Days 1 & 2

Ok, so I'm going to try and remember everything we've done so far! Day 1 was kind of a hot mess...Andrea and I figured we had been up for 40 hours when we finally went to bed! After we got here, we unpacked and changed, then Chris and Hillary took us to a cafe they had eaten at before. I learned to order any meat I wanted well-done, otherwise, it comes red and bleeding! Then we walked around the area we are staying in and saw all the important places-the shopping! Tons of cute boutiques and cool stores. After shopping, we went home and changed, and went to dinner at a great Thai place. After several glasses of wine (and being mocked by a group of French people in the restaurant), we went to a very fun bar that played American music over a techno beat. Loved it! Andrea danced the "YMCA" with some random guy from Australia or New Zealand who we called "Apollo Dos" because he looked like Apollo Ono, according to Andrea. So, after closing that bar down (and drinking, oh, probably like 3 bottles of wine a piece), we headed home. Andrea and I went to bed at about 4am local time...and woke up the next day at like 2pm! Ha!

So, day 2. Yesterday, we went to "lunch" around 4, and I enjoyed an E8 Coke. Delish, and totally helped my hangover. :-) Then, we walked around the Louvre gardens and courtyard, then made our way to the Latin quarter. Lots of touristy spots and souvenirs. We went to a Latin café, because Hillary wanted chips and salsa, but could be found. After a kind of random dinner of cheese slices and bread (not what I thought it would be—I’m finding out that’s kind of the story of my life here!), Andrea and I walked around and found a very cool artist who only used spray paint to create these awesome paintings. We also found a lady who made beautiful jewelry from stones and wire. She would take one long piece of flat wire and bend it into a ring shape, then curl it around the stone. Very cool! We also made friends with two gentlemen who either owned a café, or were trying to get people to come into their café by flattering them and offering American girls free drinks. Ha! Done! They were very nice. Actually, I’ve been surprised at how nice everyone has been here—not so rude as I had heard. The men are especially friendly to us. Andrea and I figure it’s because they’re shocked someone is looking them in the eyes and smiling at them, a habit we both have. In fact, on the way home, we met a couple more French boys who could speak pretty good English and were hilarious! I wasn’t sure if sarcasm or American jokes would translate, but they got it. They cracked us up.

We had quite the adventure on the way home—Andrea and I were thinking we could make it back on foot, as we had walked the area all day. After a few hours, we finally figured out that all of the public maps we had been trying to figure out were upside down (I wish I could figure out which way North is!!), and we called it a night and grabbed a cab. Our projected 30 minutes to make it home ended up taking oh, about two hours. Oh well, cest la vie, right?? (Plus, we saw some wild Paris nightlife, and scoped a few cool places we can go.)
Now today. We set our alarms last night to wake up at a decent hour (10am—that’s 3am Kansas time!) and are thinking about taking a picnic to the Eiffel Tower. Se magnifique!