Gwen Studies Broads

So far, Paris has been very exciting. The plane ride over was quite nice. I ended up having two seats to myself, so I was able to stretch out a little bit. When I got off the plane in Paris, I felt a safety pin sticking into my leg which had been attatched to the back of my skirt. I wasn't sure why it was there, so I took it out. I had a bit of trouble finding the bus I was supposed to take to my hostel, so I ended up taking three trains to get there, which wouldn't have been so bad, except I had two months worth of luggage with me, and the Paris Metro isn't exactly equipped for people with luggage, so there was a lot of schlepping up and down stairs! However, I learned that French Men love to help young women carry their bags up stairs, so it wasn't too bad. I kept getting strange looks, but I just assumed it was because I looked really silly with all my luggage and everything. When I got on the third train though, I felt the woman next to me tugging on my skirt and then she said something to me in French. I thought it was something like, "hey, I like your skirt" (it was the one with the little mice on it) but then I realized that several of the buttons on my skirt were open, and it has buttons all the way up the back, so everyone who I passed in the three hours it took me to get to that train saw my butt and the tops of my legs. No wonder everyone wanted to help me with my luggage! I guess that's what that safety pin was for...

I eventually got to my hostel and checked in. I'm staying in a room with five other girls from Spain who are all travelling together. I took four years of Spanish, but that was about six years ago, and what I do remember has proved fairly useless. They are all very nice though, and their English is significantly better than my Spanish, so we've talked a little.

I've come to the realization that my mutant power is the amazing ability to adapt to time changes. I've had no problems with jet lag at all. There's a six hour time difference, but for some reason, I'm just fine. I wish my mutant power was something more useful, like being able to speak and understand foreign languages, or at least to be able to type on foreign keyboards. Did you know that all the letters on the keyboards are in different places? It's taken me forever to make this update.

Saturday was my first full day in Paris. I started out walking around by my hostel which is in Montmartre, took the Metro over to the Tulerie Gardens, walked up the Champs Elysses, saw the Arc de Triomphe, went over to the Eiffel Tower, walked some more, went to the Rodin Museum, went to meet up with my friend Caitlin, had dinner and then went back to my hostel. Today I went to Notre Dame, saw the outside of St. Chapelle (I'll probably go see the inside later), walked around the Ile de Cite a bit more, found a comic book store, walked up to the Opera de Paris Garnier, took a nap on the steps, then went back to Caitlin's for dinner again.

And tomorrow, the Louvre!