She wasn't serious, she was just Canadian!

Apologies for not having posted anything in so long. I guess I didn't really think anyone would want to read a play-by-play of what I've been studying. Basically since I got back, I've just been working on preparing for exams, going to my last classes, and registering in Creteil.

Well, I have been to each class twice so far in Creteil, and I like them all. I'm taking Geography of France, which has a lecture class and a smaller class where we do more student work, State and Society in France in the 17th century, Scandinavian society at the end of the Middle Ages (also known as the Vikings class), and Europe in the 1920s. I'm also continuing with the second half of History of Rock (I had that exam last week, I did well!) and Finnish, which started today - they changed the hour without telling me! So it's a pretty full schedule and the workload will be significantly larger than last semester, but hopefully it'll go well! I'm hoping that will work to my advantage.

Work is about the same, I'm working with a lot of 3e groups preparing for their final exam at the end of the year. I think they will do well, they already seemed pretty well prepared. They have plenty of time, but I guess it's a pretty big deal, so the professors are already putting pressure on them (and me, I get to work an extra hour each day with a group I otherwise wouldn't see!) but I think they'll do okay.

Last weekend was wonderful, I took a huge break, it was amazing! well, Friday was still pretty busy, I went to see Anne (who made the subject line comment talking about how impossible it is for French people to take anything Canadian seriously...they are worse than Americans toward Canada, I swear!) and then got my first exam back and then saw Anne again for dinner at night. She made me quenelles, which are a specialty from Lyon, they were weird but yummy! We also watched some videos from her rhythmic competition that was the weekend I got back - it was the French championship and she got third! She really did well. It was cool to see the videos again.

On Saturday I hung out in the morning and then took a bike ride to the Musee d'Orsay, which was just phenomenal. I didn't see the whole thing because it's way too huge, but it was just awesome. Of course I saw the impressionists, it was so, so amazing to see their stuff in real life. It's so much more beautiful than in any picture. And there weren't too many people there, which was nice. I also saw an exhibit about Art Nouveau which was just phenomenal, it was full rooms made of wood with the most incredible furniture and glasswork in a really neat style. I also went to the temporary exhibit of Hodler, which was interesting but not entirely amazing. Some of the stuff was great, others I wasn't really interested in. I saw all the Rodin and Claudel sculptures, and then I saw a few other paintings. The Courbet room is closed until like 2016, or something terribly far away like that, which I am incredibly bummed out about. At least I saw everything else!

After that I went to the Musee Maillol (he was a sculptor, he sculpted the same naked women with different fruit or crowns or flowers...not the most amazing art I've ever seen in the sense of variety...oh well) for an exhibition about Germany in World War I. It was the last weekend, so there were about a thousand people, but it was really a fantastic exhibit. Not any fun, just depressing, but really neat art and incredible perspective.

Then I went back on my bike for dinner and then I (gasp) went to a party! Before I left, I met this really nice German guy named Christoph, who is a friend of Tytti's, who invited me over for this party. There were all German and Italian kids there, they were SO nice and really interesting - some of them had been there for a while and some had just arrived, so there was a cool mix. I had so much fun that I stayed until 5:30 in the morning and got the first metro back with Francesco and Fabrizio, two of the Italian guys. And then there was an accident on the line we were on so we had to take another one! It was weird...and I was really tired! But I saw Anne at noon anyway for a falafel, she thought it was hilarious that I had been out all night. We went in the Marais for falafel, there are a million places but the one we went to was definitely excellent.

This week was great, I started talking to some of the kids in my classes and they are really nice. In one part of my Vikings class there is a really nice girl who's American, or at least her father is, and we have a ton in common, she's great ! It's cool to actually talk to the kids in my class! On Thursday I had History of Rock, I started talking to one of the girls there too! Also, the professor pointed me out in the middle of class when a kid asked about what the songs meant and said that I was 'anglophone' ... then I turned totally red. At least I kicked that exam's butt. :-)

I've discovered how amazing Paris is by bike. It's been so much fun riding all over the place (though I did get completely turned around on my way to Finnish, I missed the bridge I was supposed to cross somehow!) and seeing Paris from a different perspective. The traffic is amazing, the number of almost accidents I have seen (not with me!) is unreal, today I almost saw a bus plow over a car but the driver stopped with centimeters to spare. Moving at the speed of a bike and paying attention to a totally different set of surroundings has been a really fun experience. The Velib system is great, I only had a crappy bike one time, but otherwise they are not bad! Though when I get home my bike is going to feel as light as a feather...

This weekend will be a little less exciting, I'm going to one of Anne's competitions on Sunday - she's doing a team ! and then I am seeing some other people at some point. I promise I'll post more often from now on!