Rien Qu'un Jour

I went to Notre Dame early this afternoon, after realizing that my class was two hours later than I thought it was. This is part of why I love Paris; I had two hours to kill, so I hopped on the metro (using my handy dandy new metro pass), and got to a famous monument within 15 minutes. I spent an hour or so wandering around Notre Dame, which was absolutely beautiful. I sat for a while in one of the pews, just taking it all in. And singing "Out There" from Hunchback of Notre Dame in my head. In French, even. Then, it was stuck in my head all day.

Pictures will be on facebook soon, but I don't have the energy to go find my camera right this minute.

Also, I'd like to note that Merlin always has my back. I'll never doubt it.

Paris, je t'aime!

Good grief, it has been a long time since I wrote anything. I've started multiple entries, but I never seem to have anything exciting enough to post to a public forum. I mean, I had a great fall semester, but it was full of little things, so I mostly kept it to myself and to my personal journal.

But now, I'm in Paris, and that's exciting enough to merit taking up this blog again, especially because it will be difficult to update all my friends individually. I don't have a lot of time right now to blog, because I'm going out to dinner with some new friends, but I want to give everyone a quick update on my first week in Paris.

I love my host family! Helene works at a publishing company that works with artists to publish art books, so she gets invited to a lot of gallery openings and hobnobs with famous artists. She's full of energy and talks a mile a minute, which can sometimes be difficult because it's all in French. Thomas, her boyfriend (or "amant", as she likes to call him), is a lot quieter and more serious. He's very intellectual, but can be pretty funny. He enjoys speaking to us in English, which he isn't supposed to do, but he does it anyways, as soon as Helene has her back turned. Being with a host family does have its awkward moments, like I anticipated, but it hasn't been so bad at all. It's nice living with another student, too, because now I'm not the only one who has no idea what's going on.

Paris is beautiful! I've never been in such a beautiful city. Last night, Mary and I went to the Eiffel Tower, and we sat in the garden just next to it and drank champagne while we caught up. I know it's touristy, but I loved it. I didn't fully feel like I was in Paris until that moment.