PARALYSIS

I'm so glad I'm getting to enjoy all those flowers they planted last week.

One-armed snowman that a five year old in my building made.

Christmas lights on my street.

My town doesn't need a real Christmas tree because it has this awesome fake one made out of lights.

"Let's build the New Anti-Capitalist Party together." I wish stuff like this happened in the US.

Here is a picture of the most delicious meal I have had in France so far:

Flowers vs. Snow.

This kid looks exactly like I did when I was learning to ski. In 1990. Ski fashion was definitely more awesome back then. I guess France has realized this and decided to never let the one-piece snowsuit die.

Graffiti and old women's coats are the only colorful things in Paris. Besides the 80 million Christmas lights.

Ancient ruins in the middle of downtown. There's also an ancient gladiator fighting arena. Now it's just filled with ancient dudes playing petanque. They are so ancient that they use magnets on strings to pick up their balls because they no longer have the ability to bend over.

Claustrophobia.

I feel like I take pictures of this thing every time I walk by it.

Pioneer Square's tree is totally bigger.

Rive Gauche. Actually I have no idea which rive this is. I always get mixed up because the river runs pretty much horizontal through downtown so it is not obvious which side is right and which is left. I think North is right. I don't know. My dad probably does. He knows Paris better than I do even though I'm the one that lives here.

Ile Saint Louis.

I think there were more cops at this march than protesters.

A bear trying to sell me deodorant.

Santa trying to sell me ballet slippers.

The cops totally shot tear gas at that tiny protest.

I was really tempted to steal this lion's cookie for myself but I didn't want to look like a greedy American.

Church.

You can take lessons in Coffeeology at this place.

Proving to my mom that although I still haven't been to the Louvre I still look at art:

Honestly I was going to go to the Louvre today but then it was snowing and I got distracted and...

the line to get in to the Louvre is outside. That is just inhumane. I mean there was a blizzard today. I will try to make myself go this weekend. I mean I really want to go. I just hate lines.

And blizzards.

Street art. In case the free photography museum across the street is not accessible and real enough for the general public.

You don't have to put up your own Christmas decorations here because they are provided as a public service.

Super goth kid on the metro's shoe.

"It rarely snows in Paris" my ass.

It snowed so much today that I bought a new coat.

It snowed so much today that THEY TOOK DOWN THE MERRY-GO-ROUND. Looks like I will have to find a new spot to hang out and make friends after school.

The dude at this crappy internet cafe totally laughed at me when I asked if I could print from the computers which in French came out "Can I print computers?" and he was like nonono you mean "Can I print pages from computers?" which sounds ridiculous in English which is why it was not my first choice of phrasing for this question. Whatever Mr. Semantics, who the crap names their business Cyber Eden, anyways? It sounds like a sexy chat room for Adam and Eve.

It snowed so much today that all the cars trying to drive up this hill near my house got stuck because none of them had chains or studded tires.

Two buses full of police officers showed up I guess to survey the shenanigans. They weren't really helping, they were just supervising good samaritans in their efforts to get the cars unstuck. I guess everyone probably felt safer and less at risk of being attacked by terrorists during their car crises because of the police presence.

Pretty.

Neighborhood kids building a snowman that could kick the first one's ass.

TWO of my upstairs neighbors got the genius idea of buying fake Santas and hanging them out their windows. I guess they got tired of their kids asking how Santa was going to get in to leave them presents if they don't have a chimney.

Nerds.

Holy crap there is so much snow. According to the internet it hasn't snowed this much (11 cm) in Paris since the year I was born (1987). 11 cm is 4.3 inches. That doesn't seem like very much but I guess it is when you have no way of getting rid of it except salt. I tried to look up how to get somewhere on the metro website and I just got this screen that told me that the transit system was paralyzed because of the snow. Then when I was trying to look up how much it snowed I just got the headline "SNOW PARALYZES ILE DE FRANCE" (the department of France that I live in). Everything and everyone is paralyzed in France. 11 cm of snow has caused the end of days. My roommate was concerned that Tom wouldn't be able to make it here for Christmas because of the snow. I was like dude his flight doesn't leave until 2 weeks from today I think it will be ok. He did not seem convinced. I hope Tom's airline didn't cancel his flight because they are anticipating that it will take Paris more than 2 weeks to get rid of the snow.