Headed home...

Well I finally head home today. I can't believe I've been here for 6 weeks already. I honestly feel like I just got here yesterday. I do wish I got an earlier flight today, mainly because I don't really have anything to do until I leave for the airport in 3 hours or so (and I'm getting to the airport absurdly early because I have to check in, and honestly, there's nothing else to do in Paris with all my luggage). I really don't want to have to leave the city, and all my friends here. I apologize for this poorly written post. I'm tired and triste maintenant, so I'm sorry

Au revoir tout le monde!

Denial

Well I'm done with my classes and my final projects. So that's good I guess. I don't have any work. But I still can't get over the fact that in 48 hours from now I'll be on a plane to JFK.

The last couple of days have been filled with ups and downs. The downs, of course, are the absurd amount of work I had (thankfully it's done). The ups: spending time with my friends. All of them.

Yesterday was such a wonderfully day. After working for most of the afternoon, I had dinner with Sai and Gabby in the Buttes Chaumant. I wish I had found this place earlier. Ils sont vraiment l'endroit le plus beau à Paris (well out of the places I've been to). Here are various pictures:

Gabby looking off into the yonders

Sai's turn to look into the yonders

Yes I'm wearing a scarf and gray skinny jeans. C'est très français!

It was wonderful having an ELHS reunion. I wish we could have done something all together earlier, not just during my last days, but I really shouldn't be complaining. Anyways, Gabby had to go watch a movie with her friends (I hope it was good!), so Sai and I (update starts here:) chilled in the park for a little bit when some random black dude grabbed my empty Orangina can and pretended to steal it before putting it back down and shaking our hands (I'm still confused. Also, the update more or less ends here; I just forgot that I told Sai that the random encounter was "totally going in my blog"). After that, we decided to go climb la Tour Montparnasse, which, according to Wikipedia, is the third tallest building in Paris. But it has the best view, especially at night. Now I haven't climbed la Tour Eiffel yet (hopefully it'll happen later tonight), and while that seems absurd, I'll show you why I gave higher priority to la Tour Montparnasse:

I'm so glad I did this. Most beautiful view of Paris I've seen (not the best view I've seen in France though (le Pont du Gard will always win that contest)

It was so surreal being up there. So high up, above everything else. A beautiful picture of la Tour Eiffel (while I want to climb it, I can't take a picture of the Eiffel Tower when I'm on it, so yeah). I really have no reason to complain (except for the fact that, since I stayed out so "late" (read as 23h27ish), I ended up staying awake until 2 in order to finish one of my final projects).

Today was our last day of classes. Except they honestly weren't real (so no complaints there). I just refuse to believe that we're done with them. After class, we all had lunch at Le Train Bleu, a fancy restaurant in la Gare de Lyon. Here's a shot of the ceiling:

This picture doesn't do this place justice

Very fancy. The food was quite solid. I definitely enjoyed myself during the meal. This thing (I forget the name) was delicious:

Some type of duck I think. With a gratin on the side. And something called a  "sasquatch"?

After lunch, our teachers bode us farewell...for the last time in Paris. That was one of the saddest moments I've experienced in recent times (I'm bitter that they left without hugs and such). At the beginning of the trip, they were our lifelines; we were pretty much incapable of surviving in Paris without them (ok so this was really only for the first few days). And now we may never see them within Paris again. Wow that makes me so sad.

Anyways, after I returned home, I just finished my last project and now I'm writing this.

Here's a list of things that I want to try and do tonight/tomorrow while I can:

• Climb la Tour Eiffel
• Conquer the metro (there are only two lines that I haven't taken yet. This is definitely happening)
• Visit le Chateau des Vincennes (probably won't happen)
• Explore the abandoned railroad (likely won't happen either since it'll just take so much time)
• Spend time with my friends (this had better happen...)
• Visit the museum at l'Institut Pasteur
• See Lauren Paylor while we're in the same international city...

That list was really just so I remember what things I really need to do tomorrow.

Oy vey I can't believe this is almost over. Veronica had told me that I would love being in Paris, and while I wanted to believe her, I thought I'd only be content with the trip due to my emotionless nature. Well, let's just say Veronica couldn't express how much I would love it here (I can't either). This has been, without a doubt, the best experience of my life. I'm strongly considering majoring in French right now (note that I was ready to never speak French ever again after high school), I want to try and get an internship here (like Sai) next summer, and scratch that last one; I want to try and get a job here (or at least spend and extended period of time in Paris/France/Europe). I will never be the same person again (this is clichéd but true). I hate to say this (mainly because it makes me sound like a female teenager), but it's true: Paris, je t'aimes.

Au revoir tout le monde.
Au revoir Paris.

PS: I don't know why I make it seem like I'm at the airport right now about to leave Paris; I still have another day here. Just gotta make the most of my time.

Apologies for not writing (if you care that is)

Well as you can tell, I'm sorry for not writing in this as frequently as I once did. I suppose it's partly because of the absurd amount of work we have to do so I have no time. I also suppose things here seem so routine that my life here no longer seems blog worthy.

This last week was definitely interesting. Wednesday, I had dinner/flaned with Gabby Wukye. It was so surreal. Had some nice Thai food and a solid crepe afterwards. It almost feels like it was a dream; three different worlds (the EL, Duke, and Paris) collided. At times I didn't feel like I was in Paris; I was just chillin with a friend from home. But at the same time, I was feeling whatever the opposite of that would be. I'm glad I got to see her, and if you're reading this, we had best do something this week Gabby!

Uhhhhhh. Thursday was la Fête de la Musique, where there are random bands and such performing all over Paris for most of the night. I enjoyed it for the most part, except I ran out of minutes on my phone so I ended up wandering around Paris all by myself until 2, 2:30ish in the AM. It was nice being able to walk around the city by myself, and when I wasn't really near any performers, it was quite peaceful.

Friday was also bizarre. For dinner, I hit up this diner called Breakfast in America (recommended by Sourav) with Daniel (from Duke) and Sai (from the EL). The food there was super, to say the least (had a super burger) and it was really nice getting to see Sai. After diner, we got to see this ancient stadium that they uncovered when digging for a metro line (I think). It was really cool, but unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me.

Yesterday, after doing an absurd amount of work, I hung out with Sai again and then had dinner with him and my friends. Had another pizza avec un oeuf (my favorite) but again, I didn't take a picture of it (out of laziness).

This last week has been quite surreal (as I've said before) because of all the EL connections here. In spite of the fact that I'm in Paris (et pour seulement une semaine de plus), I've actually been missing home a little bit. Part of that is because, when I return, I won't have any work to do at all, and that kinda seems nice right now since the majority of my free time this week will be spent doing work. It's also because of all the time I've spent with Gabby and Sai.

So I just reminded myself that this is the start of my last week here. I don't want to leave. I can't believe I've been here for over 5 weeks. It feels like I just got here yesterday. This experience, without a doubt, has been the best of my life. I'm so glad that I've been able to enjoy one of the best cities in the world with some of the best people in the world.

Anyways, I haven't gotten a lot of sleep the last few nights, so I'm quite exhausted right now (it's why this post has been boring).

Au revoir tout le monde!

I'm getting bad at doing this consistently...

Well it's apparently been nearly a week since the last time I wrote in this. I guess it's because of the fast amount of work I have during the week so I really only have time to write on the weekends...

To start off, I don't think anything exciting happened over the course of last week (until the weekend of course). Thursday I got a foulard (read: man-scarf). Judge all you want; it's awesome. I unfortunately don't have any (good) pictures of me rockin' it at the moment (someone hopefully will eventually post a picture on the Facebook and then maybe I'll steal it for my own purposes). After that, Daniel (who got a matching foulard) and I went to le Louvre to look at some more art (the other time we went we were supposed to look at very specific paintings which, to me were boring) while looking awesome in our foulards. I enjoyed this visit much more. First of all, I got to see some artifacts from the Aegean Bronze Age, so I actually almost knew stuff about them:

A Cycladic idol. In theory, I was once able to identify the island that likely produced this and  the time period of production. At least I remember what it was...

After we got to see stuff from Egypt which was awesome. As a young'un i loved Ancient Egypt, so I felt like a little child again:

This may  not be the best photo I took of the Egyptian stuff, but the thumbnail looked really cool when I was picking pictures so you'll have to deal

Then we got to see some famous stuff (La Jaconde, etc.). Wasn't terrible, mais j'aime les autres choses mieux. Here is an interesting photo:

La Vénus de Milo et quelques touristes avec Nintendo 3DS audioguides

We had a group trip to Lyon Friday and Saturday. It wasn't bad. It was quite pretty (not on Avignon's level, but better than Aix). I don't remember what we did Friday (I was very callous and I'm really tired right now so even if something happened, I'm far too tired to remember, but more on that later).

Oh I remember what happened now. After flanning a bit, we got to take a cooking class. We made pasta avec muscles. Normally I hate seafood (read: I've never been willing to try seafood because in my head I hate it). Cooking it was pretty fun:

Scott showing off his mixing skillz

It tasted pretty good too. Like the ocean (aka the EL which was a nice memory of home).

I don't remember what we did the rest of the day. Oh I guess we learned about silk because there's a lot of silk produced in Lyon. Let's see, after that we a guided tour of part of the city from some random dude. We just walked a lot so we were all exhausted before dinner, so we just laid out on some grass until we had to eat. Dinner was interesting. I don't remember the name of my main course, but it wasn't the best decision on my part...

The next day (samedi) was filled with a lot more walking and whatever. We got to visit the old part of the city, which was way up on a hill so it provided us with many beautiful views of the city. There was also this beautiful basilica, though there was some construction going on so it wasn't at its full splendor. After walking some more, we had lunch with one of our professor's twin sister and her two children, who were both absurdly cute and absurdly distracting during our guided tour that we had after lunch. We then took the long train ride back home (more things may have happened in between, but I wasn't exactly paying attention to anything over the two days so I apologize).

Upon returning, we decided to go celebrate Ananya's birthday (because son anniversaire was Saturday so it made sense). Jenn said there was a boat ride on the Seine for international students, but that didn't end up working out so we just chilled au Champ de Mars (near la tour Eiffel) and then flanned a bit until we were able to find a train to take us to an area we knew better.

When that was done, we started to head home. In a rather foolish move, Anna left her suitcase containing all of her clean clothes at Ananya's apartment (it was so travel to the meeting spot would be easier, even though Anna's apartment was much closer to the SNCF station). Since she wanted some clean clothes for the next day, she went to go get her stuff (Ananya and I live on the same street by the way). The real issue was that we pretty got on the last metro, so Anna couldn't have taken that back to her place. Ananya and I had taken the night bus before, so I decided to help her get back to her place since they're incredibly confusing (and as a large brown person I'd like to thing that, from afar in the dark, I'm somewhat intimidating). This is where things got interesting.

After walking for a while, we found a night bus stop that would take us in the right general direction. Of course, the first bus we saw just drove past the stop (the driver couldn't see us). Instead of giving up, we just walked to the next stop (which was in a slightly better location). We took that to the area that I think contains the largest amount of night bus stops (so we figured we could find a bus that would take Anna back and then I would just take the opposite path home).

I don't think I wrote about the first night bus adventure, but Ananya and I were at the area with the many stops and we once we figured out which bus we needed, we couldn't find its stop. We did see the bus in the middle of the street, though, and people were getting on there, so we ran across the street and entered.

Luckily, I think Anna actually found the correct stop, but the bus came very infrequently and it was cold so we decided against waiting for it. We walked to an nearby area that had a velib' station, because we figured we could take some bikes to Anna's area (we've all been wanting to use the bikes, and it seemed much safer to ride them at night when there were fewer cars to kill us). Unfortunately, our credit cards didn't work at the station (and the ticket the British dude we met at the station didn't work either so I guess that station was broken).

Since plan B failed, we just decided to walk back (I'm not sure what time it was at this point in time, but I want to say that we left my neighborhood at 2ish, so it was probably between 3 and 4 when we decided to walk). We got to the Bastille area after a lovely walk (though I almost got destroyed by a night bus which was pretty scary), but since the metro reopens at 5:30 (or 5) and by the time we got near Anna's place it was 4:30ish, Anna said that she'd rather go to a café and get some coffee/hot chocolate so I could take the metro back home as opposed to trying to figure out the night bus/walking/taking a taxi (we contemplated whether or not Anna should have taken a taxi from my neighborhood when we missed the first bus, but I'm very glad that plan didn't work out). We picked a café that was still open (actually there were many open) and we just talked some more while we waited for the metro to open. By the time we got it, the sun was rising and it was pretty weird since I honestly didn't feel that tired at the time (even without the coffee). We finally parted ways after our 3-4 hour adventure and I just took the metro home (there were some thugs with what I hope was a fake (and not a real) gun on my train so I was pretty scared the whole ride home, but since I'm writing this now, I obviously made it back with minimal damage).

Today (as in after I woke up) was much more low key, especially after last night's adventure. Just an absurd amount of work, grocery shopping, and dinner with my host mother. And writing this blog post.

I would like to write more about the adventure, though. It was honestly the most enjoyable night I've had (n'importe où). It was just really nice being able to walk around without such a huge group of people (not that I don't love you guys) and without an absurd amount of people in the streets. And it was really nice just being able to talk to someone about anything and everything. Sure, I could have gotten more sleep had we gotten a taxi for Anna at the beginning of our adventure, but I'm glad we didn't. I hope that I'll remember such a legen- (wait for it) -dary story (well in my head it was awesome, but I'm sure the story's not as exciting as I think it is when it's retold in blog form) for the rest of my life, because it really was one of the greatest experiences I've had.

Anyways, I'm pretty exhausted right now (who would have thought) and I have to wake up almost as early as I went to sleep yesterday so I can get ready for class, so I think I'm going to go to sleep now (instead of doing some more work because I think I have a lot for this week). My sleepiness is also my excuse for the above-average amount of spelling/grammatical errors that I'm sure I've made throughout this blog post.

Au revoir tout le monde!

For the 3 (±6) people who actually read this blog consistently (I do believe it's possible that -3 people can read this blog consistently; I just haven't worked out the details as to how), this is must be a long awaited update...

I apologize for not writing over the past week. I blame it on a combination of the work we have to do (which is only increasing) and the fact that I'd rather sleep than write in my blog when I'm really sleepy. There's also the fact that I haven't really done anything interesting (in my opinion anyways) recently).

Let's see...after class on Thursday me and some people (Anna, Ananya, et Daniel) visited Versailles. We got into the château for free, and honestly, going inside would not have been worth whatever it cost. Sure, it was pretty cool seeing the ornate decorations and stuff, but it was packed with tourists, which made it hard to enjoy. Here's a picture taken in the hall of mirrors:

The hall of mirrors was quite disappointing as we had expected there to be far more mirrors there

The best part of the visit was our adventure in the gardens (which were gratuite by the way; on a random note, I apologize for my mélange of anglais et French; I'm not really doing it on purpose and I'm far too lazy to change it). The plants were quite beautiful in the sun. Random story, we were just chillin', near a fountain in a pond, when all of a sudden, Daniel yelled because he spied the downpour from a sudden cloudburst headed our way. Unfortunately, since my parapluie broke the day I bought it, I had to build a barrier from the rain using my friends umbrellas. As I mentioned before, it was a more or less sunny day before the 3 minute rain, so it was still sunny while we were taking shelter. Here's a picture of the weird weather:

This weather was absurd

Once it cleared up, we decided to head over toward a small lake/large pond in the gardens which contained rowboats. We wanted to go on a boat. And we did. And it was awesome. There's really no other way to describe it. According to the homme who reluctantly loaned us the boat (according to him it was too windy to go out on the water and he didn't want to have to save us if/when we flipped over), I was a good rameur (rower) since I managed to get us back to the dock without too much damage. Here's a picture of us on the boat:

An 11 euro boat ride for 4? Yes please!

The next day, we visited le Louvre to complete some sort of treasure hunt for our class. We didn't encounter a significant amount of tourists since les tableaux weren't near the more mainstream pieces of art (La Jaconde, pour exemple). This was pretty tiring since we had to walk a lot, but we got to see some pretty cool stuff. Like this:

Le singe antiquaire, de Chardin. He was quite fond of monkeys dressed up in cute little outfits. We definitely have similar tastes...

Apart from that, I didn't really do anything this weekend (lots of work). Sunday I went to go watch the finals of Roland Garros on a giant screen on Court 1. It wasn't terrible, in spite of the rain (and my lack of rain jacket and parapluie). I waited out the first rain delay in my seat because it wasn't raining too badly and I didn't want the seat to get too wet. But then I left after Nadal was up in the 3rd set 2-1. I suppose that's good because I didn't have to watch Djokovic finish his run of 8 straight games. I wish I could have watched the match from within Philippe-Chatrier, but I'm not exactly rollin' in the dough these days, so I had to settle for paying money to watch it on a giant screen (which I technically could have done for free but I actually got a seat and whatever so it was totally worth it).

Today we got to visit some sort of insane asylum/hospital and an orphanage (well the grounds of these places). It was...something. We did visit this one jardin which had really awesome plants (and sculptures). There was also a zoo there, but it would have cost us 8 euro each so we didn't go, which is really sad because I love animals.

I can't really think of anything interesting to say here right now. What is kind of scary, though, is the fact that I'm over halfway done right now. I hate thinking about that. I've been here for over 3 weeks, and I'll be home in less than 3 weeks. Honestly, I have no desire to return to the EL (no offense). I mean, I'm in Paris. And in all honestly, I'm never going to be able to have another experience like this the rest of my life. Sure, I can visit the city (if I ever end up rollin' in the dough), but unless I somehow get a job here, I'm never going to live here again. I'm actually strongly considering double majoring in Chemistry and French (dropping my philosophy minor because, let's get serious, that wasn't for real) and then maybe trying to get an internship here one summer because that would be even more awesome than this.

Well, I got nothing else to say now...(I've far too sad at the moment to write anymore)

Au revoir tout le monde!

Roland Garros et Macarons

Well I don't think that this will be too long of a post because I'm incredibly exhausted right now and I already wrote about half the stuff that I intend on writing about in this post for some journal that I have to keep for my class, so it's not very exciting to me right now.

Anyways, yesterday, I got to enter the grounds of Roland Garros. The ticket only gave me access to the outside courts, but they showed the big time matches on giant screens outside the two main courts (which was better since I could then watch both matches at the same time). My friend Daniel actually managed to get into Federer's match, but I had no desire to follow him because i wanted to watch Jo-Wilfried Tsonga play the Djoker. Unfortunately, neither of the two matches went in my favor, so now I'm rooting for Fed (only during the next round). Speaking of Fed, I managed to get some good creeper shots of him while he was giving an interview (my camera apparently has 20x zoom that results in pictures of a surprisingly decent quality):

Roger Federer (too tired to think of a creative caption)

Anyways, I bought one of the towels that the men use to wipe their sweat off with during the matches...It was expensive. Let's just say that I'm probably not buying anything else (for myself) while I'm here...

Today, we learned how to make macarons. It was great getting back into the kitchen to relive the glory days of Culinary (Kitchen 2 FTW (unless it was kitchen 1, but I'm pretty sure we were 2)). The meringue was pretty easy to make, but the technique called "macaroning" was quite difficult (my forearm got pretty sore doing it). It was also pretty hard putting the macarons on the tray (when I finally figured out the technique to make them in a good shape, I ended up making them way too close together). Anyways, they ended up looking really awesome (they have to be refrigerated for 48 hours, so I don't actually know how they taste yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to eat all of them in one sitting...). Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures because I had put my bag away before I could get my camera out, but here's one that I'm stealing from my friend Anays of me and my friend Scott.

We were both supposed to have seductive faces, but I was laughing way too hard to concentrate (also, our macarons are pistachio flavored...so good)

It was all so much fun, and I hope we get to do more fun stuff like that (I think they're teaching us to make a French meal in 2 weeks when we visit Lyon, so that should be fun (plus I don't have to worry about not being delicate enough when cooking)).

I can't really think of anything else interesting to say. I haven't really done much since returning from Provence (man oh man do I miss it down there). Hopefully this weekend will bring some cool stories (I think I'm visiting Versailles with some friends tomorrow, so that should be a jolly ole time).

Au revoir tout le monde!

Week-end en Provence

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. As I said in my last post, we spent the last weekend in the south of France (Provence more or less), and I didn't really have a significant amount of computer access. I've also had an absurd amount of work to do, but I managed to get the bulk of it done today so I finally have some time to tell you of my adventures.

This weekend was by far the greatest weekend of my life. The south of France is the most beautiful place I have ever been. Right now, I think I'm going to retire there and run a vineyard or something like that. That's how awesome it is.

I had to wake up really early Friday morning for our train ride to Avignon. I had heard of the city, but my expectations for it were low. When we pulled into town, though, I was amazed. Avignon was the most beautiful city I have ever visited. Beautiful old buildings, not too crowded. The perfect place.

We were given some free time for lunch, so some of us decided to grab some food and eat it in a park we were told about by our wonderful tour guide Mireck (more about him and his awesome-ness later). This park had the most beautiful view I had ever seen (at the time). Here's a picture from there (I ended up taking about 100 pictures on Friday, so you can tell how beautiful it is):

There were far too many pictures to choose from, so I decided to go with this because honestly, it doesn't really matter. Everything was absurdly beautiful

Anyways, after lunch, we were given a tour of le Palais des Papes, which is where a few Popes lived (and some anti-popes too). Mireck, who works for the ACCENT Center in Paris, gave us a wonderful guided tour. Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention because the history of popes in Avignon bores me. Still, he was so knowledgeable and I'm glad he was with us.

After the tour, we were given some time to chill in our rooms. After that, we went out to dinner at some nearby restaurant...

OH YEAH. THEY HAVE SMURF FLAVORED ICE CREAM. IT WAS BLUE (I ate it before the visit to le Palais des Papes but I only remembered it now).

So after dinner, we decided to walk around Avignon a little bit. We were relaxing on some steps when my friend Bridget (like Bridget Jones) suggested we play some campfire games. The first was called slack-jaw. You basically have to slacken your jaw and stare other people down without laughing. It was hilarious. I wish I had some pictures of people's faces during this game (especially Bridget's and Scott's) but we were all too busy laughing to take pictures. The next game we played was called pterodactyl. For this game, you go around in a circle saying "pterodactyl" without showing your teeth to the person you're saying it to. The direction can be changed simply by making a pterodactyl sound and motion back to the last speaker. As you can see, this is a recipe for fun. Scott and I frequently got into head-to-head pterodactyl call duels, in which we both lost because it was far too funny to not laugh. I'm honestly surprised that I was so involved in these games. Normally, when I'm in public situations, I'm incredibly introverted, yet my pterodactyl calls filled the ears of the residents of Avignon.

After that, I went back to my room where I took a bath using bath salts that were in the bathroom. I felt like this:

The next morning, I went for a run with my friends Bridget, Jenn, and Amee. It was pretty difficult since I haven't ran since Spring Break with Winnie, but I manged to survive for the most part. I wish I had brought a camera with me because everything was so beautiful.

After breakfast, we were off to the Pont du Gard. For our trip, we rolled in an almost new Mercedes tour bus. The greatest ride I'll ever be in to the greatest place I've ever visited. When Mireck gave us our tour of the Pont du Gard, which is a Roman aqueduct from the 1st century, I was captivated by his every word.

The valley around the Pont du Gard is by far the most beautiful place I had ever been (eclipsing the area around Avignon and our next adventure which I'll get to eventually). Here's one of the many pictures I took there:

While it's possible that I took a better photo of the Pont du Gard, does it actually matter? (the answer is no, this is beautiful enough)

It was the most beautiful place ever. After an exhausting climb to the top of the aqueduct, we decided to go down toward the river so maybe stick our feet in the water since it was so hot out. We carefully made our way down a steep, slippery, rocky path. At the bottom, I ran into our teacher, who had taken the safe (and apparently faster) way to the river.

When we got there, my friend/muse Scott stripped into his skivvies and dove into the water. While I was initially stunned by his actions, it was really hot and I had wanted to swim in ever body of water I had seen in Paris (various fountains, the Seine) due to the heat, and I knew this would be my best opportunity to go swimming without contracting some disease from the trash of the Seine, so I too stripped down to my boxers and dove in:

This moment (and the ones surrounding it) was the greatest moment of my life. I honestly don't think that I'll ever be as happy as I was at that moment.

This was by far the greatest decision of my life. The water was so comfortable. I had never felt so free before. I wish I was still swimming in that river right now. That was the greatest experience of my life. After getting out to dry up a little bit before putting my clothes on, we skipped some rocks, and I threw some to the other end of the river (a few made it across), mainly because I've had this burning desire to throw stuff really far since I've been in France. Basically, I accomplished the two things I had really wanted to do at the Pont du  Gard: go swimming, and throw stuff.

After the Pont du Gard, we continued our bus ride to Aix-en-Provence, while reminiscing about 90's television. On the way, we stopped by an old fortress called les Baux de Provence. We had a nice lunch with the class, and then we got to explore the old fortress. Unfortunately, Mireck didn't give us a tour (we were kind of rowdy and once we entered the grounds, they were demonstrating the use of a trebuchet so we all ran to watch that). Speaking of which, I got to help arm what I think is the second largest trebuchet in Europe with my friend Chevalier Daniel (he got knighted):

This day was by far the most fun day of my life

After that, we got to explore the grounds. I forgot to mention that this old fortress was on the top of a small mountain, giving rise to the second most beautiful view I had ever seen (eclipsing the view from the park in Avignon for second after the view around the Pont du Gard). Here's one of the many pictures:

Scott, Amee, and Jenn looking off into the yonders

After exploring, we finished our journey to Aix-en-Provence (it's possible that this is when the reminiscing occurred, I don't remember anything other than swimming in the river honestly). Aix was honestly a bit of a disappointment. I had decent expectations for it before the trip, and it wasn't nearly as good as neither my expectations, nor Avignon/le Pont du Gard/les Baux de Provence. Still, it was quite the hip town, with many college students, so there were plenty of things to do. I was just frustrated at night, probably because I really missed le Gardon (the river). Oh man I really miss the river right now. Sigh.

The next morning, we got a tour of the city, and we got to see Paul Cézanne's house. It was alright, but I still wasn't in the best mood/Aix wasn't as picturesque as Avignon/le Pont du Gard/les Baux de Provence, so there aren't really any good pictures from the day.

After our tour, we got to explore the town a little bit on our own. There were many outdoor markets distributed about the town. At one, I bought this one book containing the works of Gérard de Nerval, who is probably my favorite poet (I actually only really know one of his poems, which I had to memorize for my French Phonetics class, but it spoke to my soul on so many levels, so I decided to buy this book so I could enjoy it any many of his other works). At another, Scott and I bought a large bottle of fresh apple juice, which was by far the most delicious thing I had ever drank. Man i really miss that stuff right now (I'm making the mental note to buy some apple juice tomorrow, though I doubt it'll be as good). We then took a quick train to Marseilles (getting a glimpse of the Mediterranean) where we took the TGV back to Paris, back to homework.

I'm sure there is a lot more stuff I wanted to write about (probably about le Pont du Gard because that was by far the best experience of my life), but it all seems like a distant memory right now, which is kind of sad (thankfully I managed to take 267 photos this weekend so I have 267,000 words to remember it by).

Au revoir tout le monde!

A Day of Good Eats

Well today was a wonderful day food-wise. The majority of my meals today would have been considered meals by people from the first world. This hasn't happened in a while, so I'm quite happy. More on this later...

Today, our class got to visit the Assemblée Nationale. Unfortunately, we were told that we couldn't take pictures, so I didn't bring my camera. In the end, we were allowed to take pictures in the majority of the rooms, so I was frustrated that I had left my camera behind.

After our second class, some friends and I explored the neighborhood where our classes are held and eventually worked our way over to this one cemetery where lots of famous people are buried. These people include Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (a chemist). Again, it would have been a lot cooler if I had brought my camera with me, but unfortunately, I lack pictures.

Anyways, back to the food. Today I got to eat dinner with my host-mother and Kevin (I'm about 99% sure that's his name), who is another person living here. At first, I had no idea who he was. The way my host-mother introduced him made it seem like he wasn't related to her, yet he wasn't another foreign student because he was definitely French and he works as a consultant (so he is neither foreign nor a student). I soon figured out that he was a random French person more or less renting the room across the hall from mine. Today, I learned that he heard about my host-mother from a hair stylist who has a salon across the street.

Kevin speaks English much better than I speak French, so he normally speaks to me in English (classic French move). Today at dinner, however, he actually spoke to me in French. I felt so honored. My host-mother also told me that out of all her exchange students (she's had many over the years), I apparently speak French the best. I was seriously amazed to hear that, and she claims that she wasn't just saying that, so now I actually have a little bit of confidence in my ability to speak.

If you, the reader, ever plan on going abroad/living in a foreign country, and you're a picky eater, I highly recommend that you give up your ways. For those who know my (former) eating habits well, you know that I am (well was) an absurdly picky eater. To have the best experience that I could, however, I knew that I had to give up my ways.

My advice for picky eaters going abroad: eat anything and everything you're offered. If you don't think you'll like it, only ask for/take a very small amount of it. Unless you're allergic to it, it won't hurt. And you may even find out that you're fond of steamed green beans. Basically, don't let your picky eating ruin your study abroad experience.

Well I should be doing the reading for tomorrow's classes right now, and I can't think of anything else to write, so I'm going to head out now. I'm also quite tired for reasons beyond me (the reasons are on Twitter and I have not deemed them family friendly enough for this blog (aka I want more Twitter followers; I'm so close to triple digits)).

Before I go, my class is taking a trip to Provence (the south of France) this weekend, so I'll have some new adventures to share (other than wandering around Paris).

Au revoir tout le monde!

If I was a teenage girl this would be something clichéd, but I'm not, so all you get is this as a title

Today was such a wonderful day!

In one my classes, we started a discussion of poetry (in French of course). In a brazen attempt to toot my own horn, I'm quite good at reading/writing poetry in French. Yesterday, for my other class, we had to write some sort of descriptive paragraph about the sociability of the French. I chose to write something about parks (we've been to so many parks, so it was an easy paragraph to write). When my professor (she's actually French) looked over my shoulder to read my masterpiece, she said it was beautiful and very poetic (well I'm pretty sure she said the poetic part, but I'm sure she thought it was beautiful, because quite frankly, it is). While this only brought my ego to a slightly higher level, class today (the one that I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph) brought my ego to levels that haven't been reached in quite some time (2-3 weeks, after I received my bio 119 grade).

A little background information: the French class I took last semester was a phonetics class. Ergo, we learned a lot about pronunciation and such. "And such" refers to different types of alcohol drank in France and how to read French poetry. The weird thing about French poetry is that many of the letters (ok so it's only the letter "e") that would be silent in normal conversation are pronounced in order to add more syllables to the line of poetry.

Now back to me talking about how awesome I am.

Before 27ish hours ago, I'm pretty sure that only me and 2-3 other people in my class were aware of how weird reading French poetry is. Today in class, we were studying a particular poem ("Correspondances" by Baudelaire). To teach the class the intricacies of reading French poetry, my teacher had most everyone in the class take turns reading the poem. After each of the first few readings, she would take some time to discuss different aspects of French poetry. After the first 3 or so, she discussed the pronunciation of silent e's to maintain a proper syllable count. When she was going through the first few lines, I kept on bringing up different examples of pronounced silent e's that she had overlooked in each line (it should be noted that at this point in time, only the two other people who had taken my phonetics class with me knew about the e's, and thus, they were the only people who understood why I was able to drop some knowledge). This continued for a while, and my peers were in stunned silence by my mastery of the pronunciation of French poetry (I was referred to as a "genius" before I explained that I took a class where we learned about reading French poetry. Nevertheless, I believe that the "genius" comment still holds true). After showing up my professor, it came time for the next student to read the poem. In choice that was completely out of nowhere, I was chosen to be the next reader.

Unfortunately, I had not yet completed my analysis of the poem, so I wasn't actually prepared to read it at the time (I had yet to look at the last two stanzas to figure out their pronunciations). It didn't matter. My reading of the poem would have made angels cry. Sure, I made a few mistakes (I was under quite a bit of pressure, and as I previously stated, I wasn't actually ready), but Baudelaire himself couldn't have imagined a more perfect reading of his work of art. The end of my reading was greeted by a lively applause (and I'm sure if there was more room, there would have been a standing ovation). When the professor asked who wanted to go next, no one wanted to; it was obviously because they knew that their readings would pale in comparison to the vocal masterpiece that was my reading (this was actually somewhat true). Others ended up reading the poem (they had to), but I'm sure my recitation of the poem still resonates within their souls at this very moment.

Well I'm glad I got that out of my system.

After class today, we "flâned" a bit.

Here's some background information on my current story (and it may or may not be an integral part of my next story): my friend Daniel and I both wanted to go clothes shopping, mainly so we could get some actual European clothes and not look like n00bs. I had another reason. I was pretty much out of clean clothes. Many of the shirts I've been wearing had been worn at least one other time under the hot Parisian sun, and it was getting to the point where I couldn't bear wearing them again. I had to get some new clothes. Yesterday, we went to a store that we had walked by this weekend (there was a big sale there), but all the clothes there were really, really weird.

And now we're back.

We were in the general area of a mall (apparently), so Daniel (if you're reading this, do you prefer "Daniel," or do you go by "Dan," "Danny," "Danny-boy," etc) and I wanted to go to get some clothes. Unfortunately, the women we were with decided to go into this one thrift store/dance club (there appeared to be strobe lights and music half a story above the main floor) and take a lot of time there. We checked, but there wasn't really anything there for guys. We got impatient, so I said: let's go to the mall (not actually, but I wish I had in retrospect). The H&M there had really good prices. I got some v-necks, other things that I was running out of  (I'll leave this to your imagination)...

...and gray skinny jeans. And these are actually legitimately skinny. I'm trying to fit in with the French, though, so I had to buy them (and they were cheaper than most jeans I own, which gave me another reason to purchase them).

And now, time for the best part of my day (and possibly the best part about my time at Paris thus far).

When I returned to my room, MY CLOTHES WERE WASHED!!!!!! Now my host mother told me she would wash them for me (French washing machines are apparently absurd). I just thought she said she would do my laundry Monday; when I returned from class yesterday to see that my clothes weren't washed, I panicked (which was part of the reason I went to the mall today). I was so happy to see that my clothes were clean, that I didn't have to wear a smelly shirt for once.

Time for the randomness:

Sunday, my friend Ananya and I decided to explore our neighborhood (we live on the same street) and get dinner together (with our friend Anna). We were feeling pizza. After walking awhile, we found this one pizza place that looked reasonable. We each got individual pizzas that we had to eat with a knife and fork. Here's a picture of my pizza:

This may look janky to you, but it was delicious. The egg needed a bit of pepper, though.

It was quite good (I felt like I was taking a huge risk getting an egg on my pizza). Holy crap I want another one right now. I'm kind of hungry right now. The last few days, the majority of my diet has been comprised of golden delicious apples and granola/cereal bars. I could do something to get more filling food; I just chose to be incredibly frugal and only buy golden delicious apples and granola/cereal bars instead of real meals.

Oh man, looking at that picture is making me drool right now, and I'm kind of tempted to eat my computer screen right now because in my deluded, malnourished state (if you're actually concerned, I'm just being melodramatic), I'm convinced that this picture of the pizza on my computer will taste like the pizza did.

Anyways, I have nothing else to say (I managed to combine to random stories into one, so I feel quite accomplished right now).

Au revoir tout le monde!

Holy crap I've been in Paris for 7 days

Well I've been here for 7 days already. I can't believe I've been here for so long and it feels like it's going to end really soon (I have 5 more weeks but that doesn't seem like a long time).

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Our professors took us to a French movie and dinner afterwards. The movie was very funny (and I manged to understand the majority of it) and just now I realized that I apparently wrote a blog post last night that includes this information so I'll stop there (I would just get rid of it, but I find my error amusing so hopefully you will too).

Today was probably the most chill day of them all. I'm running out of clothes (and my host-mother isn't washing them until Monday) so I had to go buy some French shirts. The colors I got were kinda bad in retrospect, but they were cheap (I got them at the equivalent of Walmart) so I can't complain. After that, I decided to go check out Roland Garros (the French Open).

First of all, the métro station the website gave me was pretty far from the entrance. After about an hour of aimlessly walking around (or flân-ing as we call it in Franglish), I found a nice park where I was able to sit down and eat an apple that I had bought (it was really good). Luckily for me, the park was next to the grounds.

Unfortunately, they had ran out of tickets to get into the grounds (or that's what I heard when I was eavesdropping on a conversation) so I was only able to circumnavigate the area.

On my way to a different métro station, I ran into another park/garden, which I decided to venture into in hopes of finding an oasis/a water fountain. After exploring, I found the fountain on a map, decided it was too far away, and decided to head to the métro.

Here are some pictures I took in that last park:

A random fake deer head?!? How could I not take a picture of it?

This relatively large fake mushroom (not the largest I've seen in my days here, though, so it's only the second coolest) was placed near the fake deer head. I'll let you interpret this juxtaposition on your own.

After I eventually found my way home (this other métro station was pretty hard to find as well), I just relaxed a little bit, hung out with some friends by the Musée d'Orsay, where there was their really weird guy doing completely random stuff (scaring people, shoving a vest in the upper portion of his shirt to accentuate his bosom, etc), ate dinner with my host mom (some sort of egg dish. It was delicious), hung out with some friends again (we flâned somewhere in Paris), returned home, decided to update my blog, and now here I am.

As you can see, today was a surprisingly uneventful day (I'm guessing it's because since we didn't have any mandatory group activities (class), it took more effort to make plans with people, so less stuff actually got done). Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more stuff to say (I won't, though, since I'm quite sure that I'll be doing my homework at the time I'd normally be writing this).

Au revoir tout le monde!

I can't think of a good title for this post right now so deal with it

Well I guess I'm sorry I didn't post anything yesterday (I'm sure no one actually cares, so I'm not actually sorry). I love Paris. The people I'm with are great, and for some reason beyond me, I feel like I can be myself (more or less) around them.

Time for some complaints.

(this is really me bragging about how awesome it is living in Paris, but covering it up as complaints)

We walk around so much. Yesterday, after seeing/walking to many tourist/non-tourist attractions (an evening by the Seine, for example), I felt more disgusting than I had ever felt before, but I couldn't take a shower. Sure, I got to enjoy the view from Sacré-Cœur, enjoy a wonderful evening by the Seine, and do other awesome stuff that I'm too tired to remember right now, but I was really sweaty and I couldn't take a shower when I returned to my home.

Sacré-Cœur. It's on a huge hill, so it was quite tiring climbing it (this caption would have been more amusing, but I'm so tired right now so I'm not capable of producing my normal sass/wit)

One of the views from the hill that Sacré-Cœur rests upon. It may not be the best picture I took from there, but it's so hard to tell which one is the best from the small previews that this blogging system allows me, so I apologize

I'm too tired right now to remember what else we did yesterday, but it was all really fun. I think I'm apparently funny/full of sass (which means that not everyone hates me yet for being an a***, so that seems positive).

Today I explored the neighborhood where I live with one of my new friends, had a picnic in a park (I ate a baguette. I felt really French), saw a hilarious French movie (I actually understood like 70% of it), had dinner at some really nifty place (lamb chops followed by some sort of rum cake), and then enjoyed an evening beside the Tour Eiffel. I would add a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night, but I'm way too tired to get my camera and whatever, so I apologize.

Au revoir!

Treasure Hunt

My mornings haven't been going well so far. I was supposed to meet a friend who lives on the same street, but I ended up being mad late (I was unexpectedly eating breakfast). I also still haven't figured out how to lock/unlock the front door to the apartment (I've been showed a few times, though I wish my host-mother would let me practice (I've asked to no avail)).

Anyways, today, we were split up into groups to go on a treasure hunt (it was more of a scavenger hunt) all around Paris as a means of getting accustomed to the city (and the métro). We first went to a bookstore to buy a notebook. Then we went to the Musée Rodin to get a brochure. While we never entered the actually museum itself, we explored the vast gardens around it, admiring some of Rodin's work. It was really cool seeing "Le Penseur" (or "The Thinker" to the noobs who don't speak French). Because I expect only 5 or so people to read this post, I'll post the not very good picture of me trying to pose like the statue behind me:

I regret the position of my right leg. It should have been on the next level. Also, I'm wearing skinny jeans in this picture,  so I hope Nathan is happy (my legs have been compared to tree trunks (by myself right now) so the skinny jeans aren't too noticeable, sorry ladies/Nathan)

We then had to buy a particular pastry from a particular pastry shop. Unfortunately, the particular pastry shop didn't even have the particular pastry, so that was a bit a fail.

Our last item was a business card from some really fancy restaurant on the Champs-Élysées (if you're unaware of what that is, it's a street containing many popular tourist traps).

After that, we had to meet our classmates/professors at the Paris Opera, and since we were somewhat close (well we were in the same city), we decided to walk (I was somewhat against this decision, but it was cool seeing all the aforementioned tourist traps). Sadly, we weren't able to get a tour of the opera today, since they were preparing for a gala (which is going on right now as far as I'm concerned). Since we couldn't go inside, we got a brief tour of the outside (which was really beautiful, but for some reason, I didn't take any pictures), and then we were free to do whatever we wanted....

So we walked some more...

We chilled near what I think was the royal gardens (not as cool as the gardens at the Musée Rodin) and then  at/near the Jardin des Tuileries (which is surrounded by the Louvre). I think. I honestly didn't really pay attention to the names of where we went because, quite frankly, I was spending too much time taking in the beauty of it all to care for names (this is be attempting to be poetic).

Unfortunately, we have our first day of classes tomorrow. I had to do homework tonight. I knew I was taking classes here, but I liked to keep that it in the back of my mind.

As you're probably well aware of, this is the part where I share random thoughts that pop into my head and don't fit into the rest of my post:

• I feel incredibly janky right now (the métro is very dirty), but I can't take a shower before I sleep like I normally would, because I feel bad taking two showers a day, and the vast majority of people here don't wear hats (so I've actually been hat-less for a few days), meaning that I have to shower in the morning (bed-head isn't the style I'm going for).
• If anyone is bothered by my use of run-on sentences (I actually am a little bit), DEAL WITH IT; this blog is literally just me writing down everything that pops up in my head, even (by even, I mean especially) if it makes me sound like an a** (I have to be family friendly, just in case).
• I think I'm eventually going to stop posting photos on Facebook and just put them here, because I don't really like being that guy (although the teenage girl inside of me (not literally inside of me) is so excited by being in Paris that I'm compelled to take a bunch of pictures and put them up on Facebook so everyone else is jealous).

Anyways, that's all for now.

Au revoir tout le monde!

The First Real Day

Well today sucked. At first (only at first). Breakfast with my host mother was good (bread with butter and jam). I then had to be at the Accent Center at 9:30 AM; I was told that 30 minutes was plenty of time to get there, so I left at 9. Getting to the final stop wasn't terrible (there was one stop on the way, but finding my next train wasn't too bad), but getting out of that stop was impossible. There are signs pointing in the directions of the different exits, but there wasn't one for my exit, which only exacerbated my situation as it was already 9:27ish when I got off the train. After doing a lap around the station (without getting a definitive answer as to where I had to go), I thought I was on to something. I tried to exit from an entrance (I would have sworn that I had seen someone do it), but that didn't work. I then pressed a button for help but I just got yelled at (not very helpful). I just decided to follow the directions for the exits with the numbers closest to my exit, and somehow that brought me to my exit.

After that stressful morning, we had a small orientation, where I got a new pick up line (COCA COLA?!?! [two things: this is supposed to be spoken in a French accent, and this allegedly happened to the person giving our orientation presentation]). Following that, we got to buy umbrellas (half of us, because it was raining) and cell phones (all of us, but we were already split off into two different groups). After getting that stuff, we were free to go.

While walking down the street, someone (I don't recall who) saw a cafe that seemed to give a good deal, so we decided to go in (though apparently some of the group decided to blaze their own trail in a different direction) and ate. People had to buy some electrical converters because they neglected to bring any, so we went to this one store that someone had heard about/went to on a previous trip to Paris/on this trip(??). The same person (I'm declining to use names because I doubt any of my fellow students will read this blog post since they're living much of it/I doubt anyone reading this will know who they are) also realized her umbrella was broken so she decided to get a new one (second time umbrellas have been mentioned--could it be a sign? nahhhh). We still had plenty of time afterwards and we also had passes that would get us into art museums for free, so we decided to go to the Centre Pompidou (which was within walking distance).

Unfortunately for me, my umbrella broke on the way. The top portion (canopy, ribs, etc) just flew off of the pole. It was hilarious.

The Centre Pompidou was pretty cool. Some of the art was above me head, and only reminded me of female genitalia:

My current hypothesis is that it relates to a newborn's exit from the birth canal, but  I could be wrong (and it's just straight up a vagina)

Other stuff was really cool, like this one:

IT'S A NEWLY WED COUPLE RIDING A GIANT CHICKEN, BEING SERENADED BY A GOAT-VIOLIN (or viola/cello) HYBRID. AND THERE'S AN UPSIDE DOWN SOUL-LESS (ginger) WOOD-NYMPH HOLDING SOME CANDLES (setting the mood I'm assuming). WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?!?!?

If you care to see more of the pictures, they're on my Facebook (and again, if you aren't Facebook friends with me, why are you reading this?).

To be read by J.P. Senter (and/or anyone who is interested in surrealism/art): if/when you read this, I need you to go on Facebook and tell me which one is the Miró (just look through the album, though it's possible that it's not one of the two I pointed out/you may not know, but I know you're fond of him (well I think you are), so I'm going to go ahead and trust your judgement on it)

The best part of today, though, was getting to know a lot of the people I didn't know well (ok, so that was pretty much everyone). I was pretty nervous about meeting people (mainly because I'm usually too lazy to socialize with new people), but everyone on the trip (at least everyone with whom I had wandered around Paris with) is super nice (you know I'm sincere because I previously mentioned that I doubt that anyone of them will even read this blog).

I just remembered this, but I had something called an "Indian Tonic" today. It reminded me of Sprite, but orange-y (I think).

Also, if you are going to comment on this post (or any other post), make sure you identify yourself, because if you don't, I won't have any idea as to who you are, and it makes it look like some random stranger is creeping on my blog (and I hope I've made my opinion about random people reading my blog very clear).

I also apologize for any spelling/grammatical errors. I was going to read this over, but I realized that, quite frankly, I don't care anymore.

Au revoir tout le monde!

G****'s in Paris

Well I'm finally in Paris! My voyage here was probably the longest 24 hours of my life.

My plan to pass out on the flight failed (more or less). I had hoped that dinner  would be served within an hour after take off (at what would have been considered a standard dinner time in the eastern time zone), but dinner was served an hour (and a half possibly, I don't remember) after that, taking up precious sleeping time. I finally got to sleep an hour or so after eating (couldn't find a comfortable sleeping position). After getting some sleep, they woke us up at a little before 5 AM Paris time (GMT + 1:00) for breakfast. Adding it all up, I want to say that I got only like 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep on the plane.

Getting off the plane went surprisingly well, but then I encountered yet another issue. I was supposed to meet two of my classmates at a train station within the airport to take a train to where our class was supposed to meet. I got to the station at around 7 AM (maybe a little earlier). 2.5 hours later and there was no sign of them (their flights were scheduled to land 10 minutes after mine, so I'm going to blame the issue on my decision to sit in a chair for the two hours instead of looking around for them). Luckily for me, I spied the one person I actually knew on the trip beforehand (who was scheduled to land 2 hours after me, so I had no intention of seeing her until after arriving at the meeting spot) and we took a taxi to the meeting location (and somehow, we were the first two people to arrive). Running into her was definitely one of the luckiest breaks of my life (and it saved me 30-some euros by splitting a cab with me)

Random aside: OMG I JUST HEARD A DOG BARK INSIDE THIS BUILDING! I HOPE MY HOST MOTHER HAS A DOG (she doesn't according to my housing information)

Anyways, after some more students arrived, our professor took us around the quartier, treating us to some food and such. We then explored the quartier (mainly just to keep the blood flowing) and got some more food later on. After that quasi-excursion, we had a housing orientation, followed by the reception of our housing assignments.

I'm living in the apartment of a sweet old lady. It is, without a doubt, the nicest place I have ever lived in (for more than a few days). I'm honestly scared to touch anything since I'm pretty sure I'll break something. I have to share a bathroom with someone named Kevin (he's either the host-mother's son, or another student living here, which I think is the case), but he's very nice and speaks English (which makes my life easier).

I didn't mention this earlier, but this blog is going to be part photo-blog (I like hearing myself talk in my head as I write the crap that ends up in this blog, so this blog will mostly be the aforementioned crap with some pictures thrown in). Sadly (for you, the reader), while I was out and about today, my camera was somewhere in the depths of my backpack (which was in the meeting location, which from here on out I'll refer to as "the Accent Center" (it's also where we hold our classes, so there's a chance I'll mention it more)), so the only picture I have right now is one of the view from my window:



























A comment on the quality of the picture: there was a smudge on the window, which I didn't open to take the picture since I didn't know that the smudge actually existed (and when I couldn't open the window when I tried to retake the picture, so DEAL WITH IT (or photoshop the smudge out please)).

A comment, not on the quality of the picture: the roads here are designed terribly. There are no designated lanes; I've seen cars in what would be the left lane of a roundabout make a right turn (and without signaling too). I'm just very glad that I'll be traveling by the metro for the majority of my remaining time here.

Yet another random comment: I was called to eat dinner before I was able to finish this post, so I'll go ahead and discuss dinner. It was great. My host mother made Cantonese Rice (I think). So good.

The random comments continue: I think a storm is a brewing,  but I have no idea as to how I'm supposed to close my window...

Anyways, au revoir tout le monde!

Last Day in America

Wow I'm going to be in Paris in approximately 24 hours...

...and I still haven't finished packing (I'm pretty much done, but I still don't know whether or not I even have everything I need...).

I think I have everything I need/my dad is going on a Wal-Mart run a few hours before we leave, so I should be set/I shouldn't be worrying nearly as much as I am right now.

Anyways, my flight is in the early evening, so in order to get a decent amount of sleep before arriving in Paris, I'll have to sleep for the vast majority of the flight (possibly missing out on airplane food, which is probably for the best). But since I normally don't go to bed at 6 PM EST, I came up with a brilliant idea to make this early bedtime more feasible: tonight, I'm not going to sleep tonight (well, I'm shooting for 3-4 hours, but that's like half of what I normally get); then I'll be really, really, really exhausted by the time I'm sitting on the plane, and I'll just pass out right away and then wake up once the flight is over. Unfortunately, I'm sure this plan is going to fail miserably. I'm really tired right now (which is why this post isn't up to my personal standards; my creative juices just aren't flowing right now) so I'm probably going to give in to my desire to sleep pretty soon. I also wouldn't be surprised if I accidentally fell asleep on the car ride to JFK, most likely ruining my plan.

Regardless, I'm sure that everything will work out because I'm (going to pretend to be) optimistic.

Well I can't think of what else to write (I'm so exhausted that I initially wrote "right") right now, so I'm probably going to go consider packing and then just go to sleep (I'm disappointed in my lack of faith in my plan, which I've seemed to have scrapped before even finishing this post). Hopefully my host family will have internet access, allowing me to add to my blog at some point in time on Sunday (though it may be at some absurd time in the morning here in the good ole United States).

Also, if anyone wants to contact me, Facebook and Skype are probably the most reliable methods of communication (if we're not Facebook friends, why would you want to contact me/why are you even reading this...creeper). Keep in mind that there is a 6 hour time difference.

Pre-Departure Jitters and Other Updates

So I'm scheduled to arrive in Paris in approximately 96.75 hours (from the time that I wrote this sentence, not including the words contained by these parentheses if you want to get technical) and I'm nowhere near as excited as you would think I'd be right now...

Am I going to forget something really important? Probably. But what's worse, I'm sure I'm going to bring stuff that I won't even end up using (which will waste a lot o' space in my luggage, potentially preventing me from bringing back cool french stuff).

Did you know that they speak French in France? Like ALL THE TIME? Sure, you say that's obvious, but I'll be in France, which means that I'll have to speak French. ALL THE TIME. I guess I've technically been taking French for approximately half of my life, but right now, I have no confidence in my ability to coherently speak French to others, and I have no idea as to whether or not I'll be able to understand anyone.

I feel (and probably look) like this right now:

But fear not (I'm mostly talking to myself right now in an attempt to quell my minor freak out); these are problems faced by everyone going abroad (or so I'm told). If I forget something, I should be able to get an equivalent item in France, so that isn't even that big of a concern right now. And most people participating in a foreign language immersion program won't be perfect at the language at the beginning of the program, but the biggest reason for going (other than the ladies) is to perfect my command of the language. I'm sure I'll face struggles my first week or two, but once I'm used to France and get in a rhythm, I'm sure I'll be fine.

Now that I'm done venting, I'll update y'all on my preparations:

They've told us that, in order to maximize our immersion experience, we have to do our best to fit in, which means dressing like the French. Ergo, I've bought a bunch of clothes that (I think) the French would wear...

Like skinny jeans...

I BOUGHT A PAIR OF SKINNY JEANS.

[here's a break for laughter]

WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?!?!

[another pause for laughter/dramatic effect]

Anyways, that's all for now. I'm set to land in Paris in 96 hours (from the time that I wrote this sentence, including the words contained by these parentheses if you want to get technical), and after writing this post, I've managed to relieve a lot of my stress, so now I'm getting pretty excited for the trip. I'll maybe write another post closer to my departure (most likely as a means of procrastinating from packing).

Au revoir tout le monde! (I thought I should maybe practice a little bit of my French)

Pre-Blogging

Bonjour tout le monde!

I have to make some sort of blog for my French class, and I intend on blogging when I'm in Paris this summer (I'm spending half of my summer in Paris if you weren't aware) so I figured I'd start my summer blog now to practice for the blog for my class.

But now I'm done practicing so I (probably) won't be blogging until May when the anticipation for Paris escalates...