It has pigeons and black yards. The people have white skin.

Despite living here in Paris, I really felt like I could be in any large American city this week. I guess a lot of people are on vacation for Easter, or Zombie Jesus Day as they say in Ypsi. I think I heard more English and French, which may have been facilitated by a trip to an Irish pub on St. Patrick's day with Ornella, Kristen, and Evelyn after Suzanne's exam. Turns out that the Brits think we're even less worth polite interaction than the French. Our friendly bartender, Tom, repeatedly insisted that we were "O.K." when we people asked if we were American with a singularly raised condescending eyebrow. I don't consider myself patriotic and despite reports of U.S. bashing from my U of M comrades, this was the first time that I actually felt offended about assumptions concerning my American-ness. For a moment, I was almost inclined to defend my country, which pissed me off more than any alleged insinuation.
I've been planning my trip to Amsterdam for the long weekend and I'm pretty siked that someone decided to host me on couchsurfing. He has great references and he's "Level 3" security, meaning that he actually provided his bank account and a credit card to verify his identity. He does mention something called the "Church of Fun" on his profile, but that doesn't sound so bad does it? Seriously though, he seems harmless. You don't even wanna know who I emailed in the mad dash to find a host. Suffice to say that one of them began his profile with, "..before you contact me, ask yourself if I'm really the type of soul that you want to spend time with.." and then preceded to say that he can see the beauty in people by staring into their eyes. Most people that messaged me back claimed to already be hosting someone, but this guy turned me down flat. I guess he saw in my eyes that I really kind of thought he was "dingue".
We went to Saint-Denis today and it's going to have to duke it out with Sacre-Coeur for most beautiful church (thought technically basilicas...basilici?). Incredible architecture and founded on the cult site of a beheaded saint, which are my two criteria for measuring if a site visit is worthwhile. Unfortunately, there was a strike, so we couldn't see all the tomb sculptures that were purposefully made to look like decaying flesh, but it they certainly looked interesting enough from behind the railing we leaned over.
So, I leave for Amsterdam in less than nine hours. I'll be sure to have photos when I return.