You make Paris even more beautiful than it was before you came here to visit us. You make dancing lessons on the river and crepe Thursday even better.
Love,
Wartburg students in Paris
Yes, the sun has FINALLY come to Paris. And don't worry, we are taking full advantage of it. It started on Sunday and has continued all this week! Speaking of this week, is it really Thursday dinner and am I REALLY about to consume snails? Well, my calendar says it is really Thursday, and the note from my host says I'm supposed to cook the snails, so I guess that is a yes as well.
On Monday this week, Jessie and I headed out after class to go up to Sacre- Coeur. Sacre-Couer is a large church up on Montemarte which is an overlook of the city. (I'm loving seeing the city from above..) We took some time to eat our desserts (carrot-orange cake) and then went in to see the church. Unfortunately, no pictures were (legally) allowed in the church, so I can share its beauty with you. After that, we headed for a quick walk past Moulin Rouge and then headed back toward my place. We had intentions of going to the aquarium, but my attention was, for some reason, drawn to the fair. I was told by my host about 5 minutes after I arrived on day 1 to stay away from the fair. Naturally, I wanted to go. It was HUGE. I mean, were talking all rides, food booths and games. Perhaps state fair size! We walked around the whole fair and Jessie decided she wanted to ride the swings. These aren't normal swings (pictures when I get home maybe?), but grown up swings. They went round and round and round and up and round and up and round..etc. Now, background, we had just eaten crepes and waffles. Hmm.. yeah I was not doing so well afterwards. So, I headed home to work on my presentation for class the next day and called it a day.
Tuesday: Class (had my presentation and we were in the lab again, fairly uneventful), and then after some slight shopping at St. Michel, I headed home with a migraine. Ate some dinner, took some Advil PM and slept through the night. It was kind of amazing.
Wednesday: Oh man! Awesome day! After class, we ran to Monoprix (the grocery store) and bought stuff for a picnic. We jumped on the metro and headed for Versailles. We picnicked in the gardens at Versailles then met up with Edith (our AMAZING tour guide) for a tour of the palace. While there, the group decided it would be an amazing night for a boat ride. So, we made plans for a night boat ride. After Versailles, we RAN home, scarfed some beef bourguignon and chocolate cake (Mom, please tell me, it IS a sin to not have milk with warm cake, isn't it?) and then RAN to catch the boat. After a frantic call to tell Dr. Hagan we were coming and to not leave us, we arrived (10 minutes late) and got on the boat for a ride around the city. After the boat ride, some of us went for Gyros and crepes to end the night.
Thursday: We had class today and lunch in the Luxembourg Gardens as we have been doing a lot recently. For afternoon class today, we went to St. Sulpice church (Da Vinci code people: this is the church where he killed the nun..) and then headed towards the river for dance lessons. We learned (sort of) how to dance tango and salsa. Don't except to see any of us on Dancing with the Stars any time soon. We then headed to St. Michel for crepe and coffee Thursday. (This is what it sounds like... we drink coffee and eat crepes on Thursday.) Then I headed home via stops to look for Fnac, a book store, to look for a Dr. Seuss book that doesn't exist in France. LAME. How do these kids grow up with out Dr. Seuss? I'm sitting on the 2 ft porch now trying to swallow the escargot. Wasn't a fan of the first one. Let me try a second. Hmm, tastes like.. snail. Maybe, It's because they were frozen not fresh. Not my favorite food. My host is gone tonight and my roommate is currently MIA, and the note from the host said neither would be home for dinner.. Oh well, house to myself for a little bit. The quiet is a nice change of pace.
Usually, I would wait until Sunday to post about the week, but we are leaving at ridiculous hours of the morning (meeting at a stop 30 minutes away) at 7:30 AM Saturday morning to go to Normandy for the weekend. I know a few of us are very excited to leave Paris and travel around Normandy! It should be fun. After 3 days in Normandy, we have 2 days in Paris and then a day of traveling. One week and 30 minutes from now, we should be touching down in Chicago. (Well, Paris time at least.) Have we really been here that long already? "We're here a month, we can wait to see it." Crap, now we don't have time to see everything!
So Tomorrow, Friday, we start the day with class and then (hopefully, knock on wood) will make it to the free buffet AND the catacombs before Rodin at 3:45. It's our last museum visit :( And then Normandy. So the last few days will fly buy. I think I have a couple gifts to track down and maybe something else for me (yeah, you thought I was spending all my money on other people? I'm not THAT considerate..) and I'll be ready to go. I decided today that I will not have to buy an extra carry on back, but will put everything heavy in my backpack and then also use my drawstring bag. Yes, I'm going to be that person who takes two carry ons. Woops.
Some other cultural differences/ random things that I have noticed this week:
The metro. I know I've mentioned this before, but this is a different thing I have noticed. The metro is amazing. It is an equalizer. Everyone has to take the metro. The people who, unfortunately, wont have a meal on the table tonight. The people who will throw away food tonight. The people who live in the suburbs, the people who live in the city. Everyone rides the metro. Business people, homeless people. People with blue hair, purple hair, no hair. This is the one place these people interact. Who are we to judge others when we are all equal on this basis. The first way you tell who someone is is by their shoes. Are they wearing flats? Tennis shoes? Business shoes? Boots? Thats the first indication of who they are. Then you look at what they're doing. Are they jamming out? Reading the paper? On a crack.. I mean blackberry? Are they drunk? Are they drinking? Are they just standing there? You can tell a lot about someone by what they do on the metro, and it is just interesting to think about how the Parisians feel about it.
Public intoxication. I don't know why, but you can be drunk off your butt here and no one seems to care. Maybe it is because the drinking age is 18 (or is it 16?) but no one cares if a scary old drunk dude gets in your face on a crowded metro and you can smell the alcohol on his breath. Its disgusting. NO, I'm not telling you where i'm going, my name, where I live or giving you my number. Yes, I speak English, and some French, but I have no intentions of talking to you, so PLEASE, get out of my face. Oh look, my stop. Sorry. It can get annoying dealing with drunk people, I'm glad that the US (or Iowa) has that "No Public Intox) rule that we have.
People are not afraid to run over you. Not in a car. But on bike or trampling you in the metro. Today alone, I got run into by a bike and got knocked down in the metro station by some dude sprinting down the staris. (On the bike, I was in the walking lane but the class was in the bike lane so the biker was in the walking lane and didn't like me there.. In the metro station, I was being a good polite Iowan and walking on the right side of the stairs in a crowded stairwell. HE was running down the stairs at full blast through the crowd and ran into me.. OWW!)
Lastly, everything comes in a can. Or so it seems. Who puts milk and apple juice in a can? Can I have my plastic bottles back please? I promise I'll recycle!
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