I could very well be filming national geographic right now

Culture shock times a million today. We were driven downtown to see it and all the markets today. Crazy. Sooo many people, so many sweet clothes, but I still don't feel close to comfortable trying to buy anything yet. The food is good if I stick to what I know. We had salad and beer for an appetizer for lunch which I thought was interesting. Then we had some kind of pork, which I did not eat, and then everything else though I ate and it was awesome. Fried plantains, fried chunks of potato that were so creamy inside, fresh mango, rice and again, the salad and beer. Everything tastes so fresh. They drink coffee and tea out of bowls here which threw me off this morning.

Even after driving all over downtown, a walk on the beach, and mass, we are still the only white people, or "yovos", in this area. We get stared at a lot and this little 1 year old at church even ran away from his mom and planted right next to me so he could stare at me. haha but he was so stinkin cute he's probably just never seen a white person before.

We chatted with one of the brothers for awhile at breakfast today. All the brothers here are very young, under 30. He was telling us all about the problems and how much political corruption there is and how they can't be saved until the government is fixed which there's no way it can be due to how it's currently operating. It was really sad to see the defeat in his face talking about his own country. It really got to me. Cause here we are, 3 yovos thinkin we can do something, which I mean I'm hoping we can, but there's just so much no one even has the capability to do due to the government. It's depressing really. I'm going to have a hard time not letting these things get to me too often.

sorry no pics yet.

Well off to socialize with the brothers. I miss 'merica.

Ohhh ya know, just chillin in Africa

We made it! I'm not going to lie, the airport and the drive to the brothers house was somewhat terrifying. Possibly cause it was dark and we didn't know what we were doing but we made it to the house just fine.

Our rooms are actually air conditioned, and I actually woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold, hahah but I won't have that problem for long. It is humid as heck, the heaviest air I've ever encountered.

Not too many bugs yet. Went to outside mass today. Very similar but people just went up whenever they wanted for communion so that really threw me off. Very laid back atmosphere. Not sure when we're going to Kara, our next destination, but it should be within a few days after we visit the embassy. My apologies for writing like a 3rd grader but I'm scared the internet is going to go out again! Keep praying for me!! The language barrier is really hard right now. Miss my normal way of life, but excited to learn. I'll try to post again as soon as I can.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Let me start by saying I've had an absolutely amazing time, but lately we've had to face some unfortunate circumstances that might outwardly try to ruin our trip.However, we have prevailed and told those unfortunate events to suck it.

First, the weather has been awful. The first day or two we were here it was absolutely beautiful, the next day or two was scorching hot, and the past few days have been the awful ones. 60 degrees at best, rainy, cloudy. yuck. I thought I was in Ohio with all this bipolar weather. This made going up the eiffel tower not as fun simply due to the fog and the limited skyline we could see. Still a really neat experience..

We had to wait in line awhile, probably an hour or so, but these 2 indian women from south africa were behind us and they were great. They spoke english and the one had a afrikaan accent and the other had a zulu accent. I could listen to them talk all day. They told us all about south africa and how beautiful the stadiums look for the world cup and said the whole country is in a buzz. I never cared for the whole european soccer phenomenon but after being here I wish the US was more involved..its just fun:) They were also telling us about this clothing store they own and all the beautiful beaches and how vacation there is so cheap compared to here. They use rands and they said 10 rands is worth one euro. They said we just had to visit sometime, gave us their email, said their indian culture believes that you meet everyone for a specific reason and told us we need to keep in touch. they were great:)

So we take the elevator up the eiffel tower and about crapped myself. There were sooo many people crammed in there and I was pressed against the door, going a billion feet in the air. DWERFASDA TERRIFYING. Once I got off though it was breathtaking, despite the cloudy weather. The fogginess actually gave it a cool gothic vibe of the city. We took the elevator down to the halfway point where they have a restaurant and took the stairs the rest of the way. Took forever, but was better than any elevator.

The news station here keeps talking about the American oil spill, american idol, and twilight. What the hell.

A few days ago we went inside this bookstore called Shakespeare and Company, a really famous bookstore where all their books are in English. I also already knew it was famous cause it came up on one of my stumbleupon sites before:) Tons of famous writers have come here to write including ernest hemingway who wrote a book I bought there talking all about his stay in paris and a lot about this very bookstore. They stamped it with this little crest stamp saying it was purchased in Shakespeare and Co. It was so cozy and they had a piano player on the second floor and books were just shoved absolutely everywhere and it was a bookie's delight. They had a little reading nook with a bulletin board filled with notes from people who read there. They also have beds up top where english speaking tourists can stay in exchange for volunteer work in the store. It was incredible.

To continue with the crappy luck, Jose had it pretty bad the other day. At shakespeare and co he lost his sunglasses and he was bummin pretty bad. Then we had a wine and cheese and bread picnic outside the eiffel tower. We tried being cultured and buy tons of cheeses but they all tasted like butt except for the brie. The wine was awesome though, however jose got a little too excited and spilled it all over his camera. Strike two. Thennnnn, and I must admit I about peed myself when this happened, as he was cleaning off his camera a bird came and pooped on his head. Dom just matter of factly told him "hey, you just got shit on". At least he was a good sport about it. 2 bottles of wine and a life chat later, we were feeling pretty good and wanted to go explore but it started downpouring and we ran to the metro and that ended our day.

To continue with our unfortunate events, I woke up yesterday with pinkeye. Of course, why wouldn't I get pinkeye in Paris. Luckily France isn't as anal as the US and I could just walk in the pharmacy without a script and get some eye drops. It feels better but I still look horrid.

Despite the pink eye, we went to montemarte, the hill of martyrs as it translates, to see Sacre-Couer, the second famous cathedral in Paris. I personally liked it a lot better than Notre Dame. Its so beautiful and on this huge hill and even from the top of the eiffel tower it stuck out so much cause of the hill. The inside was gorgeous but we couldn't take pics. Mom I lit a candle for you inside notre dame and dad, one for you inside sacre-couer:) They were both awesome. Montemartre is also where moulin rouge and red light district are but, surprise surprise, it started pouring again so we didn't get to see it.

My videos take 8 years to upload on here so I'm just going to put them on youtube. my username is sobnosae I think you can just search for them.

Last day here, off to Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre, the two famous art museums. Can't wait!!! Maybe we can hit up the red light district tonight, make some money to compensate for all this expensive food..

hope my eye doesn't explode. off to breakfast and to start the day! cheers! bisoux!

Finally, a little French history

Salut:)

Yesterday Dom and I explored Champs Elysees, which is the swanky part of Paris. We saw Louis Vuitton, the Rolex store (which we weren't even allowed in hahaha) D&G, and all that good stuff. I can only dream of the day I'll have nothing better to spend 850 euros on than a stupid handbag.

Last night, our ETHOS grad assistant Mark had a layover in Paris before he was off to Cameroon so we all went out to dinner downtown. I challenge you to find food in this city that doesn't taste amazing. I got a pasta carbonara-ish dish with pasta and smoked pork in it with an egg yolk on top. With wine, of course:) Mark then told us of this free walking tour that runs daily and that we should check it out...

Sooo today we did just that!! And THAT is exactly what I expected from Paris. Our tour guide was absolutely awesome and told us so much history behind so many little details I would've never paid attention to. She also sold us on a pub crawl tour tonight...11 euros to get into bars and clubs in addition to half off drinks...can hardly argue with that one:) I put some videos of notre dame and the louvre, and some pictures from dinner and our tour, mainly for my parents and those who've never seen paris:)

So much to say about the tour, so much history and awesome little facts. and it was FREE. and in ENGLISH. God bless America. I think I'm going to put together a little word document with all the pictures and the stories behind them simply cause they were so fascinating I don't want to forget them. I appreciate the city so much more now. I also appreciate good walking shoes, which I sadly do not have.

After 2 days, I love it here. We're pros at the metro by now. I can speak enough to get what I need. Very few things to complain about.

Only things that suck in Paris:

1) THE SMELL. I'm sorry people but it's true it is smelly a lot of the times.
2) Record breaking temperatures. Awesome. Yea yea yea, I know you're thinking "ooh it's hot there wait til you get to africa you little priss" but it's different. Expectations mean the world and I expect Africa to be freakishly hot but I expected Paris to breezy and comfortable. Not so much. To follow that..
3) No AC in our hostel. We do have a big sweet window that we leave open all the time but it still gets uncomfortably hot.
4) How expensive things are.
5) Lots of local girls only wear shorts with tights under them. dumbest.rule.ever.

Start taking my Malaria pills today! Africa in 4 days!!!!

The start of it all..

<--my only purchase thus far. wine and orangina. what more could I need? also ahhmazing graffiti by our hostel.

Leaving the country was quite the adventure.
I'll start with the plane ride but I won't bore you too much.

I love lists, so my whole blog I will try to itemize my experiences to eliminate the boring stuff.


Things that blew my mind traveling:

1) The ginormity of the plane. Fairly certain all of Wadsworth could've fit on this sucker.
2) Airplane food rocks. I was expecting some crappy mystery meat-esque meal but it was this delish lasagna, roll, salad, and brownie. hollaaaa.
3) I could not sleep. This really blew my mind because I had gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before. At least I got to watch wedding brides and how i met your mother.
4) Most mind blowing of all, I wasn't scared flying over the water. Oh, and to you all who said "ooh you can't see the water from the plane": lies. I could, but it was oddly peaceful. Just the vastness of it all was mesmorizing.
5) Flying over Ireland. First land we flew over after the Atlantic. The plane monitors showed where we were during our flight and once I figured out we were over land again, it was so weird thinking I was right over Ireland. Ireland! I hardly leave Ohio.
6) Customs. Longest line ever, but when I got there, they looked at my passport, stamped it immediately, and didn't say one word. I must not look intimidating.

Traveling from the airport to the hostel was hooooorrrrrible. We couldn't find the train station, didn't know where to get a metro pass, had no idea which metro stop was closest to our hostel, the list goes on and on. Somehow, 3 HOURS LATER, we found it. At least people were really nice when I was trying to trudge up the stairs at the metro. Multiple men helped me with my luggage. Good thing too because if they hadn't I'm fairly certain my shoulder blades would've snapped off. See, Parisians aren't rude! Either that or I'm just smokin' hot.

Things that crack me up (does not take much keep in mind):

1) man capris
2) the american music I hear. It goes from black eyed peas to deee-lite to frank sinatra.
3) my lack of knowledge of the french language. 90% of my french has consisted of mass "merci"s. Apparently even my merci sucks cause some guy at this crepe place said "hahah, 'merciiii'. see you later!"
4) little kids speaking french. HAHAHA so cute!!

I'm not going to lie. The first day was semi-miserable but I think it was due to jet lag, sore shoulders, and flip flops. Oh, and being lost ALL THE TIME. Today we woke up early, had breakfast in the little garden in our hostel, had time to look things up, went exploring in our arrondissement, bought some wine, and came back to plan our day. A much better start to my day than yesterday. Looooots of graffiti where we staying, but it's absolutely amazing. i might have taken more graffiti pictures than anything else.



KK off to shower and look super american in my holey jeans t shirt and flip flops before exploring the city! Au revoir!