Boat cruise!

So Friday, NYU organized a boat cruise on the Seine. It was really cool and lasted about an hour. The boats have two levels, and the top is open. We went up to get seats on the top, but they were all taken, so we just stood the whole time which ended up being totally fine. Since it's a really touristy thing to do, the guide spoke in French and English. I really enjoyed hearing all of the historical stuff, because I'm a history buff at heart.

For example: King Louis XIV had this bridge built for the people of Paris as a way of apologizing for spending so much money on Versailles. Come on, Louis. Have you even seen Versailles? You could have totally built a prettier bridge. Just sayin.

We road by all of the famous monuments, bien sûr, like La Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Le Louvre, etc. Although it was super touristy, I think it's something everyone should do at least once when visiting Paris. Sort of along the same lines as riding on the top of a double decker bus in London. We went under a bunch of bridges, but one was especially memorable. It's tradition that the first time you ever go under that bridge, you close your eyes, make a wish, and when you come out on the other side, have to kiss three people on the cheek for it to come true. That's so French.

While on the boat, we saw a random farmer's market on the banks of the Seine, so when it was over, we went to check it out. We got to taste some food, wine, and they even gave us free bags of apples, grapes, and garlic!

fini! and fondu!

Today was the LAST day of the preliminary course. I can't even explain how excited I am about this. Class wasn't even too bad. We had a two hours to write an essay and then we had a break and then all presented the rest of our mini-presentations: mine was on the market I talked about last Sunday. It went really well, I'd say.

Tonight, some of my friends were having a fondu party. It was the best. They had cheese and chocolate fondu. SO SO good. I can't even explain. Plus they had some real French people there so I actually got to talk to locals en francais, which was so cool. I absolutely loved it. I exchanged numbers with some and will hopefully be meeting up with one of the girls - who works near where I live! So cool. I love locals so much.

This is Melissa, one of the NYU girls. She's actually from California but she's so much fun. She's become one of my really good friends here. She's so chill and I get along with her really well.

Tomorrow I just have a meeting at 11:30 and then all the NYU folks are going on a boat cruise on the Seine! So excited! It's going to be really great!

Exhausted

I am absolutely exhausted today. It's probably because I was up until 12:30 last night working on a presentation for today. Then I got up at 7:45 to work on it some more. Good news though: it wasn't horrible! I was so worried I was going to finish my 15 minute presentation and that my prof was going to pelt me with questions, like he has been doing with the other students' exposés. Mais heureusement, he didn't ask me a single question! I was so happy I almost cried. I was legit stressing to the max about this presentation. Then later in the class we did some grammar, which in all seriousness is my favorite aspect of the French language. So all around, it was a good class.

This morning I went to visit l'Université Paris III. The building wasn't spectacular by any means, but I liked the area. I found a couple literature classes that I'm considering taking. I'm so bad at making decisions though, so I still haven't decided. I might go sit in on a few classes before actually deciding whether to enroll or not.

I'm doing laundry this evening and sipping green tea. As soon as it's done, I am going to sleep. SO tired. Tomorrow is our last day in our preliminary course. I'm so ecstatic. And then starts the weekend, seeing as we don't have Friday classes!

Miss and love you all!

I love really thin pancakes.

So today has been another good day as well. I left the NYU center around 10am to go to La Sorbonne -Université Paris I. There were about 10 of us that went and even though we had a leader, we got lost and it took a long time to get there. I got a course listing and I really want to take a history class, but there wasn't a large selection and the ones they had didn't really interest me. Oh well. Tomorrow I'm going to Université Paris III. Goodness, this class search is getting difficult! For some reason, my class time was changed from 2-6 to 10-2 and since I was visiting La Sorbonne, I missed 3 hours of class! Tomorrow I have to do a presentation on Gilles Deleuze, a modern French philosopher. YIKES.

I came back to my house after the visit to get some work done on this presentation. About ten minutes after I got here, the cleaning lady came. Funny story: She's Colombian and the twelve year old daughter told her that I speak un poco de español. I saw her and started talking to her in French and she spoke to me in Spanish. It was really funny going back and forth between Spanish and French. She has the funniest French accent, being a native Spanish speaker (but I'm sure mine sounds hilarious to her as well.) She's super nice and friendly though. I like her a lot.

The other night, I ate my first crêpe since having been in Paris. Let me just say that it was incroyable. SO SO good. I got it with Nutella and banana. Such a perfect combination.

I know, your mouth is watering right now.

All I have been able to think about since eating this is Monsieur Ricky Bobby. Even though these colors don't run and I'm from America, the greatest country on the planet, I do indeed LOVE really thin pancakes.

Really thin pancakes

Two days left of my preliminary course! Yes!

Solid day

Today was a really good day. I got to school around 10:30 and hung out with Anna and Melissa basically until classes started. They're really chill and I enjoyed just relaxing with them. For lunch, I went to a boulangerie and bought a tuna sandwich. I'm not usually a tuna fan, but it just looked SO good. Plus it was only 2 and a half euro. It was such a good sandwich. Delicious AND cheap. Magnifique.

Class wasn't too bad today - mainly because we spent an hour and a half writing an essay on the play we read. I'd much rather write than discuss those horrid, boring articles we've been reading. BLEH. Honestly, I could care less what M. Sarkozy said to the students of the University of Dakar in Senegal in 2007.

After class, I went to Monoprix to get some groceries with Bethany. While there, I bought GREEN TEA. Oh happy day. I have a slight obsession with green tea and I have seriously been missing it since I've been here. I immediately came home and drank it. I can't even describe my level of happiness right now.

Also, on my way home, this woman came up to me and asked me, en français of course, if I lived in the area. I was so close to saying non and just keep walking, but then I was like, hey I can do this. So I responded oui and she asked me for directions to some street I had NEVER heard of. I told her this and then she asked if I knew where the market was, because that street was apparently near where the market was. There are like 5 in the area, so I just pointed in the direction of the one I had just been at. She said merci and went on her way. I was feeling super legit at this point. I came back to my house and checked google maps and apprently I had pointed her in the semi-right direction! Chouette!

Visiting the Sorbonne tomorrow! Can't wait.

work work work

So my day was centered all around work. I didn't mention last night, but the guests arrived last night around 9pm and didn't leave until about 11:45. I was so tired that I was in bed by midnight. French dinner parties are fun, but exhausting! It hurt my head to hear five conversations going on around me, all in French, spoken so quickly.

So I got up around 9:30, took a shower and headed to a market. For my preliminary course, we were assigned various places in Paris that we had to go to and do a mini exposé on. The exposés have ranged from a certain metro stop at 7am, or a street on a certain day. I was assigned le Marché d'Aligre on Sunday morning. It's supposedly the best market in all of Paris. I got there and part of it was inside a building and the other part was outside. I went inside first and there were rows of meat stands, cheese stands, fruits stands, and wine stands. It was really neat, but overwhelming because it was all packed in tightly. I was shocked to see people selling chickens with the heads still on and the feathers on the head! All the colors, the sounds and the smells were really cool. After walking around inside for about 15 minutes, I went to check out the scene outside. Outside was strictly fruits and vegetables. It was really neat though. It was just one long road with people selling food on each side. As you passed, people would yell out prices and try to get you to taste one of their foods. There were a ton of people there. The only thing I bought was a couple of granny smith apples, but the prunes sure were looking delicious. Someone was even selling 10 pamplemousses (grapefruits) for 1 euro! What a deal.

I came back to the house after picking up some bread and a diet coke, to start on homework. We're reading a play entitled Combat de nègre et de chiens and I needed to finish it for tomorrow. Then I had to start an exposé on a French philospher Gilles DeLeuze. In all honesty, his ideas are way over my head, but hopefully I'll  be able to pull something together.

Four days left of the preliminary course! Yay!

Whoa.

Oh what a day. First of all, I learned how to uncork a bottle of wine last night. Coolest thing ever.

Aubrey, Anna and I decided to meet for lunch and then go visit le Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum in Paris. We ate lunch at this cute tartine cafe around Pompidou. I had never had a tartine before I came to France last summer but it's basically a long thin slice of bread cooked with different toppings on it. I got a tartine with cooked vegetables and cheese. It was SO delicious. This picture doesn't even do it justice. Add a little spinach salad on the side and I was set.

Modern art really isn't my thing, but I figured I should at least go to the museum, just because it's so famous. The building is really odd, but pretty cool to look at.

At the top of the Pompidou, there are great views of the city. That was probably my favorite part of it. The art part...not so much. Some of that stuff was just so bizarre. I'm excited to go to le Musée d’Orsay to see all the impressionist paintings. That will definitely be a treat.

I came back to the house around 5pm and decided to go for a run, because I had really been missing running/exercise in general since I've been here. Words can't describe how cool it is to go on a run and be able to see the Eiffel Tower as you're running along the Seine River. The scenery makes the run very enjoyable.

Earlier today, my host mom had invited me to eat dinner with them tonight. I thought it was just going to be me, she and her husband, and their three children. Little did I know that they were inviting eight other people! I was so surprised when all of these people just started showing up. They were so nice though and really friendly to me, which I really appreciated. There was a seventeen year old girl there who had gone to camp in North Carolina this summer so that was really cool to talk about that with her. For dinner we had some AMAZING red wine. It was legit wine, not the cheapo stuff that we starving students buy at Monoprix (the grocery store.) We had beef and vegetables for the main course. The beef was good, but not out of this world. Then we had a salad with cheese and then a prune and apple pie which was so tasty.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I have a ton of work to do for Monday. Must be time for classes.