Paris

We are on our third day in Paris and so far we have had some interesting experinces. After lots of sleeping on the plane and a huge bacon cheeseburger in Philadelphia, we arrived in Paris. We took a bus to our hostel and arrived 45 minutes after we expected to, and so the bitchy Parisian lady at the front desk informed us that she waited as long as she could (all of 15 minutes) before giving away our reservation. I guess I would be bitter too if I had frizzy, poorly dyed hair and worked at Paris' most ghetto fabulous hostel as well. After that we met up with Tess and booked a new (nicer) hostel for our second night. Katlynn and I got some amazing sandwiches and hung out with tess until we got too tired at around 4 and went back to the hostel. We managed to lug our bags up 2 flights of stairs and passed out. I following day we Met up with tess and carried over overweight bags through the metro to our new hostel, and oh my was it worth it. Its almost twice as expensive, but it is gorgeous and clean, and close to le lourve. Some nice French boys also carried our bags up 3 flights of stairs, which made our day. We got some more food (specifically crepes, literally the best I have every had), met up with Tess and hung out with some of her Scripps/cmc/mudd friends. We finally got back to our hostel after a 23hr long day and passed out. Unfortunatly, it was also daylight savings so we got to "spring forward" twice this year. Joy. So far Tess has been an absolute life saver, and I have managed to keep my shopping habits in check, but no doubt is Paris expensive.

Today is Sunday, which in Paris means virtually everything is closed. Its a huge contrast to Seattle when everyone is out and about shopping, or forcing their children to put on ugly velvet dresses and crappy white shoes to wear to church. We have encountered some very helpful people, but also some assholes, like the guy who cut infront of us at the hostel to try to claim the locker wouldnt open and that he had paid for it with his last 2 euros. Jackass. But overall life is good, minus the rain and some homesickness. Hopefully the weather clears up so we can get some good photos and stop wearing all of our warm clothes, since we packed for warm greek weather.

Aur Revoir, I think thats how its spelled, but im typing on a metal kiosk...

Tina

aka. daughter of Lucky Pierre

The Economics of Studying Abroad

In case anyone has been following the news, there has been a bit of a credit crisis going on in Greece. A lot of people in my study abroad group (including myself) were concerned about what it would mean for our trip, since the airport was shut down for a day, among other things. We had a brief conversation with our professor about it in class who thinks that everything should be fine while we are gone. By no means am I an economist, and I haven't been following everything in the news related to Greece since I've been busy with finals, so I can't say what is going to happen, but my only prediction is that it will be an interesting time to be in Greece, and a credit crisis that is politically based is at least something related to my major, so if nothing else I will learn something.

In other news, my supposed "friend," Mandy, has decided to change her facebook status to "if you read Tina's blog, the terrorists win." Thanks Mandy, I appreciate the 16 years of never ending moral support. As of today I am done with finals and I leave for Paris in 15 days. Time flies when you're trying to pull shit together for a 3 month trip. In the words of Michael Scott, peace out Seacrest,

T

My first ever blog

I feel like blogs are really self fulfilling so my only purpose of this is so my family and close friends will be able to keep up on my adventures. I apologize in advance if you are some unsuspecting innocent human being who happens to stumble upon my crude interpretation of the world. So, be forewarned, that is what is ahead.