Oceans Aren't that Wide: The Week To Come, the Weekend that was...

My friend since the 3rd grade, Nick Andriano, is coming into Paris from Granada tomorrow. Hopefully this will finally provide the impetus for me to head out and do some legitimate sight-seeing. When you live full time in a city, you just really don't get around to seeing things. That, my friends, is what we call "as shame." So I will hopefully be going to Arc de Triumph, Hotel de Invalides, and maybe Notre Dame again.

I went on a long run (13.2 miles) out of Paris into the eastern park. It was quite a remarkable run. For the first time in a long time I felt at peace with my self just moving at a comfortable glide through the forests. And to some extent, I think that's the experience I'm having this entire trip. I'm at peace with myself a little more, and I feel like a ghost, just observing the world as I pass through it with absolute wonder. The sky remains the same, but here on earth where we simply look out and observe there is a unique shape and movement to things.

The other day I spent four hours talking to my conversation leader (who is a local paid by the University to show us French culture) outside of a French bar. The cobbled stone streets and neatly packed apartments peppered with churches and monuments really screamed the post-card Paris I never realized actually existed. Sipping on wine and just talking about how different our countries were- it was an amazingly human experience. We all call wildly different places home and yet we can all communicate in a remarkably easy fashion once we take the time to lower the barriers that have been put up before us.

And now some pictures from Bacharach and Frankfurt. Don't worry, Kate and I are making a larger photo albumn soon. This is just a preview