I'm never waiting this long to blog again.

Okay so a hell of a lot happened this week... And in order for me to cover it all thoroughly, I have to break it down into two posts. This first one covering this past Monday through Saturday. ANDGO.

Monday was the start of my first week of classes. They're pretty good so far! I'm taking French writing, French oral, an independent study with an interior designer, and one of the following: History of Architecture in Paris, or Art in the 20th Century (depending on which one Arcadia will let me use as a 300 level Art History course. Still waiting on that confirmation...) It's definitely a challenge, having my classes be taught in French, but a learning process nonetheless.

Tuesday evening, the school hosted a small mixer. Title: Music Pop Quiz. More fun than it sounded. I got to meet some new people, including these two Austrian girls who you'll hear more about under The Friday Paragraph :)

Wednesday mornings are "en ville" days for the Architecture class. So my classmates and I spent some quality time getting frostbite while my teacher talked about the Musee de Cluny, which probably would have been interesting to listen to if I was able to concentrate on anything other than the fact that I was pretty sure my toes had fallen off. Note to self: Three pairs of socks still results in frostbite, so don't bother next time. After I regained feeling in my toes, off I went to my second class of the day, and then onto my third, being the independent study (I.S.) with Thierry, the interior designer. We met with his fellow architect friend to discuss the logistics of my first project, and we may or may not have all grabbed drinks after? But like apparently that's like not weird here. So I just went with it.

Aaaand onto Thursday. For 20th Century Art, we met at The Louvre which was pretty kewl. It really is amazing there. The class was only from 11:00-12:30, but I stayed for another 2 hours after so I could explore. I ended up finding a quiet room with a beautiful statue and a nearby bench, where I proceeded to sit, observe, and sketch. It was so peaceful, and very much needed.

After my second class of the day was over, my weekend had begun because I don't have classes on Fridays because I'm awesome. I spent the evening out with some friends from Arcadia who are studying in Paris for the semester. And of course when I returned home, my host parents were wide awake and wanting to talk and I was all what are you doing it's two in the morning how do you have this much energy I hope I'm not slurring my words.

Friday afternoon, as part of my homework assignment, I went to the art center called Palais de Tokyo. I spent some quality time there with fellow classmates, Catherine and Melissa, and after we walked around le Marais, enjoyed the plethora of sunlight, grabbed something to eat, and afterwards, Melissa introduced me to Kilo-Shop, a 2 story thrift shop where you pay by the kilo. I'm not even kidding when I say I'm planning on spending an entire day there. It's like thrift shop heaven. Prepare for updates on this one, y'all.
Later that night, Melissa and I met up with the Austrian girls, who introduced us to their friend, (who's German), and her friend, (who goes to college in PA, 30 minutes from my house). It's a really small world. I've been meeting lots of people from all around the world, which is really neat :) Oh, and you should know that once again, I had a lovely 2:00am conversation with my host parents. I'm convinced they're vampires.

And lastly, there was Saturday. I spent the afternoon gallery hopping around le Marais as instructed by Thierry. I felt super artsy, like these people:

And before going out with friends, I had dinner with my host fam. Austin was out, but it was Yves, Ariane, her friend, Fatma, and myself. We joked around, listened to music, drank some wine, sang, danced... (not kidding, Yves was teaching me how to swing dance). They're just a bunch of teenagers at heart, I swear. It's amazing. They're so much fun and I cannot wait to spend more time getting to know them :)


Well folks, that's all for this post. But tomorrow I will post about Sunday, a day I'll never forget.