Fin

After 127 days, 7 countries, 2,066 pictures, 40 blog posts, and 20 pounds later my study abroad experience has come to an end. I'll start this blog like any other describing my final week in Paris! On Monday we had our last history class. It was pretty boring considering the teacher still taught us stuff, yet we had received our grades and final exams back. I zoned out pretty much the whole time and was very happy when she let us leave a half hour early. After class I went home for a bit and then at 7:30 met up with Erin and Caroline for dinner at a French restaurant called Chez Clement. It was a nice low key night. All my days were pretty low key this week because everyone had finals and was in the midst of doing all their last minute errands and studying.

On Tuesday I had no class so I started my day with the Catacombs! I've been trying to get there for a while and finally Maya and I went and it wasn't flooded so we were actually able to go in. The Catacombs are a series of underground passageways and tunnels that house bones dug up from cemeteries throughout France. Honestly it was like walking through a real life haunted house. There were so many bones. Just skulls sitting there staring at us. Some of the bones even were shaped into designs such as hearts and skulls. It is 2k underground so it took us a little while to walk through. It was really interesting and very creepy at the same time. I'm definitely glad I got to do that. After the catacombs Maya and I walked over to the Catho and got some lunch at the noodles place over by there. We ate lunch in the courtyard and just talked. She had to go to class so I headed back home to study for my theater exam. At around 8 our host family entire family came over , including the grand kids! and we all had a nice big farewell dinner. The food was good, and so was the company. Unfortunately all I could think about was my test on Wednesday. I went upstairs after dinner to study and then tried to get a good night sleep buy my allergies really just won't allow that.

Wednesday morning I went to the IPP building really early to study before my exam. I ended up falling asleep on the benchs inside. No big deal. We had our final at 10:30 and we were all shocked the minute our teacher handed it out. Last week he told us it would take 45 minutes and it would be just like the midterm only a little longer. The midterm was just a sheet of multiple choice questions, one essay, and one opinion essay. When we got to class today he told us the final was now even difficult for him. We got the exam and it was five essay questions. We were all really thrown off guard but hopefully it went well. At least it's done with. After class I ran around Paris with Erin. We started at Macdo, and then went to Rivoli to return a watch I had just bought. They wouldnt return it without the receipt but they were willing to exchange it. Unfortunately they didn't have the same watch in stock so now I'm stuck with a broken watch. After that we hopped on the metro over to the Louvre and walked around that area of rue de Rivoli. Then we made it to the Champs Elyse where I made an impromtu purchase at the Louis Vitton store. Let's just say Erin is a bad influence. Then we walked through the Jardin de Tulieries back over to my area and did some errands around there. At this point I headed back home to start studying for my Thursday final. I studied for a little and then met up with Maya, Colie, and Beth to study some more. Then Jordan came and joined us. It was really great studying (talking) with people and by this point I felt prepared for the final. Maya and I went home after dinner and then again I tried to get a good nights sleep.

Our final Thursday went a little more as expected. It was two questions, one worth 20 points one worth 80. I was very happy when I saw that me and my friends had studied the right stuff. Honestly at this point, my grades are in and there's nothing else I can do about it. After the final I met up with Erin and Caroline in the Jardin du Luxombourg for lunch. We sat around for a while and after lunch I wanted to get rid of some of my coins so I bought a 74 centime bag of chips and only paid in 2 and 1 cent coins. It was very comical. After that incident we headed to class. Lit was very similar to history because we got our final exam back, yet still kept learning things. It was actually good that I went because the secretary came in and gave us all our final grades for the semester. I learned that my lit exam I took last week didn't even count towards my grade because grades were due before that. Crazy teacher. After a painfully boring three hours I went to grab some tea with Alla, John and Lena and a cafe to kill some time. We sat there for an hour or so and then headed to the IPP building for our farewell "cocktail" party (there were no cocktails). Teachers, students, and our host families were invited. My host mom came, and she was very revolted at the amount of English being spoken. It was a fun night and they had great desserts so there wasn't much for me to complain about.After the cocktail we all headed towards the Seine and sat around Pont Neuf for a little while and just talked. Then people were hungry (the finger food from the party did not suffice) so a few of us went to find food. Nothing really interested me too much. Maya and I went home a little while later and both just went to bed.

This morning I woke up again really early, of course due to allergies. I left the house at around 10:00 to head over by the Champs Elysee to get some last minute gifts for my family. Then I went to get my eyebrows waxed and headed home to meet up with Maya and Kirsten to walk together to the picnic. Everyone in the program met up at the Jardin du Luxombourg for a picnic at around 12. It was a great way to say good bye to everyone and of course get a good last game of mafia in (which the towns people won woop woop!). Then we parted ways. A few of us did some more errands around the St. Germain area but at around 6 I knew I had to head back home to start, yes start, packing. I've been packing for a while, taking many many breaks (including one to write this blog) and I really should just finish up. My bags are bursting at the seams and I just can't wait to see the overweight charge I'm going to be fined tommorw. We leave for the airport at 630am so at this point it's not even worth it to sleep.

My time abroad has taught me more than I can even imagine. While I haven't improved my French much I have learned a lot about myself. At the beggining I was so hestitant, I honestly have never been so completly thrown out of my comfort zone. All I knew about abroad was seeing what my friends had done and that was my first mistake- going into it with expectations. I complained a lot but going looking back there isn't much I would've changed (except getting to know people and getting an apartment together!! but that's the programs fault not mine). I have learned about so many little things about American culture, and about my lifestyle at home that I take for granite. From American mannerisms, to having ice cubes in my drinks I have missed a lot about home. I can't say I'm super crazy about the French culture but I am glad I got to experience it, and experience so many other area's of Europe. I also made some really great friends along the way. Thanks to Julie, Lauren, Amanda, I honestly could've never gone through this without having them their my first months. I'll never forget when you all came to the FIAP to greet me on the first day. I don't think you realize how much I appriciated that. And Bien Sure- because they are the only people who read this blog- Thanks mom and dad for an amazing adventure!! Not only did I love the time here I spent alone but Isaacson's take on Europe was pretty hilarious as well. I love you so much and am so thankful to be so fortunate to be able to have this experience.

And to IPP 2010- nous aurions toujours Paris!

Visitors and Nightclubs

Thursday started out as a typical day. I headed over to my Paris class first. We talked about our exam and got our poems back- always fun receiving grades. Then I went to Lit. We had our final exam in lit Thursday. Our first exam was really easy, everyone did really well, and it consisted of questions such as "which character did you like the most/hate the most?" She takes the first hour of class to review the test and then the last hour and a half we take the test. No one was too concerned about the finale. Suddenly she hands it out and all our faces drop. It was about greek myths, psychology of characters, and all this other random stuff that we had no idea about. Everyone just started writing aimlessly, and for me I hope that my nonsense answered meant enough to her to get a decent grade. Needless to say no one was very happy after leaving that exam. After class I met up with Brian, Rydberg, and Krista. We all walked over to my area and met up with Georgia and Maya and we all went to dinner. Dinner was fine and long, and about 2 hours later we parted ways. We all had to get ready because a ton of people in my program were going out to a night club called Mix tonight. It is free for international students on Thursdays so why not. We all met up at Tolbiac at around 9:30 and then all left together for the club. When we got there it was absolutly empty so we danced around all with ourselves. It filled up fast though. It was a really fun time, and even though it was one of my last times going out in Paris it was better late than never to try a night club. I left with Maya and we took the metro home and got home at about 2am.

On Friday I started my day with theater, which is usually a very enjoyable class. We were getting our grades back on our oral presenation and our papers- not a big deal right? Our teacher insisted on reading his comments about everyone's paper outloud and then annoncing to the entire class how everyone did. No one did worse than a B+ on either assignment but it was still pretty nerve wrecking and embarassing. I have never had a teacher do that before, and I was not happy about that. After theater I had phonetics. We had our pop final exam last week so who knows what we did in class Friday. She had to kill an hour so she gave us this ridiculous assignment. We had to come up with 20 words that were similar in sound but differentiated with a L sound or an R sound. It was really dumb, and not easy. That was another class we walked out of stunned. Caroline and I met up with Erin to go get dinner after class. We first went to a big mall called Le Bon Marche because I needed to return something (I learned I couldn't do it there) and then we went to H&M which was closing so I didnt have time to buy anything there either. After failed shopping attempts we went to the Chinese place for the last time. Next Chinese food will be Tongs! Thank God!! I went home after that and was going to go out but it started raining and plans got ruined so I just stayed in and hung with Georgia and Maya and played some bananagrams.

Satruday was Georgia's last day so she said good bye to us Friday night. The only thing we had to remember her was her pastrys- wait no, our host mom brought all the pastrys she made over to her office so we didnt have any. Maya and I went over to the Rivoli area to go suvenir shopping. I bought some posters, magnets, shot glasses, the usual souvenirs to remember by trip in Paris. We walked around for a while until I got a text from Nikki saying her and her family arrived to Paris! Maya headed home and I walked over to the Champs Elysee to find their hotel and meet up with her family. It was so good to see her. I went with her family over the the Arc de Triomphe so they could buy there museum passes. Then we walked down the champs and they were hungry so they had their first pain au chocolates and croissants at a near by Paul. After that Nikki and her sister Jackie wanted to shower and relax a little so I went with them to their hotel room just to hang out. Then I went to dinner with there family at a resturant off the champs which was really nice and really fun. Then we walked back around and Nikki Jackie and I walked over to the Eiffel Tower. We met up with Carolie (and her sister and friend), Erin, and Rydberg. The group of us just sat down for a while and hung out on the Trocadero gardens by the Eiffel tower. Then Nikki and Jackie went home and the rest of us went to rue de Soif to temple bar. It was packed because of the soccer games and I really started to not feel well due to allergies. I was only there for about an hour before I headed home for the night. Tried to get a good night sleep but my stuffy nose kept me awake all night.

Today I wanted to go to the Bastille Market for the last time. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling too hot when I woke up so staying in bed seemed more appealing. I can't wait to go home and hopefully there wont be so much pollen in the air making me miserable. I left the house for a little while to get some tea and a muffin at a little cafe near me. Maybe you've heard of it- starbucks? I know, I'm so not Parisian but starbucks is always a safe bet. I sat there for a while studying for my finals next week. It started to get chilly out so I headed home and just sat with Maya for a little. Now I am just updating this post before going back to reading. I am going to see Sex and the City 2 tonight with Erin and Caroline for a study break as well. Time to start celebrating my last week in Paris.

Concerts and Cathedrals

Only half way through the week and it's been exciting already. I woke up Sunday around 6pm and Maya and I went to get some pizza and gelato for dinner. Then we headed back home and worked on our take home test for history till very early in the morning. On Monday I woke up early and walked around the St. Michele area for a little while. I had a few errands to run and my history class was at the Hotel Cluney-Museum of the Middle Ages. I got there an hour early so I sat outside in the court yard of the museum reading until class started. Once our teacher got there she told us that the tour guide was sick so we were going to be using audio guides to look through the museums ourselves. We walked around the museum for an hour and then all decided to go home. Pretty good break from our usual three hour class. Maya and I headed home after to relax for a little and make dinner. We made mac and cheese for dinner and Georgia came and sat with us while we ate. At 6 we had to head out because we were going with some other people in our program to the Coeur de Pirate concert. She is a singer, kind of similar to Sara Bareillis type music, from Canada. She looks exactly like Taylor Swift too. My friend Kate had bought the CD a few weeks earlier so I downloaded it and was familiar with some of the music. The concert was really great and so was her music. In the middle of one song this guy came out to sing a duet with her and the audience freaked out. We found out that the guy was named Julien Dore, and he was the winner of La Nouvelle Star, the French version of American Idol a few years ago. She also had 3 encore performances. All and all it was a lot of fun. After the concert we all went to get gelato and we just hung out for a little while until everyone parted ways back home.

Tuesday was pretty boring- not by choice- just by allergies. I slept in till around 1. Then I left the house, bought a bag of chips and went to go sit in the park to read for a little. Before long I couldn't stand my allergies at all so I had to go back home. It was a pretty big bummer. I came home, dealt with my host mom yelling because the bathroom was a mess, and then went back to sleep for a few hours. I woke up again and had host dinner. Then I stayed up for a little while longer, watched some TV, and tried to get to bed early.

Now we have today. I had theater this morning which is always a riot. After class Rydberg Beth and I walked over to Rue de Rennes to do some shopping. They both had a ton of luck at H & M, me not so much. That's okay, if I buy anything else I won't be able to zip my suitecases. At around 2:30 Diane joined our group and the 4 of us took an hour long train ride the Chartres France. It's a pretty small city, with a massive beautiful church in the middle of it. The church was beautiful but it would've been a lot nicer if it wasn't so rainy and gloomy out. Then maybe we could've actually seen the stained glass. Regardless it was still an adventure. We walked around the town for a little longer and then hopped back on the train to Paris. Once we arrived I went home and we all had host dinner again. After dinner I watched the season finale of Glee- which was stellar- and now am just procrastinating for my final for tommorow. Time to start studying!

Camping

Friday started off pretty normal. I had theater and then phonetics. In phonetics we basically had a pop final exam which wasn't very fun. It didn't matter though cause all of us could only think about our weekend plans during theses classes- camping. We were so luck Alla and John put together a whole camping excursion outside of Paris. Our trip started at Chatlet where we lugged all our gear around to get on the RER D. We rode the RER D for about an hour and ended up in a town called Malherbs. The camp site was in a town over so we were so lucky that Kate had a friend in Paris that let her borrow her car. Kate was nice enough to come shuttle everyone from the train station to the camp sight. The camp sight was awesome. It was really clean and really organzied. There were even bathrooms! Not used to that when I go camping. We were the last group of people to arrive there so everyone was really excited once our whole group was complete. All the tents and everything had been set up, so we started a fire on the grill we had. For dinner a lot of people made hot dogs and baked potatoes but me in my pickiness just snacked on some chips and cookies. We all sat around for a while under the stars singing songs and just goofing around. We got yelled at a few times for being too loud, but what do we really care? Exhausted from the day I passed out knowing that it would be an early morning Saturday.

Saturday morning we all woke up to the excrutiating heat coming into our tents at around 9am. At that point we started making breakfast. I'm still not sure why but breakfast took about 3 hours to make. We had crepes and scrambled eggs. It wasn't too bad at all. Then we all changed into our swim suites and decided to walk to the town over to go to a swimming pool. Unfortunatly there was no lake at our camp sight. A few people decided to go hiking, and Kate was in that group so she used her car. Us on the other hand figured it was only 3k away so we decided to walk. What we thought would be a half hour turned into an hour and a half. It was okay, we sang, and saw beautiful small French suburbs on the way. When we finally got to the pool we couldn't have been happier to be there. The pool was really nice but the thing that impressed us the most was this huge high ropes course with zip lining ahead of us. We didn't really look into doing it cause it would cost an extra fee but it was still pretty cool. We swam for a little while which was really nice and refreshing. Then we decided to grab some ice cream and play a few round of mafia. We played 3 times and then realized it was 5:30. We knew that we had a long walk home a head of us so we left the pool around then. We walked back home and then Kate, Maya, Diane and I went to the grocery store to get some food to make for dinner. I had chicken, pasta and a baked potato for dinner. I made up for my bad meal the night before. The cooking worked on really well, I'm really impressed with everyone that helped- I on the other hand could only really help out with doing the dishes. After dinner we went over to this area that had ping pong and hung out around there (there was a little more light there than in our camp sight). We all hung around there talking and laughing for a couple of hours and then super tired headed back to our tents. Unfortunately my allergies had been completly outrageous all night. I couldnt breath out of my nose and so sleep didn't really happen for me last night. I watched a lot of office and counted down the hours till we woke up.

This morning everyone woke up around 7:00 to rain. It was only a light shower but I was still happy it started to rain the day we left! We packed up our tents and all our stuff and then Kate started shuttling people back to the train station. We got on the train at 10:17 and took the hour and half ride back to Paris. We made it home by 12 but at this point I am so exhausted I feel like it's 8:00pm. I just showered, did my blog, and now am heading for a nap.

Les Miserables

As the time keeps winding down my third week left of France has just gone by. Let's start with Monday. I woke up late probably stayed in bed and then went to my 2:00 class. She handed out our take home final which, when you think of take home finals you usually think of long essays, was literally multiple choice questions, and fill in the blank dates. An actual test that you take at home. Again one of the many reasons I love that class. After class I just went home with Maya. She went to dinner for her parents last night here and I started making noodles in the kitchen. I like to cook on Mondays because my host family isn't home till late so it's not awkward cooking. Of course my host mom comes in the minute the water starts boiling so we sit in the kitchen together having a very awkward silent meal (it's really had to come up with conversation in French). I offered her noodles but they were the cheap monoprix brand so she refused. After that I just went home stairs and just procrastinated and procrastinated and procrastinated.

On Tuesday the weather wasn't great once again. I got up and took a walk over to Galleries Lafayette, Zara, and the book store. I was doing some shopping for presents for my sisters. I was pretty successful but I have no idea how I'm going to fit everything I've been buying here into my suitecases. Should be interesting. Then I went home to work on some homework for my two papers due Friday. We had host dinner Tuesday night but our host mom wasn't hungry so it was just us which was nice. Then back up to our rooms for facebook stalking.

Wednesday was a great day! I had class in the morning but after that Erin, Caroline and I decided to do some shopping around the vintage stores in Paris. We first walked down Rivoli and went to the Marais to look at those stores. Then we headed up to Momarte to go to this one specific store that we learned, of course, was closed on Wednesdays! Then we walked around some more and went to a square called Place de Tertre. This is a big square where artists come every day and people can go get portraits done of themselves. All different types of styles, with color, black and white, silhouettes etc. It's really fun to go watch them. We went to watch one guy who was awesome, but we spent a lot of time laughing at the guy next to him who made his girl look like she had two black eyes. We walked around the square and then went to sit at the steps of Sacre Cour. There were two guys playing music and they were so great! We knew every song and just relaxed there for a while in the sun while they played music. After sitting for a while we were all thirsty so we went over to a cafe for some coke. We split our separate way after because I was going to see Les Miserables at 8:00pm for a class. I got off the metro, went to a place similar to noodles for dinner. And then headed towards the theater. I met up with Maya, Beth and Collie outside and then we bought our programs and went in together. Our seats were on the second floor but they weren't bad at all. They could've been so much worse. We all were so excited and rightfully so, the show was fantastic! The two musicals I have seen in Europe have totally blown my mind. After the play Maya and I just went home and I spent some time skyping with my parents.

Thursday was a rough day. I had my usual class from 11-5 (5:20 she likes to keep us late). Then I thought I was going to go straight home and start working on finishing my two papers due today. I got home and I sat with Maya for a little because we are waiting to welcome the new host student coming today. Our host mom came home and started going crazy (cleaning etc) so we got out of there fast to go buy dinner. When we came home the new student was there so our host mom broke out the orange juice and we sat around talking and drinking orange juice. Her name is Georgia and she is british. She's very nice, but has long hours of class at the Cordon Bleu and is only here for 10 days so I'm not sure when we will get to see her but regardless she speaks English and is nice, I like her haha. Then Maya and I ate a quick dinner and ran upstairs to start doing work. I thought that it was going to take me a lot longer but I was done with homework at around 1:15am and asleep by 1:30. Not too bad for a lot of work.

Right now I am just giving a quick update because we have camping this weekend! Should be an experience, and I can't wait to fill you in on Sunday!

Bordeaux

In major efforts to see another area of France, and to get some good sun tans on the beach Erin and I made our way to Bordeaux this weekend. After class Friday ending at 5 I sprinted my way through the enormous Montparnasse train station to make our 5:40 train. After a long day of class it was nice to relax on the three hour long train ride. Once we got there Erin and I hopped in a cab over to our hotel/condo. I say this because there was a full kitchenette in the hotel room. Perfect for making the two boxs of macaroni and cheese I brought. I was hungry so I made some mac and cheese and we tried for about an hour to change our TV settings to English but ended up just settling for French NCSI, a show I have never watched in English either. Then shortly after the episode ended we both fell asleep.
We wanted this weekend to be nice and relaxing so what's more relaxing then going to a beach. We woke up at around 9 and checked the weather. It said sunny and 70 degrees. We stuck our hands out the window and saw there was potential for a very nice day. We threw on sundresses and put our beach bags together. Then we went took the tram over to the train station where we hopped on a bus that brought us two hours out side of Bordeaux to a city called Lacanau, on the Atlantic coast. During this bus ride the sky turned grey and it started to rain. Awesome right? When we finally got to the town we got off the bus shaking! We ran to a grocery store and grabbed cheese, cookies, and chips for lunch then into a boulangerie for a baguette. We had lunch and we were so sad that we weren't picnicing on the beach. We saw that the bus doesn't come back till 6:50 (it was 12:30 when we arrived). So we had to make the best of our day. We saw a movie theater so we ran over there just to see that it was closed. Then we walked down the strip and there were a ton of stores, they just all had sweatshirts for over 50 euro. We finally found one store that had 20 euro sweatshirts and we made the very smart investment into buying them. This made our time there much more bearable. Then we found a cafe right on the beach, ordered some warm drinks, and played sudoku for a few hours. It truly was relaxing and the view was amazing, it just wasn't very warm. After a while we were getting antsy so we decided to go down to the beach. We ran around down by the water for a little and then made our way back over to the bus stop. Don't get me wrong if it was warm out this little city would have been fantastic! The beach was beautiful, the town was adorable! I wouldn've even wanted to stay there all weekend if the weather was nice. It was just such a bummer. It started to rain so we went and sat at the bus stop and waited for it for an hour. It was such a nice relief to be on that bus and almost be warm. Two hours later we were back in Bordeaux then back on the tram, then back to our hotel, for some more mac and cheese. Erin is taking an online econ course so she had to do some homework so I did some of mine as well. This actually made for a very productive night. I went to bad soon after.

On Sunday we wanted to explore the town of Bordeaux. Two problems with that, everything is closed on Sundays, and it was rainy and cold. We still managed to entertain ourselves. We took the tram into the city center and walked along the lake and saw all the pretty fountains, and buildings of Bordeaux. It's a much bigger town then I thought, but since it was Sunday the place was practically dead. I'm not really sure of anything I saw but here were some of my favorite things. After walking around we took the tram back to our hotel and had lunch (we luckily found a grocery store open) and did some more homework. Then we went back to the train station and waited for our train. Hopped on and had the longest 4 hour ride back ever. We were in the same car as this group of people that were so wild. They were so loud and running around. I had my ipod all the way up and still could hear them. One guy wouldn't stop harassing us. First he brought his friends head over to us and kept saying "dit bonjour madame" (say hello madame). Later in the trip he took some bread and put some foi gras on it and stuffed it in our face saying "gout gout" (taste, taste). Clearly we didn't do it but he was very insistent and wouldn't leave us a lone. Finally we arrived back at Montparnasse and shortly after I was back at home. I walked in to see a little baby sleeping on the couch. That's always the best. Now I am just updating everyone and will shortly be going to bed soon!

WAIT actually I realized I was super hungry so I made Maya go on an adventure with me to get food. First we went to Macdo and it was closed, then we found that this place near us that has a good deal on noodles was open so I made her sit with me while I ate. Then we got back home around midnight and our keys weren't working to open the doors. We both freaked out and Maya called our host mom and she came and opened the door for us! Now for real I am heading to bed soon.

Allergies

I have been so bad with updating my blog these past few weeks!! This post won't be too exciting considering this week hasn't been too exciting. On Monday after I dropped Brian off I went home and straight to sleep. I slept all day and tried to sleep my allergies away until about 5:00. At that point I went over to Erin's dorm, Tolbiac, to make some macaroni and cheese. Caroline, her visitors, and Erin were all making curry but me with my eating habits wanted to be included, but not badly enough to try curry. After dinner at around 8:00 a few more people came over and we all watched the last episode of Lost. It was so nice watching Lost with people, so I wasn't the only person sitting alone and confused. After a puzzeling 2 and a half hours we went to go get crepes back over by my house. We ran into a few other people from my program at the metro stop and I was going to go out with them, but I was just feeling way too sick for that so I just went home and went to bed.

On Tuesday morning Maya and I were going to wake up and go to the catacombs but everyone who gonna go happened to wake up with a headache. I on the other hand still felt like crap from the 80 degree Paris weather. I went to grab a sandwhich with Maya and walk her to class but I started feeling really sick so I ran home and went to sleep. I woke up at around 5 and went to meet Beth at the Pasteur metro stop because we were going to walk together to our cooking class! One of the excursions for our program was a cooking class. Half our program did it Tuesday, and half on Wednesday. It was really fun. I thought it would be like an industrial size kitchen where we all had our own stations and stuff, but it was really just at this womans house on her dining room table. We made potatoes au gratin with lots of cheese and an apple cake. They were both really delicious and it was a really fun night. Rydberg, Sean and I ended up talking about Lost for 2 hours but we still were kind of caught up in the series finale aftermath. After the cooking class I headed home with Maya and from there I just went to bed.

Wednesday I had started feeling a little better due to a Z-Pack and rain!! The rain started washing away all pollan and cooled down the air so much. I had theater in the morning, which was nothing too exciting. Then Rydberg, Brian, Beth, Caroline, Michael, and Gavin all went to lunch at this Italian place we tend to go to on St. Michele. It was a nice fun big lunch, and of course we got gelato afterwards and hung out in the Jardin du Luxoumbourg. We parted ways and I went home and then two hours later I was on the metro heading outside of Paris. We were going to see a play for theater that was just so out of the way from everyone. It's called Roberto Zucco. It was dark and scary and eerie and there was some nakedness in it. We all kind of agreed it was kind of a waste of four hours (2 hours of play, 2 hours of travel time). Then we all went our seperate ways and I didn't get home till around midnight.

On Thursday we had a walking tour of Momarte for Paris class. I love getting out of the classroom and actually doing stuff for that class. Momarte is a hill in the 18th of Paris where Sacre Cour is located. We walked around the area and then to Sacre Cour. A lot of the books we have read for that class have taken place in that area so that's why we went around that area. After the walking tour we went to a place similar to noodles for lunch (great thing I discovered it at the end of the trip because it was really good and that would just add more to the obnoxious amount of weight I've gained). Then I had litt class at the Institute Catholique. A brutal 3 hours (and 20 min, she kept us late) later I was headed back home in the pouring rain without an umbrella. I got home and rested a little and then at 7:00 Maya and her parents came over. We had champaign, snacks, and cake and I was more full after that then a usual host dinner. It was funny to see the host parents act all nice and cordial in front of Maya's parents. Me and Maya even played piano (heart and soul) and they danced along. I have some great pictures that will come up here soon. After snacks (2 and a half hours later) Maya and I walked her parents back to their hotel and then walked back home, talked for a while, and then I had to pack up for this weekends adventure to wine country: Bordeaux France!