So I got through last weekend on my last update...let's see if I can officially get caught up on the week tonight.

Monday was death by French placement examination. Basically everyone enrolled at the Catho for this language program I'm in had to go in for an oral interview to make sure we were placed in the correct level from our online written exam last month. It really wasn't too, too horrible...but it still sucked. What exam doesn't? So I went shopping with Laura (one of the other KSU students) afterwards and bought a new purse to cheer myself up! =) We met Dr. Clark at 1 at the Catho, and we took the bus over to Notre Dame for our official inside visit. Notre-Dame is absolutely amazing. There's so much history and so many lessons in the structure; you could literally stare at that building for days and not run out of new bits of info. After Notre-Dame (located on the Ile de la Cite) we walked over to the Ile St. Louis for some glace (ice cream!). (The Ile de la Cite and Ile St. Louis are the oldest parts of the city. Way back in the day before Paris was Paris and before Caesar conquered the world and all that good stuff, a small tribe of natives inhabited these two islands located in the Seine River. If you're interested, the city of Paris has a really long and very interesting history, especially in it's development from a tiny farm tribe on the islands.) Anyways, point to this: the Ile St. Louis is basically just a residential area today, but it has some of the best glaceries in the whole city. (The glace and crepes are two must haves on any Parisian adventure.) After our ice cream (which super talented me sadly dropped half of mine on the street =[ ) we walked to l'Eglise St. Gervais and l'Eglise St. Paul. Beautiful churches, and again tons of history if I just had the brain cells to remember at the moment.

Tuesday was the first day of French classes at the Catho. French Universities (really European Universities in general) are a lot more strict in their langauge placements. You might be in advanced language classes at an American university, but at a European one you could get placed in an elementary or intermediate level. I tested into the Intermediate 1 with my written test, but because my speaking/comprehension skills aren't too great, I'm officially in Elementary 3, one level down. I think it will be good for me though, because speaking really is my biggest weakness right now in my French education. So I went to my first class, which wasn't too bad, had lunch, bought my text book, came home, and passed out for about 4 hours. I had planned on doing some work since I had a free afternoon, but almost as soon as I saw my bed, I was out. I woke up for a delicious dinner, though. I really don't know how to describe it, but was had what's called flammkueche. It's kind of like pizza without sauce, but so much better. Nina and I are completely in love with it.

Wednesday I had 6 hours of class, because I had my morning grammar class and afternoon writing class. (Normally the writing class is on Tuesdays, but it got changed to Wednesday for this week.) So yeah, class was class...so much fun...ha. :p After class we again met Dr. Clark; it was time for our Louvre trip. We focused mostly on the history of the building itself, instead of the beaucoup des oevres (lots of artwork). We saw the oldest section of the original palace of Henry IV, the beautiful architecture and details. We went through the exhibit that shows the evolution of the Louvre, from a Middle Ages structure to a Palace to the current museum structure. One of the coolest parts of the Louvre (in my opinion) is the section of original foundation from the Medieval fortress. It's crazy to walk through the excavations and to jsut think about what it used to be and how old the stones are. We went through a statue gallery (of which there are many, and I can't give more specifics about the one we were in), Napoleon III's royal apartments; we saw the Royal Crown jewels (including the Crown Napoleon used to crown himself emperor) and the Mona Lisa (of course). We also spent some time looking at a few famous French paintings (seeing as it is a French culture course); as horrible as it is, the only painter I remember off the top of my head is Delacroix, because he's the only French painter I had heard of before. That was the end of our official Louvre visit, and believe me it was more than enough. There is just so much in the Louvre, it's overwhelming, and you can really only do small increments of time to truly appreciate everything, or else it's too much.
(Side note: the Louvre is free-gratuit-Friday nights from 6-9:45 for students 18-26, and there's also apparently music on Friday nights.)

Thursday I had another wonderful 6 hours of class: grammer in the morning and a speaking/comprehension class in the afternoon. Again, tons of fun. We get 2 hours in between classes for lunch, which is commpletely normal for most Europeans, but for Americans it seems completely ridiculous. We eat lunch in 30 minutes and go back to school/work/etc. So after I was done with lunch in 1/2 an hour, I had no idea what to do for the next 90 minutes of my life. The Catho is located in the Latin Quater just around the corner from the Jardin du Luxembourg, so I decided to hang out in the park for an hour. It was actually really nice to just go sit and relax for an hour; the weather was beautiful and it's fun to watch all the people there (creeper, I know :p). Quick story time: I was sitting in the park, no body of water in sight as far as I could tell, and these two ducks waddle in front of me and start exploring the area. They were so cute, and it was so random! I loved it! After a wonderful and incredibly long lunch was more class, as I said. After classes ISA had a group outing organized: les Bateaux Mouches! (It literally mean fly boats, but they're just sight seeing cruises along the Seine.) We had 2 hours in between class and when we had to meet, so there was no point for me to come home (I have nearly an hour commute to school). I ended up going to Chatelet (a super massive mess of every metro line in the city, restaurants, cafes, and shops) with a few other people. We found this little restaurant that had pizza (they wanted pizza) and also just happened to have cheeseburgers and fries. I feel like I've done fairly well these last 2 weeks not eating pizza and burgers and fries, and I have yet to step foot in a McDonald's, and I LOVE all the tradition French meals I've been having, but I have to confess I broke down and ordered a cheeseburger with fries. And it was absolutely delicious. It really was a very good, legit monster hamburger, which surprised me. And I do feel kind of bad that I broke down...but it was so worth it. So after my treasonous burger for dinner, we went to the Bateaux Mouches for our boat ride! (The metro stop where we met right by the river also happens to be the at the same tunnel where Princess Di was killed, so that was kind of cool to see.) If you're ever in Paris and have the time and money, do the Bateaux Mouches; some of the best views in the city come from along the Seine, and this way you get to see them all! After the river, a group of us decided to go out for some dinner. We ended up wandering around for probably close to an hour, and we finally ended up at some small bar/cafe on a side street off the Champs Elysee. It was a lot of fun, and we all felt tres French. :p

And today (yeah, finally!), you guessed it, I had class again! Woo-hoo! Getting to class today was actually a super pain, because line 4 (the main line I take to get to the Catho) was having some problems; no idea what was going on, but it took forever and was super annoying. But I finally got there. After class, KSU went to the Musee d'Orsay. I was really excited for this trip, because I've wanted to go to the Musee d'Orsay since the last time I was here. It's a beautful museum right on the Seine; back in the day (the early 20th century) in was a train station that ran from Paris to Orleans. When electric trains came into use, the trains became too large for the station, so it fell out of use. It was eventually reopened as the museum. It houses a large impressionist and postimpressionist galley, so that was a lot of fun to look at. The building itself is absolutely beautiful, and I think I'm in love with it. We saw some van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Manet, Rodin, just to name a few and give an idea of the museum's collection. Nina actually joined us for that little excursion today, so when we were done with class there, Nina and I walked along the Seine to the Champs des Mars, the park that runs up to the Tour Eiffel. It was a long walk, but totally worth it with some great views and photo ops. We spent about an hour basking in the sun and enjoying the beauty that is the Eiffel Tower. We eventually wandered home and had a delicious dinner of smoked salmon and salad with Sylvie and Alice.

Nina and I made a wonderful discovery today: the amazing-ness that is "Where's Waldo?" in the States is called "Ou est Charlie?" in France. We found this "Ou est Charlie?" book in the museum gift shop today, and I had to buy it. I have to say, I love the fact that 2 of my 4 strictly souvenir purchases (both of which have been my only 2 museum purchases, as well) are actually children's books. How amazing is that? :) I now own a copy of "Ou est Charlie?" curtesy of the Musee d'Orsay, and a children's legneds of France book curtesy of the Musee du Moyen Age.

And now I am officially caught up! Woo-hoo! Go me =D I will eventually get more pictures of everything on here, but that will probably take me forever, because again, I'm a bum :) Now I get to go pack for this weekend; we are off to the Loire Valley tomorrow morning at 7:30!