The Past Three Days

The past three days have flown by and for various reasons I haven't been blogging.  So this is about to be a long one to catch up on everything I've been up to.


On Monday I woke up around 8am and went to class.  Not just one class.  All three classes.  Granted I had a lunch break in there where I was able to go grab a sandwich, but otherwise I was on the go with class until late afternoon.  That's when I took a break to go do my grocery shopping.  By the time I came back it was almost 6pm so I relaxed and made myself dinner.


The only interesting thing of the day was when we went to a nearby bar after dinner for happy hour and olympics coverage.  It was a lot of fun, just sitting around drinking long islands, raving about the American swim team, and gossiping with the girls on my trip.  Around 10pm we headed home and called it an early night.


The next morning we woke up bright and early to meet our French history professor in Montmartre.  With him we toured the neighborhood, seeing Sacre Coeur, the only vineyard in Paris, and of course, Place du Tertre.

After the outing we took the metro back to the Foyer and had a few minutes to grab a quick lunch before heading to our last two classes.  Once they ended we only had a little bit of time to get ready for the theater that night.  At 6pm we left the Foyer and walked about 8 blocks to the Théâtre de la Huchette.  


We were there to see La Cantatrice Chauve (translated as The Bald Soprano), an absurdist play that has been performed every night at this theater for the past 55 years or so.  It's the longest running play in theater history or something.  Either way I found the play to be awful.  Absurdism can be good, but I didn't like the play when I read it and I liked it even less when I was forced to sit in a hot, stuffy room and watch it.  The actors did a good job, I just found it to be trite.  It wasn't good absurdism, it was just a sort of haphazard attempt at social criticism through theater of the absurd.  Not a fan.


After the theater I rewarded myself with gelato (chocolate and nutella) and headed back to the Foyer where I spent the night catching up on homework for today.


Today we met Madame Szeps at La Grande Mosquée de Paris, the largest mosque in Paris.  We had a guide who showed us around and talked to us about Islam.  We were able to see the central courtyard, the gardens, the library, and even the prayer room (though we couldn't enter).

The guide was very knowledgable and a bit loquacious about his faith, but not in a pushy way.  He was just trying to explain to a group of Americans what it truly meant to be a Muslim.  He did a great job in my opinion, even if he was a bit long-winded.

After this trip we headed back to the Foyer where we ate a quick lunch then went to our next two classes. After class we went to the theater in the Luxembourg Gardens to see one of the famous puppet shows put on there for children.  This show was the story of the three little pigs, told with puppets, singing, dancing, and set changes.  It was very cute.  Even cuter were all the little French babies sitting in the front and laughing and yelling at the puppets.  


When the puppet show ended I went to out to meet Nikki and Ilia for dinner on their last night here.  We ended up at a café on Saint-Germain where we sat for about three hours.  I had two delicious glasses of Sancerre and a Croque Monsieur, all for fifteen euros!

After dinner we headed across the bridges onto Île Saint-Louis where we wandered a bit then stopped for gelato at Amorino.  This time I got caramel and cinnamon.  Sooo good.  We walked a bit more and ended up in front of Notre Dame where a group of fire dancers were performing.  They were incredibly talented so we stopped to watch for a bit.  There was a girl who used a fiery hula hoop, one fire-breather, and another guy who twirled flames and used fireworks too.  It was so cool.

After this we split up and they headed back to their hotel to get some sleep before their early flight and I walked back to the Foyer.  Along the way I passed a group of breakdancers who were performing (singing and dancing) to Prince's "Kiss" so I had to stay a watch a little.  Then they started up with Michael Jackson.  Quite impressive.


After this I walked the rest of the way home, where I got ready for bed, and am now here writing my blog.  It's definitely been a very busy couple of days.