april!

This has been like the week of Louvre visits. I have been there 3 times in the past two weeks! First with Kathryn (March 21), then a week later for an art history field trip (last Wednesday, the 28th) and then once more this weekend with McKenzie and Mark on Friday. And the thing is, I saw much of the same things at each visit. The art history visit showed me the paintings on the 2nd floor of Richelieu, which I went to again with Mark and McKenzie, and after that we went down one floor so they could see the Napoléon III apartments (where I'd taken Kathryn as well). I must say I'm a bit sick of it by now! But I'm realizing that I've explored some good chunks of it by now. I might not have seen everything by the time I'm done, but I'll have seen a lot. :)

On Saturday night we tried to get Japanese food. First McKenzie led us on this wild goose chase in Montmartre (she didn't know exactly where this great restaurant she'd been to was, or the name, or the street name, or the name of the Métro stop... but she knew what it looked like!) and of course we didn't find it and wandered into the adjoining, well, ghetto, where creepy guys approached us and then kicked Mark's back when we walked away from them. Uh, yeah. It was partly my fault for wearing a short skirt, which apparently in Paris means that you have a red neon sign flashing "PLEASE HARASS ME" on your back (won't make that mistake again!). We got out of there FAST, and looked for a Japanese restaurant in the Latin Quarter instead. Fortunately, there are many, and the one we wound up at was pretty decent. Of course, it was mostly sushi and roasted meat, and to me there is much more to Japanese cuisine than that, and it was very Westernized (Europeanized?) overall, but I guess that's what you'll get anywhere outside of Japan. Lisa said she had the same experience going to Benihana's after Japan... anyway, my food was good (I got the roasted meat on skewers thing), so I shouldn't complain, and it was wonderful to get a bowl of rice again and eat with chopsticks. I ate every single piece of rice!

This Sunday, April 1, Versailles was free again (being the first Sunday of the month) and I had been pestering my friends about it for a while now, so McKenzie, Mark, Allie and I went and it was really fun. Although the line for the castle itself was hideous so we didn't go inside, we just enjoyed the gardens. We rented bikes (AMAZING) and rode all around the lakes out by the Grand Trianon and such. We stopped at a bench halfway through and threw sticks into the lake. It was so wonderful. It made me realize how weak I've gotten at bike-riding though; I got so good at it in Japan but here I was quickly panting and always the last one out of the 4 of us. What!! I can only hope that riding a bike as much as possible to school next year will remedy that problem. :) I love bike riding so much!


After we returned our bikes we got gelato and sat out on the banks of the canal eating it.


The gardens.


Orangerie


McKenzie, Mark, Allie

I wish now I had waited in the line (even if I'd had to do it alone) because although we have an art history field trip there coming up that I'd thought would mean I could see the newly de-scaffolded Hall of Mirrors, it turns out it's on the same day as our Giverny trip, and I can't quite be in two places at once. I don't want to pay 10-15 euros to see the interior of the chateau again, so it looks like I won't be going while I'm here... sad day. ohh welll

I was hoping people would be doing something for April 1, aka le Poisson d'avril in French, like maybe I'd see someone with a fish cutout stuck to their back (that's the tradition here) but, nothing! Oh well...

Schoolwork-wise, I've gotten really lazy, but let's not talk about that... only 3 more real weeks of school left! (One week of vacation and several final days not included!) I can't believe there's only a month left! When I think about that, I get the giddy "I can't wait to be home!" feeling more than the "Oh no, how will I get everything done I wanted to?" feeling, because even though I am having a lot of fun here, I'm nearing the "allll right, I'm done now" point. Oh, yes indeed I will have a lot to say to anyone considering a split-year like this when I get back...

The weather has been slowly but gradually improving! Last week it was kinda rainy but the forecast for this week is sunny, and Sunday was a beautiful perfect day. It should only keep getting better, I can't wait! It feels like I've been stuck in winter FOREVER!! Of course, the tourists have been flooding in more and more since it's getting to be that season, the Louvre was a zoo all the times I went, and that bugs me but there's nothing I can do about that I guess!