Paris, I am on my way! I boarded my plane to Paris Tuesday afternoon. Of course I went to Basic Training in the morning and when I got there, Michael said “And because Sue will be gone for such a long time, I thought we do a special workout today…the beach!” Awesome…beach workouts are usually the hardest…and to make me remember it even longer, we had to run to the beach carrying a 10 lbs medicine ball. Everyone was like “Thanks, Sue…!” but hey, it wasn’t my idea! I can’t believe that I will be without Basic Training for the next 2.5 weeks, that makes me really sad. When the class was over, I got so many hugs, made me very happy. I will miss you guys!
At SFO, I had to wait for more than 1h to check my luggage and when I finally got to security, they picked me to go through the “body scan”. Great! So I am standing in this glass thing, raising my arms, it scans, then he calls his co-worker, they scan again, then they have a really ridiculous smile on their face…it was really awkward. As this little glass chamber opens again he said “You are good.” Aha, thanks. I am sure he meant “good to go”… That was a very bizarre experience. I always thought I don’t mind the body scan but I think I have changed my mind. I flew Air France for the first time. Since this blog is also about food, I highly recommend bringing your own food when flying Air France economy…it was worse than expected. Well, but I have to say I usually hate it when people complain about food on the plane because everyone knows that it is not good in general – after all it’s transportation, not a restaurant… I slept at least 6h on the plane (thanks, beach workout!) and didn’t feel too tired when I arrived in France. 
It took me almost 2h to get my luggage and finally get to the bed & breakfast that I have booked. It was in Montmartre and it was a really nice place and area. Also, it was the only room I could afford in Paris, it is ridiculous how much hotels charge in Paris for 1 night ($300-400 on average for 2 or 3 stars). Since it was only 2 pm by the time I checked in, I decided to walk to Sacre Coeur and to the Cimitière de Montmarte. On this cemetery, there are many famous artists burried; poets, writers and composers, like Emile Zola and Jaques Offenbach. I realized that my style was completely inappropriate for Paris, I felt a little bit stupid. People asked me if I am American before I even started talking…! Is that what happened to me over the past 3.5 years? Don’t get me wrong, I love California and there is nothing wrong with looking American, but I always thought I haven’t changed that much really. And I didn’t even wear my “Marina-sweat pants outfit”… :) Two french guys passing me on the street invited me to have coffee with them, a third guy invited me to “Moulin Rouge”… Clearly, I was showing too much cleavage - at least compared to all those elegant French women! 
I guess my boot cut-hippy jeans with holes in it and the sunglasses in my hair didn’t help either, but for my excuse, I just came off a 12h flight and I wasn’t in the mood to make an effort to look stylish at that point, I was just tired. One guy started talking to me and told me how beautiful and elegant my American look was… that was so ridiculous considering how awesome the French women surrounding me were dressed. I felt really silly. In all those cases, I was very suspicious so I kept running…no coffee, no Moulin Rouge, no small talk. But the bottom line is, that if you want free coffee with a weirdo, you have to go to Paris and dress the “American way”… Sorry America for representing you as a German in France in such a bad way, I apologize. 
I bought an amazing “pain aux raisins” and of course I also bought a baguette with ham and cheese on my way home. So simple but yet sooo tasty! Yumm! I fell asleep at 7 pm, I was really tired.
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