Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Paris Adventure Day 4 of 7


July 9, 2014
Today is day number four of seven in the Capital of France: Paris. As I think of my expectations of what Paris would be like, this is exceeding all of them. I reflect on today and realize that I appreciate the fact that I have a car, a driver’s license, and free will to go and come as I very well please. The day began slow because it was not supposed to rain, however, it did. I was prepared for rain as Dr. Shanklin explained in orientation that it could start raining on the drop of a dime or even while it was still suspended in the middle of the air.
Rain is not a bad thing. Here in Paris the people have not stopped and I have not heard any grumbling about it either. We the academic tourist, on the other hand, have had enough. Anyway, Tao, Tjaya, and I began our journey today looking for sports stores for Tao, a radio station for Tjaya, and Perfume/Cosmetic stores for me to do research for our papers.
First things first, the traffic here is terrible, but no worries, we took the subway and made it to our destination just fine. It is amazing I have never taken the city bus in Nashville, yet I have been on the subway every day since I have been in Paris. This proves to me that I can do anything that I put my mind to do. The secret to riding the subway here is to know which direction you need to go and get on the correct number line of the train to get you there. It was frightening at first, but I trusted God and Tao to see me through. Yes, Tao was instrumental in navigating the subway. We ventured back to the Musee Du Louvre so that we could scout out businesses that fit the criteria we needed to get our work complete.
This is a process that is taking time because one, we have to map our route out so that we don’t waste time back tracking or overlooking stores that are in the immediate area. Paris is known for having top fashions and perfume aromas that are sweet to the snout. Today I found out that it also is the home of SkyRock radio station. This is a station that touts itself as a premier rap station. If you want to visit its website it is www.skyrock.com I plan to log on tonight to see if they are true to what they say: premier. I can say this; they had photos of the rapper 50 Cents, Alicia Keys, and Common plus many others on their walls advertising the fact that they are in the music business.
To move on through the day, we hustled through the streets of Paris searching for perfume stores and Nike or Adidas stores for Tao and me to get information pertinent to our causes. We ran in and out of the rain, happy as can be. Notice I did not say happy and gay. Speaking of gay, we had a conversation today about how the world is changing. The world view of homosexuality is increasingly shifting. We all need to realize that it does not matter what sexual orientation a person is, but it matters how you treat your fellow man. Enough of that!  
On to one of the highlights of the day: falafel. Dr. V told us about chickpeas and how they made the falafel. Ironically, none of us even ate what the restaurant is famous for, but all of us had pita sandwiches. Dr. V was oh so excited about the FIFA World Cup. He hopes that the Dutch wins the game tonight so that when we arrive in Amsterdam we can see the final while in the capital of Holland. If the Argentineans win then the game will be held on Saturday with no hoopla for us to enjoy while in Holland. Last night the Germans skunked Brazil 7 – 1 and pushed them on to the finals. I know nothing about soccer, but I love the excitement of the hostel and am eager to see how it ends tonight.