Spring Cleaning

Dear friends and family,

Each morning when I wake up and raise my blinds, I am greeted by the strong sun beating down into my room.  It's not too warm, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket... and its not even April 17...

Everyone is out on the streets enjoying this while they can because who knows what the weather will be like tomorrow... Paris may pull a Virginia and go blizzard on us.  Omg I would be so depressed. 

Yesterday after class I was walking around the school area like a zombie and I stumbled across this amazing juice bar.  You choose any kind of fresh fruit or vegetable you want, and they juice it for you on the spot.  It's so tasty.  It boosted my energy level too... although, I'm pretty sure the lack of energy and the sudden onset of terrible stomachaches was coming from a lack of the B12 vitamin/folic acid, because of the changes in my diet.  No meat, dairy, etc...  don't worry, I went to the natural food store and stocked up on my vitamins.  Why are the tablets so big? 

So anyway, today I went to the juice bar again with Yasna and my friend Lulie, this ultra-cool Mexican-American who's lived in France for a while.  She's applying to law school here, and is so fluent in French, its not even funny.  As we were drinking our juice Lulie mentioned how it would be cool to ride the "Velibs" (Velo-libres AKA free bikes) from where we were to the Eiffel Tower, riding by the Seine.  

So basically heres the deal, the Velib stands are all over Paris, and you pick a bike up from one stand, ride around for as long as you want, they charge your credit card, but only for as long as you have the bike, other than that, its like 1euro an hour up to 4 hours, then it just stays at 4euro.  I never understood how they kept people from stealing bikes--but they basically keep a hold of 150euro until you give the bike back...but if someone really wanted a bike, I guess they could keep it.... eh, who does that? 

Anyway we started riding the bikes, and it was so much fun... I only almost died like 2 times... No, I joke, I joke.  But, you definitely have to be careful and completely aware of whats going on around you (sorry Salma, that means no bike for you) otherwise you will get run over by a car or a motorcycle.  But, I did notice how equipped Paris is for their bike transportation system.  The roads all have bike paths, and there are signs everywhere showing the bikers where to go.

Plus, all the bikes have bells and baskets.  It's so cute.  

Right now, I'm going to figure out what the easiest path is for me to ride from my house to school, or back, because it's such good exercise, plus, it's a lot of fun.  So much fun. 

My friend Melody is coming into town on Saturday, and if she's up for it, I'm thinking about showing her around the city via Velib.  She'll get to see so much.  Good idea, Ranna.  Thanks, Parsa.  

Alright, in other news, I spent all of Sunday heavily cleaning my apartment--I made poor Yasna help me out, haha.  But, you know, it was March 1, I needed to make my apartment clean for Norooz. 

I've started to set up a 7sin.  Well, I have sombol, seeb, serkeh, the beginnings of sabzeh (only, I have little faith that it will work).  I need to go to the Iranian grocery store, rather, I need to figure out if there is an Iranian grocery store, to go and by somakh and...what am I missing?  sombol, seeb, serkeh, sabzeh, somakh...oh, sekeh...and..is it called senjeh?  hmm, is that what its called?  

Well anyway, yeah, so 7sin in Paris, so ballin. 

Love, Ranna