Now on to the good stuff-
Hungarian, Algerian, South African, Canadian, American, TENNESSEAN, Italian, Asian, British, Australian, and French: this is a list of all the different nationalities I encountered in three days. It started on my train to Paris where I met this amazing South African woman. She realized that I spoke English and she sat there and talked to me for the entire 3 hours it took to get us to our destination. She told me about her daughters, about life in South Africa, and about her travels. She cracked me up a few times too. I ended up helping her carry her things and find her way to the terminal because she didn't speak French and seemed directionally challenged when it came to navigating airports. I think she was about 60 and she kept telling me, "you have to remember, one day you'll be 60 too". I only rode on a train with her for 3 hours, but I think I'll probably remember her the rest of my life. Talking to her was so fascinating.
From there, I found Shaina in the airport and we started our Parisian adventures. The hostel we stayed in was really nice...you know, once you actually got inside. Getting there was a little stressful and full of very persistent ...gentlemen... assessing the level of my beauty and trying to somehow turn the word no into yes. No means no, fellas. No means no. Oddly enough, the hostel bed was about 100% more comfortable than my dorm bed in Chambéry and I slept like a baby. After, of course, I finally managed to end the conversation with the Algerian man who had the bunk bed beside me. He was actually really cool too and I learned a lot about Algeria. It sounds crazy, but honestly, every person I met in that hostel or on the streets that wasn't trying to sell me something or sleep with me turned out to be awesome.
The next day wehit some of the big sights and my favorite part was just laying under the Eiffel Tower forever. It was the only sunny day of my entire trip, but it was warm and beautiful and tickled my French-lovin' heart. That night we went to the concert, which was the original motive for this entire excursion.
BOXER REBELLION. They are an incredible band, and I have even more mad respect for them now. The show they put on was fantastic and it was in a bar type venue so we were able to basically touch the stage from where we were standing. Then after the show, the band went to their merch stand and sold their own things. I thought that was really awesome of them and definitely a cool way to connect with the fans. Shaina and I had something in common with them too.
The lead singer is from Maryville, TN. It was awesome and we were dubbed "the Maryville girls". He told us they played a show at the Clayton Center. I don't know when that was, but I hope someone from MC went to it and appreciated/enjoyed it.
Our next roomies in the hostel were Hungarian and definitely had no problem walking around in their underwear and changing clothes in the room. They were so nice though, and not at all creepy, so it just almost felt natural because honestly, that's not as taboo here. I kind of like that actually. I feel like Americans can be way too uptight about nudity sometimes, and I was once guilty of that, but I think being here has loosened me up a little bit. Even if I'm not as comfortable with it myself, I'm not as uncomfortable about others expressing their right to be naked. Hah.
We also met another girl whose mom was from Maryville when we took a picture for her and her boyfriend/fiance/husband/whatever-he-was. It's such a small world. They talked about going to the drive in. The rest of the Paris trip was rainy, but still cool. I've been to Paris a few times, but I think that this time was probably my favorite.
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