ahh Paris!

greetings friends and loving family members. thank you for your comments. disclaimer: please note that sucking up to jonathan or sara will not necessarily get you gifts from abroad.

although i am writing this from spain, i feel the need to comment on our first parisian moments. we were reintroduced to the west during one glorious moment on the plane: dinner. now, i know what you´re thinking: plane food = toxic waste, however you would be mistaken. in this instance, the airplane food was amazing. what says "home" better than fresh vegetables, dairy products, and a fork! i was so excited that i even wrote a song about cheese....and no i´m not going to sing it to you. instead, i will tell you about our first 2 days in paris.

we spent the first day in paris recovering from our jet lag and addressing jonathan´s broken arm situation (he will explain the full story on how he broke his arm in another post). although i am thankful for the medical care he received in China, i questioned their cast application techniques so i thought we needed a second opinion.

we were directed to said hospital by the hotel staff. we should have known it was suspect when they said "i think it´s a good hospital." i checked jonathan into the ER after finally figuring out how to tell the story in my rusty french. we waited for about 3 hours to see the doctor, but oh what an entertaining 3 hours it was.

hour 1 i will call "crazy man with yellow pants". being that we were in a downtown, local hospital i should have know that it would draw the local crazies. the man with the yellow pants is aptly named as he was wearing banana yellow parachute pants circa1985. in the beginning he was doing benign things like making kissy faces at a korean women through the waiting room window. later, he started blowing bubbles (yes, he was carrying a bottle of bubbles). but the fun was just beginning.

hour 2 i will call "crazy man with yellow pants meets crazy man with surgical mask". crazy man with yellow pants was funny, but my harry potter book was more entertaining...that was until a crazy man wearing a surgical mask stormed through the waiting room, screamed at the top of his lungs in french, and then threw his shoes at crazy man with yellow pants. i must say that psychotic people sound much more pleasant when they rant in french. i digress. crazy man with yellow pants thought it would be a good idea to take off his own shoes, put on the "new" shoes, and wear his own shoes hanging around his neck sort of like mittens. this was funny.

hour 3 i will call "flashlight magic". crazy man with yellow pants had 2 pairs of shoes and must have decided that crazy man with surgical mask had some more goodies. he left and later returned with the surgical mask and a muffin. he dropped the muffin on the floor, but then after frowning he got an idea. he reached into his pocket, produced a keychain flashlight, and waved the flashlight over the muffin. he also used his magical flashlight to "open" and "close" the automatic doors to the ER for everyone who exited and entered. i think that some people decided their ailments weren´t worth passing crazy man in yellow pants. they went home. it was priceless.

so after this show we finally saw the doctor. she spoke a little english, took one look at the Xray from China and said, "I do not think is broken. Is sprained." so we left. and thanks to the French government, the visit was free! we didn´t have to fill out a form or pay a thing! cheese, forks, crazy people in yellow pants - i think i´m starting to like it here....vive la France!