I got soul but I'm not a soldier....

The past couple of weeks has been filled with excited things. I went to a soccer game at the French stadium (France vs. Austria). France won 3-1!!!

I also went to several museums including the Louvre, and Musee d'Orsay. Apparently if you spent 3 minutes on each piece of art work in the Louvre, it take you several months to get through everything. Needless to say, I did not get through everything. Not even close. However, what I did see was very impressive. Actually, the least impressive thing I saw may have been the Mona Lisa. You can only get as close as 15 feet away, and when you do, there is so much glass around it that you can't really get a good look at the painting. Bummer.

I do have good news though! I solved the Da Vinci Code...I looked at his paintings and realized that Tom Hanks was right. Da Vinci was trying to tell us something, the figures in his art were pointing me in the direction to solve the mystery of life. I followed the clues and ended up in....drum roll please......the womens restroom. I was confused too but at least I solved the mystery.

This weekend was the Nike+ Human Race 10k!!!!!! I woke up early on saturday and journeyed all the way across Paris to the Jardin d'Acclimatation and the Bois de Boulogne to run 10 kilometers. It was a tough run but I managed to get 3rd place! I know, I know, 3rd place is not that exciting and many of you might even consider 3rd place to be the second loser. Nevertheless, as I write this I am looking at the finish line banner which they let me take home as a souvenir. It says "arrivee" which, at the time of race meant, "Alex when you reach me you can lie down and eat this free apple sauce they are going to give you." So I kept on running and finished about 8 seconds behind 1st place.

That night me and my 2 friends Matt and Laura, who were visiting for the weekend from Limerick and Rome, respectively, went to Sacre-Coeur. Sacre-Coeur is a beautiful church that overlooks the city. Many people go there to hang out or drink wine. There are always people playing music there and it's a great place to get a good view of Paris. Today I went for a run and decided to run toward the Sacre-Coeur to get a look at  it during the day for a change. After running up the 300 hundred or however many stairs there are, I wanted nothing more than to lie down in the grass and look out over my new city. Unfortunately my legs had other plans and I almost collapsed while walking toward the grass that I had chosen. Instead I enjoyed the view and the music from a concrete ledge by the church. Still not half bad.

I just can't wait to be king...

Ooook I haven't been able to update this as much as I wanted to but oh well.

The weekend before last I went to Brussels, Belgium with a friend from school. As soon as I arrived I realized that my goal of not eating anymore waffles would have to be postponed. They are too delicious.

We arrived in Brussels Thursday night and met up with Jan, a guy from couch surfing who said we could stay with him for a night. He took us to a place called the Kulture Kafe on a college campus. It was neat because they had a live band playing. Afterward, we dropped off our bags at Jan's apartment and went to a club near the campus. It was an abandoned warehouse really, but the drinks were only 1 euro! My friend Wade and I met a bunch of Jan's friends and danced the night away.
The next day we said our goodbyes to Jan and gave ourselves a tour of the city. We stumbled upon a fantastic waffle house and enjoyed our first taste of belgian chocolate. We also stumbled upon the Grand Place, which we learned was basically the most famous place in Belgium, le Mannekan Pis, Le Palais Royal, Mini-Europe and the Atomium, and a miniature version of Oktoberfest that Brussels hosts every 2 years for one weekend. Yes I know, we got lucky.

We stayed in hostels the other 2 nights and met a wide variety of people. One girl named Lavinia, mentioned an amazing cafe/bar called Delirium Cafe, and another guy named Geoffrey took us there! The cafe has over 400 different kinds of beer and a great atmosphere.

For some reason on Saturday we decided it would be a good idea to get haircuts. After failing miserably to communicate what kind of haircut I wanted to the barber, I pointed to a picture of Barack Obama I saw in a magazine. The barber became very excited as if he had been given the mission of a life time. When he was done he yanked off my blanket, flicked it in the air and yelled "VOILA! Obama!"

The last day of our trip we gave 2 guys a tour of Brussels (because we knew it so well), and somehow we missed our train. There actually is a reason but I won't get into it now. We had to pay 17 euros to get a different train though :(

So basically what I'm trying to tell is:
If you love chocolate, if you love waffles, if you love cool looking buildings with lots of history, and most definitely if you love beer, go to Brussles. Now.

Some days I wake up Laughing...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Everything is going by so quickly and it feels like I updated this yesterday.

Last weekend I went to a concert, it was amazing. A few weekends ago I did community service through that program I told you about, Orange Rockcorps, and this weekend it paid off! I got to see David Guetta, Akon, Kelly Rowland, Busta Rhymes, and 2 french artists, Razor Light, and Sefyu. The concert was at the Zenith center in northeast Paris. I went with Jamal and my host brother and had a great time!

The next day, saturday, was Nuit Blanche. I mentioned this in another post but just to remind you. Nuit Blanche translates to "white night," and for us americans it means an all-nighter. This time however everyone in Paris had a nuit blanche (www.nuitblanche2009.com). All the museums were open all night to accompany the multiple events taking place all around the city. My friend Wade and I went to the Gardens of Luxembourg where we found the biggest disco ball in the world. It was the size of a small mansion and suspended over a lake by a crane. There was a substantial line just to get into the gardens but Wade and I somehow found a way in.....anyway the gardens were full of dancing people wondering how they made Pluto look like a disco ball.

I got home at 8 in the morning and slept until my host family woke me up for lunch.

I know it's not New Years yet, but on Sunday I made 3 different resolutions.
1. No more nutella covered waffles. They are deliciously delicious but each one comes with about 5, 000 calories and I don't have the money or the metabolism to sustain my eating habits of the past few weeks for much longer.

2. I will run everyday to get back in shape for the Nike+ Human Race 10k...

3. Study! I need to study and get ahead so that I can continue travel around and enjoy myself without worrying about my world crashing down when my plane touches down in the States at the end of January.

Now then, today is Wednesday! I've run everyday so far, I have been studying and reading ahead....but I've also eaten a waffle every day this week...and one had caramel on it too....amazing. I think I'm going to find a support group to help me with this addiction. Waffle Addicts Anonymous anyone?? With the internet as my witness, starting now I will be waffle sober! So long as the powdered sugar was actually powdered sugar and not some other highly addictive powdery substance...I should be able to quit cold turkey without waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat...

Also, FYI, I have booked trips to Brussels, Belgium and Stockholm, Sweden...kind of random I know, it was a spur of the moment thing. But 20 euros roundtrip from Paris to Sweden? Who would pass that up? Not this guy.

On that note I must go study and run before dinner. I bid you adieu!