Setting Up a Routine

While last week was the most lax first week of classes possible, this second week is when things really get cracking. All classes, English seminars and all electives start rolling, along with discussion groups, or conferences, for the French seminars. The real work begins, or at least gets assigned. Here's a profile of my week.

Sport and Politics: A History of the Olympics movement:
This class has to be the one I am most looking forward to, and so it nice to start the week off with this on Mondays at 12:30. My prof is a PhD student in Paris for the year, and teaching this course. She is pretty cool. An ex-collegiate rower, she raced in Europe for 5 years as a cyclist. I've also found out she recently took up swimming. Needless to say I am pretty stoked about all this background. The class itself is looking really interesting, although a little heavy on the reading side. Maybe way heavy. But since I'm really excited about it, I'm trying to stay positive. I just got off really easy on readings last term so I'm being a bit of a wimp. Even after our first week of real class, it looks like we're going to have some really great discussions. I am also already thinking about our term paper, and want it to be really good. I am actually for the first time ever, proposing my own topic instead of taking one of the other themes. It will be on the influence of the media on the Olympics, particularly programming, sport format, and the evolution of the rules of play. Stay tuned for more info.

Political changes in Russia:
This class directly follows Sport and Politics. I think this is going to be a great course since I really am not at all up to date about Russian affairs since Communism. This will compliment my fascination with the Cold War nicely. The teacher is awesome, though has a thick French accent. The first week we actually didn't have class, since we've already had 4 classes rescheduled. Basically it means that in March, we have two classes every single week. Basically I am going to have no life in March for other reasons, but I will explain more later. This wraps up my Monday, getting out by 4:45, and now that the days are getting longer, I plan on cycling home from class and being productive at night with errands, work and dinner.

Histoire Politique de L'Europe:
Profiled last week, its my only class on Tuesday, from 10:15 to 12:15. I am finding that he tends to focus on case studies, and doesn't give a real coherant narrative, so I am not sure how this will all go come midterm/galop time, and finals, but we shall see. I only found out on Thursday when looking online that we do in fact have a midterm for this class, but have yet to be told anything about it by the prof or discussion group leader, and its on the 26th! I was kindof annoyed, especially since its 4hours, from 8:30 til 12:30. Part of me is hoping that it actually is not happening, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ballroom Dancing:
After class is done, I have a bit of time to have lunch. Now normally this is done with Daniel, my dance partner, but for the past two weeks he hasn't had class before and has met me at ballroom directly. In his absence, I had a paella lunch at Resto U with Robin, who is also in ballroom. Having that paella made me appreciate the quality of the stuff I had in Malaga even more. This past week, I met with Annie, whom I hadn't seen in a quite some time, and we went to Lina's for sandwiches and catch up on life.

Ballroom itself has been going splendidly so far. We have the same awesome teacher, Catherine, who seems to like to make fun of Daniel and I as the only anglosaxons who have to focus quite intensely. 2 couples and 1 male from last term are back, along with a new female dancer and a completely new couple. Already in Tango, Cha Cha and Pasa Doble we have reviewed all the moves from last term, with great fluidity. We are getting to be graceful even. I'm very excited for our progress. By 3:30, I am done for the day. Afterwards, I have started going directly back to Sciences Po to get some work done for a few hours before dinner. I'm so much more efficient at school than at home when it comes to homework. I'm going to try and maximize my productivity to free up time for fun things.

Structures and Crises in the Middle East:
For some reason, our professor showed up 30min late on the first day, at 1 instead of 12:30. It has also been decided that the class will only be 90min instead of 2hrs. I am totally ok with this decision. I know nothing about this region, so I am excited to learn. We will be focusing on Lebanon and Syria as case studies, which should be interesting. The first actual class was a little overwhelming - basically we fast-tracked through 3000s of religious/historical developments that have lead to the 20th century. It was to give an overview of how and why the religious divisions have formed that play such a large role in the history and politics of the entire region. Good to know to get introduced, but a lot to digest. The professor is really great, so I am thinking this class with go smoothly. Only one term paper and the exam, so should be pretty straight forward.

Yoga:
I have decided that in order to slow the effects of baguettes and cheese, I should sign up for more sport classes. Yoga first conveniently between my 12:30 to 2 and 5-7 classes. I finish class, leisurely walk across the Seine and through the Tuileries to the studio, enjoy a relaxing, toning hour of Hatha yoga, and then come back to school. Its a nice refreshing break, and the studio is in a really cool basement cave. I have dabbled in yoga periodically, but I am excited to get more involved this term.

Conference, Histoire Politique de L'Europe:
French seminars have accompanying discussion groups for additional work, normally an expose and a dissertation (term paper). For some reason, our leader has decided to go with an unorthodox approach and assign multiple smaller tasks including 3 mises de points, un debat, un duel et un actualite. I am not sure how I feel about this approach. Because of this, I have one or two things due for this class alone every week in March. Add in other assignments, I have 2-3 things a week - I'm in for a bit of a bumpy ride I fear. In the first week of this class, I felt as though I was watching a volleyball match from outside the court. By the time I process what the students and teacher are saying in French, the next point has already come up. It was a little frustrating, but I will just have to go on the aggressive in future classes. The teacher is young and respondant to students' requests etc, so overall I think it will be manageable.

Swimming:
Last semester, I just couldn't gather my resolve to get to the pool on a regular basis. I find swimming rather soothing, and a great workout and toner, so I decided to add regular swimming to my list of activities for term 2. 10 on Thursdays means I am up in good time and get my workout done first thing. There is a set posted, which is exactly what I needed, so I can challenge myself within the hour, but without pressure. Its a little crowded in the pool, but c'est la vie. Its about 20min away by tram and metro, so relatively close. The first day I tried to velib but under estimated how long it took so I don't think I'll be doing that any more. Plus on that particular ride, I misnegotiated a curb and took a little tumble on the sidewalk. Nothing serious, but enough to leave a nice bruise on my legs which decomissioned me from running for a little bit. After swimming I have the whole afternoon off, so I'm going to try and make this a big homework afternoon if needed, or alternatively a great chance to be a tourist.

Vichy France:
Final class of the week Thursday nights from 5-7. Its going to be a real gem. There are actually two instructors, who are in there late 30s I believe. They are both clearly specialists, and finish each others sentences, which is really cute. The class is going to really good, and I know very little about the topic, despite the fact that I have a good handle on WWII. Daniel is also in my class so that will be nice. No real required readings, and only one expose, a small test and a term paper, that's the work load I'm talking about. Class seems to move right along which is very appreciated and before I know it its the weekend!

So that is the low-down on my academic future. It seems as though it will be a bit more heavily laden with work than last term, but I think I will be able to handle it without too much stress or compromising my current exchange student lifestyle. Thank goodness. When the classes are interesting, its perfectly fine anyways.

While classes took up a good portion of the last two weeks, I did manage to have a healthy social life and continue with my commitment to doing one tourist activity a week. Here are the extra-curricular highlights of the first half of February.

I ended up going over to Poullette's sweet apartment a 5min walk from Sc Po last Monday and hung out with her and Ayumi. I am really feeling like I'm integretating with this group well. Afterwards, we met up with Leo again and had dinner at this awesome restaurant in the 13th called Chez Gladines. It embodies the small French local brasserie/bar, and was packed with locals. I shamelessly devoured my massive dish of lamb, chorizo, cheese, mushrooms, potatoes cooked in duck fat in a gravy sauce. (In my defense I hadn't had lunch!). The salads were also the biggest thing I have ever seen. All very reasonably priced, I will definitely be taking future visitors here.

I really dislike when people don't seem thrilled to be in Paris. Yes there are setbacks and maybe annoyances, but overall it is incredible and I think people should appreciate the opportunity we have to be here. Comment inspired by a conversation with a Canadian girl I met at yoga who doesn't really like it here yet (she arrived a few weeks ago). To each their own I guess.

Crepe night at David's new apartment in the 7th, right by the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday the 2nd! I can easily velib there which is great, faster than taking the metro in fact. We indulged in salty galettes of pesto, cheese, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, roquette lettuce, tomatoes, egg and olive oil combinations. Well they were supposed to be crepes, but became more just the ingrediants put together. So so good anyways. Dessert of crepes with banana, sugar and honey. A gastromically delightful night with David, Tom, Camila and Camila's friend Rachel.

Thursday night after class Daniel came back to mine and we snacked on a bit of pizza and chatted before heading back to David's for his official Pendaison de Cremaillere. I was very stiff from my earlier Velib tumble, but had a good night chatting with Annie, Daniel, Tom, a Finnish girl, Ayumi and Emmanuelle. Ayumi also related to me a funny story about some boys whom we had met at a bar calling her. Antoine et Thomas. It was pretty funny. Last metro home.

Museum time! This week featured Arts et Metiers, which is a massive museum that shows inventions and technological advances. We only finished one of two floors, but saw the standardization of the metric system (from the measurement of the King's foot). There were lots of really cool devices, and clocks. It got really cool when we got to see original computers from the 60s, and even a Mars robot. I think the other floor would be really good, so I plan on going back at some point in the future.

Movie night with Corina on Friday night. I had a delicious dinner of baked yam fries, sauteed eggplant and a stuffed red pepper with cream cheese, pesto and baby shrimp. Decadent. When Corina finally camy by, we watched Dirty Dancing while indulging in Mars Bar ice cream. A perfect girls night in.

More city exploring on Saturday up in Montmartre. I had really under explored this awesome artists neighbourhood, so I was really excited. It is one of the few parts of Paris that was not reorganized by Haussmann, so it has a completely non Parisian feel to it. Its always on a hill, so I got quite the workout trekking up and down the hills. David, Tom and I checked out St Vincent's cemetary, and then walked around for a couple of hours, in which time we stopped and had boulangerie treats Tom bought a canvas painting.

Headed to Eva's at night for dinner with her and Corina. We had a very nice potato salad and a traditional German meal known as Sparrows feet, which is a special type of egg pasta, with gouda cheese and sauteed onions. I have really been eating like a king over here. After we had a few bottles of wine, we headed out to Chez Georges to meet with Maude, Tatiana and some Veterans for dancing. It didn't last very long though which was too bad, since the bar closed at 2:30. I walked home with Corina and then velibed the rest of the way. Then, when I got home Etienne was the best roomate ever and made me food, steak and mashed sweet potatoes. I am a lucky girl. I fell asleep on the couch, as I have been known to do.

I tried Tartare, which is raw red meat, a raw egg yolk, and onions. Verdict is still out on that one.

Another evening at Rendezvous des Amis in Montmartre with Annie and her friend Anthony.

Wine night with Corina at her house this past Thursday. Good girl talk.

An attempted club night at Showcase with Eva, Corina, David and Emmanuelle. Bouncers suck. We didn't get in but it was a fun night anyways. We'll have to try again soon.

I tore through two seasons of Sons of Anarchy, a tv series about a biker gang in California. I am very fascinated by motorcycles. I know, I'm bad like that.

Went to this awesome town a 30min RER ride outside of Paris, called St. Germain en Laye on Saturday with David and a friend of his from Princeton, Trace. There was a really sweet chateau, and the edge of the gardens looks out over all of Paris. You could see the Eiffel Tower and Grande Arche de la Defense. The town itself was so cute, what you might imagine a small French town to look like. There were too many boulangeries and fromageries. It was good to spend an afternoon outside of Paris, doing a little sightseeing.

Pendaison de Cremaillere chez Milena and Brigette, at their new sweet place in Bastille. It was a really nice night, and I got to know Fran, Katie, and another girl Alice, a lot better. I am excited to hang out with these girls more throughout the semester.

Sunday, a great day of the world's best falafel for lunch, followed by going to see The King's Speech. It's worth a watch in my mind. I really enjoyed it, Colin Firth totally deserves an Oscar for it.

And that's a wrap! Off to ski next week, tales of the adventures to follow!

Bisous

Pictures

Apparently I can't go back and edit older posts, so it looks like I can't integrate pictures from January. Here is a small collections of my favorites shots of the month.

The Waltz, sculpture by Camille Claudel in the Musee Rodin.
Many art students were working in corners and by the windows.
Floor to ceiling books in Shakespeare & Co.
Walking over Pont des Arts at night.
Afternoon walk to Rachel's on Ile St. Louis
The Seine at night. I love the lights on the river.
Glenn rocking out on his last night in Paris.
The Narrowest street in Seville, in the Jewish neighbourhood, Santa Cruz.
The balcony from which Carmen, of the famous opera, used to stand.
The Palace of Spain, built for the World Expo in 1928.
The top half of the organ of the Seville Cathedral.
Gilded small chapel in a wing of the Cathedral.
View from the Top of the Bell Tower, la Giralda.
Standing at the top of the tower.
Gothic spires.
Outside of the Cathedral.
Seville has an abundant of orange trees.
Inside the Royal Alcazar palace.
In the Alcazar gardens.
In the hedge maze.
Annie and David at the bullfighting ring.
Matador jackets.
Seville has Velibs! or shall I say Sevicis.
Across the River in Triana. You can still see La Giralda bell tower.
Roman stone work in Malaga. The small spaces between the rocks help circulate air to keep the ground cooler.
In the basement of the Picasso museum, remnants of city walls from BC times.
David rocking the tire swing on the beach. Its not as much fun as it looks.
Me at the beach, Malagueta.
Back section of Alcazaba royal palace.
View of the sea 2/3 of the way up.
Back side of Malaga.
View of the main boulevard.
The palace from said boulevard.
Back down at the beach.
Hope you enjoyed!

Diving into Term 2!

Well, maybe not diving. It was actually more like testing the water by dipping my toes, and then slowly wading in, cringing from the shock of the cold and wet. But diving sound so much cooler than wading.

Back from holidays in Spain, I had a few days of life organization before the first official week of term two at Sciences Po began.

David and I arrived safe and sound back at Beauvais airport, and then hopped on the overpriced shuttle back to Paris. By the time I metroed all the way home, it was already 7! A long day spent in travel. I also had a very sad misfortune exiting the metro. The zipper pull of my favorite brown purse, which has served me very faithfully since Mom got it for me for my birthday last April, came right off the zipper track! When it was closed (the zipper had come unsewn at the end so the pull was able to pull right off the end). This meant that I had arrived home, but my keys were trapped in the closed purse. I had to head to Monop to find scissors to cut my beloved bag open and retrieve them. It was a sad moment. First my camera, then my purse. I was having a little bout of bad luck indeed!

I picked up some groceries while at Monop and then went home and had a quick dinner before heading up to Tom's place. He was having a little soiree in honour of Shaun, aka Jean Mercredi's, last night in Paris. I had only come to know Shaun better recently, but he was a definitely a member of the group and would be missed. Despite my initial dislike for his very loud American voice and being, he was a actually a nice guy and was always up for a good time, and I'm sad we didn't get to hang out more. He was also one of the people whom I've met who really lived Paris to the fullest possible and grew as a person over the course of exchange. He was a museum and bar champion, as well as a picture/camera fiend. I am going to try and emulate those qualities more this coming term. As so many other parties of Tom's, it descended into a youtube rally, listening to the likes of Will Smith, US Boy (Shaun's favorite), and the new Lonely Island. A good night that ended with the last metros.

Jean Mercredi (Shaun) being a movie start at the Marche aux Puces

Saturday, was professedly a quiet day. A restful, long sleep in my own bed, unpacking, grocery shopping with Etienne, and then just enjoying a boring night at home alone. After constantly being with people for a week, it was nice to have some alone time and just hang out on my oh so comfortable living room couch. I felt very rejuvenated.

My lazy days and nights are normally followed closely and offset by intense productivity. Sunday morning I got up and got right down to running my weekend Seine/Eiffel tower route. I had lunch and updated the blog until the exam period before heading to Annie's for wine and cheese. I finally got to meet her boy Andy, and visit with her Australian friends who were visiting Mary, Steph and Sophie. I blame wine and cheese nights and baguette for my weight gain this year. These French just know how to make irresistable cheese, and there is never such a thing as too much cheese right?

After I had filled up the tank and chatted for a bit, I then embarked on one of the crazier things I have done in Paris: I headed to a museum at 10pm. From September until January 24th, there was an incredible Monet Exhibition on at the Grand Palais. I had tried to pre-reserve tickets back at the beginning of November, but they had been all sold out already! For one reason or another, I hadn't just gone earlier and waited in line for a bit. For the final three days, the exhibit was open 24hours. So here I was about to finally go see it on January 23rd, late at night. I had heard it was exceptional, and I knew that if I didn't go, I would regret it, so I decided to just go it alone, brave the night and the cold and wait in line however long it took to see it. I arrived at 10:45, and only a mere two hours and thirty minutes later I was in! Just to help you with the math, it was 1:15am. It got pretty cold in line, but I had bundled, and my resolve never wavered. I chatted with a 68 year old doctor, and a 63 year old female pharmacist. I was struck by the number of Parisians, young and old, who all stood in line patiently to see this once in a lifetime presentation of France's most beloved painter.

It was worth the wait, and the 8 euros. Paintings from all over the world were reunited for the first time in history, and along the walls you could find works from Philedelphia, New York, Paris, Sydney and Amsterdam all in a row. It was cool to see all the iconic works presented in chronologic order, but the beauty of it was seeing multiple paintings of the same scene painted in different lights. You could see the changes, and it was so cool. My favorites were of course the waterlilies, and those of Venice and the Tower of London and the Thames. They was breathtaking, and I am so thankful I ended up going. It was a huge exhibit, and it took over 90 minutes to go through. I ended up purchasing a pamphlet and magnet to commemorate the trip. I got out at 3, energized, and once again the convenience and money saving aspect of the late night velib ride home, which was in itself great as I crossed over the Pont Alexandre and over the Seine, and rode by Invalides. Paris is an incredible place.

Despite the fact I had been out so late the previous night, I didn't get to really sleep in on Monday since it was sports registration online at 10am. Afterwards, I headed out for a run in a very light rain on a new route along Avenue de Breteuil and up by Invalides. In the afternoon, I was feeling inspired by my previous night's museum-ing, so I decided to keep the flow going and visit L'Orangerie. It is in the Tuileries, and Maia had declared it was her favorite museum in Paris. It is also the home of Monet's famous panoramic waterlily paintings, and so I knew seeing these canvases would compliment my exhibition visit nicely, and indeed it did. I went by myself, running into Annie and co on my way in. I have to say back in the fall I was tentative to go to museum's by myself, but now I quite like it. I can go at my own pace, skip things I'm not so fond of and reflect longer on those things that catch my eye. Plus I can fit it into my own schedule at will. While I knew the waterlilies were the stars of L'Orangerie, I didn't realize how great their collection downstairs is, having Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso, Utrillo, and many many more. I have decided that to date, my favorite painters are Degas, Monet, Utrillo, Derain, and Renoir. I'm not much for abstract. There was also a really good exhibition of German photographer Heinrich Kuhn being featured. He was taking pictures at the end of the 19th century, and beginning of the 20th. Both his subject matter, style and the colours of pictures were really cool to appreciate how far photography has come. It also provided an educational background on various techniques for developing to photos with various effects.

All in all definitely coming back to L'Orangerie in the future. Afterwards, I strolled through the Tuileries and past the Louvre on my way to Rivoli to begin my hunt for a new purse to replace my trusty old one (tear). The matter needed to be addressed promptly as I had taken my only other purse of a reasonable size home for Christmas since I was never using it, and now only had my school satchel to carry my wallet and Paris Pratique etc. My search yielded no results, except making me wish I had some disposable cash for the ongoing sales, which had now gone through second reductions. Just before 5, I walked up into the 2nd to rendezvous with Eva, who had asked me to come watch the German vs. Hungary handball game. Apparently European championships are on right now, and so Eva gave me the lowdown, as I knew virtually nothing about this popular sport. We gabbed and watched the game, which Germany narrowly lost in the final minutes, virtually eliminating them from the tournament. France would go on to win the following weekend! Eva and I resolved to become museum buddies and also to begin diets (my first one ever!) to try and deal with the cheese bellies. (So far I've been kindof failing). I went home to make my low-carb high veggie dinner and then lay low as I had my very first class at 10:15 the next day!

I dragged my sorry self out of bed at the early hour of 9am for my first day of class, and donned my only collared shirt to make a good impression. The previous day I had discovered that I had been under the false impression that my only French class was Histoire Internationale au XXeme siecle (International History). Wrong. Apparently I had actually registered for Histoire Politique de L'Europe (A political history of Europe). Good thing to straighten out, especially since they were not even on the same day. I didn't know anyone who was in this class, so when I walked into the amphi (hundred + person lecture hall) and didn't really see any familiar faces I was feeling a little shy. I took my spot and began to spot a bunch of familiar faces, but no close friends. Then, Ayumi pops up and sits next to me! Going to be a good class. Our professor, a lively Belgian man, has a very clear French accent, which is great since its easy to understand. No problems there. He is a really enthusiatic lecturer, who walks around with no notes etc. He does tend to get a bit sidetracked, and for the first 30 min I had no idea what point he was trying to make but it all came together in the end, and I think the class will work out alright. It was also the first two hours of class I've had since December 14th, and thankfully it is the only class on tap this week. After such a hiatus, its good not to rush back into things too quickly. I think you now understand what I mean by wading back into academic work slowly.

Afterwards, I met up with Daniel and we registered for term 2 ballroom (!) before heading to our usual lunch spot down the street, Lina's. Their sandwiches are just so nice. We had a great chat catching up on all things life, and then afterwards went and payed for sports. As part of my new lets not me fat attitude, I signed up for three activities: ballroom dancing on Tuesdays, Hatha yoga on Wednesdays and swimming on Thursdays. Add in once to twice a week runs, a healthy dose of walking a my low carb dieting efforts, hopefully I keep any additional pounds at bay and maybe take off one or two. I payed for those, bumped into Louis and Eva and then headed home where I got to have awesome skype chats with Chrissy and Rosalind. Ros is now studying in Copenhagen so I am planning on taking a weekend to go visit her at home point, and she is going to come party it up in Paris at some point during the semester. Fun things in store! I prepared a delicious dinner or fajitas for Etienne and I (low carbs, loaded with veggies) while I got introduced to a new tv series, Its Always Sunny in Philidelphia. Exactly what I needed, more tv.

Wednesday started off with my classic run route up Suffren and around Champs de Mars/Eiffel Tower. Always puts me in a good mood. In the afternoon, I met Eva to go to the Musee Picasso, only to discover that it was closed for renovations until 2012. After a quick consultation of our Paris Pratiques, we decided to go to the Musee Carnavalet, which was only a few blocks away (fun fact: there is no equivalent word for blocks in French, which I find kindof annoying). I had briefly stumbled into the Carnavalet in September when on a tour of le Marais with David, but we had spent maybe 15min walking around the lower level before heading back to the sunshine. Boy am I glad I came back! It is the biggest, most confusing building ever, but awesome! It is the museum of the History of the city of Paris, dating back to the Roman settlement, and chronicaling the developments ever since. Complete with models of the city as it evolved, thousands of paintings, sketches and furniture, you really get a sense of the changing size and population of Paris. We spent over two hours going through the place, imagining what it would have been like to be on the first modern settlement on Ile de la Cite, where houses lined the wooden bridges, through the tumulous revolution, the highlife of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century to the even the war years. It was so exciting to see places I myself have been to depicted such a long time ago. The weirdest thing is seeing pictures that predate the Eiffel Tower, and realizing just how iconic it is to us nowadays. This visit made me feel even more incredulous that I am calling this mecca of history my home for a year.

We left around 5 and I took off to continue my bag search at a handbag store by Madeleine that Etienne had suggested. As I got off by Place de la Concorde, the weight of the history was so profound after my previous visit to the Carnavalet. Why this very place was once called Place de la Revolution, where Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were decapitated. Incredible. I headed up the street to La Maroquinerie Parisienne, a tine bag store on the second floor of a shop that has designer bags such as Longchamps, for significantlt reduced prices. Even then, I couldn't justify the prices, and thankfully I didn't see anything that particularly caught my eye, so I went home empty handed.

After preparing dinner, I went up to Abbesses in Montmartre to meet up with Eva, David, Ayumi, Lauren Bailey and Sophie for an evening at this bistro that has board games at it. It had been on Sophie's to do list all term and time was slipping away fast as she was leaving Sunday. We opened it off with Scrabble - In French! We decided that since Sophie and Eva aren't native English speakers, they would be at a disadvantage playing against us others. By playing in French, we would all struggle! It was actually really hard, but a good exercise in language. Eva and I teamed up, and sadly, we lost. After we played this really obscure game that involved the telling of stoy based on a prompt scenario, while inserting specific words into the story to be guessed by the others. After a rocky start in which I was negative 10 points (for not using a word) I rebounded and finished mid pack. Not too shabby.

Playing Scrabble en francais!

Thursday was very low key in the morning, consisting of Laundry, Entourage watching, cleaning and doing some research on cameras. I headed out mid afternoon to go to Fnac, the French Best Buy equivalent, to check out the cameras they had in store. I was torn on the Powershot 3000 and the IXUS 130. I decided to hold off and made my way across the river to check out some Vintage stores for bags. No luck before I met up with Annie as we searched together. I saw my dream black boots that had been further priced reduced at Hero, and a perfect blue and while striped "French" shirt for pennies before I moved on to look at some more stores for bags. In the end I found a good one, dark tan in colour, for only 25euros, and so far it has done to trick splendidly.

Greatly cheered, I went home for dinner and at 9:30, velibed over to Pedro's in the 16th for Sophie's final going out night. Ayumi, Pedro, Lauren and I were finally joined by Sophie at around 11 and we had a great time at Pedros before we decided we must continue the night out somewhere. We decided on Corcorans, the Irish pub by Grand Boulevards in the 2nd. It was a hilarious night, with great photo documentation by Ayumi. When the bar closed at three, I went across the street for a short while with some French people to continue dancing, but quickly realized I was so tired and wanted to head home. I searched for a velib, found one, and headed off in the direction I thought was the Seine aka home. Wrong. I actually headed North-East instead of South West and only realized this when I was up by Oberkampf. Oops. I parked my bike, and decided I would just wait for first metros to open at 5:30, which was only in 40min, while I decided to start walking back the correct way, on the look out for an atm, I met the nicest taxi driver in the world. He took me all the way across town back to my house for free! His name was Jean, and he was in his late 50s and has lived in Paris for over 20 years. He asked me about my studies and everything, a real dear. When I left, he gave me his cab number and said if I ever needed a ride at night and couldn't find one, I should call him. He was so nice, and I was so lucky! I immediately crashed the second I got inside and in bed.

Predrinks at Pedros, and then dancing at Corcorans!

Friday was a bit of a dud. Thanks to my very late bed time, I slept late and then was very unspired by the bleak, windy cold outside world. Solution: hibernate on the couch watching a lot of Entourage. Thankfully, Annie texted me and proposed coming over with Andy and making a pie for a wine and cheese at Fran's later that night. I roused, showered, tidied and met them at the metro at 4. We headed to Monoprix and picked up the necessary supplies for an apple plum crumble, as well as nachos. Back at home, we set to work preparing our Mexican snack while slicing and dicing for the pie. It was just like the good ol' days with Annabelle and I back in the kitchen together. The nachos were possibly the best thing I have ever had - a layer of thick tortilla chips, cheese, salsa, guac, diced tomatoes and yellow pepper, and then more cheese. Topped off with some sour cream, it was too good to be true. But it was true. We mowed it down in no time flat.

Crumble cooked, we headed over to Fran's, arriving at about 9. It was a smaller gathering than the Christmas affair, but still very nice. It was honour of Julia, a gorgeous German girl's departure on Sunday. Fran, Juliette, Nick, Louis, Julia, Annie, Andy and I all sampled a fine variety of cheeses, the most interesting of which was Fran's fondue of brie and gin. It was an interesting consistancy... but surprisingly tasty.

Tasty queso. Mmmm!

I was pretty quiet for the first part of the night, thinking I would just head home at 11 or 12 and go to bed. Somehow though, probably due to the cold and the distasteful thought of going outside, I stayed on. I perked up considerably, and had a great time chatting and drinking tea with Nick, Fran, Juliette and particularly Louis, whom I did not know that well beforehand. Among my favorite topics was top 5 foods ever. (Potatoes in any form, but at the top of that list Mom's christmas mashed potatoes), cereal (Post select Cranberry almond), White Mountain Raspberry peach frozen yogurt, pizza and I can't recall the fifth. All of a sudden it was 3 am, and Louis and I headed back to mine (he lived in the farthest corner from Fran's so I offered my couch for the night). An unforseen late night, but definitely worth it.

You would have thought two late nights would have made me sleep soundly, but it was a fitful night. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving bed though and stayed until about 11. Again, fail Friday meant champ Saturday. I tossed some laundry in and cleaned my room before going for a run on my usual weekend Seine route. I met up with Eva at 3 to try and go to the Modern Art Museum, but apparently there was a good exhibition on that was about to wrap up, and hence the museum had a massive line. Being that we had no idea what the exhibition was, we weren't feeling the wait, especially since it was really chilly, and headed instead up to the Musee Guimet up in the 8th, which is on Ancient China. I have to say it was pretty boring actually, but not all museums can be winners so I guess its par for the course. After, I finally got to walk through the Parc Monceau, which I bet is really nice in the spring and summer. We split off after walking to Charles de Gaulle metro. I was only home briefly to change before I headed back out, having received a text from Lauren Bailey about a dinner for Leo, who was visiting from Helsinki for a few days. We ended up grabbing some nice curry at a Tibetan restaurant, had terrible bubble gum pink cocktail du jours, went to a really random Mexican bar that had a wrestling ring in the basement, and grabbed a beer at Mouffetard all before midnight. It was very busy. I cited tiredness from the previous two nights and caught the metro home, expecting an early bedtime.

But then...

Etienne had casually mentioned having some friends over for a soiree at ours earlier that evening, and I of course said that was cool. I came home and expected to chat briefly then head off to bed by 2. No such thing. The boys, and one girl who left shortly after I arrived, were very rowdy, and the music was bumping. I had a great time at first chatting with Max and Loic. Loic and I talked extensively about Stuart McLean, who Loic loves, and has even written to about his observations as to why Canadians are so awesome. It was pretty cool. I ended up getting super tired and annoyed at another mec (sweet French word for guy) and decided just to go to bed at 3. However, no sooner than I get in my room and am about to change for sleepy times than Annie and Andy roll up! They had said they were going to come, but when they didn't arrive with the last metro, I thought they were no shows. Error. Instead they trooped it by night bus. I was forced to rally, and held on until about 5, when the party was starting to die down as the last stragglers were holding out for the first metro. Not the night I had envisioned, but it was cool to be at a French soiree, and apparently my language skills have greatly improved, so I was pretty stoked.

I got awoken by the doorbell at 9:30, but went back to bed after answering it and got up at 1. Looks like the sleep finally caught up with me. I got up and got dressed before heading straight to Corina's, who had just returned from a two and half week stint in Vancouver. Hearing her talk about her trip made me miss Vancouver so much. It really is an icnredible city in its own right, and even though I will be sad to leave Paris at the end of this year, at least I have the fantasticness of Vancouver to look forward to for fourth year. We talked for about 2 hours until I headed out to la Defense with Leo and Lauren. It is just outside of Paris, and is the financial heart of Paris. It is so weird, because it is all tall class buildings, wide pavillions and late 80s architecture. Such a contrast to the rest of the city, and I think definitely worth checking out to realize where so many Parisians actually work. I have often wondered where in Paris people work if they are not in government, retail or the food industry. Only downside of our walk around and tea was that it was bitterly cold outside. Winter should probably just go away. At least it was a beautiful sunny day.

I headed home in time to change into a very fine outfit (which sadly didn't get documented) of black ruffled skirt and strapless tank that gave the illusion of a dress. Hair pinned back, hairband, sweet earrings, necklace and my new French heels and I felt pretty spiffy. Sadly I realized I must have lost one of my gloves the previous day while out with Eva, though I don't know how. Hopefully with winter on its was out I can tough it out til spring without having to get new ones. My old gloves were brown and awesome, a gift from Paul the previous Christmas. I was really annoyed with myself. Back to my fine attire. I was heading out to another La Fourchette dinner with Maia and Annie, in honour of Maia leaving Paris. La Fourchette is the awesome website that gives you 50% off your bill with a reservation in advance. We headed to one of Maia's favorite restaurants on the Champs Elysees, Mood. We all looked very nice if I say so myself, and enjoyed the most delicious meal in recent history. I had the most tender duck with a raspberry coulis, and gratin dauphinois (amazing potatoes). We also shared a great appetizer and such an amazing cheesecake for dessert. It was too good to be true indeed. We also learned that Maia has been accepted to a summer study abroad in Prague in July, so she will be back in Paris at the end of June, so it looks like we will see her again! There is something really special with us of having all met on the very first day at Sciences Po. She is also the other person along with Shaun who really enjoyed Paris to the fullest, and had the hardest time leaving. Maia belongs in Paris. She is a vivacious, brilliant, enthusiastic, happy, classy litte lady and I am so glad we got to be friends. She also gave some good advice to do travelling day trips around France, since they are good to see the country, which I want to do, and easy on the pocket book. Noted.

Maia savoured every bite of French gastronomie

Dinner finished, we said our goodbyes and headed our respective ways, for me home and bed! Its been a long weekend, and I need to rest up before the start of my first real week of classes!

Bisous!