Walks and Videos

Let me start off by saying that I have the best friends ever. Plain and simple, best friends ever. This morning, I woke up, ate some breakfast, and checked facebook when I saw that my friends Casey and Chris posted a video on my wall. I saw that it was posted 2 hours ago, meaning that it was like 2am back in Champaign, so I was expecting to see drunken ramblings. However, I was wrong. They recorded a video of I'm Yours by Jason Mraz, which is one of my all time favorite songs. Chris played the guitar and Casey sang. It was amazing. I don't know if you guys read this but thank you both so much. It seriously made my day. This is what I'm expecting to see when I get off the plane June 20th....I'm not joking.

Friday was pretty boring. I went to my last class of 1st semester, and my last 9am class...thank god. Class was good. I ended up getting a good grade on my final test, not that I was worried about it. During our break our professor went down to the offices to get our certificates. She had mentioned them earlier but I really had no idea what she was talking about. It's just a piece of paper from the school all official looking that has your grades on it. She gave me mine and I didn't pretty well. All the grades are out of 20. My lowest was a 13.50 from my cinema test because I really bombed that one test and probably should have participated a little more. I got a 17 in my phonetics class, a 14.50 in my history class, a 16 in my literature class, and a 14 in my art class. Overall I was pretty happy with my grades. After class I went out to lunch with Amber one last time because she was leaving the next morning. We went to our usual cafe and sat in our usual spot. It was nice. I want to try to continue that tradition this semester, we'll see. That night I made some popcorn and watched a movie and talked to Tracey on Skype while she was in some depression class.

Saturday it was really sunny outside, which has been rare here lately so I decided to take the train to the Luxemburg garden to enjoy the sun. However, it was pretty cold so when the sun was behind the clouds it was kind of miserable. I hung out in the garden for a while and read for a bit but then I started to get really cold so I left. I walked through the garden to school and walked down Rue de Rennes and found this little sandwich shop. You could get a sandwich, drink and dessert for 7 euro, and I was hungry so I decided to eat there. I've noticed that at restaurants like this, when people are done eating they usually leave there garbage at their seat and one of the workers will pick it up for them. I think that this is pretty rude so I make sure to throw my stuff out. I have two working hands so why shouldn't I be able to throw my stuff in the trash? After lunch I walked down Rue de Rennes which leads you to the Montparnasse tower which is close to where I live. I thought about taking the metro back to the apartment because it was cold but I decided to walk instead.

I noticed that a lot of roads were blocked off by the police and I really had no idea why. Roads that are normally full of cars were completely empty. As I got closer to the Montparnasse Tower I saw a bunch of people with flags and balloons. I was like oh, sweet, a parade! ha....it wasn't a parade, it was a huge protest. I think it was a teacher protest of some sort because a lot of people were holding banners that had school names on them and there were a lot of young people there, supporting their teachers I guess. I needed to get to the other side of the road so I could head back to the apartment so I cut through the protest. It was sweet. I felt like a rebel. I went to a cafe that's near the apartment and had a crappy cup of hot chocolate. That night Renee went to her friends to eat dinner and dye her hair, so I ate alone.

Today was a really boring day. I did laundry and got in a stupid fight with my mom about facebook. Mom, if you're reading this, I'm not angry you saw my video...I just thought it was funny. I love you.

Alright, my dinner (mac n cheese) is done so I'm gonna eat.

A bientot

Stuck up?

It's been awhile, let's recap...Tuesday I was hoping to be served cocktails to celebrate the end of an awesome semester in my art class. Instead, I was handed my test back and got a 12/20. Happy end of the semester to me! I was pretty angry that I only got a 12. When I was finished with my exam I was so confident I nailed it but turns out I was wrong. I think the professor was really, really, picky on our responses to the essay questions. The one question that asked to decribe and explain the painting and then analyze the color that I answered, apparently I messed up really bad because I forgot to talk about the brush strokes. (That's what the professor wrote on my paper) I wanted to go up to her and say, well you didn't ask us to describe the brush strokes, it said to describe the use of color. It was just really stupid. However, the professor did say that my grade was fine because I participated a lot in class, which is good I guess.

I didn't have class on Wednesday so I took Amber to Musee d'Orsay. She told me that she had never been there before and I was shocked. I told her that she has to go at least once before she leaves. I have developed a problem with not being on time. I was like 15 minutes late to the museum. I did wake up with a really bad headache so I slept a little longer than I intended to. I think Amber was a little angry that I was late and she had to pay for a ticket because the museum won't let us in for free with our student ID's because it says we're American on them. Only students from the EU get in for free. I however, get in for free because I'm in an art class. There weren't very many people at the museum, which was nice, but since it is under construction and the majority of the paintings are crammed on one floor, it's a little hard to move around at times. I showed Amber a lot of paintings that I knew a lot of information about and she seemed pretty interested. I could spend all day at the museum but Amber needed to leave for class so we did.

That night we all had tickets to this musical called La Vie Parisienne at this theatre called Theatre Antoine. I wore my purple sweater dress, black tights, and my new shoes. I left the apartment and headed to the metro. I got off at Montparnasse to transfer trains when everything started going down hill. I got off the train and walked down the stairs...there was this guy walking in front of me. When I got down the stairs and started heading to the moving sidewalk he turned around and started following me. I don't even know how he saw me. He must have done a 360 or something because I saw him start to walk in the other direction. So he comes up to me and is like oh bon soir (which means good evening) I told him good evening and he was like oh where are you going? I didn't answer him because I don't know this guy, why should I answer him? I decided not to go on the moving sidewalk thinking he wouldn't follow me, but he did. And then he preceeded to walk right next to me. He was like oh, you're so sexy, blah blah blah....and then he's like where are you from? I didn't answer him, I just told him in French that I didn't understand what he was saying, in reality I knew exactly what he was saying. He just kept on asking and asking. Are you American? Russian? French? Swiss? German? Italian? The guy knew his geography, I have to give that to him. Then he goes, African? (he was black) and I looked at him and go, yes I'm African. He was like really? and I just laughed and said no. He was like oh why don't you come with me? At that point I had just had it and stopped looking at him. I tried walking faster but he just kept followig me. I really couldn't walk that fast because of my shoes. He ended up getting on the train before me...thank god.

I made it to the theatre without any more problems and ended up being pretty early. I met Dr. Costello outside and talked to him a bit before I went inside to find my seat. The theatre, which was built in 1888, was gorgeous! It has 4 levels (the floor and 3 balconys). We were sitting on the 3rd balcony. Amber showed up after getting lost and I told her about what happened in the metro with the creeper. She didn't understand why I had a problem with it. She goes, "well maybe if you weren't so stuck up, you wouldn't feel the same." I really didn't know what to say....why does me not wanting to talk to this guy make me stuck up? Am I stuck up? I don't think I am. I just left it at that and then the show started. The show was really good. I liked the music a lot, and instead of an orchestra, the actors played the instruments. It was cool. It was in French, obviously, so at times it was a little hard for me to understand. I did get the main points though. I think it was a group of people practicing a play, so it was like a play within a play about life in Paris...oh and it was a musical. It was really good and funny. We all left the theatre and headed to the metro because it was almost 11. I got back around 11:45 without any problems. My feet were killing me so it was the longest walk back from the metro ever! Plus it was really cold.

Today was my last literature class for the semester. The class has actually gotten a lot better so I think I should be fine next semester. Plus, I did really good in the class so I really don't see it being a problem at all. After class I walked with Jordan (the only guy in our program) to the metro. We really don't talk that much but he's pretty cool. I felt kind of bad though because we were talking about the play and I had to get off at the next stop so I kinda cut him off. Sorry, Jordan! Renee went to the theatre tonight with her friend so I made dinner for myself. I'm really tired of eating the same things. I haven't seen Renee since Wednesday afternoon, which is weird. I probably won't see her tonight. I have no idea what time her play will be over and I plan on going to bed early because I have my last 9am class tomorrow...YAY!!!

a bientot

Hey prof, pass the vodka!

1 day down, 4 more to go until the end of the semester. Well, I guess it's only 3 more to go because I don't have class on Wednesday, but whatever. I was expecting history to be incredibly boring today, which it was, up until the last 20 or so minutes of class. Let me start from the beginning...

I had a horrible nights sleep last night. I kept tossing and turning and my pillows are so flat and really uncomfortable it blows. Plus, I painted my nails last night and they were dry but for some reason I always wake up with marks on them from the fabric...anyways, I couldn't fall asleep. I must have layed (not sure if it's lied, I never know what to use) for over an hour staring at my wall. I finally fell asleep around 1:30 but then of course, Renee got up and went to the bathroom, which is like 2 steps from my room, so I woke up again. I didn't end up getting out of bed the next morning until 9:45, which is a lot later than I normally would roll out of bed. There really isn't anything to eat in the apartment for breakfast. Renee hasn't gone shopping in forever. I finished the last of the juice today and wanted a yogurt but Renee must have ate the last mango flavored one and all that was left was plain. I can't stand plain yogurt, it makes me want to hurl just thinking about it. I've thought about asking Renee if she can buy fruit flavored yogurt but I don't know if that's rude or not. So I had my usual banana and kiwi for breakfast...I'm getting sick of those too.

Renee came back for lunch and I'm really not sure what she made, but it was really good. She told me that this afternoon she was going to pick up her new cable box so we can watch tv again. I guess Sarkozy was giving a speech tonight kind of like what we do in the US those Address the Nation things, and she wanted to watch it. I left for class and it was really, really boring. I don't even know why we have classes after all the grades have been turned in. It's not like that at U of I. I don't know, the school system here is so weird. When I walked into class I saw that there were bottles of orange juice and other juices sitting outside on the ledge and I thought that they were for us.

There was about 20 minutes left of class and the professor walked to the window all the while telling us how awesome we've been all semester and how much luck she wishes us for the next semester...blah, blah, blah. She grabs the juice and she said something about celebrating the end of the semester and she was like I brought vodka. I thought she was joking and everyone started laughing but she was serious. She grabbed a bottle of vodka off of the ledge and handed it to Mikel to open. She was like, oh Mikel, it's from Russia....he's Russian. We all just stared at the professor. I really had no idea what was going on. I think I was shocked that she was willingly giving us vodka in the middle of the afternoon, and I was also shocked because that would NEVER happen back home. Also, it was weird because there is this big cross on the wall because it's a Catholic school, so that was awkward. She asked who wanted the bottle first, after passing around little cups that were a bit bigger than shot glasses. No one said anything, I think because we were still in shock, and then she looked at Katie, myself, and Lizzie and she goes, here you go girls. We looked at each other and I was like yes, give it to us! Everyone laughed. We poured our drinks and then passed on the bottle. We sat drinking and talking to the professor for the rest of class. I had 2 drinks and they were delish!

As much as I complained about how boring that class was, I am really going to miss it because Professor Dubois was so nice and all the other students in the class were also really nice. A few of the kids in the class are taking the history class that I am taking next semester. Katie and Mikel (Russian Hottie) included. When Mikel said he was taking the class, Katie and I looked at each other and were like YESSS!!! We left and I ended up talking to this girl named Anna who lives by me (I didn't know this until today) all the way back home.

Once I got back to the apartment, slightly buzzed, I had an impromptu dance party while I put my laundry away. Katie and I skyped while we looked for places to stay in Santorini. I've found 2 really good, inexpensive places but I'm still looking around. We are thinking about flying to Athens, staying there for 1 night so we can see the ruins and stuff and then taking the ferry to Santorini. The ferry takes at least half a day so instead of taking it on the way back we're thinking about flying out of Santorini, probably connecting in Athens or close by, and then flying back to Paris. It just seems like it would be easier that way. We're still in the early stages of planning, but I'm glad that we've started.

Renee got back late, so we ate late. We just had some soup, salad (which was gross) and cheese and bread. I guess her cable box wasn't ready and she was really mad so she talked about that for 10 minutes. Then the phone rang and she talked to her sister while I ate alone. Renee bought this cheese and I swear it tastes a lot like sharp cheddar. It was really good, and it's orange. I thought they didn't have cheddar here, but I guess they do. Of course, it's not called cheddar but still...

I'm going to try to watch an episode of Lost or How I Met Your Mother, and then head to bed. I'm pretty tired. I wonder what we will be served tomorrow in art....maybe it'll be rum. One can only hope.

A bientot

OMG...SHOES!

Yesterday I bought these AMAZING shoes!!! Omg they're so awesome. Seriously. I met Amber around 4 (it was supposed to be 3, but she got lost) at the metro stop that's near the apartment and we walked to what I call "downtown Montparnasse." Amber needed to buy a suitcase because she's leaving on Saturday and one of the suitcases that she bought from home ripped on the treck over here, so she really can't use it. We saw this place that had a bunch of suitcases on sale. They were like 70% off too, but she didn't get one. I guess she's going to wait until the last minute or something...I have no idea why. We walked to the mall and looked at some of the stores that are there. Montparnasse really isn't a big mall, which is nice, but there were a bunch of people there. I guess no one has anything better to do on a Saturday afternoon than go to the mall. (Let's go to the mall!!!) -HIMYM reference, if you didn't know.

We walked past this shoe store called Andre and decided to go in and look around. I really want to find a pair of boots but I really haven't had any luck. I didn't see anything I liked but as we were leaving we started looking at these shoes that were on this table at the front of the store. I saw these pair of heels that were light purple and had a black lace overlay on them and they were super cute. I asked the sales woman if she had my size, but they didn't. Amber saw this one pair and she has huge feet (she wears a 41 here, which is only like a 9 1/2 but still...) every pair that she wanted to try on they didn't have in her size. She was so angry. I saw this pair of heels that were black and thought they were kinda cute, and a little different so I decided to try them on. I fell in love as soon as I got them on. They are black leather and have straps that make up the shoe. The straps are held in place by these silver studs. The heel is probably 4 inches at least, which is really tall for me, but they are so cute. Oh, and there's a zipper in the back of the heel. OMG I LOVE THEM!!!! They were originally 109 euro, but were 50% off, and then another 20% was taken off at the register. They ended up being 43 euro, which is a pretty good deal. I can't wait to wear them on Wednesday to the theatre. I just have to figure out what else I'm going to wear. But, I've got time. Amber got shoes too. Her's were cute as well.

The sales woman at Andre was trying to speak in English with Amber but she wasn't very good so I translated for her. It was cool. After we left the mall we walked back to the metro and hung out at this cafe that's across the street. We stayed there for awhile. Amber left and when I got back to the apartment around 7:30 ish Renee was already in bed watching tv so I didn't get to show her my shoes. I showed them to my mom on skype and she was jealous.

Katie and I aren't going anywhere for break that we have coming up at the end of this week. We just decided that it was really too late to make plans now and have it be cheap and there was only a certain time Katie could go. We also decided that it would be better to save our money that way we could go big in Greece for spring break. I really want to start planning our trip during break. Maya, one of my friends from U of I who's coming second semester and wants to go to Greece too, won't be here until the middle of Feb. but we can still start planning. This week is the last week of school. I'm expecting it to be incredibly boring. Can't wait!

A bientot

Heaven in a cup!

Good news, my headache has gone away a bit...I know you all wanted to know that. Today was pretty good. There were only 10 of us in my phonetics class today. There are ususally 20. I was the only American there today. Apparently I didn't get the message that the rest of the Americans weren't going to class today. We were working on words that have v, b, f, t, and s, sounds, which are pretty easy for me. I have more trouble with the vowels. But, a lot of the Asian students in the class have trouble with them. We played this game were you and your partner took turns saying words with those sounds and the other partner had to write down what you said. My partner, who is the sweetest girl ever, had a lot of trouble saying the words that had v and b in them. So every word she said I got wrong. After class I met Amber outside. We talked to Amira for a bit. She'a going home for break and told me she'd bring me back some peanut butter M&Ms...awesome!

Amber and I went to the Louvre after talking to Amira. She had never been there before, like I said yesterday. I think she enjoyed it. We were really hungry so we went up to this little food court for something to eat. Of course the cheapest places was McDonalds, so we ate there. They have these people who hold these little electronic machines and they take your order while you stand in line and then you just give the piece of paper to the people at the register. I told the guy what I wanted in French and then when he started talking to Amber he asked if we were Americans, we said yes, and then he turned to me and said my French was really good. I was like AWESOME!! I was pretty excited. After lunch I showed Amber the history of the Louvre and explained that it used to be a chateau. I took her to see all the typical Louvre statues and paintings (the Mona Lisa, of course) and then I showed her the painting that I presented at Nocturnes de Louvre and she liked it. We were at the Louvre for a really long time. There wasn't a lot of people there which was really nice. I hate when there are a ton of tourists there. Amber was so funny and made me take pictures of her in front of the signs and by the pyramids. I made her take a picture of me, mocking her...it was pretty funny. The picture on the left is me mocking Amber. I think the skinny jean suits me well.

We left the Louvre and walked down Rue de Rivioli and I finally found Angelina's! YAY. The cafe was established in 1903 and it is georgous. We had to wait a bit to get a table because it was really busy but it was so worth it. The cafe is known for their hot chocolate and trust me, it lives up to the reputation. It was like Heaven in a cup, like eating a melted chocolate bar. God, it was AMAZING. We split a dessert. I don't remember what it was called but it was caramel something. It was good. The cafe was kinda expensive but I thought it was worth it. Between the 2 of us it was 21.80 euro total. So, yeah, kinda expensive for 2 drinks and 1 dessert but god it was good.

We left the cafe a little before 6 and I got back around 6:30. I didn't plan on eating dinner, or not eating until later but when Renee came back she started making dinner for me. I felt bad telling her that I wasn't hungry because she already started making it. She made these burger things, salad, and potatoes...it was really good, but I wasn't hungry at all. I don't have any plans for tomorrow as of yet. Katie said something about going to a movie but I haven't talked to her since Thursday, so I really don't know what's going on. I do plan on sleeping in though...can't wait.

A bientot!

oh and sorry if anything is spelled wrong. I'm watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants while watching this and I'm not looking at the screen while I'm typing...because I'm awesome. Also, the spell check still isn't working

Massive headache....day and a half :(

I've had such a bad headache lately...worse than usual and I get a lot of headaches, so that's saying something. It all started yesterday before school and it was just like BAM! HEADACHE....I was debating whether or not I wanted to go to class because my head hurt so much. I took some asprin and went. That seemed to numb the pain. Then before I went to bed I took some more. Unfortunatley, I woke up with a headache once again and it hasn't gone away. I've already taken 4 asprin today, and I'm waiting until bed to take another 2 because it says you aren't supposed to take more than 6 in one day.

This morning the postwoman rang and said she had a package for Renee. I buzzed her in and when I opened the door for her she gave me this funny look, like you aren't Renee Filatre. She asked if Renee was here and I said no. Then she asked for this guy. I've seen his name on some of the mail Renee gets so I'm assuming it was her husband or something. I'm not sure if they are divorced, or maybe he passed away or something....she's never talks about him, so I really don't want to bring it up, it could be a touchy subject. Anyways, I told the woman that he wasn't here either and that I am an American student living with Renee for the year. I just assumed she would give me the packet because that's what they usually do, but not her. She gave me a piece of paper and told me, in French to give it to Renee. She asked me if I understood and I told her yes. She then has the nerve to ask me again if I understand. What part of "je comprend" doesn't she understand? I told her yes, again...and she goes "you understand?" in English. I looked at her and was like OUI, JE COMPREND!!! God, I was so angry.

Literature class was pretty boring today....like always. I guess a bunch of people are taking her class next semester so it will be nice to be in class with the same people. I met Katie after break because I accidently left my umbrella at her dorm. She met Amber. Oh, funny story, Amber bought the same sweater dress that I have from H&M (Lizzie and Emilia have one too) and Amber wore hers today, so did Lizzie, we're in the same class. Lizzie's is green which is cool and Amber bought a purple one, except it's a lighter purple than mine is. On Tuesday during art, Katie showed me the stuff she bought from H&M...she now has a sweater dress too! joy. Hers is grey. I bought the dress first...everyone just wants to be like me I guess. Class went 15 minutes over today. But, Russian Hottie, Mikel presented something about some old lady so that was fun. I could listen to him read the phone book. I do my best day dreaming in literature class. Fun times.

Skype isn't working for some reason. I wanted to talk to my mom and ask her about our neighbors Jasen and Erin who just had their second baby, a boy, named Austen. They have a 3 year old named Madisen (my bff). So a big congrats to them! I'm making spaghetti for dinner tonight. yummm. Tomorrow I'm taking Amber to the Louvre because she hasn't been there yet and she's leaving next weekend. I can't belive she hasn't been there yet. I've been there like 8 times already this year!

Well, my dinner is done and Dexter is calling my name.

A bientot

The time limit on MegaVideo and the unreliable internet will be the death of me!

I had every intention of posting this Monday after class but the internet stopped working after dinner, and I wasn't very happy. Renee went on and on during dinner about how she bought a new dvd player so now I can watch my movies on the big, fancy tv instead of on my computer. So after dinner she turned on the tv and CNN International was still on from when I watched it this morning. She tried changing the channel but it was stuck on CNN. She started messing with buttons and started unplugging stuff and that's when everything started to go down hill. I tried playing one of my dvds but it wouldn't work and kept saying that there was a region error code. I guess in France, their dvds have a differnt region code than they do back home. I guess in America the code is 1 (because we're awesome) and in France it's like 3 or something. I had no idea there were certain codes for dvds....Turns out I can't watch any of my movies unless they are ones that I have burned because I'm assuming that must override the region code or something. That means I can watch like 6 movies on the tv, and they really aren't the ones I even like. After we messed around with the dvd player we tried to get the cable working, which resulted in Renee unplugging more cords. I went into my room and that's when I noticed that the internet didn't work. Renee didn't seem too concerned by it and it was almost 9 so she couldn't call the company about it. I, on the other hand, was freaking out. I went to bed Monday night before 12 because I had nothing to do....sad, I know.

Monday was just a crazy day in general. I had to get to school early to register for another class for next semester. Of course, when I got there at 12 the office was full of Asians for some reason, I guess they were trying to sign up for classes too...and it took me forever to get to see the woman that I needed to see. After we changed my schedule I met Katie at the cafeteria for lunch so we could talk about break. We are thinking of either going to Prague or Budapest...not sure which yet. We were supposed to have a test in my history class but the teacher totally forgot all about it and decided that it really didn't matter. We didn't take any tests at all the entire semester...seriously, easiest history class ever. After class I told the professor that I signed up for her class for next semester and when I told her what one it was she looked at me like I was an idiot and asked why I signed up again. I was confused, but then she explained that her class next semester is not a continuation of the class I am in right now, it's the exact same class. So great, I was currently signed up to take a class that I have already taken. Awesome.

Tuesday morning I woke up and figured the internet would work.....it didn't. I left early for school so I could re-register for the right history class and yet again the office was packed. It was nuts. The woman that I needed to talk to was busy so I had to talk to this other woman who usually doesn't deal with the American students so it took me and while to explain to her what I was trying to do. After I finally got my schedule sorted out I went to the computer lab so I could finally check my email, facbook, and all that jazz. I am so dependent on the internet for my entertainment it's pathetic. I really had no idea what to do that morning after breakfast because I didn't have the internet to read the news and stuff. After I used the computer I got lunch and then headed to class. Art class was really boring. Now that exams are over and we have nothing else to do in the class I find it really hard to focus and pay attention. But can you blame me? We were talking about Cezanne and I really don't think his paintings are very good or interesting.

Tuesday night when Renee came back from work I told her that the internet hasn't been working since the night before and she was like, what are you talking about? She turned on her computer and her internet was working just fine. I had a mini freak out because I thought it must be my computer. When I looked at what WiFi thing she was connected to it was one that we normally don't use. I couldn't log on to the one she was using because it was a free thing, but you had to have an account with some company, which I don't have. So I pretty much made her call the internet company because I seriously couldn't stand another night without it, I would probably lose my mind or something. So she called and since she has to buy a new cable box (which wont be ready for 5 days, meaning we'd have no internet) they told us to use this other WiFi thing which Renee already had to password to. So now the internet works...for now.

Last night I finally finished episode 2 of Dexter. I'd only been trying to finish it since Monday morning. I really hate the whole time limit thing on megavideo...it's so lame. Shows that are usually an hour long on tv are really only 43ish minutes but since Dexter is on Showtime and there are no commercials it's pretty close to an hour. For some reason the video always flips out on me and is like "you've watched 63 minutes of video today, please wait 40 minutes to continue watching." It so lies btw...there's no way I watched 63 minutes, the show isn't even that long....grrr!

Today was the last day of my cinema class. Michel wasn't even there for the class. I was pretty bummed because he's awesome. So we started watching this movie called "Les Amants" and it was Jean Moreau's first moive and she's like this famous French actress. For some reason there weren't subtitles so that kinda sucked. In the movies, Jean Moreau's character is having an affair with this guy who plays polo. But then, she cheats on him with this other guy who helped her when her car broke down. They had the funniest sex scene ever.....seriously, we all laughed the entire time. It was funny because a few scenes before that, Jean Moreau was taking her hair down and was wearing a nightgown....well she lifted up her arm and her armpit was SOOOOO HAIRY!!!!!! At first I thought it was an awkward shadow, but it so wasn't....it was like really bad! So during this sex scene, which so wasn't even racy, if that's what you were wondering, you could kinda see her armpit hair. Funniest thing ever.

The 2 random pictures I just got from my art professor. The first one is of me and Katie and our painting, "L'accordee de Village" by Jean-Baptise Geruze. A few seconds before the picture was taken I hit the frame with my had and thought for sure some crazy alarm was going to go off. The next picture is the group of students from the Institut Catholique (my school) who participated in Noctures de Louvre. I'm in the back row standing on my tippy-toes so I can be seen.

It's almost time for dinner....a bientot!

A great weekend, minus the rain

This has been a really good weekend; a lot of fun and really relaxing. On Saturday Sam, who's studying in Versailles came to town to hang out with me. He texted me in the morning telling me he was getting on the train and I was still in bed, so I hoped the train would be delayed or something. It wasn't. I was about to start peeling a banana when he texted me again telling me that he was at my metro stop. I really wanted to eat the banana but I knew I shouldn't leave him waiting there. So I met Sam at the metro and of course, it starts raining.

We had planned on just walking around Paris but that's really not that great to do in the rain so we ended up going to the Louvre. Sam needed a ticket so we stood in line. I joked around about how awesome I am because I never have to stand in line again because I have my fancy Louvre pass. However, he still needs a ticket that says he gets in for free. So we got to the counter and he told the guy that he was a student and the guy told him that he didn't need a ticket that he could just show the person who checks tickets his ID. I knew that was wrong because it never works that may. So we tried it anyways and of course the woman told him that he needed to go back and get a ticket. So we stood in line again and got the ticket. Sam has never seen the Venus de Milo so we went and saw that. Then we walked up the giant staircase to The Winged Victory of Samothrace. It's a pretty impressive statue. Google it. Anyways, after that we went this this Egyptian part that I'd never been to before and saw some pretty cool old stuff.

After the Louvre we walked down Rue de Rivoli into the 4th. I wanted to go to this cafe called Angelina's which I know is on that road, we just couldn't find it. Apparently they have amazing hot choloate and other delish things. I'll find it one day! So we ate at this other cafe instead. We were there for a really long time just talking and hanging out. Sam texted Chuck to see where he was in Paris because I guess he was there sketching for the day or something and he said he'd meet up with us. Turns out Chuck headed back to Versailles....JERK! Anyways, so Sam and I walked to Les Halles (we did a lot of walking) to see what time Invictus started because we both really wanted to see it. There was one that started at 5 but the tickets were 10.50 Euro each, so we both looked at each other and were like, let's do something else. We ended up at Starbucks (my second time this weekend.....) and we were there for like 2 hours. I think other customers were starting to get angry because we were taking up the table but I really could care less it's not like I was just sitting there to sit there.

It was still raining when we left Starbucks. We got onto the metro, which was packed of course because it was after 5. Sam got off at Saint-Michel so he could jump on the RER C to head back to Versailles. I had a lot of fun and I'm really glad he came. I hope me, Sam, and Chuck get to hang out more this semester. Renee went to bed really, really early that night so that was fun...not having anyone to talk to. I watched the first episode of Dexter....oh man, that show is a little intense and kinda weird! No wonder it's on Showtime. Anyways, my friend Nick recommended it and of course now I will become addicted to it just like every other show he's told me to watch. I don't even want to count how many shows I watch now, it's a little disgusting.

I'm meeting Katie for lunch tomorrow at school so we can talk about break. I really haven't looked anything up yet so I should probably do that sometime tonight while I'm not watching HIMYM or Dexter. Oh btw, I'm now on season 3 of HIMYM....ohhh the Bare Necessities just came on my itunes dj. Good song!

a bientot!

What a stressful week!

If you were wondering no, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. I'm sorry I haven't been able to update in a while, this week was really busy and stressful for me. It was by far the most stressful week here in Paris thus far. The stress really didn't start until Monday after class when I got back to the apartment and started studying for my final test in my art class. The test was over Gauguin and VanGogh which doesn't seem like it would be that daunting, however, they were the only two artists that we covered from the end of the last test. We spent 3 whole days on Gauguin alone. I think the professor was obsessed with him or something....he was pretty cool. I spent over an hour on Facebook talking to Katie trying to figure out what their most important paintings were and what was going to be on the test. Yes, I used Facebook to study, usually I just use it to distract me, but not this time....it was very important.

The test was alright. It was just as long as the last one because we had to answer two essay questions. We had 3 choices and had to pick 2 out of the 3. I was really confident on one of the questions where I had to analyze 3 self portraits by Gauguin, but the other one I chose had to do with the use of color in 3 different paintings. Two of the paintings that were on there I didn't know their titles so I sort of made them up. So hopefully I'll get some credit for that. The questions about Gauguin were really specific. For example, where was his mother born....I answered France because well, I really had no idea. The right answer was Peru....who knew? We have 2 classes left and I'm not entirely sure if we're going to have a final exam, she really hasn't said anything. After class I came back to the apartment and started getting my speech ready for cinema.

I was pretty worried about my speech because I'm not very good at speaking in front of people, let alone speaking in French. My presentation was about Jacques Demy, a French director. We got our tests back and I got a 14 out of 20. I was so happy because it was so much better than my first test grade. We went over the test and then this other girl gave her presentation about Agnes Varda, who was married to Demy. My presentation went pretty well. Michel (the prof) only corrected me on one thing, and he said it was really good, so I was happy with that. We watched "Lola" and ended up getting out a class late but I didn't mind because the movie was really good. I was really glad when Wednesday was over because it meant that there was less to stress about.

I noticed that stress here in Paris having to deal with school is COMPLETELY different than stress about school at U of I. Back home a stressful week would be when I have 2 papers due, a test or 2, and homework from other classes all to do in one week. But here what I had to do would be a piece of cake back home.

Thursday I had my meeting with Dr. Costello to talk about what classes I'll take for the next semester. I'm taking one of his classes....I hope it's good. All the classes that I really wanted to take of course ended up being on the same day, so the classes I'm taking I'm really not that excited about. They sound interesting but I didn't get to pick a fun class. Although, all the classes I am taking count towards my major, so that's good. Dr. Costello told me that I could take a class at the Sorbonne (this fancy French school) where I would be in a class with French students but I decided not to take it because it starts 2 weeks before the classes at the Catho do, and I don't know how confident I am with my French to be in a class with a bunch of Frenchies. I think I'd be really intimidated! So I'm sticking with the Catho. After the meeting I walked through the Luxembourg gardens to school, grabbed something to eat, and waited for class to start. Literature was interesting. I have to take the continuing class next semester with the same professor. I really hope it's more interesting than this one has been. I was in a really bad mood after class. I really don't want to go into why, but people were just telling me what to do and I really hate when people do that. It seemed like they were making decisions for me which I really didn't like. I'm 21...I'm a big girl now and can make my own decisions.

To make matters worse, I went to the monoprix by the apartment and waited in line for 30 minutes to buy 2 things. For some reason the woman working at the cash register decided that she needed to look for this other womans receipt while the line at the register grew longer and longer. Finally, another worker jumped on the other register and I was about to go to it when she said that people could only use check or carte bleu (debit cards) at her register because she didn't have any cash in the drawer. So, of course I get stuck waiting on the other woman because I knew they weren't going to let me use my carte bleu on 4 euros. I was really ticked off. Couldn't she have waited until her line died down to look for the stupid receipt? That seems like the logical thing to do. Whatever.

Today I had a mini test in my phonetics class and I think it went pretty well. The only problem I had was the guy who was sitting next to me, who's never there by the way....he just decided to show up today for some reason, he was talking really loud into his microphone I couldn't hear myself thing. Seriously, the dude was shouting. After class Amber and I were supposed to go to Les Halles to return some stuff but she wasn't feeling well so I went by myself. I bought some nice purchases at this store called Etam....I won't say what they are because that would be a little weird. I went and returned my stuff from H&M and got 20 euro put back on my card. So in reality, the stuff from Etam only cost me 2 euro. I also bought this huge purple scarf that was only 3 euros. I love les soldes!!!!! (that's sales for the non-frenchies out there). I went to Starbucks because I really, really wanted some and read my book for a while and then headed back to the apartment.

Sam is coming to Paris tomorrow, he goes to school in Versailles, so we're gonna do something....I really don't know what yet, but we'll figure it out. I also have to figure out what I'm doing for semester break. Hopefully Katie and I can get together for a bit tomorrow and figure it out. I think she's trying to get into the class at the Sorbonne so her break is going to be all messed up, so we'll see what happens.

I guess that's it for now. Sorry for not updating. I'll try to update tomorrow!

A bientot

I would really like a necklace from Tiffany's

It's been a while so let's catch up....

Thursday I had my literature class and it was a snooze fest like always. For some reason the professor kept us 10 minutes after class so she could ramble on about some thing that had nothing to do with what we were reading. 10 minutes isn't that long of a time for a class to go over but the class is already 3 hours long, so yea, I think you would be dying to get out of it too. That night for dinner we had soup....again, and this lasagna thing Renee bought from the store. It was a vegetarian lasagna with spinach. It was pretty good for a microwaveable dinner. I tried to go to bed early that night but ended up talking to Chris and Amy on facebook for a while so I went to bed pretty late.

It was really hard to wake up Friday morning for my phonetics class. When I walked into the kitchen Renee looked at me and was like, what are you doing up already? She's asked me this a million times and every time I tell her that I have class on Friday mornings and then she's like ohhhh, right, I forgot. It was still dark out when I left for the metro. Class was pretty good. We have a mini test next week. I really don't know why especially if it is near the end of the semester. I don't even know if we are going to have a final. We got back our tests that we took before break and I got 17.5 out of 20....pretty awesome! After class I met Amber outside and we walked through Jardin de Luxembourg to this cafe that has a cheap student menu. You get a sandwich, drink, and a desert for 4.50 or something like that. After that we walked to Gilbert Jeune, a huge bookstore. I really love bookstores! We went into the French section and found the translated versions of Twilight and New Moon. When there isn't a word that translates the right way they have footnotes at the bottom of the page explaining what it means. It's pretty cool. I ended up buying a used copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in French. It was only 7.10 euro for a used paperback which I thought was a pretty good. I hope that I'll be able to understand it. I have read it in English twice so I hope it won't be that hard. I'm looking forward to reading it. I just have to finish Atonement first.

That night Renee came back late because she had to go to the doctor for her knee. He told her that she needed to stay off it and told her to take 2 weeks off of work. So I guess she's on vacation now. Then she was like, so when are you going home? and I was like ummmm June.....and she's like well aren't you going back for your break? and I told her that I couldn't because the tickets were too much (over $850) and I just can't afford that. Then she said something about making me dinners and I really didn't understand what she meant about that. It was just a really confusing conversation.

Today I went to Galleries Lafayettes with Amber. It is this HUGE department store. Every floor is broken up into differnt parts. For example, the basement is shoes, only shoes. The next floor was purses and accessories, the next designer clothes and so on. On one floor it was all jewerly and right when we got off the escalator I saw this giant Cartier counter and I was like WOW....then I looked to my left and saw the Tiffany & Co. counter. I think I looked at all the stuff for a good 20 minutes. I was just in awe. I would LOVE a necklace from Tiffanys. Something like this perhaps: http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=GRP02488&mcat=148204&cid=287465&search_params=s+5-p+1-c+287465-r+101323338-x+-n+6-ri+-ni+0-t+#p+4-n+6-cg+viewPaged-c+287465-s+5-r+101323338-t+-ri+-ni+0-x+-pu+-f++ or this: http://www.tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?sku=GRP02215&mcat=148204&cid=287458&fromGrid=1&search_params=s+5-p+7-c+287458-r+101323338-x+-n+6-ri+-ni+0-t++ A girl can dream right??? maybe one day I'll find a kind gentleman who will give me this: http://www.tiffany.com/Engagement/Item.aspx?GroupSKU=GRP10001#f+0/0/0/0/4001/4001 .....YES!!! anyways, I'm done dreaming. We didn't buy anything at Galleries Lafayettes because everything was really expensive even though a lot of the stuff was 50% off. We went to H&M and I bought a dress and 2 bras. I bought them without trying them on because the line for the dressing room was seriously halfway across the store and I knew I would have been standing there forever. I figured that if they didn't fit I could always return them. The dress ended up fitting but the bras didn't because clearly French women don't have boobs. I was angry too because they were super cute! We went to this other store called Printemps ....another department store but didn't find anything.

I have a lot of homework to do so I'll probably do that tonight, actually that's a lie, I probably won't, I'll watch a bunch of HIMYM and look at stuff on the Tiffanys website...so I'll probably be doing homework all day tomorrow.

A bientot

It's going to be LEGEN....wait for it.....DARY!!

If you haven't guessed by the title of this post, I've started watching "How I Met Your Mother." A bunch of my friends watch it and every time we were together they would quote it and I would have no idea what they were talking about. I saw two episodes during the summer and thought it was pretty funny but never watched it. Well, I think I'm on my 6th episode of season 1 and it's hilarous! Last night I was watching the first episode and was drinking some coffee and I think it was either Marshall or Ted who said something and I had to hold my hand over my mouth so my coffee wouldn't get all over my computer. So that's a total of 7 shows that I'm watching now...god. Oh, and my friend Nick told me that I should start watching Dexter.....so that's 8. I've been having weird dreams lately. Two nights ago I went to school with Harry Potter and last night in my dream my parents bought me the Nikon camera I've been wanting since forever. They hand delivered it to me in Paris. It was awesome. I guess that really isn't a weird dream, but it was just totally random.


I didn't have class today, which was really sweet because it pushed my presentation back a week. Although I am pretty proud of myself for working on it a bit tonight. This morning I woke up pretty late because I didn't fall asleep until 2 because I was watching How I Met Your Mother. Allison is still in town so the other day we decided that we were going to meet up at Musee d'Orsay so I could see her one last time before she leaves. Allison, Peter, and Candace all got there before me and then they made me believe that they had been waiting there for an hour....which they weren't. The museum is under construction, the entire 5th floor and a few other floors I think, so you can only go up to level 2. Everything was in a different place than the last time I was there so that was annoying. I really LOVE Musee d'Orsay. Every time I go I see something different because they are always getting in pieces to replace the ones that they loan to other museums around the world. There was this really cool Art Nouveau exhibit. It's art from the 1950's-the late 1970's. It was really sweet. After the museum we went to this boulangerie and bought fancy treats. I got an eclair. It was pretty good. They one's by the apartment are better....and cheaper. We walked back to the RER and said our goodbyes. It's sad because I won't see Allison until June. Out of all of our friends who are studying abroad, I'm the last one to come home. Maybe I can have a BBQ or something so we all can get together before school starts.


Tonight we had soup and crepes for dinner. I love when Renee makes crepes. It's so unhealthy but it's so good. She always makes this giant crepe with apples in it and it's delish! We usually watch this show during dinner called "Plus Belle La Vie." It's kind of like a soap opera. I have a really hard time following it because there are so many different characters with different story lines, and oh yeah....they're speaking French! Renee is crazy about it. Every time it ends she goes on and on and about what's going to happen next and I just smile and nod because I have no idea what's going on in the show. One time I did pick up on the fact that this Cougar was sleeping with this guy who was like 20. At the end of the episode she gave him an envelope full of money so maybe he was a hooker...I'm not sure.

I want to get to bed at a decent time tonight, but I also want to watch some more HIMYM...so that's it for now.

A bientot

Sidenote, the spell check still isn't working....fyi

I wish I went to Hogwarts!

I intended on updating yesterday about my first day back to school...but I was incredibly busy doing impotant things after school. At 8:30 in the morning yesterday the mail man was pounding on the door. Thank god I heard him because if he would have left I think I would have been devestated. I ran to the door with my keys and then realized I didn't have pants on....I told him to hold on a minute and ran to get pants. He handed me the box that my parents sent me and I was really excited to finally get it but I closed the door, put the box of the floor and then went back to bed without opening it. I opened it when I woke up again a little while later and it was filled with cookies that my mom made, shampoo and conditioner, deoderant so I don't have to go buying weird French stuff, and lotion. Oh, and a Christmas present. As soon as I saw it I knew what it was but I tore it open anways. OMG....HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAY!! Thanks mom and dad! God, could I be any more of a dork? I really wanted to start watching it right away but I decided to wait until after school, which I was dreading going to.

History class was really weird. When I walked in there were a few people in the class that I didn't recognize and I thought I was in the wrong room or something, but then I saw the professor. I guess another class was joining our class today, and possibly next week, to listen to this presentation from this woman about the European Union. I guess she's an expert or something. The presentation was pretty interesting. There was like no one in class...it was kinda sad. Katie wasn't even there and she's always there. After her presentation she asked if we had questions and no one did except this Australian girl named Rose-Marie...she always asks questions. But, she's cool because she's an Aussie. Then we started playing Taboo. But it wasn't normal Taboo, it was only people who were European. I thougth it was going to be politicans or something but they were like famous people like the Queen, David Beckham and Harry Potter. We were split up into two teams: Italy and Poland. Why she chose those 2 countries, I have no idea. I was on team Italy, the only American on the team. We weren't very good. We lost, but I did get a question right.

After school I came back to the apartment right away, made something hot to drink and started to eat my cookies (which have to be dipped into something because they are a little hard) and watch Harry Potter. Renee, who fell in the middle of her skiing trip and hurt her knee, came back and started making dinner. Earlier, when she came back from lunch I showed her all the stuff I got and when she saw the cookies she slapped me on the arm. I'm not sure why she did that but it was pretty funny. After dinner, which was soup, greenbeans, and slices of ham, we ate cookies. She liked the chocolate chip the best. There were only like 5 left from that morning because I already ate a bunch of them. She went to bed early because her knee was hurting and I finished watching Harry Potter. I tried watching all of the special features but I got tired and stopped. There's this new Hogwarts theme park in Orlando that opens this year and I want to go so bad!!!

Last night I had a dream that I went to Hogwarts with Harry, Hermoine, Ron and all of thier other friends. It was so awesome. Seriously, if Hogwarts was real I'd so want to go. In my dream I wasn't very good at magic and kept blowing things up. The best part of the dream was when Harry introduced me to Ron and we fell in love.....so presh! School today was alright....until the professor told us we have a test next week. She was like, "Happy New Year, I hope it brings you many wonderful things, oh by the way we have a test next week" ....nice. Tonight Renee went to see "The Nutcracker" so it's just me. I don't have my cinema class tomorrow, so I think I'm going to do something with Allison before she leaves. I think she wants to go to Musee d'Orsay, which is my favorite.

These are the pictures that I tried uploading yesterday, but it was being stupid. The first one is the amazing view from the apartment Allison rented for the week. Seriously, what an amazing view. The bells right every 15 minutes and

everything. That might get annoying but it's the bells at Notre Dame so it's cool. The second is a picture of my New Years Eve feast. If you can't tell what it is it's chicken, a salad, smoked salmon with little crackers, bread, cheese, and of course, a bottle of red wine. No meal is complete with out

it!

Well, I hope everyone is having a good week so far. For those of you still at home and are still on break, you guys suck!

A bientot!

Bonne Année!!

Happy New Year!!! I hope everyone had a good New Years, how ever you spent it. I also hope that 2010 brings many good tings to everyone. Mathilde finally left on New Years Eve and I couldn't have been happier. She was really getting on my nerves. I went to the store and bought a New Years feast. I invited Amber over to spend New Years with me because she had no plans but she didn't end up coming so I ended up eating this huge dinner and drinking by myself. Kind of depressing but whatevs. For dinner I made a salad, chicken, smoked salmon with a little crackers, bread, and cheese. It was really, really good. I thought about going to the Eiffel Tower to watch the fireworks at midnight but I get really uncomfortable in huge crowds like that and I just didn't want to stand there in the cold for hours. At midnight I popped open my bottle of champagne I bought and tried to watch the fireworks from my bedroom window but it was really foggy so I really couldn't see much. I didn't end up going to bed really late.



New Years day really sucked. I got an email from this woman I've been talking to at Microsoft and she basically told me that there was nothing more she could do for me and told me to call the suppor line and see what they could do. I couldn't call on my phone because even though it was a toll free number AT&T was still going to charge me .99 cents a minute. I could have called the Microsoft people in France but that would require me to speak French and I don't think I could explain what was going on with my computer in French. It would have made things worse. So I ended up calling on Skype from my phone which meant I couldn't leave the living room or else I would have lost my connection. After talking on the phone with various people for over 4 hours the guy I was talking to told me that I had no other choice then to re-install Windows and start all over again. So I did that. I lost all of my programs but luckily I had my music, pics and documents saved on my external hard drive. It was still a pain losing everything. My computer has nothing on it now. I got Word back and all that stuff because I had the disk but I miss the way my computer looked before. It took forever to get my music back on iTunes and re-download all my stuff.



On Saturday there was a Friends marathon on so I watched that while I worked more on my computer. I texted Allison, who I had yet to see. We planned on meeting at the Louvre. It was Saturday and when I got there they weren't there yet so I ended up waiting for a little while. Everyone and their mom was at the Louvre....no lie. Seriously, Saturday is the worst day to go. It's packed. I didn't need a ticket because I have my year pass from when I did Nocturnes de Louvre. However, everyone else needed a ticket. Chuck, Allison and their friends Peter, Patrick and Candace were all there. Peter, who I've met before, and Patrick and Candace were all really nice. We stood in line for like an hour and then finally started walking around. They had never been there before so I took them to the old part of the Louvre where you can see the original walls of the chateau and to the Egyptian part because it's cool. Then I think I nearly killed them when I made them go up to the 2nd floor (which is like 6 flights of stairs) to the French wing to show them my painting that I presented. I think Allison really liked it because it's her brothel....hahha!!! jk. I took them to see the Mono Lisa and there were a million people there. We stayed in the room for like 2 minutes and then left to find Venus de Malo. We finally found it and then left......I was tired of all the people who were at the Louvre.



There was so many people on the Metro it was insane. I felt like a sardine. I went to the apartment the Allison, Patrick, Peter and Candace rented for the week. It is in such an awesome location. It's right off of the metro St. Michel, which is right off of Bld. Saint Michel. It's right across the street from Notre Dame. The apartment was like right around the corner from Shakespeare and Company which is AWESOME!!!!!! The apartment smelled like a mixture of pickles and cinnimon which was a little weird but it was still pretty sweet. Plus, the view was amazing. It was 4 stories up and the stairs were kinda shady because they were super old but I survived. We hung out, Chuck played his music like he always does. They were trying to figure out where to eat and I didn't have enough money to go, I only had 5 euro so I left them and went back to the apartment to eat.



Renee told me she would be home that day and I thought she would be back by the time I returned. I was really hoping she was going to make me dinner but when I got back she wasn't there. I made mac n cheese with velveta and put the rest of my music on my computer. I'm glad I'm done doing that. I watched the rest of season 5 of the Office and tired calling it an early night but I didn't end up finishing it until 12:30ish. Renee came back a little after 1 and was kinda loud. It sounded like there were 2 other people here but I really didn't feel like getting out of bed to investigate. When I woke up this morning no one was here. Norton wasn't here either....I don't know where he is. I finally did my cinema extra credit...it's only due tomorrow...and it took me forever. But at least I finished it. I'm really tired so I'll probably make some dinner, hang out until Renee gets back from work, talk to her for a bit, watch a movie or something and go to bed.



School tomorrow.....barf.



A bientot

I tried adding a few pics from New Years and from Allison's apartment but it won't let me for some reason so I'll try to do it tomorrow. It also wouldn't spell check so if I spelled something wrong oh well...I'm a bad speller. Deal with it.