Beaucoup de Neige!

The streets of Paris have been dusted with snow the past two days. The weather here is so unpredictable! Yesterday I woke up to the sun shining for the first time in a week. My walk to class was beautiful and I felt so awake. In class however, I look out the window and it is practically blizzarding. In my next class, I was surprised again by a ray of sunshine, and when I looked outside, it looked like a bright spring day. The sun didn't last however because when I left to walk home it was in full blizzard mode again. The flakes here are so big, but they are barely frozen so I was soaked by the time I got back to the apartment. I wish the weather would make up it's mind!

The school week goes by so fast here that I can't believe it's the weekend already. I guess it helps that I don't have class on Friday. I've been working hard in all my classes, especially Phonetics, which I am really enjoying. I'm nervous for my "Labo" though, which is when we meet with our professor one-on-one. I hope I don't get nervous and forget everything I've learned so far.

I'm really excited because we booked our trip to Amsterdam for next weekend. We are taking the bus there because it is only 75 Euros, which is very cheap for travel here. I can't wait to visit the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank museum. We just finished a lesson on Van Gogh in my Modern Art class, so that makes it even more interesting for me. About ten people from the program are going, so it should be a fun weekend. We've also started to plan our spring break in Italy more. We've already booked our tickets to fly into Milan, and Caroline found this really cool private wine tasting/castle tour/lunch and dinner excursion in Tuscany, which sounds amazing. We plan on visiting Florence (where Madison and I can see some TCU friends), Venice, Rome, and possibly another city. I can almost taste the Italian food now!

Super Bowl

Watching the Super Bowl in an American bar in Paris was one of the most fun times I've had here so far. We decided to make it an American night so we went to a restaurant called American Dream where they had horrible American food. Then we went to a bar called The Long Hop to watch the game. It was packed, and surprisingly there were a lot of French people there. Who knew they liked football?

It was so nice to be able to watch the game because I'd been missing football here. Class today was not fun though since we were out so late. Kick-off here didn't start until 12:30. But it was worth it to watch the Saints win!

I had Phonetics today after Modern Art, and I realized that I really like the class, maybe because it's so interactive and I always have to be on my toes. I like repeating after her and how she corrects our pronunciation and intonation and such. I feel like it's really helping my French, and it's really interesting. It definitely went by faster than the hour and a half lecture in Modern Art.

Paris 2

This past week was my first week of classes. It went really well, even though I had to switch two classes due to scheduling conflicts. I didn't realize how exhausting it would be to have all my classes in French. If I drift off for even a few seconds, I get completely lost. I'm used to having French language classes in French, but a history or art history class in French is a whole different story. All my professors are really nice and interesting. Jeanne, the dean of academics, teaches my Intro to Lit course, which is intimidating, but I like her a lot. None of my classes seem like they will be too overwhelming, but I know they will be a lot of work, especially the readings.

I'm starting to get more adjusted to life here. I'm more comfortable with the metro now so I don't feel as nervous as I did. What really helped was when I went to visit my friend Hunter in Montmartre. I took the 4 almost all the way to the other end and then switched to the 12. I did it all by myself, which convinced me that I am not a complete failure at taking the metro. It was also good to see a familiar person. Hunter is a friend from high school, so it was good to catch up.

I went out last night with my friends in the program and it was actually fun. It was the most fun I've had since I've been here, which really isn't saying much since I've spent most of my time in the hospital or class. I have to say though that I'm disappointed in French guys. Everyone always says how romantic and good looking they are, but so far I've only encountered creepy, not cute guys who don't understand the word no. If you make eye contact with them for more than two seconds, they take it as an open invitation to come maul you.

Hopefully tonight will be fun too, because tomorrow will be a day full of homework.