big things are coming

Written while contemplating the meaning of life and seriously wondering how I am turning 21 in just a little under two weeks.

HELLO!  As I write this, the sun is just now setting behind the trees in our Paris neighborhood, signaling the end of yet another day and our first full week in the IES program.  Wow.  It seems like just yesterday I lost my luggage and, well, you know the rest.  I am HERE.  I am sitting in my friend's room as we make our plans for the coming weekend.  "Hannah, what possibly could be happening this weekend?" you ask, wondering how a girl who loves Paris so much could even consider leaving its city limits with just a little over a week before leaving (for good).  "Well," I answer, "there is so much happening this weekend that I must leave the boundaries of the city of Paris and take my GoPro selfie stick, big appetite and walking shoes because I am going to not one, but TWO different places."  Okay, so maybe Versailles is just a little bit on the outskirts of Paris, but my classmates and I are going on Friday with our favorite student activities director (see previous post), even though it is supposed to be 91 DEGREES.  Are you kidding me?  This morning it was cold and rainy, and suddenly it is going from November to June?  Well, I'm actually kind of happy about that...okay, a lot happy.  I have never been to Versailles yet learned about it in two history classes in high school, so I am psyched to go check it out, take the RER train, and visit both palaces out there...pictures to come :)  "So Hannah," you ask, "what else are you doing this weekend?"  "Well," I answer, "I'm going somewhere I never thought I would go and touring a really cool place, which just happens to be called Brussels, Belgium.  While I will leave the details of our trip a secret (a.k.a. saving pictures and posting until after the trip so as I have something to write about), I can say that I am a little excited to take my first high-speed train, eat chocolate and waffles, and see some really cool monuments.  Okay, enough there, on to the good stuff.

I had class field study visits today.  That's right, not just 1, or 2 (because we totally did more than 2 in our first class today), but more like a few.  I say that only because it is getting late, I have reading to do, and clearly I am not the best at counting on the spot.  This morning we met our professor for Cities as Living Museums at Fauchon, a little bakery near the Madeleine church in the Opera district.  We then proceeded to visit both the Galleries Lafayette and Printemps Hausmann, two of the biggest department stores.  Yes, I know what you're thinking...why in the world would you visit a department store for class?  Well, it just so happens that department stores evolved with French women's freedom in the 19th century, as it was one of the first places that they could be seen in public.  Both are similar in variety, yet they differ in their architecture and style.  Personally, my favorite part was when we went to the rooftop bar of Galleries Lafayette and saw the most beautiful view of the whole city of Paris.  Pretty impressive, might I say.  We then proceeded to go to the banks of the Seine, where we sat and ate pastries from Fauchon and drank coffee while talking about our next visit: Musee d'Orsay (yes, I tried coffee for the first time. yes, I liked it. and yes, I added 1 sugar and some milk).  My mom's favorite museum in the world, I was so excited to finally see it for the first time (for free might I add-thanks IES for the student ID cards)!  Turns out, it used to be a train station back in the day and now houses some of the most famous pieces of art in the world.  We are going back on Wednesday before visiting the Pompidou Center, home of some of the most modern and contemporary art in all of Paris.

Who wouldn't want to shop in a department store with this beautiful roof? 

After our museum visit, my classmates and I mastered the RER train system and headed towards Jardin de Plantes, where we had our second class of the day.  With some free time, we stopped at a cute little brasserie restaurant, where I got a cheese omelette and they got some type of sandwich with cheese on top.  We then walked around the garden for a little bit before meeting Steve, our museum field study professor, for a tour of the Paris Museum of Natural History.  While not your traditional Paris museum in the fact that it covers scientific history rather than art, the class is focused on museum preservation and conservation, thus making it a visit where we could learn something.  The first building we saw was focused on evolution of skeletal remains over time and fossils, but we all preferred the second one that displayed stuffed animals (like the kind that were killed and then preserved) and talked about modern natural life.  Exhausted from a busy day spanning about 5 hours of learning/visiting time, my classmates and I took the metro back home and have thus begun our reading for tomorrow, which happens to be the last day of class for the week since we are going to Versailles on Friday.

Paris is great, studying abroad is fun, but wow is it all tiring.  There is so much that I want to do before leaving next week that I am doing as much as I can to make the most of my time here.  Everybody always told me that Paris is an incredible city, but I could never really believe them until I saw it (or the Eiffel Tower for that matter) for the first time.  Every day I find myself amazed at something different, be it a monument or food I eat or view that I see, because there really is so much here.  Here's to another full day tomorrow, which will kick off 4 days that I know I will always remember.

Until then, au revoir!