Marcher jusqu'à mourir!

So, today isn't over yet, but everything is so fresh in my mind that I want to write it down now! First of all, today exceeded my expectations. Even though I haven't really interacted with my host family yet, I had such a surprisingly great time! I woke up at about 9:30, got dressed, ate a piece of toast ("American family style", says the bag. Apparently, they actually LIKE fake Wonderbread? Weird.) Anyways, I was meeting my friend Gus at noon, so I decided to walk to the Luxembourg Gardens before I got on the metro to meet him at Les Halles (this huge underground shopping mall) where we were going to try to buy our books. I walked up Boulevard Raspail (a straight shoot to the language school where we met today) and finally got to le jardin. Ittook around half an hour,which sounds like a lot, but Paris is so awesome that I didn't care. It's funny, because as I kept walking, it became less boring residential and more quintessential Paris. Thus, I would think, "This is so perfect!", but it would only get more and more perfect until I was having a minor freak out due to all the beauty I was taking in. It sounds weird, but that is sooo what happened.

The gardens, too, were amazing. Little old French couples sitting around oval grasses reading their newspapers in the morning light, kids running around, young men playing tennis. The actual vegetation was amazing too; very structured and put-together, more like the Boston Public Garden than New York's Central Park. And I didn't even see all of it. Later in the afternoon, I went back and saw the huge, castle-like section that reminded me of the Boboli gardens in Florence.

I then walked another half-hour ish to Place Saint-Germain de Pres, where I got on the metro to go to Les Halles. I got a little lost and ended two blocks too far at the Pompidou Center, but I found Gus pretty soon. We stopped and ate lunch at a touristy cafe, but it was decent nonetheless. I had a salade nicoise.

We then braved Les Halles, which was open today because of "les soldes". Pretty much everything you can think of is 50% off. It's killing me not to go into H&M. And all the shoes stores. And the leather bag stores. And any store for that matter. We got our books, and I used my French with the bookseller people. Since my accent is really decent when I don't say long sentences, I sound un-American enough for them not to speak English back to me, or get annoyed. I hope they think I'm French. That would be awesome.

Basically, we found our books, I bought a cheap French cell phone, and Gus got some really cute (wrong word, but whatever) aviator sunglasses that I recommended because of his "airforce" sort of look.

We then walked across a bridge to see the Ile-de-la-Cite on our way to class. We walked by the Palais de Justice, Cathedrale Sainte-Chapelle, and Notre Dame. Soooo cool that everything is right there.

We went to class, got some info from our professor, saw some people we know in the other class, and then started moseying around with some people from our class. There were four of us total, and I (appointed navigator) started to lead us toward the Latin Quarter, thinking it would be a nice student-y place for a cafe. Unfortunately, we were on the far end of Saint-Germain, and it was a pretty far walk, so we finally said screw it and just found a cafe. I got a coke-light, and it was yummy. Much better than diet coke, I think. Although, that could just be the Francophone in me talking.

We walked a bit more, went our separate ways, and I walked back home via the Luxembourg gardens.

Best part of the day so far: As I was walking, a young woman stopped me and asked if I was from the "quartier". I said no, but then mentioned that I had a map. She looked at it, we got to talking, and turns out she was an English major in college and studied in the UK. I told her about myself, and we had a great discussion in French, then in English about the different schooling systems/culture of motivation in our respective countries. It was super-interesting and just so REAL. She gave me her name and number, and told me to contact her so she could show me a bit of Paris. How awesome is that? Day 1: made a French friend. Yay!

This is me at the Luxembourg gardens. I'm standing above the huge, castle-like courtyard section. This part isn't as intimate, but tres jolie!

This is Gus in his new shades on the bridge in front of Notre Dame. Those spires are beautiful!

Happy 4th! We're meeting up again later tonight, possibly for a July 4th fete, so that should be fun! A bientot!