The end of Paris.

It has taken me a lot of effort to finish this all. I was exhausted when I got back from Paris, both physically and mentally. I got back from Paris at almost midnight on Sunday, and had to work at 6:30 in the morning. Tuesday I started my German class, which is interesting because it is learning German, and taught in German. Not to mention the fact that it is the German 2 class. I am in that class, not because of my skill level, but because I have work when the German 1 class is going on. Those are my excuses for taking so long to write about Paris. But I am doing it now, and will finally feel caught up with everything.

Sunday started out just like any other Sunday. I got up and got ready for church. Unlike any other Sunday, everything was in French. Everyone at church was very polite and said "Bonjour" to me, which I quickly said Bonjour back and moved on before they decided to strike up a conversation. Which would just confuse me and annoy me that I didn't know what they were saying. Not annoy me because they were speaking French, that was to be expected. I just get annoyed with myself when I can't understand someone. Makes me feel rude (even though I know there is nothing wrong with not knowing every single language in the world. That would be cool though). Church was great even if I didn't catch much. The Spirit was there, and since it doesn't have a language barrier it works.

After church I said goodbye to the Crucy family, and then was dropped off at the train station. I still had a little bit left in Paris and I planned to enjoy it! So here I am. Sitting on yet another train. I am thinking to myself, "Where in the world am I going to change out of this skirt? It is way too cold to even think about walking around in this, and if I am boarding I am not doing it in a skirt today. Hmmm...." I took a quick look around me, realized there wasn't anyone close by, and that the next stop was about 5 minutes away. Why not?

Those of you who know me, know that I have a habit of doing random things while driving. I eat my Captain Crunch, brush my teeth, do my makeup (no worries, all safely, usually at stop lights. Calm yourself). I also have a habit of changing in my car. You can see where this is going right :) Yes, I changed on the train. Using my mad skills nobody noticed. Yes I know nobody noticed cause there was only one person behind me, and they kept chatting away like nothing was happening. All the other people were in front of me facing the other direction. I am just sneaky sneaky like that. I had just done up my belt when the train stopped and a lot of people got on. I couldn't help but smile as I put my skirt away. They never knew. But I will forever remember that!

Fully clothed and ready to go, I FINALLY got to take my board on the streets of Paris. It was fantastic. Everything I dreamed of and more. Well until 5 people would all walk side by side and take up the whole sidewalk. Really people? I thought about just running them over, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It was Sunday after all.

After looking along the banks of the Seine River looking for a copy of Les Miserables (I found a lot of AWESOME old books but sadly don't have 300 Euro to spend on one book... I wish! There were ones that I know in the early 1800's, girls sat by their windows reading. Passing the time until the rain stopped and they could go and walk in the gardens. Or what not... Active imagination had a hay day with it all.) I got me a crepe from the yummy place right by Notre Dame and sat down at the place I will not call my Paris spot. This is where i was sitting.

I loved it! I know I may not be able to claim claim it, since I have only been there once, but guess what? I will call it my spot anyways. I loved it! It was just off the beaten path a tiny bit, so people weren't close enough to bother me, but I was still right in the middle of everything and got to people watch. I am trying to find exactly where I was on a map, but it is rather difficult, so for now you just get this picture.

After some more aimless wanderings, and a few more books stores, I finally made my way to the meeting point to get my ride home. I used a website called mitfahrgelegenheit.de/ and pretty much what it really is, is hitchhiking the safe way. You go see if anyone is driving from where you are to where you want to be, pitch in for gas (set amount) and join in the ride. People can make pretty decent money off of this, and I think there are quite a few people who do use this as their normal job. So I meet up with them, and shocker, it is me and 4 other guys. You would think with all these guys around me at least one would be cute, or at least not 20+ years older than me. Nope. No such luck. Oh well. We all get into the van, and lucky me, I get the middle row of seats all to myself. I was thinking I was going to talk to the people in the van, get to know some folks, but they all kinda started falling asleep (minus the driver who was dancing along to his mariachi band. No he isn't any form of Latino. He is black and from.... Somewhere not Spanish/French/or German. He was a strange man.). So I decided to sleep, since well, I don't like Mariachi bands all that much. To make the Mariachi music that much worse... It was the only CD he had. Seriously? Who brings ONE CD on a 7 hour drive?!

That was about the excitement for the ride home. No problems, nothing really. So we get to the train station in Frankfurt at 10 Pm. The last train home leaves at 9:45. Suck. Looks like I get to figure out the bus system. I have never taken any of the other trains out to where I need to catch my bus. I have always just taken my train. Can't be that hard right? Well for the first time in my travels of the train system, I got on the wrong train. I at this point I am dead tired and just want to be home in my bed. After some checking of trains and waiting in the cold (oh cause it apparently snowed a ton while I was gone), I made it back to the main train station and onto the correct train and then to my bus.

Usually from this point, it takes my train 10 minutes to get to my stop. The bus, it came so close to my house, then took a lovely detour away from it. My 10 minute commute turned into and hour. Finally I get off the bus, and have to hike home up the huge hill in the snow. I just keep telling myself that my warm bed is waiting for me. Then I realized something rather critical. I turned off my heater before I left, no need to waste now. That wouldn't have been a problem except for one thing. At about 11:30 they shut off the heaters and they don't come back on till 6 in the morning. Usually you are in your nice warm bed by that point so it doesn't matter. This time it did.

I froze. Once I finally made it into my bed, I used my pillows as blankets. Actually worked rather well. The pillows here make better blankets than actual pillows. I think this sums up my whole Paris trip. Only took me what... A month to finish it? Yeah yeah, I know. Slacker. But I figured I should catch up or I would just fall further behind. Cause I can't put up other things before I finish one. That would just make everything so confusing! So now I am caught up, and hopefully next Sunday I will have the energy to write and tell you all about my trip to the castle :) Yup, I am going to the castle of my dreams on Saturday! Happy as a clam!!!

Churches, art, red light district, and moldy cheese.

Now for a little clarification before hand, the family I was staying with lived outside of Paris in a small town I can’t pronounce(Ok let’s face it, I can’t pronounce really any of the places that I went to in France). So I was going to have to figure out how to take the bus to the train stop and how to get back. I figured I could do that. Luckily for me, it was all made even easier. Staying with a family was a BYU student who was there teaching the study abroad kids. It is easy to say that Garrett saved my sanity!

The family I was with were great. They were kind and very hospitable to me. At the same time there were definitely language barriers (more so with actually UNDERSTANDING what the other meant. We got the words, but sometimes things were just lost), and also culture barriers. Garrett, being American, was able to help me understand some things about the culture and such that I was able to make it.

Friday night as I am about ready to crash for the lack of energy, the family invites me up to family prayer. I really appreciated that a lot actually. Anyways I go up there and the family is all there and this random guy. He looks at me and says something along the lines of “you must be Rachel”. I can’t be exact, remember I am about to pass out. I am a little confused cause I knew there was a BYU student staying with them, but I never got a name. So I just say “hey…. You…” and that seemed to work well. Anyways, after prayer, Sister Crucy asked Garrett, since he was going into Paris in the morning, if he could help me figure out how to use the bus and train to get there and back. No problem, but he won’t be leaving till about 11. SWEET!!! I get to sleep in!

Sleep in I did! I loved it! Sister Crucy actually was worried about me, and worried I was not going to see all I wanted to see. Apparently she didn’t realize that I had seen just about everything on my list the day before. Oh well. Garrett and I head on our way, and miss the bus. The next one doesn’t come for an hour, and it is like a 45 minute walk, so we decide just to walk it. It is a beautiful day, the sun is shining (first time I had really seen the sun in a long time!), and it is pretty warm. Totally different from my rainy day before.

After a few wrong turns and some entertaining conversations we finally made it to the train station. As it turns out Garrett’s plans had canceled and he offered to take me to the places I wanted to visit that day. Perfect! Not only would I be able to have a real conversation (saying ‘hello’ ‘thank you’ and ‘do you speak English’ to the locals is not what I would consider a real conversation.) but I would have someone there that would be able to answer my random questions and translate when needed.

The first thing we saw was the Love wall. It is just a random wall with love written like 300 different ways and in many different languages. It was rather cute :)


This is right above the Love Wall and says something along the lines of "Love is disorganized, Then love!" or something like that... I forgot the meaning in the translation and only have the literal translation that says "love is the disorder. then love".

From there we went to Sacré-Cœur (which translates to Sacred Heart). It is built at the highest part of the city and quite beautiful. The only flaw I found with this was the stairs. There were so many of them and I was still in pain from the day before. I convinced myself to keep walking up them because if I did, I would be able to get me an extra dessert. Which I did.

The inside was beautiful and I would really love to be one of the people that had access to some of the towers and such. There were a lot of things that you couldn’t really make out from the ground (statues and such) but they probably didn’t let tourists up there for obvious liability reasons. Lame. It was really beautiful, but I had the same problem with this church as I do with most Catholic churches. The creepy statues of Christ that make you fear him. I really don’t like that at all and it makes me sad that they choose to immortalize fear instead of love.

After a few quick pictures (look I am actually in some!!!) we noticed that there was a lot of noise going on at the base so we went to check it out. There were some SICK break dancers. There was one guy called ‘Eddie Murphy’ who claimed to be from LA. This would have been a lot more believable if he didn’t say it with a French accent. Just saying. I still can’t believe the skill level of one of the guys dancing. He was doing a handstand, bouncing with the beat of the music (still on his hands), and then would switch from hand to hand. He was honestly amazing. I enjoyed watching them.




Just a little ways up from the church, there is this section that a lot of artist gather. This area of Paris has been home to painters such as Picasso and Van Gough, and it is still very artistic. There is this section where painters come and paint, and people just buy their stuff then and there. I would LOVE for that to be my job. Just to paint and talk to people from all over the world. What could be better?!




Since we were in the area, we went by the Moulin Rouge (which translates to the red windmill, not all that cool). I was warned not to go there because it was the ‘red light district’. The places I went, I think the worst I saw was a sign that said ‘Lingerie’. I saw worse things on the streets in Seattle. I am sure there are worse places, but not where I went that is for sure.




After that there was only one last thing to see before we moved on. We had to stop by Rachel Ave. Come on! I was in Paris and there was a street with my name on it! Right down from the Moulin Rouge. It made me happy and I rather enjoyed my little street(it was small and ended at the cemetery, but who cares right!?)

(Just to mention, all the other pictures are taken by me, but this one is off the internet. My camera was on the fritz at this point in time sadly.)

Few more trains and a bit more walking, we were at the last tourist place for the night. The Eiffel Tower. Now I mentioned in my earlier blog how disappointed I was by the Eiffel Tower. Just because it didn’t have the magic like I thought it would. When I went back that night, I felt the magic. Every hour they Tower sparkles. It was…. Beautiful doesn’t feel like a strong enough word to explain it. I loved it and now every time I see a picture of the Eiffel Tower, day or night, it is beautiful and magical to me.

There was quite a long line to go up to the top, so we had a while to just sit under the Eiffel Tower and take everything in. I watched, from under the Eiffel Tower, the stars rise over the Field of Mars. Right there above it was the constellation Orion. It was just so… fantastic. There I was, in Paris, looking at the stars and the Eiffel tower at the same time. There listening to the people trying to sell you tourist crap. The jingling of the Eiffel Tower key chains, and the salesmen repeating over and over “one euro” which more sounded like one word ‘oneeuro’. That is the moment I fully fell in love with Paris.

When we finally got to the top of the Tower, the site was phenomenal. The night was perfectly clear and you could see the entire city lit up. This is also when my camera decided it didn’t want to work anymore. Stupid thing! Oh well, this is where my great imagination comes in handy. I will always have that image in my head.

Since it was freezing up there, we didn’t stay for long. I could have stayed up there for hours just looking around. So it was probably a good thing it was cold. Or I would have missed a lot.

As promised, after the Tower, I got my extra dessert I earned from walking all those stairs. A crepe with this amazing chocolaty goodness on it. It was just North from Notre Dame and wow…. That was so good! It is a good thing I don’t live in Paris because I would probably try and live off of those… Which I don’t see being a good idea.

Now up to this point I had only had delicious French food. When I got back to the house that night, I was informed I was going to try French cheeses. Oh dear. The first one was actually really good. Then again it was actually a swiss cheese : ) The second one scared me right off the bat. I have no idea what it was called, but it was in a round container, kinda gooey, and apparently a mild French cheese.
When deciding the best way to eat it I asked Garrett if I eat the outside part, or cut it off like we did the last one. He tells me that he eats it just like that, so go ahead. First bite, there is a little bit of a kick to it, but I think I can handle it. Second bite… The cheese bites back! I was trying so hard not to throw up. I apparently don’t like mold on the edge of my cheese. Imagine that. I manage somehow to eat that bite. Then I start to cut off the edge, which starts Chester (Lior, my friends brother) on how I should just eat it because it is part of the culture. He served his mission in Provo and was saying “You know, the first time I had mashed potatoes and roast beef, I just had to except that and eat it!” and just going off on me. 1- I am not a missionary, and I wont eat things just because I am told to finish them. No way, no how. 2- Potaotes? Really? He is half German, potatoes are eaten by the Germans like no other. Ugh. Oh well. Life goes on right?
That is the end of Saturday. Only one day left the prove how I went to Paris, and I didn’t get kidnapped, sold into prostitution, and/or addicted to drugs.

Yes, I walked it all!

When I got out of the train station, to say I was lost would be a rather large understatement. I just started walking and figured I would eventually discover where I was. For the record I would like to point out that it is raining quite a bit during this story. I did discover something fantastic as soon as I got to Paris. That I had lent my umbrella to someone, and now, it was broken. In the middle of a rain storm in Paris is not the most ideal place to discover this. Luckily only one of the bars (are they bars? The little leg things that stretch out and hold up the material. That thing) was broken, so it was mostly functional. Every once in a while it would snag in my hat/hair, but I was in Paris! What did I really care?!

Eventually when I feel like I have no idea where I am, I pull out my map. Trying to keep it dry while figuring out where I was had to be pretty funny looking. Which is probably why the little old French man came over to help me out :) He was really kind and since there was an X on the Louvre, he started giving me directions to it. Worked well since that is where I was going. Except for the fact I couldn't understand him his directions were great! He pointed, I walked.

Little while later I decided I was going to change my plans and instead of starting at the Louvre I was going to end there. The guy at the metro ticket station was a huge help!!! He showed me where to change trains and how to do it, and gave me a little map (this map became like my Paris Bible! I read it, re read it, and freaked out if I thought I lost it). This is now where Paris really starts.

First, I went to The Arc of Triumph (or Arc de Triomphe). The Arc de Triomphe honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. On the inside and the top of the arc there are all of the names of generals and wars fought. Underneath is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I.It was interesting to see, and there is a lot of talent that went into creating this. It was beautiful really.
. Then I started my walk towards the Eiffel Tower. I didn't feel the need to consult my map. It is kind of hard to miss really. Or so I thought. The monument that you can see from all over the city, all of the sudden will disappear when you are close to it. After playing peek-a-boo with it for about 20 minutes I was there.There I was. Staring at the monument that is world renowned. The most visited paid monument in the world. Not going to lie, I was a little let down. It was cool, don't get me wrong, but I was expecting magical. When I crossed under it, I will admit that I was in awe at the construction of it. It is immense! It really was amazing, just not magical.
I continued my walk by walking through the Champ de Mars, or the Field of Mars (Referring to the Roman God) and I took one more look at this structure. It was originally hated by the people, including one of my favorite authors Alexander Dumas. The Eiffel tower was suppose to be torn down 20 years after being built. It is strange to think that this place almost didn't exist. That they could have torn it all down before it reached its potential.

Next we come to Les Invalides. This whole area is designated to War history, memorials of was heroes, and there is even a veterans hospital here too. The most infamous person buried here is Napoleon. That guy seriously had short man syndrome. That big dome there up top... It is over where his grave is. All I have to say is he would! I was also just informed that he is not even lying inside. That his ashes are scattered over the shores, the banking area. Honestly now!!!

Looking back at this trip, there is only one thing I regret. At the corner of Rue de Vaugirard and Rue Madame there was this little bookstore. It had a very old copy of Le Divorce, which I decided not to buy because I was looking for Les Miserables. I figured I could come back and get it if I couldn't find Les Miserables. They were closed when I came back. Tear...

When I came to Jardin du Luxembourg, it was absolutely fantastic. It was a huge park (It is actually the largest public park) with statues and sculptures all over the place. There was a very peaceful feeling there. Here I was in the middle of Paris, and everything was so quite and calm. There were a few joggers, but other than that nobody was running around. Everyone there was just relaxed and looking around, enjoying the scenery. No rushing around to daily life, just contentment to be there.

This statue was there, and it was really interesting because of the rain and everything, there were tears running down her face. I have no idea who she was, but I really liked her.

I then started to peruse Boulevard Saint Michel, on the search for used bookstores. Google and I had a chat about this before I left and it told me that there were a lot on this street. There was only one thing I was looking for. An old copy of Les Miserables. It is one of my favorite books, and I also LOVE the play and the movie. When I was talking to someone about how I wanted to find it, they told me to go get it off of ebay. Honestly! EBAY!? Let me think... Do I want to get the book Les Miserables in Paris, the place that the book is set in, or on ebay. Call me a dreamer, or a romantic, but I would rather get it in Paris. Sadly I didn't have any luck, the closest thing I came to was about 150 year old book by Victor Hugo for about 100 euros....Yeah. I didn't get it.

I am starting to feel like tour guide Barbie now. I want to tell you that if you look off to your right (since you are still on Boulevard Saint Michel) you will see the breathtakingly beautiful Notre Dame. Most of you already caught onto this, but in case anyone missed this, I love old cathedrals! I can easily sit and stare at them for hours. Notre Dame blew away every cathedral I have ever seen. I just sat down and stared for at least 15 minutes(Which felt great because this was really about the first time I had sat down all day).

This picture really doesn't do the place any justice. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in this case that is just not enough.

The stain glass windows were beautiful as well. Granted it was a rainy cloudy day, so you couldn't see their full potential. I really enjoy the concept behind the windows. Yes they are beautiful, but there were more reasons for them. They were used for the uneducated people who couldn't read. All you had to do was look at the windows and they were able to get the story that they were teaching. Really neat concept. The whole place was filled with sculpture and little nooks where you could stop and pray to the Saints (which I kinda find odd.... ). An interesting thing I found out about Notre Dame is that they were actually going to tear it down. Then Victor Hugo wrote the book The Hunchback of Notre Dame and because of the enormous popularity of the book in France it spurred the historical preservation movement in that country and strongly encouraged Gothic revival architecture. Ultimately it led to major renovations at Notre-Dame in the 19th century. Much of the cathedral's present appearance is a result of this renovation. I loved learning that. One of my favorite authors saved one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

This is one of the sculptures you see chiseled just outside of Notre Dame. It kinda made me laugh (Which I probably shouldn't since he is a Saint and I don't think the Catholics would appreciate that). This is Saint Denis. And yes, he is holding my head. His story is actually rather interesting. According to the stories, he was martyred by being beheaded and after his head was chopped off, Denis picked it up and walked six miles, preaching a sermon the entire way. That takes some talent really, not going to lie.

Finally, I got to my last place on my list for the day. The Louvre. Oh how happy I was to be there. Not only was it a place devoted to art, but it was dry and warm!!! I actually ended up getting in free because if you are under 28 and living in the EU, you were free! How I wish I lived closer and could go anytime. Soon everyone who worked there would know me by name, and I would be able to go around and not get lost. In all honesty I had NO idea where I was most the time. I just kept walking and looking at everything. I took some pictures of some of my favorite pictures there. I don't actually know who painted them sadly or who painted them... I will be researching that and will have to get back to you on that.

There is so much lost in this picture it is sad! Stupid camera! Can't capture the beauty. Ah!I just really like this. She seems so at peace and lovely. These painters have some amazing skills.

A painting just of hand(ok there is a little arm there too). I can't draw hands still so painting them like this is just beyond talent in my book!


This painting reminds me of Les Miserables. Some people actually think that Hugo based the character Gavroche off of the boy on the right side of the woman. There is a lot of symbolism in this painting. LOVE IT!!
I actually laughed when I saw this. It is hard to tell but the girls face was a typical teenage girl face. To me it looked like she was rolling her eyes and thinking "Why me!? Life is awful and my parents are monsters." Apparently teenage girls have always been the same.There was just something so peaceful about this painting. All over it, everyone is helping each other. Monks are helping each other over obstacles, and they are also helping this woman and her child. Just a lot of helpingOf course, I saw the Mona Lisa. I actually saw it first cause I wanted to get it out of the way. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to see it, I just didn't feel like dealing with people (on my way there random tall guy was trying to talk to me, which annoyed me cause I was trying to look at art. Obviously he didn't know me. Anyone who knows me knows how I get kinda lost in a different world when it comes to art). People say the Mona Lisa is disappointing in real life. And it is. But the only reason I think that is, is because unlike all the other painting, sculptures, and other works of art which are right there and you could actually touch them (if you wanted to get shot), the Mona Lisa is placed about 10 feet behind a rope and in bullet proof glass. Since it is also a rather small painting, you really can't see anything from that far away. I think that is actually more of the problem and why people are disappointed with it a lot of the time.

After a few hours of walking in the Louvre, sadly I had to call it quits. I had walked that day at least 8 miles, been going non stop for 12 hours (except for that little break I had at Notre Dame.) I was going off of maybe 4 hours of sleep, and I had probably walked a few more miles inside of The Louvre. I was in MASSIVE amounts of pain. I actually went to go take a vicodin and realized something. I was going to have to figure out how to take the metro to where I was staying... I couldn't afford to be a little loopy. Who knows where I would have ended up.... So I sucked it up and got on the train. I was headed to my friend Lior's families house. They were kind enough to let me stay with them and I really do appreciate their hospitality. I would also like to mention that before I went into the Louvre I changed into a skirt because my pants were soaked, and I was pretty much walking around in mud inside my shoes. Which would be why I still have the biggest blisters of my life! I froze wearing a skirt and ballet flats, but sadly it was warmer than my wet pants. I was so tired when I got to the house, that I just crashed. I was dead to the world! It was one of the longest, most taxing, but also most amazing days of my life!

My trip to Paris... Well at least the trip there :)

I can't remember the last time I was this sore, tired, or had this big of blisters on my feet. But all in all, I LOVED my trip.

It is funny that it all started with a train ride after institute. Something so simple and normal, ending with me going to Paris. Paris! The place I had dreams about going to. It has always seemed like just a place they created in the movies. Not a real place, just a magical world. Well, it is real and it was honestly magical.

The train ride was a long one to say the least. The ride from Frankfurt to Paris usually only takes, depending on the train, around 3 hours. All together I was in transit for 11 hours. I took a train to Stuttgart, Germany and had to wait 2 hours for the connecting train. Being hungry, I caved and got me a Big Mac and fries. They were so good, more so the fries. The effect after eating them was not so good. I don't remember the last time I ate fast food, let alone the last time I had McDonald's. I was sick for a bit, but was ok by the time my train came.

After the train arrived and I figured out where I was suppose to go, I found my compartment and went in. The first thought that came to my mind was "Oh crap, what did I get myself into?". In the compartment were three guys. Now when I say that, I am not meaning it was me and three young cute guys. I mean they were at least 35-40 years old. Two of them were French. I will admit at this point French people scare me. I had heard so many stories about French people and how rude they were and such. The third guy was from Egypt, and he started talking to me, and I was trying hard to hear him because the train was loud and he had a thick accent. I soon gave up really listening since I quickly realized he just liked to talk.

Our train ride seemed to be even longer because it would randomly stop, and go back the way we came. It had to drop off compartments along the way, so it would pull into the station, then pull back out the way it came. To say it was annoying would be an understatement. This did have its perks though. The French guys, who only spoke French and a TINY bit of English, kept trying to understand what was going on. I was just dying laughing watching the three guys trying to make each other understand with hand motions and mouth noises. Fantastic! The French were saying this wasn't a French Train because it was so slow, and the Egyptian was saying it wasn't a German train because those are fast too. Then they were trying to decide who the train was being conducted by, and decided that it must be a Japanese train.

Around 4 am we decide we are tired and should get a little sleep. I try to curl in a ball and fall asleep, but Ki Ki (one of the French guys) moves to the side with the other two guys on it, and tells me to stretch out and sleep. Sweet guy. Then in the middle of the... night? Not sure what phrase to use for that, Oz (the other French guy) put his coat on me because it got kinda cold and I was using my coat for a pillow and didn't want to use it as a coat. When I woke up they shared their chocolate with me too. At one point in time Oz was actually laying on the bottom half of my legs (since I was still stretched out at this point), and it was funny how close we became even without speaking the same language.

When we got off the train, they Ki ki carried my bag for me, and then walked me out of the station. On parting, Oz gave me his number and said we should all go out for a drink while I was in Paris. I told him I didn't drink, and he decided we should just go see sites then. He gave me his number and email address, but I found out later I couldn't call because I didn't know how to make it work. I was busy the whole trip anyways, but I hope I can reach them through email. Ki ki sized me up when we were all standing there talking, and informed me in our weird way of communication that I was too tall for him (I was his height) and that I was just a baby :) I will never forget those guys. They were sweet and made my trip great from the start.