Days 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Paris
A week ago we were romping around the city of Tours, having gone away for the weekend. Almost two full weeks since I arrived have passed. Which means only two weeks left. It is going by so freaking fast.
This week has been rainy off and on which is a nice repas from the hot and muggy it was all last week. However, I do believe i have come down with something.
Tuesday was a nice day all in all and ended just as low key as it started.
Wednesday, we had class, went to eat lunch then back to St Famille for another civilization lecture. Afterwards we booked it home to shower and get ready for the ballet. The nuns made us dinner early especially for the evening since we had to leave at 6 and dinner isn't normally until 7:30.
We all scarfed down food as fast as we could then rushed to finish getting ready to go. Here there are about 30 women decked out in everything from blouses and slacks to gorgeous summer dresses to full on floor length gowns, walking to and taking the bus to the Opera house! Quite an amusing site we made, i am sure.
The Opera de Bastille was GORGEOUS! So amazing and down right beautiful!
The seats we all had were box sets in the front of each box which gave us an amazing view!!! It was so beautiful! And the ballet was quite amusing. it was a comedy of a girl in love with a young gentleman but her mother was trying to arrange a marriage with the village lords son (who was hilarious! and a goof!)
Afterwards, we went to walk around and find a place to get a drink and an evening snack but it was getting a bit too late for comfort so Cheryl and I headed back, getting back about 11:15 (the rest didn't get back until literally midnight which is curfew).
We took the bus, and as we were on it, we realized just how much we have adapted to French culture, with French Space and French voices... There was an American family on the bus being loud and obnoxious! Which I knew the first day or two we were here we were too, but now we look at them like "Omg, seriously?" It really is an eye opener to how we as US citizens act and how obnoxious it really is!
When we got back, we grabbed a light snack and went back to our rooms. i did some homework then went to bed.
Thursday I woke up a bit late, rushed through breakfast, went to class where we were learning the difference between Il y a, pendant, dans, depuis, etc and we played a game of "Clue" where we had to come up with a story of who killed this guy and why based off of only a few descriptions of each of the suspects. it was amusing.
Afterwards we went to eat lunch at the Conde before going to the Louvre.
We got to the Louvre and I realized I had left my camera in my back pack, in Michelle's room, back at the Conde... ~_~ I was not amused. Daniel and I stuck together for the time we were in there, which was only about 2 hours. It was way too crowded to be able to really enjoy much, but we ambled through the Egyptian area, some of the Greek sculptures and then finally went to go see La Jaconde (The Mona Lisa)... There were so many people in there we couldn't get within 20 feet of it, but it was still cool. A lot smaller than I thought it would be.
After that, between the amount of people, the smell of sweaty, muggy people and the heat inside the Louvre, he and I headed outside. We ended up walking in the Jardin de Toiliers at this carnival there for about 2 hours, which was nice. We got ice cream, slurpees, split a "normal" cotton candy (which was GINORMOUS...) and we played a shooting game where we won a prize. Daniel picked the little stuffed Eiffel Tower and gave it to me, so now I have a little red white and blue La Tour Eiffel.
Afterwards we sat by the little pond fountain thing for a while just talking about the military (he is current Army) which was amusing because we are both obviously opposite biased opinions. Then we walked back to wait for everyone else to come out.
Afterwards we all walked over to Angelina's which is this famous chocolate and tea shop in Paris with DELICIOUS hot chocolate! Sadly we got there so late in the day that most the pastries were gone, but it was still delicious.
When we left, Raquel wanted to go on another adventure, so Daniel, Cheryl and Burgundy went back while Michelle, Raquel, Cynthia and I hiked in the rain for a few hours to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. The only problem was I didn't have an umbrella and my tennis shoes have air pockets so my feet don't get hot, so my feet were soaked in minutes. Luckily I had a scarf that I wrapped around my head and my jacket to keep me mostly dry. But I still think i came down with something because my throats been raw and scratchy the past two days.
We passed by the Cimetière Montmartre, saw the street Moulin Rouge is down and finally found a restaurant maybe a few blocks from Sacre Coeur.
Dinner was delicious, and Michelle caught the eye of a fairly cute Frenchman who was trying to flirt, but since no further eye contact occured, he backed off. Sad, lol.
On our way back, we must have got on the party metro because there was a guy with a portable karaoke machine and stereo system, singing Spanish songs. It was amusing!
We got home, went to our different rooms and I stripped to get out of my wet clothes. Luckily wit hall the walking and how fast we were going I was mostly warm the entire night, except when we sat down to eat by the window but it was ok.
Friday was a nice, kinda rainy day.
I was super tired the first half of class (so was everyone else surprisingly) but after the break (and a coffee) I was fine. After class, we stopped by the Carrefour to get stuff to make soup, came back and made soup, had a delicious lunch then went to do our own things.
Then, around 6, Olivia (one of the girls who lives here most the year), Burgundy and myself went to Indiana, a bar with happy hour from 5 until 8, half priced drinks, and sat for 2 hours, drinking and enjoying the night. We each tried a different drink each round which was amusing.
My favorite by far was the Is Not Dead, which tasted like a fruity push pop. My second drink was a pink lady, which was also tasty, but not as good as the first. My third drink was a Slow Comfortable Screw, and that was ok I suppose, but I probably won't ever get it again.
Then we came back, had a late dinner and just relaxed the rest of the evening. I read and talked with a couple of friends til about midnight then went to sleep.
Slept in today until 9 when Cynthia came to my room asking me where the yogurts went, so we went down and had breakfast.
Came back up with more hot tea and talked with Charles for almost 3 hours, finally took a shower, watched half an episode of Eureka (FINALLY) then went down and had lunch with Raquel.
Tonight we may go for drinks again, then out to dinner before heading to La Tour Eiffel for fireworks for Bastille Day.
I'm trying to relax and take it easy so I don't get too sick. Especially since the pharmacies are closed until Monday and here you can't buy medicine and vitamins anywhere but pharmacies.
This week has been rainy off and on which is a nice repas from the hot and muggy it was all last week. However, I do believe i have come down with something.
Tuesday was a nice day all in all and ended just as low key as it started.
Wednesday, we had class, went to eat lunch then back to St Famille for another civilization lecture. Afterwards we booked it home to shower and get ready for the ballet. The nuns made us dinner early especially for the evening since we had to leave at 6 and dinner isn't normally until 7:30.
We all scarfed down food as fast as we could then rushed to finish getting ready to go. Here there are about 30 women decked out in everything from blouses and slacks to gorgeous summer dresses to full on floor length gowns, walking to and taking the bus to the Opera house! Quite an amusing site we made, i am sure.
The Opera de Bastille was GORGEOUS! So amazing and down right beautiful!
The seats we all had were box sets in the front of each box which gave us an amazing view!!! It was so beautiful! And the ballet was quite amusing. it was a comedy of a girl in love with a young gentleman but her mother was trying to arrange a marriage with the village lords son (who was hilarious! and a goof!)
Afterwards, we went to walk around and find a place to get a drink and an evening snack but it was getting a bit too late for comfort so Cheryl and I headed back, getting back about 11:15 (the rest didn't get back until literally midnight which is curfew).
We took the bus, and as we were on it, we realized just how much we have adapted to French culture, with French Space and French voices... There was an American family on the bus being loud and obnoxious! Which I knew the first day or two we were here we were too, but now we look at them like "Omg, seriously?" It really is an eye opener to how we as US citizens act and how obnoxious it really is!
When we got back, we grabbed a light snack and went back to our rooms. i did some homework then went to bed.
Thursday I woke up a bit late, rushed through breakfast, went to class where we were learning the difference between Il y a, pendant, dans, depuis, etc and we played a game of "Clue" where we had to come up with a story of who killed this guy and why based off of only a few descriptions of each of the suspects. it was amusing.
Afterwards we went to eat lunch at the Conde before going to the Louvre.
We got to the Louvre and I realized I had left my camera in my back pack, in Michelle's room, back at the Conde... ~_~ I was not amused. Daniel and I stuck together for the time we were in there, which was only about 2 hours. It was way too crowded to be able to really enjoy much, but we ambled through the Egyptian area, some of the Greek sculptures and then finally went to go see La Jaconde (The Mona Lisa)... There were so many people in there we couldn't get within 20 feet of it, but it was still cool. A lot smaller than I thought it would be.
After that, between the amount of people, the smell of sweaty, muggy people and the heat inside the Louvre, he and I headed outside. We ended up walking in the Jardin de Toiliers at this carnival there for about 2 hours, which was nice. We got ice cream, slurpees, split a "normal" cotton candy (which was GINORMOUS...) and we played a shooting game where we won a prize. Daniel picked the little stuffed Eiffel Tower and gave it to me, so now I have a little red white and blue La Tour Eiffel.
Afterwards we sat by the little pond fountain thing for a while just talking about the military (he is current Army) which was amusing because we are both obviously opposite biased opinions. Then we walked back to wait for everyone else to come out.
Afterwards we all walked over to Angelina's which is this famous chocolate and tea shop in Paris with DELICIOUS hot chocolate! Sadly we got there so late in the day that most the pastries were gone, but it was still delicious.
When we left, Raquel wanted to go on another adventure, so Daniel, Cheryl and Burgundy went back while Michelle, Raquel, Cynthia and I hiked in the rain for a few hours to Sacre Coeur and Montmartre. The only problem was I didn't have an umbrella and my tennis shoes have air pockets so my feet don't get hot, so my feet were soaked in minutes. Luckily I had a scarf that I wrapped around my head and my jacket to keep me mostly dry. But I still think i came down with something because my throats been raw and scratchy the past two days.
We passed by the Cimetière Montmartre, saw the street Moulin Rouge is down and finally found a restaurant maybe a few blocks from Sacre Coeur.
Dinner was delicious, and Michelle caught the eye of a fairly cute Frenchman who was trying to flirt, but since no further eye contact occured, he backed off. Sad, lol.
On our way back, we must have got on the party metro because there was a guy with a portable karaoke machine and stereo system, singing Spanish songs. It was amusing!
We got home, went to our different rooms and I stripped to get out of my wet clothes. Luckily wit hall the walking and how fast we were going I was mostly warm the entire night, except when we sat down to eat by the window but it was ok.
Friday was a nice, kinda rainy day.
I was super tired the first half of class (so was everyone else surprisingly) but after the break (and a coffee) I was fine. After class, we stopped by the Carrefour to get stuff to make soup, came back and made soup, had a delicious lunch then went to do our own things.
Then, around 6, Olivia (one of the girls who lives here most the year), Burgundy and myself went to Indiana, a bar with happy hour from 5 until 8, half priced drinks, and sat for 2 hours, drinking and enjoying the night. We each tried a different drink each round which was amusing.
My favorite by far was the Is Not Dead, which tasted like a fruity push pop. My second drink was a pink lady, which was also tasty, but not as good as the first. My third drink was a Slow Comfortable Screw, and that was ok I suppose, but I probably won't ever get it again.
Then we came back, had a late dinner and just relaxed the rest of the evening. I read and talked with a couple of friends til about midnight then went to sleep.
Slept in today until 9 when Cynthia came to my room asking me where the yogurts went, so we went down and had breakfast.
Came back up with more hot tea and talked with Charles for almost 3 hours, finally took a shower, watched half an episode of Eureka (FINALLY) then went down and had lunch with Raquel.
Tonight we may go for drinks again, then out to dinner before heading to La Tour Eiffel for fireworks for Bastille Day.
I'm trying to relax and take it easy so I don't get too sick. Especially since the pharmacies are closed until Monday and here you can't buy medicine and vitamins anywhere but pharmacies.