Chartres, Etretat, Rouen, and Accents

On Wednesday, we didn't have civilization class (yay!) so we had the whole day free. Everyone except two girls from our group went to Chartres to visit the city and its beautiful cathedral. When we arrived in Chartres, we walked right to the cathedral and took a tour with its famous tour guide, Malcolm Miller. He's an Englishman (who also speaks French) who has been giving tours there for 51 years, which makes him like 80 years old and he's still in great shape. We took his tour in English because there were five other American tourists there, so that pretty much determined what language the tour would be conducted in. One of the first things he asked (in his little English accent) was: "Has anyone visited Chartres in the last half a century? You may have already taken one of my tours, so I'm sorry if I'm going to be repetitive." And two of the other Americans had already had him once before surprisingly. He was very knowledgeable and his voice was entrancing (but then again, I really love English accents--I think if all of my professors had English accents I'd be able to concentrate better because I didn't miss a word this guy said because I just loved listening to him). He told us about the history of Chartres and told us all the stories that were displayed in the stained glass windows throughout the church. We went outside for a while and he told us who all the sculptures on the outsides of the doors were. Most were disciples or other important biblical characters. He talked about one sculpture that was centered between two doors of the church. The sculpture was of a woman holding a child. Malcolm told us that many people mistake this sculpture, thinking the woman is Mary holding Jesus as a child. But the woman was actually Anne, Mary's mother, and the child she is holding is Mary. I remember this point the best in the tour because Mary's little child head was missing, and Malcolm told us that it was destroyed during the time of the French Revolution. He said, "The French didn't really like heads much at that time." True story. (My picture is of this statue).  Then the tour ended, which was kind of sad because he was just so interesting to listen to. He told us to visit again because he'd probably still be there. I hope so!

After the tour, we went to lunch at this nice restaurant. I can't remember what it was called but I had some really good duck there and then this fabulous chocolate dessert. It was a small sampling of 4 different kinds of chocolate desserts. So good! I was in a really good mood after that meal. I was ready for anything, which was good because Dr. Morgan (or Deem as we have come to call him) wanted us to go back to Chartres to climb up in one of the towers to the top of the cathedral. We climbed up about a hundred steps in a continuous circle before we got to the top. The climb and the dizziness was worth it though because we got a panoramic view of the city. We had good weather that day too, so it was a great view. After spending some time up there, we left the cathedral and walked through the city. It was such a cute place--lots of little bridges over small rivers and the architecture of the town was very cute and picturesque. We then went to the train station and caught a train back to Versailles. We got home a little late (everyone usually eats dinner at 8:00 with their families) and I didn't get home till about 8:15 and my sisters had just finished up eating dinner (my French mom was gone in Bretagne and my sisters had to eat early that night because some of them had to be places). They had actually made hamburgers in my honor, because I think they really think that Americans eat hamburgers at least once a week if not more, so they made hamburgers for me. When I came in, they were finishing eating and when they saw me, they started preparing a hamburger for me. So my sister Pauline starts cooking these thin circular slices of meat in a skillet while Amélie is putting peppers, tomatoes, and cheese slices on a hamburger bun (which I was shocked to discover that they actually have hamburger buns in the baguette capital of the world). So Pauline asks me if I want bacon on my burger, and I'm thinking about bacon slices, so I say no since I don't ever eat bacon with my hamburgers, and then she says "Oh..." and looks at the frying pan. It was then I realized that those two thin slices of meat in the skillet was the "bacon" that she was talking about. I didn't realize that they didn't have any beef for the actual hamburger meat--the actual essence of the American hamburger. I would've eaten that meat they were cooking for me, I just didn't realize that was the bacon they were talking about, and they didn't have any other kind of meat. So I ended up eating peppers, cheese, and tomatoes on a hamburger bun for dinner. Epic fail on my sisters' part for trying to create a hamburger for me, but I appreciated their attempt to make me feel more at home here as far as food goes. Lol, oh well...

Thursday was pretty uneventful. I had a grammar test and then conversation class with Madame Vaudel...ugh she is not very fun. I wish I had conversation with Madame Chauchat. Our conversations with Vaudel are so repetitive. All we talk about is our weekends and then we have to talk to her for 2 hours which feels like 3 with this woman. Gah. After her class though, I took a long walk around Versailles with Michele and we found the back entrance into the Chateau of Versailles where the gardens were, so that was really cool. We walked for about two hours and just talked. It was really great, and we're going to try to make that a weekly thing, so I'm excited for that.

On Friday we left for Etretat, which is a city in Normandy, and spent most of that day traveling. We left at 1:00 and didn't get there until 7:00. But we arrived just in time for sunset, and saw a beautiful view of it from our hotel (the Domaine St; Clair), which was built on a hill overlooking the sea. The hotel we stayed in was absolutely beautiful. It's like a little chateau and it was originally owned by a rich family and was their house in the early 1900's. Katie and I stayed in a room that belonged for a time to an American dancer named Isadora Duncan, who was a friend of the family's. Monika and Elizabeth stayed in the children's room and there were even old fashioned children's toys in there. We found 8 wooden bowling pins and a small wooden bowling ball that we played with. There were a ton of old fashioned teddy bears and even a telephone for the early 1900's. It was so cool. After eating dinner, we tried to go swimming in the outdoor pool at the hotel because Deem told us it was heated. Turns out it wasn't. But it was fine, because Katie and I took a bubble bath in our large bathtub that had jets in it (disclaimer: we were halfway clothed when we took this bath). We used the hotel shower gel to create bubbles, and when I poured the first bottle in, not many bubbles were made initially so I poured the second small bottle in too, and as the water filled up (combined with the jets), soooo many bubbles were created. It was actually a bit too much and our bath consisted of about a third of water and two-thirds of bubbles. It was ridiculous, but by far the best bubble bath I've ever had. Katie and I had fun too. We had bubble fights and made bubble beards--it was like we were 2 years old but it was fun.

The next day, I woke up at 9:00 with Katie and had breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we walked down to the beach and saw the most beautiful views of cliffs and ocean. The beach was actually composed of mostly small pebbles instead of sand, and the pebbles were so smooth. It was gorgeous. Then we all had to prepare for a 4 hour hike around Etretat that Deem had planned for us. Yeah, it was intense. We stopped first at a goat farm and bought some goat cheese and cider for the picnic we would have by the cliffs. Then we walked through the countryside. It was such a beautiful day--it was sunny yet the air was really cool. It was the perfect weather for hiking. Walking through the countryside, we saw lots of wheat fields and cows and sometimes little goats. We also walked by a lot of country houses. We then found our way to the cliffs and ate lunch on a cliff that was right next to the ocean. It was incredible. We ate the goat cheese from the farm (which was so good) with fruits that Deem brought and drank wine and cider. Unfortunately the cider we bought from the goat farm actually ended up tasting kind of like a goat, so we had to sacrifice it since no one wanted to drink it. After the picnic, we hiked all around the cliffs and we had to hike up some really steep trails to get up to these cliffs. It was tough at points, but so worth it because the views were spectacular. It was the perfect day for it--I really can't believe how lucky we've been with the weather here. I took so many pictures of the blue sea, white cliffs, and green grasses. Those views were just as good if not a bit better than the ones I saw in St. Malo. If it weren't for Deem, I don't think we would have ever known about that place. It was breathtaking, and I feel so lucky to have seen something so beautiful.  The top picture is a view of Etretat.  

After the hike, we packed up our stuff and took a bus and then a train to Rouen. We got there around 8:15 and were really hungry, so we dropped our stuff off at our new hotel and ate at a restaurant called Le P'tit Bec. It was so good, and we had the cutest waiter. He kept switching from French to English when he spoke with us because he knew we spoke French but I guess he wanted to practice his English with us too, except that his English was pretty terrible. It was endearing. We all had a really great time that night--I think we all ended up getting a bit tipsy off the wine or maybe we were just all really happy because we laughed pretty much the entire evening. It was so fun, and the food was really great. By the end of the night, we were pretty exhausted from our long hike and our traveling, so it felt good to go to bed right after that.

And then today (Sunday) we spent the majority of our day in Rouen. We visited three different churches/cathedrals that were all built in the gothic flamboyant style, which is more intricately designed and built than the regular gothic style. The architecture was beautiful both on the outside and the inside. We then saw this great clock that is a staple of the city because it's like 900 years old. We got to go into the clock tower and see the mechanisms behind how the clock works. We also got to see a nice panoramic view of the city up in the tower and were there when the large bells in the tower chimed the 12th hour, which is the most important because the clock also keeps track of the days of the week and at that hour (midday), the picture for each day of the week (each day of the week is represented by a different God/planet) rotates. Not really sure why this changes at midday instead of at midnight, but that's the way it is. After that, we ate lunch at a local cafe and then were on our own to explore the city for about 2 hours.
Despite having beautiful cathedrals and a big old clock, Rouen is actually most famous for being the city where Joan of Arc was imprisoned and burned to death. We saw the tower where she was held, and Michele and I visited a small museum in our free time that was dedicated to Joan's story, and this museum was located right outside of the place where Joan was burned. Although, it was a bit morbid, it was so interesting and cool to be standing in a place where something very historical and important and tragic occurred almost 600 years ago (in 1431). After the museum we had to grab our stuff from the hotel and go to the train station to catch the train back to Versailles. Our train had not yet arrived because we got there early and since it was a nice day, we waited outside before the train came. And right were we sat down, there was a tree nearby where a drunk Irishman with a guitar was situated. He heard us speaking English and started talking to us and playing songs for us on his guitar. He said he was going to play an American song for us and sang about two lines of a song no one knew and then had to stop because he forgot the rest of it. Then he talked (in his Irish accent) about how "America has the best politicians money can buy! Ho ho ho." Then he talked about Sarcozy, saying that Sarcozy was born as a result of "the Wicked Witch of the West raping Dopey ho ho ho(one of Snow White's dwarfs). Then he tried to tell us jokes but the combination of his Irish accent and inebriation caused us to miss most of what he was saying. Finally our train arrived and we got up to go, and he then said to our group, "Wait I've got a joke for ya" so we stop and say "Ok what is it?" and he pauses, thinks for a bit and then says, "Ah I'll tell ya when yur older because I forgot it." And that was the last of what we heard from our Irish friend.

On the train ride back, Monika, Deem, Katie and I sat together and talked for the entire hour and forty five minutes we were on the train. Katie taught Deem how to play some card games because he hadn't played any cards since he was little. Deem wanted to read his book, but Katie insisted he learn how to play cards. We played gin and Go Fish. Then we talked the rest of the time about our childhoods and how Deem was obsessed with maps as a kid. He would order maps of just about every city in the U.S. and some countries and just sit there and memorize them. No joke. He remembers just about all of them too. If you dropped him off in one of the 500 plus cities that he had maps for, he'd know where he was and where to go. That's just incredible. We talked about a lot of other stuff too--life in general.
Then we got to Versailles and Michael, Katie, Elizabeth, Michele, Deem and I went out to dinner and had so much fun because we just learned a lot about Deem. He's written a Latin dictionary, and he actually starred in a Latin video that was watched among a lot of high school student who took Latin. He played Julius Caesar and was interviewed by someone while he was playing that character. He told us that some kids who had seen that video recognized him in a mall once and asked for his autograph. Then he told us about some of the travels he'd done in his life. The best story he told occurred in a field in Germany where he laid down to sleep while waiting for his train (and if you knew Deem he'd totally be one to go out and lay in a field to nap while he waits for his train). So he sleeps in this empty field and when he wakes up, he's suddenly not alone anymore. He is surrounded by hordes of men, and women, and kids and they're all stark naked picnicing and frolicking in this field. He is the only one clothed. He thought he was dreaming, and I would've too for that matter, but he wasn't. And it was so funny because he didn't know how he was supposed to leave this field unnoticed because being the only person clothed, he stuck out like a sore thumb. But then he saw a woman walking nearby who was clothed, and he thought "Oh thank God I'm not the only one" and she sees clothed Deem so she walks towards him but then she starts unbuttoning her dress and looking at him while she's doing it, and it was at that moment that Deem decided to bolt, literally. I couldn't stop laughing--that's probably the best story I've ever heard. We had a good night with him.

After dinner, I took a bus home, and while waiting for the bus, this black guy who was waiting with me started talking to me and I could tell by his line of questioning and the fact that we were the only two people at the stop that he was going to try to get my number or something or find out where I was staying. I explained to him that I was on a study abroad trip and he asked if he could take me to Paris sometime, but I told him "Probably not because we travel on weekends all the time. It's part of the program." Then he stopped talking to me. Little uncomfortable for a bit there. Then I came back to my house and found that a lot of things had been rearranged. A desk that was in my room is no longer there because Pauline is moving out into an apartment and wanted the desk in my room (which was her room) so now I have a much smaller desk and a lot more space. Even the computer was moved. So my house is pretty different now, but it's cool. As long as I have my Internet access, I'm OK. And now I will finally end this post. Until next time!

St. Malo, Le Mont Saint Michel, and Crazy Man on the Train

This weekend, we all went to St. Malo, which is a lovely city in Brittany. We took a train to Paris-Montparnesse and had about 3 hours to spare before our next train. Dr. Morgan of course had this all planned out for us. Once we arrived we walked out of the train station and right outside was the Montparnesse Tower, which is the tallest skyscraper in Paris that has a 360° view of the city. We went up into the tower and got to see the entire city of Paris, which was really cool. I'd never seen the layout of the entire city like that. We ate lunch at the little cafe in the tower and then left to catch our train to Rennes (we had to take 2 trains to get to St. Malo). We took the TGV (Train de Grand Vitesse), aka the fastest train in the world, to Rennes. It was cool except for the fact that we all had a lot of pressure in our ears every time we went through a tunnel, which was a lot. When we got to Rennes, we took another train to St. Malo and got there around 6:30. We walked along the a path next to the ocean on our way to our hotels (our group had to be separated into 3 different hotels because one couldn't take all of us). It was a beautiful walk and their were a lot of pretty sailboats in the bay. After getting settled at our hotels, we walked along the ramparts next to the beach and Atlantic ocean just as the sun was setting--it was gorgeous. Then we ate at a creperie that was really good. Brittany is famous for its crepes and galettes (which is like a crepe except with different meats and cheeses and vegetables), and at this creperie, all they served were crepes. So I had a dinner crepe and a dessert crepe, and they were very good, especially the dessert crepe. After dinner, we walked around the city for a bit and then went to bed because we had to get up early the next day.

The next day, we woke up early to go kayaking in the Atlantic. Thank God the sun was out because if it had been cloudy, we would've been really cold. Thankfully though, it was a beautiful day and I was comfortable being out in the ocean. I'd never kayaked in the ocean before, but it wasn't hard. I had a really great time and didn't have trouble maneuvering. We kayaked around the coast with our guide (Vincent) who showed us the towers and fortresses that were used to protect the city. It was so cool and fun to experience a tour that way though I was happy when we finished because by then my arms were really tired because we had to fight some of the waves created by the other boats and ships that were out there. Some of the ships were even old pirate ships, so that was cool to see that. Thankfully, no one fell into the ocean though some people had trouble maneuvering. I managed to stay mostly dry throughout the entire 2 hours we were out in the ocean, but I got soaked coming back onto the beach because a wave of water poured into my kayak when I banked. We all actually got soaked at that moment so it was a bit unfortunate. Still fun though.
After kayaking, we ate lunch at some local cafes and then walked to a bike rental place. Dr. Morgan had arranged for us to take these bikes out for 3 and a half hours and use them to tour the city on our own. He gave us maps and then sent us on our way. It was so fun biking around the city though it took me a while to get used to riding a bike again. I hadn't ridden one in probably 10 years or so. I managed though and biked along a boardwalk that ran along the beach. It was still sunny and the beach and water were just beautiful. It was kind of surreal that we were getting the opportunity to do something very untouristy even though we were tourists. Props to Dr. Morgan. I biked with Michael, Michele, Katie, and Elizabeth and after getting off the boardwalk, we managed to find some side streets that led us to some cliffs overlooking the ocean. There were also some small bike trails in that area that led up to the cliffs, so it was perfect. We had to bike between these boulders that were close together, and Katie hurt her bad foot on one of the rocks and couldn't bike further. So she decided to rest in the grasses that were next to the ocean and Elizabeth stayed with her. Michael, Michele, and I decided to explore the trails, and we biked right to the edge of a cliff and saw the most beautiful views. It was breathtaking how blue the water was and the entire scene was incredible. We took lots of pictures and climbed the rocks and just hung out there for a while, taking it all in. I wanted to stay there forever because it was so beautiful--probably one of the prettiest sights I've ever seen. We stayed up there for a while and when we got back to where we had left Katie and Elizabeth, they had already gone somewhere else. So the three of us continued to bike around close to where the cliffs were and found another area of the city that had more cliffs and trails. We locked our bikes up and walked along the trails, and luckily for us, the trails were bordered by ripe blackberry bushes, so we spent a lot of time looking for ripe ones to eat. We also coincidentally found Erika here and we all hung out and ate blackberries for a while. While we were doing this, a Frenchman came up to us and laughed when he saw us eating all the blackberries and commented on how good they are. He then asked if we wanted to know something interesting, and we said yes of course. At the end of the path was a cliff with a giant wooden cross built on the edge. He led us to the cross and told us a priest had lived there for many years in the cliffs by himself and while he lived there, he had carved heads or little sculptures of things into the rocks. And sure enough, there were a couple of little rock sculptures around the cross. He then pointed to another cliff that was farther to the right of the cliff we were on, and he said on that cliff there were many more heads and rock sculptures that the priest had carved. He said we had to pay to see it, but he showed us that it was actually pretty easy to get to that cliff by climbing down the one we were on and walking across all the rocks below that separated our cliff from the sculpture cliff. By walking this way, we could see the sculptures without paying. Erika and Michael decided they wanted to go see the sculptures. I initially didn't want to do it because I thought climbing down the cliff would be too dangerous, but once Erika and Michael started climbing down, I couldn't resist the fact that I'd be missing out on something cool that I could see for free, so I took a deep breath, followed them down the cliff and prayed I wouldn't die. Thankfully, the climb down was pretty easy and I didn't really relax until we got down to the larger rocks that were scattered along the beach because death was still a serious possibility when we were going down the cliff. Thankfully, we did not die, and we were easily able to climb up the cliff where the sculptures were. It was totally worth it because there were a ton of rock sculptures and they were all well sculpted and some were very intricate. The best part was we ran into three other girls from our group who came to see the sculptures at the same time we did--they paid, we didn't. Haha. After checking out the sculptures, we walked back to our bikes and headed back to the bike place. Unfortunately, neither of us really knew where we were going because we had just kind of stumbled upon everything we had seen. However, we managed to backtrack pretty well and through a series of lucky guesses, we managed to find our way back to the bike place 3 minutes before it was about to close. Lucky us.
After that, Michael, Monika, Katie, Elizabeth, Dr. Morgan (DM), and I all went to a really nice seafood restaurant called L'Anchrage. It was absolutely delicious. I had mussels (some of the best I've ever had) for an appetizer, veal for the entrée (it was very good as well), and a little chocolate molten cake in creme sauce for dessert. It was fabulous--a little expensive, but money well spent. Afterwards, Michael, Monika, Katie, DM, and I went out to some of the bars (yes, even DM came) and we ordered drinks and just hung out until about one in the morning. All in all, it was a very good day.

The next day, we took a bus to the Mont St. Michel. DM had us get off the bus at the stop before the Mont St. Michel because he wanted us to walk up to it instead of drive right up to it. It was very cool getting to see it in the distance and walk up to it yourself and see it get closer with every step you took. It was a beautiful day again too so the cathedral just looked incredible against the blue sky, sand, water, and green grass. To get into the cathedral, we had to walk through these narrow streets bordered by shops and cafés. It was very cool walking through these streets because everything looked very old fashioned like it was from the 18th century or something. Then we climbed a million stairs and finally got to the top of the church to see the spectacular views. We then attended the last part (like the last 3 minutes) of a mass that was being held there and heard the nuns sing and the organ music that was playing. We then got to walk around the great room where the mass was held and got to see the beautiful gothic and roman architecture and the beautiful stained glass windows. After the mass, we walked all throughout the Mont St. Michel learning about the different rooms that served as a monastery for monks in the Middle Ages. All the architecture was very beautiful. After touring the cathedral, we went outside and found a patch of grass right next to the Mont St. Michel where we all sat down and had a picnic that consisted of baguettes, 4 different kinds of cheese, cookies, chocolate, pears, apples, and cider. It was delicious and the weather was perfect. That was my favorite part of the day. After the picnic, we spent the rest of the day traveling back to Versailles. We took a bus back to St. Malo and had a little bit of free time before we had to catch our train. Katie and Michael and I walked along the roads next to the beach for about 30 minutes before we all had to meet up at the hotel to grab our bags and walk to the train station. This time there was a direct train from St. Malo to Paris-Montparnesse. We left at 7:15 and didn't get into Paris until 10:30--3 hour train ride...blech. Then we had to catch a train to Versailles that would take about another 30 minutes. So we got into Versailles at 11:35 but the train station we went to was really far from where everyone lived. Three people took a taxi back home but the rest of us, myself included, waited for a bus to come that would take us all closer to where we lived. It came at 11:50. I was the last to get off and I didn't get home till 12:15. I went to bed immediately because we all had class the next day at 8:30 (this is the only class we have during the week that starts this early and they decide to schedule it on Mondays--fabulous planning people). Yeah I wasn't happy about that.

So I wake up at 7:00 the next morning and I'm super tired--big surprise. I manage to get through class and then we have 3 hours till our next class. I should've just gone home and slept but I hung out with Michele for a while at her house (which is like a mansion--she has a whole floor to herself). After an hour, I left to get lunch and then went to my house to check my email. Then I had grammar class and after grammar, I went home and slept until dinner. The dinner that night was very good and my mom made a prune pie for dessert. I thought I would hate prunes, but it was actually very good--my favorite dessert that she's made so far. After dinner, I did some homework and passed out again--all in all, pretty uneventful day.

Today after our theatre class, Michael, Katie, Elizabeth, and I went to the market and bought some cheese and baguettes and cider and went to the Versailles gardens at the chateau and had a little picnic there. It was really fun and a nice day for a picnic. It was also fun to watch the tourists. There were also a couple of cats in the garden who lounged around near us--one was a really pretty gray cat and the other was darker and not so pretty, but still cute nonetheless. We named the gray cat Louie (after all the Louis' who lived in Versailles) and we named the other cat Marie d'Autriche (Louis XIV's mom). After lunch we had conversation class, and after conversation class, Erika, Michael, and I got coffee to go (which consisted of the guy putting out coffee in a plastic dixie cup) and met Michele at the train station to go to Paris. We all wanted to visit Chinatown. We managed to find it, but were not super excited about it. I thought it would be more vibrant and market-like, but it mainly just consisted of a bunch of chinese restaurants and expensive chinese shops on this one street. It was still fun though. We tasted some food and enjoyed the fact that we had enough time to spend in Paris before having to return home for dinner. After walking through Chinatown, we decided to go back to Versailles. We took a metro to the train station and got on a train headed to Versailles. The 4 of us sat in a place on the train that had five seats and I sat next to the empty seat. I hoped no one random would sit next to me, but of course, someone did. This black guy walks in just as the doors to the train are about to close and plops down right next to me (he smelled like old cigarettes and BO too). Michele was writing in her notebook when he sat down and he leaned forward and pulled her notebook closer to him and said (in French) that he wanted to make sure she wasn't writing anything bad because is she were, he said he'd have to erase it but if it was good, she could keep it. Michele had no idea what this guy was saying to her and just stared at him blankly and the rest of us looked at each other really confused because he was acting so strangely. Then he commented how there were so many different people on the train (Frenchmen, Americans, Englishmen, Japanese, etc) and he asked what we were and we said we were American. He then said he didn't believe us and said we were English, which was interesting. Then he asked if we knew Barack, and we said yes, and he asked us if we liked him. Erika and Michael said they didn't really and I hesitated telling him my opinion because I didn't really want to get into a political discussion with this crazy black man. He took my hesitation me implying I didn't like him, but Michele said she liked him. And the man then put out his hand to shake hers and then he pointed to Michele's notebook and said in English "Write Barack is beautiful. Right there, write Barack is beautiful" (he pronounced beautiful like beeyootiful). Then he said in French to Michele, you are really nice and then he shook our hands except that when he held out his hand for us to shake, he never grabbed our hands, he just kept his stiff. Then he got up and sat on the other side of the car. It was one of the most bizarre experiences of my life. Five minutes later he stands up again comes over to the side of the car where we were sitting and starts preaching loudly for the whole car to hear how the whites are sitting with the whites and the blacks are sitting with the blacks and the Japonese with the Japonese, etc and how it's good. He then said that whites should marry whites and blacks marry blacks, blah blah blah, basically talking to the whole train how segregation is great and better than interracial relationships. I was really uncomfortable and scared at that moment because he just started preaching this out of nowhere and when he was talking, he was talking in a forceful and kind of angry tone as if he were trying to get someone to disagree with him so that he could start a fight. The man was absolutely insane and I was also worried he was going to sit next to me again or possibly accuse our group of being racist. Once the train stopped, we got off and waited for the next train to come. Michael and Michele didn't know what the guy was talking about, but Erika and I understood and knew we needed to get off ASAP. That guy scared the crap out of me because you just had no idea what he would do. I was glad we were able to get off without any conflict.

Tomorrow we go to Chartres, so more updates to come. A bientot!

Giverny, French kids, and Le Chateau de Versailles

After seeing the Pape on Saturday, we all met Dr. Morgan at the train station at 9:30 on Sunday to go to Giverny where Monet's house is. We took a train to Vernon and when we arrived, we walked around the little town for a while and bought some delicious pastries at one of the local boulangeries. I love boulangeries--I wish we had them in the U.S. because they make me really happy. Then we walked along the a road by the Seine and enjoy the scenery. It was a beautiful day too so it really was perfect. We found a picnic table off the road and ate cheese, bread, fruit, and pastries by the river. After lunch we walked throughout the town and Dr. Morgan knew of some trails we could hike to get a view of the whole town on our way to Monet's house. On our way to the trails we walked along some roads that were bordered by shrubs that had produced some ripe blackberries. Dr. Morgan purposefully planned our trip to Giverny around this time because he knew the blackberries would be in season. He's so smart. We ate some blackberries and then found our way to the trails. That hike was pretty hard because there was a good part that was a steep uphill climb. I regretted my choice of wearing a sweater at that moment. We finally found some flat ground eventually and then it was more enjoyable, thought still hot. It was worth it though to see the views we saw. Plus it was cool to be a tourist and not do touristy things--it was very unique.
When we got into Giverny we ate at a cafe called the Hotel Baudy which used to be a hotel where Monet himself and many of his admirers (they were all painters and in many cases, were American) stayed. We sat outside in the perfect weather and ordered the cider that was local to the area. It was very good. After the cafe we all went off on our own to visit Monet's house and gardens. It was really cool to see Monet's house again and be reminded of what his house looked like. I had my feelings of déja-vu when i saw all the Japanese artwork displayed everywhere in his house and I remembered how much Monet had been fascinated by it--which is interesting because his art is not at all like Japanese art and the pieces that he chose to display in his house were not incredibly interesting and they all kind of looked the same. Then again, staticness seemed to be what Monet preferred when it came to decorating his home. I had forgotten how bright and colorful the rooms in his house were (in most cases though, they were a bit too much for me because these rooms would only be one color, which kind of overwhelmed me a bit); For example, his kitchen was completely yellow. The walls, the chairs, the furniture, the table, the tablecloth, the curtains, basically everything was the exact same shade of yellow. While it certainly brightened up the room, the staticness of it all kind of freaked me out--definitely not my choice of home decor, but whatever. The kitchen was pretty cool. It was completely blue, but a pretty royal blue and the walls were covered with blue and white-patterned tile which was really pretty.
After exploring his house, I walked in the gardens with Elizabeth and Michael. We saw all the beautiful flowers displayed in his garden and we also saw the water garden, with the water lilies and the famous bridge. It was so nice visiting that again. After touring his house and gardens, our group returned to Paris and we had dinner there at a cafe called Marco Polo. Many people were determined to try escargot so we chose Marco Polo for the sole fact that it sold escargot. I ate escargot as well, and three people who had never had it tried it and liked it. I was glad they did since I kind of peer pressured them into trying it. After dinner, I returned to my house pretty late, did my homework, and then went to bed.

On Monday I had my first baby-sitting job. A French dad had approached me, Monika, and Elizabeth in the street last week and asked us to baby-sit for his kids, and we figured out that we could help him out on certain days. So I babysit on Mondays during lunchtime, Monika does Monday and Thursday afternoons, and Elizabeth does Tuesday afternoons. So Monday was my first day with these kids. I really only have to take care of the youngest, Anatole, who is three. He goes to preschool and gets out at 11:45 and I have to bring him back to his house, fix lunch for him and just watch him for about an hour and a half. His mom brought him home that day and I met her at their house so she could show me what to fix him for lunch. After lunch, Anatole's mom, Camille, asked me to pick him up that afternoon with Monika, so at 4:20 we both met Anatole and his sisters at Anatole's school and their dad, Damien drove us to the house. Then he left Monika and I to watch the kids until about 7:30. There are three kids total. Margot is the oldest and she is 9. The second is Emilie who is 6, and then there's Anatole (who is a boy). They were quite a handful. Margot liked to tease Emilie and tickle her and wrestle with her, and many times she'd hit her, and it was hard to get her to stop because we couldn't say all the things we wanted to say because we didn't know how to say them in French, so that was definitely a struggle. Monika took care of watching the girls and I took care of watching Anatole and playing with him. Anatole is the biggest challenge because he's so young and it's hard to understand him. I mean, I can sometimes barely understand three year olds who are speaking English so dealing with a French-speaking three year old is twice as hard. Sometimes I don't understand him and sometimes I don't think he understands me because of my accent (or I just may not be saying something right). It was fun playing with him though. We played frisbee (or attempted to) and then kicked a ball back and forth to each other. I had to leave early at 7:00 because I had to be home at 7:30 but I had fun with the kids and I think they had fun with us too. It's definitely a good job to have.

On Wednesday, we all went inside the Chateau de Versailles. It was really cool visiting the chateau again because this time I was more aware of all the history that took place there. All the rooms were gorgeous, especially the hall of mirrors and the Queen's bedroom (it was actually prettier than Louis XIV's). One of my favorite parts of the chateau though was the room dedicated to all the paintings of Louis XIV's mistresses and some of the kids he had with these mistresses. Based on the number of women's portraits in the room, I'm thinking odds are that Louis XIV probably had an STD or a couple. Probably the ciph--I've heard it was a popular disease among the kings. I also liked seeing Marie Antoinette's room as well as the portraits of her and her children; Hers and Louis XVI's story is definitely the most interesting in my opinion that took place at Versailles. Can't imagine what it must have been like when the French people stormed the castle gates of Versailles in 1789 and broke through. Scary.
After exploring the castle, we checked out the gardens for a bit. The gardens are enormous and beautiful and it's funny noting the fact that everything in the garden is symmetrical and shaped a certain way--it's very OCD and very French. I think certain Furman students could relate to the need for perfection and symmetry that the French felt was necessary. We would've explored the gardens more but it was really cold that day, and the gardens are open to everyone free of charge during the week, so a couple of us decided to come back later to really explore the gardens. I did a little bit of shopping with Elizabeth and bought myself a warmer coat. The weather got much chillier this week--it got to the point where I was too cold in the blazer I was wearing but it wasn't quite cold enough yet for my big winter coat, so I bought a nice in between weather kind of coat that's really cute. I wore it today and was very happy with it--it was perfect for the 60° weather we've been having lately.

Today was pretty uneventful except for the fact that a small group of us met up with the boys from St. Jean's that we had met in Paris to see the Pope for lunch. It was fun, and it's nice to have French friends here. Now I'm going to do homework and get ready for the upcoming weekend trip to St. Malo. Next update will be after this weekend. A toute à l'heure!

Pakito's and Le Pape

Wow so many things to upsdate on. First I will start with Thursday...

I bought myself a cell phone finally since I realized that I would definitely not be getting Internet in my French house on my laptop, which means no skype. Sad. But the cell phone and email will have to suffice I guess. Thursday night, our group of 10 went out to dinner together with all 4 of our professors and Dr. Morgan to Pakito's, which is a tapas bar. We ordered lots of appetizers and drank lots of sangria. The sangria, however, was not the best part of the night (though it was a highlight). The best part turned out to be the fact that I got to sit right across from Madame Chauchat at the table. She is absolutely hilarious and adorable and incredibly personable. She is one tough French grammarian but as a person she's just so much fun (and she's in her late 50's or so). And she has a really romantic story. She is an American who came to France for her French studies when she was 18. When she was 14 she had spent a summer in France and had met a few Frenchies at that time and she came back to the same area of France at 18, so she was abke to meet up with the people she had met 4 years earlier. And while she was hanging out with this group of French friends, she and her future husband Pierre ended up falling in love with each other over a course of like 3 months. Only thing was, Pierre was like 33 at the time. She said she was so scared to tell her parents about him but they were so in love that they just knew they wanted to get married, and they did very soon after they told both of their families. And ever since then, since she was 18, she's lived in France with her husband and are together still. So cute. Although she is very happy with her husband and has a great family in France, she did say that she missed being in America sometimes because Americans are more personable than the French because we are more touchy feely with each other. We hug each other a lot and are sometimes very animated when we talk and we just not really afraid to touch each other. The French don't hug each other ever unless you're dating and they're just more reserved than Americans. Like sometimes when Americans talk to each other, they'll touch the other person's arm or shoulder or something like that, but the French just never communicate like that. This is also evident in how Europeans dance versus how Americans dance. We dance very close to each other and are always touching whereas Europeans in many cases don't touch when they dance. They just dance in front of each other without really touching. If they do touch when they dance, they do a swing dance kind of thing--none of the grinding that you get in America. Europeans aren't prudes, it's just not the social norm. And that is what Madame Chauchat said she missed about the U.S. (not the grinding) but that closeness that Americans feel they can have with each other. I think I'd miss that too.

The next day we went to our second civilization class and a woman named Madame Roussel came in and gave us an intense lecture about the Chateau of Versailles in French. She gave that lecture as if she were talking to a French university class. It was tough and LONG because the class was 2 hours and Ive never had so much information thrown at me like that, even in English. I got a good part of the lecture but some parts would've gone cmpletely over my head had Dr. Morgan not been in there writing notes for us on the board while this lady rambled and rambled in French. I was really thankful when that class ended, and even after two hours she still wasnt done talking! She kept going a good 7 minutes after class had technically ended and we probably would have been there for another hour had Dr. Morgan not stopped her. Overall the class was pretty interesting in terms of the information given, but wow was it intense. After class the 8 of us who were going to Paris to see the Pope (or le Pape en français) went to buy lunch and dinner for ourselves and met up with the kids from St. Jean's. We met a group of students who we ended up hanging out with for most of yesterday and today. Their names were Arnaud, Paul, and Adrien. Those three hung out with us pretty much the whole time. Arnaud was the best to talk to because he spoke English really well because he had lived in Ireland for three years. The other boys were harder to understand because they spoke fast and used a lot of words I didn't know because they used a lot of slang. And they couldn't really speak English so well either. A lot of other French students would try to speak English with us (and many times we just had to communicate in Frenh) and it was pretty funny. They loved asking us questions about the U.S. and a lot of them told us they had been there and really liked it. We all had a lot of fun interacting with them even though they were all quite a bit younger than us (especially me, lol. I'm definitely the old one on this trip). They were mostly 16 or 17 year olds on the trip, so they weren't way younger but definitely way too young for me--a lot were really flirtatious, especially this one kid named Edouard. That kid was definitely a player--he took an immediate liking to Monika, but he pretty much flirted with everyone. The kid was a bit ridiculous. We got to know these guys really well because all we did this weekend was wait. We took the train to Paris and then the metro to Notre Dame. We got to Notre Dame around 3:45 and had to sit outside in this sandy space for 2 and a half hours before we could start watching the Pope on the big screen that was outside. He came on the screen around 5:30 where he went into a church and was welcomed by various important members of the French community. Then he gave a speech and afterwards the screen showed him walking outside and getting into the Papamobile (no joke, his car was literallly called the Popemobile) which I guess is a pretty accurate description since it was a specially designed car. The front looked like a limo but after the part for the driver had been built, the designers just built this rectangular plate-glass dome thing that had a nice big white leather seat for the Pope to sit in. It was like a carriage-car, and it was clear so everyone could see the Pope. People in the streets went completely nuts. After driving around in the Popemobile throught the streets, the Pope finally arrived at Notre Dame but I didn't really get a good look at him because the crowds were so huge. The Pope went inside, gave a long speech in French and then there was a small mass. After the mass the Pope changed and then came outside Notre Dame to address us and all the other students who had amassed outside the church to see him. He gave a very inspirational speech and then blessed us. It was pretty sweet. Then there was a small concert after the Pope left that we stayed for and we had about 2 hours of free time to go to prayer vigils or do whatever before the candelit walk through Paris. After the concert, Monika, Katie, Elizabeth, Michele, and I went to a cafe to get some coffee because we knew we'd have a long night ahead of us. We sat down outside and I'm not kidding you, immediately when we sat down we got hit on by these two drunk French guys who were about 28 years old. One guy gave us bisous and when he did that he gave all of us an actual kiss on the cheek. This would've been cute if they guy were actually cute. He had the potential to be cute but he was missing a couple of teeth so that kind of killed any kind of attraction. This guy's name was Cyril. The other one just wasn't all that cute--i don't remember this guy's name but I'll just call him Blondie because he had really light blond hair. Blondie first started talking to us and then Cyril joined him a bit later. They asked us what we were doing in France and were especially concerned with how long we would be in Paris. They wanted us to go to a discotheque with them but we told them we were only here for that night to see the Pope and that we were doing a candlelit walk that evening. They wanted to hang out with us so bad--it was a bit ridiculous. At one point, Cyril left our table and went back to his and then he started flirting with Elizabeth by just eyeing her all the time and waving and she totally played along with it. While Elizabeth and Cyril were eye flirting from across their tables, Blondie asked us all if we were Catholic since we were here to see the Pope, and everyone was Protestant except for me. So we told him this and he suddenly just says "fucking Protestants" stands up, looks at me and says "Julianne (despite numerous attempts to correct his pronunciation of my name, the word "Jillian" just could not get through his beer brain--not to mention, no one is named Jillian in France...oh well). So he says (in French) "Julianne, come with me" and he bends his arm for me to take (he was going to take me to his table with toothless Cyril and his other sketchy friends and he only wants me to come with him because I'm Catholic). Obviously this is not a situation I want to get myself into. I say no because he just insulted my friends. This guy then gets on one knee in front of me and begs me to come over to his table, which is about when we all decided that it was about time to leave. So we all stand up and Blondie looks at me as I'm leaving and tells me that I'm breaking his heart. Although he was trying to illicite sympathy from me, all I could think was "Ew." Cyril however was not going to let Elizabeth get away from him. He stopped her and Elizabeth, who is really nice, let him talk to her and accepted the card he gave her, and he told her to call him. While that was one of the sketchiest encounters I've ever had in my life, it was definitely memorable.
After that, we met up with the St. Jean group again and walkeed throughout the streets of Paris with our candles while prayers were recited. We ended up using this time to just talk more with our new French friends. After walking for close to three hours, Katie, Monika, and I walked with Paul, Arnaud, and Adrien to the nunnery where we would be sleeping for the night. It was 1:30 in the morning at this point and we didn't get to the nunnery until 2:05. The boys and girls were then separated. Our stuff shouldve been brought to the nunnery and placed in our respective rooms for us to find, but for some reason the French teachers thought my bzgs belonged to one of the boys. I guess they read my name as Julian. So I had to walk into the boys' room which was pretty much the equivalent of me walking into a boy's locker room because a lot of them were changing out of their clothes when I walked in. Edouard was pretty excited to see me though--he waved. Thankfully my stuff was in there, and I grabbed it and booked it out of there because it was pretty awkward. I finally crawled into my sleeping bag at like 2:40 and slept for about an hour on this hard floor. At 4:00 we were woken up to pack up our things, eat some breakfast and head to Les Invalides to attend the mass that the Pope would give. We got there at about 5:15 and already there were a bunch of people there and many had camped outside for the night. So we sat around for almost five hours until the mass started. We were all so tired because we'd either gotten only one or two hours of sleep or no sleep. But it was fun because we just hung out again with the students and had them teach us slang. We also met a new friend. His name is François and he was the cutest thing. He's had pretty big glasses and was such a nerd in the way he looked and also in his mannerisms but it worked so well for him. He was so funny and so fun to talk to. He definitely kept us entertained until the Pope came, and he was my favorite Frenchie. That kid was just adorable.
The Pope finally arrived at 10:00 and I actually got a good view of him rolling up in his Popemobile. Then he did the mass in French and that was really cool for me getting to experience a service that I've experienced many times in my life in a very different way. I knew what was going on but I just didn't know the French equivalents for what I was supposed to say. Nonetheless, it was very cool. I slept during the homily though because my lack of sleep kicked in at that point (plus I got to sit down at that moment). I left at communion because it would've taken forever to distribute communion to the literally thousands of people who had gathered there for the mass. Plus I was tired and incredibly hungry and Katie, Monika, Elizabeth, and I decided it would be best to leave then to beat the crowds who would be flooding the train and metro stations after the mass ended. I'm so glad we did because we got back into Versailles around noon, ate lunch, and went home to sleep. I slept from one till 8:45...it was fabulous. Overall, the Pope experience was mostly about a ton of waiting and then not really being able to see anything, but I'm glad I did it. Had I not gone, I would not have had all these stories to tell. And now that I've written a novel for you all, I'm going to bed. Bonne nuit!

Back in Versailles

I got back into Versailles Monday morning and discovered that I have another French sister who lives at the house that I hadn't met yet. Her name is Clémence. She's 23 and is very nice. I like her a lot, and she lets me use her computer since it appears mine will never work here. Oh well, c'est la vie I guess. I also started my first cours de grammaire class with Madame Chauchat. I'm in the stronger of the two grammar classes and it's evident because Madame Chauchat is pretty intense. It'll be a great class though once I've had three months of it. I really hope I can be pretty close to fluent once I've completed the full semester here. After cours de grammaire, Monika, Michael, and I walked around the central part of Versailles and bought a couple of books for our classes. Then we walked to the Chateau de Versailles since we weren't too far from it. The castle is huge and gorgeous--I've been there before, but it was different seeing it this time because there weren't any tourists there. People were there of course, but it wasn't packed as usual. Plus we were able to walk through the gates and around the castle to the gardens without having to pay. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful scene.

The next day I had my first course in French theatre with Madame Sinniger. It was fine--that's all I can think to say about it. Not super interesting but not incredibly boring either--just so-so. After class I ate lunch with Elizabeth and Monika at a little cafe. Then we went to Elizabeth's house to hang out before our conversation classes. Elizabeth's house is really nice--it's actually a house. Mine is just a door really. I think I live in a sort of townhouse because it's very vertical and doesn't have much width to it. At first I felt a bit cramped in my house, but I like it a lot now because I see my French family a lot, which is really good for me. In a bigger house, it would be too easy for me to shut myself in my room all the time and not see anyone. I do have my own space in my room, which is great, and it's an adequate space considering how small the actual house is, but it's nice seeing everyone around. After hanging out with Elizabeth a bit, Monika and I left for our conversation class (our grammar and conversation classes are split into 2 groups--Monika and I are in the same group and Elizabeth is in the other). Madame Vaudel is our conversation prof. She's very nice but it was awkward at times because she wanted us to come up with subjects to talk about and we weren't really prepared for that. Plus we have to talk for two hours--that is a long freaking time. I was actually really tired when it was finally over. Blah. I hung out with Monika a bit afterwards and then went home and had dinner with my family.

Today we had our first civilization class with Monsieur Sinniger (Mme Sinniger's husband--they're cute). Our civilization and theatre classes are held at a French school that is a middle school and a high school called St. Jean's. He's such a cute little old man--moves a little slow and talks a bit slow but that's good because he's easier to understand. He has the funniest laugh too--it reminds me of this laugh that this actress on the Nickelodeon show All That did in the 90's. She was part of the original cast and her name was Katrina and in this skit called Earboy she played Earboy's male principal and her laugh as that character is very much like Monsieur Sinniger's except not so high pitched. That's immediately what I thought of when he laughed. If you don't know what I'm talking about, YouTube it. That man is adorable. I love him already.
After his class, a group of 8 of us met with his wife because we are going to see the Pope this weekend with her and the other French students who go to St Jean's. We then went to a meeting in a small auditorium like area to listen to the French teachers tell the French students who were going about meeting times and how to behave, etc. When she finished telling them all the important information they would need to know, she mentioned to all of them (and there were about 60 students in the room) that some American students were coming with them and she not only pointed us out but asked us to stand up. It was so awkward because everyone stared at us and then applauded us awkwardly when we stood, and then she asked us in French if we spoke French and we all said and the students applauded us again. So. Awkward. Then again, this will probably help us meet a lot of French students who will be interested to talk to us...maybe it won't be such a bad thing.
After the meeting we ate some lunch and then walked around Versailles with a tour guide. We walked around the palace area and up and down various streets in Versailles. The tour was very interesting and informative and thankfully it was a great day for a walk. After the tour ended, we were all really tired because we had done a lot of walking for that day so we all went back home. I had dinner with my family and the conversation actually went well tonight. I felt like I understood a lot of what was said even when they weren't talking to me, which is hard. I felt pretty good about that. I also got to teach them a bit of English and we talked about reality TV. They don't have all the reality shows we have in the states (which is good because the majority of them are pretty stupid and mindless, yet they still entertain me). The French just know about the Bachelor and they find it pretty funny, which it is because like pretty much all of reality TV, it's just ridiculous. And now I must start getting ready for bed because it's getting pretty late here. Until next time...

Paris continued

Since the last time I've posted, I've had several interesting and scary experiences...

Right after my last post, I went out with Katie to see the Eiffel Tower.  We left around 11:30 and took the metro to a couple of different stations because we had to switch lines.  And then we had to take the RER which is a train that can take you out of Paris.  We were nervous to use this train because it's very different from the metro as well as the station setup.  But we managed to find the right platform and get on the right train.  Unfortunately, right as we got off the train at our stop, a man's voice came on over the intercom and told us that the train we had just gotten off of was the last one that was going to run that night.  Basically, I freaked out because the trains and metro are my main way of getting around Paris and now I couldn't use them.  Not only that, we were really far from our hotel and neither of us had a good map of Paris with us.  We only had this booklet that zoomed in on different sections of Paris and didn't show the whole layout of the city.  So I had no idea how we were going to get back to our hotel, which scared me because no one knew we were out and we were basically going to have to figure it all out on our own...at night.  Great.  Thank God Katie knew how to get to the Opera which she said was close to our hotel, so we started heading toward there.  And after walking for about 15-20 minutes, we found a metro station that was open!  Turns out that the RER trains closes early but the metro stations didn't close till 2:00 that night because it was Friday.  So we got back at like 2:00.  Ugh, it's been a long time since I've felt that worried.  So glad we found our way back.

The next day, Katie, Michele, Monika, Elizabeth, and I all went to a market at Porte de Vanves.  There were lots of vendors selling books, pictures, jewelry, glassware, fabric, and other things.  I bought two pictures, a necklace, and a notebook.  Then we ate lunch, and Elizabeth and I did some shopping at the Longchamp store.  Then we walked across La Place de la Concorde and then on the Boulevard Saint-Germain de Pres.  It was a really nice day and a great walk, and we found a lot of different stores.  There's was some really great shopping there.  After looking around for a bit, we went back to the hotel, and at 7:30 I went out to dinner with Dr. Morgan, Ewurabena, and Lubaina.  We went to a restaurant called Pierrot and it was so good!  I had a kir for an aperatif, a carpaccio of beef with arugula and parmesan cheese with lemon juice, duck with potatoes and green beans, and then creme brulee for dessert.  It was so good!  After dinner, I went out with Roz, Ewurabena, and Lubaina to the Eiffel Tower and was able to enjoy being there that time instead of worrying about how I was going to find my way back to our hotel.

The next day, I went to le Parc de Morceau.  It's a really beautiful little park, and it was really nice walking around such a pretty area observing the surroundings and the people.  It was actually one of my favorite parts of the trip because it wasn't touristy at all, and I got to see the French just doing what they do everyday.  I saw so many cute kids just playing with each other, people walking with their dogs, couples cuddling on benches, and even pony rides for the little French kids.  It was nice to just walk around and sit for a while and just relax.  After the park, I met Elizabeth and Michele and we went to the American church in Paris for their contemporary service.  It was really cool, but really different for me because I'm Catholic, and catholic services are much different from contemporary services.  But it was a cool experience.  Elizabeth and I met two girls in the church who were students at Davidson, and it just so happened that Elizabeth and one of the girls, Emily, knew some of the same people.  So that was really crazy that we happened to meet them there and find we had a lot of stuff in common.  They are in France for a semester like us, but they live in dorms in Paris the whole time.  We ate some lunch with them, and hopefully we'll be able to meet up with them again sometime.  After lunch, Elizabeth and I went to the Luxembourg and walked around the palace and the garden area.  We sat there for about 25 minutes and then went back to the hotel to relax.  Then me, Monika, Michele, Michael, Elizabeth, and Katie got some takeout Greek sandwiches and fries and just all hung out in our room eating and talking.  And now I'm going to pack up my stuff because we all return to Versailles tomorrow with our French families.  A bientot!

Paris!

We arrived in Paris yesterday by the train.  We didn't get to Paris until 4:00 in the afternoon because of all this other stuff we had to do earlier.  When we finally arrived and were able to drop our bags off at our hotel, we went out with Dr. Morgan who showed us these small indoor mall-like shops and then let us walk our on our own, which was really scary since Paris is HUGE and none of us really knew what we wanted to do or how to do it.  But we had a map and were able to figure out how to get to the Sacre-Coeur.  It took about 15 minutes for us to walk there, but we got there eventually and then climbed up all the stairs to the top.  We could see most of the city from up there, which was really cool, and we got to see a Catholic mass going on the church that was being conducted in French.  We came in just in time to hear the Lord's Prayer in French.  It was a really cool experience.  I'd been to the Sacre-Coeur before, but I'd never seen a mass there, so I'm glad I got to see that.  On our way down the stairs from the Sacre-Coeur, our group was accosted by a group of Jamaicans who made bracelets for us out of colorful string and then tried to get us to pay 8 euros for them.  I told my Jamaican no, but everyone else ended up paying for their bracelets.  The most that was paid was 4 euros, but that was still really overpriced.  We then went back to the area where our hotel was and had dinner--I ate escargot, and it was really good.  Then we went back to the hotel for a while and rested, and then at 11:30, Katie, Elizabeth, Roz, Monika, and I all went out to find bars to go to, and ended up finding a place called Cafe Oz that was full of people and music.  It was really great to be able to walk in and order drinks without anyone caring about how old we all were.  Everyone in the club was just sitting around drinking--a couple of people were dancing but there wasn't really an area of the club where people were dancing with each other.  There was mostly just drinking and mingling.  So 3 of us ordered some rum and cokes and sat down and just enjoyed the music and atmosphere.  Eventually a guy came up behind me and started talking to me about how much he liked my butt, lol.  It was really interesting because he didn't even introduce himself.  All he did was talk about my butt to me in front of everyone else, so it was really kind of awkward.  And then he walked off.  It was funny, but I was kind of just experiencing that emotion between being happy that I was complimented but then embarrassed about how that compliment came about.  Now it's just funny.

Today we went to the Assemblee Nationale and then explored the Latin Quarter and Les Jardins des Plantes.  There were lots of gorgeous flowers there, and there was also a small zoo near it.  We saw ostriches and baby deer.  We then ate lunch at a little cafe, which had really great food.  I had a salad with goat cheese and I managed to spill my water all over Dr. Morgan while I was talking with my glass in my hand.  Oops.  After lunch, we went to the Pantheon, La Sorbonne (which is a university in France), the church of St. Etienne, and the Museum de Cluny.  After that, we were on our own, so Katie, Elizabeth, and I went to the Centre de George Pompidou, which is a really awesome modern art museum that not only houses modern art, but even it's architecture is very different.  It was really cool to go inside and experience the cool architecture of the building as well as see the works of art.  Most were really strange--especially the canvas that was painted a solid navy blue.  If that constitutes as art then I feel that could be my plan B in life.  I'll just be the first person to paint a canvas completely yellow--bright yellow.  Hopefully that will earn me a nice share to take care of my living expenses.  After the Centre Pompidou we took the metro to the Champs-Elysees and took pictures at the Arc de Triomphe.  We then walked down the Champs-Elysees and saw the biggest Louis Vuitton store.  The inside literally looked like a Louis Vuitton heaven--it was actually really pretty.  We also got to see some interesting characters--like the woman with reddish-pink hair in the skin-tight cheetah print capris and matching top combined with a fur collared jacket in the same cheetah print pattern.  She must've been well off (or at least her husband was) because I'm just guessing that must be the reason she feels she can pull that off.  I think that's interesting how riches can end up making certain people stand out in that really unattractive way.  

After the Champs-Elysees we went back to the hotel and rested because we'd pretty much been on our feet for 9 hours.  Our feet were so sore.  After resting for an hour, we ate at a little chinese restaurant next to our hotel, which was very authentic despite it being in France, and the chinese waiters and waitresses were very fluent in French.  Funny how that works out.  

So that's what I've done so far in Paris.  More updates to come...whenever I can get Internet access.  

I'm here!

I arrived in Paris this morning around 11:30 AM!  The flight went by surprisingly fast, but getting off the plane was hard considering my body was still on Greenville time.  And even before we arrived the French stewardesses woke us up an hour and a half before landing to give us breakfast. So I was basically woken up at 4:00 in the morning essentially--I literally felt like a zombie.  I could barely get the word "coffee" (which I needed badly at that point) out because I felt like I just didn't have the energy to speak.  

     After the plane landed, we took a bus to Versailles and I met my French family.  My family is very sweet; my mom's name is Anne, my dad's is Xavier, and I have two sisters: Pauline and Amelie.  Pauline is my age and Amelie is 18.  They're very sweet and thankfully everyone has been really patient with me since my comprehension isn't very good yet.  They love talking about current events in the U.S. too.  They wanted to talk about the upcoming election with me as well as Hurricane Gustav (except that when they started talking to me about that, I actually thought they were talking about someone they knew named Gustav and then laughed at me when I asked them who Gustav was).  Oh well...I caught on eventually.  My computer is not working here--I can't get Internet so I am borrowing someone else's.  I hope we can figure out how to make that work so I don't have to keep borrowing this one and deal with the keyboard differences.   My new French home is much smaller than what I'm used to, but it's very cute and my room is actually a pretty good size considering how the rest of the house is set up.  It's built very vertically so everything is pretty small.  It's still cute though.  

     Tomorrow I go to Paris with everyone else on the trip where we'll stay for three nights.  So I won't be posting another blog entry until I'm back.  And now I'm too jetlagged to write anymore.  Ciao!