Well it is December

Well it is now Decembre and that means that this semester is coming to an end and a majority of the students from the Central program will be going back home for the holidays and to attend their respective universities in the spring.  There are only a handful of us who are staying for the year and I am very glad that I am one of these lucky few because I still have so much to learn and discover and a semester is not a sufficient amount of time to do such things.  I came into this with certain expectations and well let’s just say that studying abroad is a lot different than what I dreamed it up to be.  I still love it though and am so thankful for such an opportunity and for a family that understands that this is what I need to do for well me.  I know of a person on the program whose family just couldn’t understand why anyone would ever want to go abroad and study.  Studying abroad is a lot different than vacationing abroad but it is an amazing experience in and of itself.  Well now that I have gotten that sentimental stuff out of the way I guess I can move onto more interesting things that include pictures.  So here is some of the stuff that I did in the beginning of Decembre.

Lundi le 5 décembre:

I got up and worked on my project for Tuesday.  I went to the CROUs for lunch like usual and sat with two random people, this French guy and a Chinese girl.  We started up a conversation and they were really cool.  I went to Shelley’s class like usual and she had us fill out a worksheet (it was mostly for the students that would be returning to the States but us year longers filled it out too).  It was questions like “how have you changed?” and my response was “that is a very good question, I have no clue.”  To say the least I guess I need to stay another semester. Lol.  I then went home and worked on my project for tomorrow and then met up Meredith later in the evening at La Grande Epicerie for getting food to share with the class for our presentation.  We then headed over to La Vigie, where Amanda lives, and worked on some stuff.  Then Meredith and I headed to our respective foyers and well I worked on the presentation some more and went to bed rather late.  Let’s just say I didn’t get much sleep that night.

Mardi le 6 décembre:

Despite the fact that I went to bed rather late I got up super early and worked on the project some more.  I then ran off to the Catho and went to class and got the presentation done and over with!  The professor said we did a good job and got an 18 out of 20!  That is an awesome grade and nearly impossible to get!  Some other groups presented and I got to try horse sausage, no joke.  It wasn’t that bad but not something I would ever be craving or wanting to eat ever again.  I can now say I have tried horse sausage and yeah, that is about all I can say about it.  So that night our program went to the ballet and saw Céndrillon (which is Cinderella) and I thought it would be a “normal” Cinderella and boy was I wrong!  There was King Kong in it and burlesque dancers and I don’t know, it was weird, and then Prince Charming was searching for her in China and Spain and I don’t know it was not a normal Cinderella.  I can now say I’ve seen “Cinderella” in Paris but not a normal one.

Mercredi le 7 décembre:

Today there was a Christmas apéritif at the foyer and it was really good and fun.  There was so much food so I was glad that I didn’t eat dinner beforehand.  I also met some really cool people.  I met this guy from Ireland that lives in the foyer and I had never seen him before.  He was really nice.  Also Irish accents are really cool, (don’t worry we spoke in French but he did speak a bit in English and that is how I know that Irish accents are cool).  I also met a new girl who just moved into the foyer that day, she was really nice.  Other than that it was a rather normal day.

Jeudi le 8 décembre:

Well today the most exciting thing was getting a Christmas present from my family and from my Grandma and Grandpa!  It was so nice of them and I got some much needed stuff!  I also got to skype with my friend Shawn back at Central; it was so fun talking with her!  Other than that nothing too exciting today happened.

Vendredi le 9 décembre:

Did some much needed laundry, today.  That took like all morning so I just hung out in the foyer and then headed over to les marchés de Noël on the Champs-Élysées.

 

At les marchés

Place de la Concorde with the Ferris Wheel for Christmas

Place de la Concorde all lit up, it was magical

I then headed back to the foyer and had some dinner and hung out before going to the Louvre that night.  I was going to go see my friend, Amanda, present on a painting at the Louvre for her art class.  I knew which wing to find her in but the Louvre is HUGE!  I was wandering around for a really long time trying to find her.  I saw a lot of other people presenting but nowhere to be found was Amanda.  I did listen to a girl from my phonetics class present on an artwork.  Right when I was about to give up on looking for Amanda I ran into her!  She was at that moment by someone else’s painting listening to them present and so she then took me over to her painting and told me about it in French of course.  She did a really good job.

Amanda (on the right) presenting to some people that came up to her painting.

The Louvre at night is beautiful

We left the Louvre around 9pm and then headed over to the Champs-Élysées since she was done for that evening and we walked around les marchés.  We got some delicious vin chaud that turned to vin lukewarm quickly but it was still good nonetheless.  We found a bench and drank our vin chaud and just chatted and it was so much fun to just hang out and have some fun.  We eventually headed back to our foyers and I then went to bed because I was tired.

Samedi le 10 décembre:

That evening I went to the French church and they had Christmas Carols it was fun, they were in French and English.  I quite enjoyed it.  I then met up with Stephanie a girl that I met at ACP and we hung out on the Champs-Élysées and then headed over to Pont Alma.  It was super crowded at les marchés on the Champs-Élysées but fun nonetheless.

On the Champs-Élysées (L’Arc de Triomphe in background)

A view of La Tour Eiffel at night from Pont Alma

Me and Stephanie on Pont Alma

La Tour Eiffel at night

We had a really nice time walking around Paris at night because we walked from the Champs-Élysées to Pont Alma and it was just fun getting to hang out.  We then went back to where we live because we were both tired.