last post!

Moving to the hotel today! But there's no internet there, so I will have to survive without. I went with the other girls in my room to watch the world cup at the eiffel tower yesterday. Oh my god there were so many people there and it was really fun.

I'm so tired and I feel like I haven't been properly clean since I got here. And I have 30 Euro left for 5 days. I tried to budget but i guess i didn't do a very good job. I would come home now if it weren't so much money to change a plane flight. Oh well, I'm sure I can survive. I hope there's a tv in the hotel room, right now I really just want to veg for a day.

Up and down day, in more than one day!

I went to the catacombs today, which sounds creepy, but it was actually very peaceful and solemn, except for the occasional giggling teenager/little kid. They are old stone quarries that have been filled with the bones of those buried in the cemetery of the innocents from the 1200s until 1785. Anyone not rich enough to buy a plot in a proper cemetery was buried in a mass cemetery, and after hundreds of years there was a huge disease problem in the area, so all the remains were moved and the cemetery closed. Anyway, it's beautiful in it's own way. The only problem is that they only allow 200 people underground at a time, so the line goes really slowly, and my lower back was absolutely killing me today.

Also I really had to pee when I came out of the catacombs, and the first public toilet was out of order, so i went into the one at the montparnasse cemetery and the women's toilet was, no joke, a hole in the ground, two platforms for your feet and handles to hold while you squat. Gross.

I had to come back to the hostel early because my back was hurting so bad, and I was thinking I might change my plane ticket to go home early, but it costs $300 just to change it, plus any extra cost of the different ticket. Plus I realized I have 50 Euro less than I thought, whether because I counted wrong or lost it or it was stolen, I don't know. I was feeling thoroughly spent, exhausted, and broke, but...

There are two really nice Dutch girls in my room who gave me some beer and are feeding me dinner and I think I will go with them to climb the eiffel tower at sunset. So hopefully the day will end on the up and up.

I had an epiphany...

I was sitting on a bench watching the traffic at the arc de triomphe, when one of those double decker tour \buses goes by and people are trying to take pictures from the moving bus, and I thought, that's dumb, those photos won't even turn out, plus there's a million pictures of it already, good pictures by real photographers, which is when I decided to only take pictures of unique things, like tiny parks with giant fountains.

As of now I have seen, in addition to the arc de triomphe, the eiffel tower, sacre coeur, les jardinieres tuileries, notre dame, the sorbonne, moulin rouge, palais de justice, and on and on and on.

Today i went to the Montmartre cemetery (in the rain, how fitting), which was interesting but not as cool as the Mont Royal cemetery. Then after some wandering I made my way to parc monceau, where there were lots of people jogging and very few tourists. Then I ventured as far as the park on the edge of the city, I don't know what it's called, but it was so lovely, with forested areas and bike paths.

Yesterday I was in the Latin Quarter and a Turkish guy asked if I would marry him and take him back to the States. Boo. But then I found City Lights Paris, which has a reading room upstairs with a piano and I think I will go back there to hang out for a bit longer next week.

I'm doing an excellent job conserving my money thanks to the experience I gained in SF, and by the time I move to my hotel from the hostel, I should be able to do some serious French eating., but for now it is baguette avec fromage, et abricots.

My computer is totally messed up and won't upload any pictures, so that will just have to wait.

In Paris!

The hostel is really cute, they have a cat. And a tiny courtyard. I had to take a nap after I got here, but I'm feeling better now. I am going to walk to Sacre Coeur now. My computer is still being dodgey, so I'm posting via my phone. Tomorrow I'll go see super touristy things like the Eiffel tower and champs d'elysees. I'm thinking of trying to take a side trip, any suggestions?

I had a decent time in muscat. It was so nice to work with real animals again, and continues to reaffirm that I am on the right career path.

This camel is only special as it is the first one I saw here, on a lot with one other, plus some goats and chickens. As soon as you get out of the city goats are a common sight, often grazing within a few yards of the highway.

Anyway, I finally met some people here and went to the beach yesterday with a couple of girls. We went to the Oman dive center, as it's a pay to enter beach, so no one stares at girls in bikinis, or anything else.

This rocky outcropping looks a lot like coral up close.

Today I drove to see Wadi Tiwi and Wadi Shabs. I knew I wouldn't be able to see very much of them because 1) They were probably overflowing during Phet and might still be full, and 2) I am driving a sedan, and eventually the road into Wadi Tiwi is only passable to 4WDs. Well, I couldn't even get close enough to look into Shabs at it's mouth since the roadways had been washed away approaching it, and the road up Tiwi needed 4WD to cross a washed out area right at the mouth.I did get to go for a little walk there, in the sweltering heat, and even just that first bit is beautiful. 

Going fishing?

The washed out road

Sand, or rock, bar where the wadi empties into the gulf

Maybe it was worth the drive after all...

World cup, fattoush, and the English language

I'm watching Spain's first game at the home where I am staying, but since the family is Croatian, the station is Croatian, and it's even harder to pay attention to football broadcast in a completely foreign language. And I say complete, because I think da means yes in Croatian same as Russian, but I'm not sure.

We had a sick peacock in today from the Iranian embassy. Afterwards they were joking to offer me up to be kidnapped, as I'm an American.I said I was more likely to have been kidnapped in Oakland than here. Also the dog in for castration was absolutely vicious, breaking one rabies pole and then breaking on of his own teeth on the other just to catch him to give him sedation. The owner's didn't believe it, of course. Otherwise it was a very slow day and I left a bit early.

I finally ate from an Arabian restaurant here, called Tarboosh, and it was, of course, awesome. I had a mixed grill, plus hummus and fattoush salad. I love the hummus here, it is like I was taught to make it, lots of tahini, with noe of the flavor of unknown origin that hummus has in the States. But the fattoush salad was the best. It's lettuce, tomato and cucumber in an herbed vinaigrette, topped with deep fried bits of pita. Yum. I got another from the Supermarket today at lunch, which was not as good, as there was no dressing and the pita wasn't as fresh, of course, but it was only 275 baisa, which is about 65 cents.

Which brings me to English. Laura, one of the girls at the clinic from the U.K. laughs every time I say grocery store instead of supermarket, and today I found out they say plait (pronounced platt) instead of braid, but it's still a French plait. I've been spectacularly remembering to say football instead of soccer, which is good because they love to make fun of Americans. But then, so do I.

This is the clinic.

Momma cat and 7 babies came in, Mom leaves, 7 babies sleeping in a pile.

Synchronized sleeping :)

This poor kitty hid in a car engine during the storm last week, car was turned on, then took 8 days to catch the cat. On front left paw, the ends of p2 are exposed on 3rd and 4th digits, p3 is gone. Also radius is exposed, abscesses on base of tail, front paw, and L hock. BUT, it's eating fine. Wild.

Luna waiting for her mum.