getting into the swing of things

Here I am at another cafe, much closer to the hostel where I'm staying. It's raining outside but I'm at a cafe watching people promenade in the Place de la Contrescarpe on Rue Mouffetard. It's been less than 24 hours and I'm already feeling like I could get away with this whole France thing. I certainly wish my hostel were better. I'm sharing a room with 3 other men, not even boys cloe to my age. Two burly Australians came in and introduced themselves as brothers: Douglas and Bear. Bear snored like a grizzly, and I have barely slept a wink. It definitely sucks to not have privacy, especially since the men kindof creep me out. They arrived yesterday and said they had no plans but were willing to do whatever. There was a bar that I wanted to go to and I made the mistake of saying, "you all can come if you want" followed by a jump out of the bed-get-your-coat-on movement. What's worse is that only one of the brothers wanted to come. Oh well, it was a nice companion on the metro, and an even better companion on the walk home through afterhours-Paris. (side note:: it has just started pouring down raining just as my hot french onion soup arrived... ahh.) Earlier that evening I went to the Louvre for the under-26 free admission on Friday nights. There's only so much walking around you can do. I've never understood the facination with the Mona Lisa...really, there are so many more incredible paintings by DaVinci and his fellow Italian artists. After many naked classical Greek sculptures, I decided to go to a bar that I read about that I never convinced my cousins to go to with me. It's described as a chill, mellow place with fake grass on the upstairs bar and a free jam session Sunday-Thursday and free concerts Friday and Saturday downstairs. We got there and I realized it was just another tiny bar, and it wasn't really that crowded until 10:00 when the show started. Luckily I was there early enough to get a seat but people were lining the stairs, stage, it was really cool, yet the size of a tiny bar. I sat with these two french guys about my age and the burly austrailian and they all ordered absinthe. Never had the stuff, don't think I ever will, especially since the real absinthe with wormwood is illegal in France, but they have a nice substitute that smells like licorice. it came with the flaming sugar cube on top and everything. I ended up spending the majority of the night with one of the French guys named Thibaut who was really friendly and rather handsome. He lives in Reims (Champagne country) and asked if I wanted to go with him tomorrow just for the evening. I was all for it, packed and everything, but I found out that they dont have tours of the Champagne caves on the weekends, plus I already paid for tonight's stay in the hostel. Another time, I guess I'll just wait for Meagan to come, when we aren't booked for rooms in advance. It's only been one night and I've already met a hot French guy. Vive la France!