An ice cream kind of day

Yesterday was just an ice cream kind of day.  It was absolutely gorgeous out and by the time we all got done with our Paris Civilization & Culture midterm, our hands were about to fall off from writing for an hour and a half straight and we all felt that we deserved a reward! (By the way, for my midterm I compared and contrasted Greuze's Septimus Severus reproaching Cacacalla with David's Oath of the Horatii.  I also analyzed the art critic world's reaction to Manet's Olympia.)

So, after class we headed to Paris' most famous ice cream shop: Berthillon.  Not only is it supposedly Paris' best ice cream, the ice cream has been made with only natural ingredients since 1954! 

All I have to say is YUM!  We walked down to the Seine and enjoyed it- it was the perfect treat and pretty unique as ice cream goes.  

Tonight I am going to see the Andy Warhol exhibit that recently opened in the Grand Palais!  It is supposed to be a great exhibit, and also the Grand Palais is only open to the public when an exhibition is going on so it will be fun to see that as well.  Then it's fondue time for dinner, and probably an early night because my group has a day trip to Rouen and Giverny tomorrow.  

Bonne weekend! 

My neighborhood

This week has been pretty boring so far: I had an oral exam yesterday, a dictation today, an oral presentation tomorrow, a midterm on Thursday, and a grammar AND phonetics test on Friday!  As you can imagine I've been accordingly nerdy.

Luckily, this means for now you're spared a history lesson and instead get a peek into my life in Paris!

Here is my metro stop.

Here's the park right next to the metro stop in the foreground, my apartment building is in the background.

This is a big public plaza that's about 2 blocks from my apartment.

My bedroom & desk, kind of messy because I'm in the middle of like six things. 

If you thought that was messy..don't worry because here's the state of the kitchen/living room.

Also in my neighborhood there are some neat buildings with modern architectural aspects..very un-Paris which is kind of sad but at least they're not 70's style (aka ugly).  

OK I am off to analyze a painting in French for my oral presentation tomorrow.  Wish me luck!