It's not a lifestyle until you smell.

Today's metro ride was particularly horrendous. Normally it's uncomfortably crowded, kind of like sardines in a can. Today, it was more like a trash compactor. It started out when Molly had her arm behind me so that she could reach the handrails, but I didn't know it was her so I was trying my hardest not to be leaning against a stranger. This shifted my center of gravity way forward so I crashed in to so many people at every turn. Then the crowd changed at Montparnasse-Bienvenüe, one of the more crowded stations. I was left squished up against this disheveled (lifestyle*) man. We were so close that if I hadn't turned my head, our noses would have been touching. Such a great way to start the morning!

Class was fun, I learned that most young Chinese are capable of hacking into different servers and therefor getting around the Facebook/YouTube ban. I also learned that French spoken with a Slavic accent is the hardest to understand.

Molly, Kelley and I are spending the afternoon at the Luxembourg gardens. They certainly are magnificent, but I still prefer the Palais-Royale. It's a lot less touristy and therefor a lot more enjoyable, but it does lack all the runners and the occasional duck.

*We've established that disheveled, like most other outfit choices, is a style in France. There is a line, however, that separates the willingly disheveled (style) from the possibly homeless (lifestyle). It's determined by smell, but other than that it can be very difficult to differentiate between the two.

And to wrap up the day, I saw a production of Cyrano de Bergerac that was really, really good! The play was followed by some amazing pesto pasta and a dessert called profiteroles (ice cream inside of a croissant-like pastry with fudge drizzled on top). I also attempted to wear those awesome shoes and I would have been fine except I had to walk about half a mile at once (we walked from street number 15 to 85). Luckily another girl on the trip was kind enough to change shoes with me for the way back! I'll be paying her back in wine.