wow. it's great to be back on American soil. to be in a real English speaking country again.

just got back late last night from my trip to Paris, France. it was a great trip: France is a beautiful country with so much culture to be had. not everyone is rude; we did some encounter some rudness, but we also met some perfectly nice people too. a lot of the time was spent with family we have not seen in years, and some of my parent's childhood friends. so during my two weeks there, we visited all the monuments and touristy spots (aren't we obligated or something?): Tour Eiffel, Sacre Couer, Place de la Concorde, Arc de Triumphe, Notre Dame, Louvre (where we saw the real Mona Lisa), Montmartre (Amelie-town), Chateau des Versailles, Champs Elysees, Mont St Michel. we drove through Normandy to get to Mont St Michel, and I fell in love with Normandy - it's what I picture when I think of France: the green fields and flowers, charming cottages with the yard gnomes, the local shops and bakeries. it's gorgeous. when I go back to France, I would like to either visit Normandy, or Monaco and Corsica.

we also spent a day in London, England, and another day in Brugge, Belgium. i loved Belgium! and London too! I'm thinking I want to spend more time in England next year (ahem, looking your way - New Wave and Pigern).

the bad thing about the trip was that it was a million degrees outside. the whole time i was there it was 95 - 105 degrees outside, humid, and NO air conditioning anywhere!! NO AIR CONDITIONING PEOPLE!!! NONE! So you are perpetually sweating, from the minute you get to France and minute you leave. You take a shower at night, and you have to hose off in the morning again. You sleep with all your windows and doors open, and you wake up several times a night because it is that hot. It's like you're living in a furnace. AND to top it off, you have to get on the bus and subway everyday to stand next to Frenchie who decides that they are too good for deodorant, so you must block off your sense of smell or you will die. you never feel shower fresh, it's quite disgusting. so there were some days where we were all just cranky because we couldn't take the heat. folks, i'm not kidding or anything, the heat wave was deadly: unfortunately, the French government estimated that 3000 people have died.

oh yeah, I wish I could at least speak a little French - it would have made things easier, but the most i know is the standard greetings and how to count. i can figure out some things because of the years i took spanish, but really, the language barrier makes things difficult sometimes. so that's why i was kind of glad to go to england and belgium where they speak English! wow, i feel so...American. sad.

so overall, a great trip was had, but i'm glad to be home. i have several reminders of france: besides my souvenirs, i have the nastiest mosquito (?) bite you will ever see. something bit me - I'm not sure what it was - a mosquito, a wasp, a small animal - on my leg. it looks like a bug bite, but then it looks bruised and bloody (underneath the skin), so although i'm not actually bleeding or oozing anything, it looks gross! even i get disgusted everytime i look at it. that's just me though - i get allergic reactions to bug bites - anybody else would get a small bump from a mosquito, i get raised mounds with the diamater of a golf ball. hehe. i hope i thoroughly grossed everyone out, as i so enjoyed doing to my family members. hehe.

au revoir!

p.s. bonus purchase: a limited edition of the Amelie soundtrack (the French version), with four additional songs from Yann Tiersen.