sprint through two terminals in order to make it to the right place, which we figured out was six gates away from where we landed. We were the last ones on the plan and even had to kick some standby people out of our seats, but we made it, which was the important thing.

I went on this trip with my friend Shannon, whom I serve with on the Exec. Committee of one of my sororities, and her friend from Spanish class Will. I only met him a month before the trip, and even at that, saw him only twice. He led us to believe that he spoke French, which is the reason why we decide on Paris. Since we already had to buy the tickets to Europe, we figured we should get the most out of it (for the record, my parents didn’t go for the three month, see all of Europe idea). At some point on the flight, he admitted to us that he doesn’t really speak French. We have minor heart attacks and think of the worst. Skipping ahead, when we got to the hotel, he walks up to the reception desk and speaks perfectly, at least in our opinions, and all I know is that we got our room and he preceded to speak for us around Paris.

Here’s what we did:

Day 1: Jardin des Plantes, Panthéon, Palais et Jardin du Luxemboura, Palais de Justice, a lot of walking around and just looking at the city, and a nap at our hotel Hotel Europe St. Sevérin Paris (which was about three blocks away from Notre Dame, pretty sweet, huh?)

Day 2: The Louvre, Carrousel, Jardin des Tuileries, Obelisque, La Madeleine, Colonne Venôme, Opera Garnier, Avenue des Champs Elysées (which has amazing shopping, so if only I would have had a few g’s to drop), and Arc de Triomphe

Day 3: Tour Eiffel, Versailles, and Fontaine St. Michel

Day 4: Notre Dame, and then a train ride to the airport to catch our flight to Madrid

Interesting Notes from the trip:

1)   The French don’t like Americans, and their machines don’t like our cards, especially in the metro stations (which as an alternative only take coins, not bills)

2)   They will not let you take a picture of the US Embassy

3)   The elevator might be broken when you visit Arc de Triomphe, and almost 300 stairs seems like a lot, that is until you climb to the top of the Towers of Notre Dame (and luckily it worked at the Eiffel Tower)

4)   The Louvre is ultra overwhelming. I’m not sure how we did it in 5 hours, but we did.

5)   If my mom won’t buy me David Crowder’s house, then the least she could do is buy my Marie Antoinette’s apartments at Versailles.

6)   Will preceded to go to sleep between 6 and 7 pm and not wake up until we woke him up the next morning two out of the three nights we were there (and the first night he only went to dinner after taking a six hour nap, who does that in Paris?)

7)   They really like their ham and cheese sandwiches. I don’t.

8)   The city is beautiful, but I would never want to live there.

9)   Cars will get as absolutely close to you when you’re crossing the street, but never give up your right of way as a pedestrian.

10)                   I really don’t speak French, and I left with- Bonjour, bonne journée, merci, and oui.

Well I’m in Spain now, but I’ll get that update up soon. It’s a little bit harder to find internet around here.