Its Been a While

Hey! So sorry about the late post, I've been really busy lately! I'm coming to you live from Bercy Park which is right near our hotel. This is my first time coming here and it is really awesome. I may have to do some running here at some point. Very scenic, very pedestrian friendly, outdoor wifi. Classic Paris. Its around 60 degrees out right now, hence the sweat shirt *shiver*. Anyway, in class this week we were giving little powerpoint presentations on the different artists that lived in Montmartre which is a section of paris that is very charming. This is also where you would find the Sacre Coeur. Yesterday we went there and to the Montmartre museum which has a lot of interesting art that is from artists that used to live where the museum is today. Impressionist paintings and the like. Thursday we went out to a spanish tapas restaurant to watch the france/mexico game. It was a great time even though france fails and can't score any goals in the world cup. It was really funny because when Mexico scored their goals, there was this one guy who was screaming and cheering and getting all excited and he was the only one haha. I have to say that being around the locals when they get excited about anything is probably one of my favorite things about Paris, its so great! During the day thursday, I met with my french friend/conversation partner Sebastien in the jardin du Luxembourg. After that we got to go inside the sorbonne because he went there for class. I was only allowed in with him on the condition that I didn't take any pictures. Oh well. It absolutely incredible and the lecture halls belong in a museum or something. There are massive murals above the podium and so much interesting and old architecture that I don't know how anyone pays attention in class. Apparently to attend the Sorbonne tuition is only €450 per year! When I told Sebastien how much Villanova tuition was per year he absolutely couldn't believe it.

So last night me and Chris hosted a crepe party in his room. I was making the crepes and Chris was spreading nutella on them. TEAMWORK! So delicious. So fun. Mom you would have been so proud :D

This morning a few of us went to the Louvre and got it FREE and didn't have to wait in any line at all. This my friends, is the power of being a student in France. We started in the areas that had Greek sculptures carvings and the like and finally made our way to see the Mona Lisa. I don't mean to hate on Mona, but she wasn't that friendly. I mean, we couldn't get within like 20 feet of her because she was fenced off and wasn't even signing autographs. She also had a lot of loyal fans taking paparazzi pictures of her. I was surprised that she was holding a Coke can and wearing a Nike hat: Someone's making money...but she was just kind of staring and after like 3 mins of her not moving, I got a little creeped out and left. I really wanted to see the picture from the Coldplay album art for Viva La Vida and it was really surreal to see it in person. I think that was probably my favorite thing I saw.



After that we saw a bunch of sculptures and egyptian stuff. All things considered, the Louvre is the most AMAZING museum I have ever seen. Even if there was nothing on display in the rooms, the walls and ceilings alone would be more than enough for it to be a museum. There are massive paintings on the ceilings which you could easily miss if you don't look up.

So I guess that's all for now. One week down 5 amazing weeks to go!