January: Late, haha

So January was a month of a lot of nothing. It's sucks when there are months when nothing happens...
The most difficult part of January was that I had just finished a jam-packed Christmas vacation and then all I had to look forward to was school that didn't matter, and cold weather, Oh and did I mention 30-minute metro rides at least twice a day, usually both under cover of darkness. It really messed with my mind to arrive and leave school in nighttime darkness. School became a chore, everything became a chore, I kind of stayed France side because trying to explain my difficulties to others would have just been to difficult and frustrating for me.

I did get to travel 2 weekends to see friends, once in Caen, and once in Le Havre. Both get-togethers were full of Rotary kids and good times. It was nice to see people that were familiar and also going through a lot of the same things as me, and over all else, in Caen, a friend's host mom, made the most deliciously perfect cheesecake that I've ever tasted. I also got to visit 2 cities in Normandie that I hadn't seen before. Le Havre was very new and industrial and nothing really all that interesting, other than the beach, which was really beautiful. Caen is a city that I would really like to go back to. like Le Havre most of the Caen was destroyed in the bombardments of WWII, but the  thing that I liked about Caen is that the Ruins were still able to be seen everywhere, whereas the ruins in Le Havre were cleared out to make room for budding industry and commerce.

Le Havre, Fountain in front of City Hall

Anyway, when January was gone, I was more than delighted. Not only had the days become a little longer, but I had started to solidify my friendships with the other Rotary students, but also with kids in my High School. with February and February break just around the corner, things were looking up!

WOW! Catching up... Brussels, Belgium

So it's been a really really really long time since I have written a blog post, and since I have so much time today, I will be taking that time to write some posts and fill the world in on what's been happening in my life for the past 5 months.

So, right after Christmas, literally the 26th, The whole family packed up the car and took off for Brussels, Belgium, where my host brother lives and goes to school for Speech Pathology. The whole family stayed in his apartment for 3 days and 2 nights. While in Brussels, we visited the Atomium (Brussels' version of the Eiffel Tower for the World's Fair Exhibition) as well as the several other famous landmarks in the city. The first full day that I was in Brussels, I got to spend with Sarah Philbrick, one of my best friends from America who is doing a year of exchange in Belgium. It was really awesome to get to see her, we shared stories about our exchange and, with Sarah as my guide, I taste-tested all of the Belgian specialities. It was also really strange to see Sarah in a foreign country, it almost made me feel like I was home. At one point I said something along the lines of "let's go to Coby's!" (a café in my American home-town). I felt as though everything should have been normal, like America-normal. It was nice to feel that sense of home in having a close friend there, but at the same time the let down that it wasn't really home was a difficult one to deal with.

Sarah and I at a Pub in Brussels

The Atomium in Brussels, was constructed for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. At the time of it's construction, it boasted the fastest elevator in the world! For more trivia information, here is the LINK to the wikipedia article. It was really awesome to visit the Atomium at dusk. When we went inside and started the tour it was light out, so we got the daytime view of Brussels and the Atomium itself, but the later we stayed, the darker it got, and the darker it got, the more lights came on in the city, and even on the Atomium. The Atomium lit up in the night, it was really cool to look at. By the time we reached the top, it was completely dark out and the lights were really cool! So I suppose we picked the best moment to visit it! We discovered that there is a full service restaurant in the uppermost sphere of the Atomium, but that it is way out of any normal touristic price range. We decided that we had seen enough and headed back to the apartment. It's surprising to know that the Atomium isn't actually in Brussels it's a little bit outside the city and takes between 20-35 minutes on the metro to get there.

Atomium at sunset

After returning to the apartment, my host brother brother brought the whole family to one of the most famous "friterie"s or -french fry stand- in Brussels. The name escapes me, but it was fantastic! You could get anything from burger to veggie patties to submarine sandwiches with french fries in them. The best of the best was the fries in a hand-wrapped paper cone with over 20 sauces to choose from; it was delicious! the nest day, was normally the day that we were supposed to leave, wishing a happy new year to my hast brother, for Rouen, but my host sister talked my host parents into letting her and I stay with my host brother in Brussels for the new year, another 3 days. The following days were a really relaxing vacation. A few of my host brother's high school friends came up to Brussels to pass the new year with us also. We visited more of the city and ate more delicious french fries. When it came to New Years Eve, we ate a nice dinner in the apartment, then headed to the main plaza in Brussels AKA 'La Grande Place' to join in the music and festivities as well as the fireworks after the countdown. The fireworks were great, it was only a shame that it was somewhat cloudy and so cold that when the fireworks exploded, the humidity in the air around them condensed and made even more smoky fog... By the end of the spectacle, it was difficult to see what was going on. The whole experience was great nonetheless. After the fireworks, we tried to go out to a club in the city, but the cover charge was over 25 Euro so we decided to go back to the apartment and have our own party. All-in-all, it was a great night.

La Grande Place. All decked out for Christmas and New Years.

Everyone, including my host-siblings and I headed out the following day. Me and my host siblings took the hi-speed train from Brussels to Lille and then a regular train from Lille to Rouen.... 65 Euros later and no controller to check my tickets, I was home...well, "home".

the Fifth of several very, VERY Late Blogs: NOËL en FRANCE

So, I was really afraid that Christmas in France was going to be unrecognizable and that I would be extraordinarily homesick for my good ol' American Christmas, and although I did miss the USA, I felt really warm and welcome here in France.

One major difference between American and French Christmas, is that ALL of the festivities go on on Christmas Eve (the 24th). Usually there is a big family meal and then at 12Midnight, the baby Jesus is added to the Creche (nativity scene) and then presents are opened. My host family has the tradition of spending Christmas with another Family and some very close friends. The holiday meal is always held at their home and everyone comes to celebrate. The guest arrived around 8:30 and the festivities began.

We started off with some champagne and appetizers made by a friend. He is from the Island of Reunion, it's a French Dept. off the coast of Africa just east of Madagascar. They were very good, a little spicy, a little salty, and a lotta good! haha. anyway, after socializing and eating, we made our way  to the table to start the real meal. The meal started with Fois Gras, Literally one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. It's a shame that the method to make it is so cruel that it is illegal in the United States; it involves a goose, a funnel, and 4 times cornmeal that would normally be fed to a goose, twice a day... pretty sick, but still way too delicious not to eat! It's eaten on small warmed  slices of buttery toast. Something interesting about eat it is that you're not supposed to spread it, you're just supposed to place it on the toast and eat it. Spreading it breaks down the structures and then eating it isn't as enjoyable. After the fois gras, we started in on the fruits de mer (seafood). Normally seafood isn't my favorite course, but this seafood was very, very good! There were shrimp, mini shrimp, plus a giant kind of shrimp that they call langoustines, which, according to google translator, is a lobster, but it's not a lobster, more of a crayfish, I think. There were also spiders... Sea spiders. I was told we were going to eat spiders and I almost got up and left the table, but really they are just crabs with 8 legs and a harder shell; they were the best of the seafood, I think. The French people ate the heads, but I stuck with the legs.

Christmas Tree, decorated by your's truly

After seafood, it was midnight, which meant time to put the baby Jesus in the nativity scene and open presents! The nativity was "vite fait" (done quickly) and then it was time for presents! I got way more than I even expected. I was thinking maybe some trinkety thing from my host family and chocolate. Boy was I surprised. My host family got me an official French national football (soccer) team Scarf and flag, A striped cotton scarf, Ralph Lauren body wash, a sweater from Zara, that was too small, so instead I got 40Euro in gift cards and bought the same sweater 2 weeks later on sale in a different color for 15Euro less, score, and also a ticket to see Mozart: Rock Opera, but there was conflicting dates with one of my school trips, so instead I am "renting an apartment in paris for 4 days with my host sister and host mom" you'll find out why that is in parentheses at the end of February, but for right now, there is a surprise brewing... After all of that, from family friends, I received chocolates, a knit scarf, really really soft and warm! and a 20Euro gift card to Galeries Lafayette! All in all, it was a good haul! I may even be forgetting things, but I don't remember right now. After presents, we went back to the table and decided that, after all the food we had already eaten, a turkey was too much food and that we would eat it the following day. We still ate cheese and dessert, but after that, everyone left pretty quickly and we all slept well.

The Living Room, after opening presents

The next day, everyone, plus my host grandma, who was afraid of falling asleep at the table the night before, thus stopping her from coming, came back to the house to eat the leftovers, PLUS the turkey. It was like 2 Christmases in a row! Everyone ate well, then we watched some weird French TV all together, then everyone left. It was another relaxing day!

I got packed up and ready to go to Brussels, Belgium for what I thought would be 3 days, but ended up being 6!

The Fourth of several very, VERY Late Blogs: MARCHÉ de NOËL

OK, went a little out of order, but here goes this... The second week in December, there was a Rotary weekend for all of the Exchange Students in District 1640. The District was hosted by one of the 5/6 clubs based in Rouen, my city. Although the event was hosted in my city, I found out that I would be hosted by another family for the weekend, the idea was to get everyone to be able to pass the whole weekend together, but they put us in groups of 2 and even two groups of 1... how does that make sense. I didn't mind because I was hosted by a nice family and was with Willy, a cool kid from Chicago.

So the weekend started a little after noon on Saturday the 11, if I remember correctly. We all met at the Gare (train station) in Rouen and got our home assignments, then we descended the hill and approached a museum, which was closed; this was the first indication that the 'monsieur' who had organized the weekend was somewhat scatter-brained and had not really planned much of anything. From the closed museum, we walked halfway back up the hill to another museum, this time based around iron works and old signs. Being interested in this type of thing and having wanted to go to the museum, I was rather pleased, but I did not share the reaction with many others. The museum, upon entry was rather small and somewhat poorly presented. Converted from an old church, it was all kind of one room with stuff thrown in it. The actual iron work was impressive to look at, but after about 20 minutes, I, and everyone else, had had enough. I think we spent about an hour in total in the museum, that was too long.



Upon exit, we were told that we had some hours of free time, where we cold explore the Marche de Noël, which I had already been to countless times, and basically just chill amongst ourselves. All of the students were told to stay with one of the students that was 'native' to the city i.E. Myself of Hunter, that didn't last. About half of the group that didn't know Rouen just kind of peaced-out and went shopping. I didn't worry too much and decided to just enjoy myself. We were told to meet at a certain hour under the Gros-Horloge (Big Clock) so that we could take a tour of the inside, something I have yet to do. In the time between letting us go and meeting up, the group I was with got some good eats, listened to great street performers, rode a carousel, sat on santa's lap, and did countless other childish, yet very Rotary, things! When it came time to meet at the clock, about half the group was there on time, the other half was the group that broke off to go shopping, ya' know, the ones who had never been to Rouen before. I had to track them down via cell phone and a bunch of running, but I found them nonetheless and we all met up at the Gros-Horloge without problem... or was there a problem? Well, the second indication of poor organization revealed itself... the clock had closed for tours 2 hours beforehand. This meant extra time on our hands, the Rotary adults brought us to the Marche, where we had already been, and bought us each a cup of hot wine, the likes of which most of us had already drank 2 or 3... Mom and dad, don't worry, the alcohol is boiled off before sale.



After the hot wine, the whole group made its way through the streets of Rouen to go to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. On the way to the restaurant, we made a quick detour to see the "smallest street in Rouen" it's a small alley off of a pedestrian street, but to be honest I have walked on smaller during my stay in Rouen, I think they may need to re-assess the sizes of the streets. Anway, we had a Moroccan dinner, it was actually very good! I was disappointed to not have some traditional French Christmas food, but hey, it was poorly organized. I can never complain about good couscous and pickled veggies that tasted like Taco-Bell! After the dinner, we celebrated the birthdays of the December babies and then it was off to the host families for the night.

Willy and I were the first to leave the group, our host for the weekend was an older man, a retired commercial printer, who still ran his own private print shop, making invitation and cards of all sorts, as well as specialty orders as well. He drove a PT Cruiser, never thought I'd see one of those again! It was nice to be in a "big" car! The house was nice, but decorated to the point of hilarity with different animal prints...EVERYWHERE! Even my hostess' slippers were leopard print!

We had a nice conversation with our host family, apparently they had an exchange student at their house in 2001 from Utica, NY! We talked about our experiences thus far, they told us some stories about her experience, then we called it a night. Willy and I stayed up for a little while longer and just talked about what had happened thus far during our exchange. It was a fun time. We were both exhausted, so we called it a night.

The next morning, I woke up in a pile of feathers, my, down-feather, sleeping bag had been ripped on the seem, and, in my normal nightly movements, had spread feathers all over! With limited time and even more limited patience, I took the sheet covering the bed I had slept on and shook it out, sending feathers loose all through the air. It snowed feathers for about 1-minute afterwards, but they were spread out enough in the room that it wasn't really as noticeable. I showered, changed, packed up my bags, then headed downstairs for a quick breakfast. After breakfast we said our thank you's and left for the Ice skating rink. There is a year round indoor rink at a sports complex on Ile-Lacroix, an island in the Seine in between the two banks of Rouen. We spent a solid hour at the rink then went back into Centre-Ville Rouen for a Sunday morning market and a little more free-time. After a few hours at the market, and a quick stop at McDonald's for those kids who live in the middle of nowhere and have no ability to get fast food, we all went to a café to eat a, mass-produced, meal of fried chicken, spaghetti, and the most pathetic dollop of red-sauce... needless to say, it was a very disappointing end to a great weekend.

Most of the students left directly after the lunch via car or train, but the gang that lives near Rouen, plus Matt Shor, a Texan with no annoying accent haha, spent a good portion of the afternoon in town. Matt had a mission to buy boots, so that was our first priority. Telling myself that I couldn't spend money, I lived somewhat vicariously through Matt's search. Between grabbing a beer with friends and walking around, the day was pretty good!

Going home after big Rotary gatherings is always very difficult for me, I feel like something big is ending, or leaving without me, and I just can't run fast enough to catch it. I know that everyone is going home alone as well, but I still feel like there is something that I am missing, or there is something that is missing. I think that my extreme want to not miss anything this year is stressing me out. It seems to work, but, at the same time, it is very frustrating.

Well, à bientôt.
Cheese and Paix!

The Third of several very, VERY late blogs: BRETAGNE

The Church in Quintin

So, after a lot of plans flip-flopping between Bretagne before Christmas/Brussels after Christmas, and visa-versa, we decided to go to Bretagne before the holidays. My host family has a vacation home tucked away in the country. It's actually just next door to where my host father grew up. The house is built in the traditional stone and mortar style and looks like it belongs exactly where it is. The inside has been updated and is very comfortable. The whole family spent a great 4 days there. We explored a nearby town called Quintin and went to a beach who's name escapes me. It was really great weather, especially since we left from a tsunami of snow!

Quintin Florist

My host sister and I watched quite a few movies, both in French, for my benefit, and English, for her benefit. I downloaded the new version of avatar with 20 minutes of bonus material, it was fun to watch! I forgot how much I loved that movie. I also got to meet a lot of family and friends of my host family. We had my host father's brother and his wife over for dinner one night. The whole week was full of really good food, that is for certain. We also went over to a neighbor's house for desserts one night. The family was really cool and very receptive, plus we ate homemade pineapple pie with homemade chocolate sauce and homemade caramel AND the most delicious vanilla ice cream; I think the first time I've had ice cream in France that was as good as 'Stewart's Philly Vanilla'. We just hung out for like 3 hours and watched the finale of the French equivalent to 'America's Got Talent!' which was really entertaining. If you were wondering the 8 year old salsa dancers won... Everyone was very disappointed.

I went to St-Brieuc, a small city right near our vacation house, with my host mom, sister, and host father's sister-in-law. We walked around and looked at the Christmas illuminations. I also found a hat, with a pompom, I gave in to the French style, no matter how froofy it looks. It's all black, so don't worry that I got a big yellow pompom or something... I already have an idea on how to make it cool when I come back to the US. Anyway, St-Brieuc was very nice, but very one-dimensional, not really much to do other than shop, which seems to be a reoccurring theme in these medium-sized French cities. The major problem is that all of the stores are the same in every city, so even if I wanted to keep shopping, I'd already seen everything before. After buying my hat, I re-joined my host mom and her sister-in-law, there was supposedly some lighting ceremony to go see, but that didn't happen, we just left. The walk back to the car was ridiculously cold, I can't even begin to explain the cold, moist, air plus the wind...

We ate a great dinner with my host father's brother and his wife and another family friend, it was a good time. I actually, for the first time since I was maybe 7, had to sit at the 'kid's table' which consisted of me and Auberie, my host sister. It was kind of lame being separated and almost made me feel second-rate, but it wasn't a huge deal. Being at the kids table meant that we could just peace-out when we were done eating and go watch Avatar: extended cut! which is very very very very good!

Now I'm searching for things to say and repeating myself, so that all I guess.
Peace and Fromage!

The Second of several very, VERY Late Blogs: APPENDICITIS

SO....... Appendicitis is that thing that everyone forgets that they can get until they have it... Well, just my luck: I got it in France. Not in my own bed in the US or even at College where people speak English... FRANCE! And the worst part is, before I left I asked my mom, as a joke, if they could take it out as a precautionary measure because I didn't want to have it in France. I guess it might have been a good idea!

So 4 weeks ago, yeah it's been a while, I woke up on a thursday morning, and just didn't feel good. I had a really woozy stomach and was nauseous. I'll spare the details of my several trips to the bathroom to dry-heave, and just tell you that I didn't really throw up... So it was almost worse in my opinion. I HATE being nauseous, if throwing up makes you feel better than I don't mind it. So I spent the whole day in a constant nauseated state, and then spent the evening in a painful state... A stomach started around dinner time, totally curbing any ounce of appetite I had, which was actually a good thing, and I called it an early night. I hoped the next day I could just go back to school and be done with the sickness; however, that was not the case... A wise group of Rotary Students once told me that I have the Immune System of an infant... not that Appendicitis has to do with the immune system, but they were right, I've had Zero luck with being healthy here...

This is why you go to a clinique and not a hôpital (this is the foyer) 

So, I woke up Friday morning with a pretty terrible stomachache. I'm not the person to scream and cry over pain though, I just get angry and frustrated, so I wasn't like hobbling around, I was trying my best to function normally, which clearly was the opposite of what I should have been doing, you'll find out why a little later. My host mom, being the always concerned type, called her friend who is a doctor, I thought it was not necessary at the time, but I guess it was! The doctor asked if I had had appendicitis, my host mom asked me, I said 'no' then she thought I didn't understand and made me show her my stomach to make sure I didn't have a scar, then she believed me. So I got dressed uncomfortably and went to the doctors office, getting in and out of the car was the worst of the trip... Once at the doctors office, she did some pressure tests and asked me a few questions, commented on how much my French had progressed, score, and told me to go to the Clinique (Private Hospital) for a more intense diagnostic and possible surgery because she definitely thought it was Appendicitis. I talked about it with my host mom, and we decided it would be better not to say anything to anyone until I knew exactly what was going on, so we came home, I sat on the couch in pain for about 20 minutes then we left again. We arrived at the Clinique and waited in urgent care for a bout a half an hour to forty-five minutes... This is the first instance where some good acting skills and wimping out would have come in handy... they  let me wait longer because I seemed to be ok... great! Finally they got me into a room, the first doctor, who was a student doing his residency, did some pressure tests and he concluded appendicitis and was going to order a test, then his teaching doctor came in and checked me with another two pressure tests and said I didn't need a test right away because it was pretty clear that it was appendicitis... They said they were going to wait for the surgeon to see if he wanted tests or if he would just go ahead and operate... this was all done quite non-chalantly and with no urgency whatsoever; as my appendix was growing in size and I was getting more and more anxious. They put an IV in my arm and told me I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital until after my surgery, but at the same time, they wouldn't let me go upstairs to a room because there was a problem dealing with my insurance... instance number two where a big show of pain and theatrics would have come in handy; if I had been in more apparent pain, they would have done the surgery and asked insurance questions later... So finally my seemingly non-existant host counselor called the surgeon and made some deal about insurance with him. I think there was a problem contacting the company, so my host counselor said he would front the cost until it could be reimbursed, but he didn't have to because they worked it out before payment was due anyway.

Instructions on how to take my Betadine Shower...yeah

So I got to my room, settled in with nothing, and my host mom asked me what I needed for the next 3 days then went home for a while. I took my Betadine(maybe iodine) shower, with an IV in my arm, that wasn't easy, then got dressed in my next to nothing hospital gown. My host mom came back some hours later and told me that she had contacted my mom and sent her an email also, and my mom was not nervous and it was all ok.

My host mom then left and I spent the next 8 hours playing Angry Birds and listening to music on my iPod, thank god I had it! My Host mom came back with her friend, the doctor around 9 and not soon after that, the night nurses came in and took me to the operating room. The last thing I remember was them telling me the room was gonna spin, and that when it started to spin, I had to close my eyes.

Apparently they did my operation via camera... I can't think of the name right now, 'something'-scopically. They cut my belly button, and right inside each of my hip bones. they blew my stomach up with air so they would have space to work, then they put a cutting instrument in at my left hip and a pincer thing at my right and cut it and pulled it out... so now I have 3 cool scars... all are small and, after 4 weeks, already fading. I hope they don't disappear that'd be a shame, it seems to be a cool and unique souvenir. After the surgery I stayed inflated for about 2 1/2 weeks... I burped air, just air, about 6 times a day...

Portable Urinal that I refused to use.

I woke up about an hour later in the "wake-up" room to the attendant pulling a tube out of my throat, I in turn made an ugly face at her and said I didn't like what she did. I then continued to talk in French for the next 15 minutes at everyone who walked in and out... apparently I was speaking great French, I don't remember everything I said but I did ask about how much they liked their jobs and if I could see my appendix, I wasn't allowed... then I was brought back up to my room and left under observance once every 30 minutes. I was woken up and my blood pressure was taken... and the night nurses were far from nice... so that passed... the next day a few friends came it was cool! We didn't do much but talk, but it was still cool to have some company. They left and then another person came into my room to share it with me. He had some developmental problem though plus appendicitis, so that was just kind of crappy and awkward. He went into surgery that night and came out just as I was going to bed... I didn't get to fall asleep and had a shitty night's rest because the nurses were in and out, flicking the lights on and off every 25 minutes! anyway, I left the next afternoon for my house. I stayed at the house a week. There was a nurse, also a friend of my host mom, who came every day to clean and dress my incisions and to make sure everything as healing properly. He was very nice and quick and gentile and everything a good nurse is.

On the Wednesday following my surgery, Harry Potter 7 pt.1 came out in France so I went to see it with my host sister and Joelynn and Hunter. It was worth the amount of pain I went through walking around a mall and sitting down with jeans on. I was still bloated the size of a balloon and none of my jeans fit around my waist; I wore them halfway down my ass, neither stylish, nor comfortable... I had to unbutton them while we were sitting watching the movie because they were rubbing on my incisions. After the movie we decided to do a little shopping while we waited for my host mom to pick me and my host sister up. We were at H&M which is Men's on top and Women's on the bottom so the group split up, going to their respective sections, about 15 minutes later my host mom calls me and asks me to join then downstairs and that she is with my host sister just outside 'Kaboodle'. I, thinking that this is a store, exit H&M and travel to the other end of the mall downstairs, searching for my host mom. I got frustrated and I was, for some reason, exhausted, and very sore, so I returned to H&M to see my host mom standing out front. I was SO ANGRY; not at anyone, just in general, and then she asked me several times if I was alright, and I had to fake a smile and say yes, she didn't believe me, apparently I wasn't very convincing, so she asked me another 8 times... UGH! We left soon after and I took a nap as soon as we got home.

That Saturday, Jean-Pierre, the nurse, took out my stitches. The stitches in the hip incisions came out quickly and easily, but the belly button stitches were in pretty deep and had to be gently, yet still quite forcefully, YANKED out. I bled some more and he put a dressing on the belly button because it was bleeding he told me to change it if it soaked through, which it did, so I did, then it was pretty good. After the stitches were taken out, I guarded the oddly shaped and colored bruises for about 3 weeks. The night of the day I got my stitches out, I went to a nightclub with my host sister Auberie, my host sister's friend Melanie, Hunter, and Melanie's Cousin. We went to the Palace in Rouen: Rive Gauche. It was pretty fun, the music was almost exclusively American or English and there were a lot of creepy middle aged guys all alone with their shirts un-buttoned to their belly-button, but other than that it was fun. After that day/night, I knew that I was going to be okay. My body handled all that dancing and moving and I didn't fall apart so I wasn't worried after that.

The First of several very, VERY Late Blogs: PARIS

So, Paris is Paris, everyone dreams of visiting, everyone who goes falls in love, and everyone who lives there is, well... snooty, but that is besides the point. I was given permission by my host mom to be allowed to go to Paris without parents. But only me and Hunter, one of my friends were allowed to go, she didn't want a large group going, which I can completely understand, and my host sister also came with us. We started the day very early, it was still dark when we left! We almost missed out train and ended up having to sit in front of the bathroom door; this was much better than we originally had thought!

The first person to use the bathroom, was about 15 minutes into the voyage. The first person was a mid 20's female, perfectly capable of figuring out the automatic door which consisted of one button to open, one button to close and a lever to lock. You think that the whole world would be able to grasp that. Most people figured out that you needed to push the button with the BRIGHT GREEN ring around it to open the door, but this is as far as people's common sense went. once the door was opened there were two buttons to choose from, one was circular with (<>) and, because the door was already open, there was no green ring around it, and the second button was another circular button with (><) on it and there was a BRIGHT RED (meaning close) ring around it... The red automatically stopped everyone from hitting that button... everyone pressed the Non-Lit "open" button, but never even thought to touch the close button. Most of the patrons took ALL of their strength and closed the door manually, pulling it along the track, seemingly run by pressurized air. Yep, everyone damn near pulled their shoulders out of socket to close the AUTOMATIC door! Once inside, virtually no one locked the mechanism by turning a small lever that had a key emblem on it, could it be more obvious!? We ended up stopping about 8 people from intruding on others during their entirely too long bathroom visits. The only one person who did everything correct without thinking was a rather elderly lady who, in french, said "wish me luck" as the door was closing, we all preyed that she locked it, thus making her the winner, SHE DID! we wanted to clap for her upon her exit, but we decided that may be somewhat bizarre and inappropriate. About 20 minutes before we arrived in Paris, a younger woman entered the bathroom, yanked the door shut manually, idiot, and then didn't turn the lever the lock the door, on her way out, the woman could not arrive at pressing the open button. She tugged and tugged on the door, trying to open it manually, we found it entertaining, so we let her try for a pretty good while, before I relieved her and pushed the open button for entry, she looking amused with herself, thinking she found the solution and not knowing that I had pressed the button, then searched for the closing button.... she in-turn pulled the lock lever and got frustrated and left.... then I pressed the close button because it smelled. and then it locked from the inside. The last 15 minutes of the train ride, there was a huge line for the bathroom, and everyone was waiting for a phantom, none of us had the heart to tell the people in line that it was closed.....

We arrived at the Gare St-Lazare around 11:30AM. We took a little tour of the opera district of Paris. We took a small detour into the Galeries Lafayette to see the giant ChristmasTree.  Then we walked to the Bourse (stock exchange) and took the metro to Notre Dame... We walked around near Notre Dame a little then found a Starbucks... I got a great Caramel Machiato and an "American" cookie, it was SO GREAT! I noticed that there was only foreigners, russians, british, and us in the café. There was a potential Frenchman upstairs using the Wi-fi access. After eating, we made our way to the courtyard of the Louvre, then walked all the way from the Louvre to the Arc de Triomphe. It was A LOT of walking, but definitely worth the experience of just doing it. It rained a little along our route, but we didn't mind, when it got bad, we ducked into a store along the Champs Élysées. After reaching the Arc de Triomphe, we decided to search for a nice, somewhat inexpensive café to grab lunch. We spent 20-30 minutes searching for a decent café, we found a great one! We all got sandwiches, Croque Monsieur for Auberie and Me and a Club for Hunter, and fries. It was good, not too pricy, less than 15Euro a person, which is great for a large Lunch in Paris including a drink. After Lunch, we took a small detour to see the Eiffel Tower then  we made our way back down the Champs Élysées, and to a metro station. We arrived in front of the Gare St-Lazare and bought our return tickets then decided to do another small tour of the area... We made a wrong turn on the way back and ended up about 25 minutes away from the train station, with 30 until our train left! Yikes, we ran, and asked for directions several times... the answer was always "keep going straight" and then we would hit a wall or building and have to turn, then the new direction giver would say "keep going straight" so we never knew who was right. We ended up finding it on our own, and it's a good thing we did, we were tired and drenched, and just as we got on the train, it departed from the station. It was a quick ride home. I read a book called "Talk to the Snail: 10 Commandments to Understanding the French" It is an insight on the frustrations of being a non Frenchman, living in France.


All in all, it really was a great day. I was wiped out after an entire day of walking, but I didn't mind, it was just great! I can't wait to go again! After being there once and doing the overview, now I can make more specific trips to different areas, that will be cool!