Wonderful Week in Paris

Wednesday was a perfect day! I went to my classes all day and then I left my last class early to go to the France vs Spain soccer game. I met Jenn up at school and we left to the Stadium from there. My host brother told me to take the RER B so we did and we ended up in Zone 4. That was bad because our metro cards only work in Zones 1 and 2. Luckily I had 2 extra metro tickets from ISA the first day we got here and I had just never used them. I think it was a sign from God haha! We met some really nice French people along the way who told us to follow them who were also going to the game but they had their tickets ready and ran off without us. Once we got inside the station we had to buy 2 more tickets to get on the right train. We finally got on the right train and our last stop was the Stadium! It was HUGE!! It was like a football stadium in the US. I loved it! We got to our seats and we were in the second row to the field! I loved our seats because we were mainly surrounded by kids with their dads! Although there was a little problem with a group of guys near us who were in the wrong seats but would not get up until the police came, the game was relaxing and so much fun! Soccer here is a completely different story. It's so FAST and the game seemed like it was only 20 minutes long! It came and went. After France lost 0-2, we left the stadium to find the metro and after going the wrong way at first, we got back on track and found it! In the metro we were surrounded by guys. I think we were the ONLY 2 blonde girls on our metro going home. We were sqooshed right in the middle too! I have to admit that it wasn't so bad because we were surrounded by guys our age! haha!

Thursday night was the Opera. We saw the ballet La Dame aux Camélias. As I entered the opera my eyes were blown away. It was spectacular inside and as the lady pointed to my seat in the very back row, she told me that that was the best seat in the house! And it was! I was in the very middle of the very back row! Although the seats were horrible to sit in, I loved the ballet and it was beautiful! It was 3 hours long with 2 intermissions. It was basically about a prostitute who fell in love with a man but then got sick and died. The colors of the costumes and the dancing was amazing!

Friday, I spent the evening with a few friends, Dipesh and Marie. Marie just moved to Paris from a town south of Paris and she spoke English fairly well so it was a night of learning french and teaching english. She has a car and offered to take me and Dipesh out to Brittany (which is on the West Coast of France) and she has a friend there with a big house and we could stay with him for the weekend there! I don't have my hopes up but I do think that would be fun! We drank wine and ate cheese and chocolate the whole evening and I wobbily walked myself to the metro and then on home!

Saturday, some Texans came to Paris :) Katie, Berkeley, and Meredith arrived at Gare du Nord around 12:15 and then we were off to a full day of site-seeing! It was fun being their tour guide and I took them to as many monuments as possible! I had not seen some of the monuments that I had taken them too so it was also a site-seeing day for me! We finished off the night with the sparkling of the Eiffel Tower and then we came back to a cafe near my apartment. We ate dinner and then hung out for a while. After we went back to my apartment to pick up their things and my host family offered that they come in and sit while she called a taxi for them. It was VERY nice of my host mom! I'm very appreciative that she did that! The taxi came within 5 minutes and they were off to the airport! I think it was a successful day in Paris for them! They got to see a Parisian home, the neighborhoods, and a lot of the tourist spots!! I'm glad I got to see some familiar faces! It made me feel more at home in this big ol city and I feel like I can actually live my life here!

My next big problem...trying to find somewhere to go for Spring break. I'm going to have to book something FAST and my host mom wants me out. I have leave for a week and I have no one and no where to go. If I can't find someone to go with I'm going to book a week in Montpellier by myself and do some site-seeing there. Plus I have midterms this week. The week after is spring break. Time is flying by so fast!!!