Paris: April 27th 1:37pm local

I'm sitting in the airport (or Aréoport as it is called here) in Paris waiting on my plane and as I sit I have been 'people watching'. Airports in general are very interesting places, full of a wide variety of people from all different walks and nationalities. Right now I am sitting next to a young jewish man and as I listen to what is going on around me I can hear at least 3 or 4 different languages (none of which are english). I have spent the last several hours trying to guess where different people are from, some it seems are from England, others are from Israel (obviously since I am sitting waiting or a plane to Israel). Sometimes it seems difficult to figure out which people are fellow americans. Some by their dress and actions, plus the fact that they are speaking english, are obviously American. While others, due to nationality or their amount of exposure to european culture are more difficult to find, recognizable only by the fact that they carry American passports.

Looking around the 'Aréoport' it doesn't seem much different than DFW, granted the signs are in French (with English subtitles) but in general it is the same. The stores are all over priced, the food is not easy to find, and when found not that great. There are people everywhere trying to get to their flights and not be late, lots of security and flight crews. One remarkable difference is that the security here in the Aréoport all carry weapons, unlike in US airports the security here is actually able to respond to an crisis and take immediate action.

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Okay so I wrote all of that at the aréoport and then my luggage was confiscated by the El Al (the Israeli Airline I was flying on) Security people. That made me VERY mad but I couldn't really do anything. They took pretty much everything, but I'll write all of that in another note.

Joshua R