Monday, July 5, 2010

Bonjour! I am now in Paris and have been here happily for the last few days. The people here are wonderfully polite and helpful if you make the effort to try and speak a little French around them. I have already made a few friends here, and yesterday I visited the Louvre with one of them by the name of Clementine. She's from Hong Kong and just the niecest person to run around with.

My last night in London a few days ago was mxed with so sadness and exhiliration for moving on to a new city. I realy enjoyed my stay there and fell in love with the city, the people and the glimpse of the culture I witnessed while over there. Paris I'm happy to say though is equally wonderful. People here don't deserve the posh stereotype they are often stuck with. I haverecieced nothing but polite helpful responses to everything that I've had a question for.

If you make the effort to be humble and try to speak a little of the language people here warm up to yu and really do appreciate the effort and curiosity to know more about their culture. I really love how French feels to say. Two cultural differences I've noticed here are that people do not offer fake polite smiles wherever you go, I think the reasoning being that faking politeness is, well, rude. Another difference is people here stand a little owed to you more comfortably then in the US.

When I got of the train at Gare de Nord here in Paris is was a bit like walking into a different world. A little overwhelming but also a lot of fun. Most signs here havr an English subtitle and so moving around isn't that hard. Almost immediately after getting off the train at Gare de Nord a very cute Frenchman greeted me and asked me where I was from and where I was going. I replied that I Medes some help finding y hostel and he offered to hel and swung me into a local hotel.

The receptionist there very kindly pointed me in the right direction and off I went. This same guy then asked me to get a drink with him, for my phone number and a kiss. I laughed and said sorry I'm spoken for at the moment. He then insisted, hey, no boyfriend, this is Paris! I turned him down and he kindly thanked me and moved on just fine.

When I got to my hostel, called Le Village near Montmatre and Sacre Couer, which is a church on a very high hill. Sacre Couer means Holy Heart in French. I met this lovely and very polite French woman called Catherine, pronounced Cat-reen. And we became friends pretty much instantly. She informed me after a few minutes of talking that she was going to go grab something to eat. I asked if I could maybe join her and she laughed and said yes.

We visited Sacre Couer and walked around the lovely neighborhood of Montmatre we then stopped off at a lovely cafe nearby and got some crepes for dinner and talked a bit about our lives. Catherine is a teacher and lives in Stratsbourg France, in the NE near Luxembourg and Germany.

After this we went back to the Hostel, I asked Catherine a few questions about how to ask things in French. What some words meant, et. Etc etc! At the hostel I met this young lady from Hong Kong named Clementine. She was so very cool and funny and we also became instant friends. I have met a surprisingly comforting amont of women here in Europe who are traveling alone. It's been a blast meeting them all and I hope to make even more cool friends as my trip persists.

I can already feel myself changing immensy while I am here. The sense of resolute iron clad self confidence is wonderful. I feel now that I can handle any problem that comes my way and I'll be able to figure out how to get whatever I need to survive over here.

It's a little sad and weird to see things like McDonalds here in central Paris. It makes me want to go vomit on there doorsteps more precisely. The architecture here is beautiful and the showers are small, energy efficient and the water Berne is much much softer then in the USA. It doesn't tend to dry out my hair like it does in the US. The food is also naturally more filling. Also, people here are well dressed, healthy and slim, because everyone here walks everywhere instead of driving.

The Metro system in Paris is to die for with how efficient it is. Althouh one needs to watch out for pick pockets on the Subway.

Yesterday I visited the Louvre with Clementine and we spent literally the whole day wandering around the Museum. I got to see the Mona Lisa and a few other very famous works of art. Whoever said that the Louvre was huge really was not kidding. I spent eight hours in there and felt like I missed about 50 percent of what's there!

My camera ran out of batteries about halfway through the museum, which Iaughed at. Then afte seeing the Mona Lisa Clementine's camera did the same thing. Later we took a river cruise down and took a very quick witness of all the sites. I think today I am going to go visit Notre Dame, the Mussee D'orsay and the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps I'll also buy some ticket to an Opera later this week if they're not too expensive.

Wish me luck all, au revoir!

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like you hare having a wonderful time! Yea, those 12 year old smokers, pick pockets and flirty guys do happen in a lot of European cities. They think tourist are easy targets. So keep an eye on your purse, charge your batteries and have more fun!!! I'm glad things haven't changed too much in 7 years, since I was there in '03. <3!

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  2. I’m glad to know that at least someone in Paris really does use the “affairs in Paris don’t count” line.

    These entries are wonderful to read! Much love and hugs! I wish I were there with you!

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