August 4, Paris

The rain stopped yesterday morning, and although the sky was dark and threatening through the morning and into the afternoon, it did not rain again.

I spent the morning and early afternoon in town yesterday, and came back to the hostel at mid-afternoon for lunch. I spent most of the rest of the day and into the night BSing in English on the front steps of the hostel with a group of people from various countries. On was a dual Canadian-American citizen who has been living in China for 10 years and claims to speak Chinese well. He has booked his flight back to China by the Russian airline Aeroflot with a stopover in Moscow.

The obese Dutchman left the room yesterday, and in his place is another black Frenchman. The first two times I spoke to him, he answered in monosyllables, but on the third attempt, he began a conversation in rapid French, most of which I was able to follow. He said he also speaks German and Portuguese, but when I spoke to him in German, it became apparent that he speaks no more than a few words. This same guy came rolling in in the wee hours of the morning, and of course he turned on the bright overhead light and woke my other roommate and me. We greeted him with curses, I in English and my other roommate in French. He finally turned the light off and used his flashlight, which is what one is expected to do when one enters a dorm room at night where others are sleeping.

The weather looks promising today: partially cloudy with lots of sunshine.