Quick Recap of a Lot of Stuff!

Bonjour!!
So much has happened the past couple of days!!

Wednesday:
-Musee de Cluny (a medieval museum) with lit calss. It was awesome! Everything was at least 500 years old, including this series of tapestries called La Dame a La Licorne! Some rich guy bought a chateau like 100 years ago and found the 400 year old tapestries in his basement! They suffered some water damage becuase they were laying in a puddle in said basement, but are relatively unharmed for being 500 years old!!
-Went with lit teacher to a piercing place to get her nose pierced!! It looks super cute on her!! I think her face was made for one!
-Went to the program director's daughter's 7th bday party! It wass a lot of fun! She got a ton of hair stuff and loved the ballerina outfit that Leslie and I got her. I think the last time that I went to a 7th bday party, I was 7 or 8 haha. It was awesome to hang out with a kid! I've never thought about it before, but the only kids I see while at school are kids at walmart, haha. It was nice and I had a great time!

Thursday:
-Went to the Paris Opera house to look at the beautiful architecture and art and stuff!! I didnt see the phantom though :( but I did see the incredibly beautiful and ornate stage and a museum exhibition about an opera star who recently has died named Regine something...I can't remeber her last name, sorry!
-Went to the African quarter of Paris to pick up some super cool African dresses that my teacher had custom made for her! There are a bunch of shops with tons and tons of these crazy African fabrics. So you pick a fabric and pick a dress style, they measure you and you come back in a week to pick everything up! Karen's clothes were gorgeous!! She got two really pretty prints: a skirt and top of each. Leslie bought a premade dress when we were there and I'm super jealous! If I had money and time left, haha, I would go have one made! They're awesome!
-Went back to the Foyer and got dressed for a concert at St. Chapelle! St. Chapelle is a beautiful gothic church in which about 80 percent of the walls are stain glass! I'm a huge stain glass fan and the St. Chapelle is breathtaking!! The church is very small though compared to like Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur, but still very nice. We were told that we were either seeing a concert of Vivaldi's Four Seasons or Pachabel's Canon. We saw neither, haha. I have no idea what was played, nor who it was by, but it was kickass! There were only 3 musicians: 1 played all of these different wooden recorders (and was super kickass!), 1 was an amazing violonist and the other was a fantastic harpsicord player! I loved it! Several of the pieces were just the recorder dude, then some with the recorder guy and the violinist, and then some with all three musicians. My favorite piece though was one played by just the violinist and the harpsicord lady. It was a series of movements and each one was a different bird. It was cute! The first movement was Le Rossignol (the nightingale), then the cuckoo, then the hen and cock, then something I didn't know the word for (I think it might have been an owl? but he didn't say ebu or chouette...two words for owl, so who knows?), and then the last one was about a cat who tries to catch all of the birds. That was my favorite because he made the violin make meowing sounds, haha. It was awesome!
-After returning, I had to finish all of my journal entries for a prompt 8:30 due date. I stayed up till 2:30 :(

Friday:
-I got up at 5:30 (hooray 3 hours of sleep!) and headed to the airport to pick up my mom and sister!!!
-Got to the airport, finally ound the right terminal after walking around for like 45 minutes, haha, and picked up my fam!!! It was great to see them becuase I haven't been home all summer! I think I've seen them each like 3 or 4 times in the past 3 months. So it was awesome to pick them up and get hugs!
-Settled them into the Foyer (they're staying right down the hall!) and went to take my final exams!
-Got an A on my lit exam!
-Got an A on my culture exam!
-Got an A on my journal!
-Went to the grocery store with Mom and Alyssa who preceeded to buy a lot of things and didn't really realize we'd have to walk home, haha. My back still hurts from the 983729583745 pound backpack, haha.
-Rested and hungout
-Went on a ghost tour of Paris!! It was really fun! This strange American guy gave us the tour and took us to different locations around the city and told us of the local lore and legends. It was super cool becuase I learned a lot of neat things about Paris' dark history! Including things like a real Sweeney Todd story, some cool stories about the catacombes and stuff like that!
-Came back to the Foyer and pretty much passed out from exhaustion, haha

Saturday (Today):
I woke up a little bit ago, have had some cereal and am now trying to get Mom and Alyssa up and at'em! I'm taking them to the Cemetery Pere Lachaise today!
Tonight, the kids in my group are having a celebration for Harry Potter's birthday! (Sponsored by my roomie and me, of course, haha) It will be fun! We're going to play trivia games and watch movies and make butterbeer! (which sounds like it will be really gross: club soda + butterscotch ice cream topping + some butter)

So yep! The this upcoming week will be awesome! 1. My mom and sister are here! 2. I am done with class and homework! 3. I will enjoy my last week in Paris!

Bonjournee!
Briana

Who Would Have Thought!

Bonjour!!
I totally remembered what I did Sunday! I know you’re dying to know because your life felt incomplete without knowing the goings-on of my Sunday! Sunday, I did not only dye a bit of my hair purple, but I did some other things earlier in the day as well. The Tour de France ended in Paris Sunday. They make like 7 laps around the city and the finish line is at L’Arc de Triomphe. Well I decided to go to L’Arche de la Defense on Sunday. The Arc de Triomphe is in the center of the largest roundabout in France (maybe in Europe, I can’t remember what my guide book says…) and there are 6 streets that intersect it (so it looks like a star with 12 arms). The main arm that runs directly through the center of L’Arc de Triomphe is called the axe historique. At one end, there is a mini Arc de Triomphe, then the Arc de Triomphe is in the middle, and then there is the Arche de la Defense at the other end.
Ok, so we have the Navigo passes that allow us to have unlimited bus and metro rides in the first 2 zones of Paris. The zones are concentric circles…there are 4 of them. Everything we’ve done on this trip thus far has been in the first 2 zones, so it’s never been a problem. Well, it turns out that La Defense is in the third zone, and the closest we could get to it was the Arc de Triomphe on the outer rim of the first zone. We (Leslie, Belinda and I) were like, “oh whatevs, it’s no big deal…we’ll just walk from Arc de Triomphe to La Defense. It can’t be that far!”
We took the metro from the Foyer to the Arc de Triomphe and it was INSANE!! We had temporarily forgotten about the Tour de France and there were so many people!!!! And it was around 3:00 and the race wasn’t even by the arc until like 5:00 or something!! I know it is the Tour de France…but it’s a glorified bicycle race people, haha. I think I don’t understand because I’m not into sports or anything, haha. (Sorry if you have an affinity for the Tour!) Anyway! We started walking to La Defense. 75ish minutes later, we finally arrived!!! We definitely walked 4.9 km to get to the arc. I know that’s only like 3 miles…but we did not go as the crow flies. So I’m estimating like 4 miles maybe 3.5. That’s a very long walk when you think it’s only going to be about 20 minutes away! Haha. It looked like it wouldn’t take much time at all to get there though and we figured out why when we arrived: the arc is HUMONGOUS!!!!!!! It is so big that it looked like it would take no time at all to reach…how wrong we were, haha. La Defense is a lot more modern compared to the Arc de Triomphe. It is just a huge, white arc and its angles and the material it is made out of are very modern. After seeing all three arcs on l’axe historique, I will say that the Arc de Triomphe is my favorite. Just because it is the most beautiful I think, what with all of the carvings and statues on the outside and all of the names on the inside.
Tuesday (today) I had my culture class at 11:00 and we went to the Musee Rodin. It is a museum built in this very old house (I think it might have been Rodin’s house, but I have no idea…) and has a lot of sculptures by Rodin…whose first name escapes me at the moment. There is also a big, lovely garden in the back that had several sculptures as well. The gardens were nice, but after seeing the gardens at Versailles and at Giverny, nothing can compare! I did like the topiary though: all of the bushes and stuff were cut into shapes like cones and triangles and things.
The house is 2 floors and there were a bunch of rooms. Every room had at least 15-20 sculptures in it. I know nothing of Rodin, but to make all those sculptures, he must have not had a social life! There were at least 100!! In one room, there were these sculptures that were extremely beautiful and well done. They were the best in the whole museum! Turns out, they were actually done by a woman named Camille Claudel who was a student of his. She was super talented!! And way better than Rodin! Her stuff was amazing! After touring the museum, I learned from my teacher that Rodin and Camille’s brother worked together to put Camille into an asylum!! Just because she was better than him!! Laaaammme!!! But that’s the early 1900s for you, I guess.
After the museum, I went back to the Foyer and did some…you guessed it! Homework! I had my 4 hour lit class at my teacher’s apartment starting at 3:30. We got there a little late because we got separated on the metro, but we made it there around 4:00. We discussed our reading assignment and she made us dinner! Which was not only very nice of her, but very delicious! She purchased premade dinner stuff at a Moroccan market and just heated it up at her apartment. I’ve never had Moroccan food before, but the chicken was delicious! I also really enjoyed the couscous, which I’ve never had before either.
So now my day is coming to a close and I’m doing some more homework before bed. I talked to Colton and Dad via facebook chat before my computer died, which was nice :D
I have a busy schedule tomorrow! (Wednesday)
-Lit class at 11:00
-Musee de Cluny (a medieval museum) with lit class at 1:00
-Going with teacher to a piercing place to get her nose pierced!! at 3:00ish (which I’m sure will make me very jealous of her and make me miss my nose piercing a lot, haha. stupid metal allergy!!)
-Going to the program director’s daughter’s birthday party in the Luxembourg gardens at 6:45
Woohoo!

Bon nuit!
Briana

p.s. some things I'd like to mention:
-toilet paper in France is pink!
-there are no preservatives in the food here
-I have been actively concentrating on not biting my nails and I am proud to say that I 4 out of my 10 fingernails are the longest they've ever been in my entire life!

Yay Poetry!

Salut!
Where'd I leave off? Saturday, I believe! Right, so Sunday was kind of boring. I pretty much just did homework and...well actually, I think that's it. I can't remember anything else of substance happening, haha. Oh wait!! I dyed my hair purple! I got a purple streak on my last birthday but it soon faded to an awkward pink bubblegum/cotton candy color, so I finally dyed it back to the best color in the universe!! (purple, if you didn't catch my drift)

A Series of Haikus About My Day (Monday):
I woke up later
Than I usually do
For a Monday class.
It was ok though,
Becuase I took a shower
The preceeding night.
Eleven thirty
That's when class began for me
Hooray for French lit.
Group meeting took place
With all of the others
We talked about stuff.
I had another
French literature class
To make up for one.
Where did the day go?
I went shopping for some things
For the week (like food).
I've obligations.
My academia
Never lets me rest.
That was a fancy
Term for, "I did my homework."
There's a lot of it.
It's all completed
And now I am missing you.
I'm ready for bed!

Hooray! Tomorrow won't be as boring as this past weekend I hope, haha.
I am going to the Musee Rodin and I have another 4 hour lit class.

A bien tot!
Briana

Petanque, Cemeteries, Catacombes, and Ice Cream!

Bonjour!
I don’t remember where I last left off in my blog, haha. So please forgive me if I make you read about this stuff again…oh wait! I think it is coming back to me. I believe that I wrote about going to Le Paradis des Fruits and getting the yucky chicken curry stuff. I’m pretty sure that was Wednesday! Ok, so Thursday! Every week, the whole group goes on one or two cultural outings together. Thursday morning, the director took us to a private petanque club. What is petanque, you ask? It is exactly like Bocce Ball if you know what that is…The basic premise is that someone throws a little blue ball and it has to land 6-10 meter away from the throwing line. There are 2 teams of 3 and each person has 2 larger silver balls (6 of the balls are the same for team 1, 6 are identical for team 2). A member from team 1 throws one of their silver balls as close to the blue ball as possible, followed by a member of team 2. Whoever is further away gets to go next. The order of succession after that is really confusing…Team 1 (or whoever has a ball farthest from the blue after the initial round of throws) throws until they get a silver ball closer to the blue ball than team 2, and then it is team 2’s turn. It is team 2’s turn until they get closer to the blue ball than team 1. When everyone is out of silver balls, you go over to the small blue one. You decide which team has the closest silver ball to the blue ball. Then you count that team’s silver balls around the blue one (you look at the top 4 closest balls and that is what you choose from). For example, say that team 2’s balls were closest, then you’d count the remainder of team 2’s balls surrounding the blue ball (but you only count the top four closest balls)…one point per silver ball. So if team 2 had the closest ball, but the other 3 closest balls belonged to team 1, then team 2 would get 1 point, team 1 would get 0. The team to reach 13 first, wins. You’re allowed to hit other player’s silver balls out of the way or hit the blue ball to move it away from your opponent or closer to your team’s silvers. It was pretty fun once I figured out what the heck we were doing!! Petanque is mostly played by older people (like bingo or chess in the park), but it was super fun!
My team was comprised of me, Rachel and Megan. We were Team Mermaid!! And we totally won! The final score was 13-6. Poor Team Jacob (made up of Leslie, Karen—my super cool French teacher—and Kiara) never had a chance! Mermaids are way better than werewolves…duh! (If you don’t understand what Jacob and werewolves have to do with each other, I suggest you go see Eclipse!)
Members of the petanque club taught us how to play and our game was the first to end. He took us to the little hangout/bar area and served us beer or wine, haha. The club president brought his puppy too! She was really adorable…a highlands terrier named Eclaire who hopped up on the table and took a nap!
After petanque, the kids in the culture class had to go to the Centre Pompidou (a modern art museum). Before we headed there though, we had lunch at a cute little café across the road from the petanque club. We were in the Montmartre quarter, which I think is my favorite region of Paris. There are a lot of very cute shops and it is a lot more calm and tranquil than the Latin quarter (where I am living). I had the salade chicken, haha. I thought it was interesting that they used the English word for chicken instead of the French one. It was pretty good because I asked for the dressing on the side and then gave my tomatoes and cucumbers to Leslie. The chicken was ok, but it was all dark meat and cold (which I don’t exactly like) and there were cold potatoes on it too. (it was rather strange as well…I’ve never had cold potatoes.)
After that, I went to Le Centre George Pompidou for like 5 hours. It was a humongous place!!! It had art by Picasso and Dali as well as weirder stuff like a video projected on a wall of a woman hulahooping naked…with a barbed wire hoolahoop! Most of the museum just creeped me out. I much prefer impressionist or renaissance art to modern art. I really didn’t feel extremely inspired or changed or intrigued by anything I saw…just weirded out, haha.
Other things I saw:
-these two giant jellyfish looking things strung from the ceiling. One was made of pink material and had crabs and fish eggs all over it. It was emitting music and creepy moans of pain. The other one was made of a burlap material and had giant pictures of tooth extractions on it. I read the plaque next to the “art” and learned that the structures were supposed to be fraternal twins…one was blind but had teeth and the other had cancer but could speak…yeah…I don’t get it either. It was just extremely bizarre and eerie.
-the top floor of the museum/gallery had an exhibition called “Dreamland.” It was a display of big cities their designs, and the effectiveness of their designs. It showcased New York City, Las Vegas, EPCOT (more on that in a minute), some cities in southeast Asia, and more (but I don’t really remember.) The Las Vegas one was my favorite because it had a whole bunch of pictures and the city plans from the 50s. It was neat to see all of the casinos that were super ritzy in the 50s and know how different they have turned out. The EPCOT thing was cool too. We all know EPCOT as an awesome part of DisneyWorld, but it started out as a plan for a utopian society, created by Walt himself! I watched a movie from 1966 in which he explained his plans for creating this mega city, complete with Wedway People Movers, a metro system, different districts for living, working and for recreation, and a dome overtop the town to keep out rain and provide a controlled climate. Walt died in December of 1966 and no one continued with his plans for the utopian society EPCOT, instead the big white golf ball-looking thing was made and placed in DisneyWorld. I had no idea about any of this stuff! So it was pretty cool to learn all of it.
-the level under the entrance level was host to a very strange exhibition. It was titled “Neige Blanche”…Snow White. There was a huge red carpet and a reeeeally long dining table on top of it (think of a table in a king or queen’s dining hall). There were several place settings atop the table, along with baskets of apples, and a dead deer. Sitting in chairs at the table and walking around it, several women were dressed up as Snow White! Some of them were carrying machine guns! And the ones that were wearing shoes, were wearing combat boots! It was very strange. The Snow Whites with guns walked around like they were patrolling the area defensively while the ones sitting at the table ate apples. I have no idea what was going on. There was a dead boar on the carpet, a little bit away from the table. It was rather creepy! I think it was supposed to be some sort of social commentary concerning how different children a couple generations ago are to children now. Before bed children from older generations read fairytales, but children now play violent video games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto. I think the exhibition was supposed to be a collaboration of both: Snow White with machine guns, dead animals all over the place. I’m not really sure though, haha.
After the Centre Pompidou, I went home and did homework before bed. Leslie and I got up early Friday morning because we wanted to go the Catacombes. They opene at 10 but several kids in our group went last week and they said they waited in line for 2 hours! We left the Foyer at 9 and got there at 9:15ish. We were like the third or fourth group in line, but the line progressively became longer every minute! By 10:00, it was wrapped around the corner and went down the adjacent street. We were let in around 10:20 and it took us about 45 minutes to walk through.
Before the mid 1700’s, there used to be a lot of rock mining under the Parisian streets. Once the quarry stopped being used for obtaining rocks, city planners noticed that the Paris cemeteries were extremely overcrowded and they didn’t have anywhere to put the more recently deceased. They thought, hey, why don’t we exhume all of the bodies that have been rotting in the cemeteries for who knows how long and stick them in the old rock quarry? This idea gained popularity, and that’s exactly what they did! To make room for the newly dead in cemeteries, they took all of the old, rotted bodies and carted them underground. The result: the Catacombes! Dark, narrow tunnels underground (under the metro system and the water pipes and the sewage system) are now lined with human skeletal remains!
Before getting to the tunnels, we had to walk down like 150 stairs. We then made our way through winding pathways in semi-darkness. My head touched the ceiling in a few spots and the narrowest of passageways was about 2-3 people wide (shoulder to shoulder). It was pretty fantastic! I pretended I was taking the secret passage from the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack. (If you didn’t understand that, I suggest you read/watch Harry Potter, haha.) We rounded a corner and then all of the sudden, the walls were made of human skeletons!! It was so cooool!!!! It would have sucked to be the one who had to build it, but the results were awesome! A line of skulls on the bottom, femurs and humoruses on top of that, then another line of skulls, and so on. From the ground to the ceiling…it went on for about 30 minutes of walking!! I couldn’t believe how cool it was! I thought I was going to be super creeped out or claustrophobic or something…but it was totally neat!
After the Catacombes (aka ascending 150 stairs on an extremely narrow spiral staircase that made me dizzy and feel like I was walking sideways haha), Leslie and I just hung out. We went back to the huge mall so that she could buy something else and then we did homework back at the Foyer.
Today (Saturday), we got up around 8:30ish. There is this thing in Paris in the summer called Paris Plage: they import sand, blow up plastic palm trees and set out deck chairs along the banks of the Seine. People flock to it because it is supposed to be like a beach. There are vendors and other things of that sort I imagine. We woke up with intentions of going, but it was raining and cold, so we didn’t. Instead, we read and did homework (woohoo…) In the afternoon, the rain let up and we (along with some other girls) decided to go to Le Cimetiere Pere Lachaise. I felt extremely emo: 2 cemeteries and the Catacombes in a span of 4 days? Haha. I’m glad we went to Pere Lachaise though, because it was way cooler than Montparnasse! I saw the graves of Jim Morrison (with a gate around it blocking crazy fans from doing drugs and having sex on it…true story! I read it in my guide book), Oscar Wilde (it is tradition to put on lipstick and kiss the tombstone for good luck! I did it and was sort of grossed out because I got tombstone particles stuck to my lips), Colette, George Seraut, Haussman (the guy who designed the roads that intersect the Arc de Triomphe), Moliere, and Chopin. The weather was beautiful once the sun peeked from behind the clouds, and I enjoyed walking around and taking pictures!
Speaking of taking pictures, I think something may be wrong with my camera :( It is having trouble focusing, especially when there is a lot of sunlight in the scene I am trying to capture. I might have to get it checked out. I haven’t dropped it or anything! In fact, I’ve been extremely careful.
Ho hum, what else can I tell you? I was assigned to read 35 pages of the book we’re reading for lit class this weekend. I have about 33 to go, haha.
Oh! After the cemetery today, we went to this legendary French ice cream place called Chez Berthillon. But it was closed!! For their midsummer holiday! (A strange time to close an ice cream shop, I would say.) But it was ok because we continued walking down the street and like 10 of the little restaurants were selling Chez Berthillon ice cream. I had a scoop of white chocolate and a scoop of framboises a la rose. It was probably the best ice cream I’ve ever had (next to the gelato I wrote about the other day, haha). The white chocolate was to die for! and I’ve never had anything as wonderful as the framboises a la rose! It was raspberry and rose! It basically tasted like I was eating rose flavored raspberries and was super delish!!!!
So yup. Now, I’m just hanging out, avoiding homework. I feel super lame because it’s Saturday night and I’m writing a blog and doing homework hahaha. Some of the girls are going to a discotheque…a dance club! I was thinking about going, but I don’t want to put on make up or change out of my pajamas, haha. I don’t know if it’s laziness or fatigue. I’m going to say the latter because I keep yawning. I guess I’ll start reading my book and then fall asleep in like ten minutes, haha.

Bon nuit!
Briana

I Can't Help That I Have a Sensitive Palate

After the cemetery on Tuesday, my 4 hour lit class was canceled, so I went shopping! I'm almost done buying souvenirs for people! And I bought myself some cute new duds! (shirts mostly) So after shopping and walking around the huge mall for a couple of hours, we had a group outing to this place by the Hotel De Ville. I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it sold mediterranean cuisine. We all got stuff to go and then went to a little park. I'm not a huge fan of mediterranean food...the last time I had it, I sort of liked the hummus and couldn't eat my babaganouge...so I went with something simple: falafel! They took some pita bread and made a tortilla shape out of it then filled it with cabbage, cucumbers, eggplant, other vegetably stuff and falafel. It wasn't half bad! I ate the falafel and was super pumped about the eggplant (but it ended up being completely saturated with oil...sad face!). I'm not a huge fan of cucumbers or anything else that was in it, but the falafel bit was purty delicious! I'm proud of myself for trying something new! (more on that later!)
After the falafel, we went to my favorite gelato place eva! I had half raspberry, half orange. It was my first time getting orange and it tasted like dreamsicles! Very good! After that, we convinced the program director and one of the professors to take us to the red light district. It is not very safe to go to the red light district without a male if you're a girl. I think 10 or so of us went with John and Jeff as our escorts, and we just took pictures of all of the crazy sex shops and the 7 story museum of erotisism, as well as the moulin rouge!! Only 3 guys yelled, "I love you," to us, so that wasn't too bad.
We got home, went to bed and this morning (Wednesday), I had my 2 hour lit class. We usually go to a cafe and have lunch. The last time we went, I ordered this sandwich crudites, which is a sandwich with lettuce, tomato, boiled egg, and mayonnaise. Turns out, I really really, really dislike mayonnaise...and tomatoes. So today, I ordered it sans mayonnaise and gave my tomatoes to Leslie. But the important thing, is that I knew I didn't like mayonnaise and tomatoes and I tried it anyway! Hooray me! It was way more delicious without all the gross stuff on it though!
I'm trying to get over being such a picky eater...but it's difficult. It's hard to force myself to eat something that I want to spit out. For example, in Berlin, I went to this thai restaurant, and I didn't see a description of anything I eat on the menu, so I just kinda picked one that had the least amount of things I don't like. I got my food, which was like tofu (this was a vegetarian restaurant btw) with a whole bunch of vegetables in this sauce that smelled ok but tasted like the back of your throat after you vomit. It was horrible. I really am trying to not be so picky and stuff, but it's hard when your food tastes like puke!! (Sorry, this blog post is rather disgusting, haha).
Where was I? Oh yeah, so today I had class, then went to the grocery store, followed by going back to my room to do homework. Some of the girls were going to this restaurant called Le Paradis des Fruits that apparently is super awesome. So I decided to go as well. It was a super cute establishment! It's a fruit themed restaurant and they serve super delicious fruit smoothies and everything (from entrees to cocktails) has fruit in it. I ordered this chicken curry stuff with rice and a salad. I don't particularly like curry, but I decided to order it becuase it had apples and pineapples in the sauce with the chicken and becuase I tried a girl's pita the night before that had falafel and curry chicken in it (and it was pretty good!). Turns out, I really, really, really dislike curry :( I gave it my best shot, but it was just too...not what I like haha. So I'm kind of upset that I spent like 12 euros on something I didn't eat...(I did have some of the rice though and ate the salad even though it had dressing on it and I really don't like dressing either, but the French don't understand not putting dressing on salad).
All in all, I'm trying to be a less picky eater, but it's not working. I will definitely miss Paris, but I'm ready to get back to my yummy grilled chicken and yummy lettuce with no dressing, nor tomatoes!
Things I miss about the states:
-you
-food that I will eat
-Walmart
-air conditioning
Other things I did today:
-homework
-wrote some more postcards
-bought a sweet tourist shirt for only 6 euros! It's super cute and has pictures of famous parisian landmarks and monuements on it.
Things I will do tomorrow:
-go play petanque at a park with old people!
-go to the centre pompidou
Some other stuff I'd like to mention:
-I got a bug bite on my foot and I scratched it open and now it really hurts :(
-It rained today so it's been in the 70s!!!!
-Leslie and I went to a market last week and bought some flowers. They are all pretty much dead now, but I'm drying one of the purple roses, because it's very pretty!
-I finally found a loofah! I always use one but I didn't bring one with me becuase I was prepared to buy one when I got here. Well, the French population doesnt really use loofahs, but I found one at this Asian store in the mall!
-I found some replacement facewash!

Well, I'm pooped!

Bon soir!
Briana

Ok, You Caught Me...I Went and Saw Eclipse Again

Bonjour!
I had my culture class this morning in which we went to La Cemitiere Montparnasse and looked at a ton of graves with huge, ornate tombstones. Some of them are recent (in fact, we walked past a funeral), but some of them are from the late 1800s. It was neat to see all of the different styles and sizes but sad becuase some of the more recent ones had stuff like letters and flowers and stuffed animals set on top of them. My four hour literature class wass canceled today!! My teacher has a migraine :( but! I get the rest of the day off and I think I'm going to go hit up the centre commercial (the mall!). The one I am going to go to is called Les Halles and is 5 floors...underground! Cool, huh?!
So Sunday, after we got back from Berlin, I had a pooload of homeowork to do. I finished it, and then went to see Eclipse again!! I feel super lame, but I like the movie a lot! haha.
Yesterday I had my lit class and we started a new book called Yvain ou le Chevalier au Lion. It's a book about one of the knights of the round table. In Arthurian legend, Yvain is Guwain in English (I'm pretty sure). Then after class and dinner, Lesie and I went to the Arc de Triomphe. We climbed all 284 stairs to the top and it was a beautiful sight! The arc is in the middle of where 12 streets intersect so you can see tons of stuff! The view was spectacular!
Things I would like to mention but haven't had a chance to yet:
-when we went to Notre Dame last week, a bird pooed on me! I feel like you should know that, haha. It was only on my skirt though, so I just dumped my waterbottle on it to get it off.
-I have bought all of the Harry Potter's in French!
...well I guess that wasn't a very long list, haha. I'm sure I'll think of more stuff later!

A bein tot!
Briana

A Renewed Love for Paris

Salut!!
I am back in Paris...finally! Haha. This weekend, Leslie and I traveled to Berlin!
We left Thursday night after class for the train station and took an overnight train from Paris to Berlin that took a little over 12 hours. We purchased our tickets for our seats a while ago, and I bought a seat for a couchette: a small bed. The couchette cabins have 6 beds in them: two hooked to the ceiling, two that fold out of the wall in the middle, and then the two on the bottom that are benches when the middle beds are folded away. Leslie bought a seat for one of these too, but then the trainline emailed her saying that they sold her a couchette that they didn't have. So they moved her to an actual seat. So for the first couple hours, I sat in her cabin (complete with 6 seats and 4 weird guys and a rather absent girl) with her until we decided to go to sleep. There was a father and son from Russia (I think) in 2 of the seats, an old french guy, another old french guy (with a toupe!!), and an asian girl who left and never came back. I sat in the girl's vacant chair for the first couple of hours of the train ride. We both started getting tired and I headed to my couchette. There was an empty bed, so I set my alarm for 1am and was going to go get Leslie if no one occupied it by then. I fell asleep and must have turned off my alarm while sleeping. I woke up at like 3:30 becuase the woman sleeping across from me kept "SSSHHHH"ing the guy snoring very loudly under me. Poor Leslie had to sleep in a chair all night (if she even slept that much!) And I slept relatively peacefully.
I got up at around 7 and went back into Leslie's cabin to await our arrival at Berlin. We finally got there around 9:30 Friday morning and proceeded to find our hostel! We picked this place called Pfefferbett. It was pretty nice! There was a pretty patio area, a huge lobby, very comfy beds, nice showers, and each guest had his/her own locker in the room. We couldn't check in until the afternoon, so we dropped off our backpacks and headed to the zoo!
The Berlin zoo is probabaly the best zoo I've ever been to! It was extremely huge! And I couldn't even tell that we were in the middle of a huge city!...(until we saw a Mercedez skyscraper haha). There were tons of animals, some I've never heard of. The fare was pretty cheap and it was a great time! Yes, I know it's strange that we went to Berlin and went to the zoo (which we could do in the states), but I'm glad we went becuase it was an awesome place! I got tons of pictures of animals (of which I didn't really put on my facebook becuase I figured everyone has seen giraffes and stuff before haha). Normally I don't usually absolutely love the zoo becuase I feel bad for the animals. But all of the animals at this zoo looked happy! I judged this by the crazy number of baby animals. There was a baby rhino, a baby elephant, baby hippos, baby wolves, baby monkeys, a baby kangaroo, baby deer, baby mountain sheep, and baby meerkats. The only bad part of the zoo was that I got a little sunburnt. I guess my spf 50 wore off and my spf 15 didn't really do much.
We went back to the hostel, checked in, showered and then hit the streets to explore the are around our hostel. It turns out that there isn't much around the section of Berlin we were in except grocery stores, some shady cafes, extremely expensive clothing stores, and a record store. After getting back to the hostel, we went to bed.
A list of things we did on Saturday!:
-went to the designer-stores-only mall and gawked at stuff that was waaay too expensive (for example: a coin purse for 300 euro!)
-went shopping at H&M (Europe's equivalent of Macy's I think)
-went on a 4 hour walking tour of the city and learned all about Berlin's past from the 1920s onward
We walked all over the city and saw things like Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler's bunker, the parliament building, the square where they had all those book burnings in WWII, the berlin wall (remnants obviously, haha), museum island, and the Bradenburg Gate.
-went back to the hostel to get ready to go to a techno club!
-tried to get to the techno club, but when we walked out of the train station into a scary, shady part of town, we turned back and went home
-went to bed
This morning, we got up early and went to the airport. We made it back to the Foyer not too long ago and it is a relief!! I'm glad I went to Germany, but I don't think I'll ever go back (at least not before I visit the other places on my i-want-to-visit list). The people were cool I guess, but I didn't see or do anything that I absolutely loved. Also, the language barrier was very intimidating. Basically everyone spoke English, but all of the signs, advertisements, etc were in German.
I would now like to give myself props becuase I totally navigated that crap out of Berlin! For not knowing anything in German (besides "do you speak german?" and "i love you"), I was able to get Leslie and I from the train station to the hostel, around the city, and from the hostel to the airport! I've never been so glad to have a semi-photographic memory and an ability to read maps correctly! Haha.
So yep, now I'm sitting at my fav desk in the library, looking at my beloved Eiffel Tower and doing homework.

Ich liebe dich!
Briana

La Fete Nationale!

Bonjour!
Happy Bastille Day!
Hmm, what's happened since the last time I blogged? Not much really! Monday, I had my lit class and then afterward I went to le cinema and saw Eclipse!! It was fabulous!! I'm sort of a twilight fan--and by that I mean that I think the storyline is sort of cute (but maily ridiculous), and that I've read the all the books and have seen all of the movies. So Leslie and I decided to go see the movie and two other girls from our group came with us. I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to keep up with the dubbed version of the film and have to rely on Kristin Stuart's acting skills...but not to worry! We saw the movie in English with French subtitles. Some interesting things about French movie theaters: they have no air conditioning, over 100 people (who typically don't wear deordorant) in a dark, hot room for an hour and a half = very smelly, and the theater we went to was underground! The movie was fabulous! Mainly becuase the acting wans't COMPLETELY terrible on Bella's part, and they adapted the book to the screen very well! You should go see it! Becuase I watched the English version with French subtitles, I would hear a character's line in English and then read it on the bottom in French. It was cool to see the things that were lost in translation and to see that Enlgish has like 5 phrases while French has 1 phrase for the same thing. For example, in the movie if the lines "I get it," or "I see what you mean," were said, the French subtitle for both was "Je comprend."...I understand. Twas an interesting albeit smelly experience :)
Tuesday, my culture class had a field trip to Notre Dame. I'd been there before, but I didn't have to rush this time and my camera was charged unlike last time, haha. I love architecture, and the Notre Dame is absolutely wonderful! It's extremely crazy to see it and know that it was built like 700 years ago! Back in medieval times when it was built, the population was heavily illiterate. So instead of teaching everyone how to read and distributing copies of the bible (a very difficult feat in the middle ages), the church was built to have integral scenes from the bible and important Christian lore displayed on the walls (inside and outside), in paintings, and in stained glass. Thus, Notre Dame is basically a pop-up book of Christianity. There is a tonnnn of stained glass and it is all very beautiful! As I've mentioned, it was extremely difficult to comprehend that all of it was created centuries ago!
After culutre class, I took a nap then went to my literature class. On Tuesdays, our class is 4 hours long. So we headed to the other side of the Seine for class at our professor's apartment (which has air conditioning!!!!!!!) We discussed stuff for about 2 and a half hours, then she made us dinner! Which was not only very sweet of her to do, but very delicious! We had chicken and a 3 grain mixture of rice, fruit, cheese and bread. We ended up staying until like 9:30 becuase she is just fabulous!! She's probably one of the best teachers I've ever had! I'm sad that I'll only have her for 3 more weeks :(
Wednesday (today) is July 14th: France's independence day! I had the day off from class and decided to go to the parade on the Champs Elysees. It started at 10:30, but we got there at 8 to get a good spot. At 10:30, representatives from African countries associated with France kicked off the parade, followed by every branch of the French military, the police, the fire fighter brigade, and the political leaders. So basically it was only military personnel. It was kind of boring compared to parades in the states...there was only one marching band!! But they were pretty cool, because they didn't even march: they were on horsies!! If you haven't seen a guy playing a sousaphone on a horse...well you're missing out! Haha. There was also a little airshow and some paratroopers. Definitely not as awesome as Thunder over Louisville, but still a pretty cool thing to see. My favorite planes had blue, white and red exhaust and they trailed it to look like the French flag! So everything was going dandiy and then all of the sudden, the sky darkened and a horrendous rainstorm started!! No one in my group had an umbrella, so we all got completely drenched!! I looked like I fell into a lake, fo realz!! Some French dudes next to us let us share their umbrella...but 6 people under an umbrella isnt physically possible, haha. I was soaking when it was over, and we went into the metro station where I proceeded to wring out my dress! Haha, I swear, like a gallon of water was squeezed out of me!!
After that, we came home and I've been in the library ever since.
Welp, I'm going on a walk to the Eiffel Tower now.

Bonjournee!
Briana

Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Herro!
Im typing this from the Foyer's library and have a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower! I think I've mentioned this, but I can't remember...the eiffel tower lights up and sparkles on the hour after night fall! It's a great view!!
Friday, I took a day trip with my awesome roomie Leslie and a couple other kids from the group. We traveled to Caen in Normandy to visit Omaha Beach and the American cemetery. The morning was pretty much fraught with peril! Our train left the station (located on the other side of Paris) at 8:45. I am sorry to say that we got there at 8:46! So we had to wait until 10:10 for the next train. Then, after a pleasant 2 hour train ride to Caen, we had to hop on a different train for a 25 minute train ride to Bayeux. After getting to Bayeux, we took a 20 minute bus ride to Omaha Beach. I feel like an expert traveler now! Especially becuase the only thing we planned was the train ride to Caen. We basically flew by the seat of our pants for everything else! Spontaneity is great (albeit chaotic, haha) and everything worked out :)
So after the rather hectic trip to the beach, we finally arrived! Hooray! It was a lot different than I had pictured. I thought the beach would be deserted except for a WWII memorial and tourists with cameras. It was surprising to see a beautiful beach with people laying in the sun, swimming in the occean, and little French kids building sand castles. It was very difficult to imagine D-day happening in such a beautful place! After playing a bit in the water (I have now dipped my toes into the English Channel!)and walking in the sand, we decided to go up to the American cemetery. To get there, we had to climb some hills in which (I think German) bunkers had been built. I took several pictures that have little orbs in them! I didn't see any ghosties with my eyeballs though.
The cemetery was overwhelming. I thought there was just going to be a memorial with a list of names or something, but I was wrong again. There were over 9,000 tombstones, each with the name of an American soldier who died in WWII in the D-day invasion. Several of the graves were for Jewish soldiers and instead of a cross, their stones are the star of David, which I thought was nice. Also, there were numerous stones that didn't have names...they just commemmorated a soldier who died and no one knew who he was, or becuase they only found an arm or something. It was extremely sad! I'm already an emotional person and seeing the names of thousands of people who died while fighting on a beautiful beach made me tear up a little...ok, cry a lot. I'm glad I got to see it, but I was definitely a little depressed the rest of the day!
Saturday was much more cheerful! Leslie and another kid and I went to Giverny: the town where Claude Monet lived! We toured his house and his gardens, then walked around the town and had lunch. Monet's house was super cute! There were a lot of Japanese paintings on the walls, which were cool and the color scheme was magnificent! Tons of blues and yellows. He had really cool cabinets and a HUGE kitchen with like 20 different size copper pots. His gardens though were absolutely breathtaking!!! There were a TON of flowers and trees and some beautiful foliage. We walked through his gardens and arrived at his pond where numerous waterlilies were growing. I actually got to see Monet's inspiration for all of his beatiful artwork!! It was awesome! You should check out the pictures on my facebook.
We also had lunch in Giverny and all I wanted was grilled chicken and french fries, but that item happened to be on the kids menu, so I had to order the adult version and I was very disappointed for probably the first time ever that I can't pass for 12! The waitress brought out this weird kebab with pieces of bright yellow chicken. It was the driest chicken in the world! It was good with a lot of ketchup I guess, haha. But twas a very strange meal. After lunch, and walking around some more, we hopped back on the bus to Vernon, where we took the train back to Paris. A great day overall!
Today was an extremely lazy day! I woke up at 10, did homework pretty much all day in the Luxembourg gardens (which was super fun! because there were a ton of people to watch and the sun was shining and the breeze was blowing). Leslie and I went to a panini stand for lunch then went to a gelaterie afterwards where I had the BEST GELATO EVER!! I had a little cup, half nutella gelato and half raspberry. YUM!
So yep, that's been my weekend pretty much! I emailed Katie and Dad, and got to talk to Mommy, Jeffy and Colton via skype today, so I'm a little less homesick, which is nice :)
I must leave you now becuase I still need to read the first 200 lines of a medieval French play!

Bon Soir!
Briana

Manet and Monet and Degas...Oh My!!

Things I would like to mention, but haven't quite fit into my previous blogs:
-Paris has a lot of talented musicians! They play in the metro system at big stations. I saw an 8 person orchestra! I watched them play Canon in D and Fur Elise before running to my train. Today, I saw a really cool French Polynesian group. Theyre had five members and the coolest part was this guy who was playing a wooden flute! The other day I saw a man who parked his piano at a busy street corner and was playing a ton of great stuff! It's neat to see so many different types of music being performed for free around the city!
-There are a tonnn of dogs here! Not stray dogs, just dogs walking around with their owners...in the metro trains, in the stores, in cafes, etc. The funny thing is, is that out of the dozens of dogs I've seen, only like 5 of them HAVEN'T been yorkies!!
-The Eiffel Tower has lights on it that twinkle every hour, on the hours from nightfall until about 1 in the morning. It's really cool!!
-The only time I speak English is when I skype with my parents, chat with people online, and write these blogs!
-A girl came up to me on the street and asked me where this certain store was becuase she totally thought I was French! Cool, huh?!

Let's see...Wednesday, I had my literature class (which was fun!) and then did laundry (which was not fun!). It is expensive to do laundry here!! It cost me 4 euros per load to wash! The dryer was free though. But still! That's a lot of money!!
Thursday (today) my class went to the Musee D'Orsay! I've been there before, but I think I enjoyed it more this time. I saw several works of Monet, Manet, Degas and Van Gogh! The last time I went, you were allowed to take pictures, but now they're super strict about not letting you take any at all! So I ended up sneaking some! (Don't tell!) The museum was undergoing some rennovations, so some of the paintings weren't on display. I was really looking forward to seeing Whistler's Mother again, but it wasn't out. Neither were most of Monet's ballerina paintings. It was still a great time though! For the first 2 hours, we had a guided tour...in French. and I was surprised that I understood most of what the guide was saying! Hooray!
Musee D'Orsay was fabulous overall. I liked it more than the Louvre.
Tomorrow I am taking a day trip to Normandy...a region northeast of Paris. I will be going to Caen, then taking a train ride to see the D-day beaches.

A toute a l'heure!
Briana

Classes, Eiffel Tower, a Picnic and a Play

Salut!
On Monday my classes officially started! I am taking a medieval French literature class and a French culture class (as I think I've previously explained haha). I've never really had to read anything major for any of the French classes I've ever taken, so this literature class is an intense challenge. The only literature I've read en francais was a childrens book called "Le Petit Prince" (The Little Prince). And now I'm reading medieval poetry (translated from old french into modern french), a period play and a novel. It's extremely interesting! But it takes forever!!! My dictionary is going to be tattered by the end of this trip becuase it seems like I have to look every other word up. But I'm ok with that I guess...learnings awesome!
Something else I learned (today actually) is to not follow directions from everyone you come into contact with! I went to the post office today and said to the woman working there, "J'ai besoin d'envoyer cettes cartes postales aux les etats-unis." (I need to send these postcards to the USA). so she had me go over to a machine and spend 12 euros on 20 stamps that ended up being ONLY for intra-France mail. I was totally gypped! And they wouldnt buy them back from me, or anything! So I talked to a different employee and after he sold me the correct stamps, he told me that he'd try to sell my stamps for me. So I gave him the 2 books of stamps I bought and Im supposed to go back tomorrow to see if anyone purchased some of them. I hope so! I could have spent that 12 euros on baguettes or something! Haha.
After classes and our weekly group meeting on Monday, I did homework and then went to the Eiffel Tower with 2 other people from my group. We bought a bottle of wine and brought cups! We drank wine on the Champs de Mars (the grounds in front of the Eiffel Tower)! Very Parisian! Haha. Except there are a lot of people with backpacks full of wine that travel from group of sitting persons to group of sitting persons. We were asked, I kid you not, over 35 times if we wanted to buy some wine. I'm proud of myself though becuase we actually did end up buying some, and I totally haggled the price from 10 euros to 5!! (in French, mind you!) The Eiffel Tower is awesome at night becuase after night fall, it twinkles/sparkles for like 5 minutes every hour, on the hour. C'etait bon!
On Tuesday, the whole group went to an outdoor market for lunch. We each purchased food and then had a picnic. Apparently this is a tradition for this program becuase a couple of years ago, the director/teachers saw that everyone was sustaining themselves out of the vending machine in the Foyer. So they took everyone out, showed them how to buy stuff and had a picnic with their purchases afterward. It was a good time! The weather was beautiful today! I went to a fromagerie (a cheese store) and was mildly repulsed by all of the disgustingly moldy cheese! But I bought some emmental francaise (swiss) and after picking off the aqua-colored mold, it was quite delicious! I also bought a baguette from a patisserie (pastry/bread store), and a peach and some raspberries from a fruit vendor. Everything was suuuper fresh and delicious!
After our pique-nique, I had my 4 hour literature class. We discussed the story we read (about a werewolf) and had une tartlette aux fraises (a strawberry tart). It was delicious! and discussing our assignment was easier than I expected, which was nice.
Next, we went to the theater! La Comedie Francaise is a famous theater here and they have a wide variety of shows. Tonight, we saw a play called Ubu Roi. I have no idea what happened in it, haha. I am definitely not fluent in French so I could only understand about 1/3 - 2/3 of the play, and I'm sorry to say, but that wasn't enough (obviously) to understand the plotline haha. I dressed all fancily with makeup, a dress, and heels (and didnt get groped in the metro!! Hooray!) and tried to comprehend the story about a guy who kills the royal family, assumes the throne, kills everyone else in power in the country, is overtaken by Russia, then has to live in the forest. It was very...odd. Haha.
Well I'm pooped. It's 1:00am here and I've had a long day...nice, but looong.
Thanks for reading my blog :D

A toute a l'heure!
Briana

I Have Come to Find that Walking Over Ten Miles Per Day Makes Your Feet Hurt A Lot!!

Salut!!
I am currently uploading my pictures from the past couple of days to facebook! Over 400 thus far! Haha. Saturday, I went to Versailles. The place where King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette lived! It was SPECTACULAR!!! I've been there before, but the last time I went there, I didnt have a camera with me (it had tragically died). So this time, I took full advantage of my picture-taking capabilities! I toured the main palace which included the following:
the king's bedroom, the war counsel room, the hall of mirrors, the dauphin's apartment, Louis XVI's aunt's apartments, the king's chapel, and some other rooms, but I've forgetten which ones at the moment. They showed Marie Antoinette's bedroom, but none of her other rooms, which was disappointing, becuase she (aside from the architeccture and landscape) are the coolest things about Versailles!
After touring parts of the chateau, I walked about the gardens. They were GORGEOUS!! Imagine numerous fountains, beautiful statues, a grand canal, hedges upon hedges and trees upon trees!
Nestled in the back of the property is Marie Antoinette's mini-estate. It is where she had Louis build her her own little town becuase she has always wanted to be a shepardess/farmer. I had exactly one hour to walk the mile(ish) to her personal mini palace, and reached Louis XV's mistress' chateau (which Marie also lived in upon occassion). I had to turn back and trek back to the main palace before I had time to see Marie's place. I was very sad! I definitely want to go back someday to see it.
So that was Saturday basically.
All museums in France are free the first sunday of the month, so today, I went to the Louvre. I had been there before as well, but this time I got to spend more time looking at stuff (and doing my class assignment). I saw almost everything I wanted to see (including Monna Lisa, Nike, Venus de Milo) but not "The Young Martyr." I was looking forward to it especially becuase it is quite beautiful, and upon asking a Louvre employee where I ould find it, I learned that they had lent it to another museum. Sad day!! I'll have to find out where it is and go see it!
After the Louvre, I went to the Tulip Garden...which didnt have any tulips, but had a Tulip festival taking place in the garden grounds. It was basically a carnival. But super fun!! I rode the ferris wheel, had some delicious ice cream and enjoyed the beautiul weather. (Also, I feel that I should mention that even though I say "I," I really mean "we." Some girls/the boy on the trip have been with me.)
After hanging out, I went back to the foyer and did homework...yay...haha.
Then I went to the Musee de Cluny. It's a medieval museum and I went there to see a concert. The last concert they had there was one in which the musicians dressed up in period clothing and played period instruments (and this feels like deja vu, so I think I already blogged about this last post)...anyway! The concert I saw was nothing like that. There were 3 performers and they played some medieval pieces and some modern peieces (in the style of old). There was a male singer who sang extreeeeemely high, a lady who played harp and sand, and a dude who played accordian. They were all very talented and the lady's voice gave me goosebumps. It was beautiful! I only understood about 20 minutes of the hour long concert: only some of the songs were in French and English...the others were old French and Italian. I really enjoyed it. I don't think it was worth 8euro!! But it was good overall. Next Sunday, the museum will have another concert: gregorian chant!! I'm so pumped! I love gregorian chant!!!! I can't wait.
I'm having a great time! I have been feeling a little home sick, but it's getting better as I get acclimated.
J'ai besoin de finir mes devoirs! (I need to finish my homework!)

A bien tot!
Briana

The Goings-On of Paris on Friday July 2nd

Bonjour!
It is Saturday morning and raining here! The rain is nice becuase the temperature has cooled significantly. I don't think I've told you about the temperature yet, but it's HOT! Weather.com misleadingly led me to believe that the average temperature in Paris in July is around 72F. Since I've been here (a grand total of almost 3 days), it has been in the mid 90s at least! Also, very few places in the Latin quarter that I've been to have air conditioning...including my residence!!! My dorm room here feels like my room in Lizo when we didn't have air for that week in the spring semester. I'm exaggerating because it's probably ten degrees cooler than that, but it is still hotttt!!
Aside from the heat, everything has been great! The Foyer is in an AWESOME location. It is located on le rue St. Michel, which is very cool becuase it has so much stuff: Endless cafes, book shops, clothing stores, printing shops, paper stores (called a papeterie...very cute!), art supplies stores, shoe stores, crepe stands, and a bunch of stuff like that! La Sorbonne, one of the most prestigious universities in the city, is located on this street too.
Notre Dame on the ile de la cite is less than a mile. I went there yesterday and took pictures and looked at the amazing architecture. I find that most of the pictures I take are of buildings and pigeons. I can explain the former: all of the architecture is beautiful around here! It's crazy to see buildings/monuments/landmarks that are so old! Especially compared to the relatively young age of all the buildings/monuments/landmarks in the states! I can't really explain the latter: I just like pigeons, haha. They're GIANT here! I saw one yesterday that could have easily weighed like 15 pounds!
Some other interesting things I saw while out and about in the city yesterday:
awesome break dancers at the St. Michel plaza, an exhibit at l'Hotel de Ville about poverty, an exhibition in front the of Hotel de Ville about Charles De Gualle, very large crowds of tourists at the Notre Dame (I don't consider myself a tourist anymore, haha), and some tweenage girls in cosplay.
Our classes officially start Monday! Yesterday, we also had our class orientations. My culture class is going to be extremely awesome! We have 15 historic sites lined up to go see, including all of the major places like the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysee, but one of the things I'm most excited about is going to the Musee de Cluny. It's a middle ages museum and we will be going to a concert in which the musicians will perform period pieces on period instruments!!! It is going to be so cool!
I had to go buy some books for my literature class. We are reading novels from the middle ages (my teacher specializes in medieval studies) and they have been translated from old French into modern French so that we can try to comprehend what's going on. We were assigned some homework for this weekend, and the stuff we're reading is more difficult than anything I have ever attempted to read before! My dictionnaire is my new bff.
Well, I must wrap this post up. We are going to Versailles today!! I miss you!

Hooray! I Made It!

Phew! I finally made it to the City of Lights!!
I left Louisville on time and got to the Atlanta airport to find that my flight was delayed. The plane we were supposed to take across the pond had only one functioning engine. Needless to say, we had to wait for a different plane to land to then take us to Paris. After 19 hours of total travel time (from getting to the Louisville airport to the place I am staying), I feel pretty exhausted.
I'm staying at Le Foyer Des Etudiantes. It's an old 19th century building that serves as a residence hall for international students year round. The floors squeak, the beds are smaller than twin size (think park bench), and the elevator fits exactly one person and one large suitcase, but I love it!! It's so quaint. Not to mention, it is right across the street of the Jardin de Luxembourg! Also, the roof is accessible and has an absolutely breath-taking view: you can see a large portion of the city! The Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur look like they're practically next door. It's wonderful.
My roomie Leslie and I went to a little cafe for lunch. We people-watched while eating French onion soup and mozzerella and tomatoes. After that, we walked into the garden. It is absolutely gorgeous!! All of the humongous trees are trimmed to look like giant hedges, there is a beautiful fountain in the middle and tons of cool statues and people. A middle school band was performing on a stage and were followed by a choir. Awesome place overall :)
It is actually pretty warm today, so Leslie and I headed back to the Foyer. We hung out, showered and are now going to venture into the streets to pursue some food for dinner!
I hope you're having a great day :) I'll post some pictures soon.

Love Briana