My First Day of Class was so much fun!!!! First off, I got to sleep in until about 10:30 which was really nice and helped me get over jetlag which had killed me the day before. Kyra had a class at 9:00 so she had to be up a lot earlier than I did. Anyway, so I got up and took a shower and fiddled on facebook and Alex and I decided to meet at the Porte d'Orleans and head to class together. Class yesterday began at the Musee de Cluny in the Latin Quarter. So I walked to the Tram, by myself I might add, and made my way to the Porte d'Orleans (a metro station). I swear some guy on the Tram was stalking me, but moving on. So I met up with Alex, which was kind of funny because each side of the street has a metro entrance, so we started off going to different onces, switched to the other sides, ans she finally saw me crossing the street again and we finally met up haha. We took the metro to the Latin Quarter and went to get a quick bite near the Musee de Cluny. Then we met up with a bunch of other students ourside the Musee and waited for Natalie and our Prof. to arrive.

Prof. Lev cracks me up. She is this small woman with a kind of weird style with so much energy. She has a lot of passion which makes her fun to listen to, but she tends to ramble on about material and you find people starring off into space. I found myself doing that as well. A lot of the information she says I've heard about it other history and art classes so it's nice to refresh my memory. But there are some very interesting things I havn't heard that she has brought to my attention.

In the Musee de Cluny we encountered a lot of statues, tapestries, and stained glass. A lot of the statues had been attached to Notre Dame, and is an act of punishment were, as Prof. Lev called it, "castrated." The statues are headless, but the heads were later found and inside the museum the bodies sit on one side of a room with the heads sitting on the other. The story behind it was, the beheadings of the statues was a display of punishment for the Revolution. It was going against the currupt chuch, and currupt people of power. Although, the punishers got it wrong...they were not beheading statues of powerful christian men...but the kings of Juddah...WOOPS!!!

We spent a good deal of time around the tapestry of the Lady and the Unicorn. They entire piece had 6 parts; each representing a different sense--Sight, Sound, Taste, Touch, Smell, and a 6th sense which seemed to be purity. The senses were arranged by how carnal they were to their clossness to god. Sight was the closeset to god, and I pointed out that it was the only part in which the lady was not the center of the painting, the unicorn was. Also, her garments were a sort of reflection of the white unicorn where in other tapestries her garments were brilliant blues and reds. They were really very beautiful works. Les Milles Fleurs... I tried to look for a miniture of the lady and the unicorn but I could find were postcards.

After the Musee we went to see a Roman Ampitheatre that had been turned into a little park. It was not very well preserved, but you could still see some of the original stairways and seating. The class was dismissed but a few of us, including me, stayed behind and climbed the steep stairs to the top of the ampitheatre and talked with our prof. about the most random things. We all headed out around 5:30 and Kyra, Emily, and I went shopping around the Latin Quarter. We found a couple of really cute shops, and some of the things I wanted to get...but they were just outrageously expensive or extremely breakable and I didnt want to risk it breaking and not being able to replace it. I did try to french sweets--Emily and I tried French marshmellows. They are actaully a lot different then ours, and a lot better too haha.

We took the metro home and arrived a little early, but when dinner was served we were introduced to one of madame Lefur's friends, John. I think he is British because he spoke english very well and had that slight british accent. He was very nice and funny and we told him about our day and our program and he asked a lot about us. I didnt ask him if he was from England, because if he was French, I think it might have offended him. I think he could tell I was a bit confused trying to decipher what was being said around me so he slowed down when talking to me and sometimes translated what was being said. It helped a lot.

After a long day, we just decided to stay in. Kyra is still getting over Jetlag and i was just worn out from so much walking. So we took our unique showers and heading off to bed after reading for class today. Today...we are visiting Notre Dame and St-Julien-la Pouvre. Plus, around 8pm tonight a lot of us are having a picnic under the Eiffel Tower! It's going to be a long but exciting day! CAN'T WAIT!!!