2008 July 24 « Navida: Summer 2008

Archive for July 24, 2008

30° in Paris

Took the overnight train from Berlin to Paris. It took over twelve hours, but since it was overnight it was quite comfortable. I had one of the bottom bunks in a room of four beds. Arrived at the train station (Gare du Nord) and took the metro to Kathy’s apartment. I wish I had brought a suitcase instead of a backpack as my shoulders are killing me!

I already feel the difference from Berlin. Paris is much busier. In comparison, Berlin seemed so organized and had an easy flow. Here I feel like I am part of a big mass of flowing people that I almost have to push my way through. Things are also double as expensive. I have been able to comfortably use my French. I feel lucky to not only fluently speak the universal language of English but also French which allows me to have the ability to get by in lots of places. It was greqt that even my Russian has come in handy this trip. It even helped a bit in Berlin. German is quite a different language though. I feel much more at ease here as I can understand signs, menus, people… And so far no one has switched to speaking English after I start speaking French even though they know I am not a native speaker. I am glad about that. The letters on French keyboards are even more mixed up than the German ones I finally got used to. This is what it looks like if I type this same exact sentence. This is zhqt it looks like if I type this exqct sq,e sentence: And you have to press SHIFT in order to type numbers as otherwise you get all the accents ùé”‘(-è_çà

I bought some bread, yogurt, cheese, eggs for breakfast tomorrow and hope to do some cooking as it has been a while since I had/made a home cooked meal. Kathy’s apartment is really lovely. Bright and airy, on the 5th floor with a view of the Eiffel Tower. At night I will watch as it lights up…

I think I am ready for a crèpe now!