Touchdown in Paris!

Alright ya'll I'm not gonna lie--the plane ride was rough and changing currency (oh US dollar how you've fallen) was rougher. But the fact of the matter is that I made it! I did take pictures but I'll wait to post them for reasons I'm too lazy to mention right now.

I flew Royal Dutch Airlines KLM from SFO to Amsterdam. Nothing too exciting on the ride there. Tried to sleep. Couldn't. etc etc. Landing at the airport in Amsterdam feels like you've landed literally in SFO or some other big city international airline junction. Everything of course was in English and besides the price of everything being in Euros, I felt like i didnt really leave the US. While boarding the plane to Charles de Gaulle, Paris I saw a newspaper kiosk selling Wall Street Journals, Guardians, LeMondes "Bhutto's Assassination Throws Pakistan In Disarray," one read. I literally did one of those cartoon double takes to actually read what had happened. Grabbing a Wall Street Journal and scanning the article, I experienced a moment of out-of-the-loopness, or a globalization moment (cheesy i know) in which I felt like during those 11 hours that I wasn't "connected" I missed so much of what was going on. Now I dont know if that's a good or bad thing but most definitely it shows how incapable some of us are of becoming isolated from global activity. This is pretty ironic since most of us participate impersonally via a souless computer screen (like i am right now!). Anyways, not to detract or anything...

So I land in CDG and Aurora comes and picks me up-- it was pretty surreal. We had a "Love Actually" airport moment and then headed down to the parking garage whereby we climbed into her mini car (Everyone drives tiny things here) and headed to her flat. On the way we made a wrong turn and sort of ended up in the countryside but that was all gravy since everything was new to me anyway. One thing I learned from this experience is that I could never never ever drive in Paris. Its crazy. Roundabouts have no lanes, exits signs arent as nice as in the US in which they tell you University Ave. exit in 2.5 miles, rather they bear tiny font that say "S41 Paris--> " and you hardly see the sign before the appropriate exit. There are bike lanes in the city but Parisans park on them anyway (clearly illegal), truckers dont' give a damn if they're backing into pedestrians, a market takedown had urban poor scrounging for left overs on the ground. Most of this is true of Paris itself but we did pass through some low income suburbs (places tourists don't usually venture into) and not only were these neighborhoods extremely ethnically diverse (I couldn't count how many Chinese, Japanese, Lebanese, Turkish, Vietnamese, restaurants and shops there were), I was surprised how much it reminded me of New York.

So we made our way to her apartment (we essentially followed Ligne 2 of the Metro) and after dropping off my stuff at her place, Aurora and I did a little neighborhood tour before she had to rush off to pick up Manuel (her Chilean boyfriend) who was arriving at Orly later. So remember in the film "Paris Je t'aime" when a couple who is about to get married has an argument in a cemetery and the guy get's all angry that his fiancee kissed Oscar Wilde's gravestone? That's the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and its about a block away from me as I speak. Among other famous elites buried there are Moliere and Jim Morrison of the Doors (I thought Laura would appreciate that tidbit).

I had my first cafe experience at the neighborhood cafe and it was, in a word, pleasant. If you order a "cafe" you get basically an espresso with sugar (and sometimes a piece of nougat), if you order a "cafe creme" you get the same but with milk, a "noisette" is what Aurora prefers--an espresso with literally a couple drops of milk. I got a plain "cafe" and it was just the pick me up I needed. Aurora lives in the 19th district (arrondisement) and its an area where there is apparent gentrification going on . On one hand you see hole in the wall "Bazars" or dollar store type places selling cheap cheap goods. But right next to these places there'll be high end establishments like jewelry stores or hair salons. Bizarre, but Aurora says that every year Paris becomes 10 percent more expensive to live, explaining that this area in particular is becoming the new "trendy" location to set up shop (literally).

Well, that enough for now I suppose. Miss you all and wish you were here!

Oh and its not so cold here! yayyyyy