Mon Première Week-end

Bonsoir à tous!

I'm just finsihing up my first weekend in Paris, and I've done so much! I'm quickly adapting to life as a Parisian, and I don't think I'll ever want to leave!

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the morning with one of my friends searching for the local Monoprix, which is a grocery store. Well, my map said that the Monoprix should be on one street when it wasn't, so that ended up taking us a good hour to find. And when we did find it, it happened to be about five blocks from our place in the opposite direction that we had taken! Mon Dieu! And, let me tell you, the Monoprix itself was an adventure. I was slightly scared, just because I had never bought food in a Monoprix before...but it turned out alright. I bought a baguette from their boulangerie (Bakery)and some cereal and crackers. Afterwards a huge group of us headed to the Arc de Triomphe to meet up with some people and go shopping. However, our metro stop was on strike! So, we had to take a tram to another metro stop and transfer lines, and we ended up being nearly an hour late to meet with our friends.

Saturday also ended up being the Gay Pride Parade through Paris. My friends and I went down to the Bastille around 2 pm and there was already a huge crowd! Around the Bastille monument is a large round-aboutand the police had completely cut it off fro, cars, as well as the streets leading to it. It was awesome! There was a DJ and at least 1000, if not more, people dancing. So, we hung out there because we found out that the parade had started that morning and was ,aking its way to the Bastille and would be there around 5...we grabbed some food ( where I learned that sometimes the food can be outrageous! I paid €7 for some food and a water! It just seemed like a lot to me when everything else I had eaten had been pretty cheap comparitively), and hung out in the area. We were waiting for the parade, and happened to walk into a Franprix (another type of grocery store), and came out and the parade was about to walk right in front of us! Perfect seats! It was really cool...people from all different origanizations in support for gays, lesbians, and transexuals. We stood there for at least an hour watching the parade go by and there had to be another hour at least to go.

After the parade, we walked to another friends apartment and had a "Wine and Bread" night, pretty much opening a €2 bottle of wine and eating a baguette and fruit. It was really nice just to get to know some new people. Afterwards, the girls who live in the dorms came back to the dorms and we had a Bread and Cheese fest, where we ate bread, cheese, and Nutella! I have no idea how I went through live without Nutella, it is the most amazing thing to eat in the world!!!! Nutella is a chocolate-hazelnut type spread that is absolutely AMAZING! I know you can find it in the States, but I had never eaten it before and my goodness it was good. Especially when you put it on a crèpe and it's all melted and gooey....mmmmmmmm.

Today all of the CEA kids went to the Paris Jzz Festival, which was an awesome place to be. We went to a park near the Chateau Vincennes and listened to two live bands play, and we had a pic-nic and watched the bands. It was a pretty cool time.

We are now off to find a place where we can watch the Euro Cup for footbal (soccer to us Americans)...I really don't follow it, but it's something fun to do!

Oh yes! If you would like for me to send you a postcard while I am here in France, send me your address and I will try to do so!

Au revoir et à demain!