Week Two!

The last week has been CRAZY!!!

With stage finally completed, we had most days off to explore the city - and the nightlife. Classes were supposed to begin on Wednesday for me, but were postponed to next week. That is one thing about the french university system, they do not keep students in the loop. If a professor decides to not have class he will just not show up, and it is completely acceptable! When I arrived at class on Wednesday, for example, the room was pitch black and there was no note anywhere. So we went to the secretary's office, where we were informed that classes in our department were pushed back a week. At UMASS this would have made me very excited, but here it is slightly annoying. I really want to start classes, not necessarily for the work, but for the organization of having a schedule. So now hopefully I will start some classes next Tuesday (although some don't start for another two weeks)! The other thing about school is that we still do not have our french student cards. This means that it is impossible for us to actually enroll in classes, and we need to pay to get into museums that would normally be free to us because we are "french" students. According to the international students office this was supposed to be done last week, which in French terms means that we will hopefully get them this upcoming week.

On Tuesday night, I went to an International Student Dinner held at Diderot. It was informative, and I met other international students from the Boston area, Germany, and even Poland. We even recieved free Diderot tee shirts (which made it worth going to) and lanyards. After, we went to the giant Ferris wheel located in the heart of the city. The Ferris wheel is only open during the winter season for Christmas, but gives an amazing view of the city. I went on with a bunch of friends and we had a great time, although I was scared when we got to the top of the wheel!

Wednesday was my friend TJ's birthday. We celebrated by going out to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Chatelet, before heading out to a club/bar. It was a good time for sure!

On Thursday night, we went out again, this time to a salsa bar!! I can not salsa to save my life, but it was fun regardless.

Friday night five of us (me, Ellen, TJ, Molly, and Marissa) went to The Crazy Horse- think a classier Moulin Rouge- to celebrate TJ's 21st birthday. Each ticket came with half a bottle of very nice champagne, which even I (the non-champagner/wine drinker) enjoyed! The show was very...interesting, but I had a very good time as did all of my friends. Earlier in the day I finally found boots! And both pairs were 80 percent off of the original price (as it is the third week of the soldes). Boo yahhh!