So yeah the month of November came and went.

Seeing as I am so far behind I am going to do my best to catch you up on my life before 2012!  When I was first looking back on the month of November it looked like I didn’t do too much and as if my life just consisted of going to school, bénévolat, and other stuff.  But now when I really look at it there was some really cool stuff that I saw and did.  I guess what I am trying to say is that everyone has this idea that studying abroad is all fun all the time and I did too before I arrived here in France but it is still regular life just in a different country, culture, and language…so it is also filled with regular things like going to school, doing homework, going grocery shopping, etc.  So I am going to give you an overview of the month of November because telling every little thing that happened can get rather dull but here are the highlights before going off to Nice.

Vendredi le 4 novembre:

Today I walked around le Jardin de Luxembourg because I had some time to kill before my meeting with Shelley and I came across a pétanque court (which is bocce) and I watched these old men playing (well it was a majority of old men) for about an hour.  It was rather fun to watch because they were getting really serious about it and were pulling out a tape measure and whatnot!  I then had my meeting and afterwards I went to the Rodin Museum with some other people in the program.  It was interesting, unfortunately I didn’t get to go into the gardens because that part was already closed.

Samedi le 5 novembre:

Today I went to Musée Marmottan, which has a lot of Monet paintings and other artists.  It was really cool because they have some Monet paintings there that I think are less well known and so it was cool just seeing more of his artwork.  I went with Kacey and we had a nice time just wandering around the museum.  I also got to Facetime with my family and it was so good to see all their faces!  I miss them but am glad that I am here no matter how difficult it is.

Dimanche le 6 novembre:

Well today I went to the American Church in Paris and really enjoyed it!  It was really nice to feel at home there and I met some really nice girls that are also studying in Paris this semester.  I then went home and just hung out.

Lundi le 7 novembre:

So today I told Shelley that I don’t want to do an internship in the spring.  If I did do one I have no idea where I would want to do it and would then have to spend three days of the week in an office and the other two in classes.  I had decided long before coming to Paris that this year would be my “year of fun” since the past two years I took full loads at school so I could easily study here for the year and still graduate on time and well that doesn’t really sound like fun to me so yeah no internship.  I am not sure yet if I will regret my decision but what is done is done so there is no reason thinking about what could have been.  I also went to go see a play today with my program.  We went to la Comédie Française and saw Andromaque.  Well, I did not enjoy it one bit.  I had no clue what they were talking about because it was like the equivalent of Elizabethan in English but in French and it rhymed and there was no action it was all talking.  So it was really really hard to stay awake towards the end of the play.

Mardi le 8 novembre:

So today was a long day!  I had left my foyer at 8:30am and didn’t get home until 10:30pm.  I had school like usual.  I then went to my bénévolat, that went fine.  I then went to ACP (American Church in Paris) to go to the young adults Bible Study and I was super late because it starts when I am in my bénévolat and is on the other side of the city so it takes a while to get there.  I could not sneak in because there is this squeaky metal spiral stair case that one has to walk down to get into the room and so yeah.  I did enjoy it though even though I was late.  Afterwards I went out to a café with two girls that I had met at church previously.  There are really nice and we had a nice chat.  I finally went home and had a sandwich at like 10:30pm since I was starving and hadn’t eaten since noon.

Vendredi le 11 novembre:

Happy Armistice Day!  Today was a holiday in France so there were no classes but that didn’t affect me because I don’t have classes on Fridays anyways.  I did get to hang out with Fabrice though.  We went to the movie theater and saw “Intouchables.”  It was a really good movie and was a really big hit here in France.  It is kind of like “The Blind Side” but not really.  The only thing that is similar is in seeing the difference between the social classes.  But it was really good nonetheless!  I was also really glad that I had Fabrice there to explain to me the culture references in the movie that everyone else in the movie theater was laughing at.  Also there was a lot of slang that was difficult to understand at times but I could figure out what was going on when I couldn’t understand what they were saying.  We then went to a restaurant called Paradis du Fruit for lunch and I had a really good salad and orange juice.  We then headed over to BHV which is a big store with all kinds of stuff and that was fun to explore.  We then said goodbye and so I went home and did homework.

Samedi le 12 novembre:

Well today I did some shopping around Hôtel de Ville and that was nice.  I picked up some stuff.  It was also such a nice day and I did not want to go back to my foyer so I just explored around that area.  I came across this cool little park area and a paper store that Janine would just love.  I did go into a beautiful cathedral not too far from Centre Pompidou (which I have yet to go into to).  I eventually headed back to my foyer and just hung out around there.

Dimanche le 13 novembre:

I went to ACP and that was really nice.  I met a girl named Lena who is really cool.  I also ran into the two girls that I normally talk with and we decided to go for a walk after church since it was nice out and stopped at a Starbucks (which yes, they do exist here in France).  I got a muffin, it was alright.  We walked around some more and then I partially walked home but got tired so I jumped onto the metro.