CT À PARIS

So the past few days have been pretty relaxed. I had classes Thursday and Friday. Thursday was my wine class, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love this class. Basically all we talked about on the first day was how to taste wine. Next week we're talking more about terroir. We also were assigned regions for our projects. I'm doing the eastern half of Bordeaux, with an emphasis on sweet wines. My partner is Molly, who happens to be in three of my classes (all but French). I'm thinking a weekend in Bordeaux may be in order, since it is only 2 hours away by train.

Sidenote for those who have expressed an interest in my classes: my Gay class has a blog! It's full of interesting readings and I'm really impressed with the concept and with how well my professor has been making use of it, so if you're interested, Gay Paris CEA.

Friday I had my Expatriate Writing class. I'm excited, but a bit nervous. I have to read the first 3 books of The Ambassadors by Tuesday! Not sure how well that's going to work out for me, especially since we should have had a week to read it. I'm also a bit apprehensive about the creative writing aspect of the course, but we'll see how things pan out.

I had planned on going to the Jeu de Paume on Friday after class, but it was disgusting outside. It was gray and rainy and I just completely lacked any motivation. Which is odd, because you would think a rainy day would be a good day for a museum, but I've never been one to brag about my common sense.

Saturday was beautiful! Lia and Vicky had to go to buy books, so I went with them down to the area near the Sorbonne. Gibert Joseph (the bookstore) was insane! There were so many people, and I hate crowds so it wasn't my favorite experience of the trip, but it was that of an authentic French student. Afterward, the three of us went to McDonalds. Vicky had a Big Mac that she claims tasted exactly like a Big Mac from home, and I had a Royal Deluxe. It's a cheeseburger with mustard. It was good, but oddly enough it was way messier and actually way greasier than a McDonalds cheeseburger at home would have been.

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store. Champion was WAY more busy on Saturday evening than it was on the weekday, I'll probably try to go on weeknights from now on. I did buy real food this time though, instead of just pizzas. So for lunch today I had green peppers, celery, onions, macaroni and tuna fish! Also, I could SO get used to buying a bag of croissants instead of a bag of bread at the grocery store. Even the prepackaged grocery store croissants are good!

Next weekend I think my roommates and I are going to try to see the Pope! He's in Paris on the 12th and 13th before a pilgrimage to Lourdes. I'm sure it will be insane, but we're going to try anyway.

Well, I finished my Gay and my French homework for tomorrow, but I still have 120ish pages of Henry James to trudge through before Tuesday, so I'm off to attempt that. A bientot!