First full day in Paris!

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Today began with breakfast at our hotel at 9 AM. It was incredible. The pastries and crepes were incredible. We filled up as much as we could to minimize the amount of money we would have to spend on food for the rest of the day. At 10 AM our entire API group (which was a combination of the 8 students from Cádiz and also the overwhelming number of students from Sevilla) went on a 2 ½ bus tour. It was nice to see the city, but I felt like I didn’t get to enjoy what we were looking at because I didn’t have time to take it in. We stopped for 15 minutes at the Eiffel tower so that we could walk around and take pictures, but other than that I felt that the experience was rushed. The bus dropped us off at Notre Dame for a couple of hours of free time. We explored a bookstore nearby called Shakespeare in Company which I thoroughly enjoyed. We explored the Latin district of the city, which was lively and fun. For lunch we bought food from a stand in front of the Louvre museum, because a tour of the museum was next on the API agenda. Our translator guided us through the Louvre, telling us the history of various works of art including the Mona Lisa, Nike, etc. I was disappointed at the end of our two hours though because I felt like I didn’t see very many works of art because we spent so much time talking about the most famous sculptures and paintings. The Louvre is the largest museum in the world and I heard a statistic that said if you spend twenty seconds on each work of art it would take you nine months to see it all.

Not having cell phones turned out to be extremely inconvenient in Paris. Natalie and Hayley had already been to the Louvre so they went to the Luxembourg gardens instead and we were suppose to meet them after our tour of the Louvre ended at 4:30. The tour lasted half an hour longer than it was suppose to and by the time we arrived at the Luxembourg gardens we realized we would never be able to find them. We didn’t realize how big the gardens were and we spent two hours searching for them! Luckily, the gardens are beautiful and I had been wanting to spend time in them anyway. We gave up after awhile and left to find somewhere to eat dinner. At this point, it was just Natalie, Brian, Meghan and I. We ended up having a really great night. Brian knows a little French, so he was able to help us out at the restaurants. Unfortunately, Paris is extremely expensive and it is difficult to find a decently priced place to eat. Eventually we found one and I tried some kind of meat (that was completely unfamiliar to me) and Mediterranean pasta- they were both delicious!
After dinner I suggested that we go back to the Eiffel tower to see it lit up. Our journey there was a great learning experience. I am extremely impressed that the four of us were able to figure out the metro system in Paris. At one point, Brian was the only one who made it on one of the metros because the doors closed before the rest of us could get on and I have to say it was one of the funnier moments I have had throughout my traveling in Europe. Luckily, we all ended up together after a short period of time. The Eiffel tower was absolutely breathtaking at night. It looks as if it is a nightlight for the city of Paris. Every hour on the hour, the lights twinkle! I have never seen anything like it before and I would love to go back and see it again.

The metro ride back to the hotel was a little bit complicated, but thanks to the help of a very nice Parisian couple who went out of their way to help us out, we made it back safe and sound. It is still being debated on whether or not the four of us accidently set the alarms off at the train station… but the point is that we made it back to the hotel. Hayley and I stayed up late talking to each other about how badly we wished our families could be here to see how beautiful Paris is and how difficult it is to be in the most Romantic city in the world without our significant others. It is such a relief that we can talk to each other about things like that and relate to each other.

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