Some Happenings

So, today I ate some cheese that tasted like a moldy basement. I believe that it was goat cheese, and that isn't something that I ever need to eat again. I can't imagine putting that in my mouth and thinking "This is really good!" I have however, begun to get over my texture issues with mushrooms, since pretty much everything I have eaten so far has had some type of mushroom in it. So if nothing else, I can eat those now, even if I can't stomach the moldy basement cheese. The cheese came from a Camper party at the store. We have been having a "Press Event" for the fall collection, and for the new line of Camper Kids shoes. At the end of the event, there was a small party for the employees, which was nice. Luckily, there is a girl in the store who speaks very good english, as well as many other languages who has been translating for me. But it is pretty strange to be at a party where everyone is speaking another language. I figure that if I listen enough, eventually I'll be able to pick up on French. It's also funny that every time I met someone, it had to be explained that I don't speak French, and am training to work in the NY store. Although I can't say it in French, I understand when it is being said about me.
At lunch I went to the post office today, and discovered that French post offices are pretty much the same as the American ones, but a little nicer. When I walked in, there was a guy yelling at the top of his lungs in what seemed to me to be frustration. Which I've seen at the post office in Brooklyn a lot. I have no idea what he was mad about, it went on for about 5 minutes. Everyone was pretty much ignoring him. When I got to the counter, I gave the clerk what has become my trademark phrase "Je suis américain." and so that part was easy. The hard part was figuring out where to put my mail, and which box was the correct one. There was no drop box inside the post office, only on the outside, so I did have to ask a French business man where exactly I should drop my envelope. He laughed at me, but at least I figured it out.
I walked to the Louvre before work (I didn't go in obviously) but the grounds around it are beautiful. Lots of grass, trees and gardens. All very well manicured. Lots of tourists too so I blended in. I'll leave you with a picture of the view from the table where I had a sandwich at lunch.

Night

Taken around the corner from my Hotel. Paris is certainly a beautiful city.

Stuff I've Seen

I like seeing famous landmarks in person! I didnt realize they had such fancy lighting on the Eiffel Tower. There were strobe lights all over it going off for about a half hour and it took awhile to get a good picture cause I had to use a longer shutter speed. Seeing it made it more real that I was in Paris for some reason.

I flew out of the Newark airport. Its much nicer than JFK or LaGuardia. Everthing is still pretty new and the people that work there are nice. This is my plane to Paris. It was pretty fancy. Everyone had their own TV screen with 250 movies plus TV shows and games to play in it. I was concentrating on sleeping though, so I didnt really make use of it. The seats also had outlets for you to plug your computer in. I've never been on a plane that nice before.

This is the inside of the train I took to Paris from the airport. I made sure to sit in the seat next to to the map so I could keep an eye on where I was headed without looking too conspicuous.

French people like graffiti too. This was the view for most of the train trip. Funny how it looks a lot like New York. Except in French of course. It seems that they take it pretty seriously over here. There were a lot of perfectly executed graffiti tags.

I like all of the tiny cars that you see in places besides the US. This was my favorite of the day. Its not the best picture, but you get the idea.

This is the river Seine at night. Famous river. When I think of Paris, most of what I think of is stuff that I've read in books, as opposed to New York or Italy, which I think of mostly in terms of movies and TV shows.