Sleepless in Seattle.. well Paris at least

It's currenlty 4:15 Paris time- I have orientation at 10am- I attempted to sleep- at 10pm i actually managed to sleep until 12. I guess my body decided napping was okay- but getting back to sleep proved impossible. After attempting to read for several hours and then just laying in my bed, lights off, duvet pulled up to my chin for another few I just got frustrated and decided to say screw the whole thing. Although i'm sure it will leave me quite tired for the rest of the day there's not really much i can do about it and at least it gives me time to write extensively long blog posts which almost no one else will actually have time to read.

Backing up several days i have a journal entry that i wrote at the beginning of my flight:

I glanced out the window as our plane pointed down the tarmac- facing liftoff. My eyes are met by a horizon glowing from the effects of a large red and orange sphere- you can actually see the edges of the sun. I glance away as the plane budges forward.

Here we go. Here I go- i guess there's no 'we'.

I look back to the window just in time to see the sun melt below the earth. How fitting as i say goodbye. Like a cheesy end to a romantic film. The plane leaves the ground and i feel my stomach drop- the same feeling encountered many times before in the face of lesser things- from playground swings to roller coasters to nervous butterflies before a race. My life feels like a tally list of such events- here comes the next.

The only current insight to the French psyche i have is that all the children here seem to have razor scooters- and there are lots of children.. and lots of scooters. Sometimes the children on scooters are carrying baguettes.. this is a sight which i greatly enjoy. One scooter child almost ran into someone (actually this seems to happen a lot) and his mother began to scold him- I understood every word she said "you never listen..come here.. etc."

Today I walked around Paris- ok.. i walked around 1 arrondisment of Paris (of which i believe there are 20). But this was quite the feast in and of itself. The Champs-elysees is at the end of my street so i struck out there first. The nice thing about finding my way around this place is that there are huge monuments everywhere.. so it is very difficult to get lost. I didn't need to worry about consulting my map to see which was led towards the city- i merely pivoted my head left to see the Arch de triumph and began walking.

When i arrived at the structure itself the place was bustling with many tourists- including a japanese couple - the husband trying to take a picture of his wife with the Arch as a backdrop. I accidently started to walk into the shot when i realised, said "pardon" and "exusez-moi" and proceeded to walk around them when the husband smiled and begged that i instead stand with his wife in the picture. I guess they thought i was a Parisian- i was wearing my most convincingly parisian black shirt and blue scarf- and as this occured to me half way through posing in the picture I was tickled pink- and even attempted to keep up the illusion as i left saying "merci beaucoup" and "bonne journee" even though they spoke no French.