Paris in 36 hours

The last thing I expected to encounter in Paris, the most romantic city in the world, was mud. But mud did we find--rather, it found my jeans. OK, so maybe it was our fault for walking through the gravelish park during the rain, instead of sticking to the sidewalks, but nevertheless, Paris was muddy. And cold. And rainy. But you can't really complain about Paris.

Paid 8 Euros to see Mona Lisa, and thanks to some rubbish advice, only had an hour and a half to spend in the world's most famous art museum, the Louvre. We were outta there in 45 minutes...I mean, I've seen so much religious art in the last 2 months-from the Tate Britain, the National Gallery and the Wallace Collection here in London, to museums and churches all over Italy, I'm a little burnt out. It's gotten to the point where I'll walk by a painting and say "Looks like JC's doin his thing to JB again." That's right, I now feel comfortable calling John the Baptist 'JB.' And if I see his beheaded dome one more time...

One thing I loved about Paris was the music selection in restaurants. You'll get your overdramatic French man sensually whispering instead of singing, yes, but you'll also get some forgotten American classics that just seem to be hitting their stride overseas. For example, we were sitting down in a lovely restaurant late at night, eating onion soup and goat cheese salad, when all of a sudden, R. Kelly's "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" came over the speakers. How could I not stand up and serenede the entire restaurant, impressing the patrons with my amazing English?

I was terrified of communicating in Paris because I literally didn't know a word of French. I subcounsiously could recall "oui," (but it usually came out "si") but didn't even know how to say hello or thank you. It was a disaster. Thankfully, everybody speaks English. Except, interestingly enough, for the employees at McDonalds. Yeah, so nobody told me that the 'e' was silent at the end of "grande," but I would think they could infer what I was trying to say. That was the second-worst communication mishap of my semester, only to another McDonalds, this one in Rome, where instead of a filet o fish they gave us a bag of fruit. And I even speak Italian a little--pesce, I say, pesce. Non la frutta.

Anyway, this will more than likely be my last post before I return to the states. My family will be here tomorrow, and we'll spend a few days in London before heading to Seville, Spain for 5 days. After that, we're coming back to London for New Years. I fly home January 3, and will need a ride from the airport. If anyone will be in the cities, please let me know and I'll buy you a souvenir if you can come get me. I'm not sure when my flight gets in but I think it's in the mid afternoon sometime.

Hope you've enjoyed reading these, I've enjoyed writing them. I'll continue the blog upon my return to the states, so please keep reading and tell your friends. This could be my career break! I look forward to telling stories and showing pictures (I will have over 1000 of them most likely), so please don't hesitate to call or email me. Cheers!