May 24th Saturday

I got up at noon. My breakfast was peanut butter and honey toast. After eating, Adrienne and I cleaned the kitchen, bathroom, and floors. We were hosting Amanda’s birthday party tonight because her place is farther from the center of town and the clubs. I got pretty sweaty cleaning, so I took a shower afterward.

We ran to the grocery store to get some items for the party. We got chips, wine, champagne and cheese. We also got a baguette. We stopped by the apartment and then had some lunch. I had the vegetable soup with some of our old bread. Dipped in soup, the bread was softer.

I wanted to get some more casual shoes that I could wear without socks so I made my way toward H&M. It started raining as I walked. I stopped in Monoprix and looked at their shoes, but I couldn’t find any. I made it to H&M. I found some casual shoes that were simple black canvas. I also got some bobby pins and hair clips.

I walked home and realized that it was a longer walk than I’d thought. Adrienne and I finished getting ready for the party. At 9:30pm, Tobias arrived with a television antenna. Our party coincided unfortunately with Eurovision (the annual televised European singing contest). Some people sounded like they would pick the show over the party so we promised they could watch it at our place. Our TV didn’t have cable so Tobias brought the antenna to try to get the channel. It wasn’t working so I tried finding it online. I was able to find a live stream online so we set it up on my computer. My laptop screen is very small so I was wondering if it would work, but we had it at least.

Manu showed up around 10. He seemed surprised that only Tobias was there. Finally, Casey and Amanda showed up. People started arriving soon after that. Our guests included: Ludo, Milva, Marilena, Violetta, Luis, Jeannette and Anna. There was one group in our bedroom watching Eurovision. They all made comments about the political tensions underlying the contest. We heard occasional cheering as well. Another group of us hung out in the kitchen and talked.

Eventually, Eurovision ended and we had had sufficient amounts of wine and champagne. We headed out to the club where Amanda wanted to party around midnight. The whole group of us walked across the Seine together. Some people decided to break off and go home.

We arrived at Cabaret and waited in a short line to get in. We had signed up on an online list so we were able to get in free. The club was nice. We walked down some stairs into an underground club. The music wasn’t too bad. We danced a lot and it soon became very hot and humid. I thought about getting a drink but soon discovered that they were €13. Screw that! I would just be thirsty. We discovered Carlos at the club as well. He showed up after most of the others had gone.

Amanda and I danced together and had fun driving the boys wild. Carlos even went to his knees before us and mimed wiping drool off his face. Amanda went up next to Manu at one point and gave me a look. I knew what she was thinking and soon we were dancing on either side of him. He seemed to enjoy it and Carlos was driven even crazier.

As it got later, the people started clearing out of the club. It got much cooler and we had more space to dance. We’d offered to Amanda to stay at our place so we were in it for the long haul. We danced until rather late and left around 5:30am. We stepped outside into the morning light. It was beautiful. I was thinking about my bed and cursing the space between us.

Manu, Carlos, Amanda, Adrienne and I walked for a bit together. We walked past the Louvres and I’d never seen it so beautiful as it was in the morning light. It was the most deserted I’d seen it. Then Manu separated so he could go home. Carlos walked us to our apartment like a gentleman, but unlike a gentleman, he asked to stay with us. The rule of no men sleeping in the apartment was still in effect so we had to turn him away. I helped him find the nearest vélibres so he could take a bike home.

We went up to the apartment and the three of us went to bed close to 7:00am.

May 23rd Friday

I woke up to a call from Amanda at 9am telling me that our class with Howorth was cancelled. This was good news in a way because we could take more time to do our presentation that we were supposed to give in that class. On the other hand, I just wanted to get it over with. I got up and checked my email to make sure the class was actually cancelled and then called some classmates to make sure they knew too. Once I told them, I went back to bed. I was tired from going to bed late.

I got up again at 12. I noticed that the mosquito bites were worse. The day before, they’d been simple red spots on my skin. Today, they were angry red bumps that were beginning to itch terribly.

I had some of my fruit and granola cereal and then got ready for our afternoon class. We had a class with Schmidt today and I had to give a presentation in her class. I left a bit early to meet Anna before class. We finished up the powerpoint for the class and put it on my USB key.

We got to class and the room was very warm. My computer was not enjoying the heat and was running very slow. Eventually, it froze and I had to force it off. This was not a very good development because I had all of my notes for the presentation on my laptop. I’d been planning on reading off the screen. Thankfully, we had our powerpoint and were able to show that to the class. The way the teacher’s desk was set up was that there was a computer screen under the desk that was viewable through a glass pane in the middle of the desktop. The powerpoint refreshed my memory enough that I was able to give the presentation okay. I was nervous about giving a presentation in French but it worked out all right. Anna and I did a fairly good job. I was quite nervous but I explained that the heat had killed my computer so they had to bear with me.

After class, I walked home. I got a baguette at the corner boulangerie. At home I ate some of the légumes de soleil soup with the baguette. I put cheese and butter on it to complete the snack. I went into the bedroom and was on my computer. I was still sleepy and fell asleep.

Adrienne woke me up at 8:00pm. We were going to Amanda’s birthday dinner that night. We went to the metro and took it to the stop near the restaurant. Outside the stop we met up with Casey, Amanda, and Sara. We went to find the restaurant and had to walk up and down the street a while to find it. We eventually did find the street and we went in. The restaurant was called 10 Vins (or 10 wines). We were seated at a table that was kind of in the back. It was like having a private party in the back. The waiter was very nice and took very good care of us. They had a €24 menu that came with three courses that we ordered. For the first course, I had the foie gras with the cinnamon apple pastry. It was served on a white dish that was shaped like a duck. It made me a little sad to be reminded that this delicious treat came from such cute animals. The first course was amazing. There were even red peppercorns on the foie gras.

For the second course, I ordered the beef with camembert sauce and potatoes au gratin. The beef was already sliced when it was served and the sauce came in a little wedge-shaped dish. The sauce and the meat were amazing. It was so rich. The final course was dessert and I had the tarte au fraises “maison”. The tart was like our fruit pies with the glaze layer on top. The entire meal was delicious. We had a great time talking during the meal. We shared a bottle of Bordeaux wine. Our reservation had been for 8:30pm. We left the restaurant at midnight. We left and took the metro home.

When we got home, I talked to my parents on Skype for a little bit. I also got to talk to John online. After, Adrienne and I sat in the bedroom and talked for a long time. I didn’t go to bed until around 4am.

May 22nd Thursday

The night before, my sleep was interrupted by frequent mosquito attacks. I tried to kill them during the night but was unsuccessful. My day started officially at 9:00am. I got up and called the doctor’s office. I needed to make an appointment to talk about getting a prescription. I had an appointment for 12:45pm.

While I was getting dressed, I noticed the various remnants of the mosquito attacks. I was now covered in bites. They were in strange places since parts of my body not normally exposed during the day were vulnerable at night.

For breakfast, I had some chocolate muesli cereal while I worked on my upcoming presentations. I got ready and showered before leaving for my appointment. The doctor’s office was near the Franklin Roosevelt metro stop on line 1. I arrived at the stop and walked a few blocks to find the building with the office in it. The office was in one of the nicer apartment buildings. It’s very common for businesses and apartments to share the same building. I walked to the end of the courtyard and found the proper door to buzz the office. They buzzed me in and I went to the third floor. I arrived at the office and talked to the receptionist. She was also an English speaker. She showed me to the waiting room where I had very little paperwork to fill out. I think I only had to sign one form. I waited in the waiting room for an hour but I passed the time with some reading for class.

I got to go see Dr. Salzman in her office. She was a Canadian doctor so she spoke both English and French fluently. She had a desk on one side of the office and then had an examination table behind a screen in the corner. This seemed strange to me since I usually saw doctors who had examination rooms separate from their office. I was slightly nervous because some of my friends had already seen her and it sounded like she was a kind of gruff doctor. She was nice enough to me at least. We discussed the prescription I wanted to get and she gave me it. We also talked about the relatively recent HPV vaccination that can help prevent cervical cancer. The doctor was very pushy about getting it done. I was hesitating because things were complicated with my French health insurance. She acted like I was being a difficult idiot for not getting the prescription right away.

We finished the appointment and I headed back toward school. I had some extra time before class so I stopped by a Chinese restaurant to get some food to go. I got some riz cantonais with poulet aux champignons noirs (chicken with black mushrooms). I hopped on the metro with my food and headed toward Sciences Po. I didn’t have very much time before my class so I sat in the cafeteria and ate my lunch really fast. Once I’d scarfed it all down, I headed to my class with Schmidt. This was our third class with her. Today’s topic was the politicization of the EU and how the EU could possibly represent all of the people in it.

After class, some of us hung out for a while and then I left. I walked home and got a baguette on the way. When I arrived at the apartment, I did some of the readings. They apparently weren’t very interesting because I soon felt sleepy. I took a short nap.

When I woke up, I was quite hungry so Adrienne and I had the Poêle caribéen. It was one of the frozen mixtures with rice, Caribbean vegetables and fish.

Once I was fueled with dinner, I worked on my presentations. I had some messages from Irene and Christine. They were freaking out about our presentation for Howorth’s class. I wasn’t as worried, but their messages started to make me nervous.

I got to talk to my whole family on Skype. Tyler always cracks me up. He usually takes the webcam and focuses it on his beard.
I worked until fairly late. I think I went to bed some time after 3am.

May 21st Wednesday

I had my alarm set for 8:00am. I woke up at that time and felt dead so I decided to change it to 9:00am. The electricity guy came to check the meter. Adrienne showed it to him. I got up and got ready after that. I had some chocolate cereal for breakfast. Adrienne went back to bed while I went in the kitchen to talk to some friends on Skype. I got to talk to my friends Tom and Amanda. It was fun connecting Colorado, Paris, and Japan. I didn’t get to talk long because we had to head to class.

I was a little late so I ran to class. On the way, I got a text from Karuna asking me to tell Howorth that she would be 15 minutes to class. I didn’t see why Howorth would give a crap that she would arrive 15 minutes late. She’d show up or she wouldn’t. Our class was discussing international crisis management.

I had a tuna baguette sandwich, an apple, and orange juice for lunch in the cafeteria. I was joined by Amanda and David where we discussed our grades a bit. The both thought that the professors from last semester had been more generous with the grades than French profs usually are. Adrienne and Jeannette joined us for lunch a while later. I got a diet Coke to wake myself up for the next class. I read for a while on the bench in the main lobby.

I went to Schmidt’s class after that. We discussed Europeanization of policies and politics in Europe. After class, some of us stuck around to chat. We talked for a while and I headed home. On the way I bought a baguette. I arrived at the apartment and spent some time on my computer before doing some reading for class.

The reading wasn’t very gripping apparently because I fell asleep. I woke up when Amanda S. messaged me on my computer. She wanted to let me know that her birthday party would be on Saturday. I was feeling groggy and sleepy after my little nap. I felt so bad that I almost felt sick.

Adrienne heated up a frozen chicken and pasta dinner along with a salad topped with cucumber, carrot and green pepper. I drank some water to rehydrate because I had a feeling I was getting dehydrated.

I tried reading after dinner but I had trouble concentrating. I ended up watching videos instead. I got to talk to my dad on Skype and then read for class around 2:30am. I went to bed after that.

May 20th Tuesday

I got up right before my alarm at 8:54am. I got a text from Karuna asking which class was first. We’d had some schedule changes and we had two classes that day. I debated responding and eventually told her we had Howorth first. I got up and had bread with butter, orange jam and apricot jam. I got ready and packed up all my things for class. We headed toward the class building and had class with Howorth. Karuna didn’t show up. We were discussing the transatlantic relations of the ESDP.

After class we had a lunch break. I had a quiche Lorraine with a vanilla yogurt and bottle of water. The quiche was another delicious warm option. I had lunch with Amanda. After, I was in the péniche and ran into Milva. I sat down with her and we talked for a while. Eventually, we got up to go to Astrid’s office. We’d received an email saying that our grades were ready to pick up. I was nervous and excited to see the grades since we still didn’t know how the previous semester had gone. Milva and I walked over together. On the way, we passed David and John who had just come from Astrid’s with their grades. They’d both done amazingly well. They’d gotten 16s and 18s. I was hopeful I’d have similar grades but not really expecting them.

We arrived at Astrid’s and picked up our papers. I’d gotten much lower grades than David and John so I was a little sad. I had to tell myself later that my grades weren’t terrible. They just weren’t as amazing as the others’. The grades in France are out of 20. A 10 is the lowest passing grade. It’s impossible to get a 20 and very very hard to get a 19. 16 to 18 are very good grades. The papers showed us what our grade was and what the highest and lowest grades of the class were. My lowest grade was a 12 which is a low grade but not terrible. That was in Irondelle’s class (highest 18 and lowest 11). I wasn’t very surprised actually. My essay wasn’t that great for his class. I’d written it very quickly. He also said that my class participation was weak. That was definitely true since I never opened my mouth once in his class. I could never understand the question he was asking because he spoke so fast. His comment said “the essay is satisfactory but the participation is insufficient despite perfect attendance.” I had been hoping that the perfect attendance would have carried me more.

My next highest grade was in Grossman’s class. I got a 13. The highest grade was a 16 and the lowest was a 12. When I looked at the breakdown of the grades, I got a 14 on my paper and a 12 on my participation. So I’d actually gotten a 14 on my paper! That was a good grade and highly unexpected after the chaos I wrote it in. I couldn’t read his comment because his handwriting is hard to decipher.

My highest grade was a 14 in Padis’ class. His highest grade was 18 and the lowest was 11. I’d written my 9,000 word paper for Padis while I’d only written 3,000 word papers for Grossman and Irondelle. He had more comments on my paper than the other professors had. His overall comment was “bonne participation et un travail méritoire sur la langue.” (good participation and a commendable work on the language.) The comment helped lift my down spirits. I’d submitted a 9,000 word paper (27 pages) to a French editor of a French magazine and he said that I had done well in French. Even though the grade wasn’t that much higher than the others, I felt like it was worth a lot more. I was so happy to read that small sentence.

After getting the grades, we went to our first class with Vivien Schmidt. She is an American who has lived in Europe for parts of her life and now teaches in Boston. She is also married to Jolyon Howorth, our other professor. She has curly gray hair and seems very much like an American professor with a European flair to me. Her class was called L’européanisation des politiques publiques: ‘polity’ et policy’ dans les Etats-membres (The Europeanization of public policies: polity and policy in the member states.) We’d had to choose which class reading we wanted to present. Today, Matteo and Julia were presenting. Of course, Matteo presented another huge and complicated table to describe the readings.

After class, I went with Irene and Christine to Starbucks. We needed to work on our project for Howorth’s class. We were going to present on civil crisis management. I got a chocolat viennois signature to drink. I got a large one and it was delicious. The hot chocolate is better in the Starbucks in Europe. We found some soft chairs in the upper level and sat to discuss the readings. We decided we’d split the readings up and each of us would read and then summarize the readings for the others. We also discussed the structure of the presentation.

Once we’d finished, I walked home. When I got home, Adrienne told me she’d had an unexpected visitor. Apparently Karuna had just dropped by unannounced to say hi to Adrienne. Adrienne told her that she was actually heading to the store so she couldn’t talk long. It was strange that Karuna had not gotten the hint that we resented her taking advantage of us and didn’t want to see her. It was bothersome that she knew the code and could buzz us at any time.

I was feeling really tired. I ended up just having a snack. I had some couscous and some yogurt with apricot jam. After my snack I worked on my class readings and talked to my dad on the phone. I also chatted with Christine online about the project. We worked on it a bit. I even got to chat with Megan for a little while.
Bedtime finally came around 1:40am.

May 19th Monday

I got up at 8:50am and felt pretty good. I didn’t feel sick or tired. The nightmare before, though, I’d had a nightmare about a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was pretty scary.

I had some fruit muesli cereal and got ready for class. We left early to try and find the classroom. We were in a different room for Dehousse’s class today. Once there, he told us about how the building was even older than the other parts and that it was part of the 1945 école. The room definitely had an older feel to it. It had large windows with old clasps on them. It also had much more decoration than our usual modern room. It was very interesting having class in this older room. Class went well until we left. I was talking to Amanda how I was a little worried about Adrienne. She gets very tired sometimes and when she’s tired she gets accident prone. To leave the classroom and head out of the building, we had to go down a large staircase made from a slick stone. As we were walking down, Adrienne slipped and fell down some of the steps. She even hit her head on the wall. I rushed back up to help her up. There were a few of the students and even the professor there to help her. Everyone was worried. She was able to stand up and besides the slight bump on the head she felt fine.

Adrienne usually goes home for lunch while I stay at school. This runs the risk of her taking a nap between classes. I told her that if she goes home she shouldn’t go to sleep just in case she’d hit her head harder than she thought. She promised she wouldn’t.

I stayed at school and had a chicken Panini. I loved the warm sandwiches which were a nice break from the cold and crispy baguettes sandwiches. I also had a bottle of water and a hot chocolate.

After lunch, Amanda and I headed to the library where we read for Howorth’s class. Well, we had the intention of reading for Howorth’s class. This quickly descended into taking pictures of Amanda on my computer’s webcam. We got a little reading done at least.

We went to Howorth’s class after that. The title for today was “vers une capacité militaire européenne?” (toward a European military capacity?). The class ended and I was hungry so I got a Twix from the vending machine. I walked home as I munched on it and bought two baguettes. Once I arrived home, I had a bit of a snack. I had some of the bread with the mousse de canard (smooth duck pâté), campagne (a rougher country pâté that includes other meats), goat cheese and capers. It was a very delicious snack.

After my snack I read for a little while. I got sleepy though and ended up falling asleep in bed. I woke up again around 9:30pm and was hungry again. We made some dinner of pasta with zucchini and a frozen vegetable mix. I read some more for class and tried to prepare for my group. I was going to have to present the reading in class for the 23rd and I wanted to get started on it.

I was in bed reading for class at 3:00am.

May 18th Sunday

I slept in until around 1:40pm. I had some of the red fruit cereal for breakfast. I was on my computer for a while. The internet was acting strange. I was able to upload some pictures onto Facebook though.

I called my mom and she got on Skype to talk to me. It was nice to get to talk to her since I’d missed talking to her last night. After our conversation, I made some hot chocolate. It was delicious and warm.

Then, Adrienne and I started making dinner. It was our second meal of the day but it was at dinner time. I had leftover taco meat with tortillas, lettuce, tomato and salsa. I also heated up one of our frozen vegetable mixtures on the stove. Meanwhile, Adrienne had salad with cucumber, tomato, and green pepper. For dessert I had a plain yogurt with a little fruit jam mixed in.

While I was cooking and eating dinner, I talked to my parents on Skype. This was slightly difficult since I had to be connected to my computer with my headphones.

I read a bit for class and ended up switching at some point to reading Nana. I finished volume 18.

After that, I talked to my parents again on Skype because we wanted to discuss hotels. My parents were planning a trip to Paris to see me and I was helping them look at hotels.

I had some tea after that. Then we got an email from M. Choupin telling us that someone from EDF was going to come and check the electricity meter in the apartment on the 21st. This was good to know because without notice, we wouldn’t let any strangers into the apartment. We responded and told him that we would be fine with them checking the electricity at that time.

Adrienne and I talked for a while after that. It was always nice to chat while we sat in bed. We can talk for quite a long time. I was in bed reading at almost 1:00am.

May 17th Saturday (photo album)

Today was a very busy and fun day. It started at 9:30am when Jacques called me. Adrienne and I had been looking for possible apartments to move into at the end of June. Amanda and Casey would both be leaving then so we showed interest in their apartment. The call from Jacques was telling us that we got the apartment. When Amanda originally started living there the rent was €990 per month. Then, as the landlord got to know her, the rent was lowered to €900. I asked him how much the rent was going to be and he said “Well what did Amanda tell you?” I told him that she said she paid €900. He said “Yes. That is what it will be.” When we hung up, I turned to Adrienne and we both got excited over the fact that I’d saved us €90 a month on rent. Actually, most of the credit is due to Amanda who got the reduction in the first place. Thanks to her we could slide in at the cheaper rate.

I fell back asleep and got up at noon. I had some fruit cereal and then got ready for the day.

I met Amanda at Sciences Po. Today was the day that they opened up the sale of tickets for the Gala. We were the first in line for the non-BDE group members. We waited in line with our CVs on flash drives. We saw a bunch of other students there. We saw Jeannette in line as well as some others from the program. We all requested to be seated at the same table. We even had to fill out questionnaires on where our interests lie so they could seat us better.

I bought tickets to both the soirée and the dinner. It was €65. I was hoping it would be worth it. I was getting excited thinking about dressing up and going to an amazing dinner.

Amanda and I walked to my apartment after buying tickets. Emeric was hosting a barbecue at his house later and I needed to get some things before then. I gathered my things and we said hi to Adrienne. She wasn’t going to the Gala so she didn’t need to go get tickets. We looked at some of my pictures on my computer that I hadn’t put online yet before going on the metro to Amanda’s place.

We got to Amanda’s and went to the Shopi near the metro station to get ingredients for lunch and for the cookies we were taking to the barbecue. It’s hard to find all of the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies in the French grocery stores but we found some stuff that would at least make good substitutes.

I was helping Casey make lunch while Amanda ran out for more stuff and she got caught in a very sudden and very heavy downpour. She was only outside for a minute but when she came back in she was soaked. It was strange weather. The storm dispersed as quickly as it had gathered.

For lunch we had salad with ham and couscous and a vinaigrette. I had some sparkling water to drink.

We baked cookies in Amanda’s tiny little oven. It worked okay except for the fact that we had to make many different batches in order to fit them in the oven. We were constantly trading them in and out. We also had to be mindful of the hot pad because it caught on fire if it got too close to the heating element in the bottom. We were eventually successful though and had some yummy looking (and tasting) cookies.

We headed out at 5:45pm to go to Emeric’s. There had been much Facebook debate over the arrival time that had escalated into drama. It’s complicated and not that important really. I just found it quite amusing. We headed out on the metro. We took line 10 to line 9 and then hopped on RER A. We took this to Vesinet where Manu was waiting for us in a car (7pm). We found some other Euromasters at the station and so we tried to all pile in the car. Amanda, Ludo and I were left behind while Manu took one load of people over. We took some silly pictures in front of some of the nearby houses. It was a very nice neighborhood. Eventually, Manu came back for us and drove us over to Emeric’s.

Emeric’s house was just as nice as the surrounding ones. After living in tiny apartments in Paris, it was amazing to see an actual house with a sprawling lawn. It was no bigger than the average two-story American house, but it was very pretty.

We walked around to the back where we found people gathered on the porch. Manu began firing up the barbecue while Emeric showed us around his home. The house looked huge after my apartment and it looked like money. You could definitely tell that his family was well off. We got to see the living room, kitchen, and the bedrooms and office upstairs. Amanda demanded that he show us pictures from his childhood. They were pretty adorable. He had some crazy curly hair.

So after we’d given Emeric a hard time, everyone dispersed between the kitchen and the porch where food was being prepared and set out. There was a fairly good turnout there. Adrienne had been caught in the downpour as well so she’d texted saying that she was staying home. Those that had made it were: Amanda, Ludo, Manu, Emeric, Tobias, Casey, Jeannette, Milva, Anna, Luis, Christine, Irene and I. The deck had a beautiful view over the expansive backyard. The sun was moving towards setting and the clouds were magnificent. Eventually, Manu had the fire going and started cooking up the meat. While it was cooking we all had various chips, other snacks, and drinks. Karuna had arrived late and Manu had to make a special trip to go get her. As soon as she arrived she had Emeric show her his bedroom so she could take a nap.

Dinner was served. There were brochettes d’agneau (lamb skewers), hamburgers, and sausages. Some things had been slightly overcooked but it was delicious. We had lots of fun sitting around the table and chatting. Karuna had eventually come down from upstairs to join us. But, as soon as she joined us she asked what we were doing tonight. Everyone silently looked at everyone else before saying, “Um. We’re doing this tonight.” She said, “Well not all night I imagine. There’s a party I’m going to later that you all should come to.” So to recap, she had come in, taken a nap to rejuvenate herself for this later party, and then invited everyone to somewhere else while at a current party.

After dinner came dessert. We had the chocolate chip cookies that we’d brought and also fromage blanc with banana and sugar. Anna had prepared the latter and it was simple yet wonderful. Emeric also brought out a lemon cake and a chocolate cake. They looked very pretty and we all said “Oh! Emeric, did you make these yourself?” He said “Of course I did.” We ribbed him a bit more about them because they looked so professional. He maintained that he’d done them himself. We suggested that maybe his parents had made them and left them behind while they were on vacation. Eventually the truth came out and he confessed to buying them.

Once dessert was finished, some of us went down to the large “shed” in the backyard. It was bigger than my apartment and had a beautiful exterior so it was hard for me to call it a shed. Inside, there was a Ping-Pong table set up. We began trying to play. Some people succeeded. I was not one of those people. I settled with taking pictures instead.

Eventually it was time for everyone to head home so that we wouldn’t get stranded on the last metro. To tell the truth, I found Emeric to be rather cute so I was kind of hoping we’d miss the last train so that we’d have to stay longer. We were a sight walking to the station. It was such a large group of people to be walking at night. We arrived at the train station with plenty of time and got on the RER A. We had fun joking around on the train as we took it to Châtelet. I took line 1 to Concorde and then took the 12 from there to Solférino. I walked to my apartment from there and was finally home.

I said hi to Adrienne and then got to talk briefly to my dad. I was in bed around 3:00am.

May 16th Friday

I got up at 9am and had bread with butter and orange jam along with a yogurt. We had Howorth’s class in the morning today to make up for one that had been cancelled. So we headed there.

After class I went to the CROUS cafeteria with some of the other students. This was the sit-down cafeteria a few blocks away from Sciences Po that sold hot food other than just sandwiches. I had smoked filet de lieu (fish), a potato salad, bread, and a chocolate mousse. It wasn’t too bad actually.

The group headed back to Sciences Po and I got a Coca light while we tried to read for the next class. Amanda and I were sitting on a bench tucked into some bushes and we kept distracting each other from reading by talking. We were using some of the other people in our class as a clock because they were sitting in the grass near us. When they got up we knew it would be time to go to class. Unfortunately, we did not see them get up and when I looked at my watch I realized that it was 5 minutes after the beginning of class already. We sheepishly went upstairs and into the classroom. This class was also with Howorth. Other than being late, the class went fine.

After class I walked home with Adrienne. I watched some Smallville online. We decided to make some tacos that night. So we made half beef for me and half of it chicken for Adrienne. We had it with some tomato, lettuce and salsa. It turned out pretty good and it was fun to eat some Mexican food. The Mexican food in France is a joke. It only comes in the form of taco and burrito kits to do at home. Occasionally there’s a Tex-Mex type restaurant that does weird things like put broccoli in the burritos.

After dinner I typed up my CV. The next day we were going to go buy tickets for the Sciences Po Gala. There were two levels of tickets. There was one to just the soirée part of it and there was an additional one open only to 5th year students to attend the dinner. Since we are masters students, we qualified as the 5th year level even if we hadn’t been at Sciences Po for that long. We had to submit our CVs because the dinner was a big schmoozing event for the soon to graduate students to meet with the now successful graduates.

Once I’d finished updating and translating my CV, I got ready for the night ahead. We were going over to Marilena’s place to celebrate her birthday. There was talk of going to Showcase after so we dressed up nice. We were able to walk to Marilena and Violetta’s place. As we were walking, I was talking on the phone with my mom about the possibility of mailing one of my formal dresses to me. The cost of mailing it was nothing like the cost of buying a whole new dress in Paris. The tickets were enough cost for me. I didn’t want to have to pay for a dress too. My mom was able to find one that would work.

We arrived at the apartment. It was a fairly good turnout of Euromasters and TAM people. We drank some wine and hung about the apartment. We took a few silly pictures. It was a lot of fun.

Then, Tobias said that he was going to meet some friends at Showcase. Nobody else wanted to go with him at that time. They wanted to stay around the apartment later. Adrienne and I decided to go with Tobias because we wanted to go to the club again. I also knew that Adrienne had a tiny crush on Tobias so I thought this would let her get to talk to him a little. We walked from the apartment to Showcase. It took a while to get there. When we finally arrived, we were able to get in without a problem. Sometimes they have a big line of people waiting to get in. We made it in and Tobias was able to find his friends in the crowd. His friends were, of course, two more girls. I’d been secretly hoping that his friends would be a couple of hot guys but, oh well. C’est la vie.

The large dance floor that was closed before was open tonight. It led up to a stage where a band was singing and dancing. I actually enjoyed the music much more than what the average clubs played in France. The club was really hot and everyone was sweating. The band looked really hot up under the lights. I know that we were getting hot dancing in the crowd.

We had lots of fun dancing to the band and eventually, the rest of the party showed up. We were joined by Christine, Casey, Amanda, Luis, Ludo, Marilena, and Violette. It was definitely more fun with everyone there because then I could take fun pictures of everyone dancing. There’s nothing like showing everyone their awkward dance photos on Facebook the next day.

Dancing was drying me out so I went to the bar and just got a Coke. The damn thing was €5!! This was a crime. Utterly horrible. I drank it anyway so that I wouldn’t die. We danced for a while just to work up a good sweat. Then it was eventually time to go home. Adrienne and I walked home and went to bed around 5:00am.

May 15th Thursday

I got up at the early time of 1pm and had the red fruit cereal. I showered and got ready for the day. I went on my computer for a little while.

I went shopping and got some yogurt, ham and other items. It was about €20. I went home and made some lunch (at 7pm) of salad with tomato, couscous, cheese and ham. Meanwhile, Adrienne cleaned and waxed the floors before taking a shower.

For dessert, I finally ate the chocolate fish that I’d bought over a month ago for April fool’s day. It was still good. Once Adrienne was out of the shower, I showed her some episodes of Smallville online. Afterward I went on my computer for a while. I got to talk to some friends online. Luis sent me a link to an e-card that he made me. When I clicked on it I saw a little goldfish and it spoke: “Hello, Casey. You should get started on papers already.” It was pretty strange to hear it speaking to me. Of course, instead of making me work, I just played with the thing online. You could make the fish fatter or skinnier and the voice would match. The fat fish sounded like Barry White so I sent some sexy messages to some of my friends.

My ex-boyfriend, who is also in the army, was heading to Iraq soon. We hadn’t really spoken since the breakup but I wanted to establish contact again before he headed out. I hadn’t completely forgiven him for the things he’d done but I still cared for him as a human being. I wouldn’t wish being deployed to Iraq on anyone. I sent him a brief email asking how he was and when he would be heading out.

I heard from him a few hours later telling me that yes, he was heading to Iraq and that he’d be leaving near the end of June.

I spend most of the evening watching the Nana movie. I also read my class readings while it was loading. After it finished, I started reading Nana volume 17. I talked to my parents a little on Skype and then headed to bed around 3am.

May 14th Wednesday

Today was the day that Karuna came back from the States. Her flight got in really early so I got up at 8:45am to be ready for when she got into town. I felt extremely tired. I got ready and ate chocolate cereal while I read more Nana.

Adrienne went to the store. She ended up getting some jewelry there because it was on sale. I think she was trying to find good things to distract her from how difficult today might be. We’d asked Karuna to stay with a friend and so when she came back she’d have to pack.

I couldn’t concentrate on any of my class reading and we weren’t hearing from her. I read up through volume 16 in Nana. Finally, in the late afternoon, we heard from Karuna. She called and said that she would be there soon. She arrived with her friend Anne Charlotte whom I met before. Karuna was going to stay with her until the apartment opened up. Anne Charlotte would not stop giving us death glares. All I could think was “You try living with her and putting up with her for 3 months.”

Besides the death glares, we all were polite and kept cool. Anne Charlotte had to leave. I guess she was just the moral support for her. We helped Karuna pack a little and then she was ready to take the bus to her friend’s place. Her bag was insanely giant and heavy so Adrienne helped her get the bag onto the bus and rode with her to the friend’s place. I was too wiped out to go so I stayed home.

I went back into the apartment, glad it was finally over. I read for a bit and then ended up falling asleep around 8pm. I woke up at 9:30pm very confused. Adrienne wasn’t back yet. She came back soon after though. I’d forgotten that Anne Charlotte lives on the 4th floor of an old apartment building and they had to climb up a winding staircase with that bag. Adrienne was a saint for helping that girl.

Adrienne had brought the mail in with her and I’d gotten a postcard from my mom. I made a fun dinner of chicken breast in lemon and capers with corn and rice on the side. After dinner, Adrienne talked to her mom and I got to talk to my parents on Skype. I’d been worrying about today for a long time and it was nice getting to update my parents on the situation. They were glad to hear it had gone fairly well.

I chatted online a bit and then Adrienne and I talked for a while. We couldn’t believe it was finally over. We didn’t have to worry about her randomly showing up in the middle of the night any more. Adrienne and I talked so long that we didn’t get to sleep until around 4:45am. I guess I wasn’t going to go to bed early any time soon. Of course I had had a nap earlier.

May 13th Tuesday

I woke up a bit after 9am to get ready for class. I was so tired it felt painful. It was agony getting out of bed. I was going to have to stop going to bed so late.

I had a new cereal for breakfast that had dried red berries in it. Quite yummy. We went to our class with Dehousse. The room was extremely hot today. I started feeling nauseous from being so tired and hot. I was glad when the class ended.

Adrienne went home for lunch while Amanda, Casey and I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch. I got a jambon crudité sandwich, a bottle of water and an orange juice. Once we finished eating, Casey and I went to the péniche (front lobby/study area) to charge computers and read for class.

Our second class was at 2:45pm with Jolyon Howorth. This was our first class with him. He is British and speaks French with a slight British accent. He seems entertaining though and quite different from the French professors we’ve had. His class was called La politique européenne de sécurité et de défense : une nouvelle manière de « faire » les relations internationales ? (European security and defense policy: a new way to “do” international relations?) For our first class we reviewed a bit of the history of the ESDP. The class went fairly well except for the fact that Adrienne came back late. When she’d gone home for lunch she lied down and fell asleep. She forgot to set an alarm. I’d called her with my phone under the table to wake her up.

After the class, some of the other students wanted to go out for a drink. We wandered down the Boulevard Saint Germain and ended up at the Café Indiana. It was a Tex-Mex restaurant and bar. I had a glass of blue champagne. It was made with champagne, apricot liqueur, blue liqueur, and a cherry. It was a very pretty drink and delicious too. It was a large group of students and we sat for a little while. Eventually we all drifted off to go get some work done.

The restaurant was right next to the Odéon station where there was often a candy stand set up. I was feeling in a splurging mood so I bought a small bag of candy from the guy. I nibbled on the candy as I made my way back to the apartment. It was quite a walk back.

I made it home and talked with Heidi online for a while before dinner. Dinner ended up being ratatouille and couscous, the most delicious combination ever. After dinner I talked to my parents and then cleaned up the apartment a bit. I was in bed reading around 2am but didn’t sleep until after 3:30am. I’d started reading Nana and was hooked.

May 12th Monday

I set my alarm for 11am to try to reset my sleep schedule but I ended getting up around 1:30pm instead. I had some of my fruit cereal for breakfast and then did a few things on my computer.

Lunch was again some of the vegetable soup with bread and butter. With that delicious lunch settled in my belly, Adrienne and I walked to the library. I thought it was a beautiful day until I actually reached the library. It was closed! Yet another French holiday had snuck up on us. We discovered that many things were closed. This was fast becoming my biggest frustration. I did what I normally do to calm myself down and headed to the nearby Monoprix with Adrienne. Thankfully this was still open. We got some groceries there and decided to head home.

Adrienne had a package of chocolate chip cookies from the bakery in Reims that she bought on our visit. She had planned on giving it to Astrid as a little thank you but the expiration date was coming soon. She decided to give it to one of the regular homeless men on our route to Monoprix. He knelt on his duffle bag in the middle of the sidewalk holding a cardboard sign that read simply: “j’ai faim.” Adrienne asked him if he wanted the package of cookies and he nodded and held out his hand. Adrienne, being her usual excited self, told him that they were special cookies from Reims! He didn’t seem too interested.

We headed home and looked up what holiday was throwing the wrench in the works. It turned out to be lundi pentecôte (Pentecost) which falls 7 weeks after Easter Sunday. I guess this whole not being Christian thing is finally affecting my daily life. Or it could be the whole not being French thing.

For dinner we made some spiral pasta with chicken and marinara sauce. It was only after we put it onto the pasta that we noticed the mold on the inside of the lid. We didn’t want to waste the pasta and it tasted fine so we dug in. It seemed to work out fine.

After dinner I did a bit of my class reading. I got to finally talk to Tom! That was amazing to get to talk to him on Skype. It’s always great catching up with a friend and telling him about the nights spent under a bridge.

I finally made it to bed around 3:15am.

May 11th Sunday

Since I’d been up rather late the night before, I didn’t wake up until about 4:30pm. I was pretty shocked to see the time when I finally woke up. I’d never slept in that late. It was a definite first.

For breakfast I had some of my chocolate muesli cereal with milk. I messed around on my computer for a little bit and then got back to business. Today was Mother’s Day! I took some pictures of my brother and me and turned them into fun little postcards. I sent them to her.

I got a message telling me that Maya got her package. It went over well. Then I had some lunch. I had the delicious legumes de soleil soup with some bread and butter to dip into it. I got to talk on Skype with my family after that.

There’d been talk of going again to the trivia night at the Scottish pub but when I talked to Heidi online she told me that there weren’t enough people going. It looked like I was staying in for once.

I killed some more time by uploading some pictures onto Facebook. My dinner consisted of a salad complete with cheese, ham, onion, tomato, cucumber, and avocado. It was quite delicious and I certainly felt healthy for eating it. My good habits ended there since I read online comics instead of doing my class reading after dinner. The internet is such a curse and a gift.

It was getting late and I felt a little bit nauseous. I had a yogurt with a little jam in it. I was in bed around 3:35am but didn’t get to sleep until around 4:45.

May 10th Saturday

I woke up at 12:45pm to the sound of my phone. After some searching, I found the phone and discovered I’d gotten a text from Amanda asking me if we wanted to go see the continuation of the Europe Day celebration with her. I did so I started getting ready. I had 4 of my frozen ham and cheese crêpes before showering and getting dressed. Adrienne and I took the metro to the Hôtel de Ville and met Amanda. It was a lot of fun. The weather was sunny and warm so it was nice to be outside. We went to the booths/tents surrounding the square to collect various pamphlets and posters. Some places had food from member states. We liked the slogan for Slovenia. They had shirts that said “I feel Slovenia.” We went to one tent where there was a talk with various EU ambassadors discussing France’s upcoming presidency to the EU. There were two crazy guys that wandered in and started yelling things at the speakers. You can’t have a meeting in a public place without a few crazy people.

We collected some EU tote bags and flags and then decided it was getting pretty warm. We went to the nearby Quick restaurant to grab some burgers. I had the Suprême cheese with a coca light and fries. We sat upstairs to eat and it was really hot there. There wasn’t any air conditioning in the building and the customers were cooking as fast as the burgers.

After lunch (even though it was closer to dinner time) we walked back home. The weather was very pleasant and nice to walk home in. Once back at the apartment, I talked to my parents and my brother on Skype. After, I planned the rest of the night. The other people in the program were meeting at the Champ de Mars by the Eiffel Tour and then heading to a club called Showcase.

Adrienne and I went by the RER at 9:57pm to the Champ de Mars with a bottle of wine in hand. There was a fairly large group from our class there. The grass was packed with other young people enjoying one of the first warm nights of the season. We sat on a few blankets and ignored the men trying to sell wine out of backpacks. We got to hang out in front of the Eiffel Tower and drink wine. It was the most amazing spot to just hang out and drink I’d ever been. People started oooing and ahhhing at the sparkling lights. Eventually, some of us had to go to the bathroom and this was a very bad spot to have to pee. There weren’t any toilets in sight except for one or two very stinky public toilets. I went with Violetta and Christine in search of a place to take care of business. We ended up going into a nearby bar where they let us use the toilet for a few centimes. It was great relief.

We made our way back to the group and eventually, everyone got ready to either go to the club or go home. We took two taxis to the club and the fare was about €5.80. We got to the club after 1:00am. The people there were Amanda, Jeannette, Manu, Tobias, Adrienne, and me. Showcase is a very interesting club. It’s actually located under a bridge. The bridge is the Pont Alexandre III which is the one with fancy gold statues on it. The club is under the north side of the bridge. It was €10 to get in. The club looked interesting because the architecture tried to keep with the bridge style. There were plenty of colorful lights. The music was a little strange but we all danced anyway. We stayed for quite some time. The club was rather crowded and we lost each other before finding one another again.

Eventually we decided to leave and head home. Luckily, Adrienne and I lived within walking distance of the club so we didn’t have to worry about if the metro was running. We all walked to the nearest bus station and we waited until the others caught a bus. Then we walked home.
I was feeling a bit hungry so I had a yogurt before getting ready for bed. I finally was able to get to sleep around 6:00am.

May 9th Friday (photo album)

I was glad that I didn’t go to bed as late as I had been lately because I had an early morning. I got up at 6:30am in order to get ready to go to the train station. I had my chocolate muesli cereal for breakfast and then got ready to go. Adrienne and I left the apartment at about 7:30am.

We took the metro line 12 down to Montparnasse. We tried calling Jeannette to see where she was. She was stuck in the ticket line. We found her there and waited for her. The line was going very slow. Eventually she got her ticket and we ran to the train.

We managed to get on and find our seats without fuss. The train left at 8:15am. The ride was pleasant. We kept passing fields of bright yellow flowers. I think they were the canola flowers that the tour guide in Tours told us about. I tried getting pictures of them but the moving train made this quite difficult.

We finally arrived in Chartres at 9:27 am. It was only about 45 minutes from Paris to Chartres. We left the train station and made our way to the tourism office. It was a little hard finding it since I wasn’t able to print out my map of Chartres. We made it though. There was a very nice guy working there. He set us up with maps and made suggestions of what we could do. We decided to do a walking tour of the town that was drawn out on the map.

We set out from the tourism office and picked a direction of the large circle. The town was very enchanting. The streets were narrow and buildings were made of a combination of brick, stone, and wood.

Our first stop on the tour was the St. Aignan church at 10:00am. The information pamphlet said that it had to be completely reconstructed in the 16th century following a fire. There was only the front doorway that survived from the 14th century. St. Aignan was a small church completely deserted inside except for one woman who looked like she worked there. I’d never been in a church so quiet. It seemed like every small sound was magnified ten times. When I walked on the wooden floors they gave out a loud groaning creak. I also was wearing shoes with rubber soles that squeaked on the tile path in the center of the floor. I opted to walk on the wooden parts and tried my hardest to keep my camera from making sounds. The silence felt as though it had weight to it and with it I thought I could feel the weight of belief. In most of the larger churches or cathedrals it feels like a big empty building. This one had no people in it but it felt far from empty. It was one of the smallest churches I had been in but it was the most impressive. The ceiling’s wooden beams were painted with intricate gold and green designs. The walls were also painted in rich colors.

I was deeply impressed by this church and felt like I should still whisper even as we stepped back onto the street. We continued our walking tour down the hilly and narrow streets of Chartres. Our next church that we saw was St. Pierre. It was more impressive on the outside than St. Aignan but it was closed. We didn’t get to compare the insides.

The walking tour took us down some streets with very funny names. The one we came up to next was called Rue de l’Ane-Rez. This can be translated to “Street of the Shaved Ass” (okay well it means ass as in donkey but that would hardly be as funny). The information on the street sign, complete with a painted donkey, said that it was the site of an inn with a sign showing a shaved donkey tonsured in the same way as the monks in the Saint Père Abbey. Many of the street names in Chartres came from the ancient businesses or people that lived there.

We continued walking until we came to a bridge. This crossed a canal that turns out to be part of the Eure River. It made for a beautiful scene. The buildings hugged the water as the river reflected the bridges arching across it. Trees and vines with colorful flowers dipped their leaves into the water. The town itself was becoming more charming with each step. We even came up to a street called Rue de la Grenouillère (frog pond). It had a picture of a little frog holding onto the street sign.

We walked on the street parallel to the opposite bank for a short time. Then we came across another bridge and crossed it. We were now on a street called Rue de la Planche aux Carpes (Carp Plank Street). There weren’t that many people out yet. It was still early. I did run into a black cat however. It reminded me of my cat Isis. It was very friendly.

We saw the escalier de la Reine Berthe. It appeared to be the outside of a spiral staircase jutting out from the side of a building. It was built in 1500. It was in the style of some of the surrounding buildings with dark wooden beams held together with white material.

Our next sighting was two swans in some tall grass on the canal bank. We went to look at them and discovered that they were guarding a nest full of at least seven eggs. They had used the tall thick grass to make the nest.

We left the swans and made it to Eglise Saint André. It looked like another large church but it wasn’t opened at the moment either. We were now on the west bank of the canal and we continued uphill through the winding streets. We made our way up and came to the gardens that stretched out on the hill below the cathedral. The cathedral looked like a castle sitting up on a hill. As we looked away from the cathedral we looked out upon the rooftops and treetops of Chartres. We were pretty exhausted from the walking tour so we rested on some benches for a little. The hills offered an amazing view.

We continued past the cathedral toward the center of town for lunch. On the way, though, we came to a stained glass museum that showed off different styles of stained glass. It also had areas where they could demonstrate making stained glass. There was an underground gallery with some impressive pieces. There were also some sculptures that were geometric shapes made from wire and glass. We had to rush through the museum and gallery a little because it was going too close for lunch. But it turned out they didn’t have very much to look at.

We finally went to the Place du Cygne (Swan) where most of the restaurants were. One place in particular caught our eye. It was called the Crêperie du Cygne. They had a lunch menu that looked like a pretty good deal. We wanted to sit outside under the trees but the tables were all full. We decided to just go ahead and sit inside. I ended up ordering the 11€ menu. It started off with a cup of cider. French cider is slightly alcoholic and bubbly. It’s like having a light beer with lunch. Then I had a galette sarrasin (buckwheat crêpe) with an egg and bleu cheese. It tasted very good but didn’t look that great. The mold from the cheese kind of sat on top of the galette. I was still getting used to eating bleu cheese. So far, I liked all the bleu cheese I’d had in France. This taste didn’t disappoint. Then for dessert, I got a buttered crêpe with a scoop of pistachio ice cream on top. That was definitely delicious.

We had a pleasant lunch with fun conversation and felt refueled for the next half of our day. We made our way back toward the main cathedral. There was a crypt tour at 2:15 so we got tickets to that first. We were led into the underground crypt by a French guide. He gave the information in French and a German tour guide translated it into German for part of the group. There wasn’t a lot to see under there. We looked into some of the empty hallways and made our way under the main area of the cathedral. There was a small chapel set up under the altar of the upper cathedral. They said they sometimes have service down there. I was glad I didn’t have to go to service underground. One of the interesting sights on the crypt tour was a relic holding a piece of Mary’s veil. We finished the tour and made our way back out of the crypt.

Jeannette, Adrienne, and I then headed to the entrance of the cathedral. This cathedral is called La Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres. The cathedral was standing on the site of many cathedrals before it. They were either lost to time or fires. The current cathedral dates from the late 1100s to the early 1200s. We were drawn to this cathedral for one very specific detail. My father had read a book in which they mentioned the labyrinth of Chartres. A labyrinth, unlike a maze, has only one path that winds around to create an intricate design. Monks used it to meditate and bring themselves closer to God. Since Chartres was so close to Paris we decided to make the trip and see this labyrinth. We’d traveled on a Friday because that was when they removed the chairs from the labyrinth to allow people to walk it. This labyrinth is 12.88 meters in diameter and the path is a total of 261.50 meters. This particular design was in a large circle and was made by black stone set into the more earthy colored stone. There were many people there. I’d researched it a little and knew I was supposed to walk from the outside toward the middle. This was made difficult because other tourists were going from the inside out. The path was only about a foot wide so it meant one of us had to step out of the path of the other. I wound my way into the center. It was a lot of fun and I would have enjoyed trying it with fewer people around. The information pamphlet for the labyrinth wanted to point out that it was a spiritual practice for Christians and that it is not a site of earthly powers.

Once we’d finished our walk around the labyrinth we continued around the cathedral. There were some beautiful stained glass windows. Some of the windows still date from the 1200s. This cathedral was, much like the others we’d seen, rather dim and cold. It was illuminated in some areas by the candles lit by the members of the church. In the center of the cathedral, there was a large stone wall surrounding the altar. It had very intricate carvings on the outside depicting the life of Jesus and other bible stories. On one side of this inner wall was an astronomical clock with the different zodiac symbols on it. I didn’t quite understand how to read it though. We also found another piece of Mary’s veil. This was also in a reliquary and it was a much larger piece.

The cathedral was very interesting. We stopped by the gift shop for some postcards before heading back outside. We discussed what to do next and decided to go back to the tourism office to get information on the Maison Picassiette. The nice guy in the office helped us figure out how to get there. We took a bus and then had to walk up a few streets to reach the Maison Picassiette. This place was very interesting and had a strange story. A man born in 1900 named Raymond Isidore created this house. It’s a very small house with just a few rooms but that’s probably a very good thing. Isidore started creating mosaics on the walls from broken pieces of glass and porcelain. The entire house is now covered in colorful designs made from broken plates. Isidore said that a spirit came to him in his dreams and inspired him to make this house. The designs spread from not only the house but out into the surrounding garden and grounds. He died in September 1964.

We toured the little house and grounds. We were not allowed to take pictures and there were security cameras everywhere. Of course, since it was so amazing, I disobeyed and took a few pictures for myself. One of them was taken from the high window in the ladies room that faced the front of the house. I also bought some postcards at the end though. The entire grounds were an amazing work of art. Even every surface in the kitchen (such as the stove and table) was covered in tiles.

We left the Maison Picassiette and took the bus back into town. Our next stop was the Musée des Beaux Arts next to the cathedral. This was an art museum. We had to hurry through because it was near closing time. There were some interesting exhibits there. There were some modern artists as well as an exhibit on Egypt.

We left and went to the outdoor labyrinth design in one of the garden areas of the cathedral. We walked around it and sat in the grass for a little while. It was such beautiful weather out. After a while we decided we were getting hungry again and it was close to dinner time. We went to a nearby Monoprix (grocery store) and bought some snacks. I got a baguette, goat cheese babybels, ham, and raspberry water. We went outside and ate on some benches in one of the main squares. The sun was beginning to head toward the horizon and we were getting slightly chilly. We also needed to find somewhere with a bathroom. We ended up going to the McDonalds near us in order to use the bathroom. I bought a dessert called chocoglace. It was a chocolate brownie with ice cream, peanuts, and hot fudge on top. We were able to use the restrooms and sit for a little bit inside before wandering back to the train station.

We got on the train and headed back to Paris. We were in our own private compartment so that was fun. We finally arrived in Paris at 10pm. We’d gotten some calls from some of our friends who were celebrating Europe Day in Paris. Europe Day celebrates peace and unity in Europe. We took the metro to the Hôtel de Ville where there was a large group of people watching a movie on a large screen. We watched the very end of the movie and met up with our friends Luis, Manu, Anna, and Tobias. Since the movie was over we decided to head somewhere else.

We ended up at the Pont des Arts. It’s a pedestrian bridge that is often full of bohemian singers, dancers, and drinkers. We found a spot on the crowded bridge and drank some wine. It was fun sitting there in the dark talking. Eventually, Anna and I walked toward home. Adrienne and Jeannette had left a little earlier. I was feeling tired from our big day.

I made it to the apartment around 12am. I talked to my parents on Skype for a while and then headed to bed after 2:30am.

May 8th Thursday

I set my alarm for 12 but didn’t get up until 1:00pm. I had some fruit cereal for breakfast and got dressed. Adrienne and I were planning on going on a trip to Chartres the next day so we researched it a bit online.

We wanted to print some things out so Adrienne and I headed toward the library. The library was closed. All of the school buildings were closed up so we figured Astrid’s office was closed too. We’d wanted to go get something from her but it would have to wait.

We decided to go to the grocery store but Franprix was closed as well. We were sufficiently confused at this point. It appeared to be a holiday today. We didn’t know what it was. We were able to go to 8 à Huit which was still open. We got some lettuce and other groceries. I also went to the bakery to get a baguette.

We got to the apartment and looked up what holiday it was. It was V-E day. I wasn’t aware that this was celebrated in France but it made sense. It was Victory in Europe Day and celebrated the unconditional surrender of the Nazi army. The act of military surrender was actually signed in Reims on May 7th. At least now we knew why the school and grocery stores were closed. These holidays really snuck up on us. It seemed like every time we turned around, the stores were closed.

We went home and Adrienne ate some lunch. I made some lunch later and it consisted of some frozen Chinese vegetables and some bread.

We sent out an email to the people in our program to see if anyone wanted to join us for our trip to Chartres. I called Jeannette because she had shown interest in coming. I told her the details on our train tickets.

After that I uploaded some pictures on Facebook and typed in my journal. Meanwhile, Adrienne napped. For dinner I made a hamburger patty with cheese on it. I made some spaghetti noodles on the side with butter, paprika, and pepper on them.

I ate my dinner and researched Chartres. I was the planner on this one since Amanda had already been.

I got to talk to my dad on Skype and chat with Tom a bit. I did some more Chartres research. After that I typed in my journal again. I typed up 6 days. I was in bed around 1:15 or so.

May 7th Wednesday

I got up at 1:00pm. My first act of the day was smashing a mosquito that had fed on us in the night. The gross part is that when they’ve just eaten, they leave a big blood smear.

I had fruit cereal with milk for breakfast. Adrienne and I talked about our housing situation. We’d decided that we’d put up with Karuna’s difficulties long enough. We wrote a polite email to her. It explained that we were planning on moving out at the end of June so until then, we’d appreciate it if she found someone else to stay with. We typed up the email and sent it off.

Karuna had been staying with us rent free for a month and had not been a good guest. After that I went on Facebook for a while and then showered. For lunch I made a salad with ham, tomato, and cheese. I watched some X-Men cartoons and chatted with Tyler online.

This evening there was a very important meeting. Gøsta Esping-Andersen would be there. In our Varieties of Welfare Capitalism class in Chapel Hill, our class had to read a book called The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. It was written by a man named Gøsta Esping-Andersen and was seen as path-breaking. It was a far from exciting book, but the author had become a kind of celebrity among our TAM program. Our professor Stephens had talked about him all throughout our semester. Amanda, Adrienne, and I were really excited to go hear him speak. Jeannette, one of the German Euromasters, was there as well.

We sat in the front row and listened to him speak. He spoke in English since his French isn’t that great. His talk was very interesting. He spoke about what he called “social investment.” He said that societies should have more working mothers because when mothers work, child poverty disappears. The societies should also invest in the youth. This would mean putting more money into education for younger children to promote early development. He also mentioned something that I found interesting. He said that women select partners differently than in the past. Women are choosing to marry later and choosing men in their level. He said there was a woman’s revolution in upper society. There is more divorce now in the lowly educated. Esping-Andersen said that this could be because women that were more educated were waiting and making smarter decisions for their mates.

The talk was very informative and interesting. Afterward, Amanda, Adrienne, and I went up to talk to him. Adrienne had some of his books with her and got them signed. He was very nice and seemed flattered by three obvious welfare capitalism fangirls. He signed our books and agreed to take a picture with us. We could barely contain our excitement! I suppose that gives you another hint to nerd factor.

After the talk and our pictures, we all headed out to a nearby Italian restaurant. It had a cheap student price. I got a slice of margharita pizza and a coke to drink. We ate in the basement dining room and had it mostly to ourselves so that we could continue to freak out about meeting our celebrity.

After dinner, we realized that we happened to be right by the crêpe stand. I went and got a nutella crêpe. It was as delicious as ever. Adrienne and I walked home after that.

I talked to my parents for a while. I got an email from Karuna saying that the housing arrangement would be fine. I was glad I’d gotten some sign that she read the email.

I watched more X-Men and finished the 3rd season. I went to bed around 4:00am.

May 6th Tuesday

It’s my dad’s birthday today. I got up at 9:00am. I felt very tired. I’d had trouble sleeping the night before. I had some chocolate cereal with milk for breakfast before heading off to class. We had class with Dehousse. Adrienne had to give her 15 minute presentation today. Most people got to pair up but Adrienne had to do it by herself. She did a good job though.

After class, I went to the cafeteria to buy lunch. I didn’t eat it there though because the Euromasters wanted to go eat by the Eiffel Tower. I got my sandwich and then walked home with Adrienne. I had to stop by the apartment. My new sandals were cutting up my feet. They had a plastic tube on the thong that goes between the toes that was cutting into my skin. I put Band-Aids and better shoes on and then we went to the Eiffel Tower.

It took us a little bit but we were eventually able to get a hold of people and find out where they were sitting. We sat down on the grass and had a little picnic lunch. I had a poulet crudité sandwich. The picnic was quite large. Apparently, it was to honor our guests from the Madrid site who were visiting. Rohan was there along with two other Euromasters. There were a lot of Paris Euromasters there. Besides me the group included: Amanda, Luis, Tobias, David, John, Emeric, Adrienne, Manu, Ludo, Casey, Milva, Marilena, Violetta, Irene, and Christine.

While we ate and chatted, I worked on my dad’s birthday present/card. I taped together some pieces of white paper to make a big sign. Then I wrote “Happy birthday, Dad. Love, Casey” on it with markers. Adrienne helped take a picture of me holding the sign in front of the Eiffel Tower. My friends in the program were impressed with my creativity and motivation. I told them that this just showed a lack of planning on my part because I didn’t think ahead enough to mail a present.

After the picnic, Adrienne and I walked toward the RER stop to take it home. On the way, Adrienne wanted to show me an apartment that she’d looked at. It was near the Eiffel Tower. We went and looked at the outside of the building. There was one guy ahead of us who showed interest in the place. But we’d gotten a call from the owner saying he might be reconsidering. It looked like a nice enough building. We got on the RER and took it home.

There was a conference with Dehousse that night. Adrienne went but I decided to stay home. I uploaded Facebook pictures and chatted online. I emailed the birthday picture to my dad.

Adrienne came home from the conference. I was in the kitchen and looking for something in the cupboard. I discovered that the package of chocolate fish that Karuna had given us was missing. She’d taken them with her. That made us really mad. I was sad too because I’d wanted to at least get a picture of them to show people what I had been talking about.

I heated up some cream of mushroom soup for dinner. I didn’t feel like making anything big. I got to chat online with Meg for a bit. Adrienne and I were planning on going to see her in Siena, Italy so we were trying to figure out the plans.

After that I got to talk to my family on Skype. I wished my dad a happy birthday. I couldn’t keep myself from complaining about the housing situation to my mom. I was still peeved about the chocolate fish.

I watched some X-Men cartoons to calm down and then went to bed around 1:00am.

May 5th Monday

Today is Cinco de Mayo! I slept very late again. I didn’t get up until 2:00pm. It was pretty embarrassing.

I got ready for the day and showered. I had some chocolate muesli with yogurt for breakfast. My parents were talking about doing a transfer of money into my BNP Paribas bank account. My dad had sent me the information that he needed me to find. I looked up what I had and then headed to the bank. I walked there and then had to wait in a long line. It was a very slow one. I finally had my turn at the front. I told the woman that I needed to make a transfer from an American account into my account here. She smiled and started going off in French saying, “Ah! Well you’ll just need your RIB. We gave you a paper with that information but we can print out another.” She’d spoken so fast and used lots of bank vocabulary that I kind of just stood there blinking at her. She smiled again realizing she was talking too fast. This time she slowed down and explained what I needed. She printed out a sheet of paper with all the information I’d need for a transfer.

After that I walked across the street to Monoprix. I got some fresh ingredients for dinner as well as some sandals. They were only €6 and they seemed like very comfortable white and blue striped flip-flops.

I walked toward home and stopped by the 8 à Huit. I got some drinks and a pepper and onion there. I took all my groceries up to the apartment. I was planning on making Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo. I hadn’t seen any signs of celebration in town but that was to be expected. Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexico’s defeat of France in an important battle.

Amanda and Casey arrived around 8:00pm and with Adrienne we started making dinner. We cut up chicken and made fajitas with cheese, tomato, lettuce, pepper, salsa and crème fraîche serving as sour cream. We had a rosé wine with dinner.

Dinner was delicious. I love Mexican food and it’s one of the things I miss when I’m in France. We stuffed ourselves and talked for a while. They had brought some cookies so we munched on those for dessert. They had to leave eventually though to catch the last metro.

After they left I talked to my parents on Skype. I tried to read a bit in my homework after that. I was in bed around 2:30 or 3:00.

May 4th Sunday

Another late night meant another late start. I got up at 2:00pm again and had some fruit cereal with milk. I watched X-Men cartoons until Adrienne received a call from our landlord M. Choupin.

I very quickly got dressed and cleaned up around the apartment. M. Choupin came over shortly after. We paid him our rent for May and discussed our housing situation with him. We told him that we were thinking of moving into another place and that we’d started looking for one. We asked if he would be okay with us staying until the end of June. He gave us the same old line. He told us that we needed to work it out with Karuna. He didn’t care how long we were here as long as it suited us (and by “us” he mostly meant Karuna). The discussion was very frustrating. We tried to talk to him about finding a new place and he treated us with condescending remarks. He told us that we couldn’t just wait for a new apartment to fall into our laps. I told him about all the research we’d done so far on the apartments. He treated us like we had no idea how to look for an apartment. I was getting sick of what he considered advice.

He left us and Adrienne and I felt like blowing off steam by walking. We walked north across the Seine into the Tuileries. We’d brought some old bread and fed the ducks. It was fun imagining that one of them could have been the one that I’d saved. After feeding the ducks, we walked around for a bit. We ended up walking out the exit that opens onto Place de la Concorde. There was a stand selling food there. I was hungry so I decided to buy myself some lunch there. I bought a hot dog. This is different from the hot dogs we Americans know and love. It was a foot long hot dog in a baguette with melted cheese on top. The baguette gives it that extra French touch. I had that for lunch as Adrienne and I walked back to the apartment.

It was sunny and hot out so I was hot and thirsty by the time we got home. I had to chug some water. I spent some time on my computer for a while. Today was Sunday so I was hoping that there would be trivia night at the Thistle. I got ready and took the metro to Etienne Marcel. I was a few minutes late and found Casey waiting for me outside the bar. None of the other Euromasters had shown up and the trivia had already started. I hadn’t eaten so Casey and I decided to go grab some dinner in the area.

We walked a few blocks and ended up in a restaurant called Le Pêcheur (the fisher). I had a very tasty salad with ham, tomato, and toast with hot goat cheese and honey on it. I had a glass of Muscadet wine with it. It was an interesting café. It had a very French café feel to it. It was dimly lit and decorated with random fishing items. Its clientele was mostly a few older men. They had a soccer game playing. It was between Marseilles and Bordeaux. The men there were really into it. I had a feeling that this game was one of the reasons that some of the people hadn’t come to trivia. Marseilles ended up winning against Bordeaux.

Casey and I had a pleasant enough dinner and then set off to head home. She took the metro back to her place and I took the metro back to mine. When I got home I wrote a postcard to Cari in French for her class. Here is what I wrote:

J’espère que tu vas bien. Moi, je vais très bien. Maintenant, je suis chez moi. Mon appartement est à côté du Musée d’Orsay. C’est dans le 7eme arrondissement.

Ce dessin est du Pont-Neuf. J’ai appris que le Pont Neuf est le plus vieux à Paris. C’est ironique parce que « pont-Neuf » veut dire « Pont nouveau »

Demain est ton anniversaire. Joyeux anniversaire ! Je vais célébrer avec des tacos et fajitas. Cette année, mon anniversaire est le 08/08/08 ! Tu as eu un anniversaire pareil le 05/05/05. Je veux avoir une grande fête chez moi. Qu’est-ce que tu vas faire pour ton anniversaire ?

Mes cours vont bien. Nous ne faisons pas beaucoup en ce moment. A la fin du mois les cours deviennent plus durs. Je dois bientôt commencer mes dossiers finaux.

Mais maintenant, il est mai à Paris. Il y a du soleil. Les fleurs sont arrivées. Il est très joli. Je vais m’en profiter. J’espère que tu vas bien. Dis-moi tes nouvelles.
Bisous de ta cousine,
Casey

After I finished writing it, I put it in the mail. It was on one of the pretty postcards that are pre-stamped for the US. I talked to my parents on Skype after that for a while and then talked to Tom on Skype as well. I went to bed around 3:30am.

May 3rd Saturday

After our late night, I didn’t get up until 2:00pm. I was quite shocked to see the time when I got up. I had some chocolate cereal for breakfast.

Adrienne and I discussed the apartment for a while. We talked about the possibility of moving out of our current one into the one that Karuna had shown us. We still weren’t completely sold on the new place but we may at least be interested.

For lunch I fortified myself with some vegetable soup. I watched X-Men episodes online. After lunch, Adrienne and I decided it was time to clean the apartment. We cleaned and waxed the floors as well as cleaned off the desk. After working up that sweat, I went and took a shower.

I talked to my parents on Skype after that. I still enjoy Skype even if the connection isn’t always top. For dinner I made a hamburger patty with cheese on top with some couscous. I accompanied my dinner with another healthy dose of X-Men. I started the Phoenix Saga.

Amanda was going out with some of the Euromasters. I decided to join her. I got ready and took the metro to Rambuteau. We were meeting at Tobias’ house. I’d forgotten my map so I took some time working out my confusion on the different streets. It can be disorienting to pop out of the metro sometimes. I finally made it to Tobias’ place. He came and showed me up. Amanda was happy to see me because it meant that she wasn’t the only girl any more. Aside from Tobias there were Ludo, Emeric, Luis, and Rohan. I was meeting Rohan for the first time. He was one of the Euromasters who was currently studying in Madrid. We hung out at Tobias’ place for a while. The party had already started a while before I got there. Eventually we finally got ready to go out and look for more fun. Tobias’ apartment was near the gay club district. Since three out of the five guys that I was with leaned in that direction it suited us fine. My odds weren’t as good as they appeared.

I liked walking around that district. Men weren’t bothering me because 1) I was surrounded by other people and 2) they just weren’t interested. We started out going to a small club. We made it into the door and into a sea of bodies. The club was sweltering and full of people. We got to press our way through a throng of scantily dressed men toward the bar. The crowd was too ridiculous though so we decided to leave. I was at the tail end of our line and got separated from the group. I had to push and fight my way out to my group of friends waiting on the sidewalk.

Our next club was just as empty as the last was full. We stayed long enough for some to use the toilets upstairs. The upstairs was short enough that Amanda could stand up while I had to crouch down. We left there and members of our group asked around to see where we should go. We finally ended up at a club that was almost next door to Tobias’ place. The man at the door eyed the seven of us before asking “Are all the guys here gay?” The people at the front said “Yes” so he let us in. As we went in, Emeric turned around slightly panicked saying “But I’m not gay! What will happen in there?” It was funny.

This club had an upstairs and downstairs. We went downstairs where it looked like a castle basement lit with colorful lights. The walls were made of large stones. The music was a little better here than in the straight clubs in Paris. Amanda and I had fun dancing while the guys either welcomed or ran away from the other men’s advances.

Eventually, we got tired and decided to head home. Amanda and I left together to go catch the Night bus. I rode with her for a while and got off at the Saint German des Près stop. I walked home from there. It was only about a 15 minute walk. I got home and went to bed around 5:45am.

May 2nd Friday

I got up at noon. I had some fruit cereal again with milk for breakfast. Adrienne was up and had been chatting with Amanda online. Amanda invited us to go out to the Bois de Boulogne later. I decided to go but Adrienne stayed home.

But before I could head out there, I had to get my package sent off. I finished my drawing and sealed the package for Maya. I went to the post office and was able to trade packages there. I sent off Maya’s package and picked mine up. My parents had sent me one. I opened it excitedly on my way home. It had my Prilosec stomach meds as well as some fun lip gloss.

I stopped by home and dropped off my package. Then I hopped on the metro and took it to the Boulogne Jean Jaurès stop. I went up to Amanda and Casey’s apartment. We had some bread and cheese as a snack. Amanda had opened her pink Reims cookies so we tried them in a delicious lemonade she had. The cookies are crispy and porous. When dipped in liquid, the cookies soak it up and become soft. It’s quite a fun snack. We talked for a little bit while we munched on Reims cookies.

After that the three of us walked toward the Bois de Boulogne (woods of Boulogne). It was late afternoon and we saw some of the local wildlife already out. By this of course I mean that we saw some of the prostitutes that stand along one of the main streets that cut through the woods. It took me a while at first and I was wondering why the women were going to the woods in stiletto heels and short shorts. Casey and I played “spot the condom” and counted them on the walk.

We walked through the woods until we came upon a park. We went inside and it was very different from the woods. This was a manicured park complete with lawns and flowers. The flowers and lawn were quite impressive. We were welcomed by some very friendly locals of the park. I’m not talking about prostitutes this time (though they dress just as flashy). The park had a large population of peacocks. We were able to take lots of pictures of the male peacocks as they spread their feathers for us. Some of the French people got very close to the birds.

We continued on our walk around the park. It was very large. There were even some small lakes and ponds complete with miniature waterfalls, fish and ducks. We even found some swans swimming merrily about in one of the ponds. The flowers were blooming and making it feel like spring had finally arrived. We left the small park to reach the Grande Cascade (big waterfall). This was a large manmade waterfall. We could walk behind it and climb on top of it. The water smelled like swampy plants and made me think of the creek behind my middle school.

We started walking back out of the bois. We took a different path this time and passed the Hippodrome which is the horse racetrack. I didn’t realize they had the horses run on grass. It seemed like the track would be made of dirt.

We also passed a man on horseback riding through the trails of the bois. Amanda was trying desperately to get a picture of him. He obligingly saw this and slowed down for her. What a nice guy. Our very long walk finally ended when we reached the small outdoor café at the entrance to the woods. There was a small building that sold drinks and treats. We couldn’t resist the ice cream. I had two scoops: one coconut and one lime. It was quite delicious. We sat in the plastic chairs to eat and rest.

When we had the energy to walk again, we got up and headed back toward the apartment. We stopped by some stores on the way to pick up dinner. We stopped in Picard which is a frozen food store. The freezer in the apartment is quite small so we had to pick something that needed to be thawed anyway. We picked a box of éclairs.

Our next stop was at Franprix, the grocery store. We got ingredients for dinner. I bought a few boxes of soup since the choices here looked different from those near my place. We took our groceries back to the apartment. For dinner, we made parmesan chicken. Amanda knew how to bread the chicken with parmesan and bread crumbs. We ate it with noodles and tomatoes. It was quite delicious. For dessert we had some éclairs. They were quite small. The middle tasted like ice cream because they were still a little bit cold and frozen in the middle. We also had some pain au chocolat that were ready to be baked. We cooked them in the small toaster oven. The hot crispy dessert was delicious.

After dinner, Amanda showed me some pictures online. We looked at some wedding pictures of one of her friends. We talked for a while. Eventually, I had to catch the last metro to get home.

I got on the line 10 and took it to Sevres Babylone. There, I tried to transfer to line 12 to take it the few stops to Solférino. As I walked toward the transfer, I saw two men walking toward me. They started waving their hands at me and telling me to go back. They said I couldn’t go that way and that I had to turn around. I thought that they were just two random men telling me to go with them. As they walked up to me they showed me their ID cards that showed that they worked with the RATP metro system. They weren’t wearing any uniforms or anything that looked official. But the IDs looked real so I believed them. I’d missed the last line 12 metro. I walked toward the open exit with the two men. They couldn’t understand why I hadn’t listened to them. They asked me if I was French. I kind of laughed and said no. They then tried to guess where I was from. They guessed a lot of places but didn’t think of the US. I told them where I was from. They said “Ah, well she’s not a native French speaker. That’s why she didn’t hear us.” I thought to myself, “No, I’m a single woman alone at almost 2am who has two men telling her to go with them. That’s why I didn’t listen.” At least these men turned out to be nice.

They saw me on my way and I was able to safely walk home. I was still a little shaky from thinking I was about to be jumped by two guys. I arrived home and told Adrienne about the event. We talked for a bit. I called my parents and talked to them for a little while on the phone. After I hung up, Adrienne and I talked again late into the night until we went to bed around 5:45am.

May 1st Thursday

Today was a holiday in France! It was labor day. It’s a jour férié so that means that the stores are all closed. Traditionally, people buy muguets (Lily of the Valley) and give them to people as a symbol of springtime and friendship.

At 10:00am a woman called Adrienne in response to an email she sent showing interest in an apartment. She scheduled a meeting with us for the afternoon. I fell back to sleep until around 12:30 or 1:00pm. I got up and showered. I had my fruit granola cereal with milk for breakfast. I got ready and we took the metro to Montmartre.

We were at the Anvers metro stop a bit early so we looked around for a bit. We met the woman and she showed us where the apartment was. It was a very nice apartment. It reminded me of some of the small apartments in the mountains in Colorado. It had a kind of homey feel to it. The bedroom window even had a view of Sacré Coeur. Unfortunately, the price matched the greatness. It would be €1200 a month. That was definitely out of our price range. We thanked the woman for showing it to us and said we’d let her know if we wanted it.

We walked around because we hadn’t been to Montmartre that much before. Adrienne spotted a flower shop and wanted to stop and get some muguets to give our landlord M. Choupin. The woman made them into a very nice presentation in a little box with moss and everything. It was quite pretty.

After that, we continued to walk around. I was starting to get really hungry and the only restaurants we could seem to find for lunch were the expensive tourist places. We settled on an open café a bit off the main road. It was 4:00pm at this point. Pretty late for lunch. I ended up getting the €12.50 menu with tomato soup and a plate of lamb in a tomato sauce with potatoes. It wasn’t great but it kept me from dying of hunger.

We finished lunch and got on the metro to head home. Adrienne got off at Solférino and I continued onto the Rue du Bac stop. I needed to go by the bank. I walked to BNP and withdrew the rent money. I was craving a crêpe so I walked across the street and bought one with nutella from the usual stand. The man working there was the same man who flirted with me on the night that Heidi and I rescued Alberto. Luckily, it was busy and he didn’t seem to recognize me until the last minute.

I walked home and on the way saw many tables set up with people selling muguets. It looked like there were a bunch of lemonade stands everywhere. It looked out of the ordinary.

I got back home and watched some X-Men episodes online. I got to talk to my parents on Skype after that. I finished the evening by drawing a picture and writing a letter to be sent in a package to my friend Maya for her birthday. I went to bed around 3:00am.

April 30th Wednesday

Today, I had a trip with Adrienne and Amanda scheduled. We were going to Reims, France in the Champagne region. We had an early train so I got up at 6:00am and had some of my fruit granola cereal mixed with yogurt. I got ready and finished collecting my things. Adrienne and I left the apartment at 7:00am. Karuna was still sleeping. She had a flight to the states later in the morning the same day.

Adrienne and I took the metro to Gare de l’Est where we met Amanda. We were all very excited to be going on our trip together. We got on the train and it left at 7:57am. We headed off to Reims through the French countryside. It was fun watching the passing trees and fields. It’s always surprising to see how fast you can leave the Parisian buildings behind. We had a fun conversation with Amanda. The ride was only an hour long and it went by very quickly. Amanda said that she realized it took her the same amount of time to cross Paris on the metro as it would for us to take the train from Paris to Reims.

We arrived in Reims around 9:00am. Amanda had done a lot of research for the trip and had some great suggestions. She even made some reservations for us! We made our way from the train station to the tourism office. We got some maps and asked them questions about the town. It was quite cold and gray there. The wind was blowing severely. I didn’t want to stay outside for long.

Next to the tourism office was the famous cathedral of Reims called Notre Dame de Reims. The outside had some pretty impressive carvings but it was a bit too cold to admire them at the moment. We went inside. The inside of the cathedral was huge. It was very tall and long. It was also very dark. It gave it a kind of older and mysterious feel. The stained glass above the entrance was impressive. Reims’ cathedral was known for its stained glass windows made with a dark blue color typical of the Reims area. Sadly, many of the windows were damaged in wars throughout history and they needed to be replaced. The replacements were actually made with some of the original blue fragments of the old windows. Some of the walls still had marks from all the blasts.

The redone windows on the sides and in the back were more modern and equally impressive. The rear windows were a dark blue and had a flowing design of figures from the bible. It looked a bit like a dark watercolor. With all the blues and greens the Virgin Mary looked kind of like a mermaid to me.

In another corner there was a statue of Jeanne d’Arc. I was pretty excited to see it. It was painted with neat designs and colors. There were other interesting stone statues in the cathedral as well.

We finished looking at the cathedral and made our way out the front again. We walked to the Basilique de Saint Rémi which was nearby. On the way we got to see pink cherry blossoms falling from the trees. I was wishing that some of my high school group was there so that we could make jokes about anime.

We got to the basilica and went inside. This was very different from the cathedral. It looked much brighter. It was probably a combination of better lighting and different building materials. I also discovered that the roof stones were very recent. The entire roof had been blown away in the bombardment in 1918. They had some impressive yet depressing photos of the devastation.

I liked the design of it. It had a much brighter and closer feel. There were also some modern stained glass windows here. We took our time walking around and looking at everything. It really was much brighter here than the dark cathedral.

After we’d finished looking at the basilica, we walked around the town. There were some streets that had very different styles of architecture all crammed together. It’s one thing to have two houses sitting next to one another that look very different. It’s another thing when it all forms one wall on the front.

We also passed through the Gallo-Roman doors to the city. They were just stone remnants of the gateway built in Gallo-Roman times but it showed how much history existed in this city. People walked right by these things every day and find it normal and quotidian. And we think our high school buildings are old.

While walking along we came upon a large pink building. As we went around the front, we realized that it was the Marché du Vins that we’d read about. We would be visiting champagne houses later and this was a place where we could buy bottles cheaper than on the estate. We peeked in and looked around. We asked when they were closing deciding that it was better to come back later so that we didn’t have to carry around the bottles.

It was getting to be lunch time. We passed the Hôtel de Ville on our way to the restaurant. The Hôtel de Ville was done up with French flags hanging out front.

Lunch was at a restaurant called Le Boulingrin. Amanda had made a reservation for us. It had a really fun interior. It was fairly large and had white tablecloths on all the tables. There were big scenes painted on the walls. Amanda and I decided to get the Brasserie menu for €18. It actually turned out to be a really good deal. It came with a first course, main course, dessert, wine, and coffee. Our waiter was quite funny. When we realized how much came with the menu he said “It’s magnificent isn’t it? But not as magnificent as these ladies in front of me of course.” We all kind of laughed. He continued to look over and flirt with us various times throughout the meal. French waiters are the only ones that I can put up with flirting with me because they always do it in a classy way.

Since Amanda and I both ordered the menu, we both got wine with it. We agreed on red and they brought out a full carafe. This led to over 2 glasses between the two of us (Adrienne doesn’t drink). That was quite a powerful drink for lunch. For my first dish I had œufs meurettes. This was actually a piece of toast with poached eggs on top with bacon and mushrooms. It had a brown sauce spooned over the top. It tasted amazing. There were so many flavors in that sauce.

For my main dish, I ordered the filet de tacaud, sauce champagne. This turned out to be a white fish on top of a bed of green beans and covered in a white champagne sauce. I was actually able to taste the champagne in the sauce. It was a very light flavor that went well with the fish.

My dessert was a plate called œuf à la neige. I’ve also seen this called île flottante (floating island). It basically consists of a light fluffy egg white meringue with a crème anglaise sauce. It also usually has toasted almonds on top. The dish is extraordinary. It’s light and cool and perfect for a spring treat. Adrienne is a chocolate addict so she ordered a chocolate mousse that turned out to be extremely rich. Amanda’s dessert choice was the cheese plate.

We finished off our meals with a cup of coffee. We sadly had to rush them because we had a tour at a champagne house scheduled after lunch that we might be late to. Our coffees also came with little caramels. I greatly enjoyed my lunch at the restaurant.

Our next stop was at the Pommery champagne house. It was all the way across Reims and we had to make a bit of a run for it. I must admit that after the two healthy glasses of wine with lunch I wasn’t feeling up to running. It had also started to sprinkle a little bit and the air had become quite humid.

Finally we arrived at a gate that had Pommery written on it in golden letters. We walked up the expanse of a large lawn toward a sprawling building that looked like a modern imitation of a castle. We were rushing to try to get to the tour that Amanda had tried to reserve for us. When we arrived I was sweating and red in the face. It was a nice looking building so I felt like a bit of a bum showing up in such a state. It turned out that we’d missed the French guided tour. We’d have to wait and take the English tour next. Thank goodness we can speak both languages eh? I paid 10€ for my tour. We would have a guided tour followed by a champagne tasting. The price varied based on what kind of champagne you wanted to taste at the end. I went with the “tradition” option.

We went and sat down in a little waiting area in a room the size of a small warehouse. We noticed one reason for this was that there was a two story tall wooden wine keg set into one wall. It had wooden sculptures on the front. Eventually, our tour guide, Benjamine, came to look for us. He was a funny sort of man who was shorter and wearing a suit jacket over long pants and sneakers. He also had a scarf to go with it.

Benjamine led us down a very long flight of stairs into the wine caves below. As we went along, we learned that the Pommery champagne was named after the widow Pommery. After her husband died, she took over and made the champagne successful.

The different underground chambers were actually pits dug into the ground. They had a wide base and got narrow near the top like a pyramid. This was because the Romans had originally created these as chalk quarries. They used the chalk as building materials among other things. Madame Pommery found these and decided it was a good place to age the champagne. She had them dig out tunnels connecting all the pits. The chalk made the atmosphere more favorable to keeping the bottles.

As we continued through the tunnels, we saw many dark bottles stacked along the wall and covered in dust. We also saw names of cities on the walls in certain nooks with bottles stacked as tall as I am. It was a tradition that the Pommery widow had created. She had started tours of the caves with candles and torches. She had put the names of where they ship to on the walls. All the guests were excited to see their city’s name on the wall. I took some pictures of different names that struck me like Munich, Berne, and Kyoto.

As we walked through the tunnels, our guide told us about champagne in general and how it’s made. He showed us different sizes of bottles. The largest, of course, was the magnum. The bottles were arranged in a shelf that had their corks pointing at the floor. They had developed a way to get the yeast out over the years. They used to just leave it in, hence the tall skinny glasses.

Our tour also included some interesting art. The piece that was most memorable was entitled Phantome. It resembled a man hanging upside down made of shiny silver material. There were also glass pieces that, through internal lighting, projected images and words onto the floor and walls. It was really interesting and quite creepy.

After the tour, we all emerged back into the large room/entryway. The end of our tour came with a tasting. Amanda had sprung for the more expensive glass. I stuck with the cheaper champagne under the “tradition” category. This meant that we got to try both of them. I could taste a distinct difference between the two types. They were both very light but the flavor was drier on the better quality one. I preferred the cheaper kind. Adrienne can’t drink alcohol so she gave her glass to Amanda and me to split. We definitely didn’t complain.

Adrienne was a sweetheart and bought one of the bottles of the Pommery champagne. She wanted to give it to my parents as a gift. I felt it was way too much money for her to spend but she insisted.

We left the Pommery place and had to hurry to Veuve Cliquot. We hurried in and paid for our tour which was €8.50. The tour had already started as we joined it in the next room. This tour was in French. We had a woman tour guide this time. She was in the middle of explaining the history of the family and people who started the company. Much like the other champagne house, this was started by a man who had then died and left it to his young spouse. Veuve Cliquot (Widow Cliquot) was a rough businesswoman who wanted nothing less than the best. They showed us a picture of her and she looked like she’d led a life full of running a business. She and her husband had been able to conceive a child before his death so she had a daughter. Veuve Cliquot wanted to protect her child from the difficulties in her life which, they say, made it impossible to hand the business over to her. She wasn’t able to survive in the business world.

The Veuve Cliquot champagne has a very distinct color as its theme. Its labels are a rich golden yellow. The color was present everywhere. It was even present in our tour guide’s voluminous yellow scarf which looked like it may have been a mile long. She finished telling us about the widow and continued with where the grapes were collected and other information. This tour felt much more modern. We headed outside so that we could go down into the caves like we had in the other place. But Amanda was stopped by the man at the cash register. Apparently he’d accidentally charged her the wrong price and needed to charge her the rest of the ticket. He had to do it on her credit card and those take a very long time to go through. I had to get the tour guide to wait for her.

The tour was mostly the same. Our guide explained to us how the champagne was made and showed us bottles in different stages. After our trip through the caves we went up into the very stylish bar where we’d get our tasting. Our guide even showed us how to open a bottle of champagne. With one hand, place your thumb on the top of the cork and wrap your hand around the cork and top of bottle. Place your other hand on the bottom of the bottle and use it to twist the bottle while maintaining a firm grip on the cork with the other. It should ease the cork out with the satisfying pop. She poured our glasses and we toasted and drank them. Once again, Adrienne gave Amanda and me her glass to split.

We were the last ones in the gift shop. I was intrigued by the champagne carrying cases that they had. Everything was the same yellow color as the labels on the bottles. We looked around and headed out. I didn’t realize how late it was. They had to unlock the gate for us to leave. We had had a wonderful time in both tours and now headed back into town.

We rushed again because Amanda had read about a bakery in Reims that makes famous pink biscuits. It was getting late and we didn’t want to risk it closing. The woman was just closing up as we arrived. Amanda asked her very sweetly if it would be possible for her to keep the shop open just a bit longer so that we could buy the cookies. The lady hesitated but because Amanda was so nice, she agreed and let us in. She was very nice to us. We ended up buying bags of the pink biscuits. They’ve been a tradition in France since the kings. They used to dip the cookies in champagne.

We thanked the lady and continued onto another chocolate store we saw down the road. There, we bought a few pieces of chocolate. I had one with cinnamon in it and a piece of marzipan.

Our next stop on our whirlwind tour was the Marché du Vin. This was the large store that sold bottles of wine and champagne for cheaper than on the properties. We arrived an hour or so before closing. I ended up buying a bottle of the Veuve Cliquot carte jaune. It was around €40 but I thought it was worth it to share real champagne with my parents. Adrienne bought a bottle of Veuve Cliquot riche (a vintage year).

Happily laden with our bottles of champagne, we walked toward the commerce and downtown area of Reims. Here, it began to look less traditional and more modern. We came up to a big square with lots of restaurants. I was hungry and wanted to get something to eat on the train ride back. I ended up buying a pizza sandwich with chorizo, and ham. I had an orange Fanta to accompany it. Amanda and Adrienne also bought some food.

We made our way back to the train station. We found our train and boarded. The train was packed. We got to our seats and found a family with a young child sitting there. It felt wrong to displace them, but we really wanted to sit and the seats were assigned to us. We did get to sit down and as the train started across the fields surrounding Reims, we tucked into our sandwiches. We were kind of silly on the train. It could be a lasting effect of how much we drank in Reims. The ride felt very fast. I was sort of sad when we arrived in Paris, wishing the ride had been longer. We’d arrived in Paris in the late evening.

Adrienne and I said goodbye to Amanda and took the metro to the RER C. We took that home to our apartment.

Once home, we were able to put down all of our belongings and I called my dad on Skype. I talked to him for a while. I ended up going to bed around 2:30am.