Retour en France

so things here seem pretty sweet so far... let's see. arrived yesterday afternoon at camp. drive up this perfect tree-lined street to with a giant chateau in front of us (this one: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Vaux-sur-Aisne ). that's where camp's at. the kids stay in the chateau. we stay in a building off to the side. i have my own room which is nice, too! the grounds are amazing! the best of any AmVil (American Village) site (there are 10ish or so AmVil sites throughout France). other counselors seems nice and cool as well...from all over. kentucky, ohio, maryland, canada, peru, utah, california, france. people crack up everytime i say yall haha. at first it was funny but i don't even realize i'm doing it haha! didn't do any work yesterday...the site was used in teh spring as well which greatly reduces the amount of set up/initial work we have to do which is nice say brownie (director of this site...real name: emma) and tofer (asst dir...real name: richard). i think my camp name's gonna be peanut butter. still not set in stone, but pending any other eureka moments, i think it'll be that. someone else in previous years was tofu apparently, mom!

PARIS...was AMAZING! so fun and like the perfect 24 hours! i got early, got did customs, baggage super quickly, and got the RER super quickly and got to the hotel. dropped my stuff, showered and went into the city to meet mathis and caro (host brother from grenoble and his g/f) who were shopping at Les Halles (near centre pompidou). we hung out, walked around, chilled for a while and eventually had a little snack and drink at this cafe there since we were tired (paris makes mathis tired after 2 hrs he said just b/c it's so fast-paced, so many people, etc!...quite overwhelming!). but mathis paid for me! he wouldn't let me pay! it was so nice!

then after that, they had to leave to go back to grenoble, so i went to meet up with radhika, caity and rebecca (the 3 grenoble people who are in paris for the summer). we went to dinner at this veggie restaurant rebecca had found which was fun and good. had a good dinner there (italian salad with PEARS!, tofu stuffed zucchini...not a hays-type dinner i'd imagine haha). and then we went to the champs elysees and just walked from it, past the obelisk at place de la concorde, through the jardin des tuilleries to the louvre and past it along the seine. it was the most gorgeous walk ever with the most gorgeous sunset ever and seeing the eiffel tower sparkle at 10 pm, the arc de triomphe, the obelisk, the louvre, etc etc etc. but the sunset was incredible and i have amazing pictures. but yall're gonna have to wait till august to see them since i don't have a computer or camera cord. sorry! it was so amazing though and such a perfect tour of paris' highlights! and brittany, you came up like 23948723 times just like with funny comments and things peopel said that made us think of you. they all say hey to you as well and each send a hug back! didnt' get back to the hotel until 1130 where i met my roommate for the night who was really nice (from india, singapore, and most recently toronto). he's at a different site though. the next morning i met up with clare who was super tired from not sleeping on teh plane so we didnt' really do all lthat much. just chilled. i went to this sweet market near the gare de lyon that was aweeeesome. such different produce now in the summer than in times i've been there! got these realyl good flat peaches as well (http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1184/936030093_3c28e57a2f_o.jpg ), tomatoes, strawberries even though it's prob a bit late in teh season, bread, an apple and this awesome cheese (crottin de chavignol, a fresh-ish goat's milk cheese). all super delish!

now going to our morning meet for today. kids come wednesday! do any of yall have any more name suggestions? just some inanimate object in english that's NOT inappropriate. remember, though, it has to top peanut butter!

love,geoffrey

PS brittany, have you seen these? these guys here from ohio and kentucky are obsessed with them lol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmLA5TqbIY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZzgAjjuqZM