Week 1 in Paris comes to a close

Well my first week in Paris has come to a close. It was a nice little week. Saw the Trocadero, The Eiffel Tower, the Arch de Triumph, and the Army Museum. Jenny and I also met up with here law school friends and we had a few beers for happy hour. Happy hour is apparently the same in English as in French because even cafes and other bars have happy hours. I also got robbed in the metro by the metro authorities which I am still pissed at. I've cut my gums on many a baguette (long skinny french bread which is very crusty). I mean it literally will cut your gums.

Yesterday I went with Jenny to a mall. Imagine an American mall but way crazier. The clothing stores were packed with people mostly girls running around grabbing things. Jenny was in one store for a half hour and didn't even try anything on because the line was like out the door to try stuff. I didn't stay in that one. I went to find a bench only to find there are no Man Benches in French malls. Apparently in France the men with there little man purses follow the women around the stores as well. That is very sweet of them but my physical tolerance for shopping will only go so far. It's like the mall saps my energy to even walk. I think it all goes to Jenny because she seems more energized the more tired I get. We did grab a fruit smoothie though so that made me happy. I can be coaxed into more shopping with food or drink. We also went into a sporting goods store of sorts. I had to fight my way through all the soccer stuff to get to the basketballs. I bought one because there is a street court down the street from the apartment and I need to use it to get out of the house. There is no Air Conditioning so I'm no better off inside then outside.

Last night Jenny and I made dinner. We made some little brushettas with tomato, onion, and goat cheese. We also made bow tie pasta with some tomato pesto sauce. It was purdy good. We watched most of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and then called it a night.

Today we are heading off to Brussels. I had to do some things like get laundry done. Apparently home washers are the size of a glass of water here so you can do like 5 things at a time or take it somewhere and do it. I took it up the street to some chinese ladies with a laundry store. They apparently speak English too which was cool. I tried a little French on for size and mostly got my point across. It was like 15 euro and it will be done at 3pm. 15 Euro sounds a little expensive for laundry but I can't read any signs so I don't know any other options. We go through clothes here like crazy. It's 90+ degrees today and the sun shines right into the window directly behind me. Other than that I'm packing up some stuff and meeting Jenny at the train station to ride the blazing fast euro trains. We should go from Paris to Brussels, Belgium in around 2 hours. I am bringing a few beers for the road or rails I should say. It should be a fun trip because as you know Budweiser and many of the world's beers are owned by Belgian companies not to mention that Belgian beer is the best in the world with out any shade of a doubt. Anyways I'm bringing my computer so I'll be in touch the whole weekend. Au revoir!!!

p.s. oh yah the pictures from top to bottom are:

1. the view from the bedroom window. It's a nice little apartment complex with a locking gate at the front and stuff
2. The washing machine. Notice how big it is in relation to the gun slicing baguette that is sitting on top of it.
3. the kitchen. no table no oven/stove combo. Things are just smaller in Europe I believe.