starting to get into the swing of things

So after 2 weeks of traveling... I was so tired! Monday was French and Global Marketing. In French, we are reviewing stuff that I learned about 4 years ago: Personal Pronouns. Not very fun at all! We are reading a very popular French childrens book and then next we are reading a play. Oh well it helps with my language skills! We only have about 10 people in that class now and our teacher has so much energy for being 8:30 on a Monday morning. Wow almost too much to handle. Monday was a pretty relaxing day overall, just caught up on some American shows such as Grey's Anatomy, Gossip Girl and Glee. Since we finally have internet I had about 4 weeks to get caught up on. In my Global Marketing class I am friends with a group of guys that I learned were really interesting. One, Max has his own energy drink called Magic Potion that is circulating the club scene and the other Gordon has his own clothing line in France and Germany.... I thought the US were entrepreneurs but I have seen more from the French than my friends/peers in America.


Mille Feuille



Tuesday was morning class in Intercultural studies and then I went to the market to get some groceries.... and I finally got some artichokes which all of you know is my favorite thing in the world to eat :) I was asked for about the 4th time since I have been here if I am Swedish which I don't think I look like at all! I guess its the blue eyes and the blond hair. Tuesday was spent preparing for a 40 minute presentation in my International Relations Class on the foreign policy in Lebanon. It was an enormous job bc the country has been in EXTREME turmoil for the past 30 years.



Wednesday was a delicious Pastry Tasting in my French Civilization class... I brought in Mille Feuille, which is a creamy cake thing thats amazing. I got to sample famous pastries such as eclaires, religeux, Napoleon, Madelienes along with some others. It was a great time even though we spent the first 2 hours of class actually learning.... what a drag :) French Pastries are literally one of my favorite parts about France, there are patisserie’s every block with has a fine sample of the best of France’s Delights. Our presentation on Lebanon went really well, I was really nervous but it went a lot better than I thought it would go and the whole presentation with questions lasted almost 2 hours. Wow! After our class I went to eat at this really good noodle to go place. In France it is really rare to get anything to go, if you see anyone eating or drinking on the streets it means they aren’t French! I made the mistake of eating breakfast on the metro once when I was running late and I got some weird looks. Oh well.

Grand Palais

Thursday was great to be able to sleep in….. I decided since I didn’t have too much to do that I would go sightseeing. I went to the 7^th and 8^th arrondisement because I haven’t been there yet. I saw the Petit and Grand Palais, 2 old beautiful palaces that are now museums. They were both built in 1897 for the Grand Exposition. It was really beautiful and had such great architecture. I loved it and took tons of pictures outside and inside. There was a free museum in the Petit Palais but decided since it was such a nice day to just walk around outside. After walking around the both the palaces I wanted towards a huge palace with a big wall around it that I learned was Palais d’Elysee which is the presidential palace... Something was going on with an foreign ambassador because there were so many armed guards surrounding the Palace and a couple of the embassies that were on the same street. I got to walk on one of the most famous shopping streets in the world, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. I saw Christian Louboutin, Hermes, Prada, Chanel and some designers I have never even heard of before. It was really neat to see all of these boutiques. After seeing all of those stores I walked back through Place de la Concorde (the old Egyptian obelisk) and then passed Assemble Nationale (National Assembly) then proceeded to go see Les Invalides. Its now a military museum but it used to be a military hospital built in the 1670's. Also there are some very famous French military figures buried there including the most famous Napoleon. He has a huge tomb and although I didn't pay to go inside, the outside was gorgeous enough... but the guy definitely had an ego! After exploring around Paris for the day, I finally decided to go home and get ready for the Masquerade party hosted by our school at a popular club. I went with one of my good friends Blake who goes to USC also. It was fun, but things definitely got out of control a little bit. It was good though to meet some new people and to hang out with some ABS friends.



Les Invalides