Last Wednesday, I saw a violin and piano recital with Yura Lee and Dina Vainshtein. It was amazing. It was a small, intimate performance hall, and Tufts paid for it, so of course I liked it. No really, they played Mozart, Prokofiev, Ysaye, Debussy, and Tchaikovsy. It was really nice, and the violinist was really quite marvelous. I don't know a lot about violin technique, but it was still amazing. One of the best parts of the performance was before the show when an usher asked if I would give flowers to the pianist at the end of the performance. I was told it was because I'm blond. (I'm still not sure why that's important, but c'est la vie.) So I said sure, why not? So I sat through the performance with a wicked large bouquet of flowers, and then I got to present them at the end of the concert. 'Twas quite random, but fun.

Friday night when I was waiting at the St. Michel fountain with Kelly, some guy asked where we were going and if he could come with us. And we were like, sorry, we're waiting for someone. And he asked, are you lady friends? And Kelly started to say no, but I took her arm and said yes. And he looked at me and said, oh, so you like girls? And I nodded, and he walked away. Good times.

Also, I saw a man coming from the grocery store, and all he had in his bag was cheese and cigarettes. How French, eh?

Saturday, Tufts took us on a short day trip to Fontainebleau where there is a lovely chateau. They also gave us 10 euros for lunch, which is always welcome. We even managed to eat a good sandwich with a pastry for only 5 euros. Mmm... chocolate eclairs. The castle was nice. I guess Napoleon lived there, and there are these huge entrance stairs where he descended and ascended. Good times. There were apartments inside, and it was nicely furnished, and there were lots of spectacular pieces of furniture and paintings, like most castles. It was cool to go, and I'm glad to say I've been.

Then that night was also technically St. Patrick's Day (some mumbo jumbo with the Roman Catholic Church and Holy Week...), so we went out to an Irish pub... what else? It was great! It was crowded and drunken, and they were playing great American 80's music. Kelly has a great video of us singing Tainted Love. Good times. Then I was the only one who had to take three metro lines to get home, and of course, I missed the last one. Ugh. So I had to borrow money from Chantel to take a cab. (I still owe her money for that.)

Sunday, Kelly and I went to see an opera by Stravinsky called The Rake's Progress at Palais Garnier. I didn't know that Stravinsky wrote operas, and now I know why. It was pretty terrible, but at least we got to say we saw a show at Palais Garnier. We even had our own private box in the nosebleed, can't-get-enough-oxygen section. It was great. However, I did have two extra tickets, cuz people flaked on me. So I awkwardly stood outside the theatre holding up the tickets, hoping someone would buy them off me. Some Spanish-speaking people came over and asked, but I think there were four of them, so that didn't work. Then some random dude came up to me, grabbed the tickets, peered at them, and handed me a 20. And I was like, sweet, fully reimbursed. Pure luck! I think he sold them to someone else for a higher price. Fneh. I was just happy to not be broke. Anyway, show was not so great... with a wicked random story about making deals with the devil... kinda like Damn Yankees.

Then Monday was a repeat of Saturday night cuz it was like real St. Patrick's Day. So we went to another Irish pub and did flavored vodka shots. Mmm... vodka caramel. It was pretty sweet, and the bartender was totally cute, so it was worth it.

I would also officially like to announce that I am finished planning my spring break. We have finished booking flights, trains, buses, hostels, hotels, and apartments. Phew! It's two weeks, and we're going to Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, and Munich. I'm so stoked, cuz it's gonna be awesome! We leave one month from today, and also today, I've been here exactly two months! I guess it does go by pretty quickly. Be home in two and a half months.