The number 1 thing that I am most excited about is the weather here. This past week was glorious with the high in the upper 40s/low 50s and yesterday was 60 degrees! I seriously wore a short sleeve shirt with no jacket yesterday (something I would never have imagined doing in California or TX). My tolerance for the cold has definitely increased! I hear that April and May is gorgeous in Paris and I can't wait to experience that.
I have become adjusted to living here. I have had two full weeks of classes: French 464 Avant-garde, French 474 Political/Societal Policies, Islam in France, and Art History. I must say that my art history class is the most interesting class as every Wednesday we go to a museum in Paris and see what we had just learned about in lecture. The past two weeks we went to the Louvre, making that my 3rd and 4th time at the Louvre!
This past Tuesday, I ventured to the Musee d'Orsay. It was incroyable (as the French would say). The Musee d'Orsay holds mostly impressionist artists such as Renoir, Degas, Monet, Manet and of course Van Gogh. It was unbelievable for me to see up close these famous, famous paintings and they were right before my eyes! I would turn a corner and there would be the famous Van Gogh self-portrait painting just hanging on a wall in the middle of a million other paintings. It was not like the Louvre where Mona Lisa has her own entire wall. I liked the style of the Musee d'Orsay because it was definitely not as overwhelming as the Louvre and I have always considered impressionist paintings my favorite.
The best part about my experience here is that we have these student cards for just about everything, allowing us to enter any museum/historical building/etc for free! So I can go back and back and back without paying any fees at all. Amazing!
Last weekend, our pr
ogram sponsored a day-trip for us to the most famous gothic cathedral in Europe--Chartres. It is located about an hour by bus outside of Paris and when you are approaching the city of Chartres, you can see the huge cathedral about 20 miles away. In 6th grade, I had to choose a famous architectural building and re-construct a model--I chose Chartres! I would have to say that although my cereal boxes and paint ended up being pretty impressive, nothing compares to Chartres. The only bummer was that they are restoring the front stained-glass windows and they were taken out during my visit. However, we had a 2 hour tour of the cathedral and learned how to read a few of the 170 stained glass windows. In both World Wars, all stained glass windows of Chartres were taken out and stored for safe-keeping. The most impressive fact about the cathedral is that out of every single Gothic style cathedral in Europe, Chartres is the most preserved--amazingly--as since 1265 there have been hundreds and hundreds of battles and wars that have taken place very close to Chartres. Below is a picture taken in the village of Chartres-its a cute French town!
We ate lunch at a quaint French restaurant near the cathedral and I was served rabbit for the first time in my life. It was actually really good! It tasted very much like chicken and needless to say--I ate the entire thing.
Last Sunday, I watched the Superbowl at the Canadian Moose Bar & Grill, one of the few pubs here that shows NFL. My host family didn't quite understand why I wanted to watch the game-especially since it started at 12:30am and lasted until 4 am! But, how could I miss the Superbowl, especially when it is in Dallas?! I tried to explain to them that the Superbowl is like the World Cup and then they got it! We had to get to the bar by 9:30pm to ensure a good viewing and it was PACKED! I'm pretty sure every American in Paris was there and it was definitely weird to hear English the entire night. Even our waitress had a USC 901 Bar and Grill shirt on!! She went to USC and came out to live in Paris to serve as a bartender...possible job opportunity in the future?? Just kidding!
Finally, at 3 am, my friends and I couldn't take it anymore and began to fall asleep--so we tried the Night Bus in Paris. Such an experience. We didn't want to pay for cabs so the night bus was free with our metro passes. (The metro closes at 12:30am on week nights). But, after about 1.5 hours, we got home! I went to sleep at 5am and woke up 2.5 hours later for school...
I took a break from pain au chocolat this past week (chocolate croissants) and it was probably the hardest thing I have done since being here. They are so addicting, cheap, and so good! Last week was a holiday for crepes and I had no idea but I ate a crepe during the day and then later that night my host mom made crepes for desert! So, I also took a hiatus from crepes this past week.
The sales in Paris are ending this weekend so I had to go out and do a little shopping! The prices are so deceiving here because it will say 9.95 euros --but really that's like 14 dollars. However, I do enjoy that the tax is included in the price, making it easier to figure out the cost of your purchase AND you don't have to tip since it is already included. Wish I had known that my first night here because our waitress definitely got a huge bonus from our group!
Next weekend I am hoping to start my travels. I am going to try and book a train ticket to Bordeaux and the following weekend we have a school sponsored trip to the south of France in Provence. This weekend, Brad is traveling 2/5 across the world to visit me and he gets in tonight and is staying until Wednesday. I hope he enjoys his time here!!
Well, everyone, thank you for reading and I promise I will be more frequent with my updates here on out.
Au Revoir!
