Days 44-46

I'm actually proud of myself, updating before it's been like a week.  Quite an accomplishment.  That and the fact I know I'll have lots to say about Ireland this weekend and I don't want to have an even longer update than usual.  It's been a nice couple days.

Tuesday was my presentation in my "lit" class.  The night before I was worried because I had barely gotten sources from one member of the group and another asked me if the presentation was the next day.  All went well though.  It was exactly 20 minutes, the allotted time, and I thought the flow went pretty well.  I found it interesting presenting with Europeans because like when I finished my part the guy after me said "Thanks Jenn" before starting his part.  Just a little random thing I noticed.  Next week I have a paper due in there for the midterm along with a few questions for the midterm...fun fun. That night I locked myself in again to write my post-impressionism paper that I had known about for 6 weeks.  But I mean really, some things never change.  I think I finished around 1 or 2.  The distractions of facebook, skype, calling someone on skype, and just generally not wanting to write it, prevailed once again.  It turned out alright though, reminded me of my G/T English class in High School when we did like a whole month on art critiques.  I knew that would help me eventually.

Once I finally decided to get out of bed on Wednesday Sasha and I headed to school to print out papers.  I dropped off some post cards in the mail [some of you should be watching your mail boxes :)] and we got sandwiches for lunch.  I got a goat cheese and honey panini.  Sounded strange at first but I mean I love goat cheese and I like honey, so why not.  It was really good actually.  We got our papers printed and headed to class. I must tell you that class drags on like nothing else.  I was sure we had been there for going on 2 hours and it hadn't even been 1! Thank God she let us have our break early and then we got out a little early, only after a pop quiz though. That midterm is next week and scares me a little. After class I took a quick nap and then ate dinner, skype called the usual, and then it was time to head out.

Ohhh the soccer game. An adventure from the start.  I met Kirsten at school so we could head over.  We took the metro to the RER lines (basically trains in the city).  We got on the right one.  We knew it was the next stop.  FAIL.  The train apparently didn't even stop where it said it would, the loud speaker before we left told us to take THAT train.  And we had made friends with some french guys on the train that said we could follow them and even they had no idea how they got that far off track. We got off not realizing yet that we were in the wrong place.  I tried to use my naviGO card to get out of the gate and it said something that meant "out of zone."  There are like 5 zones that Paris is divided up into.  Our cards work in the first two.  Kirsten luckily had some random tickets in her purse that allowed us out.  That's when we realized not only were we NOT in zone one or two...but we were in zone four.  How we got there? No idea.  There are no buttons to push to get the train to stop at your stop or anything...it's just supposed to stop.  Nonetheless we managed to figure out our way back...still no idea what we did wrong.

When we finally got to the stadium there were people everywhere.  My biggest complaint is that my first reaction has to be to grab my purse and not let go.  The chance of pick pocketing is already so high...but somewhere like that?  We were 2 of what seemed like 10 (exaggeration) females there so every purse was a target.  Anyway we finally got in and found our seats.  Our seats that were in the SECOND ROW of the LOWEST SECTION.  So freakin sweet.  We were right on the corner and besides camera men running around it was easy to see. The guy sitting behind us was really nice and took our picture for us and even asked teenagers that were standing in everyone's way to politely move.

Oh! So there are like 4 teens sitting behind us, clearly not their seats. The correct owners of the seats kindly ask them to move and the guys don't even look up, just ignore him.  The other people go get the security supervisor who asks them to move and one, larger, kid, just mouths off to him.  I mean really you're going to have to move...just move.  Nope they wait for a group of like 3 even higher up security guys to come and basically force them to move.  I thought a fight was going to break out behind our heads.  I just don't understand why they wouldn't just move when clearly they are not in the seats for their tickets.  The only other annoying thing was that everyone was smoking around us. My throat hurts like I might as well have been smoking and my hair smells horrid.

Anyway the game was a lot of fun.  Kirsten and I were freezing but the time went by really fast.  France seemed to be doing well at first but they had horrible follow through. Spain rightfully won.  Number 15 on their team was pretty awesome.  After the game we walked the wrong way for the metro so added about a half hour to our trip home.  When we got to the metro everyone was packed in like sardines.  The "scenery" around us made it okay though. Haha.  I had to change lines 3 times, which meant going 30 stops, to get home which was sort of irritating.  And when we were walking to the first one there was a homeless guy harassing this middle aged woman...like would not leave her alone. She tried desperately to just keep walking but it was a while before he finally left her alone.  Women really are like meat around here it seems.  The comments and hands...yeah they get old.  But either way the game was SOOO worth it and I'm so excited to be able to say I've been to a European match now.

As for today I'm just going to pack for Ireland and do some reading.  Tonight we're going to a ballet at the Opera house.  I'm sure it's going to be beautiful.  From there I plan on coming home and passing out.  I have to take the first metro (at 5:30) to catch the bus to the airport in the morning.  I could just stay up all night...but I really don't want to start out the weekend anymore exhausted than I have to. Our flight is at 9:25 and they say to be at the bus 3 hours and 15 minutes before your flight.  Craziness.  The flight is only 35 minutes to get there though which is sweet. Monday I'll be back home probably by 10 considering our flight is at 6:30 and we land at 9:00. (don't know why it's SOO much longer).  Monday will be spent writing my paper and such for Tuesday and catching up on some sleep.  This weekend is going to be amazing though.

Something I have noticed from being here is that I appreciate Maine a lot more than I ever did.  If you've known me for any length of time you know that I've been itching to get out of Maine since about half way through my first semester there.  Being here I appreciate what I have there.  And even more so I appreciated the amazing friends I have there.  It has been interesting seeing who keeps in touch and who doesn't try at all, but the people that do respond or reach out, it means the world.  I've met some awesome people here, but at the same time I do miss some people more than I thought I would.  I was so ready to run away for a little while.  But now I do appreciate not having to grasp my purse and make sure it's zipped with the zipper towards the front everywhere I go. I appreciate not having my legs grabbed by people asking for money.  I appreciate how clean everything is there compared to here.  I've definitely learned a lot about myself and grown a lot as a person already.  Hard to believe that it's only been 46 days and so much seems to different already.

This was far too long for just 2 days of events but oh well.  Hope you all have a blessed weekend.

Au Revoir.