Une matinée stressante!

I don't know if that's really the way you say 'stressful' in French, but boy, am I glad this morning is over. I successfully completed my first midterm in France... by which I mean that the paper didn't blow out the window, my hand didn't fall off, I didn't have a complete mental breakdown halfway through question #2, and there was no cataclysmic natural disaster to prevent me from scribbling down some kind of response to each question. I'm not saying I think I aced it or anything. That remains to be seen.

I'm pretty sure I muddled up the title of at least one of the institutions in the CEE - how are you supposed to keep them all straight when their names are all the same? The Conseil européen and the Commission européenne and the Communauté européenne - and in the end, what's the point of having all of those different groups of Important Political People when all of them just discuss and propose and recommend (talk talk talk) and then only one committee actually votes to DO anything??? But that's just my oversimplified analysis... (Man, if the politicians of the European Union could see things as clearly as I do, how much easier would those debates be about the European Constitution and the entrance of Turkey into the EU? Ha ha, just kidding.)

Anyway, I got... oh... 4 hours of sleep last night because I decided, due to other pressing engagements (i.e. attempting to bake pumpkin bread without baking soda or any other leavening agent, which I don't advise unless you think bread about as dense as a pumpkin itself sounds appetizing), not to start studying until 10 pm or so. Ah, priorities. The good news is, French coffee is adequately strong to sustain me through the rest of the afternoon. Oh, and as for the pumpkin bread, don't worry, it won't go to waste - since my French family is gone on vacation this week and there's nobody to cook for me, I'll probably get hungry enough eventually to eat it. Either that, or I'll save it for Thanksgiving and we can use the loaf to play the traditional game of touch football while the turkey's cooking. (After all, American footballs are hard to come by in France...)

Um, yeah. So... the other interesting event of the morning was my SECOND news interview in French. I'm gonna be a celebrity by the time I leave - "look, it's that American girl trying to speak French on TV again!" At least this time it wasn't about boats playing a symphony with their fog horns... (Vive la Nuit Blanche!) But it was hard nonetheless to talk about the election en français with a camera in my face. It would help if I could express my thoughts about the election coherently in my native tongue - even in my own mind! I'm so confused by now that when I find out who won I'll probably start celebrating and mourning at the same time. It's Bush? Yay for the sake of fetuses everywhere - boo for the demise of international politics. It's Kerry? Yay for hydrogen fuel cell research - boo for a fat new health care bureaucracy. Bush? Yay for the right to bear arms - boo for the proposed gay marriage ban. Kerry? Yay for an end to the ballooning deficit - boo for wanting to keep a Social Security program that doesn't work. Oh, I could go on. At any rate, I hope I managed to say something decent, because French people already have a bad enough opinion of Americans' political awareness without me adding to it.

Still, this reminded me of the intense battle (slash propaganda-sound bite gag fest) going on in the US at the moment as the final day approaches. Filling out my absentee ballot was pretty anticlimactic, really. I'd started to feel like it was already over... Maybe it's nice that I don't have to see the ugly finale in person... But now I'm WAY more nervous to see what happens in the election - now that I've realized how close it is, the suspense is killing me! And unlike people who actually support one candidate over the other, I already know how the result will affect me -whatever happens, I'll be disappointed! Ha ha. But seriously, I predict major drama. Court battles. Scandals. Pregnant hanging chads and undoubtedly a new electronic version - a Mysterious Paper Trail (or lack thereof) and an Election Hacker and new assertions of stolen votes. If you ask me, either candidate that wins has stolen the election. Either that, or bought it. With all the garbage flying around the "news" these days, even the most diligent, honest, devoted voter couldn't dig deep enough to find a shred of truth on which to found an "educated decision." No, this election is going to be determined by whose make-up was better in Debate #3, whose advisors' word choice was better in the final 50 sound bites, whose name looks more presidential on the ballot.

Wow, I'm getting cynical in my old age, aren't I? And this doesn't even have anything to do with France. Well, not a whole lot, anyway. (I'm like the candidates during the debates - give me a topic, any topic, and I'll find a way to start dishing out my latest talking points... Ha ha.) Revenons à nos muttons ("let's get back to our sheep," that is, the matter at hand), if you happen to get local Nantes news, the interview's playing on channel 6 tomorrow at 8:40. Since I know that applies to a lot of you. ;)

Well, next time I write I should have some new travel stories - I'm leaving for Montpelier (yeah, beaches! sun!! sud de France, woohoo!!!) tomorrow morning. Early. So, that said, I think I'm going to go take a nap!

La fête de Halloween

Yesterday I was a bit stressed what with the last-minute preparations for the Fête de Halloween - how much food and drink to buy, putting up the decorations, 'will anybody come?', etc. Luckily my worries were all for nothing, because it worked out almost perfectly!

About 50 or 60 students, American and French, showed up and about half stayed for the full 2 hours. The food didn't run out too soon, but almost all of it - and there was a lot! - was eaten. There weren't really enough drinks but oh, well... And the decorations looked awesome! I will post some photos when I get the chance. So that was a big relief. My costume - borrowed from a friend who used it freshman year - was a Magic 8-ball, that is, I wore black and taped a white circle with an 8 on my back. On my front was the triangle, in fact, multiple triangles with different responses among which I could choose depending on the question. Get it? That was an instant conversation starter - inevitably, 'What are you?' and then when they figured it out, of course they had to ask me a question, shake me, and see the response! It was a lot of fun.

Today, Dad, Colleen and I had lunch at the cutest little restaurant featuring local French cuisine. We ate like kings and queens for just 12,50€ each - not bad. This week has been a gastronomical adventure, eating out every night. It's always fun trying to figure out the menu - even I have a lot of trouble deciphering it and predicting what the dishes will actually be! It's nice, because my French family is on vacation - so at least I'm not too lonely. ;)

Ma (vraie!) famille arrive!

Well, I don't have much time to write because I've been crazy-busy... Dad and Colleen got here just fine, with only a few minor misadventures concerning the airport, luggage, etc. (I'm glad I'm not the only one to find traveling to be particularly difficult in France... well, not GLAD, but... it's not just me!)

We toured around Angers their first day here. It's a small city north of Nantes (on the way to Paris) with a huge medieval chateau - round towers, arrow slots, really thick walls, etc. That was pretty impressive. They also have the oldest tapestries in the world - well, I'm sure there's a qualifying factor in there, like "the oldest almost complete tapestries in the world" or the oldest biblical-themed or the oldest best-preserved or something - maybe Dad can post it if he remembers, after he gets home. But anyway, it was pretty interesting to see the whole book of Revelations represented in tapestry form. We also lost two umbrellas on the trip - Dad left his in the train and I left mine in a tea shop. Whoops! Oh well, at least it was done raining by then anyway. (The weather here changes by the minute, it's impossible to predict!)

We've been eating some great food at restaurants around town - crêpes and galettes, pork stuffed with blue cheese sauce, quiche, all sorts of things. I tried a crêpe flambé, that was neat! Dad and Colleen took a trip to Normandy today. I couldn't go, of course, since I had class... But I hope they enjoyed it. They met my host mom last night. She speaks great English... I'd never heard it before, so it was pretty weird to have the tables turned and have her asking me how to say things. Yikes. In fact, it was weird to speak English at all. (Don't get me wrong, I do it from time to time here, but never at the house...) She was exactly the gracious hostess I picture French women as being, and she said all sorts of nice things about me, which was a little ego boost. She also liked Dad and Colleen a lot. So I guess that was successful!

I also hung out with Benoît this weekend since he was home. (Told you I've been busy!) It was his first time carving a pumpkin, that was pretty funny!Before we started, he asked me if it was liquid or solid inside... I was like, 'Um, a little of both...' I think he thought it was pretty crazy, both of us being elbow deep in pumpkin goop, but he was proud of the result. ;) He's back in Grenoble now, but I get to go skiing there in November. I'm so excited! I'm sure I've already mentioned that several times, but how often do you get to ski in the Alps?

I'm getting ready for the big IES Halloween Party which I had to plan and organize as Prez... It was a surprisingly lot of work for what may or may not end up being lame. No guarantees... I just hope people go, since we spent a lot of money on food and punch and stuff. We'll see what happens... Well gotta go, but I'll write again when I can.

Un petit voyage à Saumur

What a great weekend! I got to travel a little and relax a little, the perfect mix. The weather even cooperated! It's been quite rainy and chilly - we even had a tremendous thunder storm a few weeks ago that rattled the windows and woke me up! - but this weekend it was sunny and nice. I don't mind the gray skies, though - it reminds me of Seattle! :) I just remember to take my parapluie with me everywhere, and I'm fine...

Friday night I went to a French film at the local artsy cinema, and it happened to be the film's premiere in Nantes, so the director and starring actress were there, and they talked about it afterward. It was fascinating! The film itself was intriguing - it's called Brodeuses, which means 'embroiderers,' and it was about a young unmarried pregnant woman who finds a job with an isolated and depressed older woman doing intricate needlework, and how their interdependent relationship grows closer over the months through this shared work. I liked it a lot, but the dialogue was extremely hard to understand. It definitely helped hearing them explain the effect they were trying to achieve afterwards... You know, subsidizing the arts is a tricky business but I have to say, it's refreshing to see something so professionally done that was the vision not of some Hollywood executive based on audience polls and projected revenues, but of an independent (and relatively young!) French woman who had something she wanted to express.

Anyway, Saturday was the trip to Saumur, which - I discovered - is a marvellous little town. It is dominated by a 9th century chateau - naturally added on to and modified over the centuries - and is situated on the banks of the Loire. We also visited the Comblier distillery, where Triple-Sec was invented some 150 years ago, and got a really interesting tour of how various liquors are manufactured. We visited the church (another St. Pierre) and had a scrumptious lunch. We didn't have time to see the mushroom museum but apparently the mushrooms of Saumur are world-renowned - although by a misleading quirk of fate they are known as 'champignons de Paris.' It was a free trip for me too, because the conductors never punched my eurail pass. How convenient!

Sunday I was invited to play board games at a friend's house, en français of course, which was a challenge! It was fun though. I also did plenty of homework... grumble, grumble. No, actually it's nice to have plenty to do these days.

At any rate, all in all, it was an ideal weekend. I am looking forward to next weekend as well, when Dad and Colleen are coming to visit!

Bonnes nouvelles... mauvaises nouvelles... bonnes nouvelles!

More good news! I was chosen, based on a letter of candidature (my first formal letter in French, aah!), to represent IES Nantes in the Model European Union in Frieburg, Germany the first weekend of December. I will be the Finance Minister from Belgium, something that has made my French friends laugh. France makes fun of Belgians like Americans tease Canadians. The stereotype is that all they do is eat french fries and drink beer. When I told FX that 'chips' - the word he learned in his British english class - are called french fries in America, he laughed, because they're hardly French. It would make more sense if they were called Belgian fries. Or maybe Congress had the right idea with the Freedom fries thing... ha ha. Anyway, more work for me, but I get a free trip to Germany, and I'm excited because I have always enjoyed such political situations in the past (Model UN, etc.).

Now for the disappointing news. My hoped-for internship with the Conseil Regional didn't work out. I can't say I'm surprised, and neither was our director, Mr. de Berranger, even though he made at least 6 calls and wrote a nice letter on my behalf. (As he wrote in his note to me, "I am, alas, little surprised at the comportment of French public administration..." - that's my bad translation, by the way, as he wrote it in French...) Anyhoo, that's a no-go, so it remains to be seen if I'll find another position or what. I haven't got that much extra time these days, since I'm taking the maximum number of credits and doing sports, etc. so maybe I'll just have to let that idea go...

... And I have some more good news, to offset that disappointment. It has nothing to do with France, but I just got an email telling me that back at Whitman, I won a Hosokawa Award for Outstanding Journalism based on an article I wrote last semester! Yay! The money can maybe help balance out my outrageous (but necessary) spending here in Europe. It's not a ton, but every little bit helps. Plus I have to be a little proud that my article was picked. :)

Otherwise, I'm headed off to Saumer for a day trip tomorrow, so that should be neat - I'll be sure to describe it next chance I get to add to my blog. And I just bought tickets to Grenoble to go skiing in the Alps and to Montpelier to see the South of France, for various upcoming weekends. So, my travel plans are falling into place and I'm a happy camper! Until next time!

Visiter les chateaux de la Loire

To my delight, there is in fact a computer lab at the Fac, so I can check my email, etc. without having to take a half an hour tram ride back to the Institute. Yay! True, there is a fifteen minute wait, but hey... it's free, and it's convenient. It's kind of funny that it's in the foreign language building, but I think it's actually kind of for the foreign students, because French students really use computers a lot less than Americans, for example. They actually still hand-write most of their papers! They also have oral exams - even for math and physics! Isn't that nuts?? I mean, not that it doesn't work, it is just so different than what I am used to!

I had such a scare today at lunch - I couldn't find my purse anywhere. My purse has just about half my life in it, by the way - my phone, my keys, my bus pass, my credit cards! - so I immediately started to panic. I thought it might have been stolen on the tram this morning but I couldn't remember for sure the last time I'd seen it. I ran around like a crazy person for half an hour, before finally returning home and finding it, of all places, hanging innocently on its hook in my bedroom. I can't believe how scatterbrained I can be!!! But I think maybe it was a good reminder to be careful with your things. Now I'm a lot less likely to leave it carelessly lying about somewhere or easily accessible to thieves.

Hey, I'm trying to look on the bright side. Still, I'm reading Candide right now - for fun - and I have to say, Voltaire makes my "everything happens for a reason" philosophy (which is the same as Candide's) seem a bit ridiculous. It should be interesting to see what I think about it after I finish the book...

Anyway, the tour of the chateaux this weekend was fabulous! I don't necessarily think we saw the biggest or the best but... it was a nice vacation. And there are so many to choose from. I think we went to Montgeoffroy because it is the most intact 17th century interior, plus it's pretty close to Nantes. However, it is kind of just a really big and extremely nice house. I might call it a manor or a mansion, but it's definitely not a castle. Interestingly, the original family still lives there on the second floor (with two servants, I might add). How cool would that be, to be the Marquis de Something-or-other and live in a chateau? So, next we saw the slightly older Azay-le-Rideau, which had quite a collection of 15th century tapestries. Sadly, all the colors have faded but the blue... Still, they are pretty extraordinary. An even bigger mansion, this one did have two towers and a moat. And it was pretty drafty. But I don't know... French castles are just so civilized. There is no way princesses and dragons would consider moving in. (I think my idea of a 'castle' comes from the medieval structures that hopefully I'll get a chance to see when I tour England and Scotland! Yay!) It's crazy how big the rooms in some of these chateaux are, though. The king-size bed in the Chambre de Roi (ha, literally made for the king) is absolutely dwarfed by the 15-foot ceilings and large dimensions of the room. Of course, in the 17th century the room was used for more than just sleeping; one also ate and entertained in the bedroom. Two servants slept there as well, on pallets next to the bed; thus for privacy (and warmth), the beds have those long curtains, sometimes on posts or simply suspended directly from the ceiling. I think they are so elegant! And they're up on the wooden platform so your feet don't get cold when you get out of bed in the morning. How nice. :)

Saturday afternoon we visited the beautiful gardens of Villandry, which are extensive, to say the least. There are the ornamental gardens, the kitchen gardens, the herb gardens, the water gardens, one of those hedge mazes, greenhouses, etc. All very artificial and geometrical but pleasant all the same. It's sort of like the idea of paradise as something very regular and idealistic, everything perfectly in place and separate and aesthetically pleasing. There is a stream with several rounded waterfalls leading to a lake with swans and surrounded by perfectly trimmed bushes. (Of course I couldn't look at them the same once someone remarked upon the phallic nature of the bushes' shapes, but it's not my fault I'm traveling with a bunch of silly college students! Ha ha...) There are over 2000 lime trees lining all of the paths, which have to be trimmed by hand, which apparently takes 4 men 4 months to do. It's funny, the idea that it takes so much work in the dirt to make a garden like that, but the result is so clean and neat and seemingly effortless; one would almost think the flowers and bushes just grew like that, but in fact the flowers (or vegetables, depending on the garden) are each carefully chosen depending on the season, the crop rotation, the soil, etc. Well, unfortunately I can't say anymore on the subject because I know very little about gardening and in fact tend to kill whatever poor plants find themselves under my care...

Sunday we went to Cheverny, which is also surrounded by a large and lovely park, and was primarily a sort of extremely upscale hunting lodge for nobility. They still do traditional stag hunts there with all the dogs and horses and everything. The hundred dogs they use (!) are a special breed of Engilsh Fox hound and French Pervin (or some such?)... kind of big, but more slender than burly, with floppy ears. (Man do they smell, though!) This chateau is also still inhabited by the orginal family; unfortunately both of the sons are much too young for me... Ha ha, just kidding. They do rent out the Orangerie for weddings though! Side note - that Orangerie is where they hid many national treasures during WWII, including the Mona Lisa!

Finally, we visited my favorite, Chenonceau. It is very feminine. I heard once that it was designed by a woman, or was her idea, which doesn't surprise me one bit. It is the most famous of those we visited and was certainly the most crowded. I almost couldn't enjoy it, there were so many people there. And this is in October! Imagine what it's like in August! Sheesh. But it's really beautiful the way the chateau is built almost like a bridge; with all the arches underneath it looks almost as if it is floating over the river, and from the Gallerie inside - which was the huge ballroom - you have a lovely view down the length of the river. I loved it. Standing in the black-and-white tiled Gallerie I could almost hear the waltz music! If I could go back in time to one of those balls... It must have been amazing. In fact, the Gallerie was used during WWI as a hospital, and had a total of 2200 or so patients. (Wonder what the builders of these chateaux would think of their future uses??) Chenonceau was lived in by Catherine Medici, who became the Regent of France after her husband Henri III (I think) died and while her son was too young to rule. There were quite a few other women from the royal family who lived there from time to time; Louise Someone-or-other came there after the assassination of her husband (another Henri?) to live in mourning, and her room is SO depressing - painted entirely in black with black velvet draperies, etc! I've never seen the like. Again, the gardens are lovely, and there's a 16th century farm on the property but we didn't have time to see it. In fact, we were pretty rushed the whole visit at that chateau, but I decided the best thing about it was the architecture and the view from far away anyhow, so oh well. It was nice to get home at a decent hour (after a 3 hour bus ride back! Ugh...). Besides, I think the most important thing to note in this blog entry is that my burning desire to visit a French castle has now been satisfied (four times over!), so I am happy. :)

Le weekend à Paris

I had to write today because I realized that I'm only going to get further and further behind if I don't make time to post on my blog. As it is, I don't know where to start! First, a general update:

My philosophy class is awesome, but the French system is crazy. I showed up for my 'TD' or Travaux Dirigé, which is almost like a lab... if philosophy classes had labs... it's a supplement to the course, an extra hour per week. Anyway, I show up at 9:30 as posted, and there's two other people there and no teacher. So we wait... and then we go upstairs, and there's a new posting (changed since Monday, mind you, just two days ago) that says 10:30. So we wait an hour and the rest of the class shows up, and then the teacher says, by the way, next week is going to be 9:30 and the week after that the TD is on a different day entirely, in the afternoon! As if I can just arrange my schedule every week to suit this one class! Sheesh.

I don't have to worry anymore about not having enough to do. In fact, I'm almost too busy now. I know, picky picky. I just think I've gotten lazy now that I've had time off and I have to get back in the swing of things... Still, there's so much I want to do, and suddenly so little time! Class, conversation club, sports, discussion group that I'm hosting, traveling... every day this week I've left the house at 8:30 am and gotten back at 8:30 pm. But I guess that's a good thing!

Okay, now about Paris! I was invited by Benoît, a French friend who I met through Michael. We'd never hung out just the two of us before, but every time we went out in a group we enjoyed talking to each other, so it wasn't too awkward. He is one of the nicest guys I've ever met, I've decided. Well, judge for yourself...

The weekend had a rocky start. On the way to the train station Saturday afternoon, I started to worry I was making a mistake by going for just a day and a half to Paris. Was it worth the money? Would I have time to see anything? But I'd already bought the tickets online, so too late to change my mind! We were already running a little behind schedule, and then things got worse: The electronic ticket machine required a credit card to verify my identity and print my tickets, but it couldn't read my card! And the train was about to leave! We didn't have time to wait in line for an employee to help us, so Benoît said, 'Don't worry, we'll just talk to the controller on the train and figure out what to do.' So we barely made the train, and then the controller said I had to buy another ticket but that they could refund it in Paris. It was twice the price of my original, but since I was getting the money back anyway, oh well! Of course his machine couldn't read my card either, so I had to pay in cash... and I didn't have enough, so Benoît loaned me some. (He was so patient through this whole ordeal!)

Then things started to get better. After the controller left, we moved to first class (where Benoît's tickets were) and watched a really funny French movie on his laptop, Le Diner des Cons. We were laughing all the way to Paris. Then we got there and ran into a stubborn and stereotypically rude French person that had me so frustrated I was about ready to cry. This guichet (ticket-seller) wouldn't refund my money or even do anything to help me whatsoever, all he did was give me an address to write to and basically tell me to get out of the way! Thank goodness (again!) for Benoît, who steered me towards a younger guichet and explained the whole thing and voilà, this guy got his boss to come over and manually type in the numbers on my credit card and print out my ticket for the return trip and refunded my ticket for the trip over. Phew. So all I had to do now was mail in a request for the difference between the price of the original and the price I paid on the train. Still a pain, but again Benoît came to my rescue, saying he would ask his mom to write a letter on my behalf, since if it isn't perfectly clear and concise the typical French employee won't bother to read it... What a mess, but I guess it could have been worse, and now I've learned my lesson about those electronic ticket machines!!! And like I said, isn't Benoît the sweetest? Too bad he lives 6 hours away by train...

So, I calmed down, and again things were on the upswing. We met his aunt Patou (short for Patricia) and his cousin Marion and they were sooooo nice. They fed us excellent food, gave me a really nice room to sleep in, a shower - and didn't treat me like a stranger at all, it was like I was part of the family! (Far more so than with my host family, even.)

After eating, at about 4:00, Benoît and I departed to 'walk around a bit.' Ha! We ended up traversing all of Paris by foot over the next four and a half hours!!! I'm not sure how that happened, but it was amazing. We started out in the southeast corner, then walked north through the Latin Quarter, past the Pantheon, west along the length of the Seine, had a great view of Notre Dame from afar, crossed the Pont des Arts, passed through the courtyard of the Louvre, walked the length of the Rue de Rivoli and the entire Champs-Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, then turned southwest and ended up at the Eiffel Tower at 8:30. Wow!!! I don't know how far that is but if you figure 3 miles an hour, that makes at least 12...

And yes, there is a great Metro system in Paris, and that would have been an easy way to get around. But I think walking was a great way to get a feel for how the different districts of the city are connected, how far apart things are, what the average street scene is like in various parts of the city, etc. It's kind of an 'it's about the journey and not the destination' sort of thing. We weren't walking to get somewhere specific, we were just wandering in a general direction and checking out what happened to be along the way. Plus we had a nice conversation and got some good exercise! And it makes for a good story... 'The day I walked across Paris'... :)

That night we met Marion and Patou so we could all go to this big festival that happens once a year called La Nuit Blanche. That's a French expression that means a night that you don't sleep at all (English equivalent = 'all-nighter'? That's all I could think of...). So for this festival there are certain things open all night, 8 pm to 8 am, like swimming pools and parks and certain Metro lines, etc. and there are all kinds of bizarre spectacles and art displays. It was weird but kind of cool... The atmosphere of the city was really lively, with the roads and sidewalks all completely packed and tons of stuff going on.

The spectacles that we went to were big disappointments, though. The first was what, from the program's description, we expected to be an orchestra on separate boats, coordinated by some kind of signal and playing a piece composed by such-and-such modern composer, while floating down the Seine. Sounds cool, right? Ha, it turned out to be an 'orchestra' OF boats, that is, 'playing' their horns in a supposedly coordinated manner! It sounded like BLEH, BLURGH, BLEEP, MREH... and somebody wrote this piece!!! It was funny how bad it was, actually. Best of all, this guy came around with a news camera and asked Marion what she thought. She made up some flowery response - highly imaginitive, she's a drama queen and it's cute - and then to my horror, the camera man turns to ME: Et vous, Mademoiselle, qu'est-ce que vous pensez? Now, I don't like cameras in general, but to have to explain in another language my reaction to that crazy display was - beyond the realm of possibility. I stammered something about, 'as an American student, I find that La Nuit Blanche is a great representation of the French culture's appreciation for art' - but of course not nearly that coherent. And after he turned away I breathed a huge sigh of relief. But for all I know, I could have been on French TV!

We also saw a dance featuring, of all things, three garbage trucks driving around in circles (!!!) - yes, choreographed by a Russian choreographer and with incredibly atonal electronic noise (I can't even call it music). And like 500 people turned out to see this! It was incredible! After the 10 minute 'dance,' I was flabbergasted by the sheer nonsense of it all and I just burst out laughing. We also saw huge ant images projected onto the side of a building; Le Bal Perdu, which was kind of cool with live music and fake snow but the snow was really chemically and made it hard to breathe so we left... Anyway, it was a fun night, and we got home at 2:30 am and I fell into the wonderfully large and comfy bed they'd given me, totally exhausted!!!

And that was only the first day! But I will have to write again later about Sunday, because I have to go to class. A suivre... (To be continued...)

Okay, I'm back. This isn't going to be too long because I just wrote a giant blog about the castles of the Loire (see above) and I'm a little blogged out. But I have to finish my narrative of the Paris trip! (I can't just leave it hanging like that...)

Sunday we tried to get up at a decent hour but nonetheless didn't leave the house before noon. Still, we lucked out, because on the first Sunday of the month the museums are free! Thus, we got to see the Musée d'Orsay without paying a cent... and based on how great it was, that was a heck of a deal. I love Impressionism, and I got to see all my favorite painters - Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh! - and sculptors, Degas and Rodin... wow. It was stunning. The paintings are so much more... just more, in real life. Vivid, impressive, I dont know. It was the colors, the textures, everything! Girls at the Piano, Woman Reading, and Danse à Moulin de la Galette (Renoir) are still some of my favorites (I saw the gardens at Moulin de la Galette later that day, by the way!); Monet's four versions of the same church, and of course his gardens - I'd love to visit Giverny; some of the dancers, painted and sculpted, by Degas really struck me. There was just so much to see! My absolute favorite though was a pair of sculptures by an artist I've never heard of, Eve before the sin and of course Eve after the sin. I don't know why I like them so much; they're just so expressive and classic. I was excited to figure out that they were a pair because they were in different rooms but I was immediately drawn to both of them... Anyway... Let's just say the Musée d'Orsay was a big hit with me!

After that, we went to Mont Martre and wandered around that artsy district (apparently we hadn't had enough art and culture for the day...) and saw the great view of Paris from the top of the hill. We had hot chocolate at the Amelie café on the way back down. (If you haven't seen that delightful French film, you should! Amelie is just so irrestible!) It looks just like it does in the movie... even the bathroom door (if you've seen the film, you can't forget that funny scene!). That was fun... Then, all too soon, we were back at the train station and I had to go home. :( At least the way back was far less dramatic than the way there, at least for me. Benoît thought he had plenty of time to make his train to Grenoble, where he goes to school, at the other station, but he just barely made it on before the doors closed! Thank goodness he did, because that was the last train of the night! But of course I didn't know this until later... I just had a nice peaceful train ride back home, finishing my homework. ;) All in all, a very successful weekend!

Des bonnes nouvelles!

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to write at the moment, so I'll just try to impart the details...

To my astonishment, I was elected President of IES! It was an eight-way race and usually these things are silly popularity contests, so I had no expectations whatsoever of winning, but somehow... Wow, I was in shock when they announced it. Not that it's a huge deal, but I am now the official representative of these 60 students, so it is kind of exciting. My responsibilities aren't that heavy, but I provide a link between administration and students and preside over meetings and things. Plus people tease me and call me Madame La Présidente. Ha ha.

It also opened up an opportunity for me to have a paying job (yay!). I will be heading a conversation group for a program called France-Etats Unis, well, more specifically, I will be hosting English discussions for native French speakers. That should be interesting! It's just an hour a week, and it starts next week. So I'd better come up with some things to talk about, huh? But I get paid 10€ an hour, which is great! Mme Roucher offered it to me first because she said as president I should be a good representative of IES. Well, cool! I will certainly try my best!

Yesterday was the début of my two other cours sportifs. Well, I thought cross country was starting, anyway, but then it turned out that unlike all the other courses, it starts next week. How does everyone else know these things and I don't? Must be some special telepathy for French people that I don't have... Anyhoo, I went ahead and ran 3 miles at the track, since I was there. Then because I didn't have anything else to do I went to musculation again and worked out for an hour. (Still didn't talk to anyone. Wimp!) Then I was really tired and decided maybe I didn't really want to play Ultimate Frisbee that much even though I signed up for it, but my friend Mark talked me into going anyway. So I ran around playing Ultimate for an hour and a half! Yikes! Let's just say I slept like a baby last night, I was exhausted!!! And today I am pretty sore. But I'm going to be in good shape if I keep this up! (It's a good counter-balance to my pastry- and cheese-laden, à la française diet...)

Today I wandered around the university looking for two other courses to take. Ironically, I can't take that politics course that I was so upset about missing, because another class changed times. So I guess it's good I haven't wasted my time by going after all! Still, I'm having a really hard time finding a replacement. I'm going to take a philosophy class on property with readings of Locke and Hobbes that should be interesting, I hope, but it's a pain because it requires me to leave another class early. But it's seriously all I could find, and trust me, it hasn't been easy looking. The only way to get the class schedule is to go to the school, find the department office, and look at a posted schedule, and then read the course descriptions which are posted on the other wall. So I've done this for Politics, Law, and Philosophy now, with the result of just that one class I can go to, and it isn't even very convenient. Rrgh. I did find a Sociology of Politics class that sounds interesting, but the schedule for that won't be posted until next week because it doesn't start for two weeks yet! Isn't this system insane??? Actually, French students don't have to go through this mess as their courses are all predetermined... So it's just the poor Americans who are already having a hard enough time that have to jump through all the hoops.

Oh well, I'm not letting it get me down. I'm actually in a very good mood today because I'm going to Paris tomorrow. So I will let you all know how that trip turns out!