I just transfered to Asnières, another suburban area of Paris. It’s in north of Paris, by the Siene River. My high school group just left Paris this past afternoon. Before I go into details, I need to say that AOL is the most selfish internet service. I CANNOT access a single email account, NOT GMAIL, NOT HOTMAIL, NOT SCAD, NOT COMCAST…NOTHING…therefore, my blog will be my only means of communication with my family and my friends until I go to Bayonne on July 9th. (Mom, you’ll have to write me messages on here. Just click on COMMENT, but you’ll need to register first.)

Asnières is a very pretty busy town. I just took a tour and there are millions of parks! It’s really nice to see people relaxing on the lavishing green lawns. There is even a park reserved for children! There are millions of children there, just playing wildly and having fun. My friend asked me if there are any in Atlanta and of course, there are, but FAR from my house. Where I live, everybody has a backyard where as in Paris, most people, even upper middle classes live in apartments. Therefore, parks can be very usable for people who live in appartments. Houses are very rare in Paris because the city is not spacious at all like Atlanta and in most part of US. The houses that exist in Paris are VERY petite – nothing compared to US! They’re about 4 times smaller than a normal sized house in Atlanta. Houses in US are so big that foreigners think we’re rich! United States is obviously materialistic. One good example – in most american homes, every family member has their own computer and perhaps a television in their bedrooms. In french homes, there are only one computer for the whole family and one TV with no cable box that has 300 channels! Families, here in France, don’t want people, especially children to lose the love for the wonderful litterature books and other past-times such as painting and playing board games. I played quite a few board games with my last host family. I really do miss my last host family already! They were the most exceptional and wonderful host family that I have stayed with. They took me to fabulous excurisions such as Vaut le Vicomte, Château de Chantilly, Châteaubriand Maison, and the movie theater to see Marie Antoinette. Their family dinner times will always be remembered – the mother is a phenomenal chef who made a wondeful quiche, a soufflé, an omelette, crêpes, and many others that I can name. They were just a lovely and a warming family, especially the girls, and we’ll definitely keep in touch.

After a year and a half of writing letters to my french penpal in Asnières, Christophe, I have finally met him for the first time! I actually already met him last Tuesday night for dinner since my dad was in Paris and he wanted to meet his parents. Christophe is a very nice and a sweet person. I will certainly continue to enjoy my french trip with him and his family. I am going to Normandy this weekend. Therefore, don’t expect to hear from me this weekend since I might not have internet access!