2013–Happy New Year!!

     In America we say "Happy New Year!, in France they shout "Bonne Année!" for Sylvestre (New Years) to as many people as possible. For the second year in a row, I was in Paris for the new year and it was a blast! I was already in Paris for a young adults conference, Muchan. I had made a diverse group of friends including people from Israel, Switzerland, Holland, and France. We spent New Years eve at Trocadéro, near the Eiffel tower. It was such a fun and dangerous experience! The Paris metro was free of charge for the night, in other words, it was busy beyond capacity. At Trocadéro, we climbed atop the roof of an unknown building which had pyramidal metal grates for a roof, that if they had broken, I was later informed we would have fallen 20 meters! Thank God they did not break. At midnight, the Eiffel tower, which was decorated for the night, lit up with thousands of twinkling white lights and a few fireworks were set off. We had brought with us several bottles of Champagne which we uncorked at midnight and we drank several glasses to celebrate. Atop this roof, we met Gio, a doctor from Italy who was in Paris for New Years, he joined our group for the rest of the night (and morning).

     At the time of this post, I am sitting at a Starbucks in London near the Kings-Cross/St Pancras train station. Since the "Bux" offers free internet, I have, for the first time this trip, had ample time to respond to my e-mails, Facebook, and put some thoughts together for this entry. London will be my home for the next four days until I return to Paris to begin orientation for my study abroad. I am ready to be done with this writing and get about town a bit. So, here I go. Until next time. Mind the gap!