I'm an American in Paris!!! And as qbout half of the letters in the keyboard here are in the right place and half of them are random, this will have to be short as i use all my internet cafe time to fix typos. Let's just say ... days in Paris: 2. Number of bread/cheese/wine picnics under the Eiffel tower: 2. Not a bad little ratio!! Anyway, I figured out the train ok, it's just one of those absolutely unexplainable experiences to get off a train in a foreign country, and not know the place or the language or a single person there. So, I get to my hostel, and find out I can't check in for a couple more hours, so I decide to go exploring. I find a cute little Parisian cafe/coffee shop, and proceed to sit down at a table. The guy comes over, and I ask in my best French that I've been practicing in my head if he spoke English. Upon receiving a real quick "non!", I started to panic. However, he started listing things on the menu, and once he listed cafe au lait, I quickly ordered that as the one thing I recognized. I explored Monmarte for a while, and climbed all the steps to the top of Butte Monmarte, where you get an incredible view of the entire city; (and my guidebook made tons of witty jokes about the best way to get "up the butte", with that phrase in bold each time. After that, I took the metro to the Eiffel tower. I found a little market, and bought some wine and cheese and bread, and right when I left the market to have my little picnic, it started pouring. So, I ran to a table under a big umbrella in front of a tourist stand that sold crepes and icecream, and started to have my picnic there. I started eating, and this random guy who worked there came over and started staying stuff to me in French. I assumed he was telling me I couldn't eat outside food there, but this french guy at the umbrella next to me told me he was just asking if I would move to his umbrella so they could use mine to cover the tv they were bringing out to watch the soccer game on. Of course I agreed, so I ended up having a wine and cheese picnic in front of the Eiffel tower while watching the world cup!! Does life get any better? The french guy ended up giving me some basic french lessons in exchange for cheese, so maybe I can get around a bit now. Tonight I did wine and cheese again in front of the eiffel tower with the Canadians from my last hostel in London, so it was nice to at least hang out with so,e quasi-familiar english speakers. And today I went to the Pompadou center, which was just asesome. And all the hostels in Paris fill up real early in the summer, so I'm staying at a cheap hotel, which isn't fancy at all, but I get my own little room and bathroom, so I get to keep my own little shampoo in the shower and my little toothbrush on the sink for the next 3 days. Yay for unpacking a bit!! I'm just about out of time, but I'll update this when I can.