I've done a lot in the last few weeks! The area where the Opéra Comique is is probably the prettiest, most Parisian-looking area in the city, and I've wandered back there a few times since then. Our winter break was a couple weeks ago, since four weeks of classes in a row is just too much for Parisians, so they have a winter break where everyone goes skiing in the Alps. As for me, I got a break from...my really low key classes and tiny amount of homework. One day over break, a bunch of friends and I went to a little sports bar called Antidote because they were showing the Canada/US gold medal hockey game, where everyone was cheering for Canada. It was fun anyway. I had to visit the Palais de Justice for class and watch part of a trial or whatever was going on in one of the courtrooms, because "in France, you have a right to", so I dragged my friend Nick along one day during break. It's fascinating to learn about the differences in the French legal system, and then see it in action/on TV/in movies. That night, Nick had a dinner party so I went with to get groceries and helped him cook a little before everyone came over. At the last few dinner parties my friends have had, we've made butterscotch and dipped madeleines in it, so we made tons of butterscotch again with our own "family recipe" we've all been using.
During the second half of our break, I went to Brussels with 6 of my friends from here. Brussels is not very touristy, but it's very fun, the people are so nice, and there is great architecture and interesting things to see. The buildings are almost German-looking to me and very medieval (compared to Paris, at least). We went to a great musical instrument museum, a René Magritte museum, lots of fun restaurants, some great bars, laughed at funny Dutch signs, and ate way too much chocolate and waffles. The first day we got there, all the Belgian people were so friendly, and every chocolate shop had free samples--one even had samples of the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted--so we knew we weren't in Paris anymore. Our second day there we went to Bruges for the day, which is a gorgeous little medieval town right outside Brussels, where we saw this strange light installation/art exhibit, places from the movie "In Bruges", and great little shops, but the best part was just wandering around and looking at all the old buildings. Our hostel in Brussels was fairly nice, but some crazy people were there and they kicked everyone out from 10-2 every day. After spending 3 1/2 days in Brussels, I really missed Paris and being away made me really appreciate it here, and I got a tiny glimpse of what it's going to feel like when I leave Paris for good but I'm not going to think about that!
When we got back, Paris fashion week was half over so some friends and I crashed some of the shows last week and (well, we couldn't actually get into any shows, but) it was so much fun! Lots of paparazzi/bloggers/random photographers took our pictures and three of my friends got on British Vogue's website! Afterwards, we met some photographers from the Paul and Joe show at a restaurant nearby, and they gave us their press passes. We couldn't use them anymore, but they're really cool and official-looking :)
It's actually getting warmer now and there are more and more tourists every day. I walked home from school yesterday (it takes exactly an hour) since it was so nice out. On my way, a middle-aged woman asked me in terrible French to take her picture in front of the Eiffel tower, then I responded in English and we chatted for a little while.
Let's see, I had two more presentations last week for my European political history class and I have another one today, then nothing for three weeks! My host mom is so nice. She was in India for a few weeks and she just got back, and she brought me back a necklace and earrings from India! My friends had a brunch party one day last week, then we wandered around and went thrift shopping. Another friend had a dinner party last weekend, and a bunch of French people were there so I got to speak French outside of class for a change. Another night last weekend I took the night bus home since the metro had stopped running, and the bus was so crowded that it actually feels safer than the metro late at night, so no more wasted money on cabs!
In the French regional elections on Sunday, the Socialist Party gained a bunch of seats, and we kind of discussed the elections in my French class but I still don't really understand the French political system. Instead, we had a really long discussion in that class about women's rights in France, which was fascinating and made me like my professor a lot more.
That's all for now!
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