From Rags to Richman: Found a rosemary bush. Great day.

Jonah recently discovered a small rosemary plant/bush/whatever right outside our little patio thing. Today, we used some of the rosemary in our hamburgers (as of four days ago).

Sadly, I haven't been able to keep the promises I made in my last blog post. I've been kept extremely busy with school (not with work outside the classroom, but just with class time itself), traveling, and exploring Paris. So here's a recap: I've seen sunsets from the banks of the Seine, happy Frenchies basking in the afternoon sun on the hills of Montmarte, and our local jazz group perform live on Sundays at La Taverne de Cluny. The falafel in Le Marais is still as good as it was two months ago, as are the baguettes from our local boulangerie. We've been visited by friends from Madison (Curren, Voj, Eckhous, Kelly "she's so open" Maslow, Goldstein, etc), and are looking forward to a visit from the self-proclaimed "Dream Team" (Sam, Ian, AK). It is now springtime in Paris, which brings to mind countless (probably not actually countless) clichés and classic images of the city during this time. The gardens of Luxembourg and Tuilleries are now in bloom, and tourists crowd the plaza in front of Notre Dame. The lucky ones get to see the real crown of thorns, which is on display at Notre Dame once a month.

I've developed a newfound appreciation for art, furthered my passion for the outdoors, and obsessed over planning an epic spring break, which is now only five days away. Wednesday nights now consist of Louvre visits, since it's open until 22:00 on Wednesday, and visits to our favorite club, Barrio Latino. Google it. Sundays are the same as they've been since I first got here, and I don't want that to change. We wake up, meet people in Le Marais and get falafal, walk to Place Vosges and eat our falafel, walk to Le Centre Pompidou and watch street performers, walk to Hotel de ville, cross the Seine and head over to Notre Dame, and finally go to Saint Michel to catch a bus back to our place.

Jonah and I went to a Tunisian/Jewish/French family's apartment for the first seder. I really didn't know what to expect going into the meal, but it ended up being one of the most memorable seders of my life. The extremely Jewish mother immediately put my height to use, using me to get the kiddush cups from their highest cabinet. We hung out with their daughters and cousins, all of which were great kids and a ton of fun to be around. It really felt like I was at my long-lost, much more tan relatives' house.

We also went to London a number of few weeks ago, and I wish I had a lot of good things to say about it, but unfortunately that is not the case. Westminster Abbey is cool, London Bridge is pretty cool, House of Parliament is cool, the food is mediocre, and the London Eye is not actually an eye. Great beer selection though. The biggest issue I had with the city, however, was not the sights, but rather the lack of a palpable culture. I can feel Paris, and I could feel Barcelona (more on that to come), but London really didn't feel like anything special. Fortunately, I'm living on the other side of the channel.

We went to Normandy to see the D Day beaches and the American cemetery, all of which was much more amazing to see than I expected. I even got to have a rock throwing contest on the beach with Jonah. I won.

That's the update for now. Hopefully I'll have a Barcelona entry out by sometime before I go on break, but we'll see.

Here are some pictures.