Journal 17
November 10th, 2004
Paris, Day 1

Wednesday:

I woke up at 4:30am, yes... 4:30...AM. I wanted to make sure that I would be ready and packed and at the train station in time to get to Paris for the rest of the week. I got up and showered, ate breakfast as usual; just like any other normal day. I wanted to call a few friends back home, since it was only 9pm back there at the time. I used up almost all the remaining credit on my cell phone to call back for a few minutes and say hello though. I then ended up sitting around since it took me much less time to pack then I thought it would. Ian was up to go running at 6am, I swear it was freezing outside... he's pretty hardcore. I left shortly after 6 to make my way down to the Train station to meet everyone at 7.

Once at the train station we all ended up sittin around a while until it was our turn to board the train. We all went through the ticketing areas and got our passports stamped, woo hoo! As we walked along the train to find our car we realized we were wayyy at the end; it took us about 3 minutes to walk all the way there. Once inside the train we all found our seats and got ready for the two and a half hour ride to Paris.
Some people slept, most talked, and a few actually did homework on the way there. We went through the Chunnel, which only took about 20 minutes or so. We arrived in Paris and were quickly escorted out of the station and onto a bus for our tour. The funniest thing was that as we walked out of the station, half the restaurants and buildings around us had signs up in English.
Our bus tour was fairly interesting. The tour guide annoyed the hell of me though. She kept going on and on about the "doggies".... "ohhh, look at the little doggie. Little doggies... little doggies that make little whoopsies. You have to clean up your little doggies whoopsies in france..." My god lady, just say that you have to pick up your dog's crap/poop/scat/shit/feces/waste/mess use any word you like, but don't try to make it all cute-sy sounding; and most of all don't talk about it for five minutes. We saw all the major sites though. We left will at Notre Dame for a while, we drove back by after getting to the bus to see it he'd come back yet; he had, so we stopped and picked him up. I had a crepe for lunch, with apricot jelly - it was a little over priced.

After the bus tour we were dropped off at our hostel, and checked into our tiny - but comfortable - rooms. We couldn't sit for too long though because we all had to go the Louvre. It's not like we had been going non stop all day or anything... Anyway, we all went to the Louvre, under the impression that there was a good chance that we'd get in for free since we were all students there to study. Well, they didn't let us in so we had to pay. So, I basically paid about $9 to see the Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo (Aphrodite), statue of Cupid, and Statue of Ramses III. These were the only things I was interested in, the rest didn't really catch my eye. After the Louvre we all decided to go get dinner. I walked around the nearby area with Annie and Linn before we stopped a small deli and ordered Brie Sandwiches. There was a guy that helpe us order since we don't speak French. Afterward we tried to find a gelato place that Scott told us about, but it was already closed. We went to meet up with Aaron, Kelly, and Laura; but they were still eating dinner. The three of us decided that dessert still sounded good, so we went to a nearby Ice Cream place. Lea was outside and ended up coming with us. The three of them all got a Banana Split to...uh.. split, I decided to pass on dessert. After that I went to meet up again with Aaron/Kelly/Laura. They were going to head back to the hostel, so I opted to go with them instead of going to the Eiffel Tower with everyone.

The night was pretty much just starting since we ended up gettin slightly lost on our way back. We got off at the stop we though were were supposed to be at, but I think it may have been the wrong one. Long story short; we ended up wandering the streets for an hour and a half or so trying to figure out where were staying. None of us had a map with us, and we didn't speak french so it's not like we could get around extremely easily. We did, however, pass a MASSIVE vending machine. You could buy everything from 2 liters of soda, to toilet paper, to condoms; it was hilarious. We also stopped off at a little store to buy something to drink. The shop guy was the only rude person I would run into the entire trip, he wasn't too thrilled that I didn't speak French. After wandering around a lot longer we finally made it back the hostel.

Everyone was back at the hostel already; they were sitting at the bar getting drunk. Jay and Martin were probably the most trashed there. We all sat and talked for as long as could. I gave Jay my camera for a while so he could wander around and record people in his drunken state. After a while I got tired and decided to head up and go to sleep. Though after laying in bed for about 20 minutes I heard a bunch of people outside yelling. I thought it was funny similar this was to Bath. I soon heard more voices, one of which sounded just like Jay. I stuck my head out the window to see Jay, upstairs and to my right, hanging out the window yelling to anyone who would listen; with Martin right there next to him. I said hi to them, and also to Sara who was right below me, and then layed down and went to sleep.