An American in Paris: Reflection #1

Well, I had intended to do this every few days. But, time flies. Right?
So allow me to recap Paris and since tomorrow is my last day in Canterbury I'll probably do another summary.

I arrived in Paris the Wednesday before last. After my connecting flight from Dublin I was instructed that my best bet to get to where I was going was just to take the airport tram to Gare du Nord Now, no one told me that Gare du Nord is the biggest train station in Europe...so once I got there I was stuck staring at a map tryin to figure out where exactly I was and how I was going to get to where I needed to go with a thousand people walking around me. Luckily, an israeli man came to my refuge. Though I was scared at first (you know...never talk to strangers) my gut instinct said the guy was trying to be helpful. He showed me how to purchase fare and which stop I should get off on (later did I find that I could have gotten off a few stops later, oh well). In the best French and improve sign language I could muster I pointed the directions on my phone to a bystander and asked for help. Having got good direction I walked to my hostel an hour later, booked my bed and then passed out.

I remained in Le D'Artagnan for five nights. During my stay here I saw Pere Lachaise, the super huge cementary with folks like Oscar Wilde, Bizet, Chopin, Morrison..), the Eiffle Tower, Notre Damn, Sainte Chappelle, and the Louvres. Now, I stayed an extra night at this hostel because over the weekend I had a dental emergency (I didn't post anything about it on Facebook because I didn't want to make a scene and distract from all the cool stuff I was doing). I cracked a tooth, and my better judgement said to stay in Paris and have it looked at, which meant skipping my trip to Taize because I knew this could get costly).

Saturday night when the crack happened, I was mostly freaking out. Pain, in another country, no insurrance. Where would I find a dentist? So i actually called my travel insurance and they made some calls and got some referrals. In the meantime, I was praying oh so hard. I barely slept that night. At this point the pain wasn't as bad as my overall demenor was. In the morning I went to the serivce at the American Cathedral. I went feeling oh so vulnerable in not knowing what to do. After serice I was talking to a man named Jeb and explained my situation, and what happened next was a God send: he referred me to his American dentist. I left the Cathedral over joyed knowing that I had a plan. The next day I saw the dentist. He took x-rays and turns out I need a root canal and a crown (joy...). I'm still on antibiotics, but there is just no way I'm going to be able to pull off that surgey while I'm here, so I'm chancing it till I get home. I have the x-rays with me just in case something does happen.

So having the "dent" in my Euro's and turned to CouchSurfing. I posted in the emergency group for Paris and got a response from a woman named Marie, who was from the South of France, and worked as an interior designer. She lived in a very small flat near the Eiffle Tower. My first night with her I went to a CouchSurfing party with her friends. While I was staying with Marie I actually went in and spent the day at the Louvres, and bought my bus ticket to Canterbury. She and drank tea and talked about life and travels. I loved hearing about growing up in South France in the Basque Country. She, a good Catholic, like hearing my rants about the church in America. She also was very interested and supportive of gays serving and being involved in the church. Apparently in France its still frowned upon to talk about religion with people you don't know too well, so she welcomed the opprotunity as it never comes by for her. On my last night she treated me well and cooked me a basque dish called Perserved Duck, and it was so freaking delishious.  We had a conversation about how Muslims were changing how they interacted with wider society, but it was cut short as I had to get to the bus station to get to Canterbury.  She is a wonderful person and I would love to stay with her or even host her someday.

A few things about Paris:
-The street signs arn't on poles like back home. You have to look at the buildings that are on corners, and they displayed there (most of the time....)
-Every single street starts with "Rue", very confusing when looking at a map
-The currency (this goes for the rest of Europe). One and Two Euro/Pound coins. The hell? I have a make ship coin purse to carry all this change. How do people do it?
-Don't stand and smoke, 5 people will stop and ask you for a cig.
-The Metro is absolutley amazing. Hands down. Easy to navigate and you can get everywhere you need to go within half an hour.
-Almost everyone speaks English to some degree.
-Everyone I met was super friendly! It really defeated the American steriotype that the French are rude (Granted, most people I got to talk to and know where not from Paris, and most of the friends I made were at a Bear Bar).
-French Law states that there must be one Pharmacy for every 500 people in each city. Paris literally has on every other corner.

Besides Maire I made friends with a guy from Northern Austrailia. Poor guy, he stood out pretty bad in his cut off heans, flip-flops, hoodie, towering over everyone at 6'5. He and I had some pretty good laughs over European culture.  He was in Paris waiting for his girlfriend who had just decided to travel for a month and told him to meet him there (too cool).

Highlights: eating fresh crepes and baugettes off the street, sitting in for a serive on All Saints in Notre Damn, hearing the choir at the American Cathedral for All Souls Day.

Paris taught me quite a bit about letting go and reaffirmed my belief/experiance that God is very present in the most vulnerable of situations. Its easier said than done to "let go and let God" but watching God take care of me from my dental emergency to getting  a place to stay to save money has thus far been incredible.