Sweet Transvestite

Hi all! So Thursday started out as a normal long long Thursday. First I had Paris class, then I grabbed a quick crepe du frommage (I like to think of it as the French version of a quesidilla) and sprinted over to the Institute Catholique for literature. I had to give a presentation on the biography of Victor Hugo in litt. I was so nervous I went up there and was basically shaking and speaking the most broken up French ever. After a very nerve wracking class I headed home to have dinner with my host mom. She made her self duck and green beans, I was very nervous that was going to be on my plate too but instead I got noodles and chicken. Needless to say I was very happy about that. After dinner I hopped on the metro over to Laurens stop. She then hopped onto the same metro car that I was in and we headed down to the the seventh to go meet up with some other IPP people for our Thursday night movie. This week the movie was "Le Rafle" and don't be deceived that doesn't mean the raffle. It actually means the round up and it is about the round up of thousands of Jewish men, women, and even children by the French police during the Holocaust. The movie was definitely a tearjerker but since I couldn't understand a single thing they were saying it took some affect away. The movie theater we went to was actually really cool. There were only two theaters and it was very Asian themed with a big garden outside next to it and everything. These are times that I wish I had randomly brought my camera with me. The movie was good and then we all headed our separate ways home.


Friday morning I woke up and headed over to IPP for theater class. After a thrilling hour and a half of theater, I ran over (not without getting a crepe for lunch-egg and cheese this time!) to Insitute Catholique for phonetics. Phonetics wasn't too bad. We went to a room and had to record ourselves speaking and the teacher was able to spy on us and stop us if we were skrewing something up. After class Friday I ran home, took a very quick shower and got ready very quickly because we had 8:30 dinner reservations for a restaurant in the 18eme which is pretty far north. Caroline, Erin, Erin and I went to dinner at this place called "La Refuge de Fondue." It is a pretty big touristy place. I actually ran into two girls I know from U of I there. The restaurants is famous for delicious cheese fondue and serving wine in baby bottles. The wait was long, even with a reservation, but once we sat down we knew it was totally worth it. The fondue was stellar and the bottles were so fun. They have different currencies from all over the world hanging out around the rrestaurant so we all signed a dollar and made them hang it up! After the delicious dinner we went down to this bar called Princess and the Frog. It was pretty crowded so went across the street and actually met some random guy studying in France from Ohio. After the princess frog bar settled down we headed over there as well. Around 2am we left and all headed back home. I would say it was a pretty successful night!

Now Saturday! This was the night I was waiting for. First off during the day Collie, Diane, Kirsten, Alla and I went to a flee market in the north of Paris. It was huge. We started out with some MacDo and then made our way through the streets of the flee market. It was very overwhelming and no one really bought anything but Diane got a purse. There was nothing that really caught my eye, but I wouldn't be opposed to going back. Everyone (but me cause of the MacDo) was hungry so they stopped for some Chinese food. After lunch me and Kirsten decided to head back home. We first stopped and got nutella and banana crepes at this crepe stand everyone raves about. It was fine, nothing special. I really haven't come across a crepe I don't like yet. So once I got home I took a short nap and then got ready to go see The Rocky Horror Picture Show!! I have seen the movie and I have seen the play (hey brian!) but I have never seen them combined. I was so excited for this! We started the night at Tolbiac (Erin's dorm) and all met up to go over to the theater together. Once we got there we all bought tickets and Sean met up with us. When Sean went to go buy a ticket they told him it was sold out. Obviously it was only sold out for boys not girls so I tried to get him a ticket and it worked perfectly..weird? The show started off with a medly of Village People music with people dancing on stage. Then as the actual movie started the antics by the actors were hysterical. The audience got really into it too weather it was throwing rice, or dancing to the time warp. It was really fun and like nothing I have ever seen before. I didn't understand a lot of it because while the movie was in English the actors spoke in French so I will have to check out a performance of it back home. After the show we all just went home because it was already late and we were pretty exhausted.

On Sunday me and Lauren were planning on going to get bagels. We walked all the way to the bagel store just to find out it was closed on Sundays. Bummer. After our failed attempt we just went to Starbucks and had muffins that made us sick. We then ventured to the Bastille Market. This is a huge market open on Thursday and Sunday mornings full of fresh food. Lauren got a lot of healthy foods, mostly veggies, for a salad. I on the other hand got chicken nuggets, dried strawberries, and cheese. After the market we decided to go do something cultural so we went to the Centre Pompidou. The museum from the outside was really awesome. The exhibits on the inside were a little above my head. It is very modern art and I really couldn't decipher most of it's meaning. They had a cool exhibit on collages which Lauren and I both enjoyed. We also went to the top of the museum to see a great view of Paris. We asked a woman to take our picture and she zoomed in only to get our faces in the picture, not the view. Pas successful. After the museum we walked around the Marais on a hunt for bagels. The Jewish quarter was really quite Jewish. They were playing Jewish songs on the street and everyone had yamachas on. I loved it! I went to one place (where i found chopped liver!) and got a bagel. The plan was to save for lunch tomorrow but I couldn't resist and now it's gone :( It was delicious while it lasted. After that we both went home because we were pretty exhausted. Now I've just been looking up hostels, trains, planes, and what not for travel plans and I was getting to frustrated so I took a break to update everyone on my life! I hope all is good everywhere else in the world!

Congrats Hayley getting in the Bandier Program at Syracuse (whatever that is)!!!!!