c'est la folie.

as roommate is reclined with her own book (the host by stephenie meyer) i suppose i can keep writing. as you may have divined from the subject, i'll be talking about paris.

nicole and i flew into charles de gaulle airport on december 31st, which sounds absolutely horrific but really wasn't. the worst part was the mob (in lieu of a line) to get through customs. survival of the fittest. elbows in your nose. despite our irritation, i can't deny i felt a momentary thrill when two airport employees roughly shoved through the crowd bellowing "excusez-nous! excusez-nous!", a blaring reminder that we had finally made it to france, the country where all of our dreams would come true. [insert disney music here.]

our hostel was about one hundred steps from gare de l'est, which was a blessing when we finally emerged from the metro exhausted and weighed down by our luggage. while we waited for our room to be ready we sat in a small room that held a couple pieces of luggage, poring over a large map of paris while a tv mumbled in the corner. okay, the eiffel tower is there, and we're here, ooh and there's champs elysees, but moulin rouge is all the way down there...hmm...which metro do we have to take to get to here? we would only be there for the next two days, but the possibilites seemed endless.

the elevator was, without a doubt, the smallest i'd ever seen. we could barely fit ourselves and our luggage in, and you had to manually slide the door shut. we tried to take pictures, but they couldn't capture the true sardine-like essence. when we reached our floor we practically exploded out, giggling and giddy about the weirdness and wonder that was france so far.

our room was tiny and charming, our bathroom even more so. after putting down our bags, inspecting everything closely and promising ourselves we wouldn't nap for more than an hour, we fell into bed and slept for the next three and a half.

when we woke up it was dark and about 5 hours to midnight. we had just enough time to eat and get ready - we'd be meeting heather, a friend of mine and her friends at the eiffel tower for the new year festivities. we ventured out into the city for wine, champagne, and food, acquring all three with little fuss with our mediocre french and excellent hand gestures.

a few hours later found us wandering through the metro, stumbling on high heels and laughing at the strange looks from passers-by as we butchered the names of the various stops as only two half-buzzed american girls can. at one point we gave up, deciding to ring in the new year at the champs elysees instead, but at an inquiring text from heather we decided not to take the easy way out, and eventually found ourselves emerging from the right stop amongst a sea of people, the eiffel tower glittering in the distance. it was beautiful. it was magical. it was...so cold we could hardly MOVE.

we had a hard time finding heather - the amount of people there was staggering - but we finally did, and thankfully she had brought cups. we found some empty space along a curb facing the tower, and shivered and talked and laughed and shivered and drank and shivered until - wait, what? what was that? why were people cheering? i checked my phone - there were still two minutes to go! we kept looking around, confused. ...or maybe not.

so, yes. we never got to countdown to the new year, which was more disappointing than it should have been. but i determined to stay positive - we were in paris! we were young! life was good! my toes were frozen!

i must end here; party tonight that i need to start preparing for. to be continued, never fear!