i arrived in paris yesterday, and i'm a little intimidated. i haven't been here for five years, and it seems so different now since i know french. i can read pretty much everything, even blurbs in museums, but i'm having trouble completely understanding people. i can usually get the gist of what they're saying, but i just hear odd words i know here and there. in school, it's easy because everyone speaks slowly and tries to enunciate. everyone here speaks so fast and mumbles, so i feel pretty stupid because i should be able to understand after six years of french. people will speak to me on the street and i seem like a idiot because they have to repeat things a few times and i can never think of what to say fast enough. speaking has never been my strong point, because i spend too much time formulating perfect sentences in my head. but hopefully i can practice and get a little better.
anyway, today i wanted to go to a few museums, especially the fashion and textile museum, but whenever i get excited about something, it never works out. the museum was closed and won't open until october. just my luck. so i ended up spending the afternoon at the louvre. traveling by myself can be nice because i can go at my own pace, but i miss having someone to make comments to about the things i see, and being alone also attracts sketchy french men. this one guy asked me out on the street, another one tried to talk to me from his car, and this old man was walking and talking with me by "la victoire de samothrace." and everyone asks if i'm thai or japanese, which i hate. it just makes me think of asian fetishes, and you all know that completely turns me off. so i say, "je suis americaine," and try to disengage from the conversation.
tomorrow it's probably going to rain, so i'm not sure what i'm going to do, but it'll probably be museums and shopping. and i definitely want to go to versailles and the musee rodin again. i'm staying with cookie, one of our old family friends, who's mv's age, and her apartment is really nice with internet access and all these cool techy gadgets. and it's in a quiet area, so i'll be able to sleep (not that i have any problems sleeping with loud noises or lights on.).
this blog is long enough, so i'll update again tomorrow. bonne nuit!