Paris

Tuesday and wednesday we took a train from the SNFC train station to Paris. There we stayed at the Luxembourg Hotel, right next to the Luxembourg Gardens. Here we all roomed in pairs and when we went out we left our keys with a gentlemen who refused to speak english with us.
Most of us were excited to be staying in a hotel for different reasons, but the biggest being the bathroom situation. On the way to Paris we discussed the pros and cons of the french shower and toilet. In most houses you will find two seperate rooms, one with the sink and shower, and another with just a toilet. The cons were that it promotes not washing your hands, it's an awkward distance away from each other, and it makes personal time more of a stretch. The only positive is that two people can be in the two different rooms at once. Overall, we prefer the American system of bathing, but this only shows that a small change in lifestyle really makes us think about how different our cultures are, because who really could expected us to have a half an hour conversation on bathrooms. Larkin was definitely the most excited though to shower because at his correspondent's house he can only take baths.

Arriving in Paris, we prepared to take the metro to our hotel. The metro we compared to NYC and even Buffalo's own one way subway, and we all agreed that the French metro was cleaner. There were even some metros that were double decks. Madame made us map out our route on our own before actually boarding so we could associate ourselves with it, and for those who are not used to the metro it was very confusing. The map handed to us consisted of a million different colored lines crossing and weaving all in a tangle, but of course with wonderful guides like Madame and Doc Roc we arrived at the Hotel with no problems.



Tuesday we walked around Paris a little where we saw many interesting statues and sculptures. We stopped to reenact a couple of these statues, before entering this grand church courtyard. There we found another statue that was currently dressed as snow white. This statue has gone through many outfit changes, because when the nurses our doctors go on strike, they dress the statue up as that occupation. The Show White outfit however was a joke played by the incoming interns.





We then went to of course, the Eiffle Tower. Here Tarek, Izzy, Illona, Will, Rene, Larkin, Caroline and myself chose to walk up all the steps to the top while Grace and Cokie took the elevator. around 700 steps to the middle deck, we had to take an elevator to the very tip top. With the wind, it was freezing! But we played the celebrity game to pass the time. The wait to get to the very top however was definitley worth it.