Paris When it Sizzles

I must say that studying isn't quite so bad when this is the view...I know I'm spoiled.  In front of the Eiffel Tower is the peace monument.

What a wonderful weekend!  Saturday's 4 hour long French exam was challenging, but I'm just relieved that it's over with.  My host family was gone for the weekend so I had a few friends over to celebrate the completion of our grammar classes...then we all went out together to continue the celebration.

Today I slept in and met friends for a great lunch.  We had a wonderful time and that's when it really hit me: I only have a week left in Paris.  Now that the weather's great and I've established an amazingly fun life here, the last thing I want to do is go!  I've gotten close with the people in my program, we've all become quite familiar with the city, we all have our favorite bars and other places to go.  Why leave NOW!?  (Note: Leaving will not be ALL bad because I am super excited to see family and friends and to be in DC for the summer.)

After lunch, we headed to the Hotel Carnavalet, a museum that showcases the history of the city of Paris.  I'm glad that I saved it until now because I know quite a bit about the history and geography now, and also because the information is posted only in French-- now that I'm more comfortable with the language, I could understand most of it.  

Coming up this week.. I'll be babysitting, prepping for Wednesday's oral exam and Thursday's civilization class exam, shopping, picnicking, and just being out and about as much as possible!  As for the not so nice things, I'll need to squeeze in some packing and probably a mental breakdown at some point because: I come home in seven days. 

Picnic!

Yesterday was the perfect day for a picnic.  It was sunny and only a little chilly.  Three girls and I headed to Montmartre armed with the fixings for a picnic.  We took the funicular up, which is kind of like an elevator which takes you up the hill if you are feeling too lazy to walk.  We hadn't done it before so that was fun!  

When we got up there what crossed my mind was, "wow, we are really unoriginal" because this is what we were greeted with:

Luckily, everyone was in good spirits and just out to enjoy the day.  There were some musicians playing old Beatles songs and it was great to sit, relax, and people watch.  We also had the pleasure of seeing Iya Traore, who describes himself as a 'football freestyler," perform.  This guy had skill!  I've never seen anyone so comfortable doing crazy things like handstands and climbing up poles with a soccer ball in tow! 

 

Last night before heading out, a few of us grabbed Thai food and experienced a really funny language barrier.  Ordering was really challenging because the server did not speak much French, and even though we had some pretty decent French speakers there, somehow we could not get across what we wanted.  The English > French > Thai barrier made for an amusing evening.  

Today was a lazy day and I mostly did homework because I have lots of reading for class on Tuesday.  I met up with some friends to wander around and grab dinner.  The best part of my day was finding out that the National Maritime Museum here has just opened a "Sailor chic in Paris" exhibit-- could it be any more fitting for me!?  I'm hoping to make it there this week but if not, it's until July so I must make it there before leaving.