dinner parties.

alas, i do not have any photos from our cute little dinner together at mike's apartment last night because i forgot my camera =[ sammy took a few, but she hasn't put them up. in any case, about 10 of us ventured out to the um...i-don't-know-which-arrondissement because mike cooked us a delicious dinner at his fantastic pad. some people brought cheese and baguettes, so we munched on those while sipping on some wine (obviously i chose to bring that...). then we had onion soup, salad and steak! oh and spaghetti! he really went all out. for dessert, we had french cookies that kristen brought and then watched the light show at the eiffel tower from the balcony. so amazing.

as for days before that, monday was pretty standard with a side of sheer exhaustion. after class, i booked my trip to nice (YES) and then came back to my room to get some stuff done before i met up with jodi, steph and sammy for some picnicking on the seine! see? told you i'd do it everyday. i made a salad to bring with me and the other girls had baguettes and cheese. people eat that a lot in paris, in case you haven't noticed...and jodi took a few cute pictures so i'm just going to steal them =]

sammy hard at work...

the four of us!

tuesday, aka yesterday, was long as anything. class all day and then i rushed to get the wine to bring to the dinner party...which i already told you about...and then today i was absolutely shot for some reason. in fact, i'm pretty shot everyday for some reason. or no reason? i don't know. i have a midterm friday, which BLOWS, but then i've got versailles on saturday and i fully plan on going out clubbing this weekend since i'll be missing thursday night's festivities to study. ohhh summer school. wish me luck?

p.s. i still miss you.

listening to LA radio in Paris...

is awesome.

homework now, picnic on the seine later. life is brilliant.

sunshine, gardens and wine tastings!

what a sick weekend.

friday night, carley, jodi and i went by the seine after dinner to chill for a little and check out the eiffel tower. it was awesome, not to mention ridiculously relaxing? i legit wanna do that every single day for the next 2 weeks and 5 days that i'm here. afterwards, we went and sat down on the lawn by the tower and watched the light show. there were a million people there with wine and picnics and it was so adorable. i definitely wanna do that at some point, too. sitting there just made me so happy, it was ridiculous.

saturday morning, aka yesterday, we left for the loire valley at 7:30. our first stop was the chateau de chenonceau. it was really beautiful (and built on top of a bridge, which is really cool), but it was kind of a disappointment. the front was being renovated so there was a huge tarp, and the guided tour was really cramped because the rooms were small and well, there are 80 of us. still, it was cool to see it.

the second stop was da vinci's manor. it was absolutely beautiful. we just walked through his house and got to see all of his inventions and things. sam and i got ice cream and checked out the garden in the back, which was the most beautiful of all. it was just kind of overgrown and natural with cute little paths and streams and things. i loved it.

the last place we went to was actually a "surprise," and a lovely one, at that. gabriel took us to a winery and we had the owner explain to us how the wine is made. the best part was that afterwards we all go to try the red, white and rose with goat cheese because "the french don't drink without eating." lol. i think he just tells us that so we don't aim to get drunk at these things...at around 8pm, we got to the hotel, grabbed some dinner in town (totally delicious and not a baguette, thank you very much) and then passed out. we had breakfast in the hotel this morning and then headed out for chambord at 9:30. today was by far my favorite day of the excursions, so far. the chateau was ginormous. they said it took over 30 years to make and on the 4 floors there were over 300 rooms. the staircases were all double helixes and when you walk on one side, you'll never see the people on the other side, even though you're right next to them. crazy!

we obviously took a ton of pictures and then had some lunch. our second "surprise" was either a bike ride or a boat ride at the chateau...but we all know that since i can't ride a bike, i didn't exactly have a choice. haha. the boat was actually really cute, and i love sonia so it was a good time.

cutie =]

our last surprise was a cookie tasting...um, yum. i almost bought a bag, but figured it would be a waste since i'd probably just be eating them all right now for dinner. no good. overall, it was SUCH a great weekend. now i've got to attend to homework, another week of class, and then versailles on saturday! oh! and i'm going to nice in the south of france my last weekend here =]

au revoir, lovelies.

le quartier latin!

bonjour! and happy friday =]

the past few days have been quite busy with class and homework (ew? it's summer. oh well.), but we all managed to make out it out wednesday night! a bunch of us headed to the latin quarter around 10:30. that place is hoppin', to say the least. i felt a little like i was in times sqaure...except times square sucks and the latin quarter is awesome. we wandered around for quite a bit browsing for a chill bar and ended up sitting down at this place that played really loud, good music and had sparklers on every drink. sick? pretty much.

it was all around good times, but i had to leave with a few girls a little early because i had to be up at 8 for class...which ended up being totally fine and resulting in the most ridiculous thing that's happened to me in Paris yet. apparently it's normal here for a boy to grab your face and kiss you as he's walking past you on the subway and then return 5 minutes later to do it again, sit next to you and then tells you he loves you, baby. only 18, too...ballsy.

aaaaanyway, yesterday was class alll day, aka 9-5, but our lunch break was nice. i got something other than a baguette (again, awesome) and a few of us sat in the luxembourg gardens. the weather is finally getting nice, thank goodness. paris is so much easier to appreciate when i don't have to hold an umbrella in front of my face. after class, we had a group trip on a bateau mouche on the seine...

...which jodi and i failed to attend because we ended up getting stuck at a cafe. instead of telling us they didn't serve dinner until 7, the waiter told us our food would be ready in 10 minutes. IT TOOK 40. we literally ate our food in 3 minutes (it was delicious, by the way) and RAN to the subway. unfortunately, the bateau mouche was about 45 minutes away and there was absolutely no way we were going to make it...so we got on a later one, just the two of us, and it actually worked out perfectly fine...well, more than fine! and i got some good pictures.

today was just class in the morning and then jodi and i went for a walk/to the ISA meeting. i'm just hanging out now, but we're going to the eiffel tower or seine or something with a bottle of wine later so that should be lovely. i can't believe it's already friday afternoon. things are going by really quickly, yet i feel like i've been here for so much longer than 2 weeks. i have a feeling the next 3 are going to fly, but i'll have to sit through about 70 hours of french before this is over so that doesn't sound very appealing...oh well. i'll be sure to do fun things in between. donc, c'est tout! au revoir, mes amis...vous me manquez beaucoup.

oh dorm life, how i missed thee.

okay maybe not a lot, but i think it's pretty awesome when all of your friends are max 5 minutes away from you.

i haven't updated in the past few days because monday i had an oral placement exam and then i went gallavanting with brittney. we were all so stressed out about that test that we figured we deserved some time to shop. first, we grabbed lunch (baguette and orangina, obviously) and brittney got a really cute mini pain au chocolat...

i, however, did not because i've sworn off croissants and crepes until two days before i go home. i will absolutely blow up like a balloon if i continue that habit! oh, i also randomly found the restaurant i ate at for my 13th birthday =] it was really exciting.

anyway, yesterday was my first day of class/we found out which levels we were placed into. i seriously thought i spoke terribly during my examen, but apparently not because i got bumped up from intermediate 2 into intermediate 3/advanced? curious. it's kind of awesome and kind of really terrifying at the same time. class was a total of 6 hours yesterday, as it will be every tuesday and thursday, but mondays, wednesdays and fridays are only 9am-12pm. thank goodness. after class i moved into the fondation des etats-unis!

i was actually having a terrible evening - i screwed up my internet so i had to wait until this afternoon to get it back, i needed to do laundry but only one machine was working for the entire building, and i was starving but the cafeteria is gross. it's all good though, because everything got done and i still got to hang out with jodi, steph, sammy and carley. today after class, carley came with me to zara again because i wanted to try on some shorts...and i got these:

i wonder when i'm going to stop dressing like i'm 12 years old...

okay, that's all for now. i think i'm going to a bar with the girls later? 3 weeks and 4 days left!!! but hey, who's counting? oops...

weekend excursions.

okay i just wrote out my entire entry and uploaded all the photos and then it randomly deleted because i'm an idiot. and there's no way i'm writing it all again.

in a nutshell, we went to normandie this weekend and it was cool. war is scary. i hate being on a bus for 5 hours. the end.

i miss new york.

discotheques.

so i didn't post yesterday because i was actually enjoying my first night out in paris =] during the day i had a meeting for ISA and then I went for lunch/shopping with some other girls. i really like the people in this program and i have to say, it's kind of nice being around people that aren't from nyu (aside from my friends, of course. i miss you all, by the way). after that, i came back to my apartment to take a nap (i get so tired here for no reason...i should be used to walking all day) and then we got ready to go out at around 10. our plans got kind of screwed up because we all wanted to drink some wine on the champs elysees together and then head over to the club, buuuut it was raining. that kind of sucked, but i ended up just hanging out here with the roomies.

you can buy wine at like, corner stores here. it's awesome. anyway! the club was ridiculous...the entrance was on the side of the sidewalk that's more towards the cars and there was a stairway downstairs. it was student night or rather "f*ck school" night, if you will. we all ended up getting in for free, so that was cool, and then american boys bought us drinks. basically, all i spent money on was half a bottle of wine and the cab ride home. sweet deal. i can't wait to do it again.

today was productive, despite my lack of classes yet again. i woke up super early and went to the marais district to find that thrift store/have some ridiculously amazing falafel.

i ended up just getting the sweater i wanted and not the jean shorts...but i'm definitely gonna try and go again before i leave. they have good stuff. after that, i went to montmartre to meet jill and hillary. we walked all the way up to the sacre coeur and it was gorgeous.

we walked around town a bit, too, and then went all the way to the louvre so the girls could see the pyramids and le jardin tuilleries. as much as i hate the louvre, it's really gorgeous from the outside. we walked through the garden, saw the obelisk and then wandered around a bit.

we grabbed coffee and pain au chocolat before we split up and then i met jodi for dinner somewhere i've never been before (and to be honest, i have no idea what the name is). in conclusion, i'm absolutely exhausted from a ton of walking and little sleep...but it was totally worth it. tomorrow is normandy...we're waking up at 6:30, god help me. pumped! mkay, bye.