Boat rides, wine and olives

 I already have a nice morning routine involving waking up, reading and making breakfast, getting ready for class and taking the metro to the Raspail building of the Sorbonne. My roommate Kristen and I have the same school schedule but different buildings so we are up in the morning together hanging out. This morning I walked next door to the boulongerie and bought un pain au chocolate for breakfast, it was so good and made me start my day off in a good mood. My goal is to obviously explore as many areas as possible but I like going to a lot of the same cafes and bakeries because I want to be a regular and know the owners. Already the lady at the bakery smiles at me so I'm making progress! A smile from a French person is the equivalent to an invitation to dinner from an American!! Ok, not really but my point is Parisians especially are bred to be cold people. Just today I told my friend how much I miss being able to smile in public. It sounds so odd but smiling and especially eye contact here are considered to be almost sexual and definitely verrrryyyyy personal. I am looking forward to being able to walk the parkway and smile and say hi to everyone I see. After class I went back to the apartment to eat some food and then headed over to the Eiffel tower were ISA had organized a boat ride on the Seine. It was gorgeous to see the sun set on the river and then see the city all lit up. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed the scenery for the hour of the boat ride.

                I wish the night vision on my camera was better but here is picture of me on the boat ride

Everyone went in different directions afterwards and Kristen and I were the only ones left still taking pictures and walking around. We were on our way to the metro when we decided that we were going to just keep walking around and maybe find a cafe to sit at for a little while. We ended up exploring the neighborhood just down from the Eiffel tower and found a great cafe that still had happy hour going on. The cafe had tables all on the side walk but there were clear partitions and heat lamps to keep you feeling warm and enclosed from the city. We ordered glasses of white wine from the menu and they were HUGE! I felt I was getting my 4 euros worth. Along with the wine they brought out olives and roasted peanuts to snack on. The olives were marinated in some sort of herb and the peanuts were freshly roasted. At first I found it very random to have that brought out as their free snacks, usually its just bread or nothing at all. Surprisingly the food went really well together, the taste of the olives complimented the salty taste of the nuts....those sneaky French people always have good snacks up their sleeves. The two of us sat and talked for 2 hours before realizing what time it was. I have noticed a huge difference in my life with not having a cell phone. I have such a loose reference of time and am finding that I like not being connected every single minute of the day. I would have never sat at a cafe for two hours with a friend at home so spontaneously. I would have gotten a text or a call or something to remind me that there were 13759494833 things I had to do that day. I like the lifestyle that I am living right now and I think I am loving it so much because I know that it is only while I'm here that I get to live in such a relaxed, different way.