Paris day 1

In order to share my adventures in paris I am breaking them up into day-by-day posts. I can tell you from experience that Paris is a very overwhelming city that needs to be digested in small segments, otherwise major constipation of the brain will occur.
Day 1-Vendredi the 18th
We took the TGV out of Lyon in the morning. Our parents all packed us surprise lunches. Mine included a baguette sandwich, squeezable apple sauce (no spoon needed!), an orange, and a half-boiled hard-boiled egg. I think someone got distracted while they were boiling the egg because it was very much so runny on the inside. But it's okay, I gave it to Julia to eat anyway because I don't enjoy eggs.

We jumped immediately from the train and dove head first into sight-seeing.
Le Tour Eiffel
Arc de Triumph
Champs Elysees
I tried really hard to get a photo of myself holding the Eiffel Tower in my Skants for Eli (upon her request) but between all of the men hassling me to buy 6 mini Eiffel Towers for 1 Euro and the massive crowds of people I failed miserably and wound up holding Jeff's head in my hand rather than the Eiffel. Good Try, better luck next time.
After a long day of running through the streets of Paris, my Skants flapping in the breeze, I retired to my hostel room where my roommates and I made lots of awkward eye contact with the creepy boys across from us. So I got out my camera and used my zoom to stalk them...and they began posing for my photos. So then we closed up shop, ate couscous at the hostel, and then the gang headed out for a Free night in the city of lights. Our Free night ended up consisting of us walking 45 minutes out of the way to bar.

The bar was not particularly special, in fact, it was quite boring and normal, but the highlight of my night came when MASSES of people on roller blades came pouring down the street. I mean Five minutes worth of Roller bladers rolling down the street, INCROYABLE!


I tried to capture the moment but it was so dark and they wore moving so fast that the only good shot I ended up getting was the one of the stationary couple canoodling on the street amongst the roller bladers, go figure.
After about and hour at the bar, other Jen and I decided to pack up and head back home to the hostel. On the way home we discovered these wonderful white tents that were filled with music, ice cream, and dancing people. Jen and I stopped there, ate two scoops of wonderful ice cream each, and danced in the crowd of strangers until we had finished our treats.

As we headed back home it became increasingly obvious that we did not know the exact way home. We may or may not have walked for 2 hours in circles around the hostel trying to find it. In my head I was freaking out, but I am proud to say that on the outside I remained calm, read the maps (Maps of Paris are a headache) and acted like I knew what was going on until Jen and I eventually stumbled upon the place. It was embarrassing, frustrating, terrifying, and very sketchy, but in the end we were safe, we still beat the rest of the group back ( I have a feeling they were also lost but do not remember coming home enough to know it), and I had my first real vision of non-touristy Paris. And thus my first day in Paris was concluded.
Stay tuned for adventures from day number two.