Le Métro: Line 4

I don’t know what the deal is today, but I’m SO tired!

It’s not like it was a super crazy day or anything. I woke up and had some Special K and orange juice for breakfast. You know, the breakfast of champions. I was supposed to meet Toni at the train station at 9:30am to go into Paris for a walk, but we were both late and got on different trains. I felt so bad! I had to run to catch the 9:37am train and he got to the station at 9:38am thinking that I would wait but I thought he jumped on the train with me...yeah, it was just a big miscommunication. Sorry Toni!

We met Mckenna and Erin at the Institute a little bit after 10:00am to do our Metro walk for the week. We’re supposed to ride one line the whole way and get off at every stop to see what’s above ground. Some are majorly sketch (they go to dangerous places) and of course, we wanted to have an adventure! M. Olivier said that lines 4 and 12 are pretty sketchy, so we took the 4. You know where you’re going is edgy when the whole metro car is empty. We’d never been in an empty one before! (sorry the pics are blurry...I don't know what the deal was with my camera!)

It was pretty anticlimactic. Not enough danger! Just lots of graffiti, weird shops, and weird places to eat. And apparently we stumbled into a prominently Arab neighborhood and all the men we passed tried to talk to the girls. Mckenna, Erin, and I didn’t notice but Toni said they did. Way to be observant, right?

After the metro walk, we had to be back to the Institute building so that Toni and Erin could get to 202. Mckenna and I met up with some people and finished homework/talked for a while. She brought her lunch (smart girl!) but I haven’t been to the store yet, so I had to go buy mine. I got a baguette with chicken, hard-boiled eggs, lettuce, and tomato and 4 macarons. I’m OBSESSED with those things. They’re amazing! I got vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, and lemon. All delicious, of course. Apparently they’re super hard to make, but I’m planning on mastering the art of macarons when I get home. Be prepared, family! J

Class was good today. We talked about the metro and museums in culture class. Apparently all of the museums in Paris are open until midnight this Saturday AND they’re FREE! It’s always pretty laid back, so it’s fun to go to. I pretty much failed at photography class today though. I took my quiz (100%!), turned in some quotes about the reading, did photo du jour, listened to the first 10 minutes of the Sophie Calle lecture (who is INSANE by the way), and then crashed for the rest of class. Like I said earlier, I don’t know why I’m so tired!

After classes, a big group of students were going to dinner and then to the premiere of “Minuit a Paris” or Midnight in Paris (with Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, etc.) at 7:45pm. I was so mad that we couldn’t go because we had dinner with our host family at 8:30pm! But c’est la vie. We couldn’t cancel.

Since everyone was out for the day, Amy and I decided to come home and get some stuff done. Again, I was tired so I decided to take a 15-minute power nap...and ended up sleeping for 2 hours. So bad! I woke up really confused and didn’t know where I was or what time it was. I think I though that I slept through the night or something. It confused me. But Madame called us down for dinner shortly after and we had a good time talking. We ate outside again because the weather was so nice today. Madame made another salad (with hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, an unidentifiable plant, parsley, and garlic), rice, and bread. Kind of a small dinner but it was good. We had chocolate pudding for dessert, so that made me happy!

After dinner, Amy and I asked if Monsieur and Madame could help us with our French pronunciation. I think they were WAY more excited about helping us than we thought they would be. They helped us for 2 hours after dinner! We read Fontaine’s Fables and it was really great. They were so helpful! We read the Tortoise and the Hare and The Crow and the Fox. Hopefully we can do that a couple of times a week!

Well, it’s late again. I got too much sleep before dinner so now I’m wide-awake at 12:30am! The next few days are gonna be a little bit hectic, but amazing! M. Olivier cancelled class tomorrow so that we can have a picnic at the Eiffel Tower with our group. So excited! Here’s the (tentative) plan for the weekend:

Thursday: Picnic at the Eiffel Tower

Friday: Versailles

Saturday: Belgium

Sunday: Church/Badminton in the backyard

Monday: DISNEYLAND! J

Get excited! Great posts to come!

Oh, and yesterday I got an e-mail saying that I got accepted to run in the St. George Marathon in October! I’m super excited/terrified but it’s a GORGEOUS course! My Daddy and my roommates Erin and Erika got in too! Wish us luck with training! J