We 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
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