My Life in Paris

So life is good here. Here's a picture of the apartment that I live in. My room is on the top floor, facing the street.

And here's a picture of the family's dog, Dandi. He's very sweet, but he likes to lick your feet so you always have to wear shoes and he's only one year old, so he is really energetic. He's a fox terrier.

Here's a picture of the roundabout at the center of my town, Vanves, which is literally just south of Paris. And below that is a picture of the park that I have to walk through to get to the Metro every day.

Here's a picture from the Rodin Museum. Rodin is a famous French sculptor. This is the garden in the back of the museum, the building at the end of the picture is the museum.

Here's a picture of Collioure, that town in the South that we visited. Sorry I did not post this one earlier, I couldn't find it. I think it's my favorite picture of the place. It's from a medieaval fortress at the top of a hill in the Pyreneese Mountains looking down onto the town and the Mediterranean Sea at sunset. Could life get any better?

So this weekend, we are taking a trip to Normandy where we will visit Omaha Beach and a bunch of other World War II things. That should be interesting. Then, the weekend after that, I am going to Amsterdam with a group of girls from my program. Me, the other guy in our group Max, and ten girls in Amsterdam for Halloween, what could possibly go wrong? I couldn't refuse though. First of all, it's Amsterdam, and second, the bus ticket was € 53 round trip. I'm sure it will be a blast. Anyway, off to class.

Just Checking In

Hey there, so I don't have any fun pictures or much time; but I just thought I'd say hi. Everything is going well. I went to the Salon du Chocolat today. It's a 4 day expo that's all about chocolate. So I ate chocolate for an hour, and had some free samples of Bailey's, port, Gran Marnier, etc. It was pretty awesome but you'd be amazed how quickly you get sick of chocolate and just sweets in general(I think we only spent like 90 minutes there). I didn't buy anything because it was all really expensive. I am getting totally comfortable with my directions and finding my way around which feels nice. I drank some sour milk this morning at breakfast which I've never done before. It was probably one of the worst things I've ever tasted. So my grammar classes are going well and I start my phonetics classes tomorrow. Then I start my other classes next Monday. I'm going to a symposium on Darwin at the Collège de France this Friday, which should be interesting. And I'm going on a date with a girl from my program tomorrow night. I would tell you to wish me luck, but I think she likes me. Anywho, that's about it. Sorry to hear about the Rockies, but go Broncos. I'm also sorry to hear about the cold and snow, it's sunny and 60 in Paris right now. Well, I'm off to class, talk to you later.

It's been a while

Hey there. Sorry it's been so long since I've checked in. I didn't bring a laptop to Paris, so I am kind of at everyone else's mercy when it comes to getting online.

Anyway, things are still pretty awesome here. Since we last talked, I've visited an awesome town called Collioure in the South of France. The weather was great, I went for a hike, swam in the Mediterranean, toured a huge cave, and toured a medieval castle in Carcassonne. Back in Paris, I've visited the Rodin Museum, the Arc de Triumph, and other places, I just can't remember them all right now. I've decided to change the picture that I have at the top of this page. The first reason is that I took this new one, and the second reason is that I think it's a better picture. I'm posting a few pictures of my trip to the south, along with the Arc de Triumph at night. Let me know what you think.

On a different note, I got the results of my grammar test and they were pretty much how I felt about the test, not great. So I started grammar classes yesterday, at the elementary level, and I quickly discovered that elementary in Paris is much more advanced than elementary in Denver. I like the class and think it is the perfect fit. I start phonetics classes next week and then my real classes start the week after that.

My host family continues to be great. It's funny though, my host mom is out of town so when I had dinner with just the host dad last night, we had leftovers from the previous two nights and then he made crepes as thick as pancakes that were kind of burned with cream of mushroom soup in them. It tasted like a grilled cheese with mushrooms and I told him that what we were eating is a pretty common meal among bachelors in the U.S.

Finally, I was feeling great about everything this morning, so I decided to go to the dry cleaners to drop off a pair of pants and a sweater that I brought to Paris already dirty. I did not expect to understand much of what the dry cleaners said, but I thought I could get by. Boy was I in for a surprise. I think I understood two of the words the guy said during a five minute interaction. For example, when he asked me my name, I froze and forgot that when the French ask your nom (name), they really mean your last name. So I responded "Patrick". So now I am known in the dry cleaners as Mr. Patrick. Anyway, I just laughed it off because what else can you do?

Salut!