This week, we were each challenged by our professor to take buses around the city instead of just the metro.
I would like to say that I love this challenge.
It makes me happy inside.
The metro is fun, but it gets old. Sometimes it is hot, and smelly, and squishy, and not all that pleasant. But only sometimes.
The bus is great because you can sit and look o u t s i d e. My professor and I were talking and he was saying, "Anyone can know the metro. That's not much of an accomplishment. But to know the city...now that's what we should all aim for."
So I took him up on it.
Today I am spending the day writing papers. Exciting, no? For my art history class. (It's actually very exciting. Yesterday I spent about an hour in the Louvre, looking at the pieces I am using in my paper IN REAL LIFE. Who does that?!). So...I wasn't being sarcastic about the paper being exciting.
Anyway. I'm writing this paper. And I decided that I didn't want to just sit in my house to write it. So I got up, skyped with my daddy for about an hour, and then I packed up my things and got on a bus to go to Dr H's apartment. His wife and I are both doing work together.
But when I went to get on the bus...turns out I had missed it by 2 minutes.
And I said, "Zut," a French phrase which here means, "Darn."
So what was I supposed to do while I waited 10 minutes for the next bus?
Find a good pastry shop. Duh.
So I found one. And I was quite pleased.
Enjoy the attached photo of me, eating my pastry properly :)
This week has been fantastic!!
Last Friday, I volunteered at the American Church of Paris where a few friends and I were able to serve lunch to the homeless. It was such a neat experience. A lot of times, I am wary of the homeless here. There are the people who beg for money, check their watches, and take a coffee break at McDonald's (which is much more high class here than in the states). Then there are the people who are genuinely hungry. Who genuinely are in need of help. They pull at my heart strings. Like the little old man who sits in the metro station and tries to sell worn out maps of Paris. And he always has a bow-tie on, but you can just tell that he needs help. So when I was given the opportunity to serve this lunch, I jumped on it. It was such an amazing opportunity to work with good people and give back to people who really truly need it. The lunch was a three course meal. None of that lunch-line-slop, this food was prepared by chefs who went to culinary school. With a cheese course and a salad and dessert and coffee. It was really wonderful. And so many people thanked us. There was one man, who when my friend Sage tried to clear his paper napkin, said, "Oh, I'd like to keep that. I need to shine my shoes later." It just got to us. I'm definitely going back.
On Saturday night, it was La Nuit Blanche, which is the annual all-night art festival! It was super cool. People were out all night long, and there were art exhibits at most of the major museums and monuments around Paris. I LOVED it. We didn't see many of the art exhibits (bad planning on our part, we didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into), but I loved seeing Paris alive at night. I'll be posting more about that on my other blog, if you'd like to read about it it more detail!
The rest of the week has been fairly low-key...just a lot of prep for mid-terms! Whoo! Sometimes I forget that I'm here for school. Oops. But it's okay, the classes are designed to let me do that every once in a while :)
Love you all, hope you're doing well! Chloe, give my love to the valley. I miss the fall colors. Every single day. Sasha, will you go to a mass at la Basilisque Notre Dame La Fourviere? I miss that place, too.
xoxo,
Syd
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