Days 93-105

It's been an interesting 2 weeks. Lots of good things outside the house, and per usual lots of not so great things within the lovely apartment.  Having a week off class meant getting to see a lot of Paris but was frustrating at the same time because I'm/my parents are paying so much for the time here. We have less than 2 weeks left here and I have such bipolar feelings about it.  We're all finally feeling, for the most part, comfortable here, but at the same time something that happened last week (I'll get to that) makes us not feel so safe.  I'm so excited to go to Denmark. So excited for Ellie to be here (in just a week). And at the same time I know that 8 weeks from now I'll be ready to be home (possibly to only want to get away soon after).

Tuesday Keshia and I went to Les Invalides.  The site holds the Military Museum and Napoleon's resting place. It was beautiful outside for the first time in forever! It was actually warm enough to not need a jacket; way to go Paris, finally.  It took us a while to figure out where exactly we were supposed to go, but we eventually found the chapel, Eglise Saint-Louis des Invalides, it was beautiful. I'm not usually very into military themed places (I don't know how to put that any better), but this was an exception. There were nearly ancient banners hanging to surround the whole room. We read after that they'd been around since around the 1600s. There was glass in the back that looked back onto Napoleon's resting place.  When we finally figure out where to go to see the sarcophagus, it was...bland.  There are apparently like six or seven layers of materials, but it really was not very exciting. It did sit in the middle of the room and was huge...but ugly if you ask me. After we went to meet up with Maggie to go to the Grande Arche at La Defense. When we were pulling into the station a guy was apparently staring at me as he walked the length of the cars (we were on the 1 so they're all connected to walk between) he came up behind me and reached up the back of my dress. He kept walking and it happened so fast that I didn't have the chance to react. I just kind of stood there in shock. After Keshia asked me why I didn't hit him or anything. In some ways I wish I had...but once I get to what happened to Maggie's friend, you'll all know why I'm glad I didn't do anything. So we got off and wandered. Once again we got far too much attention from the men around us.  I definitely WILL NOT miss the European men. Like really...leave us alone. But anyway the Arch wasn't so grand...it was actually pretty freakin' ugly. But there were some interesting installation art pieces around and we wandered through some shopping areas.  We took some fun "jumping" pictures and then called it a day and headed home.

On Wednesday I relaxed most of the day. In the afternoon Keshia and I went near the Louvre to do some souvenir shopping. I got some things for a couple friends. If you want something and read this then tell me what you want...it's way too hard to just figure things out for people!!! :)  We had fun and it was amusing to see all the tourists around. We did our best to speak French but as soon as they heard us speak English, French was out the window. We had a fun afternoon though...still have at least one gift I need to find. After we grabbed a smoothie (delicious) and then went and wandered around Chatlet for a while. Found a cafe and grabbed a drink during happy hour.  I had a pink mojito.  Yum.

Mannat had been stuck in Germany thanks to the volcano eruption but finally made it back Wednesday. So Thursday, Maggie, Mannat, and I went to the Pantheon.  It was about time. The Pantheon was beautiful inside. A lot of the art we've been studying in post-impressionism is painted on the walls of it. We got shushed at several times when we went down to the tombs...we probably had too much fun looking at the dead people. There are some really important people there though, Rousseau, Voltaire, Emile Zola, Maire Curie, and more.  There is also still quite a lot of space for more.  I kind of wonder what you have to do to end up there...it seemed to be quite the random assortment of people throughout history.  After Maggie and I went to Madeline to go to the honey and mustard stores. Both have the crazies assortment of flavors.  The honey place let us sample them which was of course fabulous.  I picked up mustard for Dad and honey for my sister.  They'll both of course be sharing. :)  That night we just hung out, drank wine, and Sasha and I dyed our hair.  Mine is like strawberry blonde now...but quickly fading. My hair doesn't like not being blonde.  Taylor says I should go brunette. We'll have to see about that. Haha.

Friday was an awesome day.  Maggie and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.  I had a veggie burger with onion rings, delicious, and a pomegranate martini.  Our waitress was English and kind of amusing.  Maggie had a chicken sandwich and a raspberry lemonade with I think had rum in it.  I love Hard Rock.  They have such unique atmospheres.  Probably my favorite restaurant if I had to pick.  After we met up with Sasha, Chloe, and Julie at Mariage for tea. Mariage is this really famous, REALLY EXPENSIVE, tea place in France. We split 3 kettles of tea between the 5 of us. It was delicious but 9 euros for a kettle of tea is a bit much. After Maggie and I went to look for shoes and buy some breakfast for Sunday morning. That night we went to a cafe right by the house to get out and have some drinks. We had 2 each and chatted about virtually everything. Much of it focused on what we'll do after college.  It has clicked that I am graduating next year and should probably start to figure out what I'm going to do.  I've looked at a few graduate schools and will probably start applying.  Half of me wants to get away...but the other half really wants to stay in the northeast.  We'll see what happens.  I'll definitely miss Maggie and my chats when she heads home in 2 weeks.

Oh and Thursday night was the night I had fabulous nightmares about going back to TRH for work.  It was so bad that in the end of my dream I flew back to France to get away. haha.  Oh geez.

Saturday I was going to go to Versailles but instead spent the day finishing the Senior Farewell slide show for Alpha Phi...and I studied at least a little for my final on Tuesday.  It was nice to have some space and just be alone for the day.  Much needed sometimes.

It was Saturday or Sunday that Maggie told me about her friend.  There were 4 girls walking in the metro Friday night, when they heard a group of guys (turned out to be 6) calling out things to them (nothing out of the ordinary), so the girls walked faster. The guys caught up...grabbed at the girls butts and clothes.  The girls ran. One girl didn't get away.  The guys punched her in the stomach causing her to fall down the stairs and hit her head on the cement steps and to be knocked unconscious.  The guys kicked her in the stomach and head before running off. The girl regained consciousness on the way to the hospital and flew back to the states.  The worst part is that the girls weren't doing anything wrong. There was nothing they could have done. The guys here always give American girls too much attention...but for something to have actually happened...we definitely don't walk around without checking behind our backs anymore.  Makes me glad to not be here too much longer, it's almost a constant state of paranoia. Not feeling safe is not a good feeling.

Sunday Maggie and I got up at like 5:30 for our day trip to Belgium.  Neither of us were totally happy to be up that early, but the day proved to be worth it. It was a 4 hour bus ride with one stop on the way.  Bruges was amazing.  It was a town basically stuck in the medieval times.  It was set up in a circle with the water surrounding it.  The ocean used to come right up to it.  There were boats running through the town along with horse drawn carriages.  We didn't get to go on the boat ride because the person in charge of our tour didn't make it clear how long we'd have to wait to get on the actual boat. We had mussels, fries, and beer for lunch. So delicious. (delicious is the word for this blog entry apparently). My dad would definitely be proud of the amount of mussels I've consumed here.  After we of course had to get a Belgian waffle as we walked around.  We found some souvenirs and some chocolate for ourselves before going into the Notre Dame church their.  Inside it's extremely German and they have an original Michelangelo piece on display.  I'd never seen a church quite like it. By then it had started to rain and it was time to go anyway.  The fresh air for the day was greatly appreciated. And though nothing particularly "exciting" happened it was just a nice relaxing day outside of Paris. I got some pretty pictures as well. Picking pictures to display in my apartment when I get home is going to be quite the task.  [My 7th country too :)]

This past week was not nearly as eventful. Monday I FINALLY got my care package that my family had sent like 2-3 weeks before along with a post card from Doreh.  It definitely made my day, but also made me rather homesick. That night I studied for my final and wrote my 10 page paper that was due Wednesday, up till 4:30am but having the work done was worth it.  Tuesday was my last real French class and then my final in the English course. It was supposed to take 2 hours and I walked out after 40 minutes.  The professor stopped my before I left to tell me what a pleasure it was to have me in her class and to keep writing because she feels I have a gift for it.  It was really nice of her but I didn't really know how to respond. All I've ever wanted to do is be a writer...so to have people, especially teachers, telling me my writing is good, means a lot.  That night everyone else was writing their papers so I just stayed in.

Wednesday I started the day finding out that I got Janaya's apartment to live in next year and talking to a certain American (great start to the day) and then went to Centre Pompidou, the modern art museum, with my art class.  We were looking at the "older" modern art, aka early 1900s.  It was definitely strange at points but not as strange as I've heard some of the other floors are.  Seeing Duchamp's pieces was pretty cool too.  There was also this color blue displayed, I can't remember the artist, that is supposed to represent infinity.  It's copyrighted so no one can use it and the paint is made specially so that there is no yellow oil to distort it. After, since we were all beyond exhausted, Taylor, Mannat, and I met up with Stephen at Starbucks. Dany had been her psychotic self lately so Maggie and I went out for sushi with Mannat to not deal with her at dinner. They gave us free drinks and the sushi was of course amazing. After we went and got a drink before heading home. Thursday was the last day I had to get up early for French class.  We didn't have a real class though an instead met with French students that were in "beginner" English. We were all dreading it, but it went pretty well. Their English was just as rough as our French and they'd been studying it for 10 years.  After I came home to take a nap but ended up on skype for a few hours and then trying to talk to people back home about our issues with ISA here.  I didn't get far but the person I talked to does want to talk more when I'm back at school.

Thursday night was Bastille night :)  Maggie, Sasha, Mannat, Tanuja, Adrian, Will, and I went to a bar called Les Furieux. Maggie had been before and it definitely wasn't the typical bar.  Imagine a biker bar in the states. Everyone was super nice though and there was some pretty decent "scenery." After we went to the Charlotte Bar, which Anna, Mannat and I had been to earlier in the semester. We got a couple drinks and 2 shots before calling it a night. I thought I would be home by 12:30 or so...but 3:30 is definitely the same thing.  It would have been earlier, but a couple people wanted crepes and while we were waiting something like 10-15 taxi drivers showed up and the ass of a guy made all of theirs before any of ours.  Luckily Sasha's boyfriend, Eddy, was there and drove Maggie, Sasha, and I home.

Friday morning I spent on skype again and attempting to read my chapter for my night class. The chapter didn't so much get accomplished but the quiz was easy.  After class I felt like shit...like so tired that all I wanted to do was lay down.  I text Sasha to tell Dany that I wasn't going to eat, but she was asleep and didn't get the message. As soon as I walked in I went to Dany to tell her. She rolled her eyes at me and made some comments about me just telling her...well considering I was in class?!?  I raised my voice to say never mind and walked off as she told me to tell the other girls dinner was ready.  We walk in to sit down to eat, and she turns the corner starting to talk shit about me when her face freezes as she realized I'm standing there. Yeah...stupid.  I didn't even pretend to be happy at dinner, because I was more than pissed. Her effort to talk to me was to tell me how white I am...I think she may have meant pale...but umm yeah maybe that's why I wanted to lay down?  She just makes me so mad because she thinks she can just talk shit about us and have it be okay.  I'm writing her a letter before I leave. And it's not going to be rude...but very matter of fact.  Translating it should be interesting though.  I've just REALLY had enough and don't think that just pretending everything is okay, or making excuses for her, is the right way to deal with it. So anyway I left the table early and tried to lay down.  After we went to see The Green Zone finally. It was SOO GOOD! Another movie that I think affected those of us that were American in the theatre a lot more than it could have affected others. It was very well done.

Yesterday I got a wake up call from the states, so much for sleeping in super late :p, talked for like 3 hours. Very much an okay way to spend the early afternoon if you ask me. After, Maggie and I went to a cafe around the corner to grab lunch.  Dany was in her typical LOVELY mood and said she does our laundry (which we hang, fold, put in the washer, everything but press start) so she has the right to make us do other things SHE'S getting money to do. Taking out the trash may seem like something stupid and small...but after finding that she had gone through my stuff..I wasn't too into doing anything for her. Lunch was a great break and if we both didn't have work to do we probably would have run away for the rest of the day. Dany thankfully didn't grace us with her presence at dinner so we ate just us and then I just read until bed.  Boring Saturday, but relaxing.

Today we got yelled at for not saying hi to her while she was on the phone and for not cleaning the water up IN THE SINK.  And other than that I've written this and am going to study for my French final and start on the 60+ pages of International Relations I have for Friday.  A less than exciting weekend, but Ellie is here in a week!! :)  It hasn't really clicked that she is really going to be here...but I really can't wait.

I got asked a couple weeks ago what I'll miss the most about Paris.  I've been struggling with the answer. I can name things I won't miss...the men, my host, the dirty streets, the rude people.  Dany has put a HUGE damper on my entire trip.  Yes, there is a lot more to this semester than her...but coming "home" to such a stressful situation, sucks. She hasn't made me regret coming here, but I haven't liked it here nearly as much as I feel I should have. And I do blame her. But I will miss my roommates, the freedom here, the cafes. I have learned a lot here. A major part of that is that I don't want to ever live in a city this big. I miss the fresh air of Maine more and more. I miss not watching my back all the time or clutching my bag and making sure the zipper is towards the front.  I'm sure it'll be difficult to adjust back though.

It's amazing how much I feel like I know about this city. The metro for instance. I don't think I'll ever forget how to get places and what lines go where.  The 1 is always crowded but it goes incredibly fast.  The 5 is faster than the 7 except when it breaks down, which is often.  The 7 is a good way to get places but takes a while because of it's interesting route. The 14 is automated, smells funny, but futuristic.  The 6 has a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower over the Seine. It's best to listen to music while on the metro because people won't bother you and you can pretend you don't hear the beggars playing music or yelling their stories for money.  Don't smile at anyone.  Don't even make eye contact if you can help it.  People in Paris don't walk around looking at the ground because they're sad, it's to women a way to avoid the pigs that they call men and a way for everyone to avoid stepping on all the crap on the sidewalks. Say "bonjour" everywhere you go.  Walking into stores, cafes, ELEVATORS, everywhere. In that way people come across as incredibly friendly.

I have 7 days till Ellie gets here, 13 till we go to Denmark, and 57 until I'm home. Still lots to see and do...

Au Revoir!