YO!

Bonjour! It has been another good day in Paris!!! I have had a very very lonnnngggg day!!! But it is not a bad thing. Ok so today, we woke up and took Jeanne to school and I got out at the school because I wanted to spend the day walking around Paris to see the sights. So......I first went to Les Champs Elysee and I went over to see L'Arc de Triumph where the forgotten soldier is buried and all of that. It took me awhile to figure out how to get over to the actual Arch and if you have seen the way that area is with the cars you would understand what I am talking about. In that area Germain told me there are no rules on how to drive and cars are going every direction in front of each other and it is just ridiculous. The insurance companies tell the people to not even bother anymore with reporting accidents in that area because they are so common that people just have to pay for their own damage!
So then I walked along Champs Elysee and saw a lot of very interesting things. Something you may have heard about in the news went on today and I took pictures of it and I didn't know what it was until Germain told me. It was a strike that no one knew was going to take place and it was for the people in agriculture because the price of milk is so low and they want money because they do not really even make a profit. The farms here are very small and only owned by one family not like the ones in US.
I kept walking and I can't remember the order but I saw Le Grand Palais (The Grand Palace) and Le Petit Palais (The Small Palace) and they are both very beautiful! I then saw the famous bridge Le Pont Alexandre III....it is beautiful and it leads the way to the Military Museum and the golden dome where Napoleon was buried. It was all really cool and I have a lot of pictures that I will be putting on facebook soon!
I ended up going to the Eiffel Tower next and let me tell you that is an amazing feeling standing there and seeing it for the first time up close. I think I might have taken enough pictures of that to last a lifetime :) But then I went and saw the Military school which is behind the Eiffel Tower if the river is behind you. It is confusing without a map so I will have to show you if you are interested.
I saw a lot of things today and I do not even remember everything but I saw the aquarium and some other stuff haha. BUT I forgot to go look at the Louvre which is all the way at the opposite end of Champs Elysee from L'Arc de Triumph which means I already almost made it over there but I saw the bridge first and I went there. By the time I realized that I forgot about seeing it I was nearly back to L'Arc de Triumph!!! What the heck so I had alll day and I am not kidding like from 8:30 in the morning until 6:30 when I met Germain and Jeanne at Jeanne's school. But anyways so I went to the Louvre and I was just taking it all in and it was sooo big and beautiful and I have to go back because I did not have many pictures left available on my camera and it is GIANT!
When I was at the Grand Palace I found this little garden thing and it was so cute and pretty and then i looked to my right and there was a person in a sleeping bag on a bench and it scared me and I felt bad but it looked kind of funny :) And then when I was near all of the touristy stuff I was approached by a gypsy who asked me if I spoke English and I got excited and said YES! and then I learned my lesson to pretend to be completely foreign to any language because they just want you to give them money :( I was not happy about them following me lol.
So today I finally got to meet Colyne which is Jeanne's sister :) She is the cutest little thing and very sweet and I know I will learn a lot of French from the girls because they speak it to each other and help me understand because we play a little bit of a game where we say it in French and English but it is not very rehearsed yet.
On my way back to Jeanne's school today I got lost and I had a map and I thought I followed it but I guess I didn't until I looked again and had to REALLY follow it the second time because I was going completely the wrong way and had to turn around. Today I probably walked a total of 9.5 hours NO JOKE! Not stopping and not slowing down. I took a lot of breaks on benches to look at the map and to eat a sandwich that I bought and I am proud of myself because I was nervous but I sounded like an idiot I just did it anyways. So maybe I only walked for 8.5 or 9 hours today but that is still pretty intense. I am hoping to walk a lot though because I need to get a work out in somehow :) But when I got lost I wanted to sit down and cry and not be in France because I was so sick of the city and not hearing English...BUT that was just because I was there for 10 hours today and did nothing else and when I got reunited with Germain and Jeanne everything was better and now I am happy again hahaha
Oh by the way they do not have Diet Coke here because later when I went to get one they did not speak English but I said Diet Coke because they have Coca Cola and they know what that is but all I got was a look of confusion and then the girl listed the choices...Coca Cola, Coke Zero, or Coke Light....Ok well it was Coke Light so if you ever need to know that now you do because I didn't haha
For dinner we ate real Italian pasta and it was really good. I really like the food we eat here it is tres bien!!! I had some really skinny carrots...well not skinny but they were sliced really really thin and they had some sauce on them but Germain did not know what it was and they were AMAZING!!!
It is really cold here now and I do not like it too much but oh well because I think Ohio is just the same. I don't think I mentioned this before but I have to take driving lessons before I can drive and then Germain is going to buy a car for me to use but the only problem with this scenario is that there is no such thing as getting your license for an automatic car in France it is all done in manual and that is ridiculous because I cannot drive a manual and I will have a heck of a time learning this way of driving in a car that I cannot drive! But I will do what I have to do...maybe it's easier than I think.
This weekend we are taking care of all of the things like paper work and whatever I might need like a desk and everything because I am not fully settled in but I think it is fine. I will be setting up a bank account as well and Germain is going to just put the money directly in the account so that I can have a bank card to use since it is much easier.
Yesterday we went to the train station to get some tickets for me to ride the train and the metro but I still have not done that because I am scared hahahaha I am such a baby but I would rather walk everywhere like I did today. But I know once I do it for the first time it will be easy because I will probably take the train into the city for my classes because traffic=bad, parking=bad, and paying for parking=bad so I will not want to drive.
I can't wait to start classes and hopefully meet some good peeps up in there! lol but I am going to sign off and I miss you all I hope it is going well back in the states and I am doing just fine!
Much Love
Jess