Ok, so these are some of the highlights (which could be basically everything) of last week:
First off (worth noting), our first Saturday, we got fallafel for lunch in the Jewish quarter. I didn't know what to expect because I've never had it, but it was really good! Very interesting. We ate it at a random museum courtyard we stumbled upon. What a life. :)
Monday, we wandered around the streets and went in and out of stores that piqued our interest. I went into a Fragonard, which apparently is a well-known French perfume store. I had never heard of it, but everything smelled so good! We found some awesome places.
We even found one with my name on it! A guy looking in the other window of the store thought I was really weird for posing for that picture..
Tuesday was the first day of class. I'm taking a French culture and a French photography class--not bad (I love them). And the first one doesn't start until 2 pm! My host family thinks that is pretty cool. I really enjoy both classes and neither will be very stressful, which I am needless to say very excited about. We have class in the Institute building, which luckily is next to a huge landmark (the Pompidou Center) that sticks out from its surroundings and is super easy to see so thus the Institute building is easy to find! After class ended on Tuesday, we went down the Champs-Elysees and saw the Arc de Triomphe. I had the sixties Champs-Elysees song stuck in my head the whole time I was walking along the road. It's so big! The sidewalk is super wide with trees bordering the road on one side and lots of stores on the other. Very cool!
Seeing the Arc was super awesome, I was really excited to see the relief sculpture on the right side (Francois Rude's La Marseillaise) because I just studied it in Humanities this past semester.
It's soooo cool in real life! Everything is so cool in real life! We actually went back to the Arc yesterday and they have a copy (or something) of the head of the top middle figure in a mini museum thing there. It's humongous!! I love seeing the detail.
Wednesday, in our awful tedious culture class, we spend the time chocolate tasting. I know, school is such a drag, right?
Our alternative to wine tasting. :) We each got to try EVERY flavor of this gourmet deliciousness. Each piece was made from cacao beans from a different plantation and you can actually taste the flavors of the different soil in each different piece. So in one piece you can taste banana, mango, caramel, etc. but it's just because of the flavors the soil gives to the cacao beans. No flavor added! It's amazing! And delicious. Best class period ever (the macaroon tasting we had in class this week rivals it, though). After this awesomeness, a group went to the Luxembourg Gardens (still in Paris) for a class assignment. They are beautiful! They're right at the end of this awesome street (Rue Vavin) with lots of shops and cool apartments. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked, but I made up for it by going back last Saturday. :) Walking there, we passed by a few pubs (brasseries) / cafés that Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the rest of that cirlce (I guess) used to hang out at. One of them is the following:
So cool!! I realize I say that a lot, but that's because everything is! Then, some of us went out to dinner for someone's birthday in a really cool part of town, on the Rue Cler. We went to a café! And we sat outside at the little tables! I couldn't wait to do that the whole time I've been here and walked past people sitting outside at cafés (well actually since my whole life).
It didn't disappoint. The food was really good, the evening air was nice, the fact that we were on a cobblestone Paris street eating dinner was even nicer.. ! After dinner, we ended the day by spending the evening at the grounds of the Eiffel Tower. At night! It is beautiful. Enchanting. Amazing. So many things! We saw it all lit up, and then with sparkly lights that come on for a few minutes every so often. Again--so cool!!! Really. I can't really believe I am here!
There's lots of grass on either side of the tower to hang out on. I was transported to la Belle Epoque. It's magical! I am so lucky to get to come here. I'm having the time of my life! And I will update soon:)
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