WOW! I have not been around my computer much because we went on a little trip this passed weekend, but boy do I have a lot to say!!! Bare with me...this will be long haha.

OK so...we are rewinding the clock a few days. Back to the second day of my Art and Architecture class. Boy was this a fun day. Alex and I met at Porte d'Orleans again, and had lunch sitting on the Fontaine St. Michel as we waited for the rest of our group to arrive. Some rando came up to us and started muttering things I couldnt understand, but we ignored him and he finally left us alone, BUT THEN, another rando was behind us splashing us with water from the fountain trying to get our attention. Not going to lye, the water felt nice seeing as it was extremely hot outside, but it was a bit annoying. He finally left us alone too as the rest of our group arrived. We all took pictures at the fountain when our prof. arrived and led us along some streets to St. Julien le Pouvre, an old Romanesque church. We stopped at a really cute gardin first, which sits in the oldest square in Paris. Growing in this gardin is also the oldest tree in Paris. St. Julien was unfortunately closed but it was rather picturesque in a medieval part of town with the Towering Notre Dame behind it, which was our next stop. We made our way to Notre Dame and she explained in very vivid detail all the statuary on the exterior--the meanings and the stories behind them. It was very interesting. It was so crowded, and we had to wait in line to get inside. Once we finally did get inside we were told to find a structure, a piece of art or a sculpture to write about--why we chose it and what stood out to us. I picked the sculpture of comte claudio in the back of the Cathedral. It was a very dramatic sculpture of love and death--Comte Claudio is sitting up out of his coffin while father times stands behind him with an hour glass that has run out. Claudio is reaching out towards a figure kneeling beside his coffin. We find that this figure is his wife, praying to join Claudio in death. This peice, while dark, captured me and I just had to write about it. Unfortunatly, in my anxiousness to write about it I forgot to take a picture...desole. We were let out of class after that, and me Kyra and Emily had planned on taking the stairs to the top, but the wait was 45 minutes and we didnt have enough time--considering we had to make dinner on time. So, we went back to the square around Fontaine St. Michel and went shopping. I was able to find a French Jersey and French flag, YAY!. After making it home for dinner, and being worried that it would rain cats and dogs on us, Kyra and I met a bunch of people for a wine and cheese picnic under the Eiffel Tower. Now this was a good time. We all met up at the Porte d'Orleans and made our way to the large grass area in front of the Eiffel Tower, made our picnic area and tried a bunch of different wines, cheeses, and bread. We made it in time to see the light show as well. Then we split into smaller groups and went our seperate ways. Carley, Will, Kyra, Jenna, and I went across the bridge to see the Football match between Paraguay (or Uraguay) and Ghana match on a huge TV screen. It was fun, but we left a bit early so it wouldnt be the worst, most crowded metro ride in the world. I met a very attractice French boy there, didn't get his name--and his english was not so good, but it was fun talking to him. Not much else happened on this day...just went home and packed. It was hard to sleep because I was so excited for the weekend.

THE WEEKEND WAS SOOOO MUCH FUN!!!! There is just so much to tell, I'm not sure if my hands will even last long enough to get it all down. But to start, we all had to get up really early and meet at Porte d'Orleans to get on the Buses. Liz, Cara, Janet (my new besties) and I all sat in the back of the bus and pretty much giggled the entire 5 hour ride to Saint Malo...with intermissions of 5 to 10 minutes nap times. When we arrived in Saint Malo, I can honestly say, I've never wanted to stay in a vacation spot more. It was a beautiful, fortified, walled city. We checked into our hotels which sat right on the main square. My room looked directly out onto the life of the small city. We had a tour of the city and climbed the walls--OH MY LORD---THE VIEWS!!!! Beautiful beaches, with amazing fortified islands with sail boats and yachts all around them. The water was blue and clear and the sun was shining--unfortunately it was a very cool day. We passed a lot of streets with funny names. My favortie was Rue de la chat qui danse (The street of cat who danses). This street was actually named to make fun of the british who were trying to invade Saint Malo, and blew up a shit but only managed to kill a cat. THe cat died in the very street and so it was named Rue de la chat qui danse. We passed this really cool place that looked like an ordinary swimming pool...but no...the pool was only filled when the tide was in. When the tide was out, there was so water. It was really cool, a raised area with a dock around it. I really wanted to go in, but the water looked freezing. We passed a really cute Irish pub in the middle of the French City and a bunch of cute Irish boys came out and all the girls took pictures with them ( they were wearing red wigs and shamrock hats). When the tour was over, Liz, Cara, Janet, Jenna, Kyra, and I went shopping (the stores all had like 50% off sales) and then to a grocery store to get wine and break and cheese. After a little more shopping (I got some shirts and a painting) we went down to the beach to have a picnic. We ended up watching a group of boys playing a game of beach football. Liz and I wanted to get up and play but didnt.When we finished our picnic we got up and walked down to the water, which yes was extremely cold, but to our surprise the boys came over and started talking to us. One asked for my number but I didn't give it to him. They kept pushing to hang out with us but we decided against it and left for another part of the beach and walked around in little lagoons (much warmer water). Afterwards we all went to our rooms and got all cute and went out to dinner where we had the most amazing pizza ever! Wow was it tastey! French food is always amazing. Then we had a bit of girls time up in one of the rooms and watched a bit more football and talked about random things then went to our rooms and went to sleep. We all knew we had to get up extremely early for the adventure that was to come the following day.

Our day at Mont St. Michel was...how to put it in words....extremely entertaining but tiring! We started off early in the morning with a bus ride of about 30 minutes to the middle of nowhere where we were dropped off and told the bus would meet us on the other side. Then we continued to proceed through a field--this field was filled with sheep and sheep poo. We could barely see Mont St. Michel in the distance--it was 6 miles away. Now that does not sound long, but it was. We did not go straight for the island...we went in a wide arch to the side. Grass turned into sand and we ended up on the beach. Beach turned into mud, and we walked around with inch thick mud shoes on our barefeet. Mud turned into quick sand...yes you read the right...quicksand. Did we run from it....NO, we played in it! Now before you lose it, we had a guide that told us it was safe, but when she said run we had to run. It was so much fun getting "stuck" in the quick sand. I took so many pictures and laughed the entire time. It felt like we were on a water bed in the middle of nowhere. After a while we began out walk again along the wide stretch of beach. It was funny because Cara and Janet had to pee the entire time--6 miles worth of holding it is no fun. We picked up sea shells and I found some really pretty ones- life long souvenirs of Mont St. Michel that were free! All of a sudden the tides began to come in...and they came in fast and from both sides. I would take a step and it would take 5 seconds for the tide to catch me...crazy!!! Some people rode by us on horse back...i was soooo jealous! I wanted to do it on horse back, not just because my feet knees and back hurt...but because it looked like so much fun! Finally we made it to Mont St. Michel. It was a beautiful island...a medeival fortress/city. We cleaned to mud and sand off our feet, and to our delight found our skin to be silky smooth. Then we proceeded to walk around the city. We started at the bathroom, which cost (yes cost!) 40 cents...we decided we were paying for the PINK TOILET PAPER! We found a really cute building to have lunch in and I got my first French Crepe....AMAZING!!! Around 2pm we met up with the group again to take a tour of the massive cathedral. My tiny group of besties did not really want a tour so we went off to explore on our own and made a great time of it taking pictures and being silly. They really do remind me of my friends at home. After wondering around and trying not to get into to much trouble ;) we went souvenir searching and I got a key chain of the Patron Saint of Traveling...I just thought it fit me to a T. We had to get back on the bus then, and take the looong 5 hour trip back to France. I ended up sleeping on the floor of the bus because it gave us all more room. I was so tired when we got back to our place that i pretty much instantly fell asleep after my shower.

Monday morning was a very rude awakening...and not because I had to get up at an early time. I actually did not have to be at the Catho until 10:30. However, it was test day for french placements. I was really nervous and I really have no idea why...i think i just did not want to make a fool of myself haha. Anyway, I took and and ended up getting Elementary 2...which was not surprising at all (considering I have only taken 3 semesters and took 3 semesters off). Then the day really began when I met my art and architecture class at the Musee de Louvre! We spent most of our time looking at Roman and Greek Sculptures and again picked one that stood out to us and wrote about it. I picked one by Michelangelo because althought it was in the Roman style of praising a male body, it was almost feminie in the vulnerablity the peice showed. It is hard to explain, but the peice was beautiful. I went around the Egyptian area alone when class was over. Beautiful peices...I hope that is what I will be working with when I finally am out of school. A place like the Louvre is totally where i want to be. I was so tired after trying to navigate my way around the Louvre, and the exam that i came home and had a little dinner and quickly went to bed.

Finally we reach today--my first day of French class. I am happy to say a few people from the ISA program are in my class, which makes me feel good and not alone in a bigger class ( which isnt very big at all--lets just say it makes me feel a bit more comfortable). Anyway, the class was really fun...and the prof is really sweet and easy on us. We started off today getting to know each other, and presenting our partner in french. Then we refreshed conjugated some verbs like etre and avoir. Then we played a French grammer game, which was actually really entertaining. We all got assigned a presentation that should last about minutes-it wont be to bad since I decided to write mine about activities to do at Mont St. Michel. After french a few of us went to a grocery store and got some sandwiches and fruit for lunch and too the metro to saint paul and ahd lunch there were we had a little show of two pigeons fighting over our crumbs--great entertainment! haha. We had a bit of time til our art class so we went around a few streets and found some stores with sales...even with sales the stuff was outragous...104 euros for a shirt (sale price!!!). We stopped looking at cloths and went to a chocolate shop instead and found the most amazing chocolate-small pieces but heavy and rich. Then we made our way to the Musee Carnavalet- a museum of the history of paris. We looked at pictures of Francis I and Louis XIV and Louis XVI. It also had a lot on the French Revolution! I love that time period, and we spen most of our time in that area looking at the painting of Marat and Marie Anoinette. It was not my favorite museum but it was fun. After this however...things began to go down hill a bit. I had been planning on a trip to Belgium for my free weekend with a few people. My roommate had been in at the start. So, we went to the ISA office to print out tickets--sold out. When I had looked yesterday, there were still tickets, but she wanted to wait and so we did. So i suggested maybe looking at other sites or for other cities, maybe cologne, reims, luxembourg city...she kept saying no she wanted to stay in Paris. Then she said ok but she didnt want to do any place I suggested. So we found some cheaper belgium tickets, only about 100 euros to Bruges round trip.. and a relatively cheap hotel. I was just about to click confirm on the hotel and she on the tickets when she said no, she wanted to wait for tomorrow because she felt rushed....URGH! Frustrating. And not I doubt i will ge to go to belgium. DANGIT! Well tomorrow is another day, hopefully we can still get them...if not I will find something else to do I suppose. A bientot!