Paris: Respire

Sorry it has been so long! I feel like I’m sitting down to write, and all of a sudden it’s two weeks later. It’s kind of crazy how fast time flies, but how it simultaneously feels like I’ve been here FOREVER.

I’m officially halfway through! I don’t really know how to describe it, other than that my brain feels like it is about to explode from the amount of stuff I’ve learned so far. Spring break is only 2 ½ weeks away!

Friday night was Central’s trip to Marseille! What an interesting city. We took the train (the TGV) which was about three hours, and absolutely gorgeous. Seeing all of the mountains and hillsides really made me want to go hiking and be outside. Being in a city for so long, I forgot that there’s a France outside of Paris!

Marseille was not what I expected. It’s a port town, so there were a million boats in the harbor and a fresh fish market on Saturday morning. It’s much younger than Nice in terms of people- and more industrial with a kind of “working class” feel. It is really old though- we toured one of the oldest churches in France as well as the origins of the city (it is still one of the biggest ports in Europe, and the biggest importer in France!) Even with the chilly wind, the sun was spectacular when it hit you in the right place. We were only there for a night, but it was a perfect time frame. Seeing the history and the harbor was beautiful, but after that everyone was about ready to go back to Paris.

The rest of the weekend was pretty calm- it got cold again! It was a little disappointing after such a beautiful week of sunshine last week. Monday and Tuesday were once again crazy days- I don’t really get to sit down until after my art classes end around 9:30. I have mixed feelings about my busy beginning of the week- I really enjoy all of the classes I’m taking, but they’re so smashed into two days it doesn’t give me a break to appreciate them! Today is finally Wednesday- after our CCA museum tour I plan on taking a nice long nap.  On my run yesterday I was thinking about how much stuff I've been doing, and I saw one of the signs that are all around the city: it said, "Paris: Respire!" And I realized that might be something that I HAVEN'T been doing enough of.