Hi. I'm in.. Italy...: Paris

Okay wow. I'm really sorry. As the number of days left go down, it seems the more and more stuff I have to do. It wasn't very nice of my teacher to have presentations and papers due the week before finals. I don't like it. But I can not believe that I am home in two and a half weeks. Holy crap. But before I get there, let me update you.

First thing's first, Paris.
Paris was beautiful. A huge city but really elegant... if you may.
So Eliza, Elaine, and myself got up and left Florence at like 3:30 to get on our early flight. We stayed in this really cute little apartment right by Sacre Coeur and two stops from Moulin Rouge. It was adorable. The guy couldn't speak a word of English so that was a little challenging, also the reason why I didn't have wifi the whole weekend, there was no way we could figure out what he was saying. But it was still so nice.
After we got all settled we decided to check out the Eiffel Tower. We bought a three day metro pass which was perfect. The metro was a little confusing but really convenient once we got it down.
The Eiffel Tower was amazing!! It's kind of ugly but just so daunting and fantastic. I loved it. There is this big park all around it so people just have picnics right underneath the Tower. I saw a group of 70 year old men playing bocce ball. And then there was this giant truck/bus that stopped and had a flash fashion show. Super weird but I liked it.
We spent four hours in Louvre. There was soo much artwork. Saw Mona, she's cool. There was a band playing outside the building so we watched them for awhile. We walked down Champs de Elysee. Saw the Arc de Triumph. Climbed the Arc de Triumph. Saw a beautiful view of the city and the Eiffel. Walked back down Champs de Elysee. Bought the famous macaroons from Laduree. Holy shit I almost died they were so amazing. And then we passed this building with a big line outside. Found out it was an Abercrombie and Fitch after seeing the five models standing outside topless and in bright red board shorts and flip flops. We asked the guard why there was a line and he went off saying that no Abercrombie is like the one in Paris, there is a garden and five levels or something crazy. We were skeptic so he let us in. The place was freaking weird. Right when you walk in there is another model that you take a polaroid picture with. And then you're greeted by a girl and guy dancing. And then you have your typical cologne suffocating, music blasting, dark store. Except this one had five levels. It was so weird. We walked in and walked right back out. But not without getting the models numbers. Who btw, just ended up inviting us to a "sex party", we politely declined.
We went to the famous graveyard, Pere Lachaise. It was giant. Reminded me of the Phantom of the Opera actually. It was kind of cool walking through it. It was actually beautiful. So we went to the graves of Chopin, Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Gertrude Stein, and Oscar Wilde. As Eliza and Elaine were playing Edith Piaf's music at her grave, too much for me.. I want wondering. And what did I find... The section of the graveyard with monuments dedicated to the memory of Jews from WWII. It was obviously the most emotional spot for me from the whole place. It was so beautiful.
We saved climbing the Eiffel Tower for our last day there. Naturally it was so freaking windy and cold that day! Plus side, because of the nasty weather there wasn't a line to climb, when usually it's like two or more hours. The climb was fun, you can only go to the second level or something, which is still really high up. And then you take the lift to the top. The wind was crazyyyyy! But the view was awesome. And I was on the Eiffel Tower! I felt like Anastasia. :)
After we climbed we decided to just take a stroll and ended up in this big square with all these flags and people. We knew there was the big marathon going on so we though maybe we had found the finish line so we went in to investigate. After ten or so minutes the place got packed and there were all these French flags and big screens and this announcer comes on to introduce someone.. It was then that we realized we had stumbled into a political rally. haha. But it was kind of fun and we were trapped so we just decided to hang out, pretend we were French. But after like six speakers and the Prime Minister, we realized that Nicolas Sarkozy was here. And sure enough this pounding techno music came on, the flags all went up, the crowd went crazy, and Sarkozy came out. He gave about a 45 minute speech, I obviously had nooo idea what he was saying but he was so good. Got us fired up. When the crowd boo-ed, we boo-ed, when they cheered and screamed, we joined right in. It was nuts. When he was done they played the national anthem and everyone was screaming it and waving their flags. The three of us were just standing there with shit eating grins pretending to mouth the words. It was too much.
One of the last big landmarks we saw was Notre Dame. It was really beautiful, but the Duomo is more impressive I think. But while we were just sitting there we met this older man who I believe is autistic but nonetheless we struck up some conversation and watched him draw. He likes to draw things that leave impressions on him, so he was currently sketching Notre Dame. After about 30 minutes of conversation we asked him to draw a picture of us. So he did. It's pretty abstract but lovely.
We didn't end up going out while we there except for a happy hour drink on this random street that was full of bars. Ended up being a popular gay area. We caught on to that after all the trannies and the Bear Bar. Literally packed with bears!! Reminded me of Dana.. haha
The last night Eliza and I went out to see the Eiffel Tower light up. We decided the park would be fun. So we found a good spot close but not right underneath it so we couldn't see it. We laid down and watch it light up for five minutes. It was beautiful. I couldn't believe it. I was watching the Eiffel Tower light up. I'm so lucky.
Paris was really expensive so we only went out to one nice dinner. But for lunches I covered the bases and had french onion soup, their croque monsieur (ham and cheese), and lots of crepes. They were so freaking yummy.

So that was my Paris trip in a nutshell. I loved it. The city is really beautiful. Maybe not for me. I'm not elegant enough. But I still really enjoyed it.

Let's see what pictures I can find for youuu...