aerobics, bikes, grandparents and palestinian food!

This is going to be a rather short post because I don't have a lot of time to type, but I think that I should update you all on what I have been up to this entire weekend. Friday night some people that I met through Ruth and I had a vegetarian dinner party at their apartment. We had salad, rice, and curry chick peas, potatoes and cauliflower. It was really good. Then we attempted to meet up with some of their friends at a bar near St. Michel, which is in a really nice part of town that comes alive at night with all of the shops, restaurants and bars. Plus the weather was fairly nice, meaning that it was not raining. I found this drink called the Monaco, or the Framboise, and it is amazing. So if I ever feel like splurging while I am out, I will get that. The plans for meeting the others failed, so we just went home. But it was nice to hang out with them. Saturday I was supposed to play softball with the team that I played with last weekend but because of all of the rain the game was canceled. I got the message around 8:50am, and there is a 9:15am aerobics class on saturday mornings at the American Church in Paris. I went to the class and it was wonderful. It was great to start my day that way. I didn't do much after that, except take a shower and do my homework because it was cold and rainy outside. This reminds me. This past wednesday (when it was also cold and rainy) I was walking around looking for a library when I happened upon a taxi workers strike. It was pretty cool to see all of the streets blocked off with the taxi drivers in the middle making it known thei discontent with their contract. Something similar is going to happen with the Metro workers on or around october 18th, which is bad for me because that's the only way I get around! That's how I get to class!! They've done it before and apparently when it happened it really crippled businesses around here. No one could get to work, and the trucking companies that went on strike couldn't deliver their goods to the businesses. Public transportation around here is not something to be treated lightly. They really have an impact on the entire city. OK, away from that anecdote. Saturday night was anticlimactic. I ate dinner with a friend and then walked around the Bastille and the Marais. Two very "hip" places of town. The Marais actually means swampy lands, which is what the city of Paris is built over.
Today we went on a "Paris a Velo" bike tour of the 1st-4th districts and while on it we learned about all of the history of the districts and kings and buildings. It was great. The weather was perfect, too. Then we ate lunch in a little Palestinian restaurant, and guess what?? The food was all vegetarian!! I was so happy. Falafel, hummus, pita, couscous. I was happy. After that we went on a walking tour of the area near the Bastille and again around different parts of the Marais. Very cool. Now I am back here attempting to do homework. I was also very occupied for a long time trying to figure out how my sister and my mom and dad could call me. It was a long and frustrating experience but we finally got it to work and I was able to talk to them on the phone!! Even if it was for just a little bit I was thrilled and more at ease once I got to talk to them. I have been a bit homesick because of friend situations here and kind of "finding myself" but I have a lot of things to occupy my time with, so it's no big deal. I am so glad I got to talk to them, though!! Ok, well I apologize for the short entry and for the lack of interesting wording or sentence structure. My next post will indeed be better. If you have any suggestions or requests about what you want me to write about feel free to tell me! talk to you all later.

grands bises!