EscapeVelocity

My first weekend in Paris was amazing. On Saturday morning I took Cate to the area around the Centre Pompidou where I had been shopping the day before after class. We went back in the sex store I found and I bought a funny gift for my brother. We went into an amazing jewelry store and she bought several things for herself and as gifts. It was a very cute little shop. Hardly any stores have air conditioning. That is such a foreign concept to me! Even the Louvre didn't have a/c where we were. We walked around a bunch and found some really cool, quirky little stores and enjoyed ourselves completely. We ended up at a cafe drinking kirs which is chilled white wine and fruit liquor. It was amazing. We realized what time it ... read more

This morning got started around 10, with Alexandra giving us our Navigo passes. They get us on the RER, Metro and bus. Then we went to the FIE where our classrooms are for an orientation. We got a ton of information and several very useful maps as well as a magazine, called Periscope, that has info on movies, concerts, museums, and all sorts of other cultural things in Paris. It comes out every Wed because that is when the new movies come out, as opposed to Fri back home. On my way back to the dorms tonight, I passed a Cinema and it was absolutely packed. Film is a huge thing in Paris. There is one movie in particular I want to see called When We Were Strange. Its about the Doors and Johnny Depp has ... read more

Chris and I drove out of Tampa around 1:10pm on May 6th. We made it into Dunn, NC a little after 11pm. We left the next morning just after 6am and were officially on the road after breakfast and gas around 7am. We didn't hit any traffic the entire drive until Richmond, VA and even then it wasn't very bad at all. It was shortly after this traffic that Chris started getting annoying, telling me I was tired and he needed to drive now around 11am. He then drove the entire rest of the way into CT. We hit amazing traffic all the way until NYC. We tried to bypass the George Washington Bridge but the signs in that area are impossible to follow so we ended up driving right through NYC. After that, we hit ... read more