Friday, January 21, 2011

Paris!

Oui Oui, it's true, I'm in Paris! I can't even believe it myself. The city is beautiful, of course, even though it's a little cloudy and freezing. I've been hanging out with my friend Heidi for the past couple of days and we've been having fun exploring the city. It seems like everywhere you turn there is something else to see. I wish we had more buildings and architecture like this in the states. And she's taught me how to navigate the metro, so I'm pretty unstoppable.... Except for French. It's hard and I don't speak ANY! no exaggeration there.... Well I lied, I can say 2 phrases "I don't speak French" and "ferme la Bouche" which means shut your mouth. Unfortunately I haven't had the pleasure of using that...I've literally been getting around using Arabic and Spanish when English wasn't an option.

Yesterday we toured around the Sacre Couer - one of my favorite areas of Paris. It's right by my hostel which is nice. We also saw the Moulin Rouge... Not too exciting during the day. Notre Dame was beautiful of course, and I'm excited to visit tomorrow to see the gargoyles up close :). We also got some delicious croissants and ate them near the river. So French.

Today (after waking up disastrously late due to many factors including jetlag, noisy roommates and an alarm with the wrong time on it) we headed over to the mosque in Paris for Jummah. It was beautiful and I realized that this was the first time I've actually prayed in a mosque in Europe. Some things are universal like talking during the khutbah and cramming people in like sardines. But I did feel very welcome there. The khutbah was in Arabic whith some French thrown in which was nice. It's so comforting to know that I can go to Mosques all over the world and I can still pray with them :) subhanallah. After we left we went around the montparnosse (sp?) cemetery. Always a good reminder of our precious time here on earth. It was beautiful and extravagant . We ended the night at the Eiffel tower watching the lights sparkle... So nice.

And now it's not too late , but I'm back at the hostel chilling in the lobby. Why am I not out exploring? It's freezing and it gets dark here so early so it kinda sucks. But Alhamdulillah tomorrow is another day to explore and eat more carbs and go shopping. Too bad i'm kinda shy, but i'm trying to make friends here... Or at least talk to someone. Maybe if i get off my ipod and interact with people that would help. Au revoir!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paris....really Paris..u didn't even ask me if i wanted to go....this is the only thing i remember from my french class.. "où est la salle de bains?" use it well Suzanne..

--Hagi

LailaZK said...

Lol at Hagi. You're very well-written mA Suzie Q. Have fun and be safe!!

Suzanne said...

Hagiiiiiii lol. I have no idea what that means... Where is something? Next time I'll tell you when I'm going.
Thanks Laila :)

Anonymous said...

oh yaaaa its suzanne being an attention whore once again

Suzanne said...

Oh Yaaay it's Layla being a hater like always.