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
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