On Sunday, I was able to explore the Musée d'Orsay with Roanne, Dustin, and our friend from Georgia (who is now living in Paris with his family) Austin! The Musée d'Orsay houses impressionists and post impressionist paintings. My favorite painting was Renoir's Danse à la ville. Danse à la Campagne. (I would have included a picture of me + painting at the end of this blog, however, there are 29854623987109 signs in the Musée d'Orsay saying that taking pictures was forbidden.) Afterward we took a stroll along the Seine with the intention of walking from the Musée d'Orsay to the Eiffel Tower (it's a pretty big and impressive commitment) but had to turn back early for dinner.
Sunday night, Caroline, Roanne and I had the opportunity to have dinner at the house of Jim Haynes! For those of you who may not be familiar with him, he hosts dinner parties every Sunday night as his apartment in Paris and it is open to the first 50-60 people who sign up! He believes in introducing people and loves to meet people who live in Paris, or may just be passing through! A friend of ours, Molly - we met her in Tours, told us about Jim and his dinner parties - so we decided to give it a go! There were so many people in a tiny little flat, but overall it was a lovely dinner!
Monday was a pretty rough day for classes. I'm still not too used to sitting through 6 hours of French in one day, but since it was the start of the week before vacation, the end was in sight! For dinner Monday night, I ventured out to the 11th to have dinner with Dustin at his foyer! Having dinner at other foyers is always so interesting - you always meet different types of people!
On Tuesday I wrote my first in-class French paper! It wasn't too bad, though time went by so quickly! However, by the time we had run out of . . . . well . . . time. . . . I was so relieved to be finished with it! Kelly and I planned a little bit for our trip (where am I going? you will find out when I return!) and then I had dinner at Roanne's foyer. Those dinners are always a lot of fun!
Wednesday evening, I was able to go out with my friends Charlenne and Vivienne! We met up at Starbucks (I had a café Americano, which is basically just an elongated espresso) and then went to see Moi moche et mechant (despicable me) in TROIS D (3D)! I had already seen the movie before with my little brother Cameron and cousin Matthew, but this time when I saw the movie, it was in French - still cute though!
Thursday morning I had an appointment for OFII - a doctor's check up that everyone with a French visa has to go through. Now, I know you may be wondering if I am affected at all by the strikes that have been taking place. If it is possible, I usually walk around Paris - so I have been able to get around just fine. But for this appointment, I needed to go across the river, and up some. One thing about the strikes is that you don't really know how it will affect the transportation system until the day of the strike. So, I had planned on walking an hour and fifteen minutes to get to my appointment. However, thankfully, the trains were running on a regular schedule! So, to be early for my 8:30am appointment, I left my foyer at 7:15am. Needless to say, I was finished by 9:40am and home by 10:15am!
Thursday night our program went out to see the opera Figaro but there was something very strange about this opera. À cause de la grève, the only people present for the production were the singers and the musicians. Therefore, there were hardly any costumes and there were no scene changes - just movement of some furniture here and there. The music was excellent, though it was pretty bizarre not to have everything else.
Today, I had my last day of class until November 8! Sitting through my phonetics class was a bit tough, though the time seemed to pass rather quickly. Tonight I attended a "Welcome to Church" gathering where I met many new people and even got to talk with the pastor of Hillsong Paris! It was really fun to spend time with them and exciting to find another girl from Texas A&M! (She is even studying at the Catholic Instute and has a few of the same classes as Dustin!)
You may be wondering why I am still awake at this time of night. (Yep, it's nearly 2am.) When I returned back to the foyer (it was around 10:30pm or so) I decided that I was a bit hungry, though I still needed to wash. So I took a quick shower and then headed to the kitchen. I decided to experiment a bit with the food that I had in my refrigerator, and by the time I finished making it (which wasn't too long ago since I wanted to allow it to simmer) I was no longer hungry! I also realized that I needed to update this blog . . . but there is no need to worry! Tomorrow I will be sleeping in!
So 7 weeks into my semester abroad, and I feel like time has gone by so quickly. I have adjusted to the odd meal times - to getting around the city on my own - to the internet that keeps going in and out - to knowing how many layers will keep me warm at what temperatures. Though I can't wait to come home, and miss everyone there, I know that there are still some great things to be done here in Paris! What exactly will they be? Well . . . I'm not too sure myself! But, we will find out together! :)
Thanks for reading!
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| Roanne, Austin, and me. Oh, and the Seine river! |
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| Dinner with Jim Haynes (yep, he's kind of old). |
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| Waiting for the bus to take us home. |
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| The cups look the same, except they are also in French! |
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| Me with Vivienne and Charlenne - oh and our cool 3D glasses! |
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