:)

I feel like I should write something since it's been a while but nothing too eventful has happened. I am now in my third week of semester classes. They're okay, but they're classes. I don't have Friday classes but there's really not much to do on the weekends. However, we only have two more weeks of classes and then we get a week off! I'm not sure where I'll be going yet. Italy is a possibility or the UK. I'll keep you updated.

I have a tandem partner now. We spend half of our time speaking French and the other half speaking English. She is applying to some school and she has to write something in English and then defend it to a professor in English... a little scary.

Courtnee and I went to church yesterday morning. It was nice to be at a church and see families. Everyone was really nice and the pastor spoke slowly but I still got lost sometimes.

I am learning to do laundry in my sink. Not fun. I may check out a laundromat. It rains so much here that you inevitably get mud on your jeans and well, I'm not as good as a washing machine.

Hope your Valentine's Day was great!

Paris and more

A lot has happened since my last post. I no longer live with my host family which is kind of sad. I really liked them. The mom even gave me one of their hair dryers to borrow. I've already made use of it. JiYeon left today to travel around Europe. When she returns, the family is going to have me over for dinner one night before she goes back to South Korea.

Wednesday morning, we left for Paris and I got to experience the TGV for the first time. It is pretty nice. Evidently it goes up to 200 mph. Thus, it only takes 2.5 hours to get to Paris which is pretty nice. So anyway, I saw a LOT of sights in Paris. Wednesday, we visited the Jardin du Luxembourg. I'm sure it would be a lot prettier in the spring but they had a lot of cool statues and it was free. Next, we walked by the Panth éon and the Sorbonne and took pictures but didn't go in. The Panthéon was really impressive but I really don't know anything about it. Then we went to Notre Dame which was of course amazing. It was so beautiful and I just found out today that Napoleon was crowned Emperor there. That night, our whole group went to the Louvre for a guided tour. I discovered I'm not into those tours because we just hear about 10 or so works of art. I'd rather not hear a complete history and see more paintings. I saw the Mona Lisa... didn't think I'd be impressed and I wasn't.

Thursday I went to the Catacombes with some girls. One of the workers told one of us that there are 6 million people's bones there. I believe it because we only saw a small part of it and there were sooooo many bones stacked there. Then I went to Père Lachaise Cemetery. I guess that sounds weird but it was really interesting. We saw Jim Morrison's and Moli ère's graves. Chopin is also buried there but I didn't see his. Then me and two girls were late to the Mus ée d'Orsay (the RER can be confusing). If we had been any later, we probably would have missed the guided tour. But we made it and saw some Monet paintings, Manet, etc. Our tour guide did not even point out a famous Dégas painting which is just wrong but anyway. I also saw some Pisarro paintings and I like him so that was good. Then we went to two plays by Eugene Ionesco. "La Cantatrice chauve" was the first one; I didn't like it. "La leçon" was okay.

Friday I saw the Arc de Triomphe and went down the Champs-Élysées. I didn't buy anything but it was fun to see the designer stores and of course the affordable ones. Then some of us went back to the Louvre because it's free for students after 6p.m. on Fridays. I was with an art history major who spent a month in Paris last summer so she took me on a whirlwind tour. We saw Egyptian art, Vermeer, Ruebens, Rembrandt, Poussin and Napoleon's apartments which were really cool. Then our whole group ate at this fancy restaurant called Alcazar. Even a 50 euro meal doesn't buy you free refills but it does give you ice. I was happy with that plus our teacher let us have two Cokes if we wanted. The salad was really good, the lamb and eggplant was pretty good and the dessert was DIVINE. It was just this little thing of ice cream and then a little bit of warm "gooey chocolate cake." They were so good together.

Saturday we went to la Sainte-Chapelle, a cathedral which charges you to enter. I wasn't impressed with that. Notre Dame doesn't even do that. Then we went to Hôtel des Invalides and saw Napoleon's remains and a war museum. The cathedral there was also really pretty. Some people left Saturday but I stayed until Sunday. We had to find our own hotel (we reserved it Friday night) and so then we had to move our luggage. Then we went to the Eiffel Tower where I had my first French crêpe. I had it with chocolate and it was amazing. We went up the tower too which was really pretty. I love the ten minutes at the top of every hour where it sparkles. You have got to see it.

Sunday we went to Musée Rodin. He's the one who sculpted the Thinker in case you don't know (I forgot). It happened to be free that day which was good timing on our part. Then we went to Montmartre because I had not seen Sacré-Coeur and that is a must. It was really pretty. Then we did a little souvenir shopping. After that, we met up with the other people who were still in Paris and had a nice Italian dinner (one can only eat so many sandwiches). Then we had to get to our train. We did... with 7 minutes to spare. So we cut it a little close but we made it back to Besançon fine.

Then we had to move all of our stuff into our new dorm rooms. I am pretty satisfied with our rooms. They are rather small but I have a sink and a fridge which is great. You do have to bring your own toilet paper to the bathroom and there are no toilet seats on the toilets but I guess I'll learn to make do. There is also a small ice cube tray in the teeny freezer! What a happy surprise.

But I have to tell you, that stereotype about the rude French is not completely false. They certainly do not try as hard to please the customer. So be thankful everytime you have an amazing waitress or a drink that is colder than room temperature or a seat on your toilet... I know I am!