Last Post

This blog ends with 117 posts. I think that's pretty awesome. I mean yeah, I could've written more but I do have a life. This will be the last post for my Paris blog....it's a bittersweet day.

Traveling home was basically a nightmare. No joke. Seriously probably one of the worst days of my life. I woke up around 5:15 and made it out of the apartment before 6:30am. I didn't think making it to the metro with all of my bags would be too hard, but God it was horrible. It took me like 10 minutes to walk to the metro....it usually takes 2. My bags were so heavy it was insane. When I finally made it to my metro, a very nice woman carried my VERY HEAVY suitcase down the stairs. I had to carry my carry on and purse down first (I had my other backpack on my back) and then go back up the stairs for my final bad. It took me a half hour to get to the tram. It really should've only taken me about 10 minutes...but with my bags there was just no way I would've been able to move any faster. When I got to the RER stop at Cite I took the elevator down to the platform, so no trouble there. I had to wait a half hour to get the right train because not all of them go to the airport. That was really annoying because I was supposed to be there by 7:50 and it was around 7:25 when I got on the train.

I made it to the airport a little after 8. That is where all the problems started. I scanned my card to get through the gates but my suitcase was too wide so I couldn't make it through in time and it locked me out. I was like well shit, now what am I going to do? I asked this guy if I could go through with him and he thought that I was trying the cheat the system but I wasn't because I already scanned and verified my card, I just didn't have enough time to go through. But, he was a jerk and said no. Finally after like 10 minutes of standing there looking like a little lost lamb, this guy was like, "do you need to get through?" and I was like ummmm, yeah.....so he scans me through with his pass and then asks me to donate money to some deaf thing fund and I was like ummm, I'm sorry, I don't have any money and then walked away. Horrible....I know. I saw this cart and I was like sweet, I can just push my bags to the check-in counter. Wrong. You couldn't take the cart onto the tram that takes you to your terminal. So I throw my bags back on my back and jump on the tram. When I finally got to the check-in gate for Swiss Air there were about a million people in line...no joke. So I got in line and waited. Keep in mind that my flight was scheduled to take off at 9:50am. When I finally got to the counter the flight was boarding. So I'm freaking out because I was worried that I was going to miss the flight. I put my bag on the belt and the woman told me that one of my bags was too heavy and asked med to try to put some of my stuff from my suitcase into my backpack. I told her that there was no way I could do that because the backpack was so full there was no way I was getting anything else in it. Knowing this, I was like can I just pay for it to be overweight? The woman said I can, but she wouldn't check me into the flight. She gave me a sheet of paper and told me that I had to go to the counter behind me and pay for my bags before she checked me in. I didn't think that was right because the plane was leaving in like 20 minutes and I just wanted to pay it when I got back or something. I pay for my bag, which ended up being 100 Euro. I ran back to the counter and told the woman that I needed to get on the flight. There were a few other people waiting there with me that were also on the flight. She quickly checked me in and then asked for my home address. I wasn't sure why she was asking this, but I wrote it down for her anyways. She printed out my boarding passes and I ran like the wind to security.

I got through the passport check point no problem but when I went to the guy that was scanning tickets before security, my ticket came up red and it said that my flight had already taken off. I was like no, that's not right, the woman just printed out my ticket. If the flight had already taken off she wouldn't have printed it out. He wouldn't let me go through to security so I walked back to the counter where I paid for my overweight bag. At this point I'm crying because this morning had been horrible, and this was the last thing I needed. I got up to the counter and the woman just looked at me and is like "what's wrong?" and I was like h-h-h-h-he wouldn't let me past to go to security!!! Blubbering like a baby she told me come with her to another woman. She also scanned my ticket and said that my plane left but the other woman who I cried to was like no, it hasn't left yet, let her on. So they let me on. I get to security, make it through and then run to the gate. When I got to the gate I didn't see the plane but there were a bunch of people standing by the doors to get onto the ramp. I actually ended up getting on the plane and we took off 45 minutes to an hour late. The plane ride to Zurich was HORRIBLE, the worst plane ride I have ever ridden on. I was all the way at the back of the plane...which really didn't matter to me. The turbulence was really bad. At one point, they were serving drinks and they had to stop because the plane was shaking so bad that the drinks were spilling off of the cart and onto the passengers. I was gripping onto the arm rest with one hand while my other hand was gripping the seat in front of me. The woman in the row in front of me was praying out loud...like really loud.

We landed in Zurich....alive and people clapped. Being at the back of the plane really sucked because I was the last to get off and I didn't have that much time to make my layover to get to Chicago. I had to go through a passport check again as well as security. While I was waiting in line at passport check this woman called all people for the flight to Chicago and I was rushed to the front of the line. I got through security and then ran to the gate. However, you had to fill out this form before boarding the plane. I rushed to where the papers were and I told the guy what flight I was on and he just said that I had to put my name on it and that was fine. So I basically throw the paper at this woman and then start running to my gate. I couldn't find it and actually ended up running past it because I'm an idiot. When I finally found the gate the woman was like, "are you Amy Fontaine?" and I was like umm yeah....and she's like okay good. It was kind of bizarre. I got on the plane, took my seat....which ended up being next to sleeping beauty (but a dude) and the endured the 9 and a half hour plane ride to Chicago.

When I landed in Chicago I got off the plane and then stood in line for about half an hour in customs. I had to fill out this form on the plane that asked me to list everything that I brought home with me. I wanted to be honest so I listed everything that Renee gave me even though I thought they might take my flowers and the foie gras. However, the guy at the counter was really nice and he said that the stuff that I had was fine so I made my way to baggage claim. I stood there for a good 10 minutes and watched the same bags go by. I checked to see if I had the right belt, and I did. At that point I figured that my bags weren't there so I asked this woman what I should do and she was like oh yea, you were on the flight from Paris to Zurich and Zurich to Chicago, we know that your bags aren't here. I was just like great, that's just fabulous! So I went to the Swiss counter and told him what my bags looked like and he said that I should get them by 8pm the next day (Monday).

I met my family (mom, dad, Nick, Steve, Tracey and Kelly (my cousins) ) outside of baggage claim. It was so good to see them again. I was crying I was so happy! My parents even brought me a hot dog! It was delish!!! We went to Geno's East for dinner and I got my first legal beer...Blue Moon...amazing. I asked the waiter if he wanted to see my ID but he said no. I was a little sad. Ha! When I got home, my neighbors, Art, Kathy and Melissa decorated my house welcoming me home. That was really cute too. We cracked open a bottle of champagne and celebrated my homecoming.

The next day, after lunch with Kelsey and Casey at Chipolte, this man called and said that he had my bags on his truck and he was on his way to deliver them to Villa Park. My mom, who answered the phone was like no, we live in Lake Villa, which is way north of Chicago. Turns out, Swiss copied down my address wrong which caused the driver to drive all the way to Villa Park. He said that he would deliver my bags but he would be at my house sometime between 1 and 3 am. I said okay that's fine, someone will be up to get them from you. I went to bed around 11, because I'm still getting used to the time difference, and my dad and Nick stayed up waiting for my bags. I guess they arrived at 1:30 am this morning.

I checked my stuff this morning and everything was there, however all my clothes smelled like cheese! haha it was pretty gross. I had to throw out one of the cheeses because it just smelled so bad...probably because it was in the bag for too long. I sorted all the clothes and checked all the gifts and then started washing everything.

This has been an amazing year. I really can't even put it all into words. Thanks so much for reading my blog. I hope everyone enjoyed it, it's been a lot of fun writing.

So, this is it. One more final bisous!!!!!!

XOXO,

Amy

The time has come, the Walrus said...

Well my friends, the time has indeed come. It's time to head home. I am sad and happy at the same time. But before I talk more about that, let me update you on what has happened this week. I'll try to make this a short post because I need to get up early.

On Monday I had lunch with Renee and then went to my last history class. 6 people showed up. I got my grades from the Catho and they were pretty good, minus my translation grade in which I got an 11/20. It's not failing, but it's not that great either. At least I didn't fail right? It was a really hard class. This girl that I don't like gave a 55 minute presentation about WWII, which we have gone over like a million and a half times, no joke. The professor put on her sunglasses and I swear, she fell asleep during the presentation because it was dreadfully boring and this girl is so annoying. I wanted to die. But I didn't, I just played games on my phone until she was done. I thought about leaving at break but I didn't want to because there were only a few of us there and Russian Hottie sat next to me so I obvs couldn't leave!

Tuesday, I had to get up extra early to go to the bank to close out my account. I was worried that it was going to be really hard, considering when I opened up my account I had such a hard time and the people at the bank weren't very nice to me. Therefore, Renee met me there and pretty much did all the talking. I felt like I was 5 but I was glad she was there because I had no idea what was going on. When we finished, Renee went back to work and I went to FNAC to get Renee a gift card. I wanted to get her tickets to a play or something but I didn't know what she would want to see or when she was free so the guy I talked to told me to just get a gift card and she could buy her own tickets if she wanted, or whatever else she wants from FNAC because they sell a bunch of stuff there. I studied for the rest of the afternoon. That night Renee and I had our last dinner together. It was pretty sad but dinner was so good! I swear, the best dinner she's ever made. It was St. Jacques (I can't think of what they are called in English) in a cream sauce with mushrooms and a bunch of other stuff. God, so good. She gave me presents too! She got me a new purse (so cute!), a bottle of perfume from Yves Saint Laurent (tres cher!) a bottle of white wine, and foie gras. I helped her dye her hair that night too. We're so besties!! HAHAHA!!

On Wednesday I had my theatre final and it was a LOT harder than I thought it was going to be. But, everyone thought that. I studied, but not too much. It was so much writing. My hand really hurt when I was done. After that I got lunch at the Catho with Colie and then headed to translation. I got my test, as well as Amira's and Katie's so I can send it to her. I got an 8/20. Horrible. I was so embarrassed. I felt horrible, therefore I left at the break to go home and study. That night I met up with Jacqueline and John because we were going to the Bad Religion concert together. Me and Jacqueline walked in and I felt so out of place. Seriously I looked like such a girly-girl. It was bad. John showed up a little while later and we stood on the floor while the opening act played. They weren't very good. People boo'd, I felt a little bad for them, but they weren't very good. It was so loud in there and very hot. Whenever I went to talk to John I had to basically shout in his ear because it was so loud. When the opener ended I told John that I felt so out of place. He then proceeded to look me up and down and then agreed with me. Jerk. Bad Religion came on and everyone freaked out. We were in the middle of the crowd when they came on. As soon as they started playing, everyone started moshing. I had no idea they were going to do it right away. I was being pushed around and my feet were being stepped on. It was insane. I lost John, I had no idea where he went. I tried hanging onto Jacqueline but that didn't work. We both made it one song in this pit and then headed to the side where it was much calmer. Bad Religion was very good. I liked their music a lot and it's not something that I would normally listen too. Around the end of the first set John found us and he was drenched in sweat. I mean he was literally soaked. Good thing he was wearing a white shirt..... :) The concert ended and we made our way outside. John decided that he needed to take his shirt off because it was soaked. I was not complaining one bit. However, he did make me hold his disgusting hoodie while he took off his shirt, which was also soaking wet. Kinda gross. We bought a bottle of water and Jacqueline got some food and then we all got on the metro together. I didn't get home until 11:15. I started studying around 12 for Costello's test and didn't go to bed until 2.

Thursday was Costello's test, obviously. It actually wasn't as hard as I was expecting it to be. It took me around an hour and a half to write it all, which isn't too bad I guess. After class, me, Chaniece, Alla, Jacqueline, and Colie went and got lunch. I got my last crepe and sandwich from my favorite guy right next to the foyer. It was delish. We all hung out in the courtyard eating our lunches and then went to our last lit class. Class wasn't too bad. A bunch of people left early though. After class, me, John, Alla and Lena walked around. I went to the bookstore and they went to grab something to eat. I needed to kill time after I bought my book so I went to Starbucks and fell asleep there for like 20 minutes because I was so tired. We had our cocktail (sans alcohol) party at the foyer that night. It was pretty good, minus the food. I was so hungry afterwards. We all said goodbye to Sean and Costello, which was kind of sad. But, I'll see Sean at school this year. After the party a bunch of us went down to the Seine and sat on the banks and hung out. It was a lot of fun. I went home around 11 because I was cold.

I said goodbye to Renee on Friday and almost cried. I tired really, really hard to hold it together but she was so nice to me all year and has helped me out so much. I'm really going to miss her. I met up with Chaniece and then we met up with Alla at the bookstore where I bought another book....I have a problem, I know. We then went to Subway to grab lunch, and then met up with a bunch of IPP-ers at jardin du lux for a picnic and 1 final game of Mafia. It was a lot of fun, but also sad because I had to say goodbye to pretty much everyone because a lot of them were leaving the next day. I got a lot of packing done after I got home and then Chaniece came over and we watched a movie.

Today went by really fast. I finished packing everything I could, aside from my stuff that I will need in the morning and the stuff that I am wearing right now. I bought my cheese, cookies and candy for home and packed some more after lunch. Tonight I met up with Chaniece, Alla and Chaniece's aunt for dinner at Montparnasse. It was so good. I got pasta. Chaniece and her aunt came back to my apartment to use my computer to figure out their flight stuff because they are traveling before Chaniece comes home in July. When they left I finished packing everything up and now, here I am. It's 11 and I should try to go to bed pretty soon because I have to get up at 5. My flight leaves at 9:50am and gets to Chicago around 4. I think we are all going out for dinner afterwards, which will be nice.

I'll probably do one more post when I get home so look out for that. Time for bed!!! Chicago bound tomorrow morning!!!!!

Bisous

Climbing Stairs and Crashing Weddings

OMG look at me updating 2 days in a row....Quelle surprise! I have some time so I figured, why not update about my day. It's been a busy one.

I woke up, ate breakfast, the usual and then headed out at 12:30ish to meet Chaniece at our metro. We road the metro to Montmarte to meet Colie and her family because her grandparents and sister are in town. We met them and climbed up the first part of the hill to Sacre-Coeur with them. Me and Chaniece really didn't want to climb all the way up again because both of us have been there a million times and we were really hungry. Plus, we had to meet some people at the Arc de Triomphe soon. So we left them and then went to MacDo for lunch. It was packed, comme d'hab (like usual) but it was really, really good. I really don't like this area of Paris because it's kind of shady and there's always so many people and that many people makes me nervous. We left MacDo and then headed to the Arc de Triomphe. We really weren't sure if we were going to be able to get in for free because some places are picky about what students they let in free. I guess you are supposed to be a student in the EU, meaning you live here all the time and go to school here. Anyways, we get in line and give the guy our ids and he gives us free tickets. It was pretty sweet, we didn't even have to say anything. We walked outside and then into this door that leads to the stairs that head up to the top of the arc.

Now, there isn't an elevator in the arc so we had to climb the 248 steps up to the top...which wasn't even the top, it was the museum. The museum was very cool. There were a bunch of old statues there and stuff. There were also these video screens that played the history of the arc and what happens here when there's big celebration or a head of state funeral or something like that. It was really interesting. We climbed some more stairs that lead outside to the very top of the arc. It was so amazing! I've always wanted to go up the arc but I never had the chance. I was so happy I made it there today and that it wasn't raining. The view from the arc was so cool. I think it's a better view from the Eiffel Tower because Paris isn't a very tall city, meaning that the buildings are pretty much the same height, give or take a few buildings like Montparnasse for example. I also think it's better because when you're on the Eiffel Tower you actually can't see it! Duh!! Me and Chaniece walked around the top and hung out for a while enjoying the view and taking it all in. It was a great way to start the end of my year here in Paris. The first picture is of me and Chaniece hanging out on top of the Arc and the second is of my hand pinching the top of the Eiffel Tower, as you can see. That picture took forever to get right but we finally got it.

After we climbed back down the arc we headed to the metro to meet up with Alla and John at this church that Alla and Chaniece learned about in their architecture class. It's called Eglise de la Madeleine and it's very pretty. It's also very big. Inside, there was this couple getting married so we sat and watched that for a while. It was cute! We left the church and then we were going to head to Invalides but we decided to go to this other church that was down the street. We walked down there and that church was also very cool but I have no idea what it was called. Inside, there was another wedding going on! We crashed 2 weddings in like an hour. It was awesome. When we left the church we headed to a little bakery around the corner to get some snacks before heading back to the metro. John, Alla, Natasha (who was also there) and a bunch of other people were going to this pub crawl thing tonight and invited me to go but I had theatre tickets that Renee gave me. I don't know if I mentioned this in my last post, but as me and Renee were watching team France play last night in the World Cup I found out that me and her weren't going to the theatre together, which is what I originally thought. She won 2 tickets to 2 different shows and she's going to one show with her friend and I had the other 2 tickets. So I took Chaniece with me.

After grabbing a bite to eat we headed to the theatre where we saw Jacques Brel. It was a musical about Jacques Brel's life through his songs. It was pretty cool. When the woman showed us our seats which were on the ground floor she was like expecting us to give her a tip, which I've never done. She actually asked for a tip. I'm sorry but you don't ask for a tip. That's a little rude. Seriously how hard was it for her to show us our seats? I could've done it myself. Oh well, we didn't tip her. I think she was mad. The play was really good and funny. The singers were pretty good too. The guy who played Jacques Brel was better than this woman who was also in the play but I'm not sure who she was supposed to be. Maybe it was Brel's wife or something? I have no idea. When the play ended me and Chaniece got back on the metro and headed home.

I watched part of the USA vs England game and USA wasn't that bad. The goalie from England really effed up by accidentally letting in the goal because the ball slipped out of his fingers. It was pretty funny. However, like the France vs Uruguay game last night, USA vs England ended in a ties 1-1. I think that's really dumb. Anyways, I guess that's it. It's been a busy, long day and I'll probably go to bed soon. Tomorrow I'm going to try to start organizing my things to start packing so I'm not doing it at the last minute next Saturday. I think tomorrow I'm going out for dinner, but I'm not sure who's coming or if we are actually going. We'll see.

Bisous!

8 days!!

9 Days and Counting!!!

Sorry again I am not posting on a regular basis. I'm trying to enjoy my last 2 weeks in Paris so I haven't been home much to update. This week wasn't as rough as last, however I was sick for the majority of it so that sucked.



On Monday seriously felt like complete shit. I had a hard time sleeping on Sunday and really didn't feel like going to class at all, but alas, I went. There were a total of 6 kids in the class. Go us! I got my test back and got a 15/20, which was a lot better than my first test which I got a 12/20. When the professor called my named I stood up to get my test and when I got to her desk she decided that she was going to point out all my faults on my exam. She was like, "Tripartisime didn't fall because of foreign conflicts!!!" I just stood at her and was like ummm okay. I really could've cared less. She didn't have to go and say what was wrong with my test in front of the entire class (hahah 5 other people) However, she did this with everyone so I didn't feel so bad. Me and Katie left during the break because class was a snooze fest and it was her last few days in Paris so we had to make a trip to Montmarte to the best boulangerie in Paris. The boulangerie is called Le Grenier a Pain. It won the 2010 prize for the best baguette in Paris. We bought one, and I bought this sun dried tomato bread thing. The thing I bought wasn't too great. I wasn't that impressed. Katie and I headed to this little park near the boulangerie to sit and eat our baguette by the "Love Wall." The Love Wall was really cool. I guess a bunch of artists from the area wrote "I love you" in their native language on this wall. There were seriously a million languages on the wall. It took forever to find "I love you" but we finally spotted it. There was a park right behind where we were sitting on this bench so there were a ton of kids there so we were getting a little annoyed. This group of young French kids came around and they were listening to me and Katie talk in English. This kid kept asking his friends, "a ton avis, quelle langue?" (In your opinion, what language?) referring to me and Katie. This one kid was like "l'anglais!" (English) and the kid who asked the question is like no, it can't be English, they're German or Russian. Me and Katie just laughed. Seriously we don't even look German or Russian! It was hilarious. We left, because these kids started throwing around this ball and it almost hit me and Katie. We walked back to the boulangerie and she bought 2 more baguettes to bring home to her family. Oh, the baguette was really good, not gonna lie.



We got back on the metro and I headed over to l'Olympia (a concert hall) where I had a ticket to see Coeur de Pirate that night. I got there a little after 6 and there was already a line. The concert didn't start until 8. I was the only one from IPP there and didn't want to get in line by myself so I went to Starbucks instead. Around 7, when me and Jacqueline were supposed to meet, she called me and told me to come meet her, John and Alla at this restaurant down the street. I wasn't going to go because I already ate but she said they told me I had to come, so I did. I found it and we were the only people in the place. John, Jacqueline and Alla all ordered food and I thought it was going to be really awkward sitting there watching them eat but it wasn't that bad. John left and Jacqueline and Alla and I left shortly after to meet up with the rest of the IPP-ers in line. We got into the venue, which, back in the day you were really some body if you played at the Olympia. We had general admission seats so we stood the entire concert. The opening act came on and people kept talking while this poor girl was playing. They were so rude. I couldn't even hear what she was saying they were so loud. It was like a million degrees in this place too. Not fun, oh and I felt like barfing for some reason. It just wasn't a good night. After about 25ish minutes, our group gets back together and the house lights go on. When they went on seriously like half of the people on the floor sat down. It was so lame. I was like ummm, what are you doing? This is a concert, why are you sitting on the dirty ground. It was bizarre. Coeur de Pirate come on shortly after and she's so adorable! They are from Quebec. I only knew 2 songs by her. Julien Dore came out and sang the song they have together. That was the best part of the concert because he's a complete dream boat. He won Nouvelle Star, which is the French version of American Idol. Ughhh he's so cute!!! The rest of her songs were pretty good. It's not something that I'd normally listen to, but she was very good. Me and Jacqueline were really hot, and I felt like barfing so we walked out of the room after her 2nd encore....I think she played 3 because it was the last stop on her tour. We sat on the steps and after a few minutes the concert was over. We met up with everyone outside and they all debated what they were going to do. I just wanted to go home and was just waiting for them to make up their mind so I could walk to the metro with them, but after like a half hour of standing around they still didn't know so I just decided to leave. I took some medicine when I got home and passed out like a half hour later.



On Tuesday I attempted to read Dora Bruder for Costello's class on Thursday but that obviously didn't happen. I didn't get out of bed until 10:30 and then sat around on the couch because I couldn't breathe. It was gross. I did manage to get a little bit of reading done and I think I ran some errands but I don't really remember what. Around 5 I left to meet up with Katie at The Frog and the British Library. We were going to just go and get a drink but we decided to see a movie too. We ran to the Monoprix to grab some sandwiches, drinks, and obvs candy (duh!) for the movie and then we headed back to the bar for happy hour, because there was no way we were missing that. Neither of us felt like a beer so we got a beer cocktail instead. Mine was called Ginger Dream (I love gingers!) and it was part rum, part of the Frog's ginger beer, and strawberry juice. MY GOD it was delish!!! Katie got one that was champagne, a Frog beer, and strawberry juice. Her's was really good too! We finished up our delish drinks and then headed for the movies which is like right across the street. We saw "Mammuth" staring Gerard Depardieu. It was pretty good. It was all in French, the first time I've seen a French movie in the theatres here. It was hard to understand what they were saying sometimes and I didn't get all of the jokes but I was able to follow the story pretty well. It was a little bizarre. Depardieu's character had a really weird relationship with his brother. We left the theatre at like 8:30, the movie was pretty short and I headed home.

On Wednesday after theatre which wasn't too interesting, I met Katie at the cafeteria for lunch. It was our last day seeing each other because she was leaving to go back home (Indiana) the next day. We ate our usual salads which were awesome and just talked about the year and how much fun we've had together. Of course, we had to go to translation so we left the cafeteria and headed to class. We were hoping we were going to get our tests back but we didn't. Katie was bummed but next week when the teacher hands them back I'm going to grab hers and just send it to her when I get home. Class wasn't really that interesting. We just messed around instead of doing work. Typical. We left class and Katie and I walked to the metro. It was so sad because I was heading one direction and she the other so we just looked at each other. We both wanted to cry but didn't want to at the same time so we're just cracking up in the middle of the station. We'll see each other again, she doesn't live that far from Chicago and we'll talk in stuff it was just sad saying goodbye because she was my best friend here. I'm really glad I met her! Miss you girl!!! As she got on her train I waved goodbye from my side of the platform, it was like a movie or something. So cute! Renee and I had dinner that night after she got home from the pool. I think she wasn't too happy that I asked if we could eat together because she's usually pretty tired when she gets back from the pool but it she really didn't want to she could've said so. The Hawks game was on that night and it was the final and of course it didn't start until 7pm at home (2am in Paris) so I didn't stay up to watch it.

Around 5am Thursday morning I got 3 text messages, one from my dad, one from my brother Nick, and one more from someone I didn't know telling me the Hawks won the Stanley Cup. I was happy but then I was like ummm it's 5am, I have class at 11 so I need to go back to bed. I watched all the highlights when I finally got up and it was so awesome. I loved Kane's goal. Classic. I loved how he was the only one who knew it went in and he just raises his arms above his head. So cute!! I went to Costello's class, not having finished the book. I was worried there was going to be a quiz but there wasn't. Luckily I read far enough so I was able to answer some of the questions Costello asked. We got our papers back and I got an A-!!!! I was pretty excited. My first 2 papers were B+ so I was really happy with my A- because I worked really hard on that paper. After class Chaniece, Jacqueline, Colie, and I walked to lit where we had a test. I studied for all of 20 minutes the night before because I was reading Dora Bruder. The test wasn't too bad I guess. I feel like I rambeled on and on a lot but I feel that the professor doesn't really care what you say, just as long as you back it up, so that's what I did. It was pretty horrible. It took me forever to finish. After the test, Chaniece, Jacqueline, Alla, John and I jumped on the metro and went to this Froyo (frozen yougart) place that John found. It was pretty good. I got chocolate with strawberries and brownie pieces. It was a little expensive, but oh well. We sat around and chatted for a while and that was fun. I planned on going home afterwards because I was going to eat at home with Renee and everyone else was going to MacDo for dinner. That night Renee and I had fish. We have fish a lot. She told me that she won 2 tickets to 2 shows for Saturday and asked if I wanted to go with her so obviously I said yes. She was really excited about it. I tried going to bed early last night but that didn't happen because I started watching My Girl. I love that movie. I think I went to bed around 1:30.

Today was a lot of fun, aside from the problems I had at the post office where the woman didn't believe me when I told her I spoke French and she had to go and get another co-worker so he could stand there and repeat everything she said in French in English, even though I knew what she was saying to begin with. Oh, I went to the post office to send a box of stuff home. It ended up costing me 86.70ish, Euro, which was a lot if you ask me, but it was like 7 kilos and I really did need to send it. Today was our last theatre class before the test next Wednesday and Benoit didn't wear his salmon colored pants. I was a little sad :( We watched this video from this play that Benoit was in but you couldn't hear anything so me and Beth made our own commentary which was more entertaining than the play. Sorry, Benoit. After class I met Chaniece at the foyer and we decided to go to Starbucks to study a bit and then head over to the Centre Pompidou where we would meet up with Krista, John, and maybe Jacqueline....that was the plan. It didn't exactly go that way. Of course. Chaniece and I went to Subway and got the sandwich of the day for lunch and then brought it to Starbucks where we got the new drink they have. The guy who took my order was like "bonne choix mademoiselle!" (good choice) and I was like, "ouais, je sais" (yeah, I know) he thought it was pretty funny. We sat upstairs and ate and attempted to study. I tried to finish reading Dora Bruder but was too busy singing Lady Gaga songs haha. Typical. We walked from Starbucks to the Pompidou because it was really nice. We went inside, got our tickets and waited for everyone else to show up. Krista was the only one who ended up coming. I texted John and asked him why he wasn't coming and he said something about he doesn't like modern art and didn't want to be inside....idk. Whatever. So me, Krista and Chaniece walked around the museum together. I really like the Pompidou. It's very interesting. You never know what you're going to see. There's this sex room and there's this giant sculpture hanging from the ceiling that is supposed to be a vagina, but I don't see how it looks like one and I think I would know...duh. Hahaha. It's a funny room. We saw a bunch of other stuff too. It's a fun museum, even if you don't like modern art.....We left and then jumped on the RER B to meet up with Diane at the student cafeteria one last time. We got there pretty late so there wasn't any pizza (boo!!!) so I had to get the fish. It was pretty good. After dinner, when we got kicked out of the cafeteria at 8:30 I headed home. Me and Renee watched team France play team Uruguay. I'm not a big soccer fan but I figured I should watch team France play. Renee says they aren't very good. She fell asleep while watching the match. Team Uruguay almost scored and I was like "OHHHHH!!!!" and she woke up. Oops! The game ended 0-0 so there was no winner and the teams play another team, I really don't know. Seriously, what a dumb way to end the game. There should be a shoot out or something a little bit exciting because soccer can be dreadfully boring. Sorry soccer fans! Team USA plays team England tomorrow. England is picked to win. They probably will.

I asked Renee what time we were leaving for the theatre and I must have misunderstood what she told me. She won 2 tickets to 2 different plays (so 4 tickets total) she's going to one play with her friend and she gave me the 2 other tickets to do whatever I wanted with them. I thought we were going together, which would've been nice, but it's okay, she wants to go with her friend Marie-Jo. Renee told me earlier this week that she leaves next Friday afternoon for Nantes for her niece's wedding (not Mathilde, Mathilde's sister, Pauline). Apparently Jean-Francois is supposed to be coming here soon, Renee's not sure when and he's going to make us a going away dinner Tuesday night because I won't be here Wednesday or Thursday night and she's leaving Friday afternoon. So that should be fun. Jean-Francois isn't here yet, I'm not sure when he plans on showing up. He's a man of mystery!

I've got a lot planned this weekend, including starting to organize my things and attempting to start packing so I'm not doing it all at the last minute. Hopefully it doesn't rain a lot my last week here.

Bisous!!! See you all very soon!!


PS....I found out that a lot of IPP-ers like to read my blog. Thanks guys, I'm glad you are enjoying it. :) I read your blogs too!!

Crazy Week

This week has been insane, it was for sure my busiest week of the year. I am so exhausted right now, and sick. Awesome.

On Monday I had my history final as well as a presentation in the same class. The test was pretty easy. Unlike last time where it was just 1 essay question that was really broad, we had two questions that asked us mini questions so we would know exactly what the prof was looking for in our answers. One of the questions was about the French government after WWII and what it was like and the second was about the Indochine war (Indochina, basically the first Vietnam War that the US wasn't involved in). The second question was pretty easy because mine and Katie's presentation was on Ho Chi Minh who lead the Viet Minh (his group) to victory in the war which allowed them freedom from France. Overall I think the test went pretty well. Our presentation was awesome. We made a game out of his life. We had a bunch of questions from his early life, and then during the war and stuff like that. A lot of the presentations have been really boring so ours was actually exciting and everyone was awake and I think the professor really liked it too.

Tuesday I was super busy. I worked on my paper for Costello's class all day, and basically tried to get caught up on all the homework that was due during the week.

On Wednesday I had a delish salad for lunch at school with Katie and then we started sort of studying for our translation test. It was so hard. It was a lot harder than the first one, and that was super hard to begin with. I was the very last person to finish, of course. I left school and then headed home where I ate something real quick and the headed out to the Chatelet Theatre to see Les Mis!!! Les Mis was amazing. Seriously, the best play I've seen all year. It's actually a musical. Comedie Musical en Francais! Anyways, our seats were on the first balcony which is called the Corbielle (the trash in French) the seats were very good. I had to sit on the edge of my seat the entire time because we were sort of at a weird angle. It was such a good show. All the actors were amazing and their singing was fantastic. It's all in English so they had French subtitles up on the screens so people who didn't speak English could understand what they were saying. If you ever have the opportunity to see Les Mis, do it. It's expensive but it is seriously worth it!

On Thursday I had Costello's class and then Lit which were both fine. We have our lit final this week, but it shouldn't be too hard. That night I was up super late finishing my theatre paper and going over Costello's paper. I don't think I went to bed until 2:30. I was so tired the next day.

So, I didn't go camping this weekend, like I said in my last post I would. I just really wasn't looking forward to camping because I really don't like it at all. So I just decided I'd stay here. I met Chaniece after class on Friday and we went to lunch and got gyros but I really don't like them here so I only ate the fries and not even half of the sandwich. After that we went to Starbucks and had planned on getting our drinks and then sitting in the Luxembourg Gardens to drink them, but Katie called and invited us to see a play that night. So we walked home, I changed clothes because it was like a million degrees out and then met back up with Chaniece so we could meet Katie and her friend KJ who was staying with her until Sunday when she was leaving to go back home to America. We saw Salome which is an Oscar Wilde play. It was pretty interesting. I really didn't know much about the story but it's from the Bible or something. It was interesting and free, plus it was something to do. After the play Chaniece and I headed back to our respective apartments because we both were really tired.

Saturday, Chaniece, Natasha, Pilar and I walked from Montparnasse to the Eiffel Tower where we had a picnic. It took us about an hour or so to walk there. It wasn't a really tiring walk, it was just pretty hot and I was pretty hungry. We got there and spread out our blanket, which was Johns...not sure why or how Pilar had it but we had something to sit on. There weren't to many people picnicking. The majority of the people were by the tower standing in line to go up it. We were there for a pretty long time. After a few hours we jumped on the metro and went to Montparnasse to get some dinner. As we were walking to McDonalds (because we're poor) I saw the police dressed in their riot gear. I mean like full riot gear. There was a giant protest going on for Israel and freedom. I'm not really sure. I think it had to do with what happened to their boats in the middle of the ocean. I really don't understand the whole story. I didn't want to go by them 1) because big crowds make me really nervous, 2) they were the same group of people that the riot police used tear gas on a few days ago on the Champs-Elysees and 3) the riot police are scary and it looked like they were just waiting for something to happen. Chaniece kept walking and I was like I don't want to walk through them (they were taking up the entire road) but she kept walking. I wasn't very happy because she was like don't worry it'll be fine. I knew it would be fine but I don't think she understood that big groups like that, especially a group that is angry, makes me very, very nervous. We made it through them and I just about lost it. We got to McDonalds and of course they were busy so it took forever to get food. We left about an hour or so later and the group was gone so we walked home.

Today I really don't feel that well. I've been sneezing a lot and I'm just really tired. I met Katie at Musee d'Orsay so she could see the Crime and Punishment exhibit and so we could basically say goodbye to the museum. We stopped in the book shop after and I got a coloring book for Madisen. It's in French and English and has Paris landmarks in it. It's cute. We headed to Montparnasse so Katie could go to FNAC to get some new head phones but it was close. I bought a sandwich and then headed home. Right now I'm laying on the couch, trying not to fall asleep and watching the final round of the French Open between Rafael Nadal (swoon!) and Robin Soderling and right now Rafa is winning (obvs) 2 sets to 0. I think if he wins this he might knock Roger Federer off of his number one player in the world spot because Federer was knocked out a few rounds ago...haha loser!

This week shouldn't be so rough. I have 1 test on Thursday, a concert to see tomorrow, a book to read, and I think a play to see on Thursday. But that's about it. So it should be an easy week which is good because I'm sick. I also have to start getting stuff together for the box that I am going to be sending home because I'd like to send it by Friday, Saturday at the latest so it's there when I get home. I guess that's all for now.

Bisous

Massive Update!

Okay, seriously it's been soooo long. This is going to take so long to write. Grrrr....alright here I go. I'm going to have to use dates btw so it'll be easier.

Monday 17th:

Okay so Renee left for vacation for I had free range of the house which was AWESOME!!!! I really like Renee but sometimes I just like to be alone so I can do whatever I want. For example, I can't have dance parties to Lady Gaga at 11:30 at night while Renee's here because she's usually been asleep for 3 hours already. Monday after class Chaniece, Katie and Jacqueline came over and we made home made mac n cheese and brownies from the box that my parents sent me. We put 3 different types of cheese in the mac n cheese and man, it was delish. It was so easy to make too. We sort of followed Ina Garten's recipe and you really can't go wrong with Ina because she's so cool. It turned out really, really well. I think we were all quite surprised. That night, Jacqueline and I decided to meet John to go to this concert. I brought along brownies because I'm nice like that. HA! It took me and Jacqueline FOREVER to get to the metro he was meeting us at because it was all the way in the 20th. That neighborhood isn't really the best place to be late at night btws. So me and Jacqueline got off the metro at 9 (we were 15 min late....oops!) and I called John so he could come and meet us because some guys had already honked at us from their car. John came a few minutes later and fell in love with my brownies because they were awesome and because I made them, duh! Anyways, he said that he couldn't find the bar that we were supposed to go to and was like yeah, it doesn't exist in this part of town. I was like you've got to be kidding me?!?! We came pretty far and you're telling us it doesn't exist? How is that possible? So John call's Chaniece who was at home and had her look up the bar on Google. She said that it was all the way in the 16th. The 16th is on the opposite side of the city. So we got on the metro and rode it an hour to the 16th. Once we got off we started looking for the bar. After walking up and down the road that it was supposed to be on we couldn't find it. This guy asked us if we were lost so John asked him if he knew where this bar was. Of course the guy has no idea so he looks it up on his BlackBerry. He said that it wasn't in this part of town. We asked him if there was a bar around there that had live music and no lie, the guy goes, "no, there are only shitty bars here. This is a shitty area" I was just like omg....John takes us to the best places!! We got back on the metro and after wandering around somewhere Jacqueline thought was a good area we ended up near the foyer where we have IPP classes at this piano bar. The bar was really sweet. There was a guy playing the piano (obviously!) and this woman was singing. I guess you could request songs if you wanted to too. We get into the bar and the waitress seats us next to this couple that was hard core macking on each other. And when I say hard core I mean like hard hard core. I was worried they were going to make a baby on the bench. HAHAH. John was the unlucky one who got to sit next to them. I was sitting on the other side of the table across from John and Jacqueline was next to me. I had such a hard time concentrating on the conversation because my eyes were glued to this couple mauling each other. Me and John ordered beers and Jacqueline some how ordered vodka, I think she wanted a Smirnoff Ice, but she didn't say the ice part so they just gave her vodka in a glass. The couple finally stopped macking on each other so I could finally concentrate on the conversation. The music was really good. Alla came and hung out for a bit. We left the bar around 12:45am. I was like what in the world am I doing out this late on a Monday night? I was worried that I was going to miss the last metro so we all rushed to the stop. The bad thing about being out that late is you have to deal with the crazies in the metro, we just try to stay away from them, but the trains don't come very often. Me and Jacqueline had to wait 15 minutes for 1 train. Luckily when I got to Montparnasse I ran to the 13 so I wouldn't have to wait 20 minutes for the next train. I only ended up waiting 5 which is a lot better than 28 because that's when the next train was coming. Over all it was a really good night and I had a lot of fun.

Tuesday 18th:

I never have class on Tuesday, as you already know, and since I was out super late the night before I took advantage of that and slept in. It was nice. I tried to write my 5 page paper for Costello's class that was due on Thursday but I only managed to get 2 paragraphs done and 1 paragraph writen in English, which obviously doesn't help me. When Chaniece got out of class she, John, Jacqueline and Pilar came over. John left after like 10 minutes but the girls stayed and we had dinner and then tried working on our papers because we are all in the same class. I managed to get 1 more paragraph done before everyone left. I was up until 1am writing my paper. Needless to say I was pretty crabby on Wednesday.

Wednesday 19th:

I don't remember what happened. I had theatre and translation. Our final exam for translation is next week (joy) and Benoit extended the due date for our final paper until next week instead of this Friday. When I got home I had to load LOST and Glee because I had to watch them because they were new episodes the night before back home. But, I wouldn't allow myself to watch them right away because I had to write my paper. I started writing around 6, took a dinner break around 7:30, during which I watched Glee. I finally finished my paper at 12am and had it edited and printed by 1. I got ready for bed and then obviously had to watch LOST.

Thursday 20th:

I had Costello's class and lit. I was super tired because I didn't get much sleep the night before from staying up late to finish my paper. We got out grades back from our first papers. I got a B+ not too shaby. He didn't write a lot of comments on the paper, which annoys me because it really doens't tell me why I got the B+ We also got our final paper assignment. I feel like all I do for this class is write. We handed in our papers and Costello asked if we read for this week and of course no one did because we were all finishing our papers. He goes, well that figures. It was a little rude but come on, what did he expect. I'm sure when he was in college and he had a big paper due the next day, he didn't do the assigned readings for the class. Give me a break. Lit was good. Chaniece and I passed notes back in forth about random things like Lady Gaga lyrics and what the teacher was wearing. Near the end of the class John passes us a note saying there is a concert tonight and he asked if we wanted to come. I said I would and Chaniece said she's go too if she finished eating with her host family in time. He promised that he knew where this place was this time and we wouldn't have a repeat of Monday night. We left class and went home. I was working on some homework when John im'd me on Skype. He was annoyed because he was caughing so bad or something like that. He ran to the pharmacy to get some meds and then came back and said he wasn't going to make it to the concert and was going to stay in tonight. I was pretty bummed. :( oh well, I mean he can't help it if he's sick. I told him Chaniece and I planned to have a movie night and he could come over if he wanted to but he passed. Chaniece didn't end up coming over because her dinner with the host family went super late. So, I watched The Sandlot, finished my bottle of wine and ate a bag of popcorn by myself.

Friday 21st:

I went to theatre and I don't really remember what happened. John had his presentation and I don't remember what we talked about in class...it really wasn't that important. After class I rushed home to finish packing for London and to clean up the apartment because Renee was coming home on Saturday and I didn't want it to be super messy when she came back. I left for the airport around 4:45ish and took the RER B all the way there. It was super hot in Paris that day so of course it was deathly hot on the train. Not to mention there were like a million people on it. The woman sitting across from me, also going to the airport, would seriously jump out of her skin every time a train would pass by on the other side of the tracks because we were sitting by the window and a giant gust of air would rush into her face. It was pretty funny. The night before I bought the Lady Gaga cd FINALLY!!! so I jammed out to that all the way there. I got to the airport, got checked in and made my way to passport inspection and security. There was this British couple behind me and somehow they got seperated from the rest of their group so I stopped and turned around so they could pass by me. I don't know how or what I did to this man but I looked at him and he goes, "Why are you looking at me like that?" and I was like huh? and he goes "I can't be a terrorist!" I was like WTF dude? I didn't even look at the guy. Why in the world would I think he's a terrorist. God, what a crabby British man. I made my way to the gate and sat down to read and eat my over priced sandwich and coke. The plane was supposed to board at 7 I think, but of course, because I was on the plane it was delayed. I guess it was coming in from Zurich and the Swiss don't know how to fly planes so it was late. Then, it was delayed again so I think we were about 45 minutes late boarding. I finally got on the plane, sat down and of course the plane taxied for another 30 minutes waiting to take off. The pilot came on the intercom and was joking around like well, some day we'll make it to London. I was like yea, some day buddy, this is my 3rd try attempting to get there!!! We finally took off a few minutes later. I don't know why, but we had to be in the air longer than we were supposed to. Maybe the airport was backed up or something so we had to circle around it twice. We finally landed and it took another 20 min to get to the docky thingy, I don't know what it's called. I turned on my phone right away (even though they said you couldn't....I was annoyed) and texted Lex, letting her know I just landed and I was getting off the plane soon. I made it through customs without a problem. The guy who checked my passport was really nice. I walked towards the exit and finally saw Lex and Marissa waiting for me. They were dressed like it was a million degrees outside (shorts and tanks) although it was pretty hot outside considering it was almost 9. It's a long drive back from Heathrow to Lex's house. However, we weren't staying there, we were staying where Marissa lives I guess because it's closer and she has the internet and a projector so they stream movies and watch them on the wall. It's pretty sweet. I want one. We started watching 500 days of Summer, but Marissa was tired so she went to bed and Lex followed like an hour later. I finished watching it by myself. I forgot my glasses and contact case in Paris, but some how managed to remember contact solution...so I made a make shift case out of 2 shot glasses. I'm smart, I know.

Saturday 22nd:

Saturday was the best day of my trip because we went into London (finally!) After a quick stop in town to get Marissa some new shoes and me some British pounds because I only had Euros on me, we headed for the Tube stop that is closest (45min away) to the town. We got to the stop, which is at the end of the central line of the Tube (which is the Underground, or the metro) and of course, I have to pee. We got out and I asked this old guy who was working there if there was a bathroom and he said yes so he let me through so I could use it even though we didn't buy our tickets yet. He was nice. We bought our day passes and we on our way. It was like 13 stops to London, well to the place we wanted to transfer to. The first stop on our list was of course Platform 9 3/4 which is at King's Cross station. A few things about the tube. It's similiar to the metro in Paris, although I prefer the metro to the tube. I do like how they say "Mind the gap between the train and the platform" they say it at every stop and they don't do that in Paris. It is set up a weird way though. You have to know what direction you are going but unlike in Paris where it give the names of the last stop as the direction, in London you need to know the actually direction like north, south, east or west. That was confusing but the good thing is there were signs before you made your turn to go that direction that said what stops would be in that direction. Anyways, we get to King's Cross and I'm seriously geeking out. I didn't exactly know where the cart and the wall was (there's half of a cart pushed through a wall and the wall says platform 9 3/4) but I knew it was in the station somewhere. However, it's going through a major renovation so I think they moved it somewhere else. Lex asked for directions a few times but we finally found it. When we rounded the corner and I saw if I couldn't stop smiling. I felt like such a nerd. OMG it was sooooo cool! Seriously, my favorite part about my trip to London. I took a million pics (obvs!) and then we left, after a cig break for Lex and Marissa. This is a picture of me trying to jump through the wall. I almost made it.

We planned on going to Buckingham Palace next. We got off a few stops before the stop for the palace so we could walk through St. James Park which was really nice. It's a very pretty park. I wish we would have gotten down there a little earlier and we could've had a picnic because there were tons of people just hanging out and enjoying the sun. It was a long walk to Buckingham Palace but it was so worth it. The palace really wasn't what I was expecting. Lex said there are usually guards outside of the gates but there weren't today, they were behind the gates. I really wanted to see the changing of the guard ceremony but it's at 11am every day, and we obviously missed that. Buckingham Palace is where everyone put flowers when Princess Diana died. I remember seeing that on tv. Anyways, we hung out there for a little while and watched this gauard walk around in his funny hat. He marched like a frog....if frogs could march. Next we walked towards Westminster Abby which is were Parliament Square is located. It was another long walk but it was so nice out I'd rather be outside than down in the hot tube. I saw a phone booth and obviously needed to take a picture inside of it. I could only stand in there for a few seconds because it spelled like pee. We made it to Parliament and it was really cool looking. I saw Big Ben and the London Eye from a distance. We couldn't walk down the street that Parliament is on because there were gates all around it for some reason. In this park across the street there was an anti-war protest going on. That was pretty cool. After looking around Westminster Abbey for a bit we jumped back on the tube and went back to Piccadilly Circus which is kind of like Times Square in New York. It was pretty sweet. We found this place to eat at because we all were starving and I had pizza. It wasn't very good. We all were pretty tired. I wanted to see a few more things in London, like the bridge and Abbey Road, but Lex and Marissa were tired and I was kind of dependent on them to get me home and everything because I was staying with them. After dinner we left and jumped back on the tube for the long ride back to where we parked the car.

On the way home we ran into some major traffic. There was an accident that ended up being pretty bad. This car that was towing a giant trailer flipped and everything was all over the road. We were stuck in that for at least and hour and a half. Lex even shut her car off and got out to stretch because we had been sitting for so long. She went into her trunk (which Marissa calls the boot...she's British) and grabbed a book. She was going to start reading it but we started moving so she handed it to me (it was The Lovely Bones) and told me to start reading it outload. I read the rest of the way home. We got home pretty late and we all changed into our pjs. I figured we'd play beerpong because that's what we usually do but we were all pretty beat. We watched Jurassic Park and then went to bed.

Sunday 23rd:

We really didn't do anything, just hung out and watched movies all day. I don't have much to say about that. Monday was mostly the same thing except Lex wasn't there because she had to work so it was just me and Marissa. Around 5 we left for the airport. We didn't hit any traffic on the way down there, unlike last time, and I read The Lovely Bones outload again most of the way down. I made it back to Paris without a problem, except for a run in with a bench that I didn't see so now I have a giant bruise on my leg. It's pretty gross. I bought this coffee cup that says "Mind the Gap" and has the Underground sign on it. It's pretty cute and I really like that saying. I made it back to Paris around 10:30 and didn't make it back to the apartment until 12. I tried loading LOST because the series finale was on the night before but it was being a jerk and wouldn't load so I just went to bed.

Tuesday 25th:

I didn't have school and really got nothing done all day because I had to watch LOST which was over 2 hours long and Grey's because I missed that too. I spent the majority of the day watching tv. I also did laundry. I attempted getting my translation homework done but that didn't happen.

Wednesday 26th:

I had theatre and we talked about the play we were going to see that night. In translation we went over out worksheets and preped for out test which was in a week. That night we went and saw Roberto Zucco for theatre class. It was interesting to say the least. It took me FOREVER to get there because I had to take the 1 all the way to the end of the line. But, of course, there was a lot of traffic and we ended up stopping at 2 stops for 10 minutes each. Good thing I left early. I got there 10 min. late and couldn't find my class so I called Colie. I found them, crossed 4 lanes of traffic and made it onto the bus just in time. Everyone was there minus 2 people. This bus takes us about 10 minutes into Bois de Vincennes, which is a forest outside of Paris. This theatre was like in the middle of the woods which was a little odd. The play was good, it was kind of bizarre and the main character Roberto, pranced around naked. I mean like butt naked. You saw EVERYTHING. Also, there was this woman who went crazy who gave this huge monologe topless. It was a very French play with lots of naked people. The play ended at 10:45ish. We all got back on the bus and then headed towards the metro. The 1 is going through construction at night, I think to make it all automatic, so I had to get off at nation and take the 6 all the way to Montparnasse. It was a long night on the metro. I didn't get back until 12am.

Thursday 27th:

For Costello's class we met in Montmartre to take a walking tour of that part of town which was talked a lot about in l'Assommoir. It was really cool. Some parts of the town were pretty shady and there were these black men trying to sell us cigarettes which was weird. It's a really big area where all the immigrants live. Besides being a little shady it was very interesting. We saw the 2 windmills that are left in Paris. I saw them when I was in high school but I couldn't find them the last time I came to Montmartre this year. We got out of class early. Costello gave us our tickets to Les Mis which is this week and I can't wait!!! We got on the metro, which was interesting because it was also shady. These men were trying to sell us metro tickets infront of the place where you scan your card. It was kind of scary but we all were together so it's not like I was alone. Oh and it rained the entire time we were there so that was kind of crappy. We got to school early so bought pasta for lunch at this little pasta place and then ate it at school in the hall way of the building that our class is in. Class was good. Jacqueline, John and I played tic tack toe. I lost. After class, the 3 of us and Alla went to FNAC to buy tickets to this concert. It started pouring, go figure, so me and John shared my umbrella. He isn't a very good umbrella holder. The entire left side of my body was soaked. Oh well.... :) I bought a ticket to this concert. I really don't know who Bad Religion is but I guess they are really good. I think I may have heard one of their songs before. It's their 30th anniversaire tour so that's pretty cool I guess. It's on the 16th of June. After the FNAC I walked home and it started to rain again. Renee and I had dinner together that night for the first time in like 2 and a half weeks. We had fish. It wasn't very good and I was still hungry afterwards.

Friday 28th:

I had theatre, that was good. We talked about Roberto Zucco for a while. Our paper is due the Friday. After class I met up with Katie at her dorm and we worked on our Ho Chi Minh presentation for Monday's history class. By working on it I mean we sat around and talked for 3 hours and didn't get much work done. HAHAH!!! it's cool though, I didn't mind. I went with her to the post office so she could send a box home but they wouldn't take the card she was trying to use. After that I went back to the apartment and started working on my half of the presentation. We decided we are going to make it a game. There are 5 categories and each has 4 questions each. It should be fun....I hope. All the other presentations have been so boring so far, so maybe ours will be more interesting because it's a game. Renee went to see a play that night but she made me a salad for dinner before she left.

Saturday 29th:

My plan for the day was to go to the Longchamp store to buy my bag and then head to FNAC to get homework done. I did just that. My bag is ADORABLE!!!! It's pink and I love it. Colie came with me to buy it and then hung out for a bit at FNAC but then left. I got some work done but when they started setting up for this guest speaker I left because there were a million people in the cafe and it was distracting and annoying. I got back to the apartmet and Renee was still over at her friends house doing whatever. I sat down to work on my Costello paper. I have to analyze this poem. I read it, listened to it online because it's a slam poem and then started looking up all the words I didn't know. There were a bunch because he uses a TON of slang. I made an outline of my paper and got the first paragraph written. That night at dinner I asked Renee for help on some of the words I didn't know. Oh, I totally forgot...Renee took Norton to the vet because he's been biting himself and it made the spot all red and raw so the vet put one of those giant collars on him. It's yellow so he kind of looks like a sunflower. I call him "mon petit fleur" which is my little flower...he keeps running into the walls. It's pretty funny. I got some more work done after dinner but called it quits around 11 and just chilled out.

Today, finally, the 30th is Mother's day in France. It is also Kelsey Wipper's 21st birthday!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELS!!!! I bought some flowers for Renee when I woke up. They are purple. I have no idea what they are called. When I got back from buying them I put them in some water, started my laundry and ate breakfast. I off to a slow start that day and didn't start doing my homework until around 2. I wrote some more of my paper, watched the highlights from the Hawks game (GO HAWKS!!) and studied for my history test which is tomorrow. Renee came home and she was carrying this giant plant. It was bigger than her. She loved the flowers I bought for her. After a Skype date with Chris, who I haven't seen in forever! I got back to studying. I noticed that after WWII France pretty much jumped into war with Indochina (Vietnam....not the Vietname war, that was after. This was in 1945) and then the war with Algeria right after that in 1954. They fought for a really long time. They lost both of those wars btw.

I am finally caught up now. I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated. I'll try to update this week but I have 2 finals, 2 presentations, and 2 papers due, plus I'm going to see Les Mis so it's a pretty busy week. Plus, this weekend I'm going camping with some kids from IPP. So if I don't update this week it will probably be on Sunday whenever I get back. Have a good week and happy Memorial Day...I have school tomorrow :(

Bisous

ps, there was no way I was going to re-read all of this for errors, it took me 2 days to type.

Benoit's bringing Sexy Back!!

This post, once again is long over due. Sorry, yet again. I'll just start with Monday. I didn't have class last week because the professor was absent. I showed up for history on Monday afternoon and yet again the professor wasn't there. The secretary came up to us and said that they were trying to find a sub. I wonder what's wrong with our professor? We didn't start class until 2:15. The professor, whose name I don't even know, kind of jumped around on subjects. I swear we skipped 10 years in France's history. If the professor isn't there why should we have to sit there for 3 hours confused because we have no idea what she is talking about. We went from the period right after the war to stuff about Ho Chi Minh...it was bizarre. Class was really boring. Katie and I decided to go to this boulangerie after class that has been called the "best" boulangerie in all of Paris. It was by Gare de l'est (a big train station) so it took us a while to get there from school. We got off the metro and walked to the boulangerie to find that it was closed. Seriously, if you're the best boulangerie in all of Paris, why would you be closed on a Monday? It wasn't even a holiday!! We were pretty upset. We walked around for a little bit looking for somewhere to get a snack and ended up at this cafe next to the train station. I got a hot chocolate and it wasn't very hot. We love people watching. It was a lot of fun. We left and then Katie wanted to go to the monoprix so she could buy some stuff for her dinner. While we were in the store I got a text from Renee saying that she had a meeting to go to after work and she wouldn't be back to late so either I could wait for her to get home so we could eat together or I could eat by myself. I decided to eat by myself because I was really hungry.

The next morning, Chaniece and I met Jacqueline and Colie at Musee d'Orsay so we could see the Crime et Chatiment (crime and punishment) exhibit for Costello's class. Of course, there was a super long line. Jacqueline and Colie were already in line so me and Chaniece cut a bunch of people....sorry!! It was so cold and windy and rainy. So much for Paris in the spring time :( Anyways, there was a really long line because Musee d'Orsay is one of the really big museums that is open on Tuesday so everyone goes there because they can't go to the Louvre. Chaniece and I listened to her iPod to keep ourselves entertained and warm because we were obvs dancing....although I think that was more me than Chanience. There were 2 women in front of us from Canada who were really nice and we talked to them for a little while. We finally got in after waiting in line for like 45 minutes. The exhibit was AMAZING. I really, really liked it. There was a guillotine from the 1800's that was super cool. A lot of the paintings were pretty gross looking. There was this one part that had a bunch of black and white photographs that were from some of the first crime scenes in Paris. Well, they weren't the first crime scenes, but they were the first that were photographed. Those were super cool. There was this one painting called Faim, Folie, Crime by Antoine Wiertz that was so crazy! Seriously Google it. It's this woman who just got done breast feeding her baby, but she's crazy so she killed it, chopped off it's leg and is now going to eat the leg. Gross right? It's pretty cool looking. There was also this other painting by David Lynch called "Do you really want to know what I think?" that used a bunch of real materials like jeans and cigarettes in the painting. It was more like a sculpture than a painting. Google that one too. I think I'll go back and look at the exhibit again because it was just that fascinating. Renee and I didn't eat dinner together that night. She took her car to the garage to get it looked at for her vacation.

Wednesday wasn't that great. Theatre was okay but translation was horrible. I felt like such a failure. We got our tests back. I got a 10/20. It's not failing but that's the worst I've done this year. To make matters worse, when we were going over the answers to this packet we had to do about the passe simple (it's a form of the past tense that is usually used in literature) the teacher and the class laughed at me when I was giving my answers because they were wrong. It just wasn't a great day. Katie did 1 point better than me. We decided that because of our crappy grades we needed to go and relax so as soon as class ended we left and jumped on the 14 (my fav line!!!) and headed to The Frog and the British Library, a British pub. I got a pint (which I learned are bigger in Europe than they are in the states) of Ginger Twist, which they brew on site. They make a few beers but this one sounded the best. It was pretty darn good. I also ordered some quesadillas because I needed something to eat if I was going to be drinking. I was expecting it to be a pretty big quesadilla but it wasn't it was like 1 quesadilla cut up into 6 little pieces. So disappointing :( We got there at 5:33....happy hour started at 5:30. That's how we roll. Katie bought my beer because she owed me for the deposit for the hostel that I lost. We left around 8:30ish. Renee wasn't home but there was a roasted chicken in a bag in the fridge but I wasn't sure if I could eat it. So, I didn't. I was up pretty late talking on Skype but it was good. Renee didn't come home until almost 1. Another day we didn't eat dinner together.

Thursday I didn't have school because it was a religious holiday....ascention I think. After a lazy morning I went to FNAC with Colie to try to get some work done. I didn't get much done because I get distracted there so easily. I went back the the apartment and got creeped on by this guy who told me I had a nice ass and then proceeded to follow me for 10 minutes. I was annoyed but he finally realized that I wasn't going to talk to him so he left me alone and walked away. Renee came home around her normal time but then she left after she took Norton for a walk because she was meeting back up with her friends. So, yet again another night where we don't eat together. We haven't eaten together since Sunday when I got back from the Loire Valley :(

Friday was interesting. I went to theatre and before class started someone's cell started ringing and the ring tone was "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake. I was dancing in my seat and wondering who's phone it was. Turns out it was Benoit's (our professor's). The only reason I know this is because he ran out of the room to answer his phone. Man, I think I fell in love with him a little more after that. HAHA!!! Class was a lot of fun...it's my favorite class. I walked home with Colie (to my apt) after class because she had nothing to do. When I got back Renee wasn't there but Norton was and he got a haircut!!!! He looks so adorable. It's so short! He looks so different. That night I was supposed to go to this concert with John but that didn't work out because I'm dumb...I really don't want to go into it. Anyways, I ended up going to a movie with Katie and her friend Priscilla. We saw 8th Wonderland (an independent film) at this little movie theatre near the Bastille. I really did not like the movie at all. I thought it was horrible. It was just so bizarre I really didn't know what to think of it. After the movie we went to this bar that Katie called the Porn Bar...which sounded awesome obvs! When we walked it I couldn't for the life of me figure out why she called it the Porn Bar because there were pictures of Jesus and the Virgin Mary on all the walls staring at me. It was crazy. We sat at the bar because it was pretty crowded and ordered our pints. I toasted to Jesus because he was staring at me watching me drink my beer. We left when we finished and I found out that she calls it the Porn Bar because I guess in the bathroom there's bunch of porn on the walls, which is pretty funny. Jesus is on the walls outside but in the bathroom there's porn. HA!! On the train home I met Egyptian Jimmy. That wasn't his full name, don't worry. His name was Jimmy but he's from Egypt so he just calls himself that. He didn't believe me when I told him that I knew where Egypt was. He also asked to see my left hand to see if I was married, then asked for my number so I could give it to my friends and so we could meet up later. Thanks, but no thanks Egyptian Jimmy. He was pretty funny.

Renee left for vacation Saturday morning. I didn't see her at all but she left me a note. That night I met up with John, Colie, Katie, Krista, and Diane at the student cafeteria to grab dinner before we headed out to museum night. Night at the museum is this huge thing that was going on throughout all of Europe. Basically, a bunch of museums are open up super late and it's free for everyone to get in. As we were eating dinner we decided that we were going to try to hit up the Natural History Museum, the Louvre, and the Pompidou. We got to the natural history museum and after a bird poop attack by this crazy bird (none of it got on me, but Diane was hit) and this weird dance troop of 3 people who had soccer balls on their butts, we made it into the museum and it was AMAZING!!!!!! I loved it so much. OMG so sweet. John said that it's the biggest taxidermy collection in the world or something and he wasn't lying. It was insane. There were giraffes and elephants and so many animals. I felt like I was in the Lion King. There were also dinosaurs (bones not taxidermy haha) which was really, really cool. I felt like I was 5 years old and it was such a blast. We left the museum and headed for the Marais (the 4th) to search for a crepe because me and John really wanted one. We finally found a place and it def. hit the spot. Soooo good. We all got back on the metro (minus Katie, who left before crepes because she wasn't feeling well) and got off at Chatelet. We got out of the right exit, which never happens but we got lost trying to find the Pompidou. We walked in the wrong direction. I had a lot of fun though walking around that area. We were trying to make it to the museum by 12 because that's the last time they were letting people into the museum. We sadly didn't make it :( so John, myself and Diane headed home. I got back around 12:30ish and was pretty tired. I started watching Jurassic Park because I was really in the mood to watch it but then I ended up falling asleep around 2.

Today I did all of my homework except my Costello paper and did my laundry. I have a lot to do this week, mostly Costello's paper. I'm dreading it, not gonna lie. That's all for now....I need to go to bed at a decent hour tonight.

Bisous!!

PS....Congrats to my best friend in the world Tracey on your graduation from UW-Madison!!!! I love you so much!!!!

PPS...this was not checked for errors, sorry again