Paris with CJ, Dan and Steve

It sure was nice to have CJ Dan and Steve-o over for a few days. It gave me the chance to do a bunch of touristy things I haven't done in a long time. Of course because I was doing the training at the Peace and Love, I only got to spend one entire day with them. The first night they got here I was training at the bar so they came to hang out at the bar. They played drinking Jenga, which is really cool because Cj's heard so much about the Peace and Love drinking jenga that he was pretty excited to FINALLY see what the whole fuss was about. Drinking jenga is just like a regular Jenga game except that on the pieces of wood, there are things to do. "All drink" "If you are a girl drink" "If you are from Canada drink" "USA drinks" "If you have dark hair drink" etc..... basically a game to get you good and drunk!! :) After my shift was over we went home and we all crammed into my small apt (That just reminds me I havent posted pictures of my new apt yet... I will do that soon). It is quite impressive that we were able to all fit into this small apt!! But we managed. The next morning was the touristy day. We went to the Arc de Triumph, Champs Elysees, Place de la Concorde, Louvre, Jardin des Tuileries, the 2 palaces, Trocadero, Eiffel Tower.. wow wow wowwwww!!! IT WAS SO MUCH FUN and the weather was sooo perfect!!! I would say it was a perfect day. It just reminded me how fantastic Paris is and it made me LOVE Paris all over again. Not that I didn't love it anymore but its refreshing to go back to all the beauty sites Paris has to offer!!!! :) I am glad I went with them!!! That night I did more bar training and the guys went out to other bars. The next day I was training for the day shift, the evening shift and the night shift.... So I basically spent from 1 pm to 9 am at the Peace and Love and I was not tired one bit just because it is so much fun. It is NEVER boring at the Peace and Love! EVER!
The guys went to see the catacombs and Versailles Castle. They seemed to have a good time. The next morning they came to see me at the Peace and Love at 6 right before walking to Gare du Nord to catch their train to Germany. NOW I was really sad to see them go because I don't even know when I will see them next. I will definitely have to go to New Jersey to see them when I get back!!! Them and all my other friends from the states!!

Here are a few pictures


Dan (left) CJ (middle) Steve-o (right) KICK ASS AMERICANS!

Peace and Love Crew..!!

The louvre.. because its just so beautiful!

And again...

and again....

Way awesome picture of us standing undre the eiffel tower!

Sometimes I forget that I am in France until I see a France flag. It always makes me feel warm inside when i see one of them!

Eiffel tower.. again.. because its just THAT beautiful!

Awesome picture of the Eiffel tower!

So I don't know what time the sun sets back home, but right now it is 22:34 and it is still light out. Its quite incredible.. a lot of fun except that I should go to bed because I work very early... but it is hard to go to bed when it is still light outside. I feel like I should be outside doing something!

oh... R.I.P Michael Jackson. I still can't believe it. Each time I think about it I still get goosebumps.. :(
Hope all is well!

Much love to everyone!!

Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM!!!!
I had so much fun!!! It felt so good to leave even if it was just for 3 days. Everyone is so stressed out and in a hurry in Paris that it felt good to be somewhere calm where everyone rides there bike like there is not one worry in the world!!!!
I got to Amsterdam on Thursday morning and was suppose to meet up with my friend CJ and his 2 friends, Steve and Dan, but finally their plane only arrived Friday morning, so I spent the day walking around. I visited the Amsterdam History Museum thinking it would be so interesting. BOY was I wrong. It was so boring that I was falling asleep while walking. It was more of an art museum than anything else. I thought it would be very interesting seeing as Amsterdam has so much WWII history. Wow, what a disappointment! I did a 3 floor exhibition in 30 mins. I then went back to my hostel to find out that I was alone in an 8 bed bedroom. I was a little bummed because I was hoping to meet people and hang out with them so I wouldn't be alone all night long. I ended up going to the little bar at my hostel and talking with a guy from Australia for a few hours and then a Canadian guy joined our conversation. It was a lot of fun. A lot of interesting conversations. We had a few beers.... ok a lot of beers... so much that I will skip ahead til the next morning..........
So I woke up on Friday morning around 11 am. I right away went to meet up with Cj and his friends. It sure was nice to see CJ again. I hadn't seen him since October. It was great great great! It was also VERY nice to meet his 2 friends, Dan and Steve. Like CJ, they are reallly awesome. People that are way too much fun to hang out with, just like every other American that I know. After dropping their things at their hostel, we went to the Heineken Experience. It was a lot different then the last time I went, 2 years ago with Mimi. It is such an interesting museum, very interactive and informative. We spent atleast 2 hours there just because there is SOOO much to see, to read, to do, to watch. After that we went to have some food and we hung out around town until it got dark and then we went to the red light district. The red light district.. is the red light district.. you walk the street once and you are done. There is not much more to do... unless you know.... and well NOPE... not for me... thanx butno thanx ;) We continued walking around Amsterdam then called it an early night because they were jet lagged.. and I was still a little hung over... ;)
The next day we went to the Amsterdam Dungeon. That is a sort of museum that explains the dark and horrible history of Amsterdam in a live, interactive show. IT IS SO AWESOME!!! They do a really good job scaring the crap out of you!! Wow! That lasted quite a while also. After that we did some more walking and CJ and I went to have lunch so we could catch up. It was nice to have some alone time with CJ!!! Talking about the time he came to visit me in Montreal, the time I visited him in the states, about hockey.. (Go Habs go). I unfortunately had to leave right after because I had a train to catch at 4:20. So I gathered my stuff and went to say bye to Dan and Steve. Although it was sad to say bye, it was nice to know that in a few days they would be coming to stay with me in Paris!!!
I was sooooo tired that I slept the ENTIRE train ride... I mean the ENTIRE!!!!!! When I got home my roomate was there so I got to tell him all about my trip. I am so lucky to have a roomate like Jesper! I wish I would have moved in with him before!!! I will be sad when he leaves at the end of July! :(
So here are a few pictures.



Alright so because this is my third time in Amsterdam, I did not take any scenary pictures because I pretty much saw it all, therefore the following 2 pictures were taken by CJ. This is at Vondel Park.

Another picture by CJ.

Me and 007 at the Heinken Museum!

So these are my boys Dan (left) Steve (Middle) and CJ (right) in front of the Heineken Museum! A LOT of fun!!!

F.Y.I.... I got my computer fixed. I went to a store called the FNAC which specializes in electronics and I was able to buy a new wire for my computer. It DID cost me 100 euros... but its an adapter that is good for ALL computers as it has different plugs that fit all types of computers .It also has a USB plug to charge my IPOD.... so.. I guess its not bad. Anyways its better than buying a new computer and it was very useful for my roomate as his wire was also messed up and because I had all the different plugs, I was able to find the plug to fit his computer.. saved him quite a bit of money!!! :)

The guy who works 5 days a week at my job decided that he would quit and not tell anyone.... so now I have to do the following 2 weeks non stop, until the new guys starts. Which is not that bad because next week my boss will not be there. She is going on vacation and leaving me the responsibility of doing all the planning for the rooms. It seems like she really trusts me now.... as opposed to before where she didnt want me to work one day alone. haha! I also started working at the Peace and Love hostel. Inititally I was working 1 day shit, 1 night shift at the bar and 2 sleeping shifts. But because the Peace and Love and the Friends hostel are hostels that belong to one family, the boss at the peace and love asked me if i could do him a favoir and help out his mother and do the following 2 weeks at Friends Hostel. Because I want to work at his hostel, the Peace and Love so bad... I kind of felt like I had no choice but to say yes. So I work the next 2 weeks and then I will go back to working atleast 1 or 2 shifts at the Peace and love hostel and 4 or 5 shifts at the friends hostel. It will be awesome. As long as I can do one shift at the Peace and Love hostel so I can stay on the pay role... hopefully one day they will ask me to do more when the situation at friends hostel is better. I am kind of excited about the following 2 weeks.... just because I will make so much money!!!! She doesn't really bother me all that much anymore because i'm meeting sooo many interesting people at this hostel that it makes up for her being a total bi^&h.... hehehe!!!

Apart from that all is well. Today it was 35 degrees in Paris. It was so warm.. so nice!! Too bad I was stuck inside working. People would come in the hostel and I thought they had just went for a swim. With their big backpacks... it has to be wayyy warm.

I hope that the weather is as nice back home as it is here. I hope that everyone is doing good!! I also hope that some of you are planning on coming to come and visit me!! :)

Love you!!!

Gen

Kaiserslautern

Hey gang!

So things are finally starting to happen. I have started to do a little bit of travelling and it is exciting!!

Last Wednesday after work, I got on Facebook and my friend Tyler was on the chat so we started talking. Tyler is in the US Army and is currently stationed in Germany for the next few years. Once we found out that we were going to be so close to one another (France, Germany) we said we would visit each other. So as we were talking, he told me he had a 4 day weekend pass and that if I wanted to come visit soon, I should this weekend because after that he is going away to Eastern Germany for some sort of Army training for an entire month. So i got off the computer went to buy my ticket and the  next morning I was off to Germany. The train ride took 2 hours and a half and I arrived in Kaiserslautern. Then I had to take a little train to Miesau which is where the military base is at.

It was really nice to see Tyler again and it was very exciting to hang out in a Military base. I had really no idea what to expect and wow it is interesting. As soon as you cross the main gate, its like you are in a different world. There are little shops here and there, a library, basketball and soccer fields, a barber etc its like you enter a new city but where people are all wearing army gears. EXCITING!

So for me to be able to stay there, I had to check in at the main gate. They kept my passport and in return they gave me a visitors pass. After 24 hours I had to check out (Very important, we were a few mins late and the guy at the gate gave us crap because of it.. he told Tyler if it happens again he could loose his sign in privilage for a month.... STRICT IN THE ARMY..hehe) Once I check out, I can check right back in.

So the first night we hung out in his room with a few of his friends. The room is HUGE! Again I didnt know what to expect, but its huge!!!!!! Bigger than my entire apt. Tyler is sharing a room with a guy named Fred but some people have this gigantic room all to themselves. It was well equipped with a flat screen tv, a play station, plenty of movies, their computers, so many pieces of furniture i couldnt count.... not too shabby!! ;)

The second day, Tyler was called in to work despite having a 4 day pass (bouuu) so I hung out with his roomate for a few hours. When he came back from work, we went to a little town called Landshul.. or something like that. It was very nice!!! There is a castle just at the top of the mountain looking down at the little town. It was gorgeous!!! and it was a lot of fun!! We walked around and had some good food and some good german beer. We didn't get the chance to visit much because by the time we got there it was rather late. We did have a lot of fun playing darts and baby foot at a really fun bar! (Canada wins at darts, but America wins at baby foot). We then tried to look for a bar that would be playing the Stanley cup game.. but no luck.. haha.. it was impossible!! All is all it was a very fun day!!

The third day, we visited Kaiserslautern. That was a lot of fun, not only because the weather was OH SO BEAUTIFUL, not only because I was with Tyler, but because I got the chance to eat a SOFT PRETZEL!!! YEAHHHH!!! After having Philly Pretzels and being SOOO addicted to them, I had been trying to find some for the last 2 months... GERMANY is where I had to be. Oh they were sooooo delicious.... they were all warm and very very tasty. No Philly Pretzel, but still EXCELLENT. So we walked around Kaiserslautern for a good 4 hours. We sat down right beside this old old church and had some yummy ice cream. Kaiserslautern is reallllly gorgeous there is so much to see! A lot of stores. I wish I had some pictures to post on this blog but unfortunately my computer is dead right now, because of the wire problem I have been having since I got here, so right now I am on a friends computer and I can not upload any pictures on this computer. So I guese you will have to wait! :) Actually.... I didnt even take any pictures of Kaiserslautern but I did take some of the Military base and landshul. Why didnt i take pictures of Kaiserslautern? I really have NOOO idea!! But I will be going back soon enough so I will take some then. So i will post the other ones soon, Once i figure out what to do with my bloody computer!!!

So I had a reallllllllllllly awesome time. Tyler is just so great!!!! And It felt good to leave Paris a little bit, but it was also nice to be back. When I got back to my apt , my roomate Jesper was there so I got the chance to talk to someone about my trip. Its really awesome to have such a wonderful roomate.

On Thursday I am going to meet up with my friend CJ in Amsterdam. He is going with 2 of his friends so I will go hang out with them for 3 days. Then they are coming to Paris for a few days. It will be fun to hang out with friends from back home in 2 different countries. hehe! The joys of Europe!

 Cj is a friend I met through my American friend Chris David. Chris came to visit me in Montreal and brought CJ with him. We got along so great and we met up again when I visited New Jersey a few months back. He is a CRAZY american so I can imagine it will be very interesting and a lot of fun especially if he is going to be there with his other American friends!I love Americans! They are absolutely wonderful and so much fun to hang out with :) I am very excited about going to Amsterdam. I really wanted to go back so this is the perfect opportunity. I bought my ticket today. My train leaves at 9am Thursday morning and I come back Saturday night because I work Sunday morning.

Well I guess this is all for now! Again sorry i dont have any pictures!

I hope that everyone is good!!!!!!!!

I will write back once I get back from Amsterdam!!

Love you all!

Miss you all!!

oh la la!

Well hello hello!!
Why is it that I STILL have not been writing regularly on my blog?? Gosh... so much has been happening!!!
I decided to move out of my apt because the living situation with my roomate was just not a positive one. When I first moved in, I told him that I would sometimes have visitors from back home sleeping at the apt (in my room)... he told me it was fine, that it was not a problem because the guy before use to have people over all the time. There was only ONE rule... don't be too noisy. So because i'm such a respectful person.. when my friend came over.. we didn't even say one word except for good night... the next morning he told me he didn't like it.... that he didn't want me to have people over anymore.. and blablabla...hmm... okay? well.. I already told some friends from Montreal that they could come stay with me for 2-3 days... they are my friends.. I don't want to send them in a hotel, I woud feel like a cheapo. Anyways... he was weird.... I don't want to be living in an apt with a 42 year old guy wearing speedos in the middle of the afternoon. NOOOO THANK YOU! So i talked to my friend Jesper and he was still looking for a roomate. WONDERFUL! So i told my roomate that i would be leaving because I didn't "like the neighborhood" which is true, but not THE reason why I moved out. He was really sad and told me to take my time. The next day, he told me all my stuff had to be out.... so much for taking my time haha. So now I am living with my friend Jesper. It is SO much better oh god I can't even begin to explain how much better it is. The apt in itself is soooooo cute!!! It is in a much better neighborhood and Jesper is so much fun to live with. He is more my age so we have a lot more to talk about a lot more in common. So we actually sit down and talk, watch movies together, yesterday we had lunch together with a few friends. SO MUCH BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!! It was definitely a good move and a much needed one. Everything is more positive now that I am living in my new apt. I haven't taken any pictures yet but as soon as I do, I will post them (hopefully it won't be in 2 weeks from now.... SLACKER GEN.. i'm such a slacker.. haha).

Last week, my friend Karen went to Turkey and left me her apt. So between moving out of my apt and moving into my new one, I spent 5 days at her house. So i moved alll my stuff out of my apt into Karen's, and then moved it all to my new apt. I am DONE with moving!! Luckily I had 2 helpers. My friend Antoine and Jahcub. These two guys have been staying at my hostel for the last month so we all became good friends. Jahcub is in Paris recording an album and Antoine is in Paris taking a course. They are really really fun people! The purpose of me staying at Karen's was to get travellers that didnt have hostel reservations to come stay at her house for 25 euro a night. When the hostel was fully booked and people would come in asking for a place, I would offer them to come stay with me at Karen's apt. Everyone enjoyed it and thought it was fantastic. Okay so my hostel is only 18 euros and it was 25 euro to stay at Karens house, but its also MUCH better to stay in a flat than in a hostel. Its a great experience for a tourist to see a real Paris flat and to actually sleep in it. The first night I had a bunch of people from Montreal to sleep there. It was great! I have been meeting SOOOO many people from Montreal lately! I will have a whole new circle of friends when I get back home!! hehe! Anyways, for every person that I brought over to Karen's, she gave me 5 euros. So i ended up making 25 euro, which is pretty sweet considering I didn't have to do much and I got to hang out with cool people.

My friend Sebastien from back home is in Paris right now. Yup he is sleeping on the couch as we speak right now. It was great to see him. It felt good to see someone I knew from back home. I took him to Peace and Love and he had a prety sweet time!!! He stayed with me for 3 nights, then he went to Amsterdam and now he is back for 3 more nights before going back home!!

Work is still ok. I am getting use to her, so her yelling doesn't bother me all that much anymore. I still get pretty tensed up when I see her walking through the door, but other than that its fine. Last week she yelled at me like she hasn't done since I first started working there because people were not out of their rooms by 9 am. Check out time is at 9 am and I tell the clients that when they first check in, I don't understand how she can hold me responsible if they aren't out of their by 9 am. My job is complete when I tell them they need to be out by 9am. She yelled at me (in front of the french canadians that ended up staying with me at Karens apt.) saying I was not doing my job and that it was my responsibility to make sure people leave their rooms by 9 am. So i asked her how she wants me to do that? I said do you want me to go knocking on everyones door at 9 am to tell them all to leave? OUh she didn't like that. So she started yelling some more that it was my responsibility to tell the cleaning guys to tell the people to leave by 9 am. So again I told her... the cleaning guys have been working here for 5 years, they know more than I do when check out time is, if they see someone has still not checked out, I think they are capable of telling them its past their check out time without ME having to tell them right? OH LALA!!! What did I say.. hahaha thats not the way you talk to your boss (thats NOT the way you talk to your employees).... you are not doing your job properly.... BLABLABLABLABLABAL so I said OK then next time I come in for work, i will leave the reception and go knock on all the doors and make sure everyone is gone before 9 ok? and then I walked away. Look at me, not taking crap from her!!! Yay for me!! haha

So in 3 weeks a friend of mine is coming to Europe. He is going to Amsterdam and Paris and he asked me if I wanted to go to Amsterdam with him so I began to think.. and YES I do want to go to amsterdam with him. End of June... it seems like a good time to start travelling. Even though I have been to Amsterdam twice, it will be nice to go back and with some friends too. So I am just waiting for him to give me the exact dates and I will book a hostel and it should be my first little travel destination. Okay originally I wanted to start off with a place I've never been too, but this is a good opportunity, so I will take it!! :) I will keep you guys more informed!!

Well that is about it for now. I have to start getting ready because I am going on a walking tour with my friend karen. She is training me so I can eventually start giving the tours. Make a little money on the side, meet fun people, learn about the history of Paris... WHY NOT!!!!

By the way, my new adress is

33 rue sainte-Marguerite
93500
Pantin, France
premiere etage, Face

... How sad that I don't have PARIS in my adress anymore. And how silly that instead of just putting an apt number you have to specify EXACTLY which apt is your.... so mine is on the first floor... and on the first floor there are 3 apts... one on the left, on the right and in front. Mine is in front.... so premiere etage, Face...... WHY NOT PUT APT NUMBERS!!!!!!!!! Save a lot of time and energy people!!!!
Well I hope that everyone is doing well!! I PROMISE now that I will write more regularly... but everything seems to be stable now.. hahaha
much love to everyone!