... take a gondola ride

Venice was on my list of top ten places to go in the world. Heck it was #1 so it wasnt a stretch for me to "find" the time to get on the train and go! After a overnight train in the same compartment as some friendly Americans we arrived in Venice around noon and then walked across the city (and bridges!) to the hotel. We stopped to sample the local cuisine along the way read: tomato and mozzarella sandwich and fruit ( I knew there was a reason I wanted to go there). Then we headed off to St Marks Square. Over the next two and a half days I saw Venice inside out. The entire city is one big maze, there are dead ends, shortcuts, and black holes. We got lost many a time but always seemed to find some nice Italian person to direct us, usually by sign language, along the way. St Marks square with the bascillica, Dodge's palace, Florians, pidgeons, gelato, and delicious pasta restaurants surrounding it became the mainstay of our visit. The gondola ride was amazing, I was on it with a woman from England and a family from Spain. I felt like at any moment I was going to be dumped in the Grand Canal but as I hung on for dear life I enjoyed every moment, it was seriously a dream come true. If you ever get the chance to go, do it seriously, I would go back for the gelato, fruit, pasta and pizza, but then we all know I love carbs.

... have a 'nice' time in Nice (groan)

Since I still had days left on my Eurrail pass I caught a train early in the morning on Monday with fellow Texas A&Mer Lacy to the south of France for some fun in the sun and badly need cool blue water! We rented a umbrella and lounger and basically spent the day catching up and catching some rays and catching up on reading. It was wonderful day and I didnt get burnt! Wahoo! Th beaches in Nice are not actually all that nice, they are not sand they are rocks and they hurt as much as stepping on rocks in bare feet do. Just imagine trying to fight standing up on racks while the waves are trying to push you down and drag you out to sea, doesnt sound like fun huh? well you would be half right since 70% of my mind was thinking about how AWESOME it was that I wasnt sweating like a sinner in church like everyone usually does in Paris because I was in water! I hadnt been fully submerged in the crisp blue h2o since may and trust me when you have to ride a metro with sweaty people pilled on top of you sometimes the shower just doesnt cut it! So the water felt amazing and dinner overlooking the Mediterranean wasnt half bad either! We caught a night train back to Paris so I just got in this morning at 7:30! It was a fantastic day of fun and sun and no sweat, just a preview of what will be coming up in two weeks in Greece! I cant wait!

... become and expert chocolatier in Brussles

In Brussels we took a city tour which was a fantastic way to see the whole city since we saw about ten different things we didnt know were in Brussels. They had held the World Fair their and built a huge monument for it that is an Iron atom which is so cool! We also went to the Delirium Cafe where they serve over 100 beers, Chipper tasted some, Anna and I abstained. But I did have some Brussels moules (mussels) that were great! Oh great now Mom is going to make me eat mussels all the time now... Our hotel was by the headquarters of the President of the EU, the second time we have stayed by the Eu buildings in our weekend city! The country of Belgium is not only famous for its mussels and chocolate (which I will get too in one minutes) but also their monarchy. We say pictures of their King and Queen and the Heir apparent and wife in all the shops and their subjects seemed to looooove them. It was also a tad disconcerting to be shown botanical gardens and cathedrals and told that it was for the use of the royal family and they were only open to the public on certain days out of the year. Ummm hello 21st century pretty sure withholding things from the common people is how many a revolution started... might want to think about that King Albert! Now on to Chocolate, so important it must be capitalized! We got to tour a chocolate shop, and by "got to" I really mean I made Anna and Chip take the tour, and we learned how chocolate is made from start to finish, a very riveting slideshow detailed the trek and I was amazed by how the standards of cleanliness got more extreme from Africa to Belgium... seriously think about it. After the slideshow and talk with a chocolatier he asked if anyone wanted to make some molds, well you know me if it has to do with baking or cooking I am in like flint so my hand shot up and so did I. I got to pour the melted chocolate into the molds and scrape the excess of and then wait for it to "freeze" meaning the helper went and got another slate out of the freezer and I got to ound the mold really hard on the counter to make the little chocolate men fall out! There were nine of them and only two didnt fall out, so I tried again and alas they became decapitated. But the guy said that eight out of ten was really good so maybe I can add chocolatier to my list of accomplishments!

... be neither buyer or seller at the Red Light district

We were originally going to Brussels for the weekend and found a excursion company that would take us to Luxembourg for a day but it ended up that that particular tour was full so we ended up hopping on a train for Amsterdam! We got to spend about 8 hours in Amsterdam, going on a tour, seeing Anne Frank's house, walking through the Jourdaan district, touring a diamond cutters office and their subseqent store, (ask me anything about color, carats, clarity and cut because I know exactly what I want now) eating at the Hard Rock cafe (what we needed a little Americanness) and of course on our way back to the train station for our train back to Brussels walking through the Red Light district. Anna was hilarious she would have to almost get up her courage to walk past the girls in the windows and then would sprint straight past and only spare the most passing glance. I looked, I didnt stare (umm awkward) but I looked I mean its like going into a department store right? I may look at the men's clothes but its not like IM going to buy them so I dont spare them a long glance. Wow I just related prostitution to a department store... nice. Anyway the train ride back was eventful as Chip, Mr frat-tastic, had not filled in hi Eurorail pass; definition of filled in: writing the date you are traveling on your paper, not getting a stamp or paying money, writing a date down; thus causing him to get in trouble with the train ticket man who was wearing a ridiculous hat so it was extremely hard to take him seriously and them Chipper had to pay 45 euro for a ticket when we were already on the train and more than half way back to Brussels. Oh did I mention that Chipster partook of alcohol on the other accoutrements in Amsterdam's cafe before heading back on the train so he was ummm how should I say this not on top of his game... in a word: hilarious.

... bake the perfect croissant

Croissants here I come! everyone is invited over for croissants, pain au chocolat, jam triangle twists (and foccacia bread) made especially by moi! I had the best three hours I have had in Paris by far in this baking class! I absolutley LOVED it. I realized that baking is way harder than anyone thinks, baking is way more fu than I thought before, Meryl Streep in Its Complicated could not have made pain au chocolat in one night because the dough has to sit overnight, I love jam, and I want a stand up Kitchen Aid mixer and cooling trays for my birthday. The class was so much fun and even if I have to toot my own baking-whiz horn my croissants and other pastries were the best! I cannot wait to make then at home so raise your hand if you are ready for brunch at jane and Katie's house! (Since I cant see if you raised your hand you can leave a comment on the blog and that will suffice!) I really dont know who reads this blog so you can tell me that too!

... see the hills alive with the sound of music

So we didnt go to Salzburg but we went to Vienna, close enough right? I mean that is where the Baroness was from so we made it somewhere in the movie! Vienna was wonderful and beautiful. everything was old school traditional and the ringstrauss, basically the ring around the very middle of the city, was the coolest place to people watch. We (Anna and I) took a city tour and saw all the fabulous sights and then went out to Schonnbrunn palace, basically Marie-Therese's bad A house. The gardens were magnificent and I liked this palace and its surrounding gardens better than Versailles! We went to a Mozart concert, and I sat through it because it was Vienna, it was okay but lets face it I was a little more interested in the free champagne we got that the music. We tried the famous chocolate torte and strudel, apple of course, again it was fun to try but I much prefer gellato and PF changs' chocolate cake (hint hint since my bday is coming up). All the streets were beautiful and I would pick out a new "house" on every block! We tried to get to Salzburg and go on the Sound of Music tour but alas it wasnt in the cards. The trains both there and from were crazy we transfered in Munich from a sleeper train from paris on which this family got on in the middle of the night after Anna and I were already asleep and turned on their flashlight and shined it right in our faces (jerks) and then took the covers off Anna (I guess to check it she was real....?) and then the whinny kids who were too old to whine couldnt decide which bed to take, I can understand the predicament except on your ticket it tells you exaclt what bed to take and you dont have another option. So that was fun and then coming back from Vienna we had to stop in Frankfurt and our train was an hour and a half late coming in so were going to have 5 minutes to find our train to Paris (the very last train to Paris) and get on it. So we bolt off the train from Vienna and run like mad to find where our platform was, we find it and oh the train is late by ten minutes so we ran to get dinner and we ran back (sweating profusley by this time since its like 90 degrees and there is no AC and no breeze in the BUILDING) and the train is now delayed an hour. So we hit up Starbucks for some free wifi and a drink. I tried to order a passion iced tea but oh yeah I forgot they dont have ICE so they cant make that. Chalk up one more thing I want when I get back to America, the list consists of but is not limited to: AC, ice cubes, Chuys, Honey nut cherrios, real milk, girl scout cookies, my bed, Lilly, passion iced tea, sonic drinks, no more french people and much more.

... understand that the Swiss are the best

This past weekend Anna and I went to Geneva for the weekend on the train. It was an intense ride seeing how it was over 90 degrees and there was no AC... yeah all you US people think you've got it bad well at least you have AC and drinks with ice, because we don' t. We got in Friday night and after checking in to the hotel went and had possibly the best dinner I have had since I left the US, we sat outside, in a breeze (very important), and had a wonderful time. The next day we went and saw the United Nations building the Palace des Nations and then walked through the botanic gardens and then walked towards the town along lake Geneva. We went on a boat tour of lake Geneva and saw all the sights such as: the mermaid of Lake Geneva, the house where FDR and Eisenhower stayed, Josephine Bonaparte's house and of course the famous spire of lake Geneva, the fountain that shoots water extremely high in the sky. After our boat tour we went on a trolley tour of the city and saw: the reformation wall, the oldest church in Geneva, the Opera and other amazing sights. All in all it was a great trip and you would think that all we would have to do was get on the train back to Paris right? Well you would be right except somehow we didn't do that... we got on the train in Geneva that was leaving at the EXACT time as on our ticket and said it was going to Gare de Lyon, well that is one of the train stations in Paris and the one we left from so we hopped on and I feel asleep. I wake up an hour later to Anna yelling "Katherine everyone is getting off! The train is stopping here!" Well obviously we are not in Paris so we look outside and where are we... LYON. FRANCE. Yeah the Gare de Lyon in Lyon. So we freaked out and ran out on the platform trying to desperately explain what we did and what happened to a platform attendant and he told us to get on this other train right next to ours because it was going to Paris. So we jumped on and not one minute later does it depart, I kid you not. So we are trying to find empty seats because of course our assigned seats are on another train and we find two in the last car, in the last row. Adventure? I think so!

.... Kiss the Blarney stone

... travel across Ireland by herself

I spent five days traveling across Ireland; I went to Dublin, Cork and Belfast. I flew into Dublin and then took trains from Dublin to Cork, then to Belfast and back to Dublin so I could fly back to Paris. Ireland is amazing, everything is so green, the people are so nice and the history is so interesting! I spent my time in Dublin trekking across to find the Dublin Castle, a viking history building, the cathedral, the shopping street, watching a Gaelic game, exploring Trinity College (with the book of Kells) and of course all the pubs in Dublin. The gaelic games are the irish version of american soccer but you can use your hands and there are multiple ways to score. if you get a "field goal" that is worth 1 point but if you get a "goal" as in soccer you get three points. I watched the game between Dublin and some other team in red and tooted my vuvuzela quite a bit, I was of course going to for Dublin! At Trinity college there is a very famous book called the Book of Kells, it is reported to be the most beautifully illuminated manuscript in the world; not that I have seen every illuminated manuscript in the world but it was quite exquisite. You can find out more about the Book of Kells here. Of course the pubs in Dublin are a must see, I mean what else are the Irish famous for besides leprechauns and drinking right? I watched the USA v Ghana game in a pub and then the next night the England game as well. Very riotous and very loud and most of all VERY fun!
I left for Cork at about 9 AM on the train out of Dublin and it took three hours to get there, Just looking at the intensely green landscape was amazing because it defiantly does not look like Texas in the summer. When I reached Cork I checked into my hotel and walked to a pub, in the rain, to get lunch. At this pub it was just like yousee in the movies, all the 'regulars' are sitting at the bar and then woosh a new girl walks in (me) and of course I get all the questions "Where are you from" etc. These are all guys old enough to be my grandpa and one of them thought I was from Kansas.... ummm okay? After lunch I went out to the Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone! It was so cool, there were some tourists there although I have a feeling that if it wasnt raining there would have been more. Any way so I climbed to the top of the castle and kissed the stone, which you have to lay on your back and lean backwards over the side fo the castle to get to the stone. There is a person holding on to you but still... scary and fun!
The next day I left Cork at 5AM to get a train to Belfast. Once in Belfast I walked to the Queen's University and walked through campus and then went to the Botanical gardens, which is where the iconic gazebo is. Then it was off to the Ulster Museum where I learned about Ireland's past and the time of Troubles. After the Ulster museum I took a black cab tour, which I would highly recommend to anyone who si going to Belfast, and my tour guide Tom took me all around West Belfast where the Peace Walls are and the War Murals. He was telling me that since he is Catholic he would not have been able to set foot in the area by the murals about ten years ago because he would have been shot. It was so shocking to learn that this sort of tragedy was going on just a short time ago.

The entire trip in Ireland was so wonderful and eye opening and it really taught me a lot. I know Jane wasnt happy but it was one of the best times of my life!

Linda and me at the Sacre Coeur, Basilica of the Sacred Heart! Linda and I have to go halfway across the world to see each other! its not DL but its the next best thing!

Mom and me at Harrod's for afternoon tea with scones (my fav), desserts, tea sandwiches and champagne! Best afternoon EVER!

... survive a huge riot of Algerians

So this past weekend and week was pretty amazing and eye opening! 1) I got to go to London and see Mom which was the best thing I could have wished for halfway through the trip 2) I got to see Linda in Paris for two days and all her high school troupe 3) it was my last week of cinema class and we actually got to watch movies I found funny 4) the US soccer team beat the Algerian team and hundreds of Algerians fans rioted outside my American dorm causing gendarmes in full on riot gear (think tear gas and shields) to push them back and guard our dorm 5) The metro workers decided to go on strike the day of my cinema final so it was a wonderful time trying to figure out which lines were working and when we had to walk. Over all it has been a fantastic week and I cannot believe my trip in France in halfway done! This weekend I am going to Ireland and and SUPER excited! Jane is not too happy about it but thats okay because I will be better than fine I will be amazing! Think leprechauns, the blarney stone, 'time of troubles' and GREEN! I mean what country is more Katherine than the one that is synonymous with the color GREEN!

... learn how to dance like a Parisian

Tonight we went to a comedy show "How to become a Parisian in one hour" and he taught us how to 1) be Parisian in a restaurant "Umm what is your job? A waiter, so you can wait right here" 2) how to be Parisian in a store "Umm if we dont have your size its not my fault your body is shit" 3) how to be a Parisian in the metro *laugh at old woman who wants your seat but you're not going to give it to her* 4) have you know what like a Parisian ... no details... 5) how to talk like a Parisian "Oh la la!" or "Oh la la." 6) How to dance like a Parisian. This is where I volunteered and was brought up on stage in front of 200 people. You swing your hips in a sensual but not sexual way, have your mouth slightly open and if you like a guy stare at him for 3 seconds and according to the guy you will get a drink right away. So pretty much hilarious and now I can add French dance to my repertoire of jazz, hip hop, ballet and lyrical! It was a hilarious show and if you ever come to Paris you need to go to the show!

... spend the day in the Sun while its Raining

So the Palace of Versailles is the palace of the Sun King hence I spent the day in the sun while it was raining... cool yet still dreary! The pictures are HERE , they also include pictures of the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde. Versailles is amazing and we also went around the Gardens which were amazing and then we went to the Grand Trianon which was the royal family's vacation house, which is still larger than the Zeta House, and then we went to the Petite Trianon which was Marie Antoinette's personal house, which is still bigger than the Zeta House. everything was beautiful and, excuse this vomit worthy sentence, the presence of history was tangible. The Sun King's residence was an awe inspiring sight and I do not think I could ever get tired of seeing it, what I could get tired of seeing is the horde of Asian tourist in the same outfit wearing SARS masks and pushing you to get a picture in which they rock the peace sign...

... find the house she wants to live in

So my new abode is this tiny little place called Chennonceau, Kings and Queens might or might not have lived there in earlier days, and by might or might not I mean they did. It is a beautiful chateau built over a river, the castle is built on the bridge and the main gallery spans the river, which was the dividing line between occupied and unoccupied france in WWII and people used to sneak the resistance through the line in the gallery... cool? I would say so yes. We saw the gardens of the beautiful castle and then had a wine tasting at a wine sellers business along with goat cheese, which is actually good and does not taste like it sounds. Then next day we went to visit another castle, Chambord, which is amazingly beautiful and very intricate. Fun fact (although all these facts are fun) The town of Chambord is where the alcohol Chambord is made, did we have some? yes we did! Leonardo Da Vinci designed the main staircase which is a winding one but each floor has two entry/exit points so if I took one and you took the other we could climb all the way to the top and never cross each other's path. It was very interesting! We got to see the 'bed of france' where some Kings and princesses ad princes of France were made. Then we had a cookie tasting and I bought some gallettes, think cinnamon teddy grams but better. This week has been not too interesting, it has rained almost everyday which makes for a very depressing place and then I saw this woman get almost groped on the metro by a homeless guy.... yeah creepy. Oh and all the homeless people here have the cutest dogs and cats, seriously where do they find them because I want to ask one of them if I could borrow their animal for two months so I could have some one to come home (in my dorm) to! Seriously the cutest animals EVER! I booked all my trips for next session and my free long weekend between my two sessions this week so that was pretty exciting! Pictures of the castles are HERE!

... get mooned on the metro

Yep totally got mooned on the metro. Apparently it was a game where the guys jump on the train, drop the pants, waddle to the wall, touch it and then run back on the metro butts showing. They did this as we got on the metro so of course being the quick thinking always ready person I am, I got out my camera, Anna held my stuff and Hunter was ready to open the door. I jumped out with the camera on multiple shots and snapped away. Perfect and hilarious. Besides getting mooned on the metro we took a boat ride from the Bateau Mouches along the Seine and we saw many incredible historic buildings! It was amazing! Its been two weeks and I have seen so many things! Tomorrow we are going to the Loire Valley and going to see all the Chateaus and Castles!!!! I AM SO EXCITED! Pictures from the river cruise and the mooning incident are HERE!

... wear jeans, sneakers, a fleece and a scarf in June

So the past weekend and today and yesterday have been soooo cold here in Paris. I have been bundled up even in my classes, because of course no central heat/air/anything. This past weekend we went to the beaches of Normandy and Mont Saint Michel. There are pictures HERE ! It was amazing! the beaches were so powerful and it was so interesting to realize that the beginning of the end of WWII started there. They were getting ready for the anniversary of DDay which is on the 6th so the American Cemetery was getting a major clean up. It was nice to be back on US soil for a little bit! Everything was in English and the guards spoke perfect English; it made me a little homesick for America and Austin! We went to the Museum off the coast which was very sad and graphic. We spent the night in a small town called Caen where I finally got an extremely hot shower and a bed more than 5 inches off the ground. In the morning we drove to Mont Saint Michel which is a beautiful island off the coast that you can only get to when the ocean is not at high tide. Th entire town was gorgeous and we had fun walking through the town and church. After driving back to paris everyone was exhausted and we had a placement test the next day (Monday) so we all went to sleep. Monday was an OK day since my placement test sucked. My professor I was talking to never looked at me when she was speaking and since I am basically deaf that was not good. Then she asks me where I go to school and I saw College station and she looks at me and say "College Station? C'est une ville faux" Which means, thats a fake city. Yeah awesome so I said I lived in Austin and then she asks how many people live in Austin. I DONT KNOW WOMAN! So after the test Hunter, Anna, Tyler and I went out to the French open to see if we could get a grounds ticket so we could take some pictures. Nope, all sold out. So we had lunch and then I went back to my cinema class which was good we watched a neo-noir film The beat my heart skipped, which was very good! Today (Tuesday) we went to the University to see where we had been placed for our test and I was put in the wrong class and they might not be able to get me out of it... awesome, and since I will not get credit for that level of class it is a big problem. BIG problem but I have contingency plans so it will all work out somehow. Then we walked around our University and had lunch. Then we walked around some more and came home where when it started to rain we all just sat around and talked. After dinner I started my french homework (stupid) and am about to go finish it! Bon soir!

... take a cinema class in France

Sorry no pictures today! I had my very first cinema class today and after four hours I have learned so much vocabulary that my head is spinning. French cinema is very different than mainstream American cinema: French cinema is mainly done for art while American cinema is done for entertainment. Which is why I looooove American cinema I want to be entertained, I dont want to have to think about what I am watching (ahem Zach)! We ate at the cafeteria at the dorm today and it was quite an adventure finding out what we could eat, what was in the student plan and what was actually good and what just looked like chopped up beets... We walked around down by the Opera house later and then went to the Champs-Elysees and got some Haggen Das woot woot! Then on the RER ride home we were talking and overheard this couple start yelling in English so of course we listened in, I mean we could actually understand what they were saying, and we found out the girl was from San Francisco and followed her boyfriend over here because he is from paris but she wants to go back to the states to get her MBA and they were yelling about it. All I can say is Awkward... very awkward. Tomorrow bright and early we are off to Normandy to see the beaches of D-Day and Mont St Michel the sometimes Island city sometimes not, great pictures are to come from this weekend stay tuned! I will not have my computer with me so you will have to go without my stories for a little bit (perish the thought!)!

... find the sweetest strawberries in the entire world

1. go to france
2. get on the orange tram
3. go to the random tiny shop by a random boulangerie
4. buy every dam strawberry they own
5. enjoy

We had a meeting today on how to LIVE in france not just STAY. Yes there is a difference...We learned where to shop for what and how to make travel arrangements and what tiny booklets to buy so we know everything going on in Paris. After that fabulous meeting I ran errands, I got a pillow that does not look and feel like the Eiffel Tower, thank goodness and I walked around a French bookstore and bought a couple notebooks for my classes. I then met Kelsey (from Austin!) at the Musee de Orsay and we walked around. Oh did I mention that it rained for the entire day? Yeah poured so the camera did not make it out of the bag very much but the pictures I did take arrrrrrrrreeeeee HERE! Anna and I walked around outside our dorm deciding what to grab for dinner when we went into the boulangerie referenced above and decided on Croque Monsieurs (basically grilled cheese with ham) and then went into the random tiny half a grocery store and decided on strawberries (for me) and raspberries (for Anna). It instantly became our new favorite food store in the entire world, sorry HEB, and we plan on becoming regulars at this tiny shop. I promise I will rememebr the name sometime...

... get a heart attack in France

Today I got to sleep a little more in the morning, which is great when you're jet lagged and exhausted! Hunter, Anna and I left the dorm around 10 and we went to see the ISA office and got breakfast from a little Boulangeire down the street, it was amazing (pain au chocolat) and the proprietor of the shop was very nice. We then walked to the Metro with our b'fast and went to meet Tyler at the metro stop by his homestay house. We get out of the metro after a 30 minute ride and arrive in sketch place paris france. While waiting for tyler to get there we decided to run into a random store so as to get away from some of the creepy people and what store do we walk into? A walgreens-ish place that had pretty much everything. Oh how big was this store? well lets just say if Hansel and Gretel walked beside it they wouldn't need breadcrumbs to find there way back... Tyler found us and we went to the Church of the sacred heart which sits on this huge hill and in order to get there you have to walk up this enormous amount of steps, hense the heart attack, I swear people must just drop dead on these stairs. So we went into the church, no pictures and no talking, and it was beautiful! Behind the church is an artist community with restaurants outside so we walked around looking at all the paintings and then had lunch. The others had to go to class after that so we went to the metro and they went one way and I went the other, I walked around my dorm a little bit to check everything out. Then after their class we met in front of a cinema and got our tickets for Prince of Persia! We had a quick dinner and then saw the movie, in French you ask? No way, we saw it in version originale aka English with french subtitles. We then walked back to the metro and came home! Day 3 pictures are Here!

...figure out "Le Metro"

So this morning we had an orientation with ISA and it was the firsts morning for us to go to the Catho (our university). We met at 9:30 in this beautiful courtyard in the Catho and then proceeded to one of the classrooms to get all the information we needed. The meeting was long and boring but we learned many things about how to say safe (dont use the metro after midnight), how to not get unwanted attention (no low cut shirts & dont engage a man if he tries to talk to you) and how to not get pick-pocketed (basically never unzip your purse and watch it like your baby was inside). After the meeting we were free for lunch, we went to a petite restaurant where we met this very nice man from germany who now lives in Florida who had come for a visit. He used to live in France, during WWII and the occupation (yes he is german and yes he said it was hard) and he thinks he is going to die soon so he decided to come back for a visit and return to all his old haunts. He was very entertaining and gave us some good tips. After lunch we went and walked through the Luxembourg gardens which were vast and wonderfully green. We then ahd to return to the Catho for another meeting in which they explained our French and culture classes. We got to meet our professors and they gave us a quick run down of our classes. After that we got our "Navigo" pass for the ISA leaders and we had to go charge it up in the metro station. A navigo pass is basically a pass for the metro that you load up with days, weeks or months. I put a week on mine today and on Friday I will go ahead and put on a month for the month of June. After that we came home to change for dinner and then went back out again for the welcome dinner at a small restaurant right by Notre Dame. It was a three course dinner that in the French fashion lasted three hours. We walked around Notre Dame and its surroundings after dinner and then made our way back to the dorm! Today was wonderful and I am so exhausted so I am about to go pass out! I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer! Au revoir mes amies! See Day 2 pictures HERE!

... learn how to use a blog

So pictures do not upload I guess so I made a snapfish album and will add to that! You can click HERE to see all my beautiful pictures of DAY 1!!!! Peace, love and french bread...

... pack for two months in one bag, get to France without losing anything, find my dorm, not die in my unairconditioned room, and find much needed items when there is a Bank Holiday in France and NOTHING is open!

So today and last night was incredible, amazing, LONG, and eye opening! I finally got everything I needed in my bag because it had to be under 50 pounds, so I had to nix many things! I got everything to France okay after being told at the gate in Austin that they had no overhead space left so my NEW camera and new purse were then packed up and checked all the way to France in my what was supposed to be a carry on bag. I finally found my group after going from terminal 2E to baggage claim and then to terminal 2C, lovely ten minute walks each way. We were then shipped to our dorm Le Foundation des Etates-Unis (Foundation of the United states). The foundation is on this hug plot of land where there are more than 37 dorm buildings that represent over 100 nationalities! You can find more out at feusa.org!  We dropped our bags in our room, mine is 147 which is on the second level as the level on the street is basically level 0, then got a tour from our resident director who is pregnant and is the absolute cutest thing. After that Anna, Hunter and I trooped out in order to find towels, a fan and something to cover the floor! We had lunch and dinner while we were out getting lost on the Metro and walking around trying to find an ATM that was not either 1) broken or 2) closed because it was a bank holiday in France today! Wen I got home to my room , which has beautiful bay windows (no one else has three, they only have one, mwahahaha! I unpacked, put together the fan I bought which only had directions in French... awesome, sharp blades, screws and not a full grasp of the language.... makes for a beautiful combination doesn't it? We have an orientation meeting tomorrow at 9:30 so we are all congregating downstairs to go find breakfast, imagine a gaggle of gesse running around campus, and then to hop on the metro, which I now have hopefully mastered, and get to the Catho (The Institute de Catholique de Paris) for our meeting! my classes do not start until Friday (I think) and then it is only my cinema class. My language class starts next Tuesday after the oral placement test on Monday! I miss everyone back home xoxo!