Ok my dear friends, I have been a bit lazy and haven't written an update. I will upload my new website soon. I just learned I can't upload it from my home connection and need to go to an internet cafe.
So, we flew to Paris on Thursday with Ryanair. First of all, if all American airlines ran like Ryanair, maybe they wouldn't be bankrupt! But that is another story.
The only problem with Ryanair, yes we bought two round trip tickets for only 73 euros, but we had to buy two roundtrip bus tickets to the airport from Barcelona to Girona and two round trip bus tickets from the Beaveau (sp) airport to Paris. That adds up to 4 hours of travel time plus about 1.5 hours of waiting which equals 5.5 hours to get from my apartment to Paris and it costs about 170 euros. Which is American dollars is probably about 200$. I guess that isnt too bad if you have the time.
Burak has been sick so I forced him to come. He is getting better. We are staying the weekend with a friend from AIESEC in Austin, Luis, who happens to be working in Paris right now. He has an awesome place with a great bed so we just stayed at his place the first day. He was in Madrid and didn't arrive until the next day.
While Burak slept, I took the liberty to check out the grocery store. Those are so much fun to find out about the people and culture. I was in heaven when I saw 2-3 aisles of cheese!! I love cheese. So I started looking into sampling a lot of different ones. The other thing I realized, this place is more expensive that Barcelona. The vegetables and all were more. So, I decided to limit my cheese expenditures.
I also saw that the wine selection was various but it was more expensive than Spain. In Spain, Burak andI have found a nice wine for only 1.09 euros. Here in Paris, I was scared to buy something to cheap. I bought something for 3-4 euros and I could tell it wasnt very good. So even though they have good wine here, it isnt as cheap as Spain's selection.
I also noticed these people seem to be really healthy. A lot of the food choices told you what else to eat to have a complete meal. I bought a pizza for Burak and it said that he should eat a salad and something else to make it a complete meal.
I also found a store called Ed, it is actually called Dia in Spain. I also noticed it had a different name in Portugal but it was the same chain. How funny. It is the cheapest grocery store you will find in Europe. It is the same type as Aldi and Lidl. Anyway, I had fun looking in there too. I bought a flan tart because it looked so good. I am going to gain weight here. The food is so darn good!
Friday, we woke up late. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower. I was eating an apple and afterwards Burak wanted to throw it off from the top. So he did. It took a long time to get to the bottom. Luckily, it fell on a tree or something and not a person.
At 5pm, I had an interview for a job. It is for a travel company in PA that is looking for someone to travel to vacation properties and report to the company about them. They are looking to opening up their options for their loyal customers and their business and need someone to travel and report between February and May. They would pay for food, lodging, travel, and 10-12$ an hour. Their profits go to good causes so it also makes the job sound inticing. I had to speak in French for 3 minutes and Spanish for 3 minutes to prove I could communicate in those languages since I say I can. I felt very comfortable in both. I was luckily I lived in Belgium for the holidays and most of my French had come back to me recently. Also, I was in Paris during the interview and I was having to speak French occasionally on our trip.
It sounds like I might get the job. It is such a great opportunity. They need someone to go to Italy, Greek Islands, Malta, Turkey, and other places in Western Europe.
Today is Saturday and it is 2.21pm and Burak is still sleeping. We hope to get to the Louvre today and see the Mona Lisa. It will be my 3rd time and Burak's first time. Also, we plan to meet up with an Austin friend, Ben, and his gfriend tonight and also a DC Rotex friend who is on exchange this semester in Paris.
Tomorrow, Sunday, we plan to go to Versailles just outside of Paris. In the evening, we plan to hang out with Emily, a former exchange student to El Paso from France, who lived with the Powers, Burak's host family, for a while. She actually stayed with us in Austin a few years ago too.
So, we have lots to see and about 4 friends to visit here. It makes me feel special to know so many people here.
I am off to wake up Burakus Maximus and persuade him to go to an art musuem. Wish me luck!
Take care my friends and family and other people who like to read my blog...
ciao, rubes :)
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