New adventures in old Paris

Happy its finally the weekend! After a really long week of classes, some drama from back home, and waking up at 7 three days in a row for the first time in about 2 years, I get to relax a little bit :) I like most of my classes, even though they kind of get in the way of traveling haha. Tuesday I had an Intercultural Studies class which was really interesting as we had 20 different nationalities in 1 class. It was neat to learn about a few of the cultural differences within our class. I bought most of my textbooks already, and they are not expensive at all which is good! I'm meeting a lot of really cool people through school.... Lots of cute french boys so incentive for some of my girlfriends to come visit!

Street near our apartment

Wednesday I had 6 hours of class in a row which was pretty rough. Both classes are great though. My French Civilization class has different tasting of France all semester.... next week we are having wine and cheese tasting, and the week after pasteries :) We are also doing 4 walks during different class times throughout the semester where our teacher will be our tour guide and tell us different historical stuff that we have learned through reading and lectures. Awesome!

On Thursday I didn't have class so I got to explore. It has been FREEZING here so I haven't walked to explore as much. My friend Kari and myself decided to walk around the 6th arrondisement to get some books for class and just to see the sights. It was a beautiful day (in Paris compared to the others) so it was kind of cool just to walk around and see the area.
We went to this crazy bookstore that had 5 different stores around this square with every kind of book imaginable. I wish I would have taken a picture of it!

Me in St. German de Pres with statue of St. Michael

Inside the Cathedrale Notre Dame

We walked around there for a while and then went to Cathedrale Notre Dame. It was amazing to see this 900 year old church still standing in all its glory on Il de la Cite (original Paris city on an island in the middle of Seine river) It was amazing to finally see this amazing eglise (church) since I had seen so many pictures and of course the movie the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" Inside I spent almost an hour wallking around looking at everything.... literally had goosebumps the whole time because it was so beautiful! There was so much history it really was incredible. I actually was there twice because the second time was with my roomate Adrianna and there was actually a mass going on (in French of course.) I was proud that I was able to understand a lot of it!

After exploring Notre Dame and walking about Il de la Cite we went to Les Halles, which is an Underground mall near the 1st arrondisement. It was really cool because it had lots of shops including an H & M and a fnac, a huge electronics/book store. After walking around we were pretty tired, made some dinner and then went out for the night with some friends :)

Being poor college students in France which means things are waaay more expensive, we have become very creative with our eating habits. Its much easier to eat healthy, and I have eaten about some form of chicken and tomatoes for dinner for about 6 days in a row! I ate a ton of kiwis, salad, chicken, pasta, tomatoes and eggs and that is pretty much it!

When we went to the fondue place we had this really good sauce with our meat and I was able to buy it in a store. Its called bourguignonne and it is delicious! I literally eat it with everything....kinda tastes like ketshup/mayo/zaxbys sauce.

Adrianna and I went to the market today and had some awesome success. For 5 Euro (7 dollars) I bought about 10 kiwis, 2 pounds of tomatoes, a sack of potatoes, garlic, and about 10 green apples. Everything was so fresh and I wish I would have bought more money to buy some groceries. It is very imtimidating because all the vendors are yelling stuff at you and there are so so many people walking around talking in different languages. It definitely is an experience but you can't beat the prices.



Adrianna and I booked some travel for the next couple weekends. We are going to London next weekend and staying with a friend so we don't have to pay for a hostel. Then the weekend after we are going to Milan, Italy which I am so excited about. It really helps to have a 4 day weekend when you are booking travel.