An American in Paris

Last week, my friend Tiphanie and I went to Paris for the day. We woke up at 5 A.M. in order to catch the TGV (high-speed train) at 6:22 A.M. The TGV is really fast--we arrived in Paris a little after 9 A.M.! Tiphanie's friend from Truman, Maricruz, was visiting La Ville-Lumière (The City of Light) for a couple of days with her friend and cousin, so Tiphanie and I went to meet up with them. Our group was very multicultural--we represented France, Mexico, and the United States!

We spent the day visiting the sights of Paris: Le Louvre, Champs-Élysées, Arc de Triomphe,

Tour Eiffel, Montmarte, Sacre Coeur, and Notre Dame. It was fun! As you can tell from the pictures, the weather wasn't great. We spent the majority of the day fighting to keep our umbrellas from turning inside out.

By far, the most exciting event of the day occurred when we were near the Arc de Triomphe. We were standing around trying to find a metro station when we noticed a camera crew filming with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. Maricruz, Jorge, and July started freaking out--the camera crew was from Azteca TV, the biggest television network in Mexico (and equivalent to CNN in the United States). The correspondent was reporting a segment about France, as the France-Mexico game of the World Cup was that evening. In fact, Maricruz, Jorge, and July had all worn Mexican jerseys

while sightseeing around Paris that day. The reporter interviewed them about the game and who they expected to win (Mexico, of course). He then interviewed Tiphanie about who she thought would win (tough, because she is French but she was with her Mexican friends. Oh and also because the Mexican team is really good). Finally he asked me what I thought. "I don't really care, I'm American. We don't like soccer. I want France to win." I replied. Ooops. Only afterwards did I realize how dumb I sounded! Oh well, hopefully the reporter edited my thirty second segment out before the broadcast aired all over Mexico...