DISNEY MAGIC and FINISHED WITH THE FINAL!

So I wrote about half of this post on Sunday but got too busy to finish it. So here we go with everything starting with Sunday! So I mentioned that I might be going to Disneyland Paris in my last post, well I did and I'll start off with that! :DWe headed out very early since the park opens at 10 AM. We got there about 10:30 but had to wait in line to get tickets of course. We finally got into the park at about 11 or so. The first thing I notice, is the giant PINK castle in the middle of the park. Apparently Paris is home to Sleeping Beauty's castle which is of course pink. The US has Cinderella's castle, which is blue. I thought that it would've been more appropriate to have Belle's castle be in Paris since it takes place in France, but I'm not the expert.
It turns out that DisneyLand Paris is almost identical to the main park in Orlando. In addition most of the rides have the same names as well. So, we headed toward Thunder Mountain first which was in Adventure Land just as in America. I won't go into too much detail since everyone knows what going to a theme park is like. You go and hit all of the rides you can and pay WAY too much for food :) We went for Pirates of the Caribbean, an Indiana Jones ride, and Space Mountain to name a few. Space Mountain I must say was one of my favorites of the day. It was very elaborate and had some very neat special effects that made it more interesting. There was one part where they used neon lighting to make it look like you were going into some sort of glowing cyclone/black hole thing. It was lots of fun. We also hit up the Buzz Lightyear ride where you get to shoot stuff and I was THIS close to breaking 100,000.
We had lunch at some cafeteria-ish type place featuring Mr. Toad. It was decent, but not worth 10 euros. I also got an ice cream at one point which was delicious and tasted very good on a pretty hot day. Luckily for us it wasn't terribly hot, but I think I got a good bit of sun on my shoulders and cheeks. We also rode a bunch of little rides to pass the time while we waited for our time to ride the larger rides. I particularly enjoyed the Peter Pan ride which hung you in a pirate boat from a wire and made it seem like you were flying over the streets of London and then over Neverland :D
We explored Sleeping Beauty's castle which was quite nice, with stained glass and tapestries and whatnot. I must say that the castle is not as impressive as the Orlando Disney World. It's only about 5 or 6 stories tall which, while it's taller than everything else in the park, isn't very tall. However, I still liked it and thought that it was very pretty. I got an epic picture of myself behind the castle trying to pull out Arthur's sword in the stone. I guess I'm not meant to be royalty lol.
We headed back early since some of us had some homework to do yet. I kinda regret not seeing the fireworks at the end of the day, but truly, if we had waited that long the metro ride getting back would have been MISERABLE. As it was it was very pleasant and we got back in plenty of time to finish up what we needed to do for the next day.
The next few days are just a blur of working and studying. I honestly think that the only time I left the MIJE was to go get lunch from the grocery store every day. We had SO much homework to do right up to the day before our final. And of course we had to study for the final on top of it. By the time the final rolled around today I was SO burnt out that if I had to put one more word into my head it would fry all together. The test itself was okay. The first part which consisted of vocab and grammar was very difficult, mostly because of the grammar. I'm not very good at grammar, but really, who is?? The second part however, I felt much more confident. It was more about what we learned in class than about the technicalities of the language. I'm not sure what my grade is yet, but we should know by tomorrow.
Tomorrow we have our 'excursion' which is a cruise down the Seine. If you recall we were supposed to go to the Orsay Museum the day after our test but it got moved up to replace our visit to La Defense. In addition, we are having our farewell dinner at a very up-scale restaurant in the Marais. I think it will be the same caliber as the restaurant we went to in Chantilly. I'm looking forward to a delicious meal.
Friday is supposed to be our day to pack, but I've already packed all of my stuff so I'm not sure what I'm going to end up doing. I'll probably look for some final gifts for people and hopefully for some prizes for me as well. I'm headed back to the United States on Saturday (yay!!). Our plane leaves Paris at 10:50 so we have to leave by about 7 or so. I'm going to be arriving in Atlanta at 2:05 in the afternoon hopefully, if there are no delays. And of course there's customs to deal with, but I hope it won't take too long. That's pretty much all I have for plans the rest of my time here and Paris. I will definitely be making another post or two so stay tuned, but that's the plan.
Right now I'm just celebrating my freedom from studying!! I went out and got a chocolate crêpe which made me very happy (and a little hyper :D). Countdown: 2 days, 8 hours, 20 minutes, and 50 seconds!
Love to all!!!
-Austin

And the countdown begins!

So exactly one week from today I'm going to be on an airplane bound for Atlanta. I'm very excited about seeing everyone I love again. It's also kind of sad since I'm finally feeling like I'm getting used to Paris. But that also might be because the end is in sight and I'm happy that I'm going home. It's definitely time, but I've enjoyed myself immensely. I have my final on Wednesday which seems terribly soon! Needless to say I'm going to be doing a lot of studying for the next few days.
To go back to where I left off, I believe I have to go back a whole week. I'm sorry I haven't been the best blogger, but I at least hope that everyone knows that when I do post I'm being as detailed as possible :) Monday of last week I didn't do anything of note. We had class Monday-Wednesday then an excursion on Thursday. Tuesday was the beginning of the Bastille Day festivities, which was VERY exciting. It's like the 4th of July in America. I went with a few people in the program to a Fireman's Ball (which is more like a party than a ball) that they had been advertising all over the city since we've got here. However, the line was SO long. We were waiting for a good 3 hours before we even got to the front! And by that time there was so many people cutting and jumping the fence that it seemed like we would never get in. By then it was pretty late and in addition, I'm still a little afraid of large crowds or mobs, so I decided to leave early. I still had a good time even if we just stood in line for a long time :) Maybe I'll try again some day.
For the actual Bastille day, we took a break in the middle of our school day to go watch what we believed was going to be a parade go down the Rue de Rivoli, which is right outside our door. However after waiting a bit we asked some police officers and they told us that it was actually a fly-over by the French Airforce. Then it started raining very heavily. Most of us took refuge under the Merry-Go-Round which is very close to us. Luckily it stopped right before the fly-over which was very interesting, saw a LOT of planes. Afterward, the LBAT program took us out to coffee which was very nice. I think it was probably my first full cup of coffee ever lol. :D But it was free and I didn't want to turn it down. Luckily for me I didn't get wired like I feared. We headed back to the MIJE for the rest of our lessons for the day which was much bearable with our extended break.
After class, I headed out into the city to buy some presents for some important people :D Of course I can't say anything about that! When I returned I found that everyone had already left to go watch the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower. The Tower is very far away so I was about to give up and just skype with Brandon instead when I got a call to come join them. So I figured that I should experience Bastille Day in all its splendor since I'm here. So I took three different trains and spend a lot of time looking for my friends, and eventually found them. Just in time too since about 15 minutes later they turned off the Eiffel Tower lights for the show! And I must say that it was one of the most impressive displays of fireworks I've ever seen. Not as long as I expected, but definitely massive. I thought seeing the Eiffel Tower with the fireworks behind it was very beautiful.Getting back from the show was an adventure all on its own. The metro was being SWARMED by people leaving. The metro security was only letting a certain amount through at one time so that there wouldn't be too many people on the platform at one time which I was very grateful for, even if we had to wait forever. At one point a part of our group decided that they would walk home instead and headed off. There were three of us that took the metro the whole way, and we barely made it! I think that we were truly on the last train of the night. When we arrived at the Saint Paul metro station we had a surprise to find the other group also getting off on the same train! They had walked for a while and hopped on at a different stop and ended up getting back at the same time lol!The next day was our last official excursion for the trip. We took a charter bus out to Chantilly which is a town about an hour away from Paris. Our destination was the Domaine de Chantilly which is basically a castle. I admit that it made my inner-child very happy to see a real-live castle like in Cinderella :D It didn't disappoint either, it was absolutely gorgeous and not very tourist-y at all since it's a little-known attraction. One of the main events for the day were seeing the horse shows they host there. When we got there we headed to the stables to look at the horses and view a demonstration of how they train the horses. The horses were just beautiful and made me miss my days of riding. The demo I couldn't understand entirely since it was all in French and I'm not familiar with the equestrian vocabulary. But it was still very fun.
Afterward we headed out to the town to have lunch at a local cafe. I had a croque monsieur which is a very common french meal. After that, we explored the castle which turned out to be more like a museum than anything with lots of paintings and sculptures. It wasn't too exciting since it was like a combination of Versailles and the Louvre, without the gaudiness of Versailles or the masterpieces of the Louvre. However, I did love seeing the large library they had. There were books everywhere, even if you couldn't touch any of them. Around 2 we headed back to the stables for the large horse-show. They had such elaborate costumes and the horses were expertly trained which made it very exciting. There was a good bit of trick riding as well which was very impressive.
After that, we headed back to castle to explore the grounds around it. Not as large as Versailles, but I liked it better since it was more natural and a bit more intimate. There were lots of little paths and gardens. We eventually crashed and took a 30 minute nap in the middle of this massive field. It was probably one of the best naps I've ever had in my entire life, it was so peaceful. After a bit more exploring, we headed back to the town for dinner. The Program paid for it as well which was very exciting since we had a rather large individual budget to spend. So I got a steak and a dessert which were both delicious! All of the food was gorgeous and very artistic. We headed home, full and exhausted after a full-day adventure.
Friday I didn't do too much. The only interesting thing was going out to lunch in the Jewish district for some fallafel and hummus. Other than that, just some homework and chatting it up with Brandon a bit.
Today, Saturday, has been very exciting thus-far. A large group of LBAT-ers went to the market that Mom and I went to when she was here and I tagged along. I figured that I could give it another chance to impress me. We went a good bit earlier which I think was a good decision since it wasn't as hot or as crowded. We mainly kept to the outskirts and checked out the goods that weren't antiques. I bought a couple things, but was mostly just wanting to get out and about. Afterward, a couple of us headed to Montmartre which is somewhat close to where we were. Montmartre, for those of you that don't know, is the northern part of Paris. It's the only part of the city that's elevated so you get a fantastic view. The main attraction of Montmartre is the church Sacre Cour which is situated at the very top of the hill. The church itself is very tall and three of us decided that we would climb to the top. It was over 300 steps and we were absolutely exhausted when we got to the top!! It was probably the tightest cork-screw staircase I've ever seen. But I must say that it was well worth it since it gave us an incredible view of the entirety of Paris.After climbing back down, which was very treacherous since the steps were so smooth from thousands of feet, we headed into the heart of Montmartre. There was an entire square full of painters willing to paint your portrait or sell you paintings of Paris which I loved :) We grabbed some ice cream which was much needed since it was getting rather hot. Then we headed to Montmartre's other main attraction, the Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge is the historic venue for a Parisian cabaret show. It's very distinctive by the giant red windmill on the top. It's a bit sentimental since Brandon and I watched the movie Moulin Rouge on our first date so I promised that I would get a picture with it. I did! :DAfter we just headed back to the metro and went back to the MIJE. And that brings to to my current state :) I'm just waiting for dinner now. I plan on going out several times this last week and enjoy the Parisian cuisine to the fullest extent, but not quite yet since I'm so tired. Believe it or not I might go to Disneyland Paris tomorrow with some people here. It sounded like fun and not too expensive so we'll see if that plays out. It might also be a good place to get a birthday present for a soon-to-be-6-year-old we all know and love :D So with that I will sign off now. Countdown to my return: 6 days 13 hours, 33 minutes, and 27 seconds! :D

Good morning everyone!Well, it's morning for me at least haha. Look at me! I'm posting before next Thursday, isn't that awesome? :D I'm finally getting the hang of this blogging thing I believe. The trick is to find a time where a) you have time to write and b) you have good enough internet to upload pictures. So I figure that Sunday morning is as good a time as any :)
To start where I left off, I have to go back to last Thursday. That was the day of our final excursion for the week. We had to wake up at 5:00 am, as I mentioned earlier, to go to Halles de Rungis. Halles de Rungis is the world's largest food market in the entire world. That is, for EVERY kind of food. There are larger ones for a specific type of food, i.e. the fish market of Tokyo. But this market is the largest general market in the world. It is where all of the restaurants of Paris buy their food in bulk, and even other countries get there food from there. That being said, you can imagine the size of it. It's basically the size of a small village and even has bars, laundromats, and restaurants within.But to back up, waking up to go on this adventure was VERY difficult. We'd all gotten maybe 5 hours of sleep. We piled into the bus that was provided to get there (luckily! the metro wouldn't be possible and there would've been a LOT of walking involved since we took the bus from place to place within Les Halles). We promptly fell asleep again, but I managed to take a picture of the french sunrise. The sun sets so late yet rises just as early here, it's bizarre.When we got there we met up with our tour guide who luckily for me, spoke english. I probably could have gotten by, but that early in the morning none of us wanted to think about translating everything. We were also informed that we had to wear these white suits and hairnets which were oh-so-flattering. Our first stop was the meat-packing district. Firstly, I've spared you all pictures of that building for two reasons. One, I know that several of my vegetarian readers wouldn't find it appealing at all (I didn't even find it appealing, just kind of gross). And two, it was FRIGID in there. If I'd tried to move my arms away from my body to take a picture, my teeth would've started chattering. They had to keep the entire building about 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit, and we of course were all wearing shorts and tank-tops since it has been so hot recently. I even tried to wear my new hat, thinking that it was a cute open-air market, but I was quite wrong and couldn't wear it after all. The entire operation was very industrial and clean in all of the departments that we visited.
For our second stop, we headed to the cheese building. One thing to think about, is the SMELL. When you get that much cheese put together, you get some very fragrant odors. But it was pretty incredible since we saw wheels of cheese about the size of a table. In this picture you can see how flattering the outfit was :). The second picture I thought was just very cute (may or may not have made me think about Brandon :) ). The one thing that I found to be a bit disappointing about Les Halles was that we didn't get to sample any of the food during the tour. Apparently in order to buy anything, you have to buy a whole box such as the heart-cheese-picture. Which is a LOT of cheese, even for 15 people. We got to eat brunch after wards but it would have been nice to taste some of it on-site.
The third place we visited was the produce section which was thankfully not temperature-controlled like the previous two. We were able to take our time a bit instead of trying to figure out the fast way of leaving without frost-bite. We saw probably every type of fruit and vegetable I've ever seen in my whole life in one spot. I particularly enjoyed the fruit of course since I LOVE fruit. We also mountains of produce from other areas such as this picture of a garlic bin! That's a LOT of garlic haha. And in the mushroom department, yes, there was an entire area devoted to mushrooms, one of the grocers brought out a truffle for us to look at which was very exciting. As you can see in the picture, it was in its own specially-padded container to protect it from all harm. You'd think they were made of pure gold, but really, they practically are with how expensive they are. Truffles are very fragrant I must say. You could smell it from about 3 feet away, and it smelled very good too.
For our final stop, we headed to the cut-flowers warehouse. This was probably my favorite of the areas, even if the grocers were not as nice as in the others. The tour guide said that he had no idea why they are so stand-off-ish but that's just the way things are. However, I still enjoyed seeing the thousands upon thousands of flowers. They were just so beautiful. The sunflowers of course, reminded me of one Trudy-Lee :D

To give you an idea of how many flowers you could find in this place:

And I thought that these were SO beautiful. I've never seen roses that were two different colors before :)Lunch after the tour was okay, but we couldn't tell if it was breakfast or lunch. They gave us orange juice, but with a plate of meat followed by a plate of cheese and then dessert which was kind of like a creamy cream-cheese with a bit of raspberry sauce. I added some sugar to it which made it quite good. The meal as a whole wasn't phenomenal but I've seen many french people eating such a thing so it was probably very authentic.
On Friday, we had class for the first time since our midterm which worked pretty much in the same manner as it did before our midterm. I learned that I got an A for the first part of the program which was super exciting! We are getting 9 credit hours for this program and I know that 3 of those are already As :D
After class, I got bored by sitting around at the MIJE and went for a walk in the general direction of Shakespeare and Company. Unfortunately however, they had closed early for some reason and I couldn't go inside. But on my walk I got some interesting pictures of Paris. There's a spot in Paris which I just love since it's a popular place for random people to gather and you never know what you're going to see. One day I saw a bad of men who were all at least 60 playing Louis Armstrong music, the next I saw a one-man circus act, and Friday, I saw a man who had made a 'water-garden' out of random material. He's made fountains out of up-side-down umbrellas which I though was pretty neat.
I also got several pictures of the beautiful sunset and of what is known as the 'Lock Bridge.' The Lock-Bridge is a bridge in Paris where people put their locks and leave them there. Sometimes it has a sentimental message or a lovers' promise, or sometimes nothing at all. I thought it was very sweet and interesting at the same time.
On Saturday, I had a very interesting day. To start off I went shopping for a bit. There was a store down the street that had a dress that mom and I saw and she wanted me to get it for myself. Unfortunately it wasn't there anymore, they must have sold them all :( But I will keep my eye out for another dress to take home with me. One of the other girls in the program went with me and we eventually went to a crepe place around the corner from the MIJE for lunch. We were eating and these two girls sat at the table next to us. They clearly didn't speak ANY french whatsoever so eventually we helped them get their order in and we struck up a conversation. They were from Indiana and Minnesota and had just graduated from grad school and were backpacking across Europe. They were staying at the MIJE as well which was a nice surprise. They had graduated in public health, which was awesome since that's what I'm looking into doing :)
They were only around for a few more hours before they had to leave to go to Spain and wanted to know what else they should see in Paris. I offered to show them some places that may not be as common such as the Latin Quarter and the area around there. We walked around for a good bit and it was very nice to meet some new people outside of the program, even if it didn't improve my french much. They even told me about some interesting places that they'd seen because of their guide book that I hadn't heard about. The whole afternoon was very nice and a good change from the set routine. I like showing new people around Paris since it reminds me how magical the city is even if by now I've gotten used to seeing it. Here's a picture of the three of us, I hope that maybe I'll get to see them again someday:After the two of them left I didn't do anything too crazy. Just had some dinner and skyped with Brandon, which was very nice since we hadn't had the opportunity to in a while. I miss everyone at home still, but it's getting easier since the end is so close. Don't know yet what I'm doing for the day, but I have some homework to tackle. Next week we have class the first three days then an excursion on Thursday. I can't believe we only have two weeks left, it's kind of amazing. I hope that everyone is having a good weekend, and I will hopefully post again VERY soon :D
Love to all,
Austin

Over the hump!!

So it's been one day less than a week from my last post. I'm getting better!! :D I'm honestly kind of amazed that I'm able to keep up with this blog at all. I used to try keeping diaries when I was a kid, but I'd start off strong, writing every day about everything but within a week I'd forget and never write another post again. But since this is a short-term thing and I'm writing for other people rather than just myself I feel more motivated to keep up with it.
Anyway, it's halfway through my 4th week and Paris. The official change-over time has passed and we now have a new professor teaching us. And by teaching, this new professor means showing us around Paris and taking us places :) We have only SEVEN teaching-in-the-classroom days scheduled for the remaining three weeks. The rest of the days we have excursions and events to go to. Luckily for all of you back home, it makes for a more interesting read than 'I went to class and went to bed...the end' :)
However, it makes my post longer, so maybe I'll push myself to post more often. But anyway! For this week I of course have to start with my mom's visit to Paris! I didn't quite believe that she was actually coming till I saw her coming out of the gate. I admit I got a little teary, it was so good to have a little bit of home come to me! And she brought me a new suitcase!! Well, a borrowed one, thank you Jill and Trudy!! I will bring it back safe and sound. She also brought some very sweet messages including a wonderful card from Jordan! I love her too and will hurry home as fast as I can :DMom got here around noon, so we had some time to play before we passed out from exhaustion. After a slight confusion with the travelocity people, we decided to just stay at the MIJE since it's so well-situated. I took mom to Notre Dame, a bit sneakily so she would be surprised :) We went through the entire thing which was new for me since I'd only been to mass. After, we went to a very nice french restaurant called Chez Julien. Mom said that she had the best gazpacho she'd ever had in her whole life and I had a wonderful pepper-sauce steak. After that we went to go get some ice cream since it was VERY hot. On the way however, we got distracted by a singer that was performing by the Seine. We stopped for a good 45 minutes, he was that good. He was from Haiti I believe and had a beautiful voice. I recorded several segments of it, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to publish them before I have the magnificent internet of my home :) After that, we finally got our ice cream and headed home since it was pretty late.The next day was mom's birthday!! Yay! Happy Birthday to her! We played to mom's interests and took her to the largest flea market in the entire world. It's just like a big yard sale! :D It was an adventure to say the least. Since it's so large you have to find all the different parts and we got somewhat lost several times. You also had to dig past the people trying to sell anything they can to the people looking for antiques. But it was fun nevertheless. The most interesting point for me at least happened when we encountered a shop keeper that was so eager to be our friend that he started interrogating us about anything and everything. When he heard we were from America he asked about the president and when mom told him she'd voted for him the shopkeeper actually lifted her off the ground!
We returned to the MIJE for a break (we very much needed one by then, very tired). We decided to visit the Eiffel Tower for mom's birthday, which I feel was a great choice. I hadn't been up the tower yet, just under it after the before-mentioned US football game I went to. As we walked up, besides being amazing, it also started its on-the-hour sparkling which was the perfect 'Happy Birthday' moment. Going to the top was also an amazing experience as well and being up there at night is just magical.
One thing we discovered in Paris was that it's very difficult to eat at nice restaurants and be a tourist at the same time. We weren't hungry at the start of our Eiffel Tower trip and most places weren't open yet anyway, but when we got back, it was almost midnight and all the places were closed! My feeling of failure at not giving mom a proper birthday dinner was offset by the fun we had scrounging for everything we could find in our suitcases. So we ended up with a feast of cookies, peanut butter crackers, apples, and trail-mix bars. I however did not fail to light a candle and make mom blow it out :)
The next day we headed to lunch in an area of town suggested by our friend Paul. We enjoyed a very nice lunch even though we forgot that most shops are closed on Sunday. Afterward we headed to the Louvre. You simply cannot visit Paris and not see the majesty within those walls. We had a very pleasant surprise that it was free!! I'd forgotten that it was the first Sunday of the month, which is the day that all of the museums in the city are free :D So we got to see all that we wanted to see and then some. There are plenty of pictures and I posted most of them on Facebook if you care to check it out. I particularly enjoyed sharing the experience of seeing the Victory of Samothrace with mom since it's my favorite.
After a break at the MIJE we decided to go on a Seine river cruise! Sure it may be touristy, but it's so popular for a reason. We enjoyed it thoroughly and it's a wonderful way to learn about the city. It's particularly beautiful if you wait till the night. It does however make picture-taking difficult since you are moving, but we managed a couple times.
The next day was mom's last day in Paris. We had breakfast at a little cafe we walked to and went shopping for a bit. I got some shoes that I'm very excited about since they are the kind that's popular in Paris but not yet in America. After that we got mom's stuff from the MIJE and headed to the metro. Writing it all down seems like it was so short but it felt like a whole week! Goodness knows I was exhausted and took a nap as soon as I saw her on her way. I'm so grateful that she was able to visit me, it made a big difference in my outlook at this trip. I'm enjoying myself even more since I know that home is still there waiting for me, whenever I return.
The rest of Monday I didn't do anything too monumental other than hang out with the other LBAT people for a while. Tuesday was our first day with our new professor and she seems like she's going to be a great person to learn from. She's very fun and excited about everything, but she seems a bit scatterbrained. For instance, she was wearing her shirt inside-out today haha. But in my opinion, a bit of cooky-ness makes for the best teachers. On Tuesday we were supposed to visit La Defense which is the business district directly outside of Paris. You can see it if you get pretty high up with it's skyscrapers. It kinda looks like Buckhead does from Atlanta. However, apparently some cable had snapped in an elevator that we were going to take to a VERY high floor so we just aren't going to go this summer. A bit of a shame, but we got to go to the Orsay Museum early instead! I very much enjoyed the museum, impressionist is one of my favorite styles of painting. Unfortunately they don't let you take any pictures within the museum so I don't have any pictures to show for it, but just trust me that I enjoyed it more since I didn't have to worry about getting the best picture possible. After the museum we did a report on our favorite artist, much like we did for the Louvre. I did Degas since I adore his dancer paintings/sculptures. That evening I enjoyed having a long chat with Brandon since we hadn't talked much during the weekend, but other than that, not much happened.
Today may have been one of my favorite days thus far. We went on an excursion to the Maison du Vitrail which is a type of glass art. It's like the stained glass you see in churches with the metal separating the different pieces. This man runs this business out of his house basically (which was beautiful! Very much like what I hope my future home will be like). And this man is apparently the best in the business since he and his team gets calls to fix panes in famous churches from all over France like Notre Dame. He gave us an explanation of the process and different types of glass, which I somewhat understood since it was all in French. But he showed us how to break glass cleanly (and let us try it ourselves!) and the thousands of types of glass they had in stock. It was beautiful and very impressive.
After the tour and some shopping in the store, we went to lunch at an Indian restaurant which was a very nice change. I got mango lassi which is one of my favorite dessert/drink so I was VERY excited! We headed back to the MIJE and I worked on my homework till it was time for our other adventure of the day.
We had TWO excursions today which was very exciting. We also went to a mini-play at the Theatre de la Huchette, which is probably the smallest theater that I've ever been in. It seated probably about 20 people, if that. The play was entirely in french of course, so I had some trouble following, but I could understand parts. It probably didn't help that the author had decided to make a statement about language in general and the actors slowly started speaking gibberish haha. But it was very fun and amusing. On the way back from the theater I was reminded of my love of books in the form of the English book store Shakespeare and Co. I've heard good things about it, but it's truly amazing. There are books EVERYwhere in no particular order at all. And the entire second floor is just for reading, the books aren't even for sale. I loved every bit of it and will probably go back there very soon.
Tomorrow will be an adventure to say the least. We have to wake up at 5 am, that's right 5! We are going to a Parisian market that all the restaurants get their food from. We can't even eat breakfast at the MIJE since they don't serve breakfast that early. We are having breakfast at some point while we are there. So needless to say, I need to head to bed now so that I don't die in 5 hours when I wake up. Luckily we can take a nap at 12 when we get back :) So, that's all for now I think. I love you all. If I forgot anything I'll include it in my next post which I PROMISE will be before next week begins.
Love to all,
Austin

Attacking the Midterm w/Pride + a Wonderful Surprise!!

So I can't believe it's been a whole WEEK since my last post. Luckily for me however, only a few major things have happened so I don't have to describe every day. The school days pretty much speak for themselves, I wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, eat lunch, more class, do homework, eat dinner, go to sleep. And that was the majority of last week. The main reason I haven't been blogging is because I was preparing for my midterm which was today. In addition, the internet is still pretty shaky. So anyway, I will begin where I left off which was last Friday.
Well, last Friday wasn't too interesting, just an ordinary class day. Saturday was a bit more interesting since it was Parisian Gay Pride :) For various reasons and people I've always been pretty active in the campaign for GLBT rights. I've been an officer in the group at Tech for multiple years now and I enjoy being a part of it. I've been to the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival for several years, and last year, Tech's group was even in the parade! It was very exciting and we had a ton of fun. I've heard that Paris' Pride Festival is incredible to say the least, so I had very high expectations. I met up with a friend of mine who is in France for the GT Lorraine program. He wanted to see the parade too so he took a train into Paris for the day.The parade wasn't scheduled to start until 2 and my friend arrived in Paris at 12:30 so we had some time to kill. He and I plus my roommates went to lunch at a Greek-style restaurant in the Latin Quarter.
Here I feel I must take a quick moment to tell all of you about the weather here in Paris. So far in the trip, it had been fine, cold even. I'd worn my leather coat several times and even bought a new scarf. However, at the beginning of this week, it turned from cold to HOT in a matter of days. So by the time the festival rolled around, it was reaching the mid-80s, and this is without air conditioning mind you. So we see this restaurant, and pick it solely because of the huge sign saying that they have A/C :) We had a lovely cool lunch in the basement of this shop that was surprisingly big.
Living at the MIJE in what is now 90 degrees and over weather has been a struggle. I am SO thankful that I took the 30 minutes before I ran out the door to stuff my fan into my suitcase. It has been such a blessing and a relief from this heat. There is supposed to be a break in the heat in the next few days, it's just a matter of surviving that long now :)
Anyway, back to the festival. We finished our lunch and headed to where the parade was supposed to pass by. I had written down where the parade was traveling on my map of Paris. One thing I didn't think to consider was the length of the route. It was supposed to START at 2:00, but really, that's when it started moving over 2-3 miles away at a snail's pace. So we just chilled on a bench in the shade and talked for a few hours waiting for this parade to get there. It was a very quaint area of Paris and I quite enjoyed myself. We eventually got impatient and started walking towards the parade and hit it a few blocks down (this was about 4:30 lol). I must say that Parisian Pride is no joke. It had everything I'd ever seen in a pride parade and then some. However, maybe since I'd heard such wild things I was expecting a bit more. It was crazy to be sure, but it didn't seem that much crazier than the one we have in Atlanta. But of course I still enjoyed myself immensely and would go again. One thing that's different about french parades, is that there isn't a defined line between the members of the parade and the watchers. People watching the parade, if they find a float that has particularly good music will just join in the walking and follow. This makes the parade much longer I feel since the spaces between the floats get longer and longer.
Following the parade, my friend left and I headed back to the MIJE for dinner. My roommates wanted to go watch the USA Soccer game and since it was USA I figured that I would go too despite my loathing of soccer. We had a good time watching the game at a local pub and I met up with another friend who is in Paris for an internship at the Embassy. Afterward we sat by the Seine for a while, and my roommates had a ball talking to some local french guys (who promptly ignored me completely when they learned that a) I have a boyfriend and b) that I don't speak French too well even if I can understand it just fine). I was quite shocked they didn't turn out to be creeps like most of the Parisian men I've encountered thus far. I eventually had to drag them away since it was quite late and they didn't look like they were stopping anytime soon.
Sunday didn't have much to speak of compared to Saturday. I stayed in that night since I was kinda tired of going out from the night before. I wish that the Festival had lasted longer than the one day like it does in Atlanta, but I think there truly isn't enough space in Paris for such a thing. That weekend was one of our two-day weekends unfortunately so it was back to school at 9:30 am Monday morning.
For the rest of the days, I can pretty much tell you that all I did was go to class and study for the midterm. There really wasn't much worth mentioning beyond that. But, it was definitely worth it since I know I got an A on the first part of the midterm! I don't know about the second part, but it definitely bodes well!
The only other thing to talk about is my sudden onset of homesick-ness. I don't know if it's because I'm just now half-way done, missing Brandon, or just me being moody in general, but I've been fairly homesick this week. It might be in part due to the amount of non-exciting things since I've had to study so much. At times I just wanted to go home, make everything go back to the way it was, and forget I ever wanted to learn French. It didn't help that this weekend, which is our only 4-day weekend of the program, I didn't have anything planned. Everyone else had plans already and was going out of the country, but somehow I missed all of the boats and didn't have anything to do. I called my mom and told her as much and about my homesick-ness in general and she was on a mission to fix it. To my great surprise she decided that for her birthday which is this weekend, she is coming to see me!!! I am so incredibly happy and I can't wait to see her! It will be so nice to have a piece of home come and remind me that it's still there waiting for me to come back. I have no idea what we are going to do yet, but I'm sure that it will be incredible. :D And to top it off, I get to go stay with her in a hotel that has A/C!!!! Solves my heat problem as well!
So here I am, in post-midterm bliss, waiting for my mommy to come explore Paris with me. I can't wait, it's going to be a fantastic weekend. No homework, four days of sleeping in, and my mom! I couldn't ask for much better :D ('cept maybe if EVERYone I love at home could come see me too lol). I will post some pictures of this week later on when I have a better internet connection. It's awful testy today. Love to all!!!
-Austin

Versailles+Louvre=Versaouvre? :D

So this is going to be a HUGE entry, so get ready. I haven't posted in three days and I've done LOTS of things. I celebrated La Fête de la Musique, went to Versailles, and visited the Louvre! I'll try to remember everything, but a lot has happened :)

First, La Fête de la Musique!! As some of you may or may not know, I live in a dorm at Tech called the International House. It's composed of about 50% American students who are interested in international affairs (A.K.A. Me) and the other half are students who come to Tech from different countries to study abroad in the US. I love living there and I get to meet a lot of people from many different countries. Through the I-House, I met a couple students who live in Paris and so I arranged to meet up with them for Fête de la Musique. More friends decided to come along, so eventually we were a group of about 14. We met up around 7:30 and headed towards the Latin Quarter. Things hadn't quite started up yet, but there were a few bands playing along the Seine and in the tiny streets of the Latin Quarter. It was really crowded so we kept wandering. Eventually we got to some area where a lot of bands were playing. I have no idea where it was name-wise. I'd never been there before. Here's a pic of one of the bands:

We eventually separated into smaller groups, which was good since we could move more easily. My group ended up at a rather large concert that was sponsored by a French TV station. The band was called Lunette I believe which means glasses. They were really good and I want to look them up when I get a chance (and better internet). In all there was a good variety of music and there was even a good bit in English which was nice. Here's another picture :)

This is going to be a picture-heavy post if you haven't noticed. I've gone to things this week that really can't be captured by words and I'm sure you'll appreciate being able to see them first-hand. The day following La Fête de la Musique wasn't very exciting. I just had class during the day and had a nice night staying in my room. I was pretty exhausted after all the excitement of the festival.

The next day our entire group went to see Versailles. We had to wake up really early (for college students) so we could leave by 8:00 am. We arrived at about 9:30 and waited in line for quite a while. It was then that I realized that the sunscreen I'd been considering bringing but didn't would've been a good idea after all. I'm now quite a lovely shade of red along my shoulders and cheeks. It's not as bad I thought it would be, but I kept to the shade as much as possible.

We first went on a tour of Versailles the Palace. Some people told me that seeing the palace wasn't worth the money and that you should just go straight to the gardens. I don't know how expensive it was since the program paid for it, but I enjoyed it. Everything was very beautiful even if it was a bit gaudy. Everything that could be engraved, gilded, or painted, was. It was all expertly done, but having so much exquisite-ness in one room was a bit overwhelming. I very much enjoyed the hall of mirrors and the different rooms though. I think that I like being able to see the every-day aspects of history such as building and furniture.

The gardens were absolutely amazing I must say and definitely large. All in all my professor said that we walked about 8 miles or so just going to the different locations on the grounds. After the palace we walked down to the pond-ish body of water that had a few restaurants next to it. We had a lot of fun imitating the statues along the way.

You could even rent a boat and row across the pond if you wanted. We had lunch and got some ice cream as well since it was so hot. Then we went to go see the palace of Marie Antoinette. Her husband Louis the XV built her this house to live in when they got married and it's pretty much a mini-Versailles. It's just as lavish and almost as big. There was this very pretty pink marble that you wouldn't immediately think that it would work on such a large scale, but it was very pretty.

After her main house, we went to see her so-called 'cottage' that she received for her birthday sometime. It's pretty lavish as well, not exactly what I would call a cottage. But I really enjoyed the grounds behind her cottage which weren't as manicured as the rest of the gardens. There was also a farm back there believe it or not. And THOSE buildings looked more like cottages. They were very cute and could almost be a village unto themselves.

We walked the whole way back to the train station, which was of course, exhausting since there wasn't anything new to see. In addition, there weren't any seats left on the train so we had to stand. But when we got back we still took the time to watch a break-dancing competition going on where the metro let us off. It was pretty fun and really random. We got home and basically passed out since we were so exhausted.

The next day was our day to go to the Louvre. Why the planned both of our excursions back-to-back like that I'll never know. We were still pretty tired from Versailles, but I'd been looking forward to seeing the Louvre since I'd seen the outside of it earlier. We took the metro to the museum and waited in line again to get in. When it's one of the most famous museums in the world, you can bet that it's going to be crowded every day. We tried to divide into multiple groups again, but sticking together proved to be more difficult since some people move at a different pace or want to see something different. I myself don't like to breeze through an exhibit and want to take time to see everything. We were there for about 5 hours and I feel like I got to see almost everything. Unfortunately the third floor was closed on Thursday so we didn't get to see anything up there though. My favorite piece of the day was seeing the Victory of Samothrace statue. I've always loved that statue and I actually wasn't expecting to see it so it was a nice surprise.

Of course, I got to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well. Some people say that they are disappointed with the Mona Lisa because of its size, but I wasn't. I felt that it was almost modest in its size, not trying to be a masterpiece by being massive, but by just being detailed and masterful. Of course we had to stay at least 5 or 6 feet away but I felt like I saw what I wanted to see of it.

I also really enjoyed the exhibit of the museum that was built exactly as the apartments of Napoleon were when he was king. It was almost like deja-vu since the looked very similar to Versailles. However, if you could believe it, it was MORE lavish and gold-plated and borderline gaudy. But, again it was still beautiful and I enjoyed being able to explore the rooms.

All in all, I had a great time exploring the different national museums we got to see the past few days. It's something I would never get to see in the US so I felt that it was time well-spent even if it might've been on the tourist-y side. But hey, I'm still a tourist even if I have another month to go.

Today has been uneventful, similar to Tuesday. We had class which dragged on compared to the two days prior. I went to have a falafel for lunch which was AMAZING. There's a place close to the MIJE that is very well-known for their falafel and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I'm just chilling after class, might go to the monoprix (it's like Target) and get some stuff I've been needing in a bit. I must say that I'm kinda regretting coming to Europe in the middle of the World Cup season. I really don't like soccer, it's just not something I'm interested in. It's probably the only sport I can't stand; it just has too much running and too little scoring for me. But of course, everyone else LOVES it and goes to watch the games every day. There's a pub near here that shows all the games and they get a lot of business from the LBAT program. So I'm unfortunately the so-called odd-(wo)man-out. But it's not too bad since I get some time to myself, but I wish it wasn't an every-day affair that takes up everyone's time. Anyway, that's my soccer rant, I'm not going to force myself to watch them just to hang out with people, but maybe I'll go if the US plays or something.

So there's my massive post for the day :D I told you it would be big! This weekend should be interesting too since it's Parisian Pride this weekend. A friend of mine is coming down from the GT Lorraine program so we can go together. Should be fun :) I'll sign off now and hopefully I'll post sooner next time so it doesn't have to be as massive. Love to everyone!!
-Austin