Paul

I picked Paul up at the airport and it took me just as long to get to the airport here in Paris as it does to get to Pearson from my home in Canada. It took me an hour and a half. So, i get to the airport and finally find the right terminal after having to take a little bus to get there and I realize the only thing I know about Paul's flight is the time it was supposed to arrive and the terminal number. He flew from TO to the states and then from there to Paris. I forgot what city in the US he was coming from so I was completely useless standing at the airport. A lady asked me(in french) what city the person I was waiting for came from and I couldnt even answer her because I had no idea.. she must have thought I was nuts. Not only that, but I got there a little late (because of this extra surprise bus) and I wasnt sure if he had already come out. And finally, an hour after his flight landed and me standing at the terminal not knowing if he was already out or if his flight had even landed because I was too afraid to move to check the screen just in case I missed him coming out, he finally came out.

He looked Parisien.

house

so, over the next few days before Paul came, I was getting to know my roommates. I met them all at the same time on the 2nd day I was in the house and I came home and they were all sitting at the table and probably wondering who this random girl is that has moved in. I came in and announced that I was Mandy and I was living upstairs and immediately, everyone was really friendly. They were great. One guy is from Germany, one girl from the US and one guy from the US and the other 3 girls are from France. We speak mostly french in the house which is great for me and frusterating at the same time because there are so many words I still don't know so often times, they'll have to explain words to me or teach me words. Now, dont get me wrong, I actually think this is really great but its very frusterating at the same time because I feel like I cant express myself properly and I have to stick to words I know. But, in time, Im sure it'll get better.

I promise

I promise to give an update soon- Paul is here and we are traveling a lot.

I have finally set up a website where you can view my pics..

www.photos.yahoo.com/mandylynnmurray

check out my pics.. they're pretty cool..

your francophone,

update

so, i moved into my new house. let me tell you about my first night here.

I got in late because I was hanging out with the Canadian girls. There is a dog in the house and as soon as I opened the door, because he doesnt know me yet, he started growling like crazy. Right beside the front door, is a girl's room. Now, she is a nurse and has to get up at 5:15am every morning to go to work. I walked in the door at about 1:30am. Im sure she and everyone else in the house woke up because the dog was growling SO loudly.

I finally got the dog to be quiet and I walked upstairs to my room. Everything was still all over the floor because i had just dropped my suitcases and left again and so, as you can imagine, my room was a disaster. I was stepping around everything trying to get myself organized for bed. I have a bunkbed in my room, but its just a top bunk and then a desk underneath it. I havent been in a bunkbed since i was about 10 (leanne and i used to share.. but, i forget.. did you have the top bunk, Lee??)
So anyways, with bunkbeds, you need to make sure you have everything organized by the time you get to the top rung of the ladder because you dont really want to climb down once you're up there. Of course, i kept forgetting things. One time i forgot my lamp then my cell phone and finally i thought i had everything and i was under the covers when i realized i had left the light on. Man, was I getting frusterated and then i was cursing the bunkbed. Plus, the ladder on the bed is not actually attached so you have to be very careful when you're climbing up and down so that you dont fall. I havent fallen yet.

Then, i was leaning on the night stand that i have above my bed and it fell and SMASHED on the floor. by that time, i hadnt actually met any of my roommates yet and im sure they all hated me because i was being SO loud.

the next morning, i was getting ready to have a shower and i actually couldn't figure out how to turn the shower on. Its one of those bath/shower combos. now, normally the tricky part is getting the shower head to turn on but i couldnt even get the water on. So, what did I do? I just didnt shower. Im getting used to not showering and its not really bothering me.

milk

They do not refrigerate their milk here. yes, i know. Its so weird. I bought milk for the first time yesterday because before this, i wasnt really sure if i should. I decided that i wanted cereal really bad, so i broke down and bought the non-refridgerated milk. I think my cereal expires before my milk does. Gross.

So, i tried the milk and aside from the fact that its not at all refreshing, it wasnt too bad. Im still alive and i havent had any stomach problems, so thats good!

update

so, i havent written in a while and i have a lot to talk about. here we go.

We did secret santa between me and the 4 Canadian girls (Dom, Jordanna, Maria, Tracy) and we opened the gifts last night. You know how sometimes when you're doing secret santa, someone always gets the shaft because they dont get a very thoughtful girl or something? well, that didnt happen at all. Everyone got really really thoughtful girls. It turned out really well. The girls have a Christmas tree in their apartment that they have named Steve (everything object in their apartment has a human name, for whatever reason..) so we decorated the tree and had some cake and opened presents. Good times had by all. I finally feel like Im in the Christmas spirit.

Maria, Dom, Jordanna and I went to a Christmas market in Paris. It was absolutely gorgeous. We walked around and they have the coolest knick knacks there. We bought Christmas presents and some things for ourselves. We tasted hot wine (it was alright, really sweet though..) we then went out for dinner in the Latin Quarter and had french onion soup (dad, you would love it!) It was fantastic.

We went outdoor skating right outside of the Hotel de Ville (which is their city hall and like every other building in Paris, is amazing) we could see the Notre Dame rom where we were and it was awesome. I havent been skating for about 3 years, and (cough) and Im sure to everyones surprise, I wasnt very good. Apparently, I dont bend my knees enough. It was a really good workout and not to mention, the best place Ive skated yet. It was great. It sure beats the Seaforth arena (although, dad, i had to tie my skates on by myself.. tear..)

it was all in all, a great day.

update

So today I had to take my deposit of an ungodly amount of cash over to my landlord. I dont even want to talk about how much money in Canadian dollars this was because it was SO depressing. So, I took the money over and handed it to her in twenties. I also had to hold it in two days, it was so much money. She gladly accepted it, as I cried because I was giving away a lot of money.

Im really excited to move tomorrow. Its going to be really nice to unpack my suitcase and set up camp somewhere. I really enjoyed living at Dom's because the girls are super fun but it'll be nice to have my own space. I havent met any of my roommates yet (there are 4 others) so I guess Ill show up tomorrow and Ill be the random person that no one knows. Its going to be weird.

The other day Jordanna, Dom and I walked around the jewish and gay area (and yes, they share the same area for whatever reason.) Jordanna is Jewish and so she was really excited to go into all the stores. We got pickles out of a huge barrel in one store and it was way too cool. We watched the lady as she took a laddle and put it into this HUGE barrel (like the size of me) to get pickles out of it.

We went out for coffee in a little bar by La Bastille (remember Lee, finding La Bastille and we were SO excited) One night, Leanne and I were walking home from the bar and I was totally convinced in my I-know-where-we-are-going-dont-tell-me-otherwise way that we were going in the right direction and that I knew EXACTLY where we were. I had no idea. All of a sudden, we came across La Bastille which is exactly where we wanted to be. It was too funny. So, we went out for coffee and then came back to the apartment and played a card game. Good times in Paris,

your francophone,

the walk

In Paris, there is this great walk where you start at the Arc de Triomphe (something to do with Napolean) and then walk down Champs Elysees (the famous street I had a job on for 1 day and then got fired) walk to Place de La Concorde (once again, something to do with Napolean) and walk thru a really nice park, walk to the Lourvre, (this is not the time to go in the louvre because it is SO overwhelming) then walk to Notre Dame (famous church) and finish off by walking about the Latin Quarter (which is a really nice Quarter in Paris. Paris is divided up into quarters and this is the best one, in my opinion.) The Latin quarter is where they have all the crepes so you can see why I would like it so much. If you start this walk at about 3pm you will end up at the Louvre just as dark and its SO pretty. You get to see the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower as well. There is one part of the walk, at Place de la Concorde, where you can see the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees and the Louvre. It is too cool.

So Jordanna, Dom and I did that walk yesterday and it was fantastic. We ended up getting paninis and nutella crepes in the Latin Quarter and sitting outside (yes, outside- we have no snow here) and people watched.

We played Oh Shit yesterday, which I think Ive already explained that it is like Euchre and Lost Air. It was great. It gets very intense in the apartment when the 5 of us play because everyone wants to win. Great Times.

We then went out for food and drinks with Laundry mat Jeff. We ended up going to a Hippopotamus (not the one I just quit) and it was really good. It was odd being a client at that restaurant because its obviously the same as the one I worked at. When I worked there, you had to say hello/good bye to every client you see no matter you were doing. It was actually really annoying and if I was the client, I wouldnt like it because you have to say hello/good bye to like 8 people before you actually sit down to eat or before you're out the door. But being a client at the restaurant is definitely better than working there.

update

I decided not to go to Normandy. I was really tired from being up late for no reason the night before.

I signed a lease yesterday. I move on Tuesday. I am living in an "international house" which will be really fun once I get settled again. Its not very far away from Dom's, so thats nice. I know Ill meet lots of really cool people but its just the thought of having to get settled again that isnt very appealing.

I also had a problem with my bank to get enough money in one day to give to the landlord. I have to give her a deposit which isnt a big deal because I have the money in my Canadian bank account (my french one is still at 0) but with TD, I can only take out so much money in one day. I called TD to see if I could get that limit changed and they said I could up it to an amount that still wasnt going to be enough. I was very frusterated. I wanted to take the money out of Canadian account, put it in my French account (so that its not at 0!) and then write a cheque for the landlord. She needs all of this on Monday because she's leaving for the US on Tuesday. Talk about last minute. Oh, and this is another great thing about France: their banks are closed on Mondays. So, ideally, I could have been able to take out enough cash over a few days and then put it all in my account on Monday and write a cheque but the banks arent open on Monday. So, Im going to have to give the landlord SO much cash, its ridiculous. But theres actually nothing else I can do..

Im excited and once again nervous to move. I know Ill like it but now I have to figure out the metro, the bus, the night bus, where it comes, where it drops off, how often it comes and all that all over again.

Yesterday was the Murray family Christmas where my whole family gets together and celebrates Christmas. Clearly I wasnt there. I hope they are having a good time without me, although I doubt it. Today is my mom's side's Family Christmas, Im sure they will miss me there as well.

the polish

One of the girls that I work with is from Poland and she's been in Paris for 5 mths now. She speaks fluent french. Granted, she lives with her french boyfriend. But still, I thought that was awesome. We went out for dessert in between our split shifts (we always work the same shifts) and it was great. We were discussing words in English and French. She was teaching me french expressions and i was teaching her english expressions. This is the first time ive actually been able to carry on a conversation in french in paris and it was super hard but a lot of fun. Its great to have to work your mind and it was great when i actually said things correctly.

I was sad to quit work today because that means that I wont see her on a regular basis.. but, we exchanged emails and phone numbers so we are going to get together to learn english/french.

work

so basically my life in the past few days has been work. I worked a split shift yesterday as well as today. Im going to Normandy tomorrow until Monday so I actually quit my job today. Alicia Dalton (a family friend) is traveling through Europe and is going to Normandy tomorrow so me and two other girls Im living with right now are going to go too. I was planning on quiting my job anyways but I just did it earlier than planned.

I found an apartment. Im really excited. Its an international house, which apparently means that a lot of countries are represented in the house. This lady has slowly started renting out the rooms in her house and tries to get some countries represented. So, there are people from France, Germany, Canada, the states and other countries. I think it'll be pretty cool because then Ill get to learn about other countries and then maybe other languages.

So, Im going to Normandy until Monday and then I move on Tuesday and Paul comes on Friday. Its going to be a busy week.

bar

last night, we went out to the bar. One of Dom's rommmates had two friends that are staying with us for a couple of days so we went out last night. We started at the Moose, which is a Canadian Bar in Paris that has Ladies Night on Tues were you can get regular priced drinks till midnight. We stayed there until about 1am and then we went to a pub near Notre Dame that is opened until 6am. While we were at the Moose, the bartendar gave us all free shots and a hat (like a sun hat) because they were having some kind of promo. So, we all had hats on for the rest of the night.

We stayed at Pub St Michel till about 4am and then me and another girl came home and the rest of them went out to a club.

It was a great night full of drinks and laughing. We slept in way too late today. What else is new.

In other news, I get to pick up my bank card today for the account that is still at 0. In France, they get paid once a month so I have to wait forever for my account to have money in it.

your francophone,

work

Split shifts are great when you have nothing else to do that day. I enjoy working them because you're busy the whole time you're at work but then if you want to plan something else for the day you're supposed to work, its not good to work split shifts because its pretty much impossible.

I worked a split shift on Saturday and Sunday and then I also work split shifts this Thurs/Fri/Sat. I'm not sure how Im going to feel about split shifts after I do a bunch in a row but I guess we will see.

Work is going really well. Its very difficult and I always come home with a splitting headache because I have to concentrate so hard while at work to understand what people are saying that it actually hurts. Its really nice to be immersed in a french environment but its extremely difficult. I realized the other day that I havent worked in a month and so its also nice to to actually get my mind working again.

Monique

My cousin Monique was in Paris yesterday for one night. We met at the Notre Dame and then walked around Paris for a while, went out for coffee, went for a crepe and then saw the Christmas lights on Champs Elysees. It was great to see her because I havent seen her for about 4 years. It was weird meeting up with her in Paris (of all places) because normally Im at my house when I see her and this time I was in France.

Friday

Today, I started work. Now, let me tell you about this job that i have. Its working at a restaurant, much like kelseys at home. They specialize in meat (every restaurant here pretty much specializes in meat).

I got there at 9:30 this morning. The first 10 minutes were awful. After I am done explaining my first 10mins, I hope you all feel sorry for me. The lady gave me a tour which included teaching me how to use their crazy lockers that they have. She gave me a name tag with Amanda on it. Im going by Amanda here because parisians (for whatever reason..) have a hard time saying Mandy. This is funny because Im not used to answering when people say Amanda. So, my boss would be calling my name and I wouldnt really answer because I wouldnt realize she was talking to me. So anyways, she then gives me an outfit. The skirt is the largest size that they have as is the shirt. She then leaves me alone to get ready. I tried to unlock my locker and cant.. turns out I didnt shut it right or something so then I have to get my boss to unlock it for me. I then manage to lose my name tag and have to get them to make me a new one. My boss then tells me that Im supposed to have a necklace and earrings on. She is shocked when I tell her I dont have a necklace and earrings with me. She then tells me I have to wear makeup and is once again shocked when I tell her I dont have any on. She takes me down to the changeroom and puts makeup on me (awkward) then gives me her crazy bling bling to wear. This includes a crazy necklace and earrings and a bracelet. I felt so awkward all day because I just didnt feel like myself. Oh, and I bought the wrong color of nylons and jeepers, that was the end of the world at Hippopotamus (thats the name of the restaurant).. It was so awful.

After the first 10 mins from hell, the job went very well. Turns out its not hard being a hostest. Im pretty good at smiling and asking how many people there are and if they want smoking or non smoking (fumeur ou non fumeur).

I have to work a split shift tomorrow (11-2:30 and 6-midnight). Its going to be awful and I cant wait. We are also going out to the bar tomorrow so whats going to happen is that im going to work tomorrow pretty much all day and then go out all night and work the same shift on Sunday. Its going to be great. I'm in Paris.

your francophone,

Thurs

On Thurs, I went to my work for a little orientation that ended up being a huge waste of time. I didnt actually do anything AND I had to wake up early. They asked me if I wanted to start work today but then told me I couldnt because I didnt have the rights shoes on)

I went to the Pantheon yesterday with the International Club that I joined. I didnt really meet anyone (there were lots of other people there but they were snobby parisians.) It was really cool. This is the place where Voltaire and Victor Hugo are burried. We went on a guided tour and learned all about the scultures and the paintings around the Pantheon. It was great.

We watched the Titanic yesterday in the apartment. It was awesome. Just in case you didnt know, my fav movie is Titanic and I hadnt seen it in a really long time.

We also went to Champs Elysees last night to see the Christmas lights. They were amazing. They have the whole street (which is SO long and at the end of the street is the Arc de Triomphe) lit up with Christmas lights on the trees. It was incredible. This is the street where I originally had my job (which I got fired from, in case you forgot.. but dont worry, im over it). I found the place where I should have been working and threw eggs at it. Ha, no I didnt.. like, i said.. im over it.

We missed the metro last night by one minute so we had to take the noctobus (nocturnal bus.) Now, this bus runs all night and like the metro, you can pretty much get anywhere in the city. However, unlike the metro, it TAKES FOREVER. The ride which would have taken us 30 mins took us an hour and a half. We may or may not have stopped for crepes (yum, crepes..)

things ive learned

1- I have the greatest sister in the world. Actually, all my sisters (and you too, Brad) are awesome.

2- I learned to appreciate my family and my friends so much more. Its incredible how important and how close you get with people when you are so far away. I know I talk to my family SO much more than I did when I was living 40 mins away from them. I think its only until you actually LEAVE that you realize how important they are to you.

3- I learned that taking a shower every morning is not actually necessary. Ive ALWAYS taken a shower EVERY morning for as long as I can remember. and yet, when Im here, its not as important. Now, im clearly not saying that I dont shower at all but all Im saying is that its not as important. plus, the shower in Dom's apartment is awful. Actually, the whole bathroom is awful. The shower is a tub with a half curtain and there is no shower head per say. There is a shower head but its not attached to anything above you like most shower heads are. You have to hold it while trying to shower and also while trying not to get any water on the floor because of the half curtain. Oh, and you are standing a bathtub (which is slippery when wet, in case you didnt know) so, the reason for me not showering in the morning or every day for that matter is two-fold. one is that there are other things to do in Paris then to spend your time showering and the other reason is that its too hard to shower in their bathroom and so you try to do it as least as possible.

4- Ive learned that I need to make the most of the time that I have here because I dont know if Ill ever get to come back.

5- Ive learned that nutella crepes (in fact, nutella in general) is the greatest thing in the world. I found the BEST crepe making place in Paris and they actually know my name because Im there so often.

6- Im learning how to do a lot on my own. Its nice to be on your own once you're used to it and I think Im getting used to it.

update

yesterday was a very busy day. i opened up a bank account. now, this was probably the hardest thing ive had to do here so far. it was SO complicated. I had to make sure I understood all the terms and conditions of this bank account that I was opening as well as understanding how to use the bank card. In France, they dont really have credit cards. Well, they do. But your interac card is also your credit card and im not sure how you distinguish between when you want to use your credit card and when you want to use your debit card. Hopefully, i figure it out... It was really complicated. The banker who was setting up the account for me had to keep repeating things and had to explain the process and the different sorts of cards to me a few times. It was really frusterating. Plus, he was talking SO fast that I had to get him to repeat even things I knew I understood but didnt quite get because he was talking so fast. So anyways, I opened the account and my balance is currently at 0. how sad.

I also went and got my working permit yesterday. Laundry mat Jeff and I went and it was JUST like sitting in a passport office so you can imagine how much fun it was. The wait wasnt as long because this was our first time we were getting this working permit (I guess you have to renew it or something??) so we were in the fast lane.

I handed in all my papers to my work (yeah, job!!) and I called her today and Im going there tomorrow to meet everyone. This has been a long process with this restaurant trying to actually start work. I thought I was going to be able to start 3 days ago but it takes a while to get your working permit and all the other things I had to do like open the bank account. Then, i had to hand in the paperwork to my work and now i have to go BACK to meet everyone. I dont think im actually working tomorrow but I actually didnt really understand what the girl said on the phone. So, in actual fact, tomorrow might be my first day of work and I dont even know. wow, what am i getting myself into.

I then came back to Dom's and we went out to the bar. The bars are great here. Happy Hour is like 4 hrs long and its very popular. We went to this Canadian bar called the Beaver and had cheap drinks (now, dont be fooled by the word cheap. In Paris, there is no such thing as cheap.. all cheap means is that now, the drinks are regularily priced drinks instead of crazy over priced drinks) so, we went there for some poutine and some drinks and then went to the OTHER Canadian bar. Tuesday nights ended up being ladies nights (lucky us) and drinks were "happy hour priced" all night. I took the metro home right before it shut down at 1am and two of the other girls stayed out till 7am. They are still sleeping now and its 4pm here.

Today, i went for my first Paris run. It was great. Its really nice out today so I thought I would try out my heart and see how long I could run for. I found this really nice park that Lindsay was telling me about right beside one of the Universities (there are 6, i think) and it was gorgeous. There is a big pond in the middle of the park and lots of stairs (good for the legs) and lots of different paths. It was great to actually be doing a physical activity and my heart survived.

Today is also going to be laundry day and boy, i cant wait to have clean clothes.

I found other things in my suitcase that I should have sent home with Leanne but I guess Ill just send it home with Paul (who is coming in 16 days.. and boy, i cant wait) We are going to travel a little bit in Germany and then hopefully go to Venice and Florence and then back to Paris for Christmas and then do a little bit of France inbetween Christmas and New Years and then be back in Paris for New Years and then do Paris after that. Paul, I already have a list of all the things I want to do.. I know you cant wait.

alright, so this update is pretty long.. so, im going to go. Im starting to actually settle a little bit (even though, i still dont have an apartment) and im finally starting to realize that I actually live in Paris. Its nuts.

a bientot,

your francophone.

wine tasting fiasco

today, Dom and I had one mission and it was to go to a wine tasting convention. This guy (jeff) that Dom and another one of her roommates met at the laundry mat (he's Canadian) had invited Dom and I to go to this convention. We had no idea what to expect as neither one of us had ever gone to a wine tasting convention before and also, neither of us really liked wine anyways but we still wanted to go. We met Jeff's friends at the convention and we all got our wine glasses and started walking around. I was pretending I knew what I was doing while trying different kinds of wine. I was smelling and swirling and taking small sips and then swirling again. Now, let me tell you something--I know nothing about wine. So, I started actually telling the wine makers that I didnt know anything about wine and then they started actually teaching me stuff about wine, how its made and what to look for. After about an hour of wine tasting, I was a little tipsy. alright, maybe a lot. We were there for 3 hrs and it was awesome. There were about 1000 wine stands there. Unfortunuately we didnt get to all of the stands however, we got to a fair few.

After drinking wine all afternoon, we went out to dinner at an all you can eat chinese restaurant. All in all, it was a great day.

airport

Yesterday morning, I dropped Leanne off at the airport. Its sad to say goodbye to someone. Im so glad she came but at the same time its tough saying goodbye. Considering I was saying goodbye to my best friend and the fact that we had gotten up at 6am and had gone to bed at 3:30am, I think I did fairly well as far as crying goes. Leanne's always been the stronger one, so she only started crying when I did but all in all, I think we did fairly well.

Thanks Leanne for coming to visit me! Its great to have someone else around so that when funny things happen, you can actually share it with someone.

rain

the whole time Leanne was here, it rained. Today is the first day she is not here and guess what? no rain. We had a great day today as far as weather goes. It was about 15degrees and sunny and no rain. Im sorry you arent here today to witness the nice weather, Leanne.

international club

i joined the paris international club. I never in my life thought I would ever be part of an international club. I havent actually done anything with the club (just paid the admission fee) but I plan on going there on Tues because they have conversational nights where you can speak french to actual french-speaking people.

They also have a few trips that they go on. One is going to Amsterdam so Im going to do that in Feb. They have activities pretty much every night and its basically for international students (called etranger) to get to know Paris. I hope itll help me speak french and to get to know other people.

bar

on Friday night, Leanne, Dom and her roommates and I went to a bar downtown Paris. The reason we went there was because it was free entrance for females. Now, when there is free entrance, this usually means that the drinks are really expensive. This was definitely the case at this bar. The drinks were 9euros each which transfers into about 13 dollars Canadian per drink. Needless to say, I only had one.

Leanne and I were sitting at the bar enjoying our drink and Leanne got talking to the guy next to her who could speak Spanish. So, naturally, Leanne started speaking Spanish. She hasnt really spoken much Spanish since her trip to Central America 3 yrs ago (I cant believe its already been 3 yrs, eh Lee??) and her spanish was great!

We left the bar at about 3am (its open till 5am) because I had to get up early for my job interview. It was all in all a great night.

new coats

After Leanne and I looked at an apartment, we went shopping in this little district that we found. We both bought parisian coats. Leanne's coat is really cute except that for the rest of the week it was loosing buttons. We would be on the metro or walking somewhere and all of a sudden, we would hear this click and we would both automatically know that one of her buttons had fallen off of her coat and we would both start looking for it without really talking about it. There was only one button (the first one that ever fell off) that we never found.

lunch

Leanne and I went out for lunch one day with a family friends friend. he took us to this amazing restaurant where you get salade, beef with some amazing sauce and then french fries. it was SO good. when we got the bill, it was 64euros. that meant that each plate cost about 21 euros. like, this meal was good but it wasnt worth 21 euros. I was shocked but pretended not to be and pretended like i knew it was going to be that much and that I had no problem paying that much. inside, i was not very happy. i couldnt believe i had just paid 21 euros for my lucnh (actually, Leanne paid for my lunch, so i didnt even have to pay for it.. haha)

we then went to a department store very much like holt renfrew in Canada. we were looking at the price tags, playing the price tag game and it was crazy how much this items were selling for. i could NEVER imagine paying those ridiculous prices for some of those items.

It was great that Eric (our family friends friend) showed us around a bit. its nice to have a connection with someone (even if its a weird connection) from home. it makes you feel like youre closer to home than you actually are.

Amsterdam continued

so, we actually only saw amsterdam in the dark. we arrived at 9pm and left again at 6am. we didnt really get to see very much but we did go to another country. it was well worth it.

on our way back from amsterdam, we had a bit of trouble on the bus. on the way there, we did some sketchy business with the bus driver that I already talked about. so, on the way back, we had bought a ticket from amsterdam leaving at 7am and getting to brussels at 11am but we also had our reutrn ticket we had already bought from brussels to paris, leaving brussels at 8am.. so, as you can see, our tickets overlapped each other. we had heard that you had to pay a bit to get your ticket changed so we decided to chance it. we bought a ticket from amsterdam to brussels and then we were going to play stupid with our ticket from brussels to paris. we thought we were being smart at the time.

we get to brussels fine (we had lunch again in belgium) and then the bus driver says that two people have to get off.. as soon as he said this, i knew he meant us. we didnt move. he said it again and again, we didnt move. he then said he was going to check everyones ticket to see who was supposed to get off because they had to have the right count going into france. we got out our tickets and i was waiting for him to tell us we had to get off and that we would be stuck in brussels. however, being the cute canadians that we are, the bus driver, being male, was a little angry at first that we didnt have the right ticket but then he got over it and let us stay on the bus. we advised him that the amsterdam station said it would be alright if we had the wrong ticket going from brussels to paris (totally untrue) and that we were really sorry (totally untrue because we saved a lot of money by not having to change our ticket.) he was eventually fine with it and we continued on to paris.

now, at the france border, security came on the bus and started checking everyones passport and ticket. i start freaking out in my oh-my-god way and leanne is so relaxed and calm and doesnt even bat an eye. we get out our tickets and our passport and showed them to security. he hardly looked at our tickets and moved on. phew.

after security had checked everyones passports, they got off the bus but we werent going anywhere. eventually, one security officer came back on the bus and told some man to get off. 6 security officers searched him while everyone on the bus watched. someone came back on to get his stuff and the bus door was shut and we continued our ride to paris. the man did not get on the bus and he stayed with the 6 scary scary security men at the france border. it was scary.

the funny part was that i was freaking out and Leanne was SO calm, not even caring, as if this happens to her every day. it was halarious.

job

i got a job. finally. now, this job is actually a real job and im pretty sure i wont get fired from it. ill be working in a restaurant, i think as a hostess.. (once again, my degree and my osap debt is really coming in handy here) i have to get all my papers organized and open a bank account but after i do that, i can start working! i hope to start work on tues or wed..

i have some leads on apartments so thats good.. i have a few potential roommates and some potential places so hopefully some of those work out.

im staying at dom's for a bit right now just to get out of hostels. the girls who live here are SO much fun. we out to the bar last night and had a great time.. we found an english bar and they were playing english 70s and 80s music.. it was great!

church

Leanne and I went to mass at Notre Dame and just like last time, neither of us understood anything. We got to sit 3 rows from the front which was great because we could actually see what was going on.. even still, we didn't understand ANYTHING.

they dont have real benches at ND. All they have are chairs that they put right beside each other. now, for those of you who have gone to a Kings mass, you will know what im talking about.. if you are sitting in these chairs and you dont know the person next to you, it can get pretty awkward. you are trying not to touch them because you dont know them but you cant help it because they put the chairs right beside each other. its very awkward because you are trying to balance yourself so that you're not really touching anyone but also that you're comfortable. its pretty much impossible, at least it is for me. so, this time when we were at mass, neither of us were sitting beside anyone so it was good. last time i was there, i was sitting beside this guy who had a backpack.. now, this makes it even worse because there is even LESS room to move around. it was soo awkward.

Leanne really enjoyed the mass even though she couldnt understand anything.

Amsterdam

So, Leanne and I decided we were going to go to a different country on Thursday. So, we were looking at going to Germany and for whatever reason, decided not to. We then got the idea about going to Brussels, Belgium for the night because its not that far away from France. So, We got on a bus that was going to brussels and realized along the way that the bus, after going to belgium was going to amsterdam. so, what did we decide to do? of course, we decided to continue along on the bus to amsterdam. we did some sketchy sketchy business with the bus driver were he let us go to amsterdam for 20euros and then pocketed the money. sketchy.

it was an 8 hr bus ride. we spent a total of 10 hrs in amsterdam and then we took the bus (another 8 hrs) back the next day because I had an interview. it was worth it.

we left paris at 11am on thurs, had lunch in belgium (where did you have lunch on thurs?? because I had it in belgium) and got to amsterdam around 8pm. by the time we figured out the metro system in dutch (was that ever funny) it was about 930 when we got to our hostel.

let me tell you about our hostel. first of all, it was right beside the red light district. now, in case you dont know what that is, its where girls stand in windows and wait for males to come inside. its very sad actually. so, our hostel was right beside this district which was actually halarious because we had no idea until we had paid for it and walked outside that we were actually in the red light district. SO, as we are paying for our hostel, they gave us this pamphelet that says "we love jesus and jesus loves you" on it and then we walk into the main room and on the wall in HUGE letter they have GOD LOVES YOU. leanne and I lose it. they apparently have bible readings every day for 2 hrs.. ill sum it up for you. our "jesus loves you" hostel was in the red light district.

i will write more about amsterdam later..

your francophone,

luggage

Leanne got a taste of what it is like bringing luggage on the metro and carrying it around all over the place, trying to get through the 500 people that are around you, carrying it up and down stairs and trying not to run into anyone.

its pretty funny watching her and i constantly remind her that I had to do it with so many more bags..

update

well, yesterday was an interesting day. Leanne and I went to my job interview and it wasnt really what I was expecting. I would be doing a job completely in english which paul reminded me wasnt why I was in France. Im here to practice my french and so I should get a french speaking job and not an english speaking job. Jobs are not hard to find here, Im more worried about getting an apartment. Leanne and I are looking at another apartment today so hopefully that goes well.

We didnt really do much last night. We ran around trying to find an internet cafe last night while it was pouring rain. of course neither of us had an umbrella so we were soaked. Leanne passed out at about 9pm and slept the whole night. I was also tired from staying at Doms place all weekend because those girls never sleep that I pretty much passed out as well.

I know ive told Leanne this a thousand times but Im so glad she is here. Its amazing how much easier things are when you have one familiar face with you especially when that person is your best friend..its great..

today, we are going to try to enjoy the nice day outside. I will send more later..

your francophone,

nutella crepes

i have no idea if ive talked about nutella crepes before or not. but, now im going to.

they are amazing.

they heat up the nutella in the microwave and then put it on a crepe and its amazing. Its so satifying. and the baguettes here are out of this world. They are fanastic. I pick up a baguette and an apple (I found my 4020 apples here) and im set for most of the day. Its great. My peanut butter is also a savior and paul, youre going to have to bring me some when you come, because im going to need more by then..

thats all. point of post: to make kimberly jealous that im eating nutella crepes because thats ALL she talked about when she got home and now i know why!!!

Ireland

me and Dominique (Alisons friend) and two of her roommates booked a trip to Ireland last night.

I met these girls, including Dom on Friday night and then we booked our trip on Saturday. They were already going and they had their flights booked and then they invited me along. We are going to Ireland and Scotland for a total of 13 days. We are renting a car and driving around the coast of Ireland and ending up in Dublin. Its going to be awesome and I cant wait.

Its great to have long term plans because that means that Im planning on staying. which I am. All thanks to Leanne.

my weekend

well, my weekend ended up being very good.

I ended up spending the entire weekend with Alisons friend from university and her roommates, all canadians in their one bedroom apartment. man, is this apartment ridiculous. I grew up with 3 sisters and we could never EVER even think about living in a one bedroom apartment all together. The apartment is actually fairly big for having only one bedroom but when there are 4 girls (5 including me) it gets very small very quickly.

so, the roommates are super awesome. Dominique (Alisons friend) has been so great, letting me stay there for 2 nights now.. we went out on Friday night to a bar and left here at 12:30am. Leaving at 12:30 is the best invention ever and something i didnt get to do going to school in London. You could never do that in London, Ont. In london, as many of you know, you have to be downtown by at least 9:30 or you have no hope in hell in getting into a bar. So, we left late and then stayed out all night because a lot of the bars do not close. which is awesome. we took the metro home when it opened up at 5:30am on Saturday. Now, remember my last post about the metro and how it is confusing but that I had it figured out and I pretty much dont get lost anymore?? disregard that. We were so tired, so delirious and maybe (just maybe..) still loaded and we took the metro the wrong way 4 TIMES. it was actually ridiculous. i kept falling asleep and then we'd all miss our stop and then go back but we would go the wrong way and it was awful. We didnt get home until 8am. it was ridiculous.

yesterday, (sat) the girls spent the whole day in bed and I got up and Natalie (another swapper) and I went to see another apartment. I saw one Friday as well that was pretty cool, kinda far away but really nice. the only problem was that they had a dog and a cat which I cant live with. So, this house we saw yesterday was alright but it didnt' have a living room or common area. It was living with an older lady with her son and then me. As soon as you walk in the door, there were only 4 doors. It was weird and not at all what Im looking for.

last night we just hung around and it was great to be with other people my age hanging out, laughing and talking. It was really fun. Im staying here again tonight and then picking Leanne up in the morning. I cant wait.

today was another lazy day. we all got up late and just hung around. we went to get bunkbeds that the girls had bought from this family down the street. and boy, was that funny. there we were, 5 girls walking down the streets all with differnet bunkbed parts. one girl had a mattress, i was carrying something else ( i have no idea what it was) haha, it was too funny. then, we put the bed together. what a great sense of accomplishment. when we got done, we all took a step back and admired our work. it was great.

tonight, we are once again, just hanging out but its been great. its great to finally kind of settle and just lie around, sleep and read and hang out.

tomorrow Lee comes and I cant wait!

your francophone,

metro

the metro here is nuts. i realized the other day that they dont have any parking lots in paris. now, i will tell you why. it is because EVERYONE takes the metro because it is SOO convenient. and so confusing to a etranger, (which is a stranger in french) so anyways, they have 16 metro lignes all intercrossing and whatnot. the only way to tell whether you are on the right metro going the right direction is to make sure you follow the signs. so, for example, line 1 goes in both directions so you have to know the name of the end of the line in hte direction you are going in to make sure youre going the right way. i know its confusing and i have no idea how i figured it out. once you figure it out, its actually very easy and very accesible. so anyways, because there are so many people taking the metro, sometimes there are tons of people travelling the same direction you are and it gets crowded. me being from a small town of like 9 people, im not used to that... so, i always think its really funny when you stop at a stop and you get off and so do 70 of your closest friends and you all go in the same direction, take the same stairs and then branch off after that depending on where youre going. its like a scene out of a movie.

my first cheese experience

well. this entry is going to be about my first cheese experience. it was quite a few days ago and I totally forgot about it until now. now, most of you will know that im very simple when it comes to food. i really only eat a few things regularilly and one of them is grilled cheese and tomato soup, which is my fav. i specifically like marble or cheddar cheese. well, would you believe that they dont really have those kinds in france. they hqve 'better' kinds. so, i branched out for about the 2nd time in my life (one being this trip) and bought another kind of cheese. camamerie or something like that.. so, i get this cheese and im deter;mined to make my own panini. so, i first open the container and it kinda smells funny but what do i know, this is my second time branching out and my first time branching out with cheese. i put it on the panini, microwave it, and start eating it. i dont like and it tastes awful but im determined to eat it and at least pretend to like it.
I finally tell tyler, another canadian, that i dont actually like it and he takes the cheese and tells me its gone really bad. im never eating cheese here again.

just in case you havent read my update for today or maybe you didnt understand it.. i got fired from a job I didnt even have. figure that one out. im awesome.

my awesome sister

now im going to tell you about my amazing sister. all of you know her. shes great. she is so kind and so giving and let me tell you something else about her. she is coming to stay with me for a week because i was about to come home. shes leaving school/work/ra stuff to come and see me. i know she doesnt necessarily have time to do this but she is, because thats who she is. shes 100 percent pure gold heart. she is coming on monday and is staying for a week. i know that if she had not decided to come down this week, i would be on a plane home right now. so, thanks Lee..

update

hello from france.
I realize I havent written in a while and that is partly because I havent really seen anything recently and partly because Im busy searching for jobs. Ha, you might be wondering why I would be searching for a job because in my last entry, as you may recall, Im pretty sure I said something about already having a job and starting it the next day. well, let me tell you something.

I arrived at my job early like a good little employee. The store is closed. apparently they dont even open the store until 10am (which is what time i was supposed to work at) the lady didnt even show up until 10:10am.. and apparently in france, its not uncommon to be late for work, in fact, its more common then uncommon. so, im waiting at the door and she asks me who i am (this is not the same person that hired me) and i said i was with swap and that i was supposed to talk work today and she said that the owner didnt tell her i was starting today but to come in and she will orientate me. and i said, ok. so, that was fine, im working and being orientated, which involved learning how to fold clothes properly and how to take items that are WAY overpriced out of their plastic and arrange them on a shelve. well, my 4 year honors degree really did prepare for this work. Im so glad im in debt so that i can work in a souvenir show unravelling this stupid items.

eventually, i realize that the girl who hired me has not given me this paper that i need to get my official working permit. i call her at home and she tells me that im not actually working there and that is why i never got my letter. well, let me tell you, I learned really fast how to get mad in french and i started arguing with her on the phone because I know she told me last week that she had actually hired me. she said that because she couldnt get a hold of the SWAP office so she decided not to hire me. as you can imagine, i was fuming and also trying not to cry. so, she paid me for what i had already worked, i packed up my stuff and left.

which brings me to present. there is more to the story but im going to let that be because its water under the bridge.. i am now looking for another job/friends/hostel/apartment. Im pretty excited about living in France right now. not.

different languages

last night while drinking wine and playing janitor (some of you may not know what janitor is. i assure you, you do. we had to call in janitor in my household growing up because we were and still are not allowed to swear. you will know it as asshole)so, i am playing janitor with 5 other people. one from korea, one from japan, one from the US, one from Brazil and then another canadian.. we started talking about languages and countries. it was really cool because almost everyone at the table, myself and the other canadian excluded spoke at least 3 languages. i guess if your first language is english, you dont necessarily have to learn other languages because english is the universal language. so anyways, we were discussing languages and i was learning different words in different languages.. it was weird because normally i teach other people words in french but i wasnt teaching anyone because all of these people could already speak french. it makes me want to learn more languages.

sleeping

ive been having trouble sleeping because im usually afraid my stuff is going to get stolen. so far, ive been lucky but you always hear horror stories of people who lose everything overnight. i also sleep with my passport under my pillow and my purse beside me. at least, if everything else gets stolen, i can immediately go home because having all of my stuff stolen would be an automatic ticket home for me.

in the hostel im staying in right now, they have a free breakfast every morning but only from 7-930 so if you want it ( which i always do) i have to get before then. now, normally, i would go back to bed but as well in this hostel, they close the whole thing down from 10-3 everyday for cleaning. this is a good idea because that means ( i hope) that the place actually gets cleaned but it is not good for me because i never get to sleep in.

also, in the hostel, they have showers which are pretty much like residence although; if you can actually picture it, they are SMALLER. i seriously can hardly turn around in them because obviously, you dont want to touch the sides for fear of what could be on them. they do not have anywhere to put your necessary-to-be-clean shower items such as shampoo.. so, you pretty much have to hold everything while trying to cleqn yourself. well, man, its ridiculous. im so glad no one can see me because i know i look ridiculous. all they would need is some kind of a shelve but i guess they dont think its necessqry, because lets face it, the people who own the hostel never shower there.

last night there was a school group that stayed on my floor. of course, the class has to be all boys and OF COURSE the teacher has no control over the class whatsoever. so, obviously the kids are running, screaming, yelling, pushing, knocking on everyones doors until all hours of the night and then again in the morning. if only i knew how to be angry in french and although working for citi in the summer and dealing with quebecers has taught me a little bit, it is unfortunatly not enough. so, point of story: i am tired today.

my task for today is looking for an apartment. i need my own spqce and some more permanent people.

i cant believe ive lasted here a week. paul is making me stay for at least a week... and i guess that was yesterday.. so, ive surpassed that. i told him on friday i was going to book my flight home for monday (yesterday) and he said that i wasnt going ot be booking my flight and that i should stay at least a week. he had said i would have regretted coming home so soon and i know now that i would have regretted that.. he right but dont tell him.. shhhhhhhhhh...

your francophone,

update

alright, so i had a pretty eventful weekend. first of all, yesterday i went to mass at notre dame which was totally in french and not understood but it was still really cool. i then went to versailles to visit the kings castle and man, was that ever cool. there was a huge lake in the middle of the bqckyard and the house was incredible. i spent most of the day there going thru the grounds and checking everything out.. natalie (another girl in swap) and i took a blanket and right after sunset, sat under the eiffel tower. the eiffel tower is lite up the whole night but every hour on the hour for 10 mins in spqrkles like a christmas tree would and it is soo cool. it was hard to believe that i was actually in paris lying on a blanket looking at the tour eiffel.

today, me and this girl from vqncouver toured the kings chapel and it was cool; we went on a guided tour and it turns out you learn a lot more from those tours then you would if you were going thru on your own. we learned all about stain glass windows and how to "read" churchs and the pictures on the stain glass.. it was greqt.; the tour guide was a little dramatic ( no no, she was very dramatic) somewhat like she was doing an interpretive dance to her own tour.. it was a little odd..; but i guess thats what you expect from a lady who gives tours of chapels..

i cant wait to get settled so that i can empty out my suitcase and weqr real clothes instead of practical clothes. i am seriously getting sick of my kings sweater and i think i will burn it when i get home because i now hate weqring it.

i did not get to germany the other day but i did get to go to church so im not that upset.. i start working on Wed and im looking forard to that.. hopefully going back to making minimum wage will be worth it.

your francophone,

mandy

today is remembrance day. i went to the arc de triomphe in paris which is zhere napolen (everything in france has to do with a napolean) buried some soldiers and they had the best celebrqtion i have ever seen. there were probably about 10 000 people there, about 1000 police and about 2000 soldiers and 4 mqrching bqnds. it was awesome and nuts.

i also went to see the moulin rouge today. it was pretty awesome. while sitting in an outdoor cafe ( which they have on every corner of every street in paris) i was people watching and a girl noticed my kings sweatshirt ( whiwh i have been wearing since i got here) and told me she was from london and her friend went to western.. so, we got talking and it turns out she knew a lot of the same people i did which was too weird. seriously though, what the chances of that happening? its almost a negative chance. you should NEVER run into anyone you can make connections with in europe. its just not possible but its already happened twice. the guy im trqvelling with right knows knows someone i went to elementqry school with. too weird. AND, he also knew the guy that the girls from london knew that we were talking about. so, me and this guy and the girls from queens all knew the sqme guy. that should not be possible.

i also had my second crepe with nutella in it and it was so good.

thats about all i have to report. I will write more lqter. i am still trying to get to mass at notre dqme. iùll get there..


your francophone,

so i guess thats all for today.

im going to try to find an apartement today and early next week. this is proving to be more difficult then i thought. im also going to go to mass at Notre Dame today so that should be really cool.

other than that, I guess ill see where the wind blows,

your francophone,

now onto things ive learned

things ive learned

1. I brought too many shoes. you know those boots that i was humming and haaing over whether or not i should bring them? well, i made a decision. i shouldnt have brought them. Alison told me to not bring very many shoes and i definitely didnt even bring close to half of my shoes but i still brought too many.

2. I learned my limit. yesterday, i actually cried in front of COMPLETE stranger because I was so upset about where i was living. thats a new low for me. i learned that that is my limit.

3. I learned I cannot be in a completely foreign country not knowing anyone and be by myself for more than 24 consecutive hrs because I will go crazy.

4. I learned the difference between what is necessary to bring with you and what would be nice to have if you had room. turns out that carrying two pairs of shoes around ALL day is not necessary. i actually only need one pair of shoes.

5. I learned you dont actually need that many clothes. it doesnt matter if you weqr the same thing two dqys in a row because you hang out with totally different people each day that no one knows the difference.. so; in that case; I also leqrned thqt I packed WAY too many clothes.. so, Im sending some (most) home with paul.

la tour eiffel

so, ive changed my mind. yes, Notre Dame is very beautiful however, thqt was before i saw the eiffel tower. wow. we went there (me and this guy who just graduated from queens) at sunset and man is it incredible. nothing prepares you for how big and intricate it is. I thought I wasnt necessarily going to be surprised but boy was I wrong. it was awesome.

in other news... I got a job yesterday. Im working at the souvenir shop on Champs Elysees (which is apparently like, one of the most fqmous streets in the world, who knew..) so thats kinda cool and the other gift shop im working at is right beside the Louvre which i havent seen yet but im sure it will be awesome as well. so i start my job on wed which is good because now i can start looking for a place to live.

i moved yesterday which was the best decision ive made so fqr; turns out im getting better at this decision making thing.. im now not too far from Notre Dame so its a reqlly good location and im pqying half as much as i was before..

now, let me tell you about my experience of hostels so far, which, granted is not a lot (only one night) but its still an interesting perspective. there are so mqny people in these plqces and a lot of the, are french.. i thought this was so weird because I assumed that people would be from all different countries and not really from france. i guess my thinking is that i wouldnt really necessqrily stay in a hostel in toronto for example.. but this is what a lot of these french people do.. which, for them is a good idea because its a very cheap way to go to paris for very cheap.

so, that was pretty much my day yesterday.. i didnt actually sleep very much because I was so afraid my stuff was going to get stolen.. oh, and another thing about this hostel is that you sleep in the same room with three other people that you have never met before and the first time i met the girls in my room was the next morning because i had gotten in late last night and they were already sleeping.. and it wasnt weird waking up to them in the morning.. it was like i had always woken up beside this same chinese girl for the last 10 yrs of my life (it was like waking up with you in the room, Leanne) it was quite odd that it wasnt odd..

nov 9

so, yesterday was my first day in actual paris.

I met two people in the SWAP program who hqve been here for 3 wks already and we went to downtown Paris. I saw Notre Dame and oh my lord. Let me tell about the amazing church that is Notre Dame. this thing is massive. I couldnt even believe it. I was stunned. We then saw la siene which is the river that goes right through paris
and boy, is it gorgeous. We walked around forever and got a crepe (oh my.. it was fantastic.)

my first day, zhen i was in my hostel, i was trying to plug in my qlqrm clock and i was going to play music so i was trying to plug in my power bqr. i ended up shutting off the power to my whole room which was scary because this was at night... i went out into the hallway to get some light and this 50 year old lady (because there is no one under 50 in my hostel) came out of her room sqying thqt she didnt have any power in her room.. i had actually shut off the power on the whole floor for about 5 mins.. haha.. it was funny..

so, then, lqst night I decided I was just going to plug in my alarn clock and it zorked however, all of a sudden the alarm clock turned off after about 4 mins and I had blown the fuze in the room. opps.

i will zrite more tomorrow after my job interview..

your francophone,

instead of..

instead of talking qbout how hard it is and how lonely i am.. im going to tell you about all the things ive learned so far; so, youùve already read about my first day expereinces (thanks brad for putting those up for me.) that was awful. there are so many things I have leqrned so far about what to do next time. for example, lik,e my mom had said; I should have hqd a hostel picked out before i went. i didnùt think this was a good ideq because I thought i zould meet people on the plqne and then be upset that i alreqdy had other plqns. turns out taking 2 gravol and falling asleep on the plane is not the best way to meet people... live and learn.

the second thing ive learned is that i would then take q cab to my alreqdy set up hostel. turns out lugging (and i meqn lugging) suitcases around on the subway is not very convienent and what i thought zould sqve me money is actually not because i ended up pqying more for the shit hole (sorry mom) hostel thqt im stqying in now. had i had a hostel set up i wouldnt hqve been in this hole (im moving today) and i zould have met more people and would not have been lonely and probably would actually want to stay in france right now; as it turns out? i dont want to be here.

keyboard

so, Im starting this blog because I think itll be a good way to keep everyone up to date on what I am doing however, you have you understand that the keyboard is SO hard to type on. The a is in the wrong spot. on this keyboard the q is in the place of an a. the w is also in the wrong spot. there is the z instead of a w. the , on this keyboard is where the m should be. The ponctuation is also hard to find so sometimes there wont be any. so.. now thqt thqt is settled.. lets start the blog.

well well

things here are good; i made it: and i found an internet cafe; and things are okay;; its overwhelming but ill get used to it;; its annoying because i have to carry everything zith me right now;; but its fun; the keyboards are so messed up; but im doing the best i can; it took me about 3 hrs to get to my destinqtion in paris... im on the outside of paris in montreuil and im staying in a hostel.. the subway system is very good here except that everything you want to switch lines, you have to go up a long flight on stairs and of course because i was carrying a HUGE 50 pound suitcase, this was very difficult. lots of people stopped to ask for help.. so that made it easier.. but just picture me trying to squeeze everything through a little entrance and then going dozn stairs, getting on the subway which isnt as fqst as toronto and then getting off at the right ti,e, still with all of my stuff.. THEN climbing up about 50 stairs with my luggage.. what should have taken me a half hour, took me 3 hrs.. good times; then i get to montreuil to the tourist office at 12pm; and apparently people in france take 2 hr lunches because the place doesnt open until 2 again; so; i sit around for a while, too tired to move anywhere. i finally get to a hostel and sleep until about 6.. and then i started walking around and ca,e across this internet cafe.. good times..

i hqvent really met anyone yet but i think thats because im outside of paris and there arent many tourists:: but hopefully i will mmet people tomorrow.. i also think i might have to move hostels so thatll be fun.. i cant wait to get settled..

alright; Iùm out of here.. brad set up a blog for me so Im going to start writing in it.. thanks Brad1 the address is mandymurray.blogspot.com.. check it out soon and hopefully ill have something zritten there:*

miss you and love you all,

your francophone,

Hi Mandy,

> Well your day must be good if you are reading this cause that >means you found an internet cafe. We got home about 10:00 and checked your >flight. Looks like you were delayed a bit but I checked the dudes flight >that was going to Zurich that was behind us in the line and their flight >left the same time so I figured he must have gotten to the runway
>first!!!!!!!
>
> We ate supper on the way home and as we were driving in >Stratford something hit our back window and SLOWLY shattered the glass. We >stopped to look at it and we weren"t sure if it was a pellet gun so we >reported it to the cops. Turns out it was some kid with a sling shot who >had pinged one or two vehicles and they caught him as we were reporting the
>window - pretty exciting in Ontario life. How is life in Paris. If it isn't >raining then you are having a good day.
>
> Lots of Love MomXOXOXO

Fair Paris

Mandy,

you've landed. I'll bet you are scared. i sure as heck was. picture
how i must have looked lugging around my camping backpack, my carry on
and this giant shrink wrapped box that would resemble a bike only to
those who were around to see it wrapped - to everyone else it looks
like I Saran wrapped the front door of my house.

picture that, have a chuckle, and enjoy the wonderful sites around you.

i don't know if you did this in D.R when you were there, but that
fat guy did it with us; I've proceeded to do the same exercise every
time i go to a new environment.

listen. just sit and listen. absorb the sounds around you.

everything will seem alien. everything will seem odd. everything will
sound out of context. this is your new home. remember, write down if
possible, how you feel right now, what you think of this new place,
what you expect will happen to you over the next seven months. write
down the different sounds you hear: the cabs, the dog barking, the
gentle hum of conversation of the people passing by, the birds, the
buses, the sounds that i can't label because i don't hear them.

when you go to leave this country in seven months revisit this
exercise. you will be surprised what you think, fell and hear the
second time around. you will hear everything with a new set of ears,
everything you heard on your first day off the plane will have a new
context and you will be able to go back to the time you spent in
France via a sound or smell.

i miss you. i am excited for you. i am nervous for you.

i am praying for you.

make good choices.

--bbb