Oy... so I'm almost fully recovered from my sickness. Just a little stuffy nose... but I'm pretty much better... which means... back to having fun!

So I didn't do much this week, cuz I was lame and sleeping all the time. I ended up being late for class a lot, because I was still sleeping and tired... Boo. But my language professor was also sick... which was gross when she sneezed on my paper and then handed it back to me. Oy. That was also the most boring class of my life. No joke. I could have hanged myself... we did nothing at all interesting or even applicable to any aspect of life... ever. Even worse than my class at Le Catho on Wednesday, my "urban planning" class. I don't know why there are so many people in the course. I'm only there cause it looked easy, and Monique recommended I take it. Maybe that makes me a horrible person, but I'm really not here to take classes. None of them apply to my major, and most aren't even interesting to me. I stayed awake for the first hour and fifteen minutes or so, then I slept for the last forty-five. But I have four other Tufts friends in the class, so they'll keep me adrift... I hope.

Anyway, Friday was our first art history class at an actual museum. It was at Musee d'Orsay, and I'm not sure if I've already been there or not. But it was cool. This will probably be my most interesting class. I hope that means I'll do well in it. We looked at some pre-impressionist stuff and then some impressionist stuff. The course is mostly on impressionism, so I think my mom would like it. :) Anyway, she had just sent an email out about not being late... because they don't have time to wait for latecomers... blah blah blah. And course, I was late. So I'm freaking out... thinking... where could they be? how will I get in? I don't wanna pay... who can I ask? will they know what I'm talking about? crap, I have to go through security... I hope my bag's not to big... where ARE they?

Of course, I was only 4 minutes late... and I ask a guy, and he says go through security and down the stairs. So I go through security, and then I can't find the freaking stairs! Somehow, I must be magical, I made it through without buying a ticket... and it wasn't even difficult. No one even looked at me. Nice.

Then I'm wandering through the ginormous entrance thinking... how in the world do I find them? ...

I turn around, and they're right behind me! They just got in, and they hadn't even done anything yet. I must really rock. Sort of. I'd still rather not be late again... ever.

So that was nice. Then that night we had amazing pizza somewhere. There's a French dish called a tartiflette, and it's basically cheese, potatoes, and bacon (everything that is good in the world). And they had a tartiflette pizza, and oh, was it heaven. Then we tried to go to this nice wine tasting place, but of course, you need a reservation for 7 freaking people. So we wandered down a really long road... forever and ever... until I thought I was going to die. It might not have been so bad if I hadn't been walking in new 3-inch heels on cobblestone, and I really needed to pee, and I might have been slightly intoxicated. But we eventually made it to this cozy wine place... very intellectual-looking with books covering the shelves, and nice looking people everywhere. Basically, I had a lot of wine. It's easy to do when you share a bottle of the cheapest wine with six people. Then someone broke a glass... whoops! We also got cheese... cuz what else do you really do with wine? Anyway, I eventually made it home, and I slept a little before we went to Reims!

This weekend was awesome, cuz Sophia, Chantel and I (aka Team Bubbly) went to Reims for the weekend. It's in the Champagne region of France, which is where champagne was invented. Cool, huh? We (and by we, I mean I) almost missed the train Saturday morning, cuz I didn't realize it would take me almost an hour to get to the freaking train station! Then of course, my American credit card wouldn't work to get the tickets. Blahh!!! So we had to cut in line to ask the people what to do. It wasn't a problem, but I was sooo worried we would miss the train! Then it only took 45 minutes to get from Paris to Reims! What? It takes longer to get from Boulogne-Billancourt to Gare de l'Est than from Paris to Reims. Crazy!

Anyway, when we arrived, we decided the best thing to do was follow random signs/people to the tourism office. This was a totally excellent decision. We found it without too much trouble, and the city of Reims isn't that big, so we could walk everywhere! Then the nice man at the tourism office gave us 12-euro passes that got us into a champagne cave for a tour and a free tasting, an audioguide for the Cathedrale Notre Dame, and entrance to 4 museums. And to put that slightly in perspective, a normal champagne cave tour is bout 12 euros, the audioguide is 5.50, and each museum is a few euros. So... good deal, I believe, since we did everything... except for the planetarium... sorry Chantel.

So we started with the audioguide for the Cathedrale Notre Dame. I think we were there for over an hour. It was absolutely gorgeous, and the audioguide was filled with information. And there were these beautiful stained glass windows in the back painted by Marc Chagall. Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous. It was fun. Then we went to the Palais du Tau, which is right next door. It was a free museum, that used to be a palace... I guess. And it had very little stuff in it. I think it was where the banquets were held after each coronation of the French kings. We learned a lot about Clovis, the first king of France, in like AD 486 or something. He was the first crowned here, and the first baptized here, and the first everything here. Clovis, Clovis, Clovis. Maybe I'll name my firstborn Clovis.



Then we ate... we were starving! I had a huge sandwich... as usual. And Chantel and I had a our first glass of champagne in Reims. Of course, it's really meant to go with desserts... but... we're classy like that. Then we walked all the way south to the Musee St-Remi and the Basilique St-Remi. The museum had lots of random unrelated stuff. From military costumes and weapons to pottery and a skeleton from people before Christ to random Roman sculptures and religious stuff. Crazy times. But amusing. Then the basilica was cool. Less cool than the cathedral, but you know... not everyone can live up to such standards.

Then we moseyed on over to the Pommery Champagne Caves. We got a half-hour tour of the caves where they make champagne. It was really cool. And we saw a really old bottle... like 150-year-old bottle of champagne, I think. Then we got free samples, which, you know, is always cool.

Then we hiked back up to dinner at a really awesome Mexican restaurant. It was sooo necessary. I was sooo happy to eat Mexican food again. Sooo delicious! Except for maybe the grapefruit salad we had. It was lettuce, grapefruit, salmon, avocado, lemon, and salad dressing. Odd combination. Probably wouldn't ever do it again.

Then we went to our hostel, which was actually wicked awesome. It was cheap, and it included breakfast, and we had our own room with our own shower and toilet. Amazing! It was totally clean, and the beds were really comfortable. And I think we crashed around 10pm. It was very necessary.

We woke up at 8am the next morning for breakfast... with a random high school group. Yay. And we went back to the cathedral for 930am mass to hear the organ play. I suppose we should have known it wouldn't be the big organ, even though it was the first Sunday of Lent. I guess that's not too important. Whatever.

We then walked up to the Musee de la Reddition, which is where the surrender of Germany at the end of WWII took place, before it was again signed in Berlin. (I think the Russians weren't present at the first signing, so they demanded it happen again.) Anyway, it took places at Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, so it was the War Room or the Map Room. And there were all these maps on the walls and stats and everything from May 6, the day before they signed the surrender. It was sooo cool. We felt so historical. And there were lots of cool pictures of Eisenhower and Churchill and De Gaulle. And there was even real footage of the signing. Ahh! It was awesome cool.



Then we returned by train, and it again took longer to get from the train station to my house than from Reims to Paris.

Also, when I got home, nothing was open, because it's Sunday. So I went to a patisserie and bought an almond croissant and ate it in the park across the street from my apartment. I watched the children play on the playground, and the older kids play basketball, and older couples sitting on benches, and naked marble statues doing pretty much nothing in the lake. 'Twas fabulous.



Also, I failed to mention that Kelly and I went to the Eiffel Tower at some point last week. And I'm finally posting pictures of where I live...