Sorry for the delay. Ive been all busy and stuff. And sadly this will be just a quick post.
Today is some catholic holiday so we have school off, so a friend and I are going to try and rent bikes and go to a château. The place to rent bikes may be closed though (along with everything else apparently). And also I think that the other person is in much better shape than I am and I have a feeling the château is quite far away (by my standards at least).
Oh well. It'll be an adventure I guess.
Oh, and classes are going well so far and all of the students are pretty cool.
Amazing time dance!

So here are some pics of a café we had breakfast at, Monet in L'Orangerie, and one from the local train we took after the TGV. The girl is the one I stayed with (and you can see one of the bags of hers we pulled around the metro).

Anyone got a map?...anyone?...

Yeah, so the plan to rest for an hour then go to the festival didnt quite work out. I laid down, and then got up, seeing it was dark out. I checked the clock and it was past midnight... Oops. I ended just getting ready for bed and sleeping until I had to get up for class the next day.
So when I first got here, my family's son walked me to the Insitut so I would know where it was, but he was trying to converse the whole time, which takes all of my mental energy, and I still hadnt slept at this point, so come the next morning I was quite lost. I knew I was in the right general area, but I had no idea where the Insitut was in relation to where I was. Luckily one of the 4 people Id recognize in the city walked by, the professor from the U that came with us. I ended up shadowing here for until we got to the school (which was only a couple of blocks, so it wasnt too creepy).
Then in the morning we did oral tests to see how our skills were, so they can place us in the correct class tomorrow. It was pretty easy. Apparently though they were quite impressed by the written portion of the online exam I took about a week ago [pats self on back]
Then we were supposed to go on a tour of Tours (tee hee) but I was signing up for an excursion thing, and they left without me. Turns out my friend I stayed with in Paris barely missed it too. Leaving without us...jerks.
Anyways, there was another one in a couple hours, so we wandered around for awhile until we found a café, had lunch, and ran back for the tour, which turned out to be quite basic. Mostly it was just us walking for long stretches, then listening to the guide for about 45 seconds, then walking again. We walked around for about an hour and a half (lots of walking today...again) and ended up back at the institut. My bag had been feeling heavier and heavier through out the day (that laptop is heavy) and it was getting hot. It rained this morning, so everyone wore warmer clothes, then out came the sun and poof! Hot and sweaty. I figured I'd head home, drop off my bag, change into shorts (which I eventually did) then read over by the loire.
Problem was I got a bit lost on the way back, and by the time I found my way, it was kinda close to dinner time (which is in a half hour), so I figured I'd blog instead and head out after, this time without falling asleep. I still havent gotten pictures of Tours yet, maybe that'll happen tonight, but I can post a few pics of the last day in Paris.

And tomorrow is when we find out what classes we're placed in and the real fun begins.
A bientot.

Runnin' on MT

So tired, so very very tired. So after not sleeping at all on the train and running around Paris until past 2am, I finally get to bed, only to wake up 4 hours later to the wondrous sounds of the guests in the next room making noise. Couldnt get back to sleep... Then today was full of running around first to L'Orangerie where they have these huge, amazing Monet paintings. Then running to the hotel to check out, then running with heavy luggage (I was helping my fellow student with her suitcases) and trying to figure out how to push yourself and a large piece of luggage through a tiny Metro turn-style without getting trapped.
The train was awesome though. The TGV (France's bullet train) freakin' rips! The best was when we passed another tgv going the other way. It was cool. And the country side was very serene looking.
And so I'm now in Tours and the family Im staying with is awesome (a woman and her son). It's a nice apartment and I get a nice big bed, which I cant wait to take advantage of.
Anyways, I think Im going to rest for a little while, then go down to the Loire river, because apparently there's some kind of festival going on.

Ciao

Some pics of a wonderful Paris morning from my Hotel balcony.

Lucy I'm Home!

So Im back in Paris and it feels so... comfortable... and amazing. Oh Its just so not slc (:

Anyways, the flight was not too bad, I just got a bit antsy and my butt got achey near the end but otherwise went well (thankgoodness for music, especially Bassnectar, sweet sweet Bassnectar).
I showed up in Paris and couldnt find my itinerary, couldnt remember the name of the hotel or the first name of the other student I was meeting up with. So what did I do? I winged it! I stared at a map until I saw a metro stop that I was 90% sure was the right one, wandered the area until I found a hotel name that I recognized, and I was right. Sweet intuition.
The classmate I met up with is very cool We get long with really well, which is good cause I was genuinely worried she'd bite my head off or something. A lucky roll of the facebook dice I guess. Hopefully the other people in the program will be as cool....
ANYWAYS, we went to the Louvre, went to street cafés, walked around some neighborhoods and basically kicked it, and it was so awesome. Such small yet essential changes make all the difference. And I finally had another donnerkebab. Ive been dreaming of it for so long... [Deep breath] I love it here. What a day.
Ok, Im now on almost 48 hours without sleep, and Im gonna go to bed. And tomorrow Im off to Tours.
YeeHaw!

Big Adventure Part Deux

So once again we find ourselves here, on my long distance gloating blog. The difference is this time I'll spend most of my time in one place (the city of Tours) and I'll be gone for over a month (woot).
So Ive got lots of time to kill because security went so fast. They weren't interested in my INR machine, they didnt turn on my laptop, they didnt even try to fondle me! I mean you build up expectations, I had a whole speech full of righteous indignation and plenty of references to human rights and yet here I sit, unfulfilled. Not even a full body "porno scan." I guess I didnt look Arab enough to be pulled "randomly" or normal enough to ensure people that they are being fair. The benefits of being somewhere in the middle I guess.
Anyways, this time Im going to try and post pictures and maybe video, since I should have more time (not paying by the minute helps). We'll see how savvy I turn out to be. I can already sense the feeling of inflated delusions of grandeur, because just maybe you'll tell your friends, and then their friends, and soon I'll be famous!
Ok actually, this will be to let you live vicariously through my amazingness, and maybe to alert you of the impending nuptials in case I find a cute French girl to woo. (I give it 50/50).
Well, I've got a long flight ahead of me. I'll land at about 3:10am SLC time.
Now Ive just got an hour and a half to kill...