Well, my arrival in Paris was less smooth than one may have hoped for! On Tuesday I got up quite early to go to Maricelas and finish building - yes building - Nunos bag for all the stuff that he needed me to bring to Paris with me. It’s a franken-bag - honestly it looks absolutely rediculous made of various shopping bags, and a LOT of tape! It also coincidentally weights nearly 30lb, and I carried it plus my backpack first through the streets of barcelona and then through the streets of Paris. 

I had opted not to take the metro when I arrived in Paris because I was not sure if I could manage with all the stairs and the crowded tunnels with all the baggage and I thought “wow, how lucky is that! There is a bus that goes just one metro stop away from Juliens house!” So I got on the bus. We were sitting and waiting a long time in the airport stop and so I asked the driver how long it would take to get to Nation ( a very misleading sign made it appear as though it was almost a direct route, no other stops) and he said that he had to wait there for 10 minutes and then it would be 20 minutes to Nation. Great! (I thought) 2 hours later, I got off the bus. We apparently stopped everywhere! Hahah, it was an intersting tour of the city and luckily I didn’t think I had to be anywhere in a hurry. So I got off the bus and started walking with my 50lbs of luggage. I walked to Rue du Voltaire - which I had written down was his address. I got to the end of the street and the numbers stopped. Oh dear. So I called his roomate. It’s not RUE its BLVD. Great, okay, currently I am near to around 2km from there. But I keep walking, trying to get a taxi but all the ones passing are full. FINALLY I find a taxi stand, I walk to the front of the qeue and am putting my stuff in the back seat of this guys cab, tell him I want to go and he says “but thats just around the corner” i say “yes, but i just cant carry these things any further” and he tells me very rudely that hes been waiting there for 45 minutes and it is not worth his time for 5 euros and blablabla so I hold back a slew of insults that I want to yell at him and just continue walking. I have never been so sore after a 1.5 hour flight haha, it really shows that I have to get back to the gym! 

So, once I arrived, it got SO much better. Juliens apartment is so nice, especialy for what I expected (very small) but its got very nice wood floors, lots of light, very quiet and basically I wish it was mine haha. And once Julien got home from work we went around the corner to a little restaurant called Monseur where I had an excellent chicken with apple glaze and mashed potato dinner, finished  with some kind of chocolate cake that we would call lava cake but they have a special name for... Mon-something? It was sooooo good and they had a cat in the restaurant!!!!!!! She was very sweet and she came and sat with me for about 20 minutes, and then someone got a big juicy steak and she moved on. It was the perfect way to end my crazy day - oh and also another thing I saw when I was walking was a little music shop where they sold sheet music and maybe had lessons and a man playing piano and a woman singing opera! How unique is that?! 

And yesterday - my first day - as you may suspect I just started wandering around ... and got lost haha! I was doing fine til I got to a massive traffic circle at Bastille and then I took the wrong road and it all went to hell from there. However it was a nice walk and I saw some very quiet neighbourhoods of Paris. Actually all of Paris is very quiet, there isn’t much going on at all because it’s very cold, (I can see my breath even) people here work much more than they do in Spain and also I don’t know... it’s just not tourist season I guess. But I froze yesterday morning, I wasn’t prepared for that, thankfully today is warmer. 

So yes, I was wandering around getting quite lost, in search of crepes and the latin quarter. After some time I gave up, got on the metro. I made quite an embarrassing mistake trying to work the ticket machine - here I am pushing on the screen and not understanding why it’s not working, and then I realize that there is a little rolly ball that you have to move and a button to accept the selection. I think people were looking at me and groaning on the inside as I struggled with it haha. Eventually I made it to the platform where I saw a guy who I thought was very religous, not wearing shoes and what looked like some kind of robe... or something. Once we were on the train I realized it was neither of these things, he was just a crazy man wearing a toque, a bedsheet and without shoes. He went up and down the train yelling something (I’m sure rude) and when no one gave him what he wanted he lit up a cigarette - IN the train! Well, a couple older men got up and cornered him near a door and made him get off at the next stop. Crazy bastard. 

I was surprised yesterday how little I recognized. I know it’s been 7 years but I thought I might remember more, and what I do remember is not really how I remembered it. It’s interesting. Today I plan to go with Juliens very nice roomate to some of the museums in the city and tomorrow... NUNO COMES! Hooray, it’s going to be a fun time with all of us. Oh - ps - yesterday for dinner I at AMAZING crepes with cider. So good.  Thats all I have time to tell you today, more to come soon. I have no internet connection at the house so I found a perfect little cafe where the waiter is very nice to me and speaks english so I plan to have breakfast here each morning :) Sorry I can’t skype but love to all, and see you soon!