tous mes secrets: so i guess i'll start from the beginning...first stop, PARIS

"Well my flight gets into Paris at the Charles de Gaulle airport at 9am so I'm sure i'll arrive at Danny's apartment no later than 10:30am. If I can't figure out how to get into the building i'll just sit outside until you come outside and find me. OH MY GOD I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR ASS IN PARIS!!!!!"

Neither I nor my friend Alex had working cell phones at this point so, we came up with the plan above (with added enthusiasm). Everything worked out, as it so often does, and i arrived safely at the curb of Danny's apartment. Danny is Alex's friend who offered to house Alex until she found housing in paris, and to house me for a few days while I visited! I was greeted by a 'sleepy, yet ready to party and have a good time,' Alex. We slugged some coffee and decided to venture out on the chilly streets of Paris.

I had a great time catching up with Alex. She and I became really good friends when we studied abroad together in Grenoble. Over the summer we met up with our two other friends from studying abroad and had a great little reunion together in Los Angeles. When we parted ways it was fun being able to say, "I'll see you in Paris!" We talked a little bit about our teaching program and both kind of nervously asked each other questions about all the various paper work we had to turn in. She and I both just laughed when we didn't know what the other was talking about. I think we both have the same "ehh i'll just wing-it" mentality lol

That night we shared a bottle (or 2?) of wine and wandered around the eiffel tower at night. So strange to think about how an iron structure can have such a strong effect on my emotions. Every time it makes me so happy that it almost makes me feel sad. weird.

If you know me, then you know i love techno music and it just so happens that a techno festival was jumping on the streets of Paris. Alex and I took the metro to the boulevard St. Germain stop and the second we got off the metro we could already hear the music coming from the streets above. After saving alex from stepping in a fresh pile of puke we made it to the street level. IT WAS AWESOME!

The streets were packed and there were different floats going by with different styles of techno. We followed our favorite floats up St. Germain and Henri V.

The parade ended and we started to head back to the apartment to take a much needed nap. I finally met the generous host, Danny, that evening, when he returned from traveling with his band.

All three of us went out together that night and had a great time.