Easter in France

I think I've fallen in love....with Paris =) I've been in France now for the past 2.5 weeks and it has been blissful. I've been surrounded by lovely people, excellent food, beautiful sites and amazing weather...what more could one ask for? ok, probably a million dollars, but I'm being realistic here;) I spent a lovely Easter with our good family friends, the Wimmers, and it was a very special time. We drove up to their summer house in Carnac, a cute town in Bretagne, NW France on the coast. We went for many bike rides and runs along the beach, and I even got taken out for a wonderful ride on a sail boat. We went to mass, which was my first time ever going for Easter and it was really incredible...to be sitting in an ancient cathedral from the 1500s with amazing architecture and beautiful stained glass windows/paintings was quite an atmosphere. Plus, the Easter night mass was exceptionally eventful. The candles that we all held and light during different stages of the ceremony let off so much smoke that the fire alarm went off...and continued for a good 10 min before it finally stopped. Then there was a drunk man who after everytime the priest said "Jesus is our lord" shouted out "yeah!" It was quite amusing as the place was quiet and it was quite a formal affair...but they finally showed him to the door. We proceeded to eat amazing food that day (like all the others) and I ate, for the first time, pate, which was excellent. It was a very relaxing time with lots of great company and good wine;)

The French is, well, coming along albeit slowly. My brain has been filled with Farsi and now it is making a very slow transition to French, but I still think of things in Farsi first and occasionally spit out some Persian words mid-sentence, which I only realize when I get a weird look from someone else and realize that that was the wrong language. But they have told me that my accent isn't too bad, and is not the horrid American accent, so there is hope yet:) I think I have to return during med school for a longer period so that I can really buckle down and concentrate on learning it...right now it is kinda (as our good Armenian friend has said) a "half-arse show." And return I must...Paris is such an amazing place with so many cute little neighborhoods, amazing shops (although if I keep wandering into them I think I may be broke very soon...the european clothes are just so much cuter than american ones;) and restaurants/cafes.

Spent the last week with Jamileh which was wonderful...she showed me some of her favorite places which were fantastic and brought me along to the most amazing (and cheap) creperie. It's in a really cute part of town by the Sorbonne where a lot of University professors live with a very harvard-type feel to it....lots of cafes/restaurants and a very intellectual feel to it...I was in heaven. I also got to check out her lab which was pretty cool. I wandered around lots of neighborhoods in Paris, but there are still many more places to go to. The other day though I wandered into a mosque, which was in Moroccan style, and it was beautiful...a little haven right in the middle of busy Paris. I was shocked to find it and pleasantly surprised when I went in. The guy at the door asked me for my ticket (u are supposed to pay on entrance), but I wasn't about to pay to go in so I said (surprising myself with my french:) "c'est une mosque, n'est-ce pas?"(it's a mosque, no?) to which he replied, "oui, bien sure"(yes, certainly) and I said, "mais je suis musulman" (but I'm muslim) and he immediately happily said, "allez-y madame, allez-y" (go on in) and he was quite amused and on my way out asked me if I saw everything. It was fun;) Spent my birthday with her and had a tasty pear-chocolate cake and a special dinner. I treated myself to a bit of a shopping spree for my bday, which was fun;) and to top stuff off, one of the girls working the cash register asked me if I wanted a discount card for the store and I told her I wasn't French...she then said, "Oh, Italian? German? Spanish?" and I was like no, American. Then she said excitedly, "Beyonce!" and I laughed. then we talked a bit more and she told me I had really good French, which was the perfect bday treat:) so I guess in some ways, money CAN buy happiness...hehe:) guess I just have to do some more shopping:)

Anne-Claire and I had a crepe party the other night and it was pretty cool...everyone brought something along for the crepes and it was quite a success. I'm in lovely Versailles now and it's such a relaxing place. The palace is not too far away and has lovely gardens. I found a cheap ticket to Budapest, Hungary, so I will be leaving Monday for a 12 day adventure...I'm going to go to Vienna and Prague as well, and possibly Bratislava. It should be exciting! I've booked my hostels and some of the train tickets and I'm ready to go explore some beautiful cities and drink some amazing coffee and hear wonderful music...ahh, it's going to be hard to go back to school now.

Anyhoo, hope you are all doing well. I got my return ticket and will be coming back stateside on June 5th, so hope you are all ready;)