Post Four: Late Night Metro Stops

I've been thinking about making each of these blogs theme-oriented; I figure that I will try that out for a little while.

Using the metro in Paris is very easy. You go to the line that is nearest to you, find a map, run your finger along the line until you find a transfer kind of close to where you want to go, then when you reach that stop, you find a map and find out what it would take to get to the next stop. It's very standard and quite "intuitive", as someone once said. Go east, go south, go north, go west. We luckily have month-long metro passes, so we can get around the city quite easily - THANK GOODNESS because it is such a huge city. I didn't realize it until we were on the Eiffel Tower just how spread out the city is. It goes on for as far as the eye can see. Of course, some of that is suburbs but it's close to all being Paris.

When you are on the metro, you are not to look around or at anyone. People here are like, this is so blasse, tired of the metro, having more of an attitude like, "I've got my own things to look at, why should I look at yours?" It's easy to spot Americans on the metro because we constantly look around. We are also much louder than people here. I am having a hard time with some of my classmates because they are young and don't really care about respecting people's comfort zones. Their mentality is "I'm American; they know it; who cares?" The metro is a convenience, most of the time.

Ashley, one of the girls on this trip, expected a visitor last night; her friend from home is working in the south of France and decided to come surprise her for the weekend. We went all the way to the Gare de Lyon to greet him. After her friend getting himself lost, and us three girls getting harassed two times by drunk Frenchmen (Ashley has pale blond hair so all the Frenchmen stare), 45 minutes later we boarded the train to come "home". The train beeped, which signifies the closing of the train doors and we run to get on. This station has the double doors so there is a set of doors on the train and a set of doors on the platform, preventing last minute riders. Rachel, my roommate, was running into the train when the doors closed. Corey, Ashley's friend, started prying the doors but they were too strong. Rachel was pushed back onto the platform, where the other set of doors were shutting on her. Ashley, Corey, and I were panicking on the train. It was the worst experience we have had yet on this trip. Luckily, we exited at the next stop to wait for our friend. She arrived on the next train, laughed, and said "I am SO DONE with this station!" Attagirl for having a sense of humor. I was really upset at that point.

So that is my story about the metro. I use it for everything. I get up, eat, get on the metro, see some things, get on the metro again and again and again until I come back to the FIAP.

Some things that I have done since I last wrote:
Went ice skating in front of the Hotel de Ville
Saw Monet's, Renoir's, and Rodin's work up close
Saw a fine fashion collection and some of Napoleon's furniture

Hope all is well back home!