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!!