a very delayed response.

What a crazy three weeks! I have decided that my “culture shock” is FINALLY officially over and I’m ready to just live here for the rest of my life. It’s almost like you have to go through trials to become officially prepared to live here- 5 months just isn’t enough time! First there’s the language adjustment, then the people. Then you have to be able to let go of some of your own traditions (granted, I still waaay prefer the American breakfast of an omelet or pancakes over some bread and jam) and just kind of get used to some of these ways of life. I finally realized that it’s not about changing who YOU are, it’s about letting yourself accept who these people are, and dealing with it.

            Seeing as I haven’t written anything for about three weeks, there obviously has to be a reason. After my “buttons” finally disappeared for good, I decided to make good use of the last three days of Spring Break- I spent a good four hours wandering around the Louvre, ate a spectacular dinner at a great bar called Styx (on Mondays they have jazz night!) and of course took another trip to Breakfast in America. Yes, it’s American, but at the same time it’s crazy to see how many people actually go there. It’s pretty popular among French students around brunch-time. J

            School started back up, and all of my professors have been beginning to prep us for exams (next week! ah!). I have an exam for my two conferences (Art History and Film) as well as a written exam and an oral on a separate day. The Art History professor literally told us that he wouldn’t be giving us any paintings we couldn’t go visit ourselves while in Paris, so as to better prepare ourselves for the questions. That’s so cool! This gave me the incentive to finally drag myself to the Musée D’Orsay (the Impressionist museum in an old train station). What a mistake to only give myself two hours. First of all, I am utterly ashamed that I have not visited this museum once a week since I’ve been here- it’s amazing! It’s like someone took out all the boring paintings that no one wants to look at and just put all of the beautiful famous ones in it. (This is partly because most of the paintings were donated by the same owner- a doctor who bought up all of Monet’s, Renoir’s, Corot’s.. etc. paintings to support them when money was too tight to afford paint.) Anyway- I know the museum is famous, but I cannot stress to you how beautiful it really is. Even the train station is beautiful. It’s wide and has huge ceilings so you don’t feel claustrophobic like so many crowded museums seem to do.

            The CCA class for the week was a visit to the National Museum of Immigration, which turned out to be really cool! It showed an evolution of immigration, with the different numbers of immigration over the years, as well as the country’s current problems and examples of real problems that people are still facing today. It was worth the trip, and the tour guide was really great (We kept trying to guess where she was from… she was speaking French, but in a completely different accent! It came down to a tie between Brazil and Portugal. Who knows. It’s crazy to be able to notice things like that in a different language though…)

            I am really disappointed to not be running the marathon- it’s next weekend! After my chicken pox, it was too much and too close to start training again, so I took some time off. I’ve gone on a few great, non-stressful runs that have ended up pretty nice, especially in the afternoon sunshine around the Tuileries. Plus my mom is visiting this week! I’ve taken them to all of my favorite eating places in the last three days, so it was definitely a weekend full of food. We went to Angelina’s (the teahouse by the Tuileries), had a picnic with my favorite pastries today on the Champ de Mars (the park right below the Eiffel Tower) have had lots of coffee, pizza and crepes.

            Last night, my friend Margaret and I went to a party in Neuilly-Sur-Seine- a kind of suburb of Paris that’s still on one of the metro lines. It was a friend of mine who I met a few weeks ago, and it was awesome! We were the only two Americans, so of course we became the “token” English speakers for the night and had an interesting time trying to comprehend the attempts at phrases. It’s fun to do that sometimes though- usually it’s the other way around and I’m trying to make some sort of argument in French! By the end of the night everyone had switched back to French, so my brain definitely hurt from thinking so hard. I still love it though- I’ve definitely come a long way from being petrified to even start a conversation! Three weeks left won’t be enough time for perfection, but I definitely want to keep practicing until the moment I get on the plane.