Friday was spent at the Louvre. We left school at 12 and hit up Monoprix (the grocery store) for some food and then headed towards Palace Royal. This is the palace by the Louvre and they have some famous gardens there. We wondered around there a little bit, and then wondered around to find the famous pyramid at the Louvre. While walking around the Louvre, we wondered by a souvenir shop that happened to have the souvenir I was looking for. I saw it on Day 1 in France and knew I needed to buy it for someone at school and haven't been able to find it since then. I was so happy, I made the group stop so I could buy it. Sorry guys. We found our way around the Louvre, and headed across the bridge to see what was over there. We met some guy making necklaces and stopped so the other girls could buy some. After we headed into the Louvre. Through many security checks, and long lines to get free tickets. An hour later, we headed into the Sully wing to look at the Egypt stuff. Three hours later, we met up with the group under the inverted pyramid (which isn't actually directly under the big pyramid like Ryan and I thought...Woops.) We went and saw all the things you MUST see at the Louvre with Edith (our very good, informative tour guide) such as the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Vinus de Milo, and some other things. After the Louvre, we headed up to Abessess near Hagan's place for a group dinner at a small little French Cafe. Dinner menu for me: Angel hair pasta with scallops (yes father, I know scallops are fish, and I ate them and liked them), Kangaroo (which, with the honey glaze, was some of the best meat I think I've ever had... Wish I could get some in Iowa), and chocolate cake with caramel sauce. We left the restaurant around 12:30 am and went straight to bed when we got home.
Saturday:
Janean and I slept in a little bit and then headed towards Hotel de Ville (basically the center of Paris) to look for a specific kind of jacket she wanted that we never actually found.) We then turned towards Notre Dame and the bread festival (or something) that was going on. I wasn't looking to buy bread, but just wanted to smell. It was what I imagine Heaven will smell like. We found a nice bakery to grab a light lunch from and headed to meet up with the group at Musee d'Orsay. This is the "modern" art, or the stuff from the 19th Century. It was an old train station so the building was pretty cool. After the museum, we made plans for that night and for Sunday and I headed back to my apartment. I haven't been sleeping well and a nap sounded pretty good for a Saturday afternoon. :) Saturday after dinner at my house, (Duck and green beans and fries), I headed out to meet up with people to hang out under the Eiffel Tower. It was an amazing night for it and we had lots of fun. I enjoyed a nice long metro ride home around 1 am again and then going straight to bed.
Sunday:
Woke up late. Ran out of the house without breakfast to meet people. Plan for the day: Go up the Eiffel Tower and then go to Catacombs. What did we really do: Meet up at Eiffel Tower, tell the guy that Wartburg was a legit school and we really did have 13 people, Wartburg really IS a legit school, get reservations to go up the tour for 3 hours later. We walked around looking for a super market not realizing it was Sunday and nothing would be open. Finally, we found a small shop and we partnered up to split food and headed back to the green space by the Eiffel Tower for a picnic lunch. We hung out there in the sun (realize, please, that this is the third day of 18 that we have seen the sun..) Around 2, we headed back to the Tower for our reservation. We took the elevator up to the second floor, and then went up up to the top. We had mass amounts of photos taken, broke some rules (like not putting heads or hands through the railings..), and then headed back down to the bottom. At the bottom, we found some street performers to watch and took a nap in the grass. After a while, we headed back to Tracadero (after stopping a few times to watch the break dancers.) and I headed home. For dinner, our host made us crepes with 2 different cheeses. Not two cheeses in each crepe, two different crepes, each with a different type of cheese. Either way, delicious. We had leftover cobbler and fresh strawberries for desert. Then she mentioned chocolate. She likes making us REAL hot cocoa, and we like drinking it. So we are sitting in our room drinking warm cocoa and enjoying the night.
There are now also some pictures on my facebook (an albums worth for now) and I will try, probably tomorrow, to get some on here.
A few other things I have noticed this week:
When you go to the grocery store to buy groceries, you bag your own groceries. And you bring your own bag. They don't provide them. I forgot about this when I went to get some groceries and had fun carrying stuff to my place (luckily it was a whole 8 feet to the front door of my apartment)
Being the minority is a strange feeling. Someone last night tried to ask me something, in French, on the metro, and I didn't know what he was saying and I couldn't help him. Not being able to understand people is a strange feeling. And everyone is free to judge. Because we wear tennis shoes, we are marked as a tourist. Granted, people don't know where we are from (been mistaken for a Canadian, German, Irish, and French), they know you are a tourist because you wear tennis shoes. It is a strange feeling. We are in Paris, a very touristy city, there are still two million people who live here and not understanding everything they are saying or why they are doing things is strange. I have never been the minority before, and the feeling is strange. I've grown up in a primarily white, English speaking town, and go to a small liberal arts school in the middle of no-where Iowa. Being a majority is something I have become accustom to and adjusting to being the minority is strange.
As I sit drinking my hot cocoa, waiting for pictures to upload, it strikes my mind how little time we have left here. It seems like just yesterday we were here and saying "Oh, We will see it later, we are here for a month." Now that month is almost over and we still have things to see and don;t know when we will see them. We have Monday, Tuesday, Thursday off from museum visits, Wednesday we leave at 12:05 from school for our day trip to Versailles, Friday we go to Rodin and Saturday we leave for a 3 day trip to Normandy. We come back Monday, and then leave early, early, early Thursday morning. Our time here is limited, and it should be, hopefully, packed full of shopping trips, crepes, class, and a few more sites to see (Montmarte, Sacre Coeur, Catacombs, and possibly a small group trip (and very quick) to Moulin Rouge.)
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