Here, There, and Everywhere

I've been doing a lot of traveling on the metro the last few days to get to all of the ridiculously crowded monuments and tourist attractions that you just have to see when you travel to another country (in my case: the Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, etc) and I have to say, the whole system is a work of art.  You can get anywhere in the city, in not too long a period of time, for relatively little cost.  If only it were a little more clean and I wasn't so claustrophobic...  Anyway, the best rides are when the music players step aboard.  I've seen a swing quartet, a lone guitarist, a freestyle rapper, and a guy playing one of those accordian/keyboard hybrid things climb on to serenade the passengers and make that boring 1.2 minutes in between stops a little more cheerful.

Can't you see the happiness just radiating from him?  There are also musicians at every spot that could be considered even somewhat touristy.  I wish this happened more often in the United States.  How cool would that be if you went somewhere like the grocery store, or the movie theater, and there was someone playing their heart out just for the fun/extra little money of it?  Way cool.

(photo collected from googleimages)

The Good Life

After two solid days of traveling by car, plane, airbus, train, metro, and foot, I arrived at my place of residence for the next month.  My neighborhood looks like what you see in the movies: stone buildings with flower boxes hanging out of the windows, cobblestone streets, a small cafe on the corner, and classy little french people walking around with baguettes peaking out from the top of their bags.  My host madame gave me the informal tour of her amazing 3rd floor apt, complete with tall ceilings, little balconies, and a view of the Eiffel Tower from one of the windows.  And to top it off, we had a little background music from the trumpet player playing some tunes at the cafe below.  Delightfulness.

Ma chambre.

(photo by e.hunt)

Yeaaaa Paris

So I've been wanting to start a blog for a while now but just never got the motivation to start one, until now.  Tomorrow I depart for my two-month long epic adventure of a lifetime.  It will begin at the airport, naturally, where I will hop a plane to NYC, have a nine hour layover, catch the overnight to Paris, waking up just in time to catch the sights as we land, ride the metro into the city, and spend my first afternoon drinking wine in front of La Tour Eiffel or doing some other really french activity.  Yes, that's the plan.

And if it happens to be raining...

It is there that I will stay, studying abroad, for a little over a month, before Part Two: The Rest of Europe begins, but we'll get to that when we get there.  This is why I am starting a blog: to document all of my wonderings and observations, because that's what you do these days when you study abroad.  Enjoy.

(photos collected from googleimages)