23 December

Once more, we caught an early morning train for Paris and arrived in the City of Lights around 10 in the morning. We left our luggage in the hostel and then headed to the Eiffel Tower. Before we left Brussels Saket received a text message from one of his Parisian corridor-mates named Laure (drop the “re” when pronouncing it) which said that she would meet us at the fountain near Saint-Michel at noon. We were all delighted to hear this news and I couldn’t wait to meet one of his friends. The Eiffel Tower was simply beautiful and seeing that felt a little surreal. When you’ve seen something mostly in photographs or movies and such, it doesn’t really feel real. Standing before the Eiffel Tower meant we were truly in Paris because it is such an iconic artifact of that city that simply does not exist anywhere else in the world. We were lucky that the sun finally came out that morning and as we stood on the lawn in front of the tower, sunlight started to creep down the face. We snapped several shots of the tower and then moved on to other parts of the city. We were really just killing time instead of doing any serious sightseeing because we were all checking our watches and at least I know I was willing the hour hand closer to 12. Around 11:30 we caught a metro train to Saint-Michel and waited there for Laure. I must say, as Saket told nearly everyone we met, that the Paris metro system is one of, if not the, best I have ever ridden. Maps abound everywhere you look and spell out very clearly which train you must catch to get to your stop. The trains are fast, clean, and also have clear maps. Laure showed up right on time and it was a happy reunion for her and Saket. Sachi and I got our first taste of the French custom of fake kissing on both cheeks which is so natural for them but a little weird for Americans. Laure informed us that another friend from Sweden, Kahina, would also be joining us. She showed up in about five minutes after a few minutes of chit-chat, we headed for a place to eat lunch. Laure and Kahina took us to a street frequented by the college crowd. Lunch was delightful and they served us free cocktails too. We toasted each other and I found the cocktail better tasting than the beers, but not by much. Laure and Kahina are wonderful girls who helped us out immensely while we were there in addition to being great guides to Paris. Kahina brought with her this sightseeing guide that had museum timings which was really helpful for us since we needed to know what was open on Christmas Day. After a long, luxurious lunch we walked to the old part of Paris by Notre Dame (we didn’t go inside ‘cause no one really wanted to) and then to a local metro/train station. The girls informed us that we might need reservations for our train to Caen (on the way to Normandy) and so they took us to a desk where we learned later that none of the people manning it spoke English. They acted as translators and negotiators for us, much to the amusement of the woman behind the desk. At one point Laure was relaying a question in French from the lady to Saket and instead of translating the question in English she repeated it in French. We all kind of laughed at that and poor Laure visibly blushed before translating for us. It was a really cute moment and totally understandable as anyone who’s ever translated knows how easy it is to slip. Kahina had to leave us after that to do some last-minute Christmas shopping and get back to her family. We were sad to see her go after helping us so much. Laure stuck with us a little bit longer and spent some time with us at the Louvre. We saw of course Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo statue, and many other famous works of art. Most of what we saw was Renaissance religious paintings and while they were beautiful, they started to get repetitive and it was getting close to Laure’s leaving time so we headed back to the main entrance. She left us there, much to Saket’s understandable sadness. After only knowing her for less than half a day I already like her and can see why Saket will miss her. She’s a wonderful girl. The three of us rested for a bit and then agreed to walk around for another 45 minutes before meeting up again at the entrance. I headed over to the Egyptian art section but what I wanted to see was closed off and I ended up getting a bit lost and going around in circles which wasted much of my time. I finally made it to the entrance about 10 minutes early and just slumped to the floor to wait for the other two. I took some pictures from there which I thought were pretty neat. It was also fun just to watch the other visitors and realize that they would literally be from all over the world. We were all very hungry leaving the Louvre and so found a pizza/pasta nearby to eat in. Considering the location the food was not only good but reasonably priced. It also felt like the first really decent meal in a while and it helped us recover our strength. We trotted around the area a bit and tried to do some gift and souvenir shopping. Since we were leaving for Normandy the next day and Christmas was the day after, we figured we should get all our shopping in as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything good so we just headed back to the hostel. We checked in and I found the staff at the Aloha Hostel quite unhelpful. We also found out the key was already taken since our roommates had already moved in. This was the first time I know Sachi and I have ever shared a room in a hostel and we weren’t sure what to expect. After hauling our bags up two flights (no elevator!) we made it to our room. I was the first to reach the room and it was opened by a girl with an Australian accent whose stuff was scattered all over the room. Another boy was on the bunk behind her. I said hello and started moving my stuff in. Saket and Sachi followed shortly with sheets and such and we started to get cozy. I’m terrible with introductions (something I badly need to work on) and in my nervousness+ exhaustion I failed to introduce myself. As I was changing in the extremely tiny shower in the room, I thought to myself how I would tell mom about our Paris roommates. I thought of calling them Julia and Dave. As I was leaving I found myself in a debate over the word “dear” and its proper usage. “Dave” said that “dear” could not be used as a synonym for “costly” or “expensive” as “Julia” was insisting and when asked my opinion I quickly answered that Julia was right, which is true. “Dave” is originally from the States and “Julia” is in fact Australian. Both are studying at the University of Birmingham. Shortly after the debate, Saket remembered to make introductions. Much to my surprise, “Julia” introduced herself as Julie! I was completely shocked! None of us quite caught “Dave”’s name so I will from here on call him Dave. If I was right with Julie then I’ll bank on the fact that I might at least have been close with “Dave.” For someone pretty bad with names, I must be psychic…Julie and “Dave” turned out to be nice, funny people who were actually leaving the next day for Brussels. Coincidentally, we had just arrived from Brussels and we soon found out they had arrived a couple of days ago from Geneva! Naturally, we exchanged travel tips and maps of the respective cities. Another girl joined us but she was rather strange in that she said hello to Julie but not a word to any of us. I wasn’t sure that she even spoke English but she stayed up for a while just watching us and listening to our conversation. After a while she just went to bed without saying a word. The rest of us were tired but not quite ready for bed yet so we continued chatting for a while before gradually dropping off to sleep. I noticed old bloodstains on my bed sheet and a nail clipping on my blanket but was too tired to complain. I tried my best to forget those details and just go to sleep.