I can't believe it's almost been a week!

Sorry for not writing in a few days. I didn’t get kidnapped or anything, it’s just been really crazy with classes and everything. We start at 9am and have lecture until 12:30pm. It’s a pretty long time to sit and take notes, but I manage to stay alert by drinking a lot of tea. Then we get an hour and a half for lunch. I have really been saving money just by buying cheese and veggies and keeping them in the fridge at IFE and then getting a baguette each day to make a sandwich. Then we have small group from 2-3:45. We have a ton of homework for that class! I have to give 3 different 15 minute oral presentations next week, one Tuesday, one Wednesday, and one Thursday. And I thought that I was going to get off easy this semester. Oh well. Then in the evenings, not everyday, but a couple times a week we have field trips or watch movies. So often, like it happened yesterday, I leave at 8:15 in the morning and don’t get back to the foyer until 6pm. It’s a long day! I’m used to maybe a couple hours of class and then being able to go back to my room.

Yesterday, for our afternoon field trip, we visited Hotel de Ville. It’s Paris City Hall and it is BEAUTIFUL! I took a bunch of pictures, because it’s not a museum so it’s fine to take as many pictures as you want. There are tons of sculptures and paintings that fill the place, including a Rodin sculpture. I can't believe that the mayor of Paris and all the city administrative staff actually work in this building!

The reception hall (they were getting ready for a cocktail reception)

View of the Courtyard and the tower

The incredible view of the Seine and the top of Notre Dame from one of the windows

Another hall, covered in paintings, chandeliers and gold plating

Marianne, by Rodin (in the room where foriegn heads of state are received)

Monday night, Daniel, Allegra and I were supposed to meet up with the rest of our class for dinner and a movie. Unfortunately we were late to the meeting spot, and because none of us had phones at that point, we couldn’t call anyone. So we decided to walk around the Montparnasse area. It’s full of shops and movie theaters. Daniel spotted the top of the Eiffel Tower and insisted that we try to walk to it. He’s like me, and has never been to Paris before, so we both were extremely excited about it. We didn’t get that close, but did get to see it sparkle, which was amazing.

We ended up right by Napoleon’s Tomb, so I took pictures of that too, because it looked so great all lit up in the dark.

Since we had set out to see a movie, we decided to go see one ourselves. It’s hard to find movies in the original version, with subtitles rather than dubbing, but we eventually found “Je suis une legende” (I’m sure you can guess what that was) which was fun, but made me all jumpy. I’ll have to go back, because they serve Hagendaaz ice cream, which I was too full to buy.

So yeah, that’s been my week. I don’t have a group photo yet, but don’t worry Dad, I’ll take one soon. I have a picture of a few of the girls, because we went out last night. That's below. I hope you enjoy.

Left to right: Leona, Whitney, Allegra, Me, Nola

I love you all and keep leaving me messages! It makes my day, really.

Liza