Ah Pariě

Ah Parie!
We're here! Our journey here was quite the adventure! But, with all that behind us- we are in the city known for high fashion, over priced coffee, amazing wine and rude citizens. 
'If at first you don't succede, try, try again'. We ended up missing our third train from Lile to Wherever out-of-the-way connection it was headed to, which actually was a blessing. A 'high speed' train was leaving in a little over sn hour heading straight into our 'home city' for the next three nights.
The little differences in culture are the things that really catch our attention. For example, Europeans have no 'bubble', or concept of personal space. People will bump into you while standing in line and not even notice. I've been known to give a death glare over this back home. Here, it's not even an issue. The bubble doesn't apply to vehicles either. 
The three taxi rides we've taken have been adventures in themselves. Last night our driver, who spoke no English thankfully had a GPS to navigate, and an iPhone (which he was using to play Michael Jackson- I guess the world is still in mourning, Janet would be so proud). I thought cab drivers in San Francisco were bad... I was mistaken. If horiffic taxi driving were an olypic sport, this guy would have taken a gold medal. Especially if almost hitting ladies on bicycles counted for extra points.
Our hotel ( Villa Montparssene?) is quite Parisean. I'm not even sure how to pronounce the name, typical American! When the concierge handed us the key Sean and I looked at each other to verify we were both seeing the same thing. Ladies and gentlemen, we've stepped into a time warp- we holding in our hands an actual key. Made of metal. With a lovely tassle attached. Our room is small, very normal in these parts of the world. But it's clean and in a safe neighorborhood. And withing walking distance from most sights. Beds are hard, but soft and supple pillows accompanied by Valium make it all good. 
I think were finally adjusting to the local time zone. After three days of intense travel falling asleep last was easy. Out by midnight, awake at 8am. Love it. Let's hope it lasts. 
On the agenda today: walking to the Eiffel Tower, possibly visiting Notre Dame. Finding a drug store, or pharmacy and making the rest of our train reservations. 
I'm thanking mom for convincing me that buying ear plugs were a good idea. We didn't need them on the plane, but Sean has used them each night to drownd out the sound of my incessent and unrelenting cough. I cought a cold a month or two ago- and got almost all the way better. So I got all my vaccinations including the seasonal and H1N1 flu shots. I even started taking vitiman-c more than normal. My body didn't appreciate the stress that goes along with prepping for a three week adventure so it boycotted me. Either I'm still sick, or sick again. Just a cough and runny nose- ewwwwww. Could be worse, but really- being sick on vacation isn't exactly ideal. Oh well, it is what it is.
Free wi-fi has been pretty much non-existent so far. I'm writing as we go, and will post as soon as possible. Please pray for the gift of language that we'll miracusiously speak Frence- "se vu play English" and "bonjour" can only get us so far! =)  We love, and miss you all!
-Jae & Sean