June 18th, 2012

Today, I came in second in a photo contest for the program. It was a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night but the cool thing was it was taken from the metro so you could see the Seine river as well. I was beat by one point. ONE POINT! But I still think my photo was pretty darn spectacular!

June 17th 2012

Today, I conquered Paris. By me saying that, I mean that I took the bus to a stop close to my destination, walked to where I wanted to go, and found the closest metro stop and navigated the metro system to get back to where I needed to be. It made me feel like a true Parisian. Maybe I will actually miss this place...

June 16th, 2012

Today, I played the piano for the first time since I was in France. Even though I don't take lessons or learn new music anymore, piano is something that I like to do just to see if I still can. It was wonderful to sit down and just play for me. I loved every minute of it.

June 15th, 2012

Today, was awesome. I read all day. I left my room once to get dinner. That's it. It was amazing.

June 14th, 2012

Today, I got to be part of a live studio audience for a French news show! It was such an interesting experience! We were told to wear bright colors specifically, and we had to dress up. We got there and were told our queues and what to expect once the cameras started rolling. If that wasn't enough, it turns out that we were right behind all the guests on the show, so when watching the show online or looking at photos, we're actually in a lot of them! It's pretty spectacular to have made my mark like that.

June 13th, 2012

Today, we got to see the Victor Hugo House!!! Ever since reading Demain, dès L'aube, Hugo has been one of my favorite French writers. It was so interesting to see where he lived and how some of his masterpieces came to be!

I also tried my first felafel. It was definitely an interesting experience, because I had no idea what one was to begin with. The actual felafel was really good and I may have to try another one before I leave!

June 12th, 2012

Today was our group wide excursion to Mont Saint Michel. A small thing today that is definitely made smile was seeing signs to the exit to St. Brieuc. It was so nice to see the familiarity of my first summer in France. It made me miss it much more than I would have expected.

June 11th, 2012

Today, was by far my favorite day of the trip. I mean, when else can you say that you got a library card in a foreign country, walked on the same steps that Owen Wilson did when he filmed Midnight in Paris, found Ernest Hemingway's old apartment, and find out you're going to be on a French talk show on Thursday? Crazy, but awesome crazy =D

June 10th, 2012

Today, I greatly enjoyed the fact that two of the people I bonded with most on this trip came back from Venice. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was able to have a good weekend without them. But it was definitely nice to get some estrogen back into our group and us all being together just made everything seem to work more cohesively.

June 9th, 2012

Today, we went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Now, I know I go along acting like there's nothing really interesting to me about Paris, I've seen it all before, blah blah blah. And I even have seen the Eiffel Tower lit up at night before. BUT. I'm fairly certain that it is the most beautiful thing at night in the world. Ever. Like...literally breath taking. Seeing that reminded me why I love French in the first place =)

June 8th, 2012

Today, a group of friends and I had full intentions of being American. Go to the Arc de Triomphe to take tourist-y pictures and then to a Pizza Hut I had earlier found. Well, even though we went to the Arc, this little old lady heard me say "pardon" and asked if I spoke French, and then asked where the nearest metro station was IN FRENCH! It was glorious =)

And then, we found out that the Pizza Hut was a grab n' go, not a sit down place. So we went literally three doors down to find the tiniest little pizzeria I had ever seen. There was just one guy working, and he spoke French to us and called me a princess =) The food was soooo good and we were the only ones in the place! It was wonderful to go off the map and just try something new out!

June 7th, 2012

Today, I was able to watch the season premier of Dance Moms. I absolutely love that show back home and I finally was able to find a link that would play in Europe. It was fun to be able to catch up on what I had missed on Tuesday.

June 6th, 2012

Today, I had intentions to just laze around the FIAP and maybe go run an errand or so. A pretty laid back day with no class. Instead, I ran into some friends who invited me to explore the city with them. I have to say it was nice to be walking at our own pace talking about anything and everything rather than the boring day I had planned.

June 5th, 2012

Today, I reveled in the fact that all the photos I have taken of Paris so far have been with my iPhone. Even though I brought a camera, I haven't needed to use it because my iPhone is taking some pretty spectacular photos! It's nice to not have to carry around a bunch of stuff when we're going on excursions, especially in some of the gypsy-filled squares. Since it all stays on my wrist there isn't a problem!

June 4th, 2012

Today, our program director approached me asking if he could interview me to assess my oral proficiency in the French language. How cool is that? He knew that I spoke French well enough that he wanted to actually see my proficiency! I thought that was extremely neat and can't wait to find out how proficient I actually am!

June 3rd, 2012

Today, we went to a little cafe close to where our building is for lunch. It was so quaint and we were able to sit outside. There was a group of five of us and it was Italian food they offered. I had this absolutely amazing ravioli in a cheese sauce...it was so magnificent. Like something I had never tasted before! I absolutely could not believe the flavors inside, it was just simply delicious.

June 2nd, 2012

Today, I realized that I will never tire of people enjoying hearing me speak French. I had to make a phone call to the reception desk because we were not given towels today (they're changed every other day) and none of my roommates wanted to make the call in English. So I made the call in French. Each one of them was staring at me, jaw agape. I suppose this trip, even though I feel I'm not learning anything, is showing me that I do know more than I give myself credit for, as well as build my confidence to speak the language.

June 1st, 2012

Today, I noticed that on my blog URLs I typically go through the blogger.com homepage and such, so I don't type in my URL very often. Well I went to copy the URL to put on Facebook, and I noticed that instead of .com, it's now .fr . I know that's for French websites, but I hadn't realized it would do the same thing for publishing things in French!