le first post

bonjour mes amis!
sorry it has taken so long to post, but kathy and i have been very busy enjoying the sights and sounds of paris. i have been writing in thebeautiful journal resa gave me every night so that i can post when i get time. i only have 20 mintues and beaucoups de pages of writing so i will start with day one and see how much i can get done!

let me start by saying the keyboards here are very weird and will take some getting used to. i will try my best to spell and use punctuation correctly but can make no promises. second let me add that i will be writing my dates the way the french do (day/month/year) so faisez attention!

5/3/2008
it's hard to believe we're actually here in paris. i've ben dreaming of this trip my entire life - or at least as long as i can remember! the city is overwhelming... not completely sure of the language, definitely unsure of direction, and knowing only one other person is a little intimidating. (just added another hour because this is taking forever to type) i'm very nervous about the days after kathy leaves. part of me thinks i was crazy to stay for an entire month, but hopefully i'll feel a little more comfortable after the next few days! i also hope smaller plavces aren't as difficult to navigate (street-wise... i have the metro down... at least once we're inside!) so enough about my silly insecurities...

we left DFW at 3:10ish and flew to philly, which is one of the greatest airports i've seen! kathy did some shopping, naturally! we even shopped at gap! what kind of an airport has a gap inside? the plane to paris was much bigger than the first, but not much more comfortable - glad i'll be working for continental and not US Airways! kathy and i watched martian child (she fell asleep while i fought hard to stay awake because i've been dying to see it.) we had a nice man next to us who was greek, and boy howdy do they grow them big in greece! after the barely successful attempt to sleep we opened our eyes to the european sun. i seriously felt like debra messing in the wedding date. all we wanted was coffee, but for some unknown reason our entire section got skipped. leave it to kathy though to save the day. she marched down the aisle and brought back two cups of coffee, cream, and sugar.

let me make note here that the french are tres handsome, even if they don't practice our overindulgent custom of daily showers! i swear i couldn't turn my head without seeing another prospective husband. the only question left is "does he own a vineyard?" a "no" may still be negotiable but to a "yes" i'd simply ask "when can i move in?"

the airport was not too bad but it sure was a lot of baggage schlepping, especially since we decided to take the RER and metro to our apartment to save money. needless to say, kathy will be paying for a taxi on her way back and dad, you really should take the hotel up on their offer to retrieve you. i speak enough french to get by AND i've been studying the metro/city layouts for quite sometime and it wasn't easy. we did make it though and managed to escape the con-artists trying to get our money.

we found the apartment in no time and sabine was there to greet us. i love her by the way - very friendly lady and also very intelligent. once we made it through all the paperwork she left and kathy and i cleaned up a bit. mind you we had been traveling all night, barely slept, and were starving due to the lack of an edible breakfast served on the plane. we went to a nearby café and that's when "nervous stomach" (as olivia calls it) hit me. i could barely eat my ham and cheese on a baguette because i kept thinking "what have i gotten myself into?" i'm completely fine with my fairy godmother here but after she leaves i might lose it. i should add this was still at the beginning of our day so i am much better now!)

after a very light lunch we re-entered the metro to head to plqce de la concorde. we glanced at the louvre and musée de l'orangerie before heading towards l'arc de triomphe via champs-elysées; we saw many of the couture fashion stores, but only from the outside because we could only afford to window shop or "faire du lèche-vitrines" which translates officially to "window-licking!" we pulled a rick steves, walking into a café like we owned the place to use les toilettes sans paying; i was very proud. at l'arc we met three girls from holland who took our picture in return for me showing them how to get to la tour eiffel using the metro. we got off one stop early at passy to walk towards the tower fro, trocadéro across the seine. it was beautiful but we were just wishing it was dark and the lights were on. we got cappuchinos (mine had whipped cream making it a capp. chantilly) and walked through champs de mars, stopping at a bench to enjoy the view and rest our tired feet. we decided to make our way back, but had a bit of a problem finding the metro entrance, which is why i'm a pro once we're inside. finally i asked directions from a policeman - les flics are everywhere which is nice in these situations - and he was very helpful. once back in our arrondisement we ate at a different café also just aross the street from our apartment. this one was much better and the waitress spoke english whiched helped!

back inside our cozy but not very warm apartment (i will take time later to explain in detail) we showered and prepped for bed while watching buffy and gilmore girls in french! pour demain we're off to versailles then headed to the paradis latin cabaret at night.

à bientot!