Paris to visit Jon

One of the things I was most excited to do in Europe is visit my friend Jon who lives in Paris. I worked with him at camp for a bunch of years so I know him pretty well. I hadn't seen him in a while because he wasn't able to visit last summer because of health problems. It was really cool to have a person who really knew Paris to show me around.

I was also excited to go to Paris because we learned so much about if in French class in high school. We had a whole test just on Paris. Jon commented that I knew more about Paris than he did. The thing I couldnt believe about all the monument was just how huge they were. I had seen pictures of all of them but I didnt understand just how large everything is.

The first day Jon and I saw a lot including Notre Dame and we also went into the Louvre because its free for students on friday nights. That night I got to meet a lot of his crazy doctor friends (he's in med school). I couldn't believe how fast they all spoke. I could barely understand anything they said. Luckily they were all eager to try out their English on me. It was funny, they were asking me what a lot of American slang that they had heard in American songs meant. Some of them were difficult to explain, try explaining what "dumps like a truck" means to french people.

The next day we walked along the Champs Elysees which is this famous road that runs from the Louvre to the Arch of Triumph. It's really cool because you can see all the way from the Louvre to the Arch of Triumph. We then walked to the Eiffel tower and had lunch overlooking the park thats in front of the eiffel tower. I was excited to get cotton candy which they call "barbe a papa" or father's beard. I found that funny.

The demonstrations going on that night were crazy. Most of the college students (not Jon's school though, thank goodness) were demonstrating against this new law that says employers can fire anyone under 26 without giving any reason. All the of the schools are blockaded and the students are staying inside them. They were stopping traffic and waving signs. At night it was pretty bad. Hoards of riot police armed showed up in these blue buses. We came out of the metro right near it and about 30 feet away was police throwing tear gas. Because it was windy everyone had to cover their faces. It was kind of scary but we tried to stay away.
All the stuff is still going on. Yesterday was one of the biggest demonstrations, where basically all workers were on strike, including public transportation. The country was shut down. The government is still not budging. Everyone in Belgium just says 'oh the French like to demonstrate'.

The last day Jon and I made pancakes that his aunt (who lives in Northampton) had brought over. They dont have pancakes over here so I was excited to make them. We even had real vermont maple syrup.

Great, tiring weekend. We walked everywhere but we saw a lot. I'm excited for my parents to go to Paris, I dont know how they'll see everything in two days because theres so much to see.