Bonjour!

I'm actually sitting in a hotel room in Paris right now while I'm writing this. I want to see the Tour de France, so here I am. Originally my mom had made the suggestion that I go to Belgium to see the race, since it's so close to where I live, but that didn't work out because of the timing. So, instead, I decided that it would be pretty cool to come to Paris to see the finale on the Champs Elysees. Unfortunately, I'm actually here by myself because nobody would come with me. I tried really hard to get my friend from France to come along, but it just wasn't happening, even though I offered to pay for it. Oh well. Like I told my mom: It's just another new adventure.

I must say that it has already been quite and interesting weekend. Yesterday afternoon was a going away party for the Italian girl from the last language course, so Elena and I went to that. We didn't stay very long because it wasn't at all what we were expecting. It wasn't specifically for this girl as we had thought, but rather a festival for the entire medical program at the university. We never even saw Rosaria. Afterward Elena's friend wanted to go to a disco, but I had no desire to go to one. Clubs generally aren't my thing because I like the more relaxed atmosphere of bars, where you can simply sit and talk and hang out. I had suggested this place in Altstadt that's a bar but also has a dance floor, but that wasn't good enough. So they went there way and I headed toward the Rhein by myself. I was actually really hungry, so I went to the Haxenhaus to get dinner (even though I hate going to bars or restaurants alone). I had been talking on the phone before my food came, and when I hung up this guy from the table in front of me came over and sat down at my table to talk to me. It probably sounds a little creepy or intrusive, but it wasn't. He's an Iranian who's been living and working in Germany for 18 years, and he's taking an English course right now. Since he heard me speaking in English, he wanted to come over and talk to me. After a little bit his 2 colleagues (a woman from Ireland who's been here so long that she now speaks broken English and a man from Guatemala) came and joined us, and they ordered a yard of Kölsch and hung out with me while I ate. Then they invited me to go with them to Flanagan's, an Irish pub/club in Altstadt, so I did. It was a lot of fun. After a while I left Altstadt to head toward Ehrenfeld to meet up with Frederic at a party there. I think it was about 2 in the morning when I got there, and when he and I left it was already broad daylight. A little ridiculous, but tons of fun.

Today was whole different kind of interesting. I actually missed my train to Paris. It was my own fault, too, which I think makes it worse. When shit happens, shit happens and it sucks. But when shit happens because you're a jackass and screwed things up, you suck. I was so angry with myself. I hadn't eaten anything all day (since I was out until who knows when and then went to sleep for a few hours when I finally got back home) and I was starving, so I decided to use the extra 15 minutes I had to run into McDonald's and grab something to take onto the train with me. Bad idea. The guy working the register was slow, and even though it was busy he kept stopping to do things that either weren't that important, or that he could have asked someone else to do for him. Then, the guy 2 people ahead of me ordered enough food for a football team, and that took forever. When I finally got to the counter it was 5 minutes before my train was supposed to leave, and the guy walked away. Oh, so pissed! I left, because there wasn't any time to wait for him, and by the time I got to the train it was just starting to pull away. Great. Then it was a hassle trying to find out if and how I could change my ticket or get on the next train to Paris. In the end I had to wait 2 hours for the next train, ask the train manager what I could do about my ticket, and then go from there. I only had to pay the difference in the price between the ticket I had and the one I needed for this train, instead of having to buy a whole new ticket. Unfortunately, a ticket for this later train was almost twice as expensive as the one that I bought, so it was essentially like having to buy a new ticket, anyway. Kind of a bummer. At least I managed to pick a seat that was unreserved for the whole trip and I was able to relax and nap without anyone bothering me or kicking me out. Once I got to Paris, finding the hotel was actually quite easy. I was smart and studied a map and the Metro routes before I left the house, so I knew exactly where I had to go and how to get there. At least I did something right today.