Day 30.

So! There is a lot to that I have yet to tell you about. Today in my jazz class we learned a dance to a cover of "Favorite Things" that Maria (Julie Andrews) sings in The Sound of Music. So I think I will let you know my current favorite things that I have found in Paris. Last weekend we explored Normandy, we saw the battle scenes, paid our respect but the thing we did the most was eat. The very first place we went to for lunch was by far the best. Hands down, everything from the bread to the fish dish to the cider to the DESSERT! I was full and very very happy after that meal. The dessert was by far the best that I have ever had, it was a apple tart with a carmel sauce drizzled on the bottom. It had cinnamon and sugar ice cream to accompany it and a sliver of a fig. Wow. I never wanted to finish it because then I wouldn't have anymore to eat! But I did.

Today I ventured out and took a belly dancing class at the studio. Now, I have never taken one before and I thought it was going to be just like zumba. Nothing like zumba, there are intricate ways to move your hips and belly and this girl was not the best at it. It was hard but I enjoyed the challenge. I might go back on mondays so that I will get better at it!

This week is also our last week of French, bittersweet because I feel like I still am not able to converse with people or even figure out what they are asking me. I have noticed a major improvement but hey I have been here for a month and that is the main language that I hear everyday so of course I am going to learn something. I will not miss waking up early to ride the metro for an hour to get to school or piling in the RER with seventy people over the maximum limit. There is just no personal space at eight am. I will miss my beautiful teacher that speaks the most gorgeous english I have ever heard in my life. The other day we were talking about laundry of all things and boy he said dryer and my heart skipped a beat. I'll get a picture with him on our last day.

Everything is now settling down and getting into a steady flow. But not for long! Spring Break is in two weekends and I am off to Copenhagen! Why there? Well that is a great question and I don't know the answer. Some of the people here suggested it, flights were cheap and hey who else can say that they have been there? Well hope all is well in the states! Keep me updated as well!

Several days in Paris

So nothing extreme and out of the ordinary has really happened. I have fallen into the schedule of everyday life in Paris. Getting up and going to a three hour French class followed by six hours of dance. For some reason when I get back home I am so tired and all I want to do is sleep. Now that I am used to the time difference I have no trouble sleeping, in a way thats good but I just have no energy to write about my days. But they really are not all that interesting, I mean I guess there are different smells that I experience on the metro rides. The mixture is between rotten eggs and pee. Not a very pleasant smell. Then you have the hour long rides from our school to the French school. People traffic happen at all times, some people walk in diagonals and then some of them just stop in the middle of the subway while others run you down when you dont walk fast enough. Gosh the French and their walking, I think every city is like that though in a way. Monday I took two jazz classes and one of them it was the first time I was taking the class. The class was pretty good and I think I'll take it every monday from now on. The class had a set warm-up and because it was my first time taking it I didn't know it the warm-up. The teacher also didn't really explain it much so I was a little lost but when it was time for the combo he slowed down and explained the combo in a way that was perfect. I picked it up and actually loved it. We continued to make the same book in book binding but we were not able to finish it. Then talked about the Venus de Milo in my Louvre class. All in all the week was good so far, just a regular college week but in Paris. Though seeing everyone's status' back home about the weather makes me a little upset, I swear cold weather is following me. It has been in the twenties the whole week and its like fifty in Pittsburgh, not okay. Well we are off to normandy this weekend, early Saturday morning. I will have lots of pictures and stories to tell Sunday when I get back. So until then I will enjoy myself in the city of lights! and cold apparently. Mom, don't tell Grandma.

Day 14

So before I came to Paris I talked to a good friend who informed me that a good choreographer would be in town choreographing a show and that I should message him and see if he is teaching any master classes and when his show starts. So Thursday afternoon I messaged him, introduced myself and asked him what his schedule was going to be like in Paris. He quickly responded saying that he would love to get in touch and show me around Paris, he has been here for the past three months. He then explained that the show he was working on was doing a full dress rehearsal Friday night and that I should go. So I went, I met him at the show along with his assistant Ade, who was on So you think you can dance. They were both very nice and we chatted a bit before it was time for me to take my seat. The show was a little strange mainly because I wasn't really able to follow the story line, it was all in French. The dancing was pretty good though, it just wasn't up to par for a show in America. I could see where he was going with the movement but the dancers were just not performing it well. I kept my comments to myself though because the woman next to me looked like she was having the time of her life, she was loving the whole thing. After the three acts were over I waited for him to give a couple notes and then we were off to dinner. Now I am not good with names of places here so I can honestly say I don't know where we went, but I can say it was on the champs elysees and man was it nice. We were able to sit outside in there lounge area and eat dinner, inside there was a live musician and dancing but we didn't go in because it was a little loud. I got the hot shrimp dish which came with six shrimp cooked two different ways. The first was breaded and in a hot jammy sauce, the second was wrapped in bacon and there was a mustard dipping sauce, it was divine. Tokyo got the calamari and Ade got french fries, he had some of ours. We chatted for a couple hours and then decided to call it a night, we were all pretty tired. The check came and he paid! Ahh Rita, I can not thank you enough, if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have had such a great time Friday night. I got a cab right outside the restaurant and went home. On the way home I rode down with the arc de triomphe in front of me and the effiel tower sparkling to my left, such a great way to end the best night in Paris.

How to make a book. Day I don't remember what day it is.

Tuesday night we started binding a Japanese style book. Now last week we did use the scalpel but it was in constant use Tuesday night. I was measuring and cutting and my brain was going a million miles per hour and before I knew it my left pointer finger had some of the exacto knife in it. whoopsies. I quickly removed it and there seemed to be no damage done at all, so I continued to work and cut. Well then a little droplet of red blood came out and as much as I tried to wipe it away with my tissue it kept coming back. So I finally asked for a band-aid. The two teachers who don't understand much English understood band-aid, so the got out their first aid kit and pulled out this huge band-aid about the size of an ace bandage. I was very confused as to what was going on. I just needed something to put on my finger to keep it from bleeding on my book. Well it then became clear that the whole thing was this huge bandage and you just cut off what you needed, it was a genius idea, how come they do not advertise this in the US? She cut off a little piece and put the rest back in the box. She applied some French anti-bacterial and slapped on the bandage and shoot I got back to work. It makes me wonder what other kind of everyday things they have that are either more advanced or less advanced. We should just raid their house one day and find out and then colorable on how we could make life a little bit easier. I think they should refrigerate their eggs and milk and have a freezer connected to their fridge, but I guess thats just me.

The first weekend

Sorry I haven’t written in a while, I have been busy and tired and just had a lot going on! Thats a good thing though, I would much rather that then me be writing to you about the tile that is on my floor because I have nothing to talk about. But boy do I have a lot to share. So I believe I left off Thursday night, so Ill skip the boring French class and Ballet class that I take everyday and I will begin with the fancy dinner that we were provided with. Now I don’t remember the name, but well just say it was a French restaurant. It was gorgeous, had lovely molding everywhere and mirrors and just wow took my breath away. I would provide you with a picture but my camera was dead when I went to turn it on. So sorry, I should have checked it before we left. Anyway we were promptly served with red and white wine once we sat down. I had a sip of both but my taste buds weren't budging, I did not like either one. So I drank water. They then served us appetizers which was a pate, wasn’t that big of a fan but there were some onions that were covered in a jam thing and they were really delicious so I put some on my plate and mashed around the pate to make it look like I ate it. Then it was sea bass time, I love all sorts of sea food but shrimp and sea bass are my absolute favorites. I could hardly wait long enough for them to give everyone their entrees before I dug right in. It was superb and oh the mashed potatoes that accompanied it, hats off to the chef. Well, I didn’t want to get too full, but it was a little hard, because for dessert was my all time favorite creme brulee. I could literally eat it anytime of the day no matter how full I was. They brought out full plate size portions and I was in heaven, the amount of times Paris has put me in heaven shoot if I had a dollar I would be rich! About three-fourths of the way through I had the devil and angel fighting on my shoulders. Finish it, it’s so good and then the you are way too full, if you keep eating you will through up. I took two more bites but I was not able to finish it all. I am having regrets. Ah that dinner was delicious. After we gathered our belongings a couple of us went over to my friend Audrey’s apartment and met her roommate and some of her roommate’s friends from her program. It was good to meet some people besides the thirteen that are in our group. Around eleven we gained enough energy to venture out into the Paris nightlife. I mean they stay awake until five so we needed an extra boost. We went out to a total of three bars that night, dancing to all American songs that you would find on any America top 40. We didn’t really stumble upon many people that spoke English but boy did they try to talk to us. The metro closes at one thirty on the weekend so my friend Julia and I were forced to brave the taxi transportation on the way home. We actually enjoyed it because we were able to see the scenery and it was only ten euros. I fell into bed around four realizing we had a walking tour the next morning at two. 

The next day I got up around ten, got ready and went to see the lovely Notre Dame. We quickly looked around and snapped some pics because we needed to meet our group about four blocks away for our walking tour. We walked all around the sixth and seventh district and saw a lot of old houses, interesting architecture, some very unique boutiques, Victor Hugo’s house, Mozart’s house, a fantastic chocolate store, and many more things. The tour lasted about two hours, a little more, and I was ready for a nap afterwards. I stayed in the rest of the night, going home eating dinner taking a nap, catching up on some TV shows and then grocery shopping around ten at night, finally falling asleep around midnight. I woke up and tried to make the international mass at Notre Dame but I was too caught up on chatting with people that I was forced to wait. I had a sense of what was going on but I didn’t really realize how lost I would be at a French mass. Let’s just say I said the Our Father in English and I received some looks. Sunday was also my friend Audrey’s birthday. After church we went over to her apartment and had celebratory mimosas. We then ventured out to the ferris wheel but alas it was far too expensive for a chilly day like yesterday, so maybe another time. We could see the Eiffel tower so we took the challenge and walked three miles there, my feet hurt before we even arrived. The trek there was well worth it, it was so beautiful and even bigger than I remembered. Gosh, how does one build that or better yet think “lets have this huge tower and you can walk up to the top?” Well I am very grateful of whoever did because man I am very impressed. We stayed there about a half hour farting around and taking pictures. Then we remembered we had to walk three miles back. So we started, stopped to get cheese and bread and wine. Scarfed all of that down and went out for Audrey’s 21 Birthday dinner! It was delicious and fun times were had by all. I am so happy that I have found great friends here and I can’t wait for the rest of the exciting adventures that come next. 

six!

Well today was a lazy one! But much needed, I had two dance classes, jazz and ballet, and that was it! I woke up around noon and it felt wonderful to get that much sleep. Then after the classes I got dinner at the supermarket and went home and ate, found a wonderful website that has american tv shows and movies! So I caught up on Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives. Then I skyped with my mom and dad for a hour! Gah it was so good to see them and talk to them. I love you guys so much. Then I chatted with my grandma and grandpa for a hot second. Can't wait to talk with them more about everything. But I feel like just talking about my days will get boring, in cases like this one when I really didn't do much you might not want to hear about it. So I will tell you something that the French have that we do not. They have toilet closets. You walk in and its just as small or smaller (depending on the size of your closed). The only thing in there is a toilet and a sink and sometimes I wonder how the heck they got that sink in there. They different ways they position the toilet and sinks man its like well you can't get too big or you wont be able to pee. There is one right outside my room but it just has a toilet in it. Luckily I have a sink in my room and I have the corner room so it's nice and big. I had a nice day of from French class but I start again tomorrow at nine! So I am going to get some sleep. Tomorrow brings sea bass and creme brulee! Can't wait :)

Day five :)

Ah what a great day today was. In French class we learned all about family and that made me happy because it got me thinking how grateful I am for my family and how wonderful they are. I had lunch with everyone at the studio space that Wells College has, we are having lunch there every week to make sure that everyone knows where all of their classes are and that they are doing well. Today we had "king cake" which is like what we have on Fat Tuesday and there is a baby baked into it and who ever gets the baby has a year of good luck. Here they do it right after epiphany and its like a little puzzle piece instead of a baby. Well I got the prize! I was so excited and they had a crown for me and everything! Then I took my first dance class in Paris! It was a advance level ballet class with a teacher named Wayne, he is American so it was easier to understand him and when he gave me corrections he spoke in English. The class was the highest level they have to offer there and some of the people in the class were a little below my technique level but the class itself was great, good combinations that were somewhat challenging but they still allowed me to move and get my dance on.

From there I ran back to the dorm and quickly freshened up because it was time for INTRO TO THE LOUVRE!!! I was so excited for this class and no matter what I say or what pictures I post it will be nothing like the real thing. It is just stunning. I mean I got chills from looking at some of the paintings and there were just so many breath taking moments. Anyway the class started and we were instructed to get lost and just look at different kinds of paintings and sculptures. She gave us a half hour. I compared it to the 50lb limit I was given with my luggage. Did she think that was enough time to get lost? I mean once I got somewhere it was already time to go back, so I didn't really get lost but I saw a lot of beautiful artwork. Then we went to the Ancient Greek artifact section. Normally I thought that this really would not be a very interesting part but man was it. She would describe why things were a certain way and gosh I could have stayed in that spot for days looking at everything. Just beautiful. Well that continued for three hours and I was not mad. I was tired when it was over though so I ventured back home and had a lovely meal of mac and cheese. Surprisingly very tasty. I don't have French class or any academics on Thursday so I get to sleep in! I have ballet at two. So I stayed up skyping with some friends and chatting on facebook with others :) It was a very good day, and even though it is supposed to rain the next four days something tells me it is going to be hard to have a bad day. Good night all and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!