"An American in Paris is, as they say, a story in itself: one need merely to posit it to have the idea of a narrative spring up, even if there is no narrative to tell." Adam Gopnik

So today was a long day!! I went to my first french cafe with Kelly, and it was an experience. I'm so glad I know french because no one there appeared to speak english. I managed to translate the menu and everything went well! I even asked for the bill and everything! It was scary but very satisfying.

After lunch we got to go on a bus tour of Paris. It was raining so it was a little hard to see sometimes and the traffic was awful, but it was really breathtaking and a total eye-opener of the fact that I really am here. And will be here for five weeks. Wow. hard to believe. I still do miss home, but I'm starting to settle in here. But the bus tour was very cool, and definatly showed some places I want to go later.

After that we decided to brave the metro system and rode it further into Paris. We went on to have dinner at a little boulongarie (a bakery) we ate quiches. Then we found the Monoprix (like a big super market) and got snacks for our rooms before hopping the metro back to the Cite. I decided to take it easy and stay in for the night since I'm still feeling a bit jet lagged. That and classes are tomorrow and I want to be rested enough to know what's going on with that.

I spent some time making a list of some of the things I want to do. Visit a lot of the museums and art galleries, some of the graveyards, the catacombs, and shopping absolutely. I still have to buy souvenirs for everyone! And speaking of... you should mail me something, because mail is great.

On another note, I have not had this much water to drink in a very long time. L'eau (water) is one of my most commonly used phrases now. It's crazy.And I also am very bad about using euros, I always get yelled at for not using change...but I don't have any! tomorrow I have to find a bank to exchange the rest of my US dollars into Euros. Anyways, I'm going to go get ready for tomorrow.

Bon soir (or jour... or matin)!