Mon amie a perdu sa chaussure!

Well, it was another long day in paradise. What a droll :)

Got up, took a shower - oh, by the way! Speaking of showers! I already miss America for their showers. Here, they are pretty stickler about saving water and all. No more hot and long showers for me. How sad. I mean, there is hot shower, but Mme. Sprenger says that they have small tanks for their hot water, so it could get used up pretty fast, therefore we need to be more conservative. So, you get wet, turn off the water while you lather and stuff, rinse yourself off, and you're done. Maybe that's why the French don't shave...? Lol. Speaking of which, my roommate had to go to five different stores to find some razors. They only seemed to have men's razors, and she was beginning to get frustrated that she couldn't shave. Poor dear. I'm so glad I had the foresight to bring mine.

Finally met the host father - yay! He is very nice, and he speaks faster than the rest of the family. It's rather difficult to keep up with him, but it's a good sort of challenge. Not everyone will speak s-l-o-w-l-y with me. I'd better learn how to listen to fast conversation. He's an architect. Cool! I wonder what buildings he designed?

Sutton and I then went on the bus to the Institute. It's so much more preferable! If you knew how stinky the metros were... Let's just say the buses are much nicer, if slower and harder to navigate. I'm so glad we don't have to switch buses on the way to our stop. Besides, we get to see Paris! Not the nasty, graffiti underground.

So when we got there, I had about an hour and a half to kill, so I went ahead and wandered around a bit. I didn't go inside anywhere - just looked around. I started from where I was, walked past Hotel de Ville, crossed the bridge to Notre Dame, took a wide circle past St. Chappelle (I want to go in there so bad. From what I've heard of from Aunt Dale, it's gorgeous. Apparently it's 8 euros to get in, and I'm trying to figure out if my student id will get me in for free) back across another bridge, walked to this cute little roundabout with a huge fountain. After that, I walked along Rue de Rivoli and found this cute little park surrounding this monument (I forgot who it was for - for a saint, I know that much) and wandered around it a bit. I'm definitely having lunch there next time I get the chance.

And then I went back to the Institute and had class. This is going to be so cool. On Tuesdays, I have French 202, and I forgot this, but we'll be getting into the literature to actually use the French we have learned. Which means, lots of reading. Literature. We'll even have to do a presentation on a book of our own choice. Unfortunately, I can't do Phantom of the Opera. My teacher already knows how much I love that book, and she said that I had to choose a book I was not familiar with. Shucks. I really wanted to read that thing in French. Well, of course I still will have a chance, but to actually have an excuse to read it here in France. I don't think I'll have enough time, otherwise.

Then we had devotional. The thought was on "Strangers in a strange land." How fitting. It's a scripture in Alma, basically saying that we are blessed to have the gospel wherever we go, and that even if we are outside of any familiar surroundings, we can still have the Spirit dwell with us. At least, that's what I got out of it.

Ok, to explain this third picture, this is the Institute/church. That doorway right there is the entrance from the street, and everyone is standing around in the courtyard. Isn't it beautiful?

Then we went shopping! Actually, we started out looking for some shoes for one of the girls in our group (Alexi) who had lost one of her flip flops on the metro. It closed on her shoe, and she couldn't save it. So she walked all around Paris with one shoe on. Gross. The streets are pretty filthy here, so I feel awful that she had to walk around without a shoe. Still, I think it was slightly hilarious, especially since one of my flip flops went flying off the other day and I had to walk those few steps on the sidewalk to retrieve it. For the rest of that day, my foot felt absolutely filthy. Needless to say, I think Alexi was given the lesser hand.

Finally, Alexi gave up (since her feet are giant, and they sell nothing in her size here) and went home. So Sutton, two other girls (Trisha and Jessica), and I went to a mall over at La Défense. We went there because we were told they had Auchan, and equivalent to Walmart, I suppose. It wasn't until I actually saw the logo that I recognized it. We have that store at home! Whoa! Crazy. We got our stuff (mostly school supplies, plus two of them needed blow dryers and straighteners) and left. I had planned on going to the Louvre today, but by the time we were done, I was tired and was ready to go back. So Sutton and I went home. Here's "home" from the garden in the back. It's four stories (the basement has the washer). Sutton and I live on the top floor - that middle window is Sutton's bedroom. Mine is on the other side, on the street-facing view.

I also went around the local streets around home to see if I could find a hole puncher (le perforateur) but I think I heard the host mom's directions wrong, because I couldn't find it anywhere. At least I got to know my area better, because for once, I didn't get lost. Yay!

Then I did homework until we were called down for dinner at about 8:30. We had fish and potatoes, a salad, and some cheese (yum! Mom knows how much I love my cheese). I'm so glad I'll have a chance to eat fish on a regular basis. It's so good, and I wish we could have eaten it more when I was growing up. I guess I have Lauren to thank for that...

I learned a bunch of words today! I learned the word "le papillon" when I was explaining the butterfly museum at home. We also showed our host family where we live on the map. Mostly, we got on that subject when I tried to explain to them that I didn't live next to the Pacific Ocean, and then they didn't know the Gulf of Mexico. So out came the map and we pointed out the places where we lived.

Well, it's about time I went to bed. Just wanted to get this all down while it was fresh in my mind.