So, today, I woke up late for class. I really need to buy an alarm clock. It was sort of funny, because I woke up to Sutton walking into my room asking if I was ready to go to class, and when she saw I was still in bed, she wondered if I was still going. I guess she forgot that she's the one who has the alarm clock, and I don't. So then she waited on me (I felt so dumb) but I guess it was a good thing. I think she was about to leave without breakfast - but since she had time, she went ahead and had it.
So we got to class about 20 minutes late, but it wasn't too bad since the teacher didn't have a key to the Institute, so he had to wait on Mme. Sprenger to come and open up the building. All was well. I think this is going to be my favorite class so far - I'm excited! For this class, we'll never have it at the Institute. Since it's Art History, we're going around to the museums to look at the ACTUAL, ORIGINAL painting/piece of artwork instead of just a copy or picture of it! And the teacher is amazing. His name is Bernard Zernheld, and he's not Mormon, but he has such a passion for his profession and he has such an open mind, so I can already tell that this is going to be THE most amazing class of all time, yay! In fact, the time flew by so quick, that by the time it was time to go, we were all caught by surprise, and no body minded when he requested that we go 20 minutes over (and then we ended up going 10 minutes over that, lol).
Then after class, he took about 7 of us out to lunch and we got to know him a little bit more. He hails from Boston, took 13 years to finish his major (mostly because he used a lot of time going abroad instead of working on his major). He had planned on teaching in Paris for 3 years, but then by the time it was time to go back, nobody wanted Art History professors, so he decided to stay. And now we're gonna learn from him! He's so fun to talk to.
After that, I went out on a Paris walk for one of my classes with two others. It was so cool! I took loads of pictures, but unfortunately, I had forgotten to memory card at the house, so it's all on the camera and I don't know how to transfer it onto the computer. We walked by the Louvre (I'll be able to go in some other time, but that it one big museum!) and then towards the Conseil d'Etat. In between those two buildings, to the right is Le Louvre des Antiquaires. Holy cow, we walked through there, and those things are gorgeous! Of course, I don't have the money, but it doesn't cost anything to drool over the windows, does it? I think I found a Farberge pin, but unfortunately, I can't post that picture since it's not on my memory card. How frustrating!
Then after we finished window shopping, we passed the Conseil d'Etat to the Jardin du Palais Royal. It's gorgeous. At first, we walked through this courtyard (beautiful building, weird looking black and white things. Turns out to be some controversial sculptures by the artist Daniel Buren) and it was pretty weird looking, but it was fun for picture taking. Eventually we made it to the actual gardens, which were absolutely stunning.
We walked out of the garden, and just down the street was the Bibliothèque nationale. It was HUGE! As in massive! And that's just from the outside! Unfortunately, we couldn't go in because it was going through renovations and would be opened again on the 19th of September. Mauvaise chance! We also went past this building called the Bourse - the French Stock Market. It was a huge and beautiful building with a bunch of kids playing soccer in the square.
And then - my favorite part of the whole walk - we went through la passage des Panoramas. It started the whole idea of a mall, and it was beautiful. It's a covered passage - small streets covered with glass roofs - which allow people to be sheltered from rain and weather and shop in comfort. The passage des Panoramas was created in 1800 and is one of the oldest existing covered passages in Paris. There were absolutely no tourists to speak of here, so I suppose that it's something known only to the natives, which was awesome. We found a post office store with letters left at the post office for years, and now they are being sold. I bought a postcard for 2 euros with a little note on back. But the post card is a black and white photo of l'Eglise Saint-Ouen in Rouen (a little town in France). I can't tell how old it is, but it looks ancient. We even found one that had dated back to 1901! Incredible!
We also found a little candy shop. It was really cute. We went inside, and the workers there kept giving us free samples, and when we bought some things, they gave us more free samples. It's something that I would be willing to go to again. But something I'm rather proud of myself for is that I held a conversation with them in French, and they didn't revert to English!!! A lot of the French people here will talk to you in English regardless if you speak French or not. It gave me an opportunity to see how we I could understand the natives, and I have to say, again, I'm pretty dang proud of myself.
Eventually, I went home and met with Sutton. She wanted to go wandering around the Bolongue (where we live) so we went and she took pictures. The area where we live is adorable. It's amazing how much vegetation they fit in between all of the buildings. I really like it. And then as we were heading home, we found a sign that pointed in the direction of la Bibliothèque Paul Marmottan. The library (btw). It was amazing, because when we walked in, we showed them our student cards (for getting into museums and monuments for free), they bent over backwards to show us the place. They even put us on a guided tour of the library. It wasn't anything like I had expected. I had expected to see libraries like the ones back home, but this was more like a museum than anything else, and all the information behind the things they had was amazing. The library has a specialized selection of books for students about history (I think?) and they had original furniture used by Louis Bonaparte. Whoa. It was... incredible. And I think some things were lost in translation, but I couldn't tell if the library lady said that Louis had worked at those desks specifically, or if he had worked in that building. Nevertheless, it was cool with a capital "C."
It was so cool, when we had finished the tour, we talked the library people for a bit afterward, and they gave us some little booklets about the library. (Two of them - a guy and a lady) They asked us where we were from, why we were here, if we were staying with a French family. We told them that we were staying on Rue de l'Est with the Thonards, and the lady got all excited and said that she knew Mme. Thonard. She said Mme. Thonard had talked about us with her, and she told us to say hello to Mme. Thonard for her, changed her mind and called her instead then and there. Had to share the news immediately. It was hilarious. Small world, eh?
Then Sutton and I went out to eat at a cute little restaurant across from the library. I had duck (delicious). It was a bit expensive, but when we got home and told Edian about it, he said that most places were expensive for dinner. Lunch is generally more for less. Something to keep in mind. It also was a good reminder for us to go shopping for food to cook when we don't have dinner with the family. (Dinner is 3 nights a week.)
Oh, and here is the one and only picture I could upload, of a statue on the roundabout in front of the library:
A tout à l'heure!
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