Two exams this morning- one more tomorrow. Phew! After that- Paris! I'm leaving Friday morning. I need to pack tomorrow. It looks like i'll be staying there for two weeks, because Arlette invited me to stay at her mother's with Juliette and hang out with her while there! Sounds like a ton of fun. I'm going to be taking a bunch of pictures- Paris is characteristic and so well-known, but I hope to capture some of the lesser-ventured areas of the city with my mom's camera.
I'm actually pretty tired and just found out I still have to go to my 8-a.m. class tomorrow morning (even though we probably won't be doing much because we just took the exam yesterday. Will write more soon.
7:58 a.m.
I just had my oral class, and now I'm waiting or 11:00 to roll around so I can talk to my oral teacher (Madame Perret) about my exposé. Tonight we have a dinner with Joe Reisch, the director of our stay in Paris. I'm hoping we'll go to another restaurant like the one before, where we had pizza in Centre Ville. That was a really nice dinner...I ended up getting "tartiflette" (it came in a bowl- potatoes, a wine sauce, & cheese) and a salad came before it. Of course we had wine before all this so by the time dessert came, I was already full! I had two tiny scoops of ice cream (pistachio & café) and after that we had coffee! I wish more restaurants in the US were like that one (and more affordable). Moreover, I'd die to have a crêperie right by my house! I don't know why people aren't rushing to build crêpe cafés in the US, like on college campuses and such. they'd make a ton of money.

(My train ride/arrival in Paris hadn't been recorded, but I did blog after the first few days of Paris. Here is the entry.)
We've covered a ton of ground here in the past couple days. We've been to the castle of Versaiiles, the Louvre, la Musée d'Orsay; we've had a boat ride on the Seine river, we went to dinner while being serenaded Opera music by Parisian Opera students, dined at fine restaurants with several-course meals, we've seen a classical music concert and last night, a ballet. Let's not forget the play "Le Misanthrope" by Molière. It was, of course, in French (which made it pretty hard to follow.) It was kind of like watching a French film without subtitles. The theatre was cramped, but old and beautiful. Kind of like all of Paris. Tons of stores seem like they've been there forever, and it's not like America where everyone has their own little personal bubble when they walk around anywhere. America is beautiful, but there is a unique, classic feel here that I've never experienced back home.

~Post-trip thoughts~
Never, ever had I experienced a week like I did in Paris during Spring Break '08. Joe took us all around, and thanks to his extensive familiarity of the city, he knew where the best restaurants were along with the best entertainment. It was such a significant part of our stay in France, that I took countless pictures and will continue to blog using the pictures as references to the activities we've done while in Paris. A bientôt!