The Metro, the Louvre and Versailles, oh my!!

Okay well it has been a little while, but so much has been going on I have had very little time to write. I have only been in Paris for about a week but it feels like at least a month! Claire and I have been exploring the Metro, getting lost, etc… Everyday is most definitely an adventure. This past week we had a round of tests and interviews in order to figure out our classes and everything. On top of all that we went to Versailles, the Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame, and of course the Sorbonne, even though most of our classes are not in the old part of the University. Versailles was beautiful, breathtaking in fact! I cannot believe that someone once lived there, nor can I comprehend how much people worshipped royalty! It was really interesting, I cannot wait to go back there in the spring when the gardens are blooming. However, even in the winter the gardens were still so beautiful.
Friday nights at the Louvre are free if you are under 23. So some girls and I went to check out some of the exhibits. It too, was incredible and really cool at night. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the first half of the Italian Renaissance artwork. They say that it would take 9 months to see everything in the Louvre, so we decided that we were here for 5 months and we will just take a little in at a time. That night, after the Louvre, I actually think I had the best Mexican food I have ever had! We found this little “hole in the wall” restaurant in the Latin Quartier (Latin as in the language not Latin America) and it was amazing! Honestly, everything in France just tastes so much better. I have decided too, that crepes are my favorite thing. I love crepes with honey, or crepes with chestnut butter, which is just like peanut butter nut made with chestnuts. And crepes are everywhere! I do not understand why people have not opened more crepe stands in America! I mean a crepe stand would thrive on a college campus!! Maybe I will invest in a crepe stand and that will be my summer job.
Claire and I joined this really cool hot yoga studio. I also got a babysitting job, which I am thrilled about. I am babysitting three children Antoine (12) Oceane (9) and Guillome (5) every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. This job is perfect because they live very close to Luxembourg Gardens, and their mother just wants me to take them to gardens and play with them and speak English to them! I think that things like yoga, babysitting and getting to know my host family have been the things I have enjoyed much. Oh well also all the cheese and crepes! But, while all the tourist sites are beautiful I love just being a part of this city. Oh also let it be known, that the french are not rude. They are not any more rude than maybe average New Yorker or the average Atlantan during rush hour! And for the most part I have found everyone here to be very helpful and pleasant. If you respect them, their language and their culture they are very happy to share it with you. Well I will keep up more. I start my classes on Thursday! I am taking course on French books and poetry of the 19th and 20th century, a class on modern French Society, and a class on French Civilization, as well as a writing and conversation French class and phoentics class. All in French! Ahh! So next week will be busy too! but C'est la vie!

Quote from ‘Paris to the Moon’: “We breathe in our first language and swim in our second.”