J'adore paris:)

Well, I haven't really written here for awhile and I feel like there is SO much to tell. Paris is simply amazing. There is so much to see and soo much to do. You can't really go anywhere without something interesting going on. We have been here about 4 days now and I feel like I have already seen SO much. I love it. I will try my best to share my experiences with you and talk about everything that I can.

Anyways, we are staying in a place called the FIAP. It's a pretty interesting place. We were told we would be with all types of students from across the world that are sharing the same experiences with us. Well, we were bombarded by 1st graders Wednesday night at dinner. But, the longer we were here, the more we realized that this place houses all types of people. So there is a variety of ages here, from 1st grade to about 60 years old. It's pretty interesting, haha. The place in general is pretty nice. There is a cafeteria where we eat breakfast and dinner and a bar that we can grab a drink from at night.

Thursday was a really interesting day. I think it was the best way to start out because we were able to see the Eiffel Tower, the thing that I couldn't wait to see! First off, we learned how to do the metro system. At first I was really nervous because it was complicated and I was a little wary. However, the more and more I ride it, the more and more comfortable I get. I actually like riding it -- it gets us to our desired location pretty quick! Thursday was a pretty busy day. We came to a bridge where we had a perfect view of the Eiffel Tower. It was nice because no one really goes to this spot. So we were able to get as many pictures as desired with a beautiful view of the river. Later on that day, we actually walked THROUGH the tower. This was sooo amazing. I NEVER thought I would be doing this in a million years. It's HUGE and so gorgeous. Owen and I are planning to go some night to see it all lit up.

From there, we went and saw the replica of the Statue of Liberty. This was neat because I have never even see OUR statue of liberty up close! haha I learned that the two statues are actually facing one another! We also went to this Opera house. We watched a video of Paris and how it came to be.

On Friday we ventured to the Louvre. This was AMAZING. It was soooooooooo big. It is the world's largest museum and it goes on for blocks and blocks. We actually only went through ONE portion of it and we were there for a good 3 or so hours. Here I saw the Mona Lisa and many other famous works. I saw many statues like the Woman of Victory, the no-armed lady and others. It was really neat. However, I was pretty sick of art after about 3 hours.

Yesterday was another museum day. It was called hte Musee d'Orsay. It was an old train station that was transformed into a museum. It was a huge transition fromt the Louvre. This was much smaller, but still consisted of so much. Since I'm not a big art person, I'm not really sure of everything I saw. However, I do know some of the painters from hearing about them in class and just hearing about them. It is very cool to say that I've seen many of these famous works.

Today was a pretty intersting day. We saw the St. Chappelle church. This is famous for it's stain glass windows. There was only one room open for viewing here, but the stain glass was gorgeous. It was full of stain glass and was so pretty. From there, we ventured over to Notre Dame. This was sooooooo big and soo pretty. We went to 11:30 mass. It was interesting. We went to the international mass, so there were different languages used. Most of it was in French in Latin, but there was one reading in English. It was interesting because the people came and went; it was kind of a tourist attraction and not mass. Also, as mass was going on people we making there way throughout the church. This was basically how the pilgrims did it in the middle ages. The congregation area was roped off and the tourists just made their way around.

Gerry took us to a very good restaurant today that served couscous. We tried four different meats. It was soo good. We had sausage, beef, lamb and chicken. It was soo good!

Shopping here is pretty good! There are stores and shops EVERYWHERE. I haven't really bought much, but I really want to! The other day, we ventured off and found the richy part of Paris I guess. Here there was Louis Vuitton, Dior, Aramani and many others. It was heaven! Too bad I couldn't get anything:( haha

We went out a couple times this weekend. Friday night was our night to go out. We heard of this club called Duplex. It was a four story club with different types of music on each floor. It was kind of pricey, but we said this was our only time to do that. We just wanted to experience the discoteques of Paris, haha. We had a pretty late night, but we were able to get a taxi and get back stuff! It was a really fun experience. Last night, we went to a smaller bar. We didn't really drink; we just went out to see the night life. This was a block of different types of bars and there were soo many people out. It was really interesting. There is so much life in Paris and I'm having a blast!

Yesterday was Valentine's day and I had a really good day! Owen surprised me with flowers and chocolate! I must say, I was VERY surprised! The flowers were sooooo pretty and I'm pretty upset that I have to part with them come Friday:( He also got me a pretty memorable card. It's basically 3-D and folds to stand like a box. When you open it up, there is the Paris skyline with the most important buildings. And the coolest thing is, I will have seen everything on that card by the end of this visit. We also had a very nice dinner together.

I guess this is all I'll say for now. I feel like there is SO much to say, I just don't know WHAT to say. haha But, I'm loving Paris! I was kind of nervous, but there was nothing to be nervous about really. It's so nice and there's so much going on.

I have been taking TONS and TOns of pictures, but I haven't really uploaded any. The internet sucks and I don't get on my computer a lot. I am going to try and figure out how to make a website where you guys can see all of my pictures without me having me to upload them here. I will try to update more often so they aren't so lengthy. That's all for now though:)