The City of Lights: Matt

So I guess we are taking turns writing on the blog at the moment... We aren't really sure who all is reading this but we appreciate the interest you have in joining us on our adventure!...and feel free to comment as well.

Paris is quite the city. For one it is very large and spread out. It was definitely confusing at times but now we have the metro system figured out and that means the city is at our disposal. It seems the french take that saying literally as there is plenty of litter being tossed onto the street. It has been quite warm and humid here as well, very nice weather if you are from Seattle.

As I write this we are at McDonald's because they seem to have free wifi everywhere in Europe (...well at least in London and Paris). With all the nice restaurants around, I laugh thinking that we just go to McDonald's. McDonald's does have its perks; it's cheap, it's familiar and the whole free wifi bonus. Plus we are eating REAL french fries! There has definitely been a little culture shock going on over here in Paris. I think Tim has experienced it the most here. The other day he went over to some Americans on a train just to talk to them and told them he wanted to talk in English with some other people that could actually understand him. We have been going to a few non tourist places like a big shopping mall and random little supermarkets. People assume I am french or at least speak it. It's kind of nice to blend in a little... I can get by with bonjour and then paying for something at a store. However in museums or tourist places I can't get by so easily because sometimes they start repeating things and raising their voice in french, I just look at them blankly and then they say something in english like "I need to search your bag" and then I respond "ooooh ok".

Today we visited the Arc de Triomphe and that was a fun place. It had a huge roundabout going around it...and maybe 12 big streets converging on the circle. Mike and I climbed up to the top while Tim read a book. It had a unique view of the city and that was worth the money and energy.

One thing I look forward to when traveling around is meeting the different people. We haven't talked much with french people in france or english people in england. It's more the people at our hostel that are from other places around the world. We had a Ugandan roommate and an Austrailian roommate which we talked to. It's fun hearing about other places in the world and sharing different perspectives.

Today we met two Australian girls at the Arc because Tim offered to take their picture for them which he is good at (both asking and taking pictures) and we usually then have them take a picture of us (we seem to do this at every tourist site). So for this one we actually struck up a conversation and I ended up practicing my Australian accent with them. So in my best Australian accent, I said "put another shrimp on the barby!" and immediately both of them said at the same time "no! that's scottish!" and then they started laughing at me and the fact that they said it in unison... It turns out everytime I try and do a australian/new zealand accent it sounds scottish and everytime I try and do an english accent it sounds like forest gump (I know at least one of you knows that already)...some wiring in my brain must be off a bit. Hopefully someday I can figure out what accent I try ends up sounding like the actual accent I want.

Well we are taking a sleeper train down to the south of France in a few hours and then we are transferring trains to go down to Madrid! Hopefully all those years of high school Spanish and a couple quarters in college will actually pay off. Maybe we won't get lost as easily and can communicate with the locals. And hopefully we will have internet in Spain so we can share our experience...until next time. Au revoir!