Reims, no Reims... isn't that what I said?

So I need to stop setting deadlines for myself and saying I am going to finish things/write things by certain days, because obviously I fail at doing so every time. hence why this blog is 3 days later than I expected. Oops sorry! I also apologize for such a boring blog last time! I have decided I am going to add more pictures in to my blogs to make them less tedious (but longer hehe!) And believe me, this is going to be a long blog!

This weekend I went to Reims a.k.a Champagne Country!! How does one pronounce the city of Reims, one might ask. Well it is definitely not REMS, as in Rapid Eyey Movement when you sleep, as I thought and said, and got confused looks from my host family. It is in fact pronounced as REHS, but put as much as a French nasal sound to the vowel as you can. Yeah it isn't easy is it? Thus, started a whole day of making jokes about the name, and trying to say it, and Beth trying to correct us every time, bless her heart. Four of us decided to take the TGV, which is a very fast train that goes all around France, 5 others decided to rent a car and drive to Reims. We got their in 45 minutes, they kind of got there in an hour and 15 minutes, but got super lost in the city of Reims, so it was quite an adventure trying to locate them! While waiting for them we turned a corner and BAM there was a beautiful church. Now, at the time we are in the Reims ghetto...literally the ghetto. Ghetto Reims is to the left of the train tracks, and nice Reims is to the right down aways. We thought the Ghetto Reims was the real one, so at first we obviously though this beautiful church was the famed Notre-Dame de Reims, where almost all of the Kings of France were crowned. However, when we went inside, it was super small, but had the most vibrant and beautiful stained glass!

I have never seen stained glass with the colors that were used in these windows. The blues were so blue, the reds so red. You cannot really see from this image, but they were amazing. They lit up the church. Now, notice how I said church. Well, as I stated, it was super, super small. I could not imagine kings getting crowned here, because I doubt there servants or their court could all fit in this place! Notre-Dame de Paris, is gigantic, one would think the Notre-Dame de Reims would be too. Well, as we left the church, we noticed a sign that said "L'eglise de Saint-Thomas" or "The Church of Saint Thomas." OOPS! All four us, Beth, Colie, Krista, and I missed this sign completely - we are so observant. It was still a pretty cool church though! After, we decided to ask for directions to get to G.H. Martel - our first "Maison de Champagne" that we were visiting. Beth and I went into a bank to ask for help, and Colie and Krista went to a Century 21 (they have those here too!) Colie and krista ended up getting directions to a entirely different Maison, so after figuring out we got the right directions, we hopped on the bus (for free, oops!) and found the first Maison.

. \

G.H. Martel was the first Maison we went to. We were so excited to find the place that we of course took a picture with the sign! They took us into the Champagne Caves (see photo above) but first we watched a video all about Champagne. They then took us through the caves and explained how they make their champagne. It was hard to follow, because we were over-achievers and booked the tour in French, so we definitely didn't know a lot of the terminology, but that is ok! And of course the best part of the tour was the Champagne tasting!! (sorry mom & dad!) we tried 3 different types of Champagne -they were ok. I have had better before.

After G.H. Martel, we went to get lunch, but first we FINALLY saw the real Notre Dame Cathedral de Reims! Yes, I promise you it was the real thing this time. It was huge, pretty, and looked very similar to Notre Dame de Paris.
C'est moi in front of Notre Dame de Reims. It was very big

inside and definitely suited for a king. It gave me chills that I was walking where the Kings and Queens of the past walked and were once crowned. I was in absolute awe. It is just crazy to think about it. i am such a nerd, I know, but we were all a little shell-shocked at the fact we were walking the same path past leaders had. What was also really neat was there was someone playing the organ the day we visited! It was HUGE! And it just added to the whole effect of being at the cathedral where history happened. I was waiting for Phantom of the Opera (hehe) music to play but alas, it did not. After visit Notre Dame, de Reims, we decided to get lunch and go shopping! Lunch was not so good - I got pizza bread with crevattes a.k.a little tiny pieces of shrimp. After what happened to me on the plane I cannot eat itty bitty tiny shrimp anymore. I survived, but barely. After shopping we walked to the next Maison, Le Pommery. It. Was. Enormous. it had a castle basically on the property. It is a super famous Maison in Paris.

Because this is a very famous Maison in Paris, it was also kind of pricey for the tour. And the tour was BIZARRE. It started off just like the other tour, but in the rooms in the caves there were weird things like a pink champagne dress from the 1970's on display, and another room had giant rocket thing, and another with a car that looked like a dust vac. We were so confused, and ended making up our own stories about why these were in there. OH how could I forget. There was a room with like 500 jars of Nutella just wrapped and on display. WHAT A WASTE OF NUTELLA. We wanted to steal some, but don't worry we didn't! After the tour we got one, yes only one :( , glass of Champagne, and it was sooo good. Then it was time to say goodbye to the 5 girls who were staying in Reims overnight to go to more Maisons the next day, while Colie, Krista, Beth and I ran to pick something up to eat before our train ride. What did us 4 American girls pick for dinner? Domino's. Of course! They have that here too...and KFC...go figure. We got 2 pizza's and 1.5 liter of something to drink then ran to the train. Let me tell you, it was the funnest train ride ever! I think we were all slap happy after being up since 6am, because we were cracking jokes, singing songs from "The Prince of Egypt" (I still have no idea how this was brought up...) and laughing hysterically the entire time. (no we were not drunk :-P ) It was a great way to end a crazy day! But, we didn't want to leave each other's company quite yet, so we decided to go to a cafe to get something to drink. The first place was a NO-GO! The owners had no teeth and were super creepy, so we ran out of there, and found a super cute cafe which served us the best hot chocolate ever. I am definitely going back!

Sunday was an AMAZING day! I met up with my friend Courtney from University of Illinois who is in the IFE program here in Paris. It is an internship/school program. We decided to visit Le Marais, which is the Jewish quarter in Paris. It. Was. Awesome. Most things are closed on Sunday in France, but Le Marais is a hopping place because their "Sabbath" day or "Shabot" = Saturday in Hebrew, and everything is closed Saturday. It was absolutely packed! We passed loads of bakeries with Challah bread and...ready for it...drum roll.... BAGELS AND CREAM CHEESE! I wanted a bagel sooo bad, but alas I did not get one. There are also a ton of falafel places, including the falafel place where supposedly Lenny Kravits owns the apartment above it/or around it, because he thinks it is the best falafel place in the world! Very cool! Courtney and I became hungry shortly so we decided to go to the restaurant. It was so cute! it has been around since the 1870's (woah!) so the inside is still the old stone wall that it was originally built in. It looked like we were inside a castle. This was a 3 course meal

we started off with Potage du Chef, our soup of the chef, and it was the most delicious vegetable puree soup! So tasty! Then my meal was chicken american style - still haven't figured that one out. Look at the picture on the right - doesn't it look delicious? It was amazing - the best chicken I have ever had! For desert, Courtney and I each had a fruit crumble. Overall it was one of the best meals I have had in France! Our gossiping wasn't over for the day so we decided to walk and find a cafe to sit in chat in, when we stumbled upon "La Perla" which is one of the VERY few Mexican food restaurants in Paris. The French do not like spicy food at all, so they definitely do not like Mexican, hence why it is so hard to find a Mexican Restaurant. We went in for a cocktail and some chips and salsa, and ended up talking until almost 9:30 o'clock. But, does our night stop there? No way jose!

She told me about this place called "Breakfast in America" that serves only American food and it was super close to where we were. Well, we just had to check it out! For being such a popular restaurant it is TINY! But it had a 50's diner flare to it. It was super cute, besides the fact we had to wait outside to be seated because it was so packed at that time of night. We finally got in, and almost died looking at the menu. Milkshakes, Rootbeer floats, hamburgers, chicken fingers, nachos, cheese fries, waffles, pancakes, BAGELS, bacon & scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, hot dogs etc. Everything American you could think. We were in heaven and we definitely splurged a little. We ordered chili nachos (!) to split, strawberry milkshakes, and I

ordered a cheeseburger with cheesefries and I LOADED on the French's yellow mustard (oh how I miss it!) on my burger. Courtney ordered a swiss patty melt with cheese fries. We were in heaven! This is a great place to go to when you are missing America and need some American food. All the waiters and waitresses are American our British, with flawless French accents (lucky ducks). It was like being at home away from home. I can probably go there once a month, just when I need a little piece of America. Next time I am for sure getting pancakes and A BAGEL! I miss bagels sooo much, but it is probably a good thing I haven't been eating bagels here, considering they are so unhealthy! Oh well!

Ok I promise this is finally the end, I am so behind in my blogs, sorry! I am going to be even MORE behind because Thursday I leave for SWEDEN!!! Soooo excited! Maybe I can blog Wednesday but we shall see. In the next blog I will tell about my crazy adventures at a fondue restaurant, wine served in baby bottles, and Rocky Horrow Picture SHow in France (Oh my!) Until then AU REVOIR!!

Classes can be a drag...

Ok, so only ONE day late on my blog posting, but hey in all fairness I didn't arrive home until almost midnight both Saturday and Sunday, so I was just too tired to blog. Sorry! But I last left off on Monday of last week. I had only one class at 2 (woo!) and it was my Art and Architecture class. Right now we are focusing on churches and cathedrals, and the their styles and their "plans" (blueprints basically) I am actually learning a lot in this class, beside the fact I am retaining only 25% percent of what she teaches. There is just way to many vocabulary! But, I find myself looking for and noticing the things she points out in class - which I find fascinating, because like I said I like architecture. The only thing about this class is, it is 3 hours of lecturing. We get a 15 minute break, thank goodness, but it is just a lot of information in a longggg period of time. When I come back to school at U of I, my 50 minute classes are going to be breeze and seem like 15 minutes!

Tuesday, I had Romantisme, which I honestly cannot remember that well, because it was on something we read. I believe I mentionned before, that University of Illinois had to make this class harder, and add a reading/literature component, even though we get NO credit for a literature course if we take this. The readings are not that exciting, and even my professor isn't thrilled to be having to do this (he told us.) You can see his passion lies within the artwork, because he becomes so animated when he shows us sculptures and paintings. But the reading - well quite monotone. After, Kate and i made a made dash across the Luxembourg gardens, luckily both of us made a sandwich to-go so we didn't have to stop anywhere, and met up with Maya for our contemporary French film class. Have I mentioned before that French films can be quite bizarre? or weird? or make no sense. Yeah... we watched a film called Rosetta, which won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Movie Festival in 1999. It is about a 17 year old Belgian girl who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother, and she tries to maintain a job so she can get somewhere in life. It was sad and ended so abruptly. When the film ended everyone was like "what" and our professor laughed. Needless to say, I hope the next movie is much better. The French love their sad movies, I have no idea why. The cool thing about this movie though, is it inspired Belgium to create a law saying all teenagers who work must receive minimum wage - because they were not beforehand.

Wednesday was theatre class, and although it is "only" an hour and a half long, it seems to dragggg byyyy slowlyyyy. My professor is funny, but he hasn't captivated me as much as he did the first day - but maybe that will change. This is the class I have to be on my best behavior in - because of the whole debacle with the earplugs (oops!) I get off class at noon on Wednesdays, so the rest of the day we walked around Paris, stopping at Gibert Joseph, a huge book store, with 4 other stores attached to it selling art supplies, cds/dvds, etc. to get a book for one of my classes, then we went to an umbrella store so I could by a new NOT 5 euro umbrella, that is sturdy enough that it won't break (hopefully!) and then went to Notre Dame...again. I could never get sick of seeing Notre Dame. I keep forgetting my camera though :( I forgot it when I went to Sacre Coeur the other day too! Near Notre Dame, I bought yet another pashimina scarf (hehe) and then we walked to the Hotel de Ville, and then around the Centre Pompidou. We were supposed to go in to visit the Centre Pompidou, much to my disliking, but somehow we ended up not going (yay!) So we walked some more, to get a crepe (woo!) and then I came home to do homework...kind of. I am such a procrastinator (like I am writing this now instead of doing homework.) I just really enjoyed walking around and seeing everything. I would walk around everyday if I could. Yes me. Actually walking and working out in a sense. Shocker I know. But everywhere you turn is a gorgeous building, or a national monument, or a sculpture, or a cool bridge, or a palace, or a garden, etc. You don't find that in Champaign, and definitely not Rockford.

Thursday is one of my longest days. I have class from 10:30 to 5pm, however my day started at the Louvre, so I guess it can't be too bad. During Romantisme, we finished learning about Jacques Louis DAVID, and learned a lot about Antoine Jean Baron GROS and Gericault. I now know how to distinguish between Romantic paintings and Neoclassic paintings - they are very similar because they are overlap during the same time periods. I would never have known the different styles between the 2, but I am slowly learning how to distinguish between them. For instance, in Romantic paintings they almost always have a diagonal structure to them - meaning something in the picture, usually in the middle, is painted in a diagonal form "x" but it can be very subtle. i.e. a horse with 2 legs in the air, a man holding a sword up the air etc. Neoclassic paintings are usually all about being horizontal and vertical "+" i.e. horse standing on all fours, with a man sitting straight on top of him. I know this is not translating very well onto...er...not paper...but the internet (ha)... I would need to show you, but hopefully you can get the gist. I just find it soooo interesting! Who knew I would find art history and such so fascinating (no offense mom!!!) After Romantisme, is the class I dread. French Contemporary Literature. This is 3 hours of absolute torture. The professor is an adorable young French woman, but I swear she forgets she is teaching a bunch of international students. She talks extremely fast, uses so much slang, and drops letters in words like you wouldn't believe (i.e. in English - I want to = I wanna. Yeah they do it in French too.) I start to zone out because I can't handle it after awhile. There is a woman from Algeria in our class, and her native language is French, but she was telling us the other day that she can't even keep up with our professor. After our break, she ready from this packet she gave us for the remainder of the class. I paid attention to .01% of that entire spiel - only because she mentioned Honore de Balzac - one of my favorite French authors. What did I do the rest of the time? Planned my Lady Gaga concert, and like 7 weekends of outings. No one paid attention. I figured I could just read the packet on my own time. It's awful. I have no idea what I am going to do with this class. Oy vay.

Friday was French theatre once more, and it was another, long, hour and a half. After, we walked around, yet again, but in a new direction! No Notre Dame today! Instead, Adam, Brian, Beth, and I headed towards Montparnasse, the only skyscraper in Paris (it's ugly) and walked around there. We lost Adam, not really he just went home, then we walked towards Les Invalides, which is where Napoleon is buried. Oh, and did I mention I forgot my camera AGAIN? Zut alors! It was chilly, but in the sun it was wonderful. After Les Invalides, we started walking towards the Eiffel Tower, and Brian decided to wander around himself, so it was just Beth and I left to fend for ourselves against the street men peddling touristy crap i.e. eiffel tower keychains, lighters, lights, etc. I mean, I will totally get some of this at some point while here - 4 keychains for a euro is a good deal haha, but these guys are ridiculous. Beth and I made sure we spoke French the entire time in front of them, so they wouldn't both us which worked for most, but I seriously have that sign above my head that flashes AMERICAN. They immediately switch to English and start yelling and cat-calling to get our attention to buy their stuff. One, went so far as to try and ggrab my hand to wrap his bracelet around my arm (they trick you into doing this, and then you have to pay a ton of money for the bracelet since it is on you.) I was NOT pleased, but I shook him off and he got the picture. 4 years ago I totally would have fallen for it, but luckily I am more prepared for it now.

Again, this is getting too long, not only because I procrastinated a whole week to write about my week, but also because I tend to be a bit wordy... I always have been oops! So tomorrow (shock!) I will write again once more about my crazy adventures in Reims - Champagne Country!

Dearest Metro, I love thee, but not the fact that you close at 2:30

This is the FOURTH attempt of me writing this blog. I am soooo sorry it has been over a week. I have been trying since Tuesday, but every time I start to write something comes up, or I lose the internet. I lost it for three hours Wednesday, and 2 hours on Thursday. I think it has to do with Skype somehow :-/ the internet here does not like it because it only shuts off when I am using it. LAME. Anywho onto the good stuff,

I totally forgot to mention in my last blog, that each day I am trying to incorporate 5 new words or phrases (or both!) into my French language database, and try and integrate them into my conversations at least once. Hence, the title was Word of the Day: Earplugs last time. However, I have failed to do that the past several days (typical me!) so starting today, on my honor, I am going to (try and) do this everyday. Don't worry I won't post them on here and bore you, BUT remember this one Vas chier! for later.

Thursday was my second dinner with Murielle, and we had this fish that I STILL do not know the name of, but it was good, and this curry/risotto thing, and a raisin tarte. Oh and really good vegetable soup she made by scratch. It was all very good, however conversation was still French 101. It was a bit easier this time, but it is like I forget everything when talking to her. Ugh, I will not be improving much this semester, I can already tell. *sigh*

Friday I had my theatre class and I honestly think he hates me now, or thinks I don't take his class seriously because I woke up after using ear plugs, and I think I slept funny and pushed one a little too far in, because when I woke up I could NOT hear out of my left ear. Like at all. So I sat the entire class yawning and opening my jaw to try and pop it, as well as copying Beth's notes because I couldn't hear a thing. Well after class, he mentioned something to me about being super tired and whatnot. Well it wasn't until after he left it clicked in that he thought I was jetlagged/too tired and couldn't focus OY. But side note I went in early to talk to him and apologize, and he completely understood - he just thought I was jetlagged and he completely understood because the first week is hard on students. So he doesn't hate me...yet *phew!*

Friday night was definitely an interesting night. I did not want to sit in my room...on a Friday night... in Paris, so we met up at one of the girl's dorms to hang out before going to this concert/dance type thing. So right before we are leaving, we find out it is in the 19th arrondissement a.k.a BuFu and near the outskirts of Paris. It is 10:30 at this point. 1 hours later, 4 or trains later we arrive at this place. Europeans love their techno and electronic music, so the music was kind of inbetween that, with something I cannot describe but it wasn't as bad as I thought! Quite enjoyable, and fun it let loose and dance (well I don't dance but the people at this place weren't good dancers either AND they do not dance like we do in the U.S. so it was much easier for me to stand and jump and rock about ha!) Well we leave at 1:30, but we didn't exactly know where the metro was, so we arrived exactly 1 minute after the metro left...the last one of the night. The metro closes at 2:30 on the weekends, meaning it arrives at it's last station at 2:30. So we were in trouble. We decided to take the night buses that run all night. That. Was. An. Experience.

Never again shall I take the night bus! I will leave early, or stay at the clubs til 6 am (JUST KIDDING Mom!) The systems are extremely confusing, EXTREMELY, there are a gazillion stops on each bus, there are no signs telling you which way one goes, etc. The buses are extremely safe though, and the police are always on them making sure you bought a ticket for it (yay Passe Navigo that works on trains and buses!) You also have to do a lot of switching from one bus to another. Like I said, the buses are very safe, the stops however are not so much. Guys are always yelling at girls, harassing them, hitting on them, asking them questions, etc. So that part wasn't fun, but that is where Vas chier! or Allez-y! comes in handy! Allez-y means Go away! Vas chier! means leave me, go away, or if you yell it, it means something a lot stronger. I will let you figure it out. But it works wonders. So we were on the buses forever, and as we are nearing my stop, I notice that the bus driver skipped my stop. Yep, skipped it completely. So we have to continue the bus into the suburb it was going to, hop on the another bus that goes the reverse route, and made sure the bus driver new to stop! It was quite an eventful night, and I got home much later than anticipated, so needless to say no more night buses! I had my one adventure, and that was enough to last me a lifetime.

I absolutely adore the metro though. i am becoming quite a pro at it, knowing when to switch lines, and what stops have what! My line is awesome because it is the closest metro to the Institut Catholique, it drops off right at the Musee d'Orsay, AND Montmartre. Also, it is a block away from my appartment complex. Love it! So if only it would stay open 24 hours *sigh* it opens at like 5 or 5:30am and closes at 2:30am why not stay open those few extra hours? I do not get it!

Anywho, Saturday we met at Sacre Coeur to visit it, Montmartre, and the Moulin Rouge. It was finally a sunny day! and not too cold! We climbed the many stairs to get up the Sacre Coeur and went inside. Sacre Coeur is absolutely gorgeous. It amazes me that way back when people were able to construct such amazing structures like Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur, without the technology that we have today to create things. How they were able to conceive these images in their head, as well as know how such heavy things can be supported blows my mind (don't even get me started on the pyramids!) I did not remember the inside of Sacre Coeur at all, and I know for a fact I went in last time, but it is breathtaking. Everything is so ornate, and the colors on the decorated ceiling -wow. How have they lasted so long? Sacre Coeur is a lot different from Notre Dame, beside the obvious being they are two completely different styles of architecture, etc. but Notre Dame is extremely touristy (duh) and you are allowed to talk and take pictures in Notre Dame. Sacre Coeur, however, while still touristy, you must remain absolutely silent, you cannot take pictures, and you may never disrupt any patrons who are praying or if there is a service going on. That is what makes Sacre Couer so special. Just walking around, only by candle light, with it being very quiet. It really makes you think. After we left Sacre Coeur, we went to look around Montmartre for a little bit, and then made our trek down to see the Moulin Rouge. We had no idea where we were going, but that's the fun of it! I didn't get to see it last time I was Paris so I was super excited to see it - especially since I adore the movie! We finally get to the street it is on, and we can't find it. We keep walking and see people taking pictures of something, so we turn around to see and voila! There it was. First reaction: it is SO tiny! Second reaction: this looks kind of cartoony. Third reaction: this is sooooo not like the movie! Where's the elephant? where's the big theatre? where's Ewen and Nicole! (ok, I didn't really think that last part) While I was slighty disappointed, it was still the Moulin Rouge and I got to see it! Don't worry I didn't go inside!

Saturday night, after it being such a lovely day, Ashley, Caroline, Erin, and I decided to go to see the Eiffel Tower, since we hadn't gone yet. I take one step outside, and it is POURING rain. Grrrreat. I meet Ashley and Caroline at the metro stop - but the not the closest one to the tower, and when we arrive at the base of the Eiffel Tower to meet the other Erin, we are sopping wet. Oh did I mention my 5 euro umbrella broke after an hour of usage, so I was more wet than everyone else! That is what I get for being cheap.We take some pictures and decided we were just too cold and wet so we run to a little restaurant for some coffee and tea to warm us up. The rain was relentless, so after an hour of waiting we decide we have to get back home. It looked like I swam through a lake to get home, and my half broken umbrella was useless with the wind that started to pick up. The next morning when I woke up it sounded like a tornado! It was ridiculous. Several hours later is when I heard the a hurricane basically hit here (omg!) and I was out in it, and at the Eiffel Tower that night, the wind reached 108 miles per hour. Holy. Cow. Good thing i made it home in one piece!

Sunday we all met a the MacDo (McDonald's) to discuss our spring break plans! We ended up not booking anything for spring break there, BUT I did book my flight to SWEDEN! Wooo! I am going to Stockholm and I cannot wait! I will put my tentative traveling plans up at the end of this blog sou can be envious of my life (just kidding!) I will be living on baguettes and water for the remainder of the semester with all the things I want to do, but hey! When in Paris!

This blog is getting way to long, and I have to get up at 6am (ughh!) tomorrow to go to Reims (Champagne country!) so I will fill you in on my entire week in the blog I write tomorrow or Sunday, yes I promise I will write! Until then AU REVOIR!

Travelling:

March 6th: Reims, France (Champagne country!)

March 18th-21st: Stockholm, SWEDEN (!!!)
April 1st-5th: Barcelona? Switzerland? London? China (jokes)? we shall see
April 16-24th: GREECE!!!!!
April 24th-May 1st: All of Italy. Hopefully I will be back in Paris by May 1st (cough hint mom & dad cough I need you to buy my ticket from Milan cough)

Word of the Day: Earplugs

This picture is for my mom! Love you!! It is a Van Gogh

So, the first half of this blog was written Wednesday, after a long day, and I had a headache, so it isn't as entertaining nor very much like self, so i apologize. And of course I am way to lazy to re-write it, so sorry!

So, I last left you eagerly (ok, not really) awaiting to hear about my first dinner with my host family. Well, Armand is visiting his dad this week, so it was just Murielle and I - which was nice, and less awkward. I definitely not used to three course meals at home, so it started off with the best tomato soup I have ever had, and I thought that was the entire meal because she gave me a huge bowl. nope, definitely not, next came a delicious veal (I ate baby cow :( ) mixed with carrots, potatoes, and broccoli. Murielle then made crepes for dessert - with sugar! Just the way I like it. It was such a good dinner, however the dinner conversation was lacking a little bit, mainly because of me. We talked about or families and what not, but I still sound like I am in French 101 when I speak to her! I cannot form sentences, I don't use the correct forms. Ugh, it is a nightmare. Yet when I talk to people my age I can speak. I do not know what is wrong with me, but I am sure she thinks I am stupid, ah such is life, c'est la vie.

The next morning, I started my Romanticism class, where we have an excursion every Thursday to various museums around Paris (how cool!) However, it is going to be a ton of work because stupid University of Illinois added an extra literature component, yet we do not get credit for it being a literature class. It makes no sense! Good ol' U of I. After Romantism (that is what it is called in French) a girl in my class, Kate, and I booked it to a little sandwich shop to get lunch, and then ran to the other campus because we had another class at 2:00 (our first class finished at 1:40 so it was a mad dash) This class is Modern French Cinema, which French movies are extremely, extremely bizarre, I will admit it, so I was quite apprehensive about this course. The professor, though, is hilarious! I am super excited to take this course because he makes it interesting and points out things I never would have noticed before. I have never taken a cinema course in general, so I am excited to learn a thing or 2 (hopefully more) about the cinema and movies in general, even if it means watching weird movies.

Wednesday was the day I was most excited for, Of course not for my theatre class, but for what was happening after! My theatre class is going to be awesome I think! My professor is a French actor, and you can totally tell he is an actor and loves what he does. He was so easy to understand, and acted things out - it was great. We will be reading plays throughout the semester, and he said perhaps acting out just a little of it (cool!) since it is mainly a reading plays course, and going to see 3 French plays! How exciting! I think it will be an awesome class, despite having it on Friday - but at least it finishes at 1:30. After class we went to..................

Well, had to leave you hanging there since I built up so much anticipation, and most of you might not find it that exciting, but a bunch of us went to the Musee D'Orsay!! It houses tons of Impressionist art like Matisse, Renoir, Monet and VAN GOGH! I have been waiting forever to go to this museum because when I came in last time, we never got to go because someone hates Impressionism (how can you hate Impressonism!?!) So needless to say I was like a kid in a candy store! It was absolutely amazing. To be standing a foot away from the famous "Water Lilies" by Monet, and Vincent Van Gogh's self portrait - oh.my.goodness. I got chills. (I did at the Louvre too, don't worry!) It was just so surreal. To have this opportunity...man. "Oh hey, it is Wednesday. I have class until noon and then...I think I will go to the d'Orsay." What?! I cannot get over it. It was wonderful.

Today, Thursday, I had my first excursion with my Romanticism class - at the Louvre! Again, who can say they have class at the Louvre?? I actually really enjoyed it - I was worried that I would never be able to hear my professor, or be able to pay attention, because I tend to have a wandering eye while in museums, but he made it really interestintg! Our first stop was to visit 2 sculptures - the slaves (I don't know if that is the name) by Michelangelo. I had no idea they were by him (woah!) Then we visited 2 sculptures of Psyche and her lover by Antonio Canova. I absolutely loved them - they are the same characters, by the same sculptor, but they are depicted in 2 entirely different ways. It was so interesting. We saw a few more scupltures, and then moved on to the Hall of David (Jean Louis) I was amazed - some of the paintings he made are GIGANTIC! I seriously wonder how someone makes a painting this big...and where do they ever store it?? The one of Napoleon's coronation I couldn't even fit in a whole picture! Anywho, my Professor definitely knows his stuff, and he showed us things I never would have noticed before in these paintings, i.e. throughout Le serment des horaces there are triangles of how he painted and positioned things in his painting, and how the swords are the focal point of the painting, or in another paint, Les licteurs rapportent a brutes de ses filles - the empty chair symbolizes death. This class will teach me how to find symbolism in art, because usually I am clueless when it comes to these things (my mother's artistic capabilities totally skipped over me!) This class will be a lot of work, but I am excited for it.

After, I had Contemporary French Literature, and I am scared to death of this class. My professor seems very nice, but she speaks so rapidly that I lose half of what she is saying, and I tend to zone out (oops - sorry Mom and Dad!) I couldn't tell you half of what went on in this class - but I don't think I was alone... hopefully! Luckily I have Beth with me to suffer through it a.k.a I will rely on her, or we will rely on another kid from our program in the class, Brian. It is going to be a lot of reading! Hopefully I can handle it, and maybe the next class will be better! I think I was just super tired, which leads me into my

title. Word of the Day: Earplugs, or "boule Quiès" as my host mom taught me today. Why ear plugs you ask? Well, it seems I am living at Weston again, my lovely dorm from U of I. The dorm where they were building a new dorm right outside my window the entire year. Apparently, they are building an apartment building outside my window this time, at 7am. It never fails. Now, I luckily am on the 3 floor this time, but this morning was AWFUL! I personally think someone on the floor above me is having work done in their apartment because it was LOUD! I have earplugs in and it sounded like it was next to me! This loud buzzing BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ every 2 minutes. I thought it was a drill, or a saw, but maybe a jackhammer. Oh my gosh it was horrible! And of course as soon as I had to get up it stopped for the day #$RF#(@#$*#$*OU#$O*U. Yeah that is what I think. I was not a happy camper! Ah c'est MA vie. (ma = my)

Tonight is my 2nd dinner with Murielle (eek I am nervous! All my French knowledge is oozing out of my brain as I write) so that will come in the next installment. As well as my exciting weekend of visiting Sacre-Coeur, Montmartre, the Champs-Elysees, MAYBE the Eiffel Tower, and... a discotheque! I know you cannot wait ;-)

Until then, AU REVOIR!

Je ne comprends pas!

It has been a couple of days since I blogged, but have no fear I am back and full of tings to write about!

As I mentioned in the previous blog, we went to Versailles on Saturday. I woke up at the fiap to huge, and I mean gigantic snowflakes falling to the ground. When I went down to breakfast it was pouring, and I had no desire to go to Versailles if the weather was going to be so awful, but by the time we left the sun was out! We had three different types of weather in a just one hour! Oh Paris! So, with the sun out, and in much better spirits, we headed to Versailles via the RER which is like the Metra in Illinois. It only took 20 minutes, as a bus would take an hour which was awesome. Versailles is amazing. I cannot describe it any other way. It is gi-normous (gigantic and enormous put together - it's a word,) beautiful, and so, so intricate and detailed. I loved it the last time I visited it, and was just as excited to visit it again. We received the little devices to listen to to an audio-tour of Versailles, and being adventurous I got it in French. First mistake. We then started the tour but we were free to go at whatever pace we wanted since we were going to be there for hours. I start walking through the rooms, listening to the audio tour, only to find out the first 4 rooms are NOT on the audio tour. Second mistake. i then heard someone say you are supposed to goo 100, then 200, then 300 etc. Third mistake. Next thing you know I hear "The gardens of Versailles..." and I was standing in a room that didn't even face the gardens! So needless to say I gave up, and so did the other girls I was walking with, Beth, Ashley, Diane, Alla, and Colie, because we were so confused, and we just walked around and shared the history that we knew ourselves about Versailles. The last time I was here the Hall of Mirrors was closed, because of renovation so I thought, but apparently it was because of the movie Marie Antoinette, so it was so cool to see it!! I took way to many pictures, but hey! I am allowed to be a tourist! They added a really cool new section to Versailles with pictures of Versailles throughout the years, from the invention of the camera (it had the very first photo ever taken of Versailles how cool!) to the most recent (professional) photo of Versailles in January. It was very, very interesting to see how people perceive Versailles and whatnot. We entered the queen's chambers after and fun fact - 19 babies were given birth in the queen's bed! ALSO, back then they would have public births - in front of EVERYONE. What?! Could you imagine? No way Jose!

Unfortunately, it was still super cold out outside, so none of the fountains were working, and obviously nothing was in bloom in the gardens, so we did not venture out into the gardens too much. It was way too cold, and there was no way we were going to walk 50 minutes to Marie Antionette's home (that is how far away in the garden's her house was!) so a group decided to leave Versailles because we were starving. I plan on coming back, and definitely plan on bringing my family and Brittany here in the Summer! It is even more amazing. So, of course being in France we decide to go to the MOST French-ish restaurant we could find - McDo a.k.a McDonald's. We of course had to see what it was like! It was crazy inside, very modern, and you could order at a machine in case you are that anti-social and had no desire to order with a person! Don't worry, I ordered with a person, but I seriously must have a flashing sign over my head that says "AMERICAN!" because a girl from my program ordered before me and the person who was taking orders spoke to her in French, and the minute she got to me she switched to English! What?? And the day before at the Louvre when we had to show our tickets, the guy said merci to everyone in front of me and everyone behind me, but when he saw me he said "Thank you." Arghhh. Anywho, I know you only care about McDonald's so, it was actually quite good! It was definitely not so greasy, and not a frozen patty or whatnot. I quite enjoyed it! Besides the fact it is 6 euro a.k.a 8 dollars.

After leaving Versailles, we decided to go the the Galleries Lafayette (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!) It is a huge mall like thing, I mean like 7 stories, and then it has 3 giant stores across the way from it. It was super packed though because it was a Saturday. The first visible floor, because there are some underground) is amazing. It contains all the shoes, make-up, perfume, bags, gloves and scarves. So you walk in, and there is Dior, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Prada, Gucci, Versace, etc. and of course NINA RICCI! What is Nina Ricci? Why my most favorite perfume EVER! I have been waiting 4 years to go back and get this perfume called Nina by Nina Ricci. I bought it last time I was here, 4 years ago, and I sprayed my last drop of it the day I left for France, last Tuesday. I instantly bought it! That is my present to myself! Well one of them :) . The woman at Nina Ricci who was helping me even said my French was quite good! Surprisingly. No really. After that, we got back to the fiap and had dinner one last time :( and later that night we had a very chill wine night with everyone who was still at the fiap (those living in foyers had already moved out unfortunately) and it was wonderful! I adore everyone in my program so much that it is sad that we are all separated now.

The next morning, Sunday, was the day we were to move into our host families. Needless to say I was sick to my stomach with nerves, and I wasn't the only one. At 10 o'clock Dr. Costello and Sean, the graduate assistant, ordered the taxi's and by 10:15 we were whisked away to our families. I was a nervous wreck. I am living in the 15th arrondissement with Madame Ronceau (Pancracio) (yeah you figure that out too she has 2 last names and I didn't know what to call her!) and her son. I now know there names are Murielle, Armand (I think that is how it is spelled? I hope!) and she has a daughter Charlotte who lives in Paris. As soon as I met Murielle, all my French went out the window. No joke. It was like French 101 when I started talking to her. I couldn't understand her - even though I should, and I forgot the easiest words like - often - HELLO SOUVANT?? We say that all the time in class and I couldn't remember it. Oy vay. So we talked for a few minutes and arranged what days we will be eating, Monday and Thursday, where I could put things in "le frigo" the refrigerator, how to use the key - it's confusing, and my room. She left my to pack, and I quickly closeted myself into room to unpack and I am lost it. :( I never thought I would miss the fiap but I did. I missed going next door to talk to someone and having everyone close by. So I unpacked (yes I unpacked everything Mom!) and went on facebook before slowly crawling out to talk to my new host family. Murielle is very nice! She quickly gave me a tour of the neighborhood. I was scared at first but it is awesome! The Franprix, which is a small supermarket is right around the corner, there is a Boulangerie (bread products and desserts!) and a Charcuterie (a deli) legit 30 steps from my apartment building, and the metro is a block and a half AND it is a direct line to the school YES! There are also many restaurants and cafes around here as well. After the tour, she had to meet with her friend, so I took a 2 hour nap (oops!) Caroline called me, and she seemed to be having the same problems I was having with missing everyone and the fiap, so she came to my neighborhood and we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant. It was quite good! After that I came back and had a fitful night of sleep - probably because i was nervous for my first day of class Monday (today!)

So, today was my first day of class! Art and Architecture from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance in France. But before I had class, I met up with Caroline at the metro to get our Passe Navigo - which is a metro pass. That was interesting, because we were told we could pay with a credit card, but apparently we weren't at one of the "special" stations where you can pay with cred/debit, so we had to run to the atm to pay for the week pass (we didn't attempt the month pass today oy) I still have to go get my picture taken to glue it on my pass. We then met up with Beth and we ran around between our 2 campuses, looking for a stupid school supply store because guess who didn't bring any?? Yeah, that's right, me. So it is 45 minutes until class, after going into the first 2 portions of this store, we finally locate the 3rd entrance where the sell school supplies. Let me tell you, it is expensive!! 5 euro for a thin notebook?? Geesh! So i bought a big journal for 13euro (eek!) and I think it was meant to be like a diary, but it has several ribbon in it to divide it, and I can divide it into 5 sections - so voila I have 5 classes, and now 5 mini notebooks. I win. So with 30 minutes left, and still no lunch, we stop at a sandwich shop to get a student lunch - but Caroline and i did it wrong, so we ended up paying more than Beth - C'est la vie, and we walked the 15 minutes to Campus while eating. It was quite an adventure! Beth and I got to class on time though, so all was good. It seems like it could be an interesting, but it is all in French, as all my classes, and is 3 hours long. Yikes I do not have an attention span to sit through 3 hours of that (yet I have enough to write this ridiculously long blog post -sorry!) so it shall be interesting!

Ok, I will describe my first meal with my host family in my next post because this is getting soooo unbearably long, so until then AU REVOIR!

I am soooooo confused!

So I officially landed in Paris three days ago, and it has been a whirlwind! This is going to be long, so please bear with me!

My flight left at 5:35 from O'Hare and I took the group flight, meaning a group of us from the Illinois Program in Paris all rode together to France. You would think "group flight" means everyone sits together, right? Yeah, me too. However I was the only one who did NOT get to sit with the group. I was in a whole other cabin than the group! What the?? I was not too happy, until I found out there was no one in the 2 seats next to me (woo!) So then dinner comes around and I had a choice between this really funky looking beef dish our cheese ravioli, so of course I chose ravioli, only to find out there was shrimp in the meal. My uncle's words right before I left were "Never choose the fish." Well now I know why. Getting sick on a plane is not fun. Not. At. All. So I got MAYBE 2 hours of sleep. Oh, and I broke my passport/money holder while on the plane too, so needless to say my plane ride was not so fun!

So we arrived in Paris at 8:30a.m. and we were ushered to a bus that carried us to the FIAP - a place that houses foreigners and French travelers. It is very much like a dorm but people of all ages can stay here. We are staying here for orientation until we are transferred to our host families or foyers. We had the afternoon free basically, until a meeting at 6, so we tried traveling around the 14th Arrondissement, but unfortunately there is not much to do in this neighborhood, and we were all verrrrrry tired so we just milled around the fiap. I was out by 9pm because I was so jetlagged and tired - which meant I was wide awake at 4am until 5:30am so that was fun.

Wednesday we had 4 hours (ugh) of orientation, with a 2 hour lunch break in between. I went with my roomie at the FIAP, Beth, and several other girls from my program to this adorable little cafe and had a true, French meal. I had a croque-monsieur - basically a grilled cheese sandwich with ham, and cheese melted on top of the bread, a salade verte, a limonade (not lemonade) AND I tried escargot for the first time. Me. Yes me. I am a terribly picky eater and I tried it. It was actually not that bad! I loved the garlic/pesto sauce with it. I would eat it again if offered totally. It was a wonderful time, and our sever was the nicest man ever, helping us with our French if we forgot a word, and would not give us our "cuillère à cafe" our coffee spoon until we said it correctly. It was wonderful! After, we had the 2nd portion of orientation - about host family housing, and then I took a nap because I was still jetlagged. That night was so much fun though. It started off in 4 of the girl's FIAP room with a little "cercle de mort" and ended hiking to my first Parisian and French bar with a big group of us. The French know you are tourists if you travel in a big group, and there was like 11 of us going into this bar, we had a hard time fitting but we did! In this arrondissement the bars are more like pubs and are very small, but the people are so nice! I had my first Belgian beer, but I totally would not call it a beer. It was called "Framboise" and it tasted like raspberry juice. It was delicious! But don't worry I only had one. We all had our French oral exam the next morning, so we didn't want too get too wild! However, the best part of the night for sure was when I was suddenly woken up in the middle of the night to see my roomie Beth rummaging through her suitcase, throwing things out. I asked her if she was ok, and what was going on, because I was out of it myself, and she just exclaims "I am soooooooooooooo confused!" Well, so was I, so I just rolled over. it wasn't until a minute later, after she had gotten back into her bed, that I realized she was sleep walking/rummaging! We had just discussed before bed how we both had sleep walking issues when we were younger, but they had stopped, so it was super funny to see her doing this so soon after. It was fun telling everyone in the program the next morning!

Thursday, today, was the best day in Paris so far! (I have only been here for 3 days so obviously I have had so much experience.) We went to take our oral exam,s - and it was a NIGHTMARE! First, on their lists they messed up and forgot to mark-off that we took the written exam so they were sending students to take that. Then they recalled those students whom they sent off. Then they told us to get our schedules out - we were never told to bring our schedules so 90% of us did not have them. So after 15 minutes of confusion they decided they could print out the schedules for us before our exam. 10 minutes later they come back and tell us we do not need our schedules and to just go ahead and take our exam. 15 minutes later, several arguments later, and 4 oral exams later for 4 students, we find out we do not have to take the exam (WOO!) My guess is they were sick of us and all of the confusion they just excused everyone from taking it. Fine by me! So then we had quite a few hours before we had to be at the Louvre, so we got to explore Paris - and I mean the real Paris, the heart of Paris. So we walked from the first campus through the Jardin du Luxumbourg, (A-MAZING) to the other campus we will be taking course at (15 minute way maybe so i have to book it when I have 30minutes in-between classes.) After receiving a tour of where our classes were going to be held, we split up into a groups to get get lunch. My roomie Beth, and 3 others, Ashley, Caroline, and Diane, first went to a tiny bookstore - and I mean it was a hole in the wall, barely fit the 5 of us, and bought this amazing book with maps of Paris, including the metro, RER, and bus lines, and a close ups of all the arrondissements. The owner of the shop was such a nice guy, commenting on how great our French was (which made us feel good) and asking us questions. He even gave us free magnets as we were leaving because he liked us so much! And they are cool magnets, thanks. It was great! We then went to lunch after finding a GREAT deal, and after decided to walk around for a bit. We ended up walking to Notre Dame, visiting there for awhile, and then walked to the Louvre. Let me tell you, that is A LOT of walking - like a ton! Paris is HUGE. My feet are killing me, but it was totally worth it. The director of my study abroad program gave us a free tour of the Louvre today, unfortunately I was so tired of walking, and just mentally exhausted, I could not concentrate as well as I could of because the tour is in French. I have many more times to go to the Louvre though, and will definitely take more pictures next time.

Tomorrow we are off to Versailles, and Sunday to our host families GAHH! Should be interesting and I will keep you posted. Until then AU REVOIR!

Almost there!

To those very few of you who are reading this, fear not I have not fell off the face of the planet. I am alive, and in SIX days will be going to Paris AHHH! And of course I have YET to start packing a thing. Always a procrastinator I am. Oops! But at least everything is in order. Except for the fact that Air France decided to change their policy and only allow 1 bag per person and the next bag is 50 dollars to and 50 Euros coming back. I am NOT happy. I cannot survive 4-5 months on 1 suitcase. Maybe I will throw a fit and get it for free, or maybe get moved up to first class!! Ha, I have been listening to my bank friends for too long, that will never happen. I don't have the nerve to complain. However, I am a very good crier so maybe I can use that to my advantage? We shall see!

I have so much to do these next 6 days, and I am still working at the bank! EEK no time! Meaning I probably won't have time to write until I am in "Gay Paris" (pronounced Pair-Eeee) unless I write a blog at 1am the night before I leave, because goodness knows I will still be packing. So until, then AU REVOIR!!!!!!!