New Home!

Whoo so I'm in Paris (duh) and the flight was fine. Let's see... the hostel we were supposed to stay in was full so we stayed in a hotel instead, l'hotel de port royal, time for anecdotes.

Yen typifying a math major: I went to exchange my money for Euros and told the woman that I had $110 after double counting and double checking my french. She counted once, looked at me and said exasperated that I had in fact given her $135. The problem wasn't my French, but my counting.

On the way back from the airport: our director's nephew picked me up; he's a 20 year old bio student named Sam. Sitting on the train he started making fun of my bag and I of course played along. "How many terrorists fit in there?" "Oh, you know, two or three, but then there's not a lot of room for the bombs" "Yeah, that can be tough, but you could put the bombs in your other bag." "Definitely not, because then I'd have to put all those drugs in my big bag with the terrorists, and then I wouldn't have any left as a present for my host family." (All in French)

So I'm all set up in my home now in the 7th arrondissement; I have a room on the 6th floor of this apartment building and the family lives right downstairs on the 5th, which is great because it's very independent. I also have a fantastic view to the street below; that's the picture. There's another student named Alex from bard who's staying with the family too; she's great and it's fun to have someone else to explore with. They have a daughter Adele who's 20 too, but she's studying a lot right now for law tests or something. She wouldn't go out with us tonight because she was studying (how intense!). Also, we went out tonight with a bunch of English guys and people that Alex knows from Bard.

I've been walking around a bit, just the 6th and 7th arrondissements, got some good food at the cafes and such, picked up a phone across from a huge department store, au bon marche, checked out the luxembourg gardens (forgot my camera sorry!), and have been sleeping a bunch. Right now is one of the two state-enforced sales of the year, so I'll definitely be going shopping next week or the week after, during the last markdown (75% off big brands). Also, when Alex and I were walking earlier we saw our first demonstration, a little protest for rights for illegal immigrants. Pretty exciting stuff.

If you would like my address/would like mail from me and haven't told me yet, email me. Also, I'll try to go on AIM but it'll be around 4 pm EST and 1 pm PST.