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!