Okay. So.

Get ready for an extremely short, typo riddled, woefully inadequate first blog post from Paris! I have 30 minutes left on this 'puter which I can't really afford in the first place, the European keyboard is QUITE challenging, and I'm pretty much sweating through my shirt. All of these factors, however, have silver linings: I successfully navigated the process of purchasing internet time entirely en Français, the crazy keyboard has a çirconflex on it, and I purchased the shirt in question at a superrad flea market.

Which leads me to my next point:

PARIS IS THE BEST CITY IN THE WORLD.

I rolled in on a train from Frankfurt a little over a week ago and in that time I've crossed more items off of my "Things to Do Before I Die" list than I have in my entire life up to this point. Here are a few highlights, which is kind of silly to say seeing as how EVERYTHING HERE IS COOL:

La Musée d'Orsay
This is where I saw the bulk of the art that I've been going crazy over since I was a little kid. Every painting is a million times more beautiful in person than it is in books or prints. I remember my mom telling me once that when you see a Van Gogh in person the colors vibrate--I can't think of a more accurate description for those and so many others that I saw there. I've been twice so far and I'll definitely go back as often as possible.

The Paris metro:
Maybe it's silly to say that this is one of my favorite things here, but I LOVE IT. I've never used a subway system before, and I love being able to zip wherever at the drop of a hat. Without going into too much detail, Paris is organized into sections called arrondisements--there are 22 of them, and the numbers get higher as you move farther away from the center of the city. To give a sense of the radness of the metro, yesterday we travelled from the 5th, where our hotel is, to the 18th in about 10 minutes for about 1 euro. SEATTLE NEEDS THIS SO BAD.

La Musée Maillol
This was one of those things I fell in love with unexpectedly. Artistide Maillol was a sculptor I had heard zero about before coming to Paris and who is now very, very high on my list of kickass artists. Look him up and then come to Paris where you can see all of his best works in one museum.

ARRRGH this is so not even close to a complete list of all the things I love about this city and all the things I've done so far, but time is running out and, quite frankly, I'd rather spend my euros on museums and beer! Will try and post pictures soon. A tentative previewof next post: Monet gardens, James Joyce and the Eiffel Tower. A bientot!