Okay at this point, I'm so worn out by this Phonetics class. Including the half hour break we get, 3.5 hours of class every night is so much. Time needs to pass by more quickly. Ugh.
Tuesday
SARAH'S BIRTHDAY WOOHOO. I had it all planned out:
✓ Edible Arrangements delivery (shout out to Best Friend for making that happen!)
✓ Birthday drawing (in lieu of a birthday card)
✓ Super cute happybirthdaybestie post on her Facebook wall.... oh wait...For some reason, I calculated the time difference really bizzarely and posted on her wall at midnight AFTER her birthday... oops... Anyways, happy birthday again Sarah :)
Wednesday
I went to the Louvre for the first time with my Art History class! I got there kind of early so I took some pictures and you would not believe the line that formed outside...
So the line snakes around like 5 or 6 times...
...and ends up like this on the other side of the Pyramid!
And again, if you are really interested in seeing the pictures I took for my notes, you can ask me for it because no one else wants to see boring stuff like that haha
Thursday
My IR class has been super interesting! We're learning a lot about WHY and HOW the European Union came to be, which is a lot of WWII stuff. It's really interesting to learn about the War from a French perspective because it's such a different narrative than we learn in America! You know, the War was fought ON French soil and it's a very significant part of their history. Today, we went to a small museum called Musée Jean Moulin; the eponymous historical figure is one of the most famous figures who fought for the French Resistance.
*My insights on this museum visit (skip if you are not interested in history haha): It was really interesting to see how tiny the Resistance was. You know, history books and Frenchies try to make it seem like it was this great heroic thing that most French citizens took part in, but that's just not true. I think this museum did a great job showing how much bigger Vichy France was compared to the Resistance. For example, their propaganda is, quite literally, bigger in size. Of course, the Resistance was underground, but even the amount of propaganda that Vichy released is so much greater. I feel that this museum is much more an exposé of what really happened during the Occupation of France than anything else (I'm not sure how to explain this but it's like this museum is saying "Hey wait a minute, you guys are all for Charles de Gaulle now, but where were you during the actual Occupation? THIS is what you guys were like; THIS is what you guys did. Don't just jump the band wagon now because the war is over and Germany lost." And in doing so, it celebrates the bravery of people like CDG and Jean Moulin who actually fought in the Resistance. Okay there was really no point in this paragraph. /rantover*Friday
After this awfully long week, my friends and I went to La Défense because Adam (a friend from my Sorbonne class) told us that there was going to be a fireworks show! All the restaurants were closed or packed, so we ended up grabbing some fast Lebanese food, but the lady who was serving me was so rude! She kept asking me to repeat my order because every time I started talking, she would start talking to her friend who was nearby or something. Then, she dropped my food, picked it up and acted like nothing had happened. When she heard me complaining to Justine, she looked at my face (which was very unhappy, to say the least) and asked me if I wanted a new one. NO DUH. So rude. At that point, I was just annoyed and the food wasn't even that great. Just expensive. Totally ruined my appetite too. All in all, I just did not enjoy the experience and will probably be avoiding Lebanese food for a long time (I really didn't like the taste of it!).
Luckily, the fireworks show really cheered me up. C'était super! Vraiment! It was the best fireworks show I have ever seen. It was a bunch of vignettes of people traveling around the world or something and although some parts were kind of weird and just politically incorrect, it was quite entertaining. I ran out of space so I have some snippets of the show recorded from my camera. There was one part (I MISSED IT UGHH) where they were making fun of Americans - a girl with an awful valley girl accent was talking about baguettes and the Eiffel Tower and just BUTCHERING her French. It was awful but also hilarious. Then it suddenly turned into NYC and it was hilarious.
Anyways, before I show you the videos and pictures, I just wanted to let you know that in one of them, my friend says a very bad word. I didn't want to watch all of them to figure out if you can actually hear it, but you'll probably hear me say "Adam! You can't say that! I'm recording!" LOL so please just disregard that. Also, at some points, they sync'ed the sound of the fireworks with the music and it was super cool! I'm in love with France. Okay here are the pictures/videos:
So many people behind us!
Even more in front of us! *Take a look at the Grande Arche de la Défense
*Look at it now! This is when I realized this fireworks show is more than just fireworks! They are projecting visuals onto the arch itself! So cool!
Okay so this is proof that I have friends. This is Justine. Say "Hi Justine."
This is, from left to right, Boba Guy (he owns a boba shop across the street from the Sorbonne and I actually don't know his name because it is complicated Chinese + his speech is very slurred = I couldn't really hear what his name was LOL), Adam's apartment mate(?) whose name I have forgotten now...), and Adam! Sorry for the flash, you guys!
Me and Natasha! Sorry I look way to happy in this but that's just how I smile ;A;
* ~ * ~ * ~ *
OK I know I promised videos but I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I should go about doing that because the Blogger video interface thing is weird and lame. I will update this post later....
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