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April 4, 2002, 1220 hrs I woke about 40 minutes ago. Slept 13 hrs after watching Liverpool win their soccer match on my hotel TV. Needless to say, that somewhat screws up my schedule. I had planned to go up La Tour Eiffel today (never done it before). Perhaps at sunset or first thing in the morning tomorrow. My plans for the day include getting a Carte Orange (for the metro) and visiting L'Alliance Francaise to check on my class scheduling and find out where I'm going to be living for the next month. Let's hope all goes well (I feel fairly confident because I have the all-important French documentation!). CNN is giving details on how Palestine is on the verge of exploding. Seems a lot closer from here and I wonder if there is as much focus on it in the States. I still fail to understand the French love of the Arab world and the dichotomy between this obession and their xenophobic regard of Arab workers in France. Add in the "use" they have for these workers (they clean the streets, do the laundry, and seem to work in many of the stores) and I'm totally confused. I think if they didn't speak French (albeit probably with a significant accent) they wouldn't get anywhere here. Dinner last night was at a lovely restaurant called '7eme Sud'. Ate in the basement surrounded by French yuppies and some more adventuresome tourists (CNN reports that the Israelis are storming the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, seems like a mistake to me). Had a really nice Crostini and a Salade Provencale. I'm sure that there was some prosciutto in there but I didn't look too closely (for those of you who know me, I don't really like pork). I ended up exchanging tables with four French women who were crowded at a two-seater to comments of "vous etes tres gentiles". Very nice. Good food. Pretty much kept within the Atkins fold, except for a lovely dessert of "fondant au chocolat" - which was great. Woke up hungry which I didn't expect - worried that I'm moving back to a carbohdyrate driven existence - but then realized maybe it's the fourteen or so hours since I've last eaten. The French still don't understand showers (or maybe we just don't accept their different use). As you can see from my photos of the bathroom, there is no door to the shower (and this is typical). So the floor in the bathroom promptly gets soaked in a ten-minute shower, in spite of all efforts to the contrary. Well, at least I feel clean. (Just heard another accident in the street below, this is really convincing me that owning a car in Paris could be a mistake. Now, a bike strikes me as a great idea though). Well, off to breakfast, the metro and a visit to Alliance Francaise.

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