Bonjour, Comment ca va?

Paris is weird and expensive. I've been here since Saturday night. Sunday and a portion of Monday were spent mostly sleeping as I've caught a bad cold (or, en francais). I've been staying at the Montclair hostel on the 6th floor. Other than the strenuous climb up 6 flights of steep, winding stairs, the hostel is pretty nice. It's really clean, fairly comfortable, and the staff is really nice. Our room has its own bathroom that only three people share - a lot better than the previous. It's also got a kitchen and a lobby - probably another reason I've been here so much.

On Monday night, I was a bit relieved to hear another American voice in the kitchen. I introduced myself to Shavonne, a bartender from Seattle, and two Hungarian youths (I forget their names!) and was promptly handed a beer. We chatted for a bit and quickly became friends, eventually wandering out to a bar nearby to talk loudly about English language, rugby, football, and other miscellany shared over several bottles of wine. We eventually made our way back to the hostel to hang out in the Hungarian's room, and were interrupted several times by the staff on duty to keep the noise down. I guess laughter carries in the corridors.





Shavonne, me, and Shavonne's roommate, an Australian, met the next day (Tuesday) to head to the Louvre. They were hungover, and the Louvre was closed, so we didn't get very far. All city museums in Paris are closed on Tuesdays. It was, however, a beautiful day. Shavonne took off shortly after we arrived to get a train ticket to Amsterdam, where she was headed the next day. The Australian (I'm so terrible with names) and I wandered around for a bit, and I eventually found an english language bookstore where I bought some short stories by Roald Dahl, some pens, and a pretty good map of Paris. I've been dying for something to read since I got here. Since we were both exhausted, we headed back to the hostel to nap.

My days in Paris have been spent getting up late, wandering for a few hours, migrating back to the hostel in the afternoon, napping, and wandering again in the evening. I finally got a chance to do a little clothes shopping today, and found some excellent (and expensive) new duds. I've been really frugal so far, so I think I can splurge a little bit. Now that I'm starting to feel better (thanks to french over the counter cold remedies), I'm going to try to spend my last day at the cemetary in Montmartre and on a bike tour in the afternoon.