Wednesday we went to Musee d’Orsay which was really quite lovely.  There are lots of things I recgonize there.  After that was the France/Greece soccer game which France won 1-0, I believe.  Thursday was the We Are Scientists concert in Paris that Matt got me guestlisted for.  That was quite fun too even though I hadn’t listened to them THAT much before going.

Friday was the big 21st.  Unfortunately, Leanna’s flight got cancelled and she wasn’t able to make it into Paris til Saturday afternoon.  Harrison came in Friday night, so I still had fun with him and some of the girls in my group on my birthday night.  Maizie was also in from Florence for the weekend so it was good to see her too!  Saturday Leanna FINALLY got in and we all hung out in Paris for the evening.  It was REALLY great to be with her and Harrison again after many many months.

Today was the end of the year Fete de Familles.  It went okay.  We had to give a presentation which ended with an embarassing rendition of Leaving on a Jet Plane.  I’m not sure it went over that well with the families.  Overall, I’d say the event was a success though.

This is my very last week in France!  I cannot even believe it is true.  I leave my family on Friday to stay the night in Paris with Cameron.  Then Saturday it is off to London.  I know this week is going to fly by too (like always.)  I’m really excited to come home, but I am going to miss it here.  Nothing I didn’t expect though…

In other news, this weekend in Brussels was absolutely lovely.  We did whatever we wanted whenever we wanted to.  The siteseeing was fairly limited, but there was a lot of relaxing.  We consumed everything we wanted to (chocolate, fries, beer, and waffles.)  Our hostel ended up being way nice as well.  We shared a room with this couple that spoke some sort of language which I could NOT figure out what it was.  They were pretty nice though, as they said hi and bye every time we came and went.

Unfortunately I have to go review some Caligula for my theatre test-like-thing tomorrow morning.  Bonne nuit!

I’d like to take a moment to report on the craziest happening of the week.  We were taking the train to Paris to go to a museum this Wednesday, and everything was going fairly according to plan at first.  There were these bizarre guys, who were apparently Romanian, who kept changing seats around us.  We didn’t think that much of it, just bizarre teenage boy behavior.  But on the first or second stop after leaving Versailles, they waited til the doors were about to close and stole Myra’s bag!  It was intensely dramatic because they were going for speed and not sneakiness.  I thought all was lost, but Dr. Patton, Houston, and Myra pushed the emergency stop button on the train and went after them.  They ended up dropping the bag because Houston had almost caught up to them.  It was pretty intense, I must say.  They say things like this happen often, but I never thought I’d witness it quite like that.

Alright, it is bedtime, big weekend ahead!  Next weeks gonna be big too.  Wednesday is the France/Greece soccer game.  Thursday is (hopefully) We Are Scientists in Paris.  And Friday is my birthday and I get to see Leanna, Harrison, Kara, Matti, and Maizie!! I’m super pumped of course.  Bonne nuit!

After the zoo, we FINALLY went to a cafe and sat outside and had a cafe on the sidewalk.  I never really knew that French people ACTUALLY did this.  But they do frequently.  It was pretty adorable as well and I’m so glad we finally did it.   After this, we were bold enough to take the bus in Paris, also a new experience.  We have pretty much got the metro down, but the bus was uncharted territory.  We did it succesfully though.

I can’t get my camera to upload for whatever reason, and its about full.  I’m not really sure what to do about this.  If anyone that happens to read this has any ideas, please tell me!  I really need to upload before I leave for our tour of France on Wednesday!

I don’t think I’ve ever had as much fun with professors as I did Thursday night.  We went to a local restaurant/bar for Leslie’s celebration, and all four of our French profs came.  They were pretty hilarious.  I sometimes think I want to make them my life role models.  I hope when I’m in my 60′s I can still seem super fun to 20 yr olds.  That is probably a pretty big accomplishment.

I’ve often heard people say talk about how giant places like the chateau and the Louvre are.  Apparently, I didn’t really think they meant it.  But just take it from me, they really are huge.  Ridiculously so. The Louvre was absolutely exhausting.  I saw countless paintings of Jesus and the Mona Lisa!  I’ve also heard that the Mona Lisa is disappointing when you finally see it, but I definitely do not agree.  It was pretty exciting, I thought.  Although, the highlight was probably when Heather got a finger wagged in her face by the Louvre security for taking a picture of it.

Alright, I must leave so I can go check out the loveliest sites of Paris….  I’ll let you know how it goes.

After that Anna and I returned to my house to find a GIANT package from my mother filled with gifts for my family.  They were pretty excited about it.  I’d like to note that in this box, all I received was a pair of socks.  I went ahead and took the Reese’s Cups as well.  Like I was gonna give those up. After recovering the gorgeous flowers Matt sent me, we went to  the Cyrano (movie theater down the street) and saw Friends With Money IN ENGLISH (with French subtitles.)

Saturday, we took the train to Chartres for the day to see the Cathedral and hang out.  There was some sort of RIDICULOUS medieval fair going on.  Everyone was in full costume.  It involved such things as authentic music and random cows.  I can’t really be sure.  The highlight of the day, of course, being the lovely purse I bought.  Saturday ended with us seeing the band of the French student who went to Furman last year.  It was pretty hilarious and interesting.  It is also pretty fun to go to concerts with your professor, let me tell you.

Today, Anna and I went to see the horses at the stables across from the chateau.  They have a dressage show there and we watched the practice for it.  The stables were gorgeous.  This afternoon I may have discovered my new favorite hobby.  After I spilt from Anna, I went to a cafe alone and had some ice cream and read.  It was really cute and fun, even though I had some issues with the ordering in French.  But now, grammar HW is calling my name… You know you are jealous.

We have been working on organizing our free travel.  Right now, I have planned a weekend with Anna Nov 10 – 12 to Brussells.  For our free travel we are doing London and Italy.  We’ll be in Italy for NINE DAYS and are going to do Venice and Rome for sure, and possibly Florence as well.  I’m getting pretty excited for it.  This weekend, we might take a day trip to Chartres to see the sights.  It is about an hour away from Paris by train.  We need to amp down the fun after last weekend, so we are hoping to just visit some Cathedrals or something… Next weekend could be EuroDisney, which would clearly be pretty exciting.  It is currently their Halloween celebration time.  That is obviously the best news I’ve ever heard.

Tonight for dessert we had French Toast. Which is pretty ridiculous. Especially since here it has some crazy French name. I forget what it is. I did explain to my family that in America, it is called French toast. They thought it was kind of hilarious too.