Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart

I have fallen in love with a physical place twice in my life. My first love is an always will be the University of Dayton campus, but I have a new mistress and its only proper that Paris is it. Paris draws you in slowly with her charm and subtle hints at history and elegance. By day, she is bursting with cultures from around the world, filled with other travelers who have come to experience the magical spell that is cast. Once the sun sets and the cafe candles are lit the city comes alive with style and still remains completely familiar.


Becca and I were fortunate enough to be able to stay for free in this beautiful city and so that afforded us the ability to do exactly what we wanted everyday, mainly sit in cafes eat cheese and drink good wine and breathe in this centuries old city to celebrate our birthdays. Our first afternoon of exploration lead us to the quintessential bistro overlooking the Seine and was two blocks from the Eiffel Tower. We made up many fantasy stories about the passersby, that we suspect some of them overheard.thats me getting caught saying the man across the street is meeting his lover on the corner-->

Notre Dame, Montmarte, The Louvre, naturally the Carrie and Big Bridge (we have no idea whats its called but you all know the one I'm talking about), The Opera House, Moulin Rouge, Champs-Elysees, the Arc, Tuilleries, Concord, Bastille, the Latin Quarter and so many more wonderful squares and plazas and building that I couldn't name in a million years but was captivated by every single one.

Favorite piece from the Louvre was not the Mona Lisa which is fairly anticlimactic and crowded but was actually the Seated Scribe. I think I stood and stared at it for at least twenty minutes.

We unfortunately did not make it to Versailles or the other museums because apparently life is closed on Mondays in Paris. Guess that means we'll just have to force ourselves to go back. But maybe next time in the spring.

Simina

I first met Simina while teaching here at the high school in BH. She was the most active student and the teacher was proud to present her to me as their prized pupil since she had taken the Cambridge Exam (I'm still not entirely sure what that means, but its an advanced English exam thats a super big deal). Anywho, she was so excited and nervous to meet me and speak with me that she could barely speak Romanian that first day.

We became fast friends, she soon got over her "girl crush" and forbid me to speak English to her wanting to help me improve my Romanian. By the way, explaining girl crush is a linguistic adventure I think everyone should undertake at some point in their lives. Simina has been my first true host country national friend, and at times she has helped me in ways she wouldn't know about just by her random texts and invites to walks it made me feel welcomed in a town I was very unhappy and lonely in. Our talks would range from physics to the inappropriateness of the n word, she insisted on me wearing slippers in my own home and gave me a few tricks on how to speed up building a fire. She taught me how to sling together an insult effective enough to get the children to stop shouting bad words at me, and I taught her how to make her new favorite food:cranberry walnut cookies.

I'm going to miss her very much when I move up to Arad. Thankfully she will be going to university in Bucuresti this fall so I will be able to see her when I go down for medical visits and things. She came by today to say goodbye and brought me her good luck sweater for my first day of work on Monday at my new site. It's such a comfort to know that I've made an impact on someone here, and her me. It was not a fun farewell, but a necessary one that thankfully she understands. I look forward to continuing our friendship and will hopefully get to see her again.

Tomorrow morning I will move to Arad to begin my new job at Parcul Natural Lunca Muresului. Wish me luck.