Paris, the City of Lights

So, I did finally make it, after a brief stop in DC. I spent the night at Staci's, then Staci, Seth and my cousin Camille went to IKEA. There was an incident involving a jeep, some root beer, and an oversized mirror. It will go down in the history books as one of the more ridiculous things the elder Wheeler's concocted. That's enough about that....

I made it to my flight on time, but left my phone in Seth's car, so wasn't able to make any more last minute phone calls. Sorry to those who I had hoped to call.

France is shockingly like Spain. That was the biggest surprize when I started wandering down the enchanted little streets. Except, I don't understand a word they say here... but life goes on. I am living with a French family (mom, dad and a 19 year old son) about 40 minutes out of downtown Paris, in the burbs. It's pretty quiet. They speak English, so if there's an emergency, they could help, but they only speak to me in French so I can practice. I told them it's a great idea. It's actually quite lovely here. I can see the starts. Orion's overhead right now. Kinda makes me feel like it's a small world.

I've got about 20 minutes of sleep in the past 33 hours, though (as luck would have it, I bought "Charlie Wilson's War" minutes before boarding my flight to Chicago, and was so entranced by it I only put it down when they announced that we were about to begin descending into Paris... and that I had already spent my whole 6 hour flight reading. My biggest regret is that I stopped reading to try to take a nap.... Until next time.

Jeff