Bonjour!

I am back on my computer, and now my fingers keep looking for the keys in all the wrong places, and that is frustrating. On the bright side, being able to use my host family's computer is going to be very convenient as it gets colder and darker and rainier. And I also found the apostrophe key!

It has been another busy weekend, so I will try to remember everything that happened. Friday I met my friend Mira at Centre Pompidou because our french teacher told us they had a library with lots of resources for learning french. Which they do, I suppose. But we talked to the people at the reception desk and they gave us books with accompanying CDs and assigned us computer terminals and we started going through some things. But my first CD was a pronunciation CD because I said I wanted to practice that, except I wasn't going to repeat all the words and sentences in the silent library. So then I switched to a grammar one, and the CD part was confusing, but I suppose I did learn and review a few things. And we were there for about an hour, and then we left.

Then I bought a scarf, because everyone in Paris wears scarves, and it was very cold. So that was exciting. Oh, and we bought candy because it was Halloween, and that was important.

Then we wandered a bit because we had time before our movie, and we went into the huge department store Galerie Lafayette and then went to our movie. But it turns out that I forgot what day it was, so then we had to race across town to get to another theatre that was actually showing the movie. And when I say "town", I mean the city of Paris.

The movie was called "Entre les Murs" and it was about a teacher in a middle school in France, inspired by a true story. And it was similar to the American movies where the teacher works with the kids all year and they have problems and discussions and debates and all grow together, except that it was a french movie. And by that, I mean that at the end of the movie none of the kids were fixed. One was expelled, one was rude and said she was never going to participate in his class, one wanted to be a lawyer but all the adults basically told him he wasn't capable, and one came up on the last day of school and told the teacher that she hadn't understood anything she had learned in any of her classes all year long. So that was strange. The movie was enjoyable and mostly understandable, but the contrast in French and American film was rather thought-provoking.

By then it was already after 6:30, so we decided we didn't have time to go to the Louvre. But that is okay because I think we are going there this week as a field trip.

We had quiche for dinner, which Naomi (the girl from Corsica) made, and it was delicious.

Saturday I printed my backup ballot for the Presidential election and bought some train tickets in the morning, and then met up with the Ulmers at 3. Mme Ulmer was my high school french teacher, and then she and her husband were the assistant cross country coaches, and they are very nice and witty and great. And they moved to Paris at the end of my senior year, and live about a half hour outside the city. We met at the metro stop one away from my house and walked up Montmartre where we saw pretty views of Paris. Even though it was cloudy, it was less hazy than the last time I had been there (to go to Sacre Coeur). We wandered a bit and went in a church and then headed to the Dali museum, which was entertaining. We attempted (and mostly failed) to interpret his art, and it was good times. And then we window shopped a bit, and then went to a cafe for crepes, which is always great. And it was a very fun afternoon and I got to be witty again! It is much harder to be witty in a foreign language and, thus, it was nice being able to speak English with witty people. So that was splendid!

Saturday afternoon Ingrid's best friend came to stay at our apartment (for 3 nights), but Ingrid is still out of town. And Jean Claude fled to his brother's house, so it was just Ingrid's friend and me eating dinner together. But she was actually very nice and she knows how to cook chicken all the way through (Jean Claude did most of the set-up work, but then she boiled noodles and actually cooked the chicken because it only took 5 minutes and he didn't want to do it ahead of time), so that was nice.

Sunday was free museum day! I went to the Cluny Museum in the morning, which has art from the middle ages. That was interesting in the sense that you can compare it to the other museums and see the evolution of art, but a lot of the individual pieces weren't overly impressive since they were so far behind a lot of the other art I have been seeing recently. But they have a famous unicorn tapestry, and that was pretty cool, and overall it was a good museum.

Then I took a break and wandered and ate and bought two french books from a stand by the Seine, and it was lovely. It has been raining a bunch recently, but yesterday (and today!) was very sunny and it was nice to be out walking around again. So that was lovely.

At 2:00 we met as a group to go to Musee d'Orsay. We were originally going to go to Musee Rodin as well, but then we decided not to. So we all waited together to go inside, but then we were supposed to look at everything on our own. And that was a bit stupid because I was already going to go to a million museums since it was Free Museum Day, and if we weren't going to tour the museum as a group or have a tour, I would have rather picked a museum I hadn't been to yet.

But there were actually several temporary exhibitions, so I ended up seeing a bunch of things I hadn't seen before, and so it worked out. I was thinking about heading to a third museum afterwards, but by then we were getting museumed out, and decided it would be more enjoyable to pay a few euros and go another day.

Then I went with a girl Jessica to l'Arc de Triomph, because that was free as well. We climbed a million stairs and then emerged on the viewing platform area, and it was AMAZING! We got there right before dark, so we walked around one time taking pictures in the daylight, and then it was twilight for the second lap and everything was lit up. And it was my first central aerial view of Paris, and it was great. And with a few exceptions, all the buildings in Paris are 6 feet or less, which means you can see really far, and it was great.

And then at 6:00 it was already dark and the Eiffel Tower (which is lit up) sparkled and twinkled and it was beautiful. And then we looked around a bit more before climbing down all the stairs.

We got to the bottom at 6:20, and at 6:30 they have a ceremony to rekindle the fire at the tomb of the unknown soldier, so we stayed and watched that. So in short, our timing was amazing, and we win the game of sightseeing.

Last night Jean Claude and I were the only people around for dinner, so we went back to the INdian restaurant, which was tasty again (perhaps even tastier). And it was the second night in a row where I was eating with only one other person, which means you have to do your share to carry the conversation, which is a little bit stressful, but mostly really good. And Jean Claude is amusing and it was fun.

Today I tried to send my ballot, but I can't find plain envelopes anywhere, so I am going to look more this afternoon and if I can't find any I will ask Jean Claude tonight. And I bought new shampoo and did some errands like that. And then I wandered, and now I am back in Park Monceau, after an extended absence. And it is practically warm out and sunny and nice.

Oh yeah! And since they don't really have Halloween here and they don't have Thanksgiving at all, the stores started stocking Christmas candy and Christmas decorations over a week ago. And that is ridiculous.