Hello!

Guess what I did on Monday! I went to Disneyland!

I met up with Annie from my program and after a long and stressful delay of a) finding each other and b) buying RER metro tickets (my American credit card didn't work in the machine and otherwise I need $13 of coins, which I didn't have, so I had to go to a ticket counter a hundred miles away (practically) and Annie wasn't answering her phone so I didn't know where she was and if I needed to buy her tickets too), we got on the RER. DisneyParis doesn't open until 10 am, which is very late. But we didn't end up arriving until 10:40, and that is very unlike me when it comes to Disney. But that is what happens when you rely on public transport.

Overall Disney was very fun and I had a very good day. If I had bought my ticket one day earlier, I would have saved a whole bunch of money and it would have been more worth it, but I am still glad I went. My analysis is thus:

1. It was cold and rainy, and that was strange.
2. There were less staff people, and they talked to you less. That meant that you didn't feel the whole Disney atmosphere everywhere you went where you just beam all the time because everyone is delightful. And a lot of food vendors were closed for the off-season.
3. Space Mountain was great! It went even faster and had 2 loops upside-down and while the headrests were weird and your head got bashed all around, it was an excellent ride>
4. Indiana Jones was a complete dud. It is just a normal outdoor roller coaster that is constructed around a Mayan temple thing. And there is no Indiana Jones and no lost treasure. And that was strange.
5. Thunder Mountain was similar, and very good.
6. Pirates of the Caribbean was similar, except that all the rooms were in the wrong order, which was strange.
7. Haunted Mansion was very similar. And the part in the elevator was in French, and that amused me.
8. The whole place was half English and half French. For example, in the Mickey's Winter Wonderland Ice Skating Show half the lines were in English and half were in French. Apparently Minnie Mouse speaks French, but Mickey only speaks English. So it was a good thing I understand both, or else I would have missed half the dialogue.
9. None of the souvenirs had French on them, and I was disappointed. Also, the clothing souvenirs were all duds.
10. It wasn't too crowded - our longest wait time was 15 minutes.
11. The staff in Paris are much worse at estimating wait times…The signs would say 60 minutes and we would walk by 2 minutes later and they would have realized the wait was actually only 10 minutes. Or the sign would say 15 minutes, and then we would walk in and be the only people in the whole line.
12. Because we bought our tickets ahead of time, they were the wrong size to fit in the machine. Because of that we had to ask people who worked there for fastpasses. The good news is that they couldn't scan our tickets, which means that we could have more than one fastpass at a time! But sometimes there was no one there (like at Buzz Lightyear), so then we were out of luck.
13. We saw a parade and an ice skating show and a lighting of the castle with Christmas lights candlebration!

So overall I like Disneyland a lot! But I would say that the US versions have an overall giddier atmosphere. But it was fun to go and the rides are always fun!

Yesterday I had class and during lunch break I finally went up the Notre Dame Towers. And the view was great! It had just gotten sunny and the Notre Dame is right by where I had class and ate lunch and spent most of my time which meant that the closest things in my view were the things I saw everyday, which was great! And I think the Paris skyline is beautiful! And besides all my nearby things, you could see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomph, Grande Arche de la Defense, the Seine, and all the important monuments, and it was great.

Last night we had soup and then lasagna for dinner, and it was delicious. And then I had an hour-long conversation about schools in France with my family, and that was nice. And also about becoming rich in the stock market and the future and important things like that. And I don't have a whole lot of time left for French conversations!

This morning I went to the Galeries Lafayette department store, which is enormous! It is several city blocks long and 6-9 stories tall (depending where you are) and has a whole lot of stuff. It was decorated for Christmas and had a huge tree and some window displays that were gathering large crowds of children.

Then I went back to the Centre Pompidou for a Futurism exhibit. It was actually pretty small, but I liked it more than I expected. So that was good news. And Centre Pompidou has another great view over Paris, which is always my favorite part.

Then I did a bit of souvenir shopping, and now I am at the park with internet that isn't working. Boo!

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And now I am in another park and I have a final in an hour and I probably should have studied more than I have. And it is raining again...