I like these too much to not post them...

Here's a few photos from my last three or four days in Paris:

On the day we were officially done with finals, we stayed up all night and watched the sun rise from Sacre-Coeur

Look closely and you can spot Sacre-Coeur through the glass panels in the clock at the Musee d'Orsay

Me on the night of our farewell dinner

FINALLY! The Delacroix painting Girl Seated in a Cemetery, which I based my final project on for a class last semester (at the Louvre)

Canal St. Martin, as you may have seen in Amelie!

Wine and friends on my last night in Paris: sitting on the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower

Differences

Here's a really great other picture from the guy performing where we picnic-ed on Saturday. This week's been pretty normal, and class at the Louvre yesterday was fun. It's always nice to have someone who can give you a little context come along with you (our professor), rather than just wandering around thinking, "oh, that's pretty!"

After the Louvre, a few of us went to Angelina's, where everyone told us we could get the best hot chocolate in Paris. By hot chocolate they essentially mean "hot chocolate cake batter," which sounds strange but is actually amazing! They bring you an empty mug, a little pitcher of hot chocolate, and a little bowl of real whipped cream-- no sugar added. Then you make your own hot chocolate concoction. I probably drank a day's worth of calories in about a half hour, but wow it was delicious and definitely worth a visit for any chocolate lovers out there! Especially for a pick-me-up if you are feeling all Louvre-d out (it's right down the street)

In other news.. here's a running list I've been keeping of some funny differences I've noticed between the U.S. and French culture:

• Bowls/mugs: Maybe it is just my family but on more than one occasion I have drank tea or coffee out of a bowl, and I have also drank carrot soup from a mug (sans spoon)
• Water usage: I haven't experienced this but some friend's host families have asked them to use only 2 minutes of water per day: you get in the shower, get wet all over in 1 minute, turn off the water and lather up, then turn the water back on and rinse off in 1 minute. Brr! Anyway, the contradiction to this is that they wash down the streets and sidewalks every single day here. Even if it's raining!
• Evian: a huge bottle of Evian cost me 50 cents the other day-- I thought it was funny since it is considered très chic in the U.S. to carry around Evian seeing as it costs like $3/bottle
• Dryers: out of the 16 of the students here from AU, only two of us have laundry dryers at our homestay! I know that utilities are more expensive here and so it's more economical to airdry things, but geez...clothes that have not been dried (especially jeans!) feel weird, and more importantly, fit terribly! I will definitely have a deep appreciation of dryers when I return. (Also FYI the washing machines here are about 1/2 the size of washers at home)
• Produce: since fresh fruits and veggies are much more expensive here, they are obsessed with only buying produce that is in season. My host-mom has given me several impromptu 'lessons' about what fruits and vegetables are in season, and in the kitchen of a friend's apartment is a chart that says what produce is in season at what times of the year. Literally, this topic has come up more in the past few weeks than it has in my entire life.
• Other languages: I just want to end with a very humbling thing I've been realizing the past few weeks. Pretty much everyone in my French class (as I've mentioned before, there are three Americans including myself, and people from all over Europe, Asia, and a few other places) knows at least one other language fluently. Many of them speak English quite well even though it's their second language, and then they are also taking French, and plenty of them know another language as well. It's because they start learning other languages as soon as they start school..this needs to catch on more in the U.S!

I am off to happy hour with friends and then it's time to study for tomorrow's test and pack for Madrid. I am excited to see how my English, Spanish, and French, all meld together this weekend...it will probably either result in a disaster, or miraculous wonderful Spanish skills. We'll see!

Le Soleil!

The past few days have been miraculous because THE SUN has finally decided to come and stay a while in Paris!  This is great not only because it's been cheering us up, but also because it means that in order to enjoy the afternoon, we don't have to pay 3+ euro to get a cup of coffee just so we have somewhere inside to sit, or go to museum upon museum upon museum.  

Yesterday after class and lunch, a few of us lounged in front of L'Hôtel de Ville to do some reading.  Our professor for the Paris Civilization & Culture class has a PhD in French literature, so the class is extremely reading intensive.  When mixed with the sun and people watching, the reading didn't seem so bad.  It was hard to believe that just 3 days before we'd been ice skating in that very spot: they were taking down the ice rink before our eyes.   

This week we have a class field trip on Wednesday instead of Thursday because the rooms we are visiting (French painters) are closed on Thursdays.  Thursday's tasks are to study for Friday's test, pack for Madrid, and book spring break stuff!  

Speaking of tests, I have finally gotten comfortable in my French class.  The first few weeks were challenging for me because the tests were full of surprises but I think I've figured out how to successfully prepare for them.  Also, we've been warned that professors in France are notoriously quite hard for the first few weeks as a way to motivate students.  I suppose one of the drawbacks of attending such a prestigious school is that the classes are HARD!  

Yesterday marked four weeks of being here.  I can't believe it.  There are still SO many things on my mental 'to-do list' which I haven't even begun to do, but I guess that is the beauty of being here for four months rather than a week-- you can do things as you please rather than cramming it all in.  Also, I've done a lot already that I never would have expected to do, and I'm sure there will be more of that in the weeks to come... 

I am on a mission...

A mission to conquer the Louvre!  How many people can say they've literally been to every room of the Louvre?  I'm guessing not many but hoping to join their ranks!  

Some interesting facts about the Louvre:

-Almost 35,000 objects are on display, while the collection includes 380,000 pieces.

-Total exhibition area is over 652,000 square feet.

-It has been a museum of some sort since 1793, before that it was a royal palace.  

-Last year, 8.5 million people visited it!

Anyway, I kicked things off yesterday.  I got my student card last week which gives me unlimited access.  That means that I was able to spend just two hours there without feeling guilty about getting my money's worth: the perfect amount of time to not feel too "museumed out" in my opinion.  

So far, I've only conquered about half of the Egyptian Antiquities section.  When I was ready to go, it took me about a half hour to get out!  Anyway, I grabbed a map and I'll be checking off rooms and sections as I complete them, wish me luck.  I'll keep you all updated! 

What a wonderful weekend!

This weekend has been lovely.. nice weather combined with friends visiting from studying abroad in London!  Friday we all went out in a big group to a few different places and had a blast.  Yesterday, a friend's host family was gone for the day so two of us went over for lunch.  She lives near the Arc de Triomphe in a massive, beautiful apartment with fantastic old-style molding and ceilings.  I love to see where people live so this was really fun for me.

Then we enjoyed the lovely day and went for a walk down the Champs-Elysees towards the Louvre.  Even though it was a really long walk, it felt great to be outside.  We stopped at the Petit Palais on the way.

 Mostly, the structure of the building impressed me much more than the art on display because the floors were very intricately mosaic-ed and the cielings had incredible moldings and paintings.  They did have this Monet painting though which I loved, it is not as dark in person:  

Then we met up with the Londoners for hot chocolate at the Louvre and got out student Louvre cards which get us in for free there and at the Delacroix museum which I am very excited to see!  

Our program basically gave us fake student ID cards that say we are studying Art History which gets us into lots of museums for free.  At this point the Londoners wanted to go down and picnic by the Eiffel Tower but some of us split off because a) it was very cold and b) until then I had successfully forgotten it was Valentines Day in the "most romantic city in the world" and I didn't need to see fifteen proposals to remind me!

Instead we went to some strange Greek restaurant that had a boar's head mounted on the wall because it had a 10 euro menu and they hustled us in by offering free sangria.  Afterwards we ended up going out with some French guys that one of the girls in my program knew.  That was fun even though they spoke only French (very rapidly!) to us, so it was a major effort for me to follow the conversation.

Have I mentioned that out of the fifteen people in my program, three of us are named Lauren?  We are all friends too, so when introducing ourselves to the French guys last night, 3 out of the 5 of us were Laurens.  I don't even know what kind of impression that makes.  

Phew! Thank gosh for Sundays because after typing all of this out, I'm tired just thinking about it!  Today I think I'll mostly do homework, and go to another girl's apartment for dinner.  Also, I am booking my flight to Prague today!  I found a great 2-for-1 flight deal online, so me and a friend are going the weekend of March 13-15.