Paris!

We arrived in Paris yesterday by the train.  We didn't get to Paris until 4:00 in the afternoon because of all this other stuff we had to do earlier.  When we finally arrived and were able to drop our bags off at our hotel, we went out with Dr. Morgan who showed us these small indoor mall-like shops and then let us walk our on our own, which was really scary since Paris is HUGE and none of us really knew what we wanted to do or how to do it.  But we had a map and were able to figure out how to get to the Sacre-Coeur.  It took about 15 minutes for us to walk there, but we got there eventually and then climbed up all the stairs to the top.  We could see most of the city from up there, which was really cool, and we got to see a Catholic mass going on the church that was being conducted in French.  We came in just in time to hear the Lord's Prayer in French.  It was a really cool experience.  I'd been to the Sacre-Coeur before, but I'd never seen a mass there, so I'm glad I got to see that.  On our way down the stairs from the Sacre-Coeur, our group was accosted by a group of Jamaicans who made bracelets for us out of colorful string and then tried to get us to pay 8 euros for them.  I told my Jamaican no, but everyone else ended up paying for their bracelets.  The most that was paid was 4 euros, but that was still really overpriced.  We then went back to the area where our hotel was and had dinner--I ate escargot, and it was really good.  Then we went back to the hotel for a while and rested, and then at 11:30, Katie, Elizabeth, Roz, Monika, and I all went out to find bars to go to, and ended up finding a place called Cafe Oz that was full of people and music.  It was really great to be able to walk in and order drinks without anyone caring about how old we all were.  Everyone in the club was just sitting around drinking--a couple of people were dancing but there wasn't really an area of the club where people were dancing with each other.  There was mostly just drinking and mingling.  So 3 of us ordered some rum and cokes and sat down and just enjoyed the music and atmosphere.  Eventually a guy came up behind me and started talking to me about how much he liked my butt, lol.  It was really interesting because he didn't even introduce himself.  All he did was talk about my butt to me in front of everyone else, so it was really kind of awkward.  And then he walked off.  It was funny, but I was kind of just experiencing that emotion between being happy that I was complimented but then embarrassed about how that compliment came about.  Now it's just funny.

Today we went to the Assemblee Nationale and then explored the Latin Quarter and Les Jardins des Plantes.  There were lots of gorgeous flowers there, and there was also a small zoo near it.  We saw ostriches and baby deer.  We then ate lunch at a little cafe, which had really great food.  I had a salad with goat cheese and I managed to spill my water all over Dr. Morgan while I was talking with my glass in my hand.  Oops.  After lunch, we went to the Pantheon, La Sorbonne (which is a university in France), the church of St. Etienne, and the Museum de Cluny.  After that, we were on our own, so Katie, Elizabeth, and I went to the Centre de George Pompidou, which is a really awesome modern art museum that not only houses modern art, but even it's architecture is very different.  It was really cool to go inside and experience the cool architecture of the building as well as see the works of art.  Most were really strange--especially the canvas that was painted a solid navy blue.  If that constitutes as art then I feel that could be my plan B in life.  I'll just be the first person to paint a canvas completely yellow--bright yellow.  Hopefully that will earn me a nice share to take care of my living expenses.  After the Centre Pompidou we took the metro to the Champs-Elysees and took pictures at the Arc de Triomphe.  We then walked down the Champs-Elysees and saw the biggest Louis Vuitton store.  The inside literally looked like a Louis Vuitton heaven--it was actually really pretty.  We also got to see some interesting characters--like the woman with reddish-pink hair in the skin-tight cheetah print capris and matching top combined with a fur collared jacket in the same cheetah print pattern.  She must've been well off (or at least her husband was) because I'm just guessing that must be the reason she feels she can pull that off.  I think that's interesting how riches can end up making certain people stand out in that really unattractive way.  

After the Champs-Elysees we went back to the hotel and rested because we'd pretty much been on our feet for 9 hours.  Our feet were so sore.  After resting for an hour, we ate at a little chinese restaurant next to our hotel, which was very authentic despite it being in France, and the chinese waiters and waitresses were very fluent in French.  Funny how that works out.  

So that's what I've done so far in Paris.  More updates to come...whenever I can get Internet access.