We have Arived !

We have finally arived in beautifull Paris! We took a plane to a train to the metro to the street where we were to walk 300 meters or so to our hotel located across the street from Mc Donalds. Once we reached McyD's we looked to every corner of the 6 way intersection and buckled over in laphter. To which "across" did the drections refer? We finally found the small entrance tucked behind a fancy Cafe'. Unfortuanately our room wasn't quite ready, so we left our baggage and meandered on over to a streetside table to order up some beer. The frosty glasses and cold beer were exactly the reward we needed after the 5 hour airport to hotel journey. The man who served us the beer was very friendly, and the people walking by were for the most part very beautiful and well-dressed. All of them, effortlessly stylish, a French thing im sure. We began to wonder if the people glancing at us instantly knew we were American. This became a guessing game, to point out the Americans while in awe of the beautiful French. On our way back to the hostel we stopped to look in an intriguing theater, with colorfll french posters lining the outside windows. A nice young man named Claude stood behind the front desk. We exchanged french hello's and began asking him questions in English, doubting he would even understand. But in percfect English he said, "How did you know I speak English?" Eventually he said he saw us having a beer across the street earlier, and had asumed we were German because it was so early for a beer (11am). We took this as a compliment, considering we spent all morning hoping we didnt look as American as some of the people from our little guessing game. "Confesions of a Timid Penis" was showing that evening, unfortuanately we had prior engagements: sleep! We entered our room after riding the 5 floors in the smallest elevator i have ever seen. The room was better than we had hoped it would be, large french windows opened to that great 6 way intersection below, hardwood floors, two twin beds with clean white sheets and fluffy pillows, private bathroom, and private room. Ugh it was heaven! With our windows open we plopped down on the beds and slept till 10pm. It was GREAT. When we woke up, the city lights below glowed and begged us to explore, so we did. We put on some clothes and wandered around Paris' streets. After an hour or so, we decided to stop into one of the many Japansese food places we had seen to have some sushi for dinner. When our wine came, we toasted to our first meal in Paris, in Europe, in our trip. The rest of our walk after dinner led us to the Lourve and a romantic walk along the Seine. It could have been the jetlag or lack of sleep, but it all felt surreal, like a dream. We made it back to the hostel and unpacked and organized our belongings, then fell alseep around 5am. We had hoped the sun and city's loud noises would have woken us up nice and early but it didnt, we woke up just before 1pm. We brushed it off as needing the sleep and got ready for our day, Breakfast at 2pm in a nearby cafe', then headed back to catch up with people back home in the real world. The hostel's WiFi is supposed to work throughout the building but apparently only the first two floors get it. So we made our way down to the lobby with our laptops and finally got online for the first time since North Carolina. It felt good to hear from people at home, and felt good to be able to report the events of our stay so far. I love and miss everyone at home so much, and the ease and comfort of familiarity, but i love this here in Paris, in Europe, not knowing what's to come and just taking it day by day.