un automatisme psychique

It's been an incredibly busy past few weeks, with lots and lots of classes and then lots of fun on the weekends. I'm currently on winter break from work, so that has been superb, except for the fact that I ended up with a winter bug that prevented me from being any kind of productive on the days I was off. But I'm getting to work now, I have 4 papers due over the course of March, so I've got my work cut out for me...

I guess I will start with last Saturday, when I went to Versailles with Margaux. She's in my Vikings class and she's actually American, but French American (her Mom's French and her Dad's American) and she grew up in France, so she's much more French than American. Anyway she's doing a double major in history and literature (double majors are really uncommon here) and she really likes 17th century French history, so she was a great person to go to Versailles with! She knows a lot about it and its history, so it was really an interesting and I think useful visit (one of the papers I'm turning in is about Versailles, which was why I wanted to go see it in the first place). We walked around the gardens first for a long time, then went up to the Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon (where Marie Antoinette spent a lot of her time), and then we did the castle, which to be honest isn't that huge but there's so much stuff everywhere that it's overwhelming anyway. There was actually an exhibit going on about when the castle was furnished in silver, and they had all this wild silver furniture everywhere...but because of that the rooms were all dark and it was kind of hard to see some of the other art that was there. Plus there were a million people, mostly large groups of tourists. But it was cool to see how intensely ornate the place is...it's incredible. Though to be honest the Grand Trianon was my favorite part because the rooms there are in so many excellent colors and the furniture is really just awesome. It was a little less staged than the rest of the castle, I guess. Plus there were fewer people...always a plus! Anyway, after that, we went to walk around the town for a while and to get some cakes, which were delicious, but it took us forever to find a place to sit so we really saw the entire town. There's not actually much exciting there outside of the small downtown section near the castle, which is quite nice. Otherwise, there are lots and lots of houses....! Overall it was lots of fun as well as being educational (thank you Margaux!) and I think it'll give me a better jumping off point for the paper I have to write. I hope, anyway...

The next fun thing that happened was on Thursday (well, I saw Anne and Greg on Wednesday and we went out, that was fun, but not as exciting as the next bit...) when I went to the Caves for the Medieval party. It's this bar that's really like caves (ok, it was a little claustrophobic...) with wooden tables and lit with candles and everything. You had to wear a costume, so I got to dress up and stuff, though most people had real Medieval style costumes, which is really cool. They have dancing, but I couldn't really follow it because they do a class before the party and I couldn't go because I had regular class, so I didn't get to dance. But it was still really fun to watch and the music was really cool. I also drank some wine with blueberry and this weird rhubarb juice that was actually delicious! It was fun because there were a bunch of people that I knew from class there as well as some other people from school so it was a good time. Plus I got a ride home at the end, though it's honestly about a 20 minute walk from me (except that I got lost on the way there...how embarassing!). Hopefully next time they go I will be able to go again!

On Friday I had Finnish, which was great, of course, and then I saw Anne and we went to this great little cafe next to where I have Finnish. They have all kinds of teas and coffees and it's really cheap! Then afterward I saw Alex Stegmaier, who I went to Finland with almost 5 years ago (!) and who I saw like twice in DC last year (he's at GW) and who was in Paris this weekend (he's studying abroad in Germany)!!!! We met up at the Eiffel Tower and he and his friends took pictures there for a really long time, and then we got some food at this good panini stand I knew (it's in Cecile's old neighborhood!) and then we all split off for a while. I met back up with them in the evening, we were going to go out around Bastille but it was too expensive for them, so we ended up just buying a bunch of wine and drinking it in my room...there were 12 people in my room or so, so it was pretty ridiculous. Alex's friends are really nice, though, and Alex is still totally crazy, so it was great. Some of the kids decided to go to the salsa party next door later, but some of the other ones didn't want to, so we went back out to Bastille, but the bars were all closing, so they just ended up going back to their hotel. Needless to say I went straight to bed after that...it was a bit later than I was planning but it was a really enjoyable night!

Saturday was another busy day, I did a bunch of work in the morning and then went to the Louvre with some people from school. There's this special exhibition of statues you can touch, it's a special thing for blind people or for people who don't see well, so they were taking their friend who's 'malvoyant' to see that. Unfortunately it was not really that exciting, it was really small and there was not that much to touch. So we ended up just walking around and trying to see other stuff, but we didn't actually find much of what we were looking for. But it was still fun, the people were all really nice (I only actually knew one girl) and I got my 'art history student' permanent card so I can always get in for free at the Louvre!

Saturday night, Margaux had a party at her place, which is out near Creteil...it was fun for a while, the people were really nice and everything, but I didn't know anyone so of course it was hard to just start talking with people. There were a bunch of Erasmus students there for a while but after they left I felt so awkward and I was really tired, so I ended up going to bed pretty early (luckily some other people went to bed before me, so I didn't look like a jerk!) and leaving early this morning so I could get back and get to work. Not necessarily the best start to the week but I'm sure I'll be fine by Wednesday!!!!!

Only three more days till Mom gets here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, I added some new pictures to the Bonne Annee album on Facebook!