Long over-due summary of my weekend (how exciting!)

Salut!

So my blog about this weekend will maybe seem tame after the Denmark post, but it was nice to stay in Paris and hang out for a few days without having to worry about school. We only had class until 12:30 on Thursday and no class on Friday, so it was a nice long weekend.

After class on Thursday, I headed over to Caitlin’s apartment. She goes to Brown, and they have a program in Paris, so she rents an apartment with a friend who’s in that program. Along with Adi, we spent the afternoon doing (or at least trying to do) our homework (we had a dissertation due this morning). In the evening, Caitlin and I headed up to Montmartre to what we thought would be a café opening and small concert by Coco Rosie, a group from New York. It was not quite what we expected. It was more like a tiny art show opening, with just 2 small rooms. The café turned out to be just a sink and stove where the 2 women from the group were making tea in a huge pot. At least there was free tea (and it was good tea) to make up for the huge crowd squeezed into the tiny space and for the fact that they didn’t perform at all. While that was a little disappointing, the whole tea-party experience was something crazy that will be a fun memory to have. To warm up after all that waiting around, I went back to Caitlin’s and had dinner with her roommate, a friend from Brown, Leona, (a childhood friend, coincidentally, of Adi) and Adi. It was really nice and relaxing and a great way to start the weekend.

Friday I got to sleep in a little (nice after having to wake up every day at 7:30) and then headed off the train station to buy by discount youth passes that get you discounts on train tickets. Then I met up with Anna, my German friend from the foyer, to go to the Champs-Élysées. I saw L’Ache de Triomphe for the first time (woohoo, it’s funny how I haven’t really done a lot of touristy sightseeing, because I live here and feel like I can always do it when people come to visit) and then we went shopping. We stopped in Louis Vuitton, just for the experience. I can’t believe that people will spend 300 euros on a wallet or over 1000 euros for a charm for a bracelet! I was kinda overwhelmed by it all, and so we decided not to go in anymore ridiculously expensive stores.

Friday night I invited Nola to come over to the foyer and meet and hang out with my friends here. It was great to get to invite someone the foyer and feel like there were people there that I really wanted her to meet. We had a really fun time and it was great French practice because not everyone spoke English so our only common language was French. It’s really a confidence boost to find that you can have long conversations about subjects other than French history or literature. Plus it was the first time I’d had anyone from the program come over to admire my lovely room (Nola couldn’t believe how small the rooms in our foyer are! And that we don’t get our own private bathrooms).

Saturday I went with Adi and Leona to the Puce Saint Ouen (the flea market). We were a little disappointed to find that for really old stuff, the prices were really high. They had some pretty great vintage clothing, but for prices too high to pay for poor college students. But we did find some really great antique key chains that were old advertisements for French car companies and stuff like that. We had a great time looking through them all and picking out ones that we thought our friends might like. I think that I’ll have to go back again when it’s warmer, because it is pretty fun just to walk around and look at all the stuff that people have stock-piled over the years. I’m sure that Paul and Joan would go crazy for all of it. Except that some of the furniture is just too huge to get on a plane back to the U.S.

And then Sunday I had to write a paper, and no one needs to hear about that. So there is what I did for the weekend. Now I need to go pack for my week off from school. In case you haven’t already heard this from my parents, I’m leaving tomorrow for Scotland, where I’ll stay with my friend Hannah in Edinburgh until Monday. Then I fly to Berlin to stay with Laura til Thursday, and then it’s off to Maastricht, Netherlands (Grandpa, that is the birthplace of André Rieu) by plane and train to see Eleni until Sunday. So it will be a real adventure. I’ve never traveled so much in my life. Let’s hope I don’t get lost on my way!

Hope you all are doing well, and I will write again when I get the chance.

Love,

Liza

P.S. Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa Ole, Grandma Elizabeth and Grampy, I loved getting the Valentine’s cards in the mail. Thanks so much! It was so wonderful to hear from you. They are sitting on my desk so that I can see them while I do my homework.