I then prepared myself for my FIRST CLASS which I expected to be terrifying, but was actually anything but. I'm taking an architecture course with Hollins College, which turns out is composed of 5 girls (including me), and the professor who is maybe 35 and was dressed in somewhat of a "punk" style. I expected a man of no less than 70 wearing a suit. We met at the metro station "Cluny" in the Latin Quartier (5th arr.), and after talking for a bit, we went to see the "Thermes de Cluny" and the "L'hotel de Cluny" -- and also learned that "L'hotel" is NOT anything like a Marriott, but a word used to describe a mansion. Also, that the abbee de Cluny was just as powerful as the pope during that time. Pretty interesting. We also walked to the Eglise de Saint Severin -- very beautiful.
I was invited to dine with the Hollins girls for lunch which I took them up on -- I immediately saw the difference between the programs we're in (not to be haughty), but as soon as we were done with class, we only spoke English. Absolutely no attempt to speak French. (Our director made us sign another contract upon arriving in Paris to assure we would only speak French). But we got paninis at a little shop that was flooded with high schoolers -- I got "Le Special" which consisted of chicken, mozzarella, tomatoes, and some basil. Delicieux! We took out sandwiches to the Jardins du Luxembourg and sat on the lawn until we were chased off by a security guard...
After that, I decided to take a bit of a stoll by myself to see Notre Dame. Well I was clearly not alone...incredible place, but too crowded. Too hot. So I didn't stay long, and figured I have just a few more months to go see it. I then visited the Monoprix to get some school supplies and other stuff. Everything is really expensive.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with Marilu going grocery shopping which turned out to be quite the exercise...She took me to "Dio" which is a discount grocery store -- everything was pretty cheap, but I soon realized why when I saw yogurt that expires tomorrow, and older vegetables in the aisles, and only two employees at the cash registers...Then, she took me to the American grocery store called "The Real McCoy" which was quite the place. In my attempts to find the materials for chocolate chip cookies, I had wanted to check this place out. Well, guess how much a bag of Nestle Semisweet Chocolate Chips cost? 7,50 euros. Let me repeat that, 7,50 euros. Which according the xe.com, is equal to $10.32. For a bag of chocolate chips. So clearly, we left those there, and got some bars of chocolate at the Franprix which I chopped up -- the cookies actually turned out pretty well! I'd say that they were more of a success than the shortbread. The only other thing that was different, was that there's not really "brown sugar" in France, so I had to use pure cane sugar. But it seemed to work okay.
Soooo, dinner wasn't super interesting tonight -- cauliflower and pork chops with a cheese course after! We had gouda, chevre, and two other types that I can't remember the names of...but that's about it! Lots of time spent playing with Pastel (the cat) who likes to sit next to Alain at dinner and reach his paw up to the table to ask for food -- he loves meat. It's pretty hysterical.
Photo of the day aujourd'hui is Notre Dame! Not super exciting, but it's quite striking!
A tout a l'heure!
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