Finally a moment to catch my breath.

So I’m sitting in my quaint little Parisian apartment thanking god that I'm not spending yet another night on the town. I am relishing my little reprieve from the European nightlife, as both my body and my wallet desperately need a break from endlessly walking around town and paying for overpriced wine and beer in clubs and bars.

While this physical and monetary fatigue has been wearing on me for some time now, it had failed to catch up to me until this evening. My recent exploits have involved a trip to the impressionist gold mine at the Musee D'orsay, shopping (not for me Dad, don’t worry my money has not been spent that frivolously) at the BHV a huge department store downtown, Notre Dame, The Sacre Coeur, and visiting the infamous red light district and Moulin Rouge.

Other than touristy things life has been pretty...well, American. Obviously everyone is speaking French, but many of the things that one finds in the states can be found here, obviously with a European twist. One of the biggest differences however, is that people in France are rarely, if ever, publically intoxicated. I mean, people here drink constantly but rarely do you see a Frenchman stumbling around or slurring his words or acting belligerently towards those around him. In fact, if you see anyone exhibiting these symptoms of drunkenness, you can be almost absolutely certain that they're American...or maybe English. Regardless the French do know how to have a good time. In fact, a group of mildly intoxicated Frenchmen happened to sit next to us in a sangria bar the other night and insisted on teaching us French drinking songs. This was, of course, when they weren’t hitting on my friend's girlfriend. Apparently many of the stereotypes about French men being extremely forward and a little creepy are, in fact, true.

Moving on, potential upcoming events include a soccer game between Paris-St. Germain (the local team) and Bordeaux, and a couple of concerts. I’m excited for the soccer game but apparently the fans in Bordeaux are incredibly racist and anti-Semitic so I might have to round up a bunch of goy friends to go with. I am however, excited for the possibility of a stadium riot; because the fact that Bordeaux fans are assholes also means they really only travel to away games to start fights. This is both terrifying and exciting.

In other, more relevant news I have an academic meeting tomorrow where I will get the schedule for my grammar classes, and on Wednesday I'll have a phonetics test for my speech classes. And at some point I get to pick my lectures and actually start going to school. While this doesn’t sound exciting, I am desperate for something to do with my time that doesn’t involve spending absurd amounts of money.

So that it. Questions, comments (not related to grammar or spelling) feel free to shoot me an email.

Oh and go to photobucket.com and search either Dan Siegel or dsiegelrochester and you should be able to see pictures!

Cheers