Dum dum dum.

Completely blogging for procrastination's sake right now.

Countdowns update:

2 days 14 hours to Helsinki

8 days to USA

18 days to Nathan

So days are going fast-ish? Not really, actually. Been sick for the past 3 days so those have all been kind of a blur. Been half-assing the little schoolwork I have largely because of this sickness and my overwhelming desire to be done, to go to Finland, and of course to go home.

Some things have happened since last post:

-Mozart Rock Opera with Heather: it was amazing! Very overdramatic in some cases, but the music was still very good and as a whole the show was entertaining. I would classify it as more of a musical than an opera, however, but neither of us minded that.

-Paris fail night with Jasmine, Heather, Christina, Pierce: we started off Saturday night strong at Cafe le Petit Pont (awesome cafe right by the Seine) where we had dinner, but unfortunately we couldn't really find a cool spot to hang out afterwards. Maybe we should have just stayed there? At one point we met up with Jasmine's French friend and basically all of his friends, but the club they tried to take us to wouldn't let us in because there were too many of us (think 20+). So then we went back to the area where we had originally been to go to a club with flashing lights and dancing (we all wanted to dance) called Cocktails and Dreams. More like Cocktails and Bust. The little dancing that was going on was by middle-aged French people who look like they're having seizures when they're dancing. We were amused for a short while by just watching the craziness of French dancing, but then decided we would rather leave than pay 15 euro for cocktails that came with no dreams attached.

-Been sick. Stomach, throat, runny nose. All of this exacerbated by the Paris Fail night. Ah, woe is me. Also, this all leading up to the only bit of actual work (aside from a few other tests and papers) I am doing while in Paris--3 final exams. Awesome. Well, two of them are tomorrow and the last one is Wednesday. It's bad to say this but I really don't care that much at this point, I just want to be done. So I will take them, and they will go somehow, and then I will be done.

-Host parents took us to see "Arthur et les Minimoys 2" last night at le Grand Rex theater that is near our apartment. The movie itself is a kids' movie, amusing but not in any way amazing. The theater, however, is the oldest and largest in France and very impressive. The most surprising part of it was that they had a 30-min long water show before the movie ... basically water fountains "dancing" to different songs, all made to the theme of the movie we were about to watch. It was definitely different to see that inside a movie theater, and we were both really appreciative that our host parents took the time to show it to us.

-Pretty much given up on the rest of the Paris to-do list. It's too damn cold outside.

There's something about the way the street looks when it's just rained

There's a glow off the pavement, you walk me to the car

And you know I want to ask you to dance right there

In the middle of the parking lot, yeah.

I don't know how it gets better than this,

You take my hand and drag me headfirst, fearless.

And I don't know why but with you I'd dance in a storm in my best dress, fearless.

One week left in Paris.

I can't believe I'm really down to the last week. The semester as a whole has flown by, but these last weeks have really been dragging because I've been so excited by the idea of going back home and back to WashU. Even though I have a ridiculous amount of things to cross off my to-do list in these next 7 days (including one paper, 3 finals, Anne's visit, a musical, a movie with my host family, and as much of my Paris to-dos as I can fit in), I know the days will continue to go by far too slowly. At the end of each day when I get to put a line through one of the boxes on my calendar, I know I'm one day closer to going to Finland and going home, both of which involve seeing people I love and being done with the semester. Don't get me wrong--on the whole, I've really enjoyed my semester in Paris. But right now, with end-of-semester work/exams, the cold weather, and Christmas coming up so soon, all I want is to be with the people I care about back home. And that just cannot happen soon enough...

I do have a life update, however. I spent Dec 4-Dec 7 in Barcelona, Spain with Jasmine, Heather, and Pierce and had a really great time. First of all, the weather was amazing...it was between 15 and 20 degrees C every day. =] There was a little bit of tension within the group having to do with differences in opinion about what we should do, what time to leave the hostel, etc, but once we got over that everything was wonderful. We saw some of the major attractions in the city (Las Ramblas, the beach, the pier, Park Guell, Gaudi architecture, Casa Batillo, Sagrada Familia, Place Catalunya), but we decided to mostly take it slow since we had 4 entire days to see everything. It was the perfect get-away from finals stress and chilly, rainy Paris. We drank sangria with every meal (except breakfast), ate tapas at least 5 times, and took loads of great pictures. I think we all needed that break, and I loved spending time with such a great group of girls. Traveling with people really allows you to grow closer to people, and I'm so thankful for that. I'm dreading the day that I'll have to say goodbye to the amazing people that I've met on this program. There are at least 5 people that I can say I now consider very close friends, and that's so special and amazing considering we only just met 3 months ago.

Countdown updates:

Helsinki in 7 days.

Atlanta in 13 days.

Christmas in 14 days.

Nathan comes over in 23 days.

This week needs to hurry up and get done with!

I think I'll go get McDo now (it's a blessing and a curse to have one literally right next to me).

Bisousssss

post-thanksgiving update.

it's december.

it's been a long time since i've posted.

nathan came to visit. it was wonderful. probably the best 4 days ever. (nov 12-16)

the family came for a week and sightsaw the shit out of paris. i had some work to do during the week but was able to spend some time with them anyway. ate turkey kabobs on nov 26, but it still didn't feel anything like real thanksgiving. (nov 21-28)

lots to do/see/finish/experience in the next few weeks.

can't believe christmas is coming up soon.

barcelona in 4 days.

helsinki in 17 days.

home in 23 days.

i'm ready to go home.

Updated Paris to-do list

x x x Marmottan Museum

-Musee de la vie romantique

x x x Dali Museum

x x x Park Monceau

-Park Bercy

x x x Mozart Rock Opera

x x x Comedie Francaise

x x x French movie

x x x Pere Lachaise (I didn't end up going..)

x x x La Defense

x x x Going out at Oberkampf

-Going out on Champs-Elysees

-Saint-Chapelle

x x x Top of Eiffel Tower

-Top of Notre Dame

x x x Top of Arc de Triomphe

-Buy a painting

x x x Angelina's for hot chocolate

-Pantheon

-Place des Vosges

-Passages couverts

x x x Salon de thé

-Macaroons from La Durée

Weekend in Belgium!

On our walk to our hostel in Bruges:
Eating fries in Brussels:
Chocolate shop in Brussels:
Last weekend I took a trip to Belgium with Heather, Jasmine, and Christina. We met at Gare du Nord at 6.30 am to board our 6.55 am train. Because the train station is only a 10-15 min walk away from my apartment and Heather's new apartment (she recently changed host families) is on my way, we planned to meet in front of her place at 6.20 am. Heather has a tendency of being 10-15 minutes late to pretty much everything, but I figured since this time we actually had a train to catch, she would be on time. Wrong. I was running a few minutes late myself, so when I left my place at 6.17 I texted her, "Sorry, I'm running a few minutes late. Are you already outside?" The intent of this message was two-fold: to let her know I was going to be a bit late and to encourage her to go outside if she hadn't already. After all, it's only about a 5-minute walk between our apartments. Lo and behold, I get to her apartment and there's no sign of her. I call her phone, but she doesn't answer. I wait for about 5 minutes, and then I start frantically calling her repeatedly. She doesn't answer. 6.30 rolls around, and I'm not exactly sure how to walk to Gare du Nord, so I figured I better just go ahead. But I got extremely worried that Heather was still asleep and would miss the train, especially because she had all 4 of our return train tickets! I started thinking about what I could possibly do...I even considered calling Mme Parnet, the housing director, to try to get the phone number to her homestay. I got to Gare du Nord around 6.35 and easily find Jasmine and Christina. Luckily, Heather calls me soon after saying "I thought you said you were running late?" Aghh yes I was running late, but only a few minutes! Not 15! Needless to say, I was pretty flustered and frustrated at her. Fortunately everything worked out, I didn't need to start calling directors at 6.45 am, and we all managed to find each other at the train station. We even had time to buy some breakfast for the train ride. It just wasn't a great way to start the day...I was so nervous the whole trip would be ruined.

So the train ride lasted about 2 hours to Brussels. When we got there, we followed the directions I had written down to the hostel and found it with no problems. The hostel, 2GO4 (no idea), was very nice, clean, and modern. They had free internet, clean rooms, clean showers, free coffee in the mornings, and beer in their vending machines (just something I thought was interesting). After setting down our things in storage (it was still too early to check in), we set out to explore Brussels. We soon realized what a bizarre city it is. The architectural style is flippant and noncontinuous; some buildings are very beautiful and similar in style to those in Paris, but others are very modern or just downright ugly. We did find a very nice area though, with small cobblestone streets full of chocolatiers, waffle stands, and bars. It soon became very apparent that the "hallmarks" of stereotypical Belgium were everywhere: the beer, the chocolate, the lace, the waffles, and the fry stands. They also had quite a few tourist shops selling EU stuff and Mannekin Pis (a small statue of a peeing boy...) souvenirs. Within the first few hours, we managed to visit at least 10 chocolate shops, have our first Belgian waffles, eat fries from a fry stand, and even try a flavored beer (Belgium is famous for its flavored beers...my favorite was Kriek, a cherry-flavored one that basically tasted like soda). After walking around some, we decided to take advantage of the metro passes we had bought and take a 30 minute metro ride to the Atomium, a huge metal atom that is known as the "Eiffel Tower of Belgium." It was pretty cool, and we found a Mini Europe park right next to it, which was a lot of fun. They had models representing a building or monument from every city in Europe. For Finland, they had Suomenlinna and a sauna. I figured people probably don't get a very accurate idea of what Finland looks like by Suomenlinna, but oh well. The park also had mini-sized Big Ben, Arc de Triomphe, Tour Eiffel, Pisa Tower, etc. So that was fun. After that, we went back to the hostel, showered, and took short naps before heading out to dinner. For dinner, we found a cheap falafel place where Jasmine chatted up the owner, Mr. Falafel in Arabic! Then, we went to a bar called Delirium, known for having practically a million types of beers. I decided to try a regular beer because 1. it was cheap and 2. I wanted to know if regular Belgian beer really is "better" than beer from other countries. (Answer: nope, it's not good in Belgium either.) Delirium was very smoky almost to the extent of being foggy, so after a while in there, we all needed some fresh air. In Paris, bars and restaurants follow the law against smoking indoors. In Belgium they also have this law but apparently do not adhere to it. Right next to Delirium was a tequila bar that was just an incredible and amazing place. Their cocktail list was insanely long, they had frozen tropical drinks, no smoking was allowed, and their drinks were very cheap relative to Paris prices. I had a Frozen Mango Margarita that was incredibly delicious. Tara's friend Min had a Pina Colada that was probably the best Pina Colada I've ever tasted....you get the idea. After that, we were all upset that there was no place similar to it in Paris!

We retired early that night, but only after stopping by a fry stand for some fries with Andalouse sauce. That sauce is so delicious. It's basically a spicier version of Thousand Island...and boy is it goooood. I miss it already! The first time I had fries I was unadventurous and just got ketchup, but after trying Andalouse from someone else, I never looked back! If you ever go to Belgium, get that. Trust me.

The next day, we got up just in time to check out at 11 AM. We then spent some time benefiting from the free internet in the hostel before heading out. We took our bags with us since we would be walking towards the train station. We went to a few more chocolatiers, of course, and then went to see the Royal Palace. It was quite a trek to get there, and it was raining, so once we actually got to it we were pretty much just like, "Oh that's cool, OK lets go." We had seen a cute little cafe on the hike to the Palace, so we decided to stop there for lunch before our train to Bruges. The cafe was perfect....I had a potato soup and a slice of Hawaiian pizza. We had all been craving soup because of the cold, rainy weather.

Train to Bruges only took an hour. We got off and again followed the directions I had written down to the hostel (mom, you should be so proud of my organization/planning). Our hostel, Snuffel, wasn't quite as clean and modern as the one in Brussels, but it was still relatively nice. There was a bar downstairs, and when we got there, the check-in girl told us we would have to vacate the common room for the concert that would be going on that night. Our hostel is a concert venue, sweet. We left our stuff and set off to explore Bruges, which we soon discovered was infinitely prettier than Brussels. Everything was very quaint, old, picturesque. There was water everywhere (there are lots of canals that run through the city), horse carriages, swans, only white pigeons, cute little puppies, and basically everything was very fairytale-esque. We took tons of pictures and just enjoyed walking around. Of course, they still had the main staples that we had found in Brussels: chocolate, waffles, fries, beer. For dinner, we found a traditional Flemish restaurant where I tried a chicken stew. It was very creamy and delicious, even though they only gave me like 3 tiny potatoes. Then we set off to find "Party Straat", a street that had been recommended to us by our map. It was freezing cold, and because of a weirdly-drawn map and a hidden street, it took us far too long to find Party Straat. But eventually we didn, and we settled on the first place we saw simply because we were so eager to be inside. We had two rounds of beers there (both of mine were Krieks, go figure) and then decided to call it a night. After a cold walk home, we snuggled into our beds in Snuffel and went to sleep.

In the morning, check-out was at 10 AM, so I got up at 9.10 to take a shower. The shower was very weird, kind of dirty, and far away, but I think I really needed it by that point. We ate some breakfast in the hostel, then went to the main square (Markt) where we climbed the Belfry. It was 88m of stairs, but we made it to the top! After coming back down, we felt we had well-deserved some fries! I ordered the Andalouse, and it was so incredible, especially in the cold weather. We then realized we had only really seen a tiny bit of Bruges, so we started walking around. At one point, we decided to follow the horse carriages backwards (AKA walk in the direction they were coming from) to find where we could rent one. We did that for probably an hour before realizing that there were probably many horse-carriage companies and we were probably just walking around in huge circles. Eventually we did manage to find some of the carriages at their "rest stop" and found out that the price to rent one would be 10 euro per person for a 30-minute ride. 1. That was somewhat pricey for a short ride and 2. We hadn't even found the place to rent them, only their rest stop. So we decided against it and looked at the swans in the canal instead. They were so pretty and they came very close to us! Soon after, we headed back to the hostel to warm up, have a few more beers in our hostel bar, gather our stuff, and leave for the train. We were at the train station right as scheduled (30 minutes early) four our 6.05 pm train. We all went home happy and very very full from the deliciousness of Belgium's food. In retrospect, I think our reasoning for visiting Belgium was pretty much rooted in the food. ;) Never a bad thing!

Now I'm back in Paris and eagerly awaiting Nathan's arrival. If all goes as planned (I really hope it does), he should be landing at 10.25 AM on Thursday, which means I will see him around 12.30 or 1! I couldn't be happier that he is coming, and I think it's the perfect time for it. I've been feeling a bit of homesickness and just a general frustration with classes and things, so his visit will be a nice remedy for all of that. :) And now I can actually experience the "most romantic city in the world" first-hand! How lucky am I?

Homesick + Paris to do

Currently missing:

-Fabric softener

-Dryers

-Sweatpants

-The gym (more like "needing")

-Mealplan

-WashU classes/work

-DUC salads

-A fuller schedule/structured days

-The fun room

-Panera Bread

-Nathan

-DG

-Solid internet connection

-Life at school.

It's hard when there is so much pressure to profit from every single day. And sometimes, I just don't have the energy to plan all these trips to museums/parks/neighborhoods. I know I'm going to regret it when I have to leave Paris in 6 weeks, but it's hard to be constantly on the go. The fact that I have 3 books to read is also contributing to the fact that I've been spending a lot of time in my room. I'm not even exactly understanding them, which is just adding to my general sense of frustration...

I guess my Paris to-do list would be appropriate here. I must be in a list mood today.

-Marmottan Museum

-Musee de la vie romantique

-Dali Museum

-Park Monceau

-Park Bercy

-Mozart Rock Opera

-Comedie Francaise

-French movie

-Pere Lachaise (I didn't end up going..)

-La Defense

-Going out at Oberkampf

-Going out on Champs-Elysees

-Saint-Chapelle

-Top of Eiffel Tower

-Top of Notre Dame

-Top of Arc de Triomphe (seems I've been lazy about climbing things)

-Buy a painting

-Angelina's for hot chocolate

-Pantheon

-Place des Vosges

-Passages couverts

I swear I have actually done things...

US vs Finland vs France?

This past week has been a little weird. I've been feeling a lot different things, thinking about a broad range of subjects, and basically just been mentally and emotionally exhausted.

First, something positive: I've been really enjoying the conversations with my host parents (mostly mother). One night, for example, we stayed at the table for 3 hours. I'm very interested in the socialist system present in many European countries and how drastically it differs from the political and social system in the United States. Of course, I've experienced the socialist lifestyle in Finland, but it still amazed me to hear my host mother explain all the benefits from the government that reach so many domains of daily life--education, healthcare, social security, etc. After hearing all of that (for example, how mothers receive stipends for back-to-school, how French mothers are appalled when they actually have to purchase a book for school, how immigrants, once they have children, receive all the benefits as any other French citizen, etc.), I couldn't help but feel that France is such a nice (nice as in generous, not pleasant) country. It really would be génial to live here, I think. It's a humbling concept that no one is out in the cold on their own; French society offers you help via governmental aid (taxes). At the end of the day, the way that society is set up undeniably affects individual thought. Due to that relationship, I think that the US government's "every man for himself" philosophy translates to a very individualist, independent population. But what of those people who can't find a job? Or have a serious illness? You really have to be financially secure in the US, otherwise you are constantly living in the fear that if you get sick, you won't be able to pay your medical bills. I don't know, it just seems that the French have more sympathy and understanding for someone who can't quite make it on his own. Unfortunately, there are many people in the US who would rather do anything than pay taxes (even to help others), and that makes me sad. I'm just starting to understand how these systems really work, so I'm not trying to speak as any kind of expert on the subject. This is just something I've been thinking about.

Due to this (and just the fact of being here and all that that brings to my mind), I've been thinking a lot about what country I'll choose to build a career, settle down, and so on. I've been feeling a lot of stress and general frustration lately because it's such a hard decision to make, but it decides everything. I prefer the European social model, the political system, the way of life, etc, but just being in France (away from the US) for 2 short months has made me realize that it's not that easy. You can't just leave your 'home' and expect to feel a sense of belonging in a foreign place. I love France, I feel good here, and I believe I feel more at home here than most of my friends on my program. But that doesn't change the fact that there are things about the US that I wouldn't want to leave behind, at least not permanently. So essentially I'm at a standstill, trying to choose between two continents that are so drastically different and unfortunately separated by a great physical distance. Being here has given me a lot of time and an interesting perspective to think about this (not only am I physically kind of 'between' the US and Finland, but France is similar to Finland in many respects without being exactly the same. And the fact that I associate mostly with Americans here creates an interesting and apparently eye-opening combination), and as a result, it's been all I've been able to think about for the past few weeks.

Speaking of cultural things, something a bit more light-hearted: I went to an "American-style diner" here last week called Breakfast in America and had the best cheeseburger I've had in a long long while. My friends and I finished our meals off with chocolate milkshakes (definitely worth the 5 euro), and we were reminded about how comforting food can be. This restaurant also has incredible, real American breakfasts, so we're already planning to visit again to try that out. Pancakes, eggs, bacon....yum. I can't wait! (French breakfast sucks, haha.)

Classes are going a bit better. Mentir vrai actually makes sense now, although it's difficult to pay attention for a full 3 hours. Usually I make it to about the 1-hour mark. Then I start flipping through my planner and thinking of autres choses. :) However, I did get a nice fat zero on my first quiz...oops. Oh well, it doesn't count towards our grade, and it's ridiculously ridiculous (yes, that ridiculous) how the class is organized. Get this:

Oct. 22: Quiz on Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Menteur (2 books), discuss only BG in class

Oct. 29: Quiz on Acteurs de Bonne Foi, STILL discuss only BG in class

Nov. 5: Quiz on Fables and Contes (2 books), finally start to discuss Menteur in class

Nov. 12: Still discuss Menteur (why have I already read the 3 other books??)

Basically, we have to read all 5 books within the first 3 weeks and it makes no sense, since we discuss them one by one throughout the semester. But whateverrrr.

Some exciting news! I've been slated for the position of VP Programming for Delta Gamma next year. I'm so excited, and all the election hype (even if it was just through emails, it was very exciting for me) has me missing school/DG/friends quite a bit. I think next semester will be absolutely fantastic...being away from school has really made me realize how amazing all my friends are at school and how much I dislike being away from them. Next semester will be so DG-tastic for me, and I could not be more happy to go back to that in January. I will be one happy girl during Rush, trust you me...

Okay well, I'm now quite tired (9.30 am class this morning was hard on me), and I'm heading out tomorrow morning to go on a tour of Pere Lachaise cemetary (Oscar Wilde, here I come). So I'm going to go to bed. One more bonne nouvelle--Anna is coming to visit this weekend! She is flying in tomorrow, and I know we're going to have the best time. :) I'll update on that next week!

Bonne nuit!

French classes and a weekend in Normandy.

A lot has been going on since my last update.

Last Monday, I had my first class at French university. For the first month in Paris, I only had my 2 courses with Sweet Briar (my program) to attend. These courses have only other SBC students in them, which means very low on the intimidation factor. My first Sorbonne class was a Linguistics TD (basically a subsection). For Linguistics, I have a CM, which is a large lecture class, and a TD, the smaller class in which tests, papers, etc. are done. So the class was scheduled to start at 10.30, and I planned to meet Tara at 10.10 to walk there together. The walk took no more than 2 minutes, so we had quite a while to wait. We just kind of stood there, looking at the French students, not speaking to each other so as to conceal our foreigner status. I don’t know if I looked uncomfortable, but I definitely felt it. The random and untimely stomach ache didn’t help the situation. Once 10.30 rolled around, we entered the classroom and found 2 seats comfortably far away from the front of the class. When the teacher came in, she asked us to introduce ourselves. Damn. We would have to talk. I tried my best not to be scared: "Je m’appelle Aurora. Je suis une etudiante des Etats-Unis. J’ai decide de suivre ce cours parce que j’aime bien les langues et je voulais essayer un cours de linguistique.” (We had to explain why we wanted to take the class.) Phew. Done. The rest of 1.5 hour class passed relatively painlessly (aside from in my stomach…), and the professor spoke very clearly and tended to repeat herself, so it wasn’t difficult to take notes and understand. All in all, first class = success!

My other class, which meets on Thursday, was a different story. The course is called “Le mentir vrai” and studies 5 French literary works from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. I’m still not exactly sure about what the title of the course refers to, but it’s something about lies, the truth, illusions, pretending, etc. The class was 3 hours long and quite painful to sit though due to the fact that I didn’t understand a whole lot about what the teacher was saying. It’s not that the words were unfamiliar (for the most part I was able to recognize and even write down each sentence exactly as she said it), it’s that the ideas were rather complex and I had never heard of them before. Something about Aristotle and limitation? Don’t really know. Hopefully as time goes on, these lectures will make more sense. In any case, it’s comforting to know that this professor has a good amount of experience with foreign students, and it doesn’t seem like she has the habit of failing them.

Other stuff that's been going on:

-Had my first test at Sweet Briar in my EU class. It went pretty well.

-Worked on reforming my circadian rhythm, with some success.

-Visited Parc des Buttes Chaumont, a huge park (especially for Paris standards) with lots of beautiful natural things: waterfalls, cliffs, foliage, etc. And there was a cool bridge..!

-Bought books for class at Gilbert Jeune

-AirFrance finally got their act together, and I was able to change my return flight to December 23! This means I will be in Finland from Dec. 17-22. :)

This past weekend, I left Paris for the first time to go to Normandy with Sweet Briar. The entire trip was planned and paid for by SBC, which was extremely nice and convenient. We met at Gare St. Lazare at 8.30 am on Saturday to take the train to Normandy. There were 30 of us, including 2 chaperones from the program (one of them is Mme Gree, kind of a baller). After a 2.5 hour train ride, we took a bus straight to our first tourist spot: the Tapestry of Bayeux, which is an extremely ridiculously long tapestry that recounts the Battle of Hastings of 1066. I'm not a huge history buff, especially not of Medieval History, so to me it was kind of boring. But I guess cool to see something famous? After the visit, we ate a typical Normandy lunch: galettes (basically cornmeal crepes) at a small cafe. Then we boarded the bus again, and drove to the American Cemetary at Omaha Beach, the site of the D-day landings. It was a very somber place, and the mood was set by the somewhat ominous/freezing weather. Seeing the ocean was nice, although kind of bizarre--we have been landlocked for quite some time now, and it was weird to be on a cold beach. Then the actual cemetary...it was striking. There were so many white crosses lined up in rows and rows that seemed absolutely endless. Hearing a statistic of deaths has such little effect when compared to that of seeing an actual physical representation of the amount of people that died in WW2.

After that, our somber/war-themed day continued, as we took the bus to our next location: Pont du Hoc, where German bunkers were bombed and the terrain is marked by massive ditches created by the bombs. It was unsettling to be there, to see what that war did to the earth, and to imagine what it once did to the people who were there during the war. After Pont du Hoc, we boarded the bus again to drive to our hotel near Mont St. Michel. There, we ate a wonderful (and fully paid) 3-course dinner and talked amongst ourselves. After that, Laura and I both took baths in the glorious bathtub in our hotel room (we don't have a tub at our homestay), and a group of kids went out to find some nightlife. Unfortunately, the town was limited to one main street with 2 bars, neither of which was worth stepping into. Thus, they returned 10 minutes after leaving, disappointed by their search. We talked/watched soccer on TV in our room for a few hours, then all went to bed rather exhausted.

Next morning, we got up early for a wonderful and full breakfast of croissants, bread, cereal, yogurt, poundcake, juice, coffee, tea, etc. It was the best breakfast I have had since being in Paris (breakfast at my homestay is usually cereal, if anything). After that, we got on the bus and drove to Mont St. Michel, a monastery which looks more like a castle and sits atop a mountain. The monastery itself was quite pretty, with its gothic architecture and incredible views. Afterwards, we walked around in the town a bit and visited different tourist shops. Some of the stores had adorable anchor-themed clothing for little kids, which made me think of DG, obviously. Our next destination was St. Malo, and after a 2-hour bus ride we arrived, got off the bus, and I looked out and saw a big anchor. The only anchor I have seen in France--I knew I had to take a picture. Little did I know that anchors would be EVERYWHERE in St. Malo--on bars, restaurants, stores, real anchors, in gift shops, on clothing, etc. It was so exciting! Unfortunately, our first priority was to find lunch, not to hunt for anchors. So we went to a restaurant where a few of our group ordered Moules-Frites (mussels and fries), while I opted for the safer choice of a ham & cheese galette. After that, we had a tour of a "pirate house," which wasn't really a pirate house, but a house that belonged to some dude who was committing tax evasion. It was still a pretty cool house, though. After that, I only had 30 minutes to hunt for anchors before we had to leave! I went with a few friends to some of the gift shops, but most of the things they were selling weren't anything practical or fun. So sadly, I left St. Malo empty-handed, without any anchors. But I did take some pictures of all the wonderful anchors that I saw while there. :) After St. Malo, we went to the train station and took the train back to Paris. It was a great weekend, even though it felt like we were very rushed the whole time. It was nice to be away from Paris for a few days and see a different side of France.

It's October?

It's been a while since I wrote anything, so I guess it's time for a little update.

I'm now signed up for my two Sorbonne classes which start next week. I'll be taking Intro to Linguistics and a French literature class called "Le Mentir Vrai." I'm not really sure what to expect, but I guess we'll see next week! Tara is in my linguistics class, which is nice because it means I'll have someone I know on Monday in my first real French class.

This past weekend, my aunt and my grandma came to visit me from Finland. We had a lot of fun together and it was so nice to see them after such a long time. We hit all the main tourist spots: Louvre, Tour Eiffel, Jardin de Tuileries, Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame, Orangerie, Sorbonne, Jardin de Luxembourg, Sacre Coeur, etc. Needless to say, our feet were extremely tired after each day, and I was always exhausted when I got home. Unfortunately, I have been having some trouble falling asleep (even when tired), which I think is a result of my whacked out sleep schedule. Next week, I'll need to get up early on 3 mornings, so that sleep schedule really needs to change fast. But anyway, I really enjoyed showing Sari and mummu around Paris, even if the men who worked at their hotel were huge jerks (I got yelled at for going up the stairs in the hotel). We also went to a TON of tourist shops (those places are addicting) and cafés. Great weekend, and I was sad to say goodbye. I feel better about it now though because I'm trying to make plans to go visit them and other relatives in Finland in December. :]

Today, Tara and I went to the Musée d'Orsay, which was absolutely beautiful. I don't know a whole lot about different artistic movements, but Impressionism is quickly becoming my favorite. I especially love Monet, and Orsay had tons of his paintings which was great. I really feel like being here has given me a new appreciation for art and art museums...I have never been one to go to a museum just for fun, but now I've really started to enjoy it. And Impressionist painting in particular--it makes me feel peaceful and calm but at the same time very alive. It's something about the colors, the technique, the subjects. It's hard to describe, and I'm not doing a good job of it at all, but it's a new experience that I'm glad I've started to embrace. The only problem with liking art is that it makes it difficult for me to not buy things at the gift shops--even if they're just post cards, I would love to have some kind of reproduction of all my favorite paintings.

On Monday, Nathan and I had our 2-year anniversary. Although it was sad to not be together to share it, he gave me what could quite possibly be the best anniversary gift of all time: he is coming to visit me in Paris. :) I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself. He'll be here for 4 days in November! It's hard for me to believe that he is actually coming since he worked so hard to convince me that there was no possible way he could. (He wanted it to be a surprise.) But yay!

Some things that may be coming up soon:

-Seeing a ballet at the Opera House

-500 Days of Summer at the movies

-Sushi dinner on Saturday night

-Concrete plans for London/Belgium

That's about it for now! I'm off to watch another few episodes of Gossip Girl (I think it's an addiction) and then to bed. Wish me luck for classes next week. :)

Starting week 3...

First, some bad news: my little 11-year old host brother is being bullied at school. It makes me so sad for him because he is so sweet, cute, and smart. Sandra, my host mom, thinks it's because he's very small compared to other kids his size and more on the intellectual side. Apparently, Amoury has been teased at school in the past, and I feel horrible for the whole family (especially Sandra) because I can see how much pain it causes them. Sandra called some of the kids' mothers tonight, so hopefully that will help...

Otherwise, things here have been going pretty smoothly. This morning, I left the apartment at 8.30 to go to my "inscription pedagogique" at the Sorbonne for French literature classes. I didn't want to take a French lit class (I've taken so many that I was in need of a break from them), but it seems to be the only thing that will work with my schedule. Alas, I'll be taking a course called "Le mentir vrai"...we'll find out soon what that is supposed to mean. Surprisingly enough, registering for the course only took me 30 minutes, and I managed to therefore only miss 30 minutes of my European Union class that started at 9.30.

Today, I went to the Musée Rodin with Laura and strolled around beautiful gardens while checking out sculptures. It was glorious. We were both pretty tired, so we spent some time laying on the lounge chairs that had been so generously provided for public use. It was heavenly.

Speaking of Laura--she might be moving in with my host family! She is having some problems with her living situation (AKA her host mom be crazy), so she is thinking about moving. She's probably coming tomorrow or Thursday to visit with my host parents and see if it would be a good fit for her. It would be really cool (and convenient for going-out purposes) if we lived in the same apartment!

On Sunday, I ventured to Centre Georges Pompidou to check out some modern art. It was very different and slightly disturbing. There were lots of works that I didn't quite understand--paint splatterings on canvas, random words on white background, a chicken in a bathtub, a video of a fat naked woman rolling on the floor, a painting that was literally completely black aside from a white line down the middle, etc. Some of the works were a lot more interesting and really managed to affect my mood and the way I was feeling, often for the worse. Still, I thought it was really cool that a painting or other piece of art could have that effect on me. I left feeling like one of the main goals of modern art was to be unsettling/perturbing.

In other news, I have been watching a good amount of American TV shows. There's something so comforting about them, and allowing myself to just hear English for an hour or two feels like a guilty pleasure. I've been watching How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Glee (LOVE IT) and House....and yesterday I watched the first 2 episodes of Gossip Girl. I think it's really funny because I never watch much TV when I'm at home (last year all I watched was the Office), but here there is so much more of a sense of comfort and relaxation. Also, it gives me something to do before going to bed. :)

That's about it for now. Here's a picture of me and Heather enjoying wine out of baby bottles at a fondue restaurant on Saturday night:

Oh and my aunt and grandma are coming to visit me this weekend, so I'm really excited! Although I don't know Paris all that well yet, I'm looking forward to showing them around. Even more than that though, it will be nice just to see them and hang out with them. :) Can't wait!

I've been in France for one month...

So. Today marks exactly 4 weeks that I've been in France. 2 weeks in Tours, and 2 weeks in Paris. It's crazy to think that I have less than 3 months left, and I just started classes!

Speaking of classes, I'm taking two courses through SBC (my study abroad program) that will only have other SBC students in them (AKA no French students). These two classes are:

L'Union Européenne: I decided to take this because I'm embarrassed by how little I know about the EU. Also, the teacher is really nice and energetic, so I think it will be a good class. It seems like there will be a fair amount of work in it, which is okay but not awesome. During our first class (it's 2.5 hours long), one of the things we did was name all the 27 countries of the EU. Apparently Norway is not in the EU, which was a surprise to me...

L'Histoire de l'Art: I've never taken an Art History class, but when I heard that this course goes to the Louvre once a week to look at paintings, I knew this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. The course covers the 16th and 17th centuries, so during the first class (1.5 hours), the professor talked about art and life during the Middle Ages. After that, I had one hour to go to the bank, get lunch, and get myself to the Louvre to meet with my visitation group (the class is 18 people, so we broke into two groups for the visits). During the visit, we sat down in a circle in front of a painting and talked about it for an hour. It was unreal. There we were, sitting on the floor of the LOUVRE. It was insane. I was sick and sneezing all over the place, but it was still incredible. I can't wait for next week...

I'm also taking two courses at Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), but they aren't scheduled to start until October 12. Luckily I have a lot of time, because course selection is a pain in the ass. I've selected about 7 different courses by now, but there always seems to be a problem: schedule overlap with SBC classes, bad professor, too advanced of a class, class canceled, etc. Right now, I'm pretty sure I'm taking "Introduction aux sciences de langage" (Basically Intro Linguistics), and as for the other course, I guess I will have to wait and see...There was a class called "Communication et Sciences Humaines" that seemed interesting, but I think that overlaps with one of my SBC classes. Really, it's a huge pain, and I'm glad I only have to take 2 classes at Paris III.

Aside from classes, this week has been relatively uneventful. I was pretty stuffy and sniffly for the past 2 days, so I spent a lot of time sleeping, sneezing, and trying to recover quickly. Thankfully, it feels like the worst part of that random cold is over, and I can start running around Paris again without feeling like my head is going to explode.

I just had my first dinner with the host parents without my (former) roommate. She left this evening, leaving behind a very upset and very confused Sandra. I feel so comfortable here, that I really don't understand why Delaney was so set on leaving. She decided right off the bat that she wanted to move, so maybe she just didn't want to change her mind? I don't know. I would be surprised to find out that she wasn't sad at all about leaving...When Sandra asked her why she was leaving, all she said was "I didn't want to live with small children." That's a reason, but it doesn't make much sense...especially considering we barely even see the kids. Our rooms are on the opposite side of the apartment, and I barely even hear the kids when I'm here (aside from Godfroy, who occasionally cries in the mornings). I just feel so bad for Sandra, who now thinks that she did something wrong to make Delaney want to leave. Hopefully she'll feel better soon. Maybe now that she is gone I'll have an opportunity to form a closer relationship with the family. We'll see.

On Tuesday, I went with Laura to see Versailles. It was one of those "must do" things that we both had wanted to do for quite some time. I was happy to get in for FREE (European citizens under 26 get free admission to tons of places in France....it's awesome). The chateau was impressive; everything was caked in gold and every room had at least 5 paintings/sculptures of le Roi Soleil, Louis XIV. I'm glad that I can now say that I've seen Versailles, although it was maybe a bit over the top for my taste. The gardens, on the other hand, were nothing short of spectacular. They were enormous and consisted of multiple mazes and perfectly geometric flower patterns and fountains and everything. Just beautiful.

Today, I decided to take the metro to Parc des Buttes Chaumont, a large park with trails and rolling hills. It was the first time I set out by myself to discover a place, and it felt really nice. I listened to my iPod and wrote in my journal while sitting on a park bench. I felt a little poetic and an equal amount pretentious. Either way, it was nice, and I think I'll return to that park, maybe to have a picnic or go running or something.

Today at dinner, my host mom brought up the idea of Nathan coming to visit. She kept saying how "génial" and "romantique" it would be for me and how "facile" it would be for him since he wouldn't have to find a hotel. In my mind I had already ruled out the possibility of him coming due to the fact that there really aren't any vacations during the semester (aside from Thanksgiving, and that's when the family is coming). But Sandra didn't seem to think this was a problem...she kept saying that girls they've hosted in the past have just had their boyfriends come during weeks when school was slow, there weren't any exams, etc.....so now of course, she has planted in my mind a little bit of hope of him maybe possibly being able to come, which in turn of course has me looking at flights, thinking about his schedule, etc. And I had so courageously accepted the fact that he absolutely cannot come visit!

Well, I think that's all for right now...plans for tomorrow:

Tour of Montmartre at 13h

Hopefully planning trips with Laura for the upcoming months (places I have in mind...Belgium, London, Italy)

Paris tourism

So, for the past few days, I've been very touristy. Aside from yesterday, during which I slept and attempted to watch American TV shows online (which is very hard to do from abroad, as it turns out.)

On Saturday, I went to the Louvre. I waited in line. I descended into the pyramid. I was confused, not knowing how to actually enter the museum. I found one of the 4 (?) entrances. I entered. I was overwhelmed. I found the Mona Lisa. I found 93981 people taking pictures of the Mona Lisa. I still do not understand what is so great about that painting, even after seeing it. Maybe I will after my Art History class. In any event, I saw many paintings and statues that I found much more beautiful and complex while I was there. I spent over 2 hours there, but only saw maybe a fifth of the entire museum. It is incredibly large. Unbelievably large, almost.

One of my favorites of the statues I saw:

Today I visited the Orangerie, which was much more manageable in terms of size and the amount of art present. They had wall-sized Monets there that were absolutely beautiful and peaceful and breathtaking. I might go back there just to sit and stare at them some day.

I also visited the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Both places were jam-packed full of people. We wanted to climb up the Eiffel Tower, but there were seriously so many people waiting in line to buy tickets, that it would have taken us hours before we could have even started the climb. So we decided to do that on another day. Notre Dame was beautiful, with its huge stained glass windows and pretty ceilings. However, that too was a bit tainted by the sheer volume of tourists taking pictures in every corner of the place (and outside of it). I still like doing all the touristy things, though.

Tomorrow: My first class and then off to visit Versailles!

The best a birthday away from home could be...

That's what yesterday was!

I was a little worried the day before my birthday, thinking I would probably just miss home all day. But the day actually went super well. I had a great, great 20th birthday.

I slept in late, took a shower, and didn't feel a day older.

After going shopping (I just realized I talked about this in yesterday's post), it was time for dinner. We had galettes, which are basically grilled crepes. They were delicieux! I had made plans to meet some people at the Bastille at 10 pm, and I was going to meet Heather at 9.40 PM at the metro stop to head over there. Well, after dinner, Sandra (my host mom) started acting a little weird, so I knew something was up. She told me I should probably skip dessert and go get ready...suspicious. I was all ready to leave at 9.30, when Sandra tells me there's someone at the door for me. It was Heather, who proceeds to say "surprise!" So now I'm thinking, WHAT is going on? Maybe they tried to plan a surprise party for me but the only person they could get in contact with was Heather? We stood around awkwardly for about 5 minutes, me not knowing at all what was going on, when about 6 or 7 more people come up the stairs. My host family planned a surprise party for me! I was so touched and genuinely surprised: my host mom had set us a little dessert party, gotten me presents, and planned to leave the apartment completely to me and my friends. It was so nice and so unexpected, that I just didn't know what to say other than merci, merci, merci.

The problem, however, was that some people didn't know about the surprise party, and thus were waiting at the Bastille to meet up with me and the 7 people in our apartment. I tried my best to explain this to my host mom, but I felt really bad about leaving since they had intended for us to stay there the night. I think, though, that most people really wanted to go out, and there was a good amount of people waiting at the Bastille for us when we got there at 11 pm (an hour late). But even though we were late, they weren't upset at all and just kept saying happy birthday to me and being really nice. SBC people (at least the ones I've gotten to know a bit better) are incredibly nice and fun to hang out with. I really can't believe it (because of the fact that it usually takes me a while to form close relationships), but after 3 short weeks I already feel incredibly attached to these people.

There was a group of about 15 to start out with, and we went to a bar that had happy hour until 11.30 (AKA cheaper drinks). After that, a few people went home since they wanted to catch the last metro at 12.30. A smaller group then went to a few other bars, and it was just a really chill night. We also went to one club and danced a little, but it was nothing too special. However, our goal was to stay out until 5.30 AM when the metro reopens, so we set out to find another place to hang out. We ended up walking around a bit and then settling on a nearly empty and quite expensive cafe. By this time (almost 3 am) we were all needing coffee: Amelia and I shared a coffee flavored milkshake (7 euro, eww), but it didn't seem to do the trick. Around 4 am, the remaining 5 of us threw in the towel and decided to take cabs home. Tara stayed over with me, and since Heather and I live so close, all 3 of us split the 10 euro cab fare. I think it was a good choice, since we all had to be on a sight-seeing boat at 2 pm the next day. Overall, it was a really fun night, regardless of the blisters from my shoes and the failure to find a place that was entertaining at 3 AM (HIMYM quote: Nothing good happens after 3 AM). But I love SBC people and my host family and my 20th birthday!

Loving it!

Quick update because I don't have a whole lot of time:

I'm loving every minute of Paris. I've been sleeping late and then meeting up with friends around noon or 1 pm to explore different areas. So far I've been to Montmartre, the Bastille, the Latin Quarter, Opera area, and the Marais. I've also walked a lot along the Seine, experienced a wide range of temperatures (12-25 degrees C), and gotten a feel for many of the major streets of Paris.

I have yet to go into a museum, but I will definitely do that soon. It's nice to know that there will be plenty of time to visit different museums and things, so I don't need to cram everything in to the first week. I haven't even been to the Tour Eiffel yet! I have been something of a bad tourist. The only "touristy" areas I've been to are Sacre Coeur, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and some gardens. So I have some catching up to do. There are just so many museums and sights, it's hard to know where to start.

Today, Tara and I decided to explore some Parisian "hidden gems" AKA vintage clothing stores selling high-name brands at low prices (of course the clothing is already used). This experience proved to be a bit too intense/eclectic for us, and even the Dior or D & G items we saw just looked weird to us...haha. We didn't end up buying anything from these vintage boutiques, but it was cool to see what they looked like. At one store, they also had probably a few hundred pairs of Levi's, Wranglers, and Lees on sale, which we just thought was funny. They also had a lot of retro Adidas/Nike sneakers, which I actually really like and had to hold myself back from buying.

After that, we went to St. Placide, which is a more "normal" shopping area. Many of the stores were too expensive for us, but I did manage to find a few birthday presents for myself (thanks grandma!): a gray bag and a matching pair of ballet flats. :) My first French purchases! (well, aside from a scarf) Needless to say, I was very happy and felt quite Parisian on the metro with my Naf-Naf bag. Haha.

Yesterday, I walked down the Champs-Elysees, saw the Arc de Triomphe (though I didn't go to the top yet), ate at a French McDonald's (so so so much better than in the US)....and saw Julie & Julia which was just adorable and the perfect thing to see in a theater on the Champs-Elysees. I loved the movie...especially the parts in which Meryl Streep tried to speak French! Meryl Streep is amazing, but she can't speak French! And it made me feel really good about my French-speaking abilities. :)

Anyway, so I'm having a great time and am planning to go out tonight with a group of friends to celebrate my 20th. I hope everyone at home is doing well. Love!

Finally in Paris!

So I am now finally in the place where I will spend the next 3 months living, studying, learning, walking, watching, speaking French, etc. It is crazy to be here and see what Paris is really like after having heard so much about it throughout the years. I'll get to that a little later on though...first I want to talk about my last week in Tours.

There's a lot that I've already forgotten, which makes me upset...I really just couldn't find the time/energy to update. Turns out you need a bit of motivation to keep a blog going! But I did have a very nice last week. Classes were extremely boring, but it did give me the opportunity to see SBC people every day and meet some new ones.

I also participated in a cooking class in which we made Tarte Tatin, which is kind of like apple pie. It was really good, although I don't think I could make one if someone asked me to....oh well. It was more about the experience of being invited into a French home and engaging in conversation with a lovely and helpful French woman. It did bother me a little bit that the girl sitting next to me was petting the cat on her lap the entire time, and the breeze caused all the pieces of fur that the cat was shedding to fly directly into my face/lap/plate...it was kind of gross. I can deal with cats being near me, just preferably not their fur all up on me.

On Wednesday night, I went out to the Loire and met a group of SBC people there. It was really nice just sitting there in a circle, passing around wine bottles that we had purchased for 3-5 euro/each, and talking about France and our host families and other random things. I also spent a lot of time talking to Heather, a super nice girl who also has a boyfriend at home....so we spent a good amount of time swapping I-miss-my-boyfriend anecdotes. It's nice that other people on the program are in the same situation as I am. We then ran into a small group of French guys, ranging from 18 to 20 years old, who took a rather keen interest in us. I was a little tipsy at this point and extremely excited about the prospect of practicing French with actual French teenagers, so I eagerly played along. We hung out with them for an hour or two, and they were really nice and fun to talk to. We had a good time, but around 1:30 AM or so realized we should probably go home and go to bed, since we would have to wake up at 7:30 AM the next morning.

Moi et Heather:

Yeah, the next morning. Ouch. I had a bit of a headache (understatement) when I woke up, but luckily Ibuprofen helped knock it out. That was definitely a difficult wakeup, though...

The next night was our last in Tours (Thursday), so of course we had to go out again. Tara and I purchased one bottle of wine instead of two this time, and headed to the Loire to meet SBC people. That night, there was a huge group of us and we all just hung out and talked about how excited/nervous we were for Paris. We also stopped by La Guingette, a bar/club outdoors right by the river, where they were having salsa night and we tried to dance to some salsa songs (French people can dance salsa surprisingly well). I also looked on with jealousy as I saw some girls from my program being twirled around by handsome French boys. Ah, c'est la vie.

Arrival in Paris:

When we got off the bus, we all piled into a huge auditorium to be paired up with our host families. Delaney (my new roommate) and I were paired up with Monsieur de Scorraille and his 5 year-old son Charles who was also there to greet us. We then pulled our suitcases to the metro stop, up and down metro stairs, on and off of the metro, etc. The metro was extremely crowded, so it was a little difficult, but we made it. M. de Scorraille (Bruno) was very nice right away, explaining to us how the metro works, telling us they would speak slowly to us at first, and complimenting our French.

When we got to the apartment, the eccentric and talkative host mom, Sandra, was there to greet us with the other three children: Godfroi (1.5), Amoury (10), and Antoine (12). All 4 are boys, and they all look very different from each other. Two have light hair, two have dark hair. Anyway, the kids are all very sweet and Sandra was very quick to explain all the rules of the house to us, tell us how things operate, ask us if we have questions, and just generally make us feel welcome. My room here is very cute and comfortable--there are clouds on the wall, an ice cream cone lamp, a fridge (!), and lots of shelf space for my clothes (which I will be able to retrieve from storage on Monday...can't wait). I really like my room and my family, although I've been a bit shy about interacting with them outside of meal times (4 small children can actually be quite intimidating...especially since they speak French really fast). I definitely want to be able to spend time with them outside of meals, but I don't know for sure how they feel about that...maybe they want our lives to remain somewhat separate rather than me being an actual part of their "family." Well, I guess we'll see what our relationship turns out to be. Sandra did say that she still keeps in touch with several exchange students they've hosted before, and that many have even come back to visit them. I think that is very promising and shows that they are actually interested in getting to know their students and establish a good relationship with them.

Overall, they seem like very good, level-headed, welcoming people. Now, the apartment--it is perhaps not in the best shape. The stuffing of the couch is coming out in a few spots, some floor tiles in the kitchen are broken, stacks of papers/books are laying around, etc. Okay, so they're not super organized, I'm thinking. However, the apartment doesn't seem "dirty" to me...there was a bit of dust in my room, but nothing I can't handle. My roommate, however, freaked out as soon as we arrived--she called Mme Parnet, the housing director, immediately and requested she be moved because she couldn't live in such a shithole, essentially. She didn't use that word, but that's what she implied. She also told me today that she had requested no roommate, which kind of makes things awkward. I feel like she resents me for being here, even though I didn't request to have a roommate either. It really just feels like she isn't giving the situation a chance to work out. It makes me realize that, compared to many people (especially upperclass Americans), I'm actually quite adept at adapting to new environments and situations. I didn't come to Paris with any specific expectations of what the family would be like, and I think that helped me a lot. All I knew was that those kids were going to be darn cute, and oh my goodness they are. They are adorable, and the parents are nice, talkative, and interesting, and really that's all I hoped for. Maybe the apartment isn't in the best shape, but I think it's worth the sacrifice. Also a side note--the meals are AMAZING. Well, at least the two so far have been. The mom loves to cook and said she's going to try to make a lot of different typical French meals for us (score!!). And I finally get to eat cheese at every meal (unlike in Tours), which is something I really felt I was missing out on.

Today, I met Laura and we set out exploring. We visited the following places: Sacre Coeur, Cimetiere de Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, Jardin de Tuileries, Louvre (didn't go in, but saw it...that counts, right?), Galleries Lafayette (incredible...and incredibly EXPENSIVE), H & M (too too crowded!), saw the Opera, saw the Obelisk, saw the Eiffel Tower & Arc de Triomphe from afar. Phew, I think that was it. This whole trip, including stopping for lunch, took us about 5 hours...and we walked the whole time with the exception of the metro from the Louvre back home. :)

Speaking of lunch...we found a GREAT deal at a boulangerie near Montmartre: 5 euro for a demi-baguette sandwich, a can of juice/soda, and a pastry. Yesss. I finally got to try a tarte a citron, which was wonderful and would have cost me 2,50 by itself! I hope I find amazing deals like that in other boulangeries....although I need to get out of the habit of eating so much dessert, haha.

Anyway, that's about it for today, I think...more exploration of Paris is in store for tomorrow! I

also saw some cheap shoe stores on my street today that I may have to check out....it's just so hard to resist!! Paris is amazing so far and I'm loving it, although it's different than I had imagined. Firstly, there are people EVERYWHERE. Did I come to China by accident instead of Paris? Also, only the true center of Paris really looks like Paris to me, probably because that's the area I had seen all the pictures of. When I saw the Louvre, and then the Arc de Triomphe, and then the Tour d'Eiffel, I couldn't help but have this big stupid, slaphappy smile on my face...it really started to hit me then that I'm actually here, in Paris--the infamous City of Lights, the city of love and art and architecture and wonderful magical things. :) I can't wait to get to know this city...there is so much for me to learn about it. First I just have to realize that yes, this city that I have only seen in pictures

(many

many of them) IS actually real and this is not all just a dream. Because honestly, when I saw the

Tour d'Eiffel, I really wouldn't have been surprised if I had awoken right then to someone shaking me awake from a wonderful dream...

Tiring, yet lovely Monday.

Current status: Ballin'...in France.

Getting up at 7: 30 this morning was tough, as was walking to the Institut in the cold, but the rest of the day was extremely pleasant. A few highlights:

-Lunch at "Mangez-Moi," a restaurant-café that is supposedly Indian but specializes in nan sandwiches with fries inside. Not sure if that is entirely Indian. I had a nan fromage, which was essentially bread with brie baked inside..it was heaven in my mouth.

-Walking in and out of stores on Rue Nationale

-FINALLY finding a black headband to replace my broken one (finding a plain, black headband in France for less than 5 euro is considerably more difficult than one might think)

-Chatting with people outside the Institut

-The incredibly perfect 75 degree weather

-Buying raspberry flavored champagne & a baguette, and eating/drinking by the Loire

-Watching French people enjoying a beautiful late summer evening (when it's nice out it seems like the whole town is outside)

Distinct lowlight of the day:

-The beautiful ring I bought yesterday at la braderie BROKE this morning. Stupid 3 euro ring. It looked like this (below):

And now....(see right)

Good thing I took a picture to forever preserve the memory of the ring I had for less than 24 hours...

Sundays are slow in France...

...and it makes me anxious! I feel like I should always be doing something in order to get the most out of my time here, and that's why Sundays in France (when everything is closed and people stay home for the most part) are somewhat unsettling to me.

Today, however, was a special Sunday: it was the day of la braderie. What this meant was that the main shopping street, La Rue Nationale, was overtaken by street vendors selling their stuff. And the French people went CRAZY for it. Some of the stuff being sold in the streets belonged to the actual stores, and in that case, they would just display some items being sold for low prices right in front of their locations. However, there were also many "independent" sellers--people who just pay to have a spot on the street and set up shop with whatever items they may have. Mostly, the things people were selling tended to repeat themselves. There were several stands selling each of the following: shoes (oh god so many shoes, good thing none of the ones I liked were my size), clothing (especially of the Italian variety), lingerie, make-up, candy (I resisted...I'm proud of myself), handbags, jewelry. Some people were selling more unique things, like ethnic African hats or Native American charms. It was cool to walk through and look at the crazy French people digging through piles of clothing, but by 11:00 AM the street was literally jam-packed. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to find a bag for a cheap enough price (I realized I need one large enough to carry books, notebooks, etc).

My favorite part of the whole place was an adorable little Yorkie puppy. It was sitting in a crate, and when Tara and I walked up to pet it, this young French guy started talking to us about how the dog is part of a circus, they need money to feed the animals, please buy these little pieces du miel (they were like honey-flavored mints) to help. And then he asked me if I was a local (!!!) and when I said we were from the US, he said I spoke French well. :] So then duh, I bought the honey mints for 5 euro... That puppy was so adorable though, I decided I am going to get a little yorkie when I'm older (along with a beagle, a border collie, and a golden retriever).

After that, I just came home and kind of hung out. I had an amazing and amazingly nutella-filled crepe at the braderie, so I skipped dessert at dinner. It really took a lot out of me, but I think I need to start limiting myself to one dessert per day. Ohhh, zut. I hate calories, there is so much deliciousness to be consumed in France....pastries, chocolates, ice cream (here, ice cream = gelato), CREPES, oh my it's ridiculous. When I get to Paris, I'll need to start running my butt off (literally).

Well that's about it...time for me to go to sleep, otherwise I'll never wake up at 7:30 AM!

A tout a l'heure!

P.S. Sorry to all of you who know French for ignoring accents. They are too hard to make on my computer...except for the é!

P.P.S. Sorry for all the parentheses in this post.

last night = pas bon

Last night, we really wanted to go dancing at one of the nightclubs in Place Plume.

Turns out this was a poor life decision. Guys in French nightclubs are one of the following three things:

1. Cute and normal but gay

2. Cute and normal but too shy to approach girls

3. Creepy

This means that the only ones who DO in fact approach... are the creepy ones.

Tara and I danced a little with some somewhat weird/creepy guys, but then things got a little too weird, French guys were interested in getting a bit too intimate, and we skedaddled. It was a fun night up until that point, though?

I also found out that kir pétillant essentially means flavored champagne (you can choose from a variety of flavors)....it's pretty much my new favorite thing.

Also important:

Today we visited a chateau called Chenonceau with the group. It was beautiful and impressive and awe-inspiring, but I have to say, after a while all of the rooms in those castles start to look pretty damn similar. They also gave us 5.5 hours for our visit, which was just entirely too much time to walk around a relatively small castle. Oh well.

Even more important:

For dessert tonight we had balls of vanilla ice cream which were covered with nuts + caramel sauce. There was also a meringue hiding inside the ice cream, and the whole contraption was called "un mystere" (a little sketchy, yeah). It felt like I was eating a heart attack, but it was very very good. How are French people so skinny, though? I really don't get it.

My favorite meal in France.

Tonight, we ate soup. That was not very remarkable.

But THEN Mme V brought out the potatoes and the smoked salmon and I was in high heaven. It was such a nice reminder of home and it was so familiar and tasty and delicious and I loved it. The only thing missing was family :)

Yesterday, I had dessert 3 times..life is good.

Okay so I know it's been a while since I posted anything, and I'm tired of having a post up about a bad day so I thought I should write something.

This week was the first week of classes, and it was pretty tiring to wake up at 8:30 am every morning. I'm not sure if maybe jet lag is still affecting me, but even if I go to sleep early I still feel tired for most of the day. And the bad news is that next week I will have to get up an hour earlier....zut. Classes have been going well though. I have one that is Oral Expression, and each day we debate about a different topic. Today we talked about the death penalty because no one had any other ideas. The first couple of days, our class was very shy about "debating" and no one made real arguments. We're getting better though, I think. It's kind of hard to debate in French, but it's been helpful in revealing the common mistakes we tend to make in conversation. The other class, Langue Francaise, is mostly grammar/vocabulary and therefore fairly boring. Also it lasts nearly 2 hours... :(

Tara and I are a little more accustomed to Mme V by now, so we stay at the dinner table typically for at least an hour just talking to her and asking questions, etc. We've also been having some delicious food....we had spaghetti one night, ravioli last night, we tried le camembert which was actually surprisingly good, and of course dessert every day :D

We never really know what to expect as far as dinner, however. We always start out with a sort of "appetizer" that is usually some kind of vegetable. On Wednesday night, for example, we sat down at the table and saw a dish full of radishes. There was also some kind of spread/paté that Mme V told us was called "rillettes", which is apparently just mushed pork. Mme V told us to grab a radish, spread some rillettes on it, and then bite it. Yum. Okay, it actually wasn't very good. I don't think I had ever tried a radish before, and probably for good reason. Thank you Mom for never making me eat radishes.

That night as a main course we had mini hamburgers. Except in the place of buns, there were tomatoes. Those were really good, although I had never seen anything like it before. I don't know if the culinary experience we are having in Tours is "typical" French or what, but most of it is definitely new to me (aside from spaghetti and ravioli, of course).

As we were finishing dinner, Mme V noticed that there were about 5 spiders right outside the kitchen window. She then proceeded to pull out the bug spray, open the window, and spray those spiders one by one. Then she would close the window, say "adieu, adieu" and kind of wave to the spiders as they fell off the window. For some reason, it was really funny for us to watch a 70+ year-old woman menacingly smiling while spraying spiders.

Thursday, or the day I ate dessert three times:

On Thursday, I ate dessert. Three. Times. And I also decided that I love France.

After class, Tara, Adam, and I bought lunch and then walked to the Musée des Beaux-Arts, where we had a guided tour at 2:00 PM. After we had eaten our sandwiches, we looked for a patisserie where we could get pastries. I bought a "crumble" (apparently pronounced croomble in French) with raspberry filling...AHH it was so good.

Then we went to the Musée des Beaux-Arts....it was my first visit to a French museum so I was excited. I don't know the first thing about art, but hopefully by December I'll know much more.

That night, after dinner, Mme V decided to make crepes for us (finally! She's been telling us for about 5 days that she had been thinking of making them, but always decided against it. It was torture). But we finally had them and they were delicious.

Later, we went to a "concert pop-rock" with other JYF people. The concert was interesting...the first group to perform consisted of 4 girls, of whom only one played an instrument and the others sang some form of a cappella. It was cool, although weird in some parts. Sometimes they sang a little too high/screamy in my opinion. The next group was a local rock band, which was a lot less interesting than the screaming girls. Well the important part of the night: as we were walking home, we walked past a candy store and bought some candy...(irtokarkkeja, I don't know how to say that in English), so that brought the grand total to 3 desserts. It was a pretty good day.

Not the best day ever.

First day of classes today.

Which inevitably meant a few little blunders.

First traumatic experience (I exaggerate, it wasn't that traumatic): I'm sitting in a class called Langue Francaise (one of our two courses here in Tours), and I'm towards the back of the room right next to the AC. The teacher notices it's 1000 degrees in the room, so she asks me to stand up and turn on the AC. Pas de probleme, I'm thinking. She says "juste a droite," so I'm like, okay, on the right. There are lots of buttons on this little AC box, but only one on the right, so I put my finger on it and turn to her to make sure that's what she meant. She replies "Non!" At that point, I start to mentally panic, thinking I somehow got my left and right mixed up. She then starts spouting random directions like "en bas" and "a droite" again, until she's just too frustrated and asks someone else to do it. The guy who comes over to "help" me presses the first button I had my finger on......! I was just like, are you serious? It was the first time when I really didn't understand...even though I really did and she just thought I didn't. Essentially, I was made to look stupid for something that I got right the first time. I was pretty frustrated about it.

Second instance: Lunch at Place Plume. After looking for a cheap place to get something for lunch, we finally settle on a small cafe just outside the square. Trois euros quatre-vingt. For some unexplainable reason my head translates that to 3,40. WRONG. So that was mildly embarrassing, and I believe the first time that someone has switched to English while speaking to me. She waved my 50 cent coin around and explained, in English, how much I owed. Faillll.

Third instance: My hostess made fun of me for cutting up my spaghetti with a fork and knife rather than using a spoon and wrapping it around my fork. She then proceeded to tell me how she once had a student stay with her who also did what I did: "J'avais une autre etudiante qui a aussi coupe le spaghetti comme ca. Une autre petite Americaine. Elle ne savait rien manger." Translation: "I had another student who also cut her spaghetti like that. Another little American girl. She didn't know how to eat anything." OK so she called me American, which I guess is forgivable. But I'm pretty sure she was in a way mocking me, telling me my way of eating spaghetti (and maybe inadvertently other foods as well) was wrong. Well, I didn't really care, I just cut up my pasta, ate it with ease, and watched on as Tara and Mme struggled with their falling noodles. Tant pis pour eux. Even if it's not culturally appropriate, I don't see anything wrong with cutting up spaghetti. Personally, I'd rather not look Italian than get spaghetti sauce all over myself.

So it wasn't the best day. The good news, though, is that I finally acquired a cell phone. I managed to complete that transaction in comprehensible although not perfect French. I feel like my confidence took a few hits today, but I can't let it get to me. In order to keep practicing and using my French, I have to remain confident in my abilities....otherwise one mistake will inevitably cause another, which will cause another, etc. When practicing/learning a language, I think you're so much better off if you're positive and sure of yourself....from what I've learned (at least of myself), I don't do nearly as well if I'm anxious, nervous, or insecure. So I'll keep trying. :)

le samedi

On Saturday, Tara and I got to sleep in and then have the biggest brunch of all time: yogurt, toast, tea, juice, cereal, pizza, and pain au chocolat. We didn't quite finish our pain so we decided to take it with us on our group trip to Amboise.

The whole group took a train together, and we were unfortunately the last ones to get on it...oops. The walk that our hostess (who is assez vieille) said would take 10 minutes took us 20....and we were walking at a very brisk pace. Mme V must be a marathoner or something.

Anyway, so we took the train and then walked in the oppressive heat (yes, it was that hot) about 30 minutes to the city's center. There, we visited Le Clos Lucé, where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last 3 years. It was pretty interesting, and they had models of many of his inventions on display with short descriptions of what they were used for. I still left feeling like the da Vinci exposition in Atlanta a few years ago was much more informative and interesting. Oh well.

Then, we walked back to the Chateau and had ice cream before our tour. The Chateau d'Amboise itself was very beautiful, and we took lots of amazing photos (which probably all look the same).

As we were leaving to walk back to the train, one of the directors told me there is another Finnish student in the program. I of course got really excited and decided I had to meet her ASAP. Well, the director introduced us about 5 seconds later, and once we realized that we both speak Finnish, we switched to our native language and talked all the way back to the train station and to Tours. It was really interesting to see someone else who is practically in the same situation as I (speaks Finnish, lives in the US, visits Finland every summer), and we had a great time talking about our favorite things about Finland. I have to say though, it was somewhat confusing to be speaking Finnish in France on an American program. When I was spoken to in French afterwards, I had to think for a while about what language to respond in. Oh the difficulties of multi-lingualism (just kidding, don't hate me). Anyway it was really really cool and basically just a HUGE coincidence that we're both on this program. :)