Last Semester!

After four years, I am finally starting my last semester on Monday. I finished up my MBA a few weeks ago so this semester is all law school. Of course, I have the boring "business law" classes left but I've found that they actually don't require so much work so they are nice.

I am just looking forward to being done but then the Bar Exam is right around the corner. Nabiel told me I don't have anything to worry about but it's still scary...

Cakes!

I'm just going to ignore the fact that I haven't updated this in almost 3 months...

So, my mom and I have been taking a cake decorating class. We're really good, too. We've been making leaves, flowers, basket weave, clowns, and borders. This past friday was the "final" of our second series of classes. We were supposed to make a cake to look like a casket and pile it full of flowers, butterflies and lady bugs. Ours were so cute...while they were in class. I guess the frosting was too thin because half of the frosting fell off of my cake under the weight of the flowers. :(

No one seemed to mind, they ate it anyway.

Next series we are going to learn how to make those doll cakes (the ones with the dresses and the doll stuck in them). My cake is going to be Scarlett O'Hara. Then we are going to finish the course by making a wedding cake. That should be really interesting. I just don't even want to think about eating it...my teeth hurt just thinking about how much sugar is in that frosting!

Pictures to follow.

Ok, I'm lazy and just got around to putting the pictures up but here they are:




Starting with my favorite cake first. This baby cake was my "final" for the third class series. Our project was to make a 2-tier cake. Outside of the two tier requirement we could make it in any way that we wanted. Orignally, I had planned to make a waterfall but I scratched that idea when I couldn't find candy rocks. When I flipped through a cake book I fell in love with the little babies but I wasn't sure I was up for all the sculpting. I gave in though and went for it.

The babies took HOURS to make because I made each piece separately and then glued them together. They are the cutest things! They have little ears, noses, eyeballs, hands, feet and hair. When they were drying on the counter my mom would walk by them and go "Awwww.....aren't you the cutest little babies!"

My teacher was very impressed. She took pictures so that she could make her own cake like this. I was very proud of the way it turned out. I even made the cake from scratch (but it was cooked too long and I didn't put the milk/sugar coating on it because I was afraid it would make it too soggy to stack).

This cake sat on the kitchen counter for like a week before I dared to cut it. Before I did though I pulled all of the babies and most of the (handpainted!) blocks off of the cake so I could reuse them.

We were set up in the front of Michael's while we were putting together our cakes so our teacher could show us off. Some lady came up and was staring at us. Then she said "I don't understand. What is this?" My mom tried to explain that we were in the cake decorating class and this was one of our classes. To which the lady replied, "Wait...so this is cake. Real cake?" "Yes, ma'am." Then, this is my favorite part, "I need a wedding cake for Saturday." Umm....yeah...so? What do you want me to do about it, whip one out of my ass? I tried to sell her my baby cake for $80 but she wasn't having it. My teacher scolded me and said it shouldn't go for less than $150!



This cake was the final cake for the first series. We had made roses the week before and our teacher told us to make 15 roses for this cake. Mine were purple and white. I don't recommend actually eating the purple ones because they are so bitter from the purple coloring.

I'm surprised at how well this cake turned out. It's amazing what you can do with some frosting and gum drops, huh?



This is my dolly cake. We made this in the second class series. I have always wanted a doll cake but never got one because 1) my mom thought she couldn't make one and 2) they were way too expensive in the stores. Very easy to make though. I keep telling my mom that she should practice because I expect a Scarlett O'Hara doll cake for my birthday!



This is the cake my mom and I made for some of the teachers at her school who recently had babies. It was a disaster.

My mom didn't put the mixing bowl in the correct position when she was mixing so the eggs didn't get mixed into the batter and we didn't notice until she had already put the cake into the pan. I tried to mix them in the pan but it didn't work very well. We then tried making one sheet cake and then cutting it but it fell apart. After about 4 hours and one crumbly cake, my mom went to the store to buy more cake mixes, eggs and another cake pan so we could make two cakes and then stack those. Some of the cake pieces didn't come out of the pan so it wasn't exactly square and there were some chunks missing. No worries...fill it in with frosting!

By the time we got the two layers of cake together and frosted, that thing must have weighed about 50 pounds! No kidding. It turned out so well though. You can almost not even tell that the sides are not straight and that there were big pieces missing in some places.

The baby is a little scary though. My plan was to make a sleeping baby with his eyes closed but my mom wanted a baby with blue eyes. I tried to talk her out of it but then said, alright, it's your cake. Well, the baby looked strange with just vacant eyeballs so she decided to put eyebrows on it. Bad idea. That was the most frightening baby I have ever seen! Apparently the cake was good because there was only a tiny bit left when we came to pick up the leftovers after school.

I only have 3 more "First Week of School"'s left!

I am starting my 7th semester...only 3 more left! This semester doesn't sound like it'll be too bad, just incredibly boring. My Crim Pro class is so packed full of people that we don't even have enough seats in the classroom for everyone. Thankfully, I'm on the list and don't have to worry about being bumped because I'm on the waiting list. I like Professor Calhoun...he's very inventive with the way he teaches things.

My Business Planning class sounds really interesting. Like the HLP classes, we have to form "law firms" and then help a company incorporate. Should be learning lots of practical stuff so that'll be nice. My Mergers and Acquisitions class is going to put me to sleep. The class is 3 hours long and our professor talks for the ENTIRE 3 hours. The last class half of the things he talked about had absolutely nothing to do with M&A. I was a little frightened because he picked me to answer a question so I started paying attention to what he was saying. He never actually finished a sentence because he kept going off on tangents. Thankfully though, I guess he forgot about me and never actually got to a question. If the whole class is going to be like that it won't be so bad. I'm just afraid that he's going to babble on and then test us on stuff that we should have learned in class but didn't because he was talking about his recording studio in his house.

Finance is not so bad. I have to use this really wonky calculator though. For some reason, financial analysists and stuff don't like to use ordinary calculators. So...before I can actually do any of my work I have to figure out the dumbass calculator! Oh well...I guess everything could be written in Greek. That would be much worse!

Poor Fishy

Fishy died. I left him with my parents and they killed him. When I came home he was swimming around in dirty water and wasn't looking too well. I hurried up and changed his water but it was too late. Poor thing was sick. He wouldn't eat, he didn't swim around very much and he wasn't his usual self. I gave him some medicine and then found him floating on his side the next day. I'm sorry for leaving you with those people, Fishy.

I have also decided that when I have kids I am not bringing them over to my parents' house. I'd come to pick them up and my parents' would have forgotten to feed them or bathe them. Probably forgotten their names as well...

Christmas

Christmas was very good this year. As I was gone I didn't have any hand in picking out my presents. I also had no idea what I wanted so my mom was on her own. She did really well, though...she even says I'm easy to shop for!

I got the movie "Se7en". Mmmmm...Kevin Spacey. I also got "Fraggle Rock"! Just buy me some movies and I'm happy (as long as they are not like "In the Bedroom" or "Blackhawk down" we're golden). I also received some money and sweaters.

For my family I brought back lots of presents from the different places I visited. My dad was especially happy for the Norman hard cider that I brought him. Our family is from Normandy and they are especially well known for their hard cider and calvados. I tried to bring back some Jeanne family calva for him but I didn't see my great uncle again before I left. This would have been some pretty potent stuff because it has been sitting in a barrel, fermenting for at least the last 20 years. One of the presents I got my brother was a framed photo of us on the gondola ride. I thought it was very nice. As of right now it is sitting on a pile in his room. I want to punch him sometimes.

Santa brought me a really great present. I have a digital camera but it is really big, drains the battery like no other, and takes a really long time to boot up, so I borrowed my parents' camera when I went to Europe. My mom had asked if I wanted a new camera and I had said I didn't need one because I had one already. However, Santa had a different idea and brought me a really nice Kodak camera. I haven't used it yet but it looks really nice. 6.1MP, docking station, 4X zoom. I even got an accessory kit with a tripod, a case and a extra battery. Very cool!

I'm Alive!

I'm sure most of you thought it but I am not dead! I'm just lazy and didn't feel like writing. I also didn't have Internet access at my uncle's house for the last few weeks I was there. That sucked!

I did enjoy my two week "mini vacation" that I took at the end of November. Venice is one of my favorite cities in the whole world. Even though it was cold (just this side of freezing) I loved it. I found the perfect hotel...it had a balcony that looked right out over a canal. Absolutely wonderful! The thing I love about most of the old cities on the continent is that they are all fairly concentrated in one area and it is possible to walk everywhere. Fabulous!

I am so happy to be back in the States though. Although I love visiting Europe, I don't think I could ever live on the Continent. I could live in the UK. As my best friend puts it, the UK is just the right mix of the Continent and the US to make it liveable.

One of the crappy things about the Europe is that because I walked around so much my toenail cut in to my toe and then it got infected. I had to have surgery the other day to fix it. Not fun. The surgery part wasn't so bad because it was done under local anesthesia and I could watch. The worst part was actually getting the shots. My doctor used something other than lidocain and it burned when it went in! And of course since I'm really resistance to drugs, it took about 15-16 shots in order to numb my toes. Now they look all cut up. My mom wouldn't even come into the room when the doctor was doing my first post-op becuase she doesn't like blood. The woman who changed the bandages on my grandfather's amputated thumb (she even went out to the garage and found the finger that he cut off) can't even look at her only daughter's toes to see if they look ok. Some people....

I still can't really wear shoes yet and I kinda shuffle around because my poor little toes hurt. :( Hopefully they'll be better by the time school starts.

Busy week

I have been really busy for the past week since I returned from Dublin. I have a huge project that is due during the two weeks that Colin and I are going to be roaming around Italy and Athens, so I need to get it done before we leave. That is pretty much all I have been working on for the past week...writing a case study. I'm almost finished with the actual case study. Tonight I am going to try to finish writing the exhibits. After that I have to do my huge analytical write-up of the problem. FUN!

So...England and Ireland were so much fun! I could live there. English people are normal. Irish people are a little crazy sometimes but that's ok.

I started out with some problems on my way to the airport. Good thing I left early because there was another strike. I swear...when do French people actually work? Of course they couldn't announce the strike the night before when I bought my metro ticket. The sign announcing the strike also told me that there would be a train for each direction every hour. Ummm...liars! I got to my connecting station before the train was supposed to leave there. I waited...and waited...and waited...and waited. For over 20 minutes. All of the trains that came by were going to the train station, not to either of the airports. So, as I was frustrated and waiting for the other metro to take me back a few stations so I could take the bus, a girl came up to me and asked me what was going on. I explained that there was a strike and I was going back to take the bus to the airport. Poor thing only had 45 minutes to make her flight because she had been waiting at the metro station for so long.

I don't understand...if there is a strike on a main metro line, why are there not signs or announcements at the other metro stations? The only station I saw a notice at was the one by my uncle's house because that is another main line.

After the metro panic I finally made it to the airport. I have to say, for being a terminal for charter flights, terminal 3 in Charles de Gaulle airport is very nice. There are a few restaraunts and some duty free stores.

The flight to London was really nice...only 30 minutes. I sat next to this Chinese French guy who asked if I had ever been to London before. I said yes but it had been about 10 years earlier so I wasn't familiar with London at all. He then proceeded to show me all sorts of Chinese webpages that he translated in to French for me and then asked where he could find the sites. I kept saying ummm....let's look at the map or I don't know London so I'm not sure, but that didn't stop him from asking. I think he was just really excited about his trip.

Alli met me at the airport and then she took me to Cambridge. It was a really cute little town. Of course Alli was doing some shopping for her mom and her sister getting ready for her trip home this weekend. We walked around for a bit then had lunch.

After that we went back to her house and relaxed for awhile. Alli's house is really small but it is very cute. She lives in a small town (with 2 pubs!). Paul came home, built a fire and then we watched cricket and football (the real one, not American football) on tv.

The next day the three of us went to Windsor. Again, cute little touristy town. We also went in to Eton and saw where the school is. It was weird but it looked like the guys even had to wear their uniforms (kinda looked like tuxes with tails) on the weekends. And I fell in love! I decided cream tea is one of my favorite things and I'm going to start eating that for breakfast. Cream tea is tea with 2 scones, clotted cream and jam. I love clotted cream!

Which, btw Mom, if you go to the craft fair in Pleasonton before I get home, can you buy me some clotted cream from the scone people? Thank you!

I was so happy when the Luton airport had cream tea at one of their kiosks. Guess what I'm going to eat during my layover in Luton...cream tea! It's the little things in life that make me happy. :)

Anyway, that night was Bonfire Night in England so we went to Paul's parent's house where they were having a BBQ. Bonfire Night celebrates the ,an that tried to blow up Parliament but didn't succeed. After the BBQ we set off some fireworks. I'm jealous because they can have fireworks that shoot off in the air. :(

After that we went to watch big fireworks and the bonfire where the effigy of the guy who tried to blow up Parliament was burned. Very cool. I think that in the US we should celebrate the 4th of July by burning someone!

The next day Alli and I went to the farmer's market and then just relaxed for the rest of the day because she and I were leaving for Dublin the next day.

Dublin was very cool. Our hotel was perfect. Dublin is very small and compact so most things are within walking distance of each other. Our hotel was right across the street from Christ Church Cathedral. I tried to take a picture out of the window but for some reason it kept coming out foggy...it was a clear night, too. Strange. The first day we walked around to the big shopping area and saw some cute things in shops. Honestly though, the street looked like a normal high street in England. We walked around the Temple Bar area for awhile because it is supposed to be the big late-night entertainment area but it wasn't so interesting. We ate dinner in a pub and then walked back to our hotel to bed.

The second day we took an open top tour of the city just to point out all of the sites and to get our bearings. We had decided to take the tour one time all the way around and then go back to look at the individual sites but as soon as our tour guide pointed out an hotel bar which had free Irish music and dancing every night, we jumped off the bus to reserve our table! After walking arounf for a few hours (after which I swear I saw Stephen Walsh in a store!) we got back on the bus and made our way to the Guiness tour. We ran through the tour very quickly (but made sure to sign the visitor's wall) and made it to the Sky Bar to drink our free pint. That was very cool because we could see the entire city!

After that we tippily got back on the bus and rode it around to see a few more things. We got off the bus and saw a few more things to kill time before our dinner show. That was very cool. It was an Irish band and after about 45 minutes some Irish dancers came out and danced for awhile. Expensive dinner but I think it was worth it to see that. I mean, shouldn't you see these things when you are in Ireland?

The last day we saw the Book of Kells and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Too soon though it was time to head to the airport.

After seeing the pictures and reports of the riots in Paris on tv (which I hadn't even heard about while I was in Paris) I was afraid that my flight was going to be cancelled or even the bus in to the city or the metro. I had heard about a midnight curfew and knew that I would be arriving much later than that so I was worried. I tried to call the airline in the morning but they weren't open yet so I figured I would just play it by ear.

When I got to the airport in the afternoon I found someone and asked if the planes were still scheduled to fly. She looked at me like I had just spoken to her in alien tongue and was like why? Ummm...because of the riots and curfew in Paris. She laughed at me and told me the only way the planes weren't flying was if the airport was on fire. A simple yes or no would have been sufficient.

So yeah, when I got back to Paris there was no indication of any rioting. People were out walking the streets, buses and metro lines were running, and I felt very safe walking around at 1am. Good end to a good trip.

Now all I have to do is wait another week and a half for Colin to get here before we leave for Rome!

Pictures to follow later when I get home from work...where I have done nothing all day...again.

I suck at updating stuff...

Yes, I know I don’t update very often but that’s me…I start something and then never finish it! So, because I haven’t written in quite a long time, this is going to be a long post.

Salon du chocolate: It was very interesting. It was not interesting for someone who was sick and kept looking around to find the nearest trash can if I had to puke. Other than that and the smell of chocolate making me noxious, it was interesting. I wish that I had felt better when I was there because there were tastes and samples of almost everything. Unfortunately, I missed out on going with my aunt, uncle and grandma because I stayed home to sleep (being sick sucks). When they went there weren’t very many people and my grandma was telling me about a chocolate massage exhibition that they saw. I guess some person in a G-string was on stage and there two other people were massaging him with chocolate to the beat of some salsa music, or something. I’m not quite too clear on the whole thing.

I really wanted to see the chocolate clothes but there were so many people crammed into the tiny stage area that it was impossible to see. Would have been interesting though. After the chocolate clothes exhibition there was another exhibition of Cuban music so we decided to see that. Of course there were some little kids whose parents were not paying attention to them and they were running around the stage around the musicians. I’m surprised they didn’t knock anything over. There was also this lady who thought she was God’s gift to salsa because she also got up on stage and started seizing…I mean…dancing. It was actually really funny because she just looked so bizarre up on stage with the little kids. I had to take a picture. Unfortunately, there was a tall guy sitting in front of me so I didn’t have a very good angle of her dancing. I almost recorded a movie of her “dancing” but then I thought that would have been too much!



Bretagne: I went with my aunt, my great aunt (I’m not really sure what Therese is to me but great aunt sounds good) and my grandma to my aunt’s house in Bretagne for the weekend. She was telling me that Bretagne is the area of Lancelot, King Arthur, Asterix and Obelix and celts. It certainly looked like it. The area is still very heavily wooded and she and my uncle have both run in to wild boar when they have gone in to the forest to pick mushrooms. Me…not a big fan of nature so I’m glad I missed out on the mushroom picking. It was fun. My aunt took me around and showed me all sorts of little towns that are very old and very cute. We even saw a town (not really a town since there were only about 6 houses) of house that had thatched roofs. That was very cool. The roofs were made with the hollow reed-like things and must have been about a foot and a half thick. I can’t believe the thatching actually worked but apparently it does because people still live in the houses. We stopped at a little creperie in the town to have dinner. The crepes weren’t as good as the ones with made with Uncle Albert’s recipe but they were still good.







We also stopped at a tourist shop and I tasted a whole bunch of different liqueurs of the region. My favorite was the blackberry. It didn’t taste like it but they were strong suckers…50%. I had 3 tiny little tastes and I was a little tippy!

Yesterday we went to a little town in Bretagne that is inside a fortified wall. It really is like a middle ages village although it was built long after the middle ages. There are narrow cobblestone streets and lots of little tourist shops. I think we must have stopped in all of them! My aunts and my grandma bought food but I don’t like the cookies too much so I didn’t but much. I bought a gorgeous santon of Marie d’Medici (so Mamie tells me). The detail is amazing. It was really cheap, too. Four euros for a hand-painted, 4 inch tall santon. They had a statue of Henry V also but I didn’t buy him because he was ugly.

Today for lunch it was algae day. My aunt made algae pasta, an algae side dish and bread with algae. Again, interesting because you don’t normally eat algae for lunch but if you didn’t know you were eating algae you couldn’t tell. The algae side was a little salty but that was the only indication that it was algae. I am branching out in the world. Of course I still slathered the bread with butter and my great aunt commented on how that was a very Norman trait. I don’t drink like them but I guess I eat like a Norman.

Right now, my grandma and I are on our way home from Bretagne. I don’t have an Internet connection up there so I can’t do my homework. That’s why I only stayed a few days. It was a nice vacation though. On the way to the train station we drove by the seaside and saw the beaches. It was stormy today so there were lots of waves and surfers. It was cold, too, though. I don’t really like the cold.





I’m sitting across from a lady who complained that my backpack was under my seat because she couldn’t put her legs under the table and didn’t want to keep them in the aisle. Bullshit…the backpack was under my legs and taking up less than half of the space. Whatever…so I moved it to the top rack. Guess where her legs are now? In the aisle! Stupid lady.

When I get back to the house I have to figure out how to use the washing machine so I can wash clothes for my trip to England and Ireland this weekend. It is the first time I’ve visited Alli since she moved to England so I have to take lots of pictures. Then, she and I are going to Dublin for 3 days. Our hotel is right above a bar! I’m very excited. Guiness, shopping, more Guiness…

I just got home after an hour trek through the metro stations with my grandma. My monthly metro card decided to stop working and all of the ticket windows were closed. Fun. At one station one guy let me use his card and then he hopped the fence and at another station my grandma held the gate open for me as I crawled under the turnstyle. This is the 3rd time my card has not worked on the metro...I am not very happy about it. If I had been by myself I would have been screwed unless I asked someone else if I could follow them thorugh the gates. The French metro gates are not like BART where they can easily be jumped or you can easily follow someone through...they have turnstyles that lock after 1 person goes through and usually 6 foot high barriers that open for a few seconds to let that person go through. And I was carrying my 2 bags and my grandma's bag. I miss my car. :(


Pictures to follow tomorrow after I sleep for a little while.

Chocolate!

Apparently, this weekend there is a big chocolate exhibition near Versailles. Of course I'm going to be there! I think my aunt and I are going tomorrow afternoon and then my uncle will meet us there when he finishes his shiatzu or yoga. I'm excited...can chocolate ever be bad? well...actually yes...when it's white chocolate but then that's not even *really* chocolate so it doesn't count.

My grandma is also coming up to Paris tomorrow. I'm not sure what she's going to do during the week because my aunt and uncle are at work until late every night. My aunt told me that I should take some days off and go places with her but my uncle just kind of ignored that statement. Hmmmm....

Although today at work I actually worked on a worthwhile project. I worked with one of the other girls to make a diagram presentation that will be used next week. It's not as cool as the powerpoint slides that I've made but it was nice. Excel is more than just boring spreadsheets...you can draw pictures! I also noticed while I was translating some French documents into English for a Dutch company that French grammar is very funny (yes, I knew that before but this confirmed it). In English teachers drill in to your heads only one idea per sentence. I was translating some sentences that had 3 different ideas! It was crazy. They would be such long, run-on sentences that I would forget what I was reading halfway through....bleh...oh well. All better and in pretty English. :) I think my uncle translated the documents before, and while he speaks very good English he really likes the word "pedagogical" so it was all over the place! I dunno about you guys, but I had to look it up when I was trying to figure out what he was saying. Yeah...thesaurus used a lot on that word.

I was telling my dad earlier that I saw a color blind woman. She had on a bright red skirt with a bright green sweater. She kinda looked like an elf. :) I guess the middle of October is close enough to Christmas, right?

I tried to take a picture of my newest bug bite today but no go. Half of my forearm is swollen and red. I don't know what the hell kind of bugs they have out here but right now I feel like Colin. Sorry Colin.

Then, when I got home from work today the evil cat from hell got her-stupid-self stuck on the bookshelf in the laundry room. She wouldn't jump down and every time I tried to pick her up to get her down she would try to bite or scratch me. I said hell with it and was going to leave her up there until someone else came home. Then the brightest cat in the world decided that she would jump out of the open window and walk on the roof. Idiot cat. I really do hate that cat. The other day she jumped on my math book while I was reading so I picked her up and put her back on the ground. Then I put my arm out to pet her like I was doing before and the bitch jumps up and latches on to my arm with her claws and teeth. After I jumped up to get her off she took off. I ran that stupid cat down the hall because I was so mad at her. She knows it now because I pretty much ignore her and won't get near her. Stupid, evil cat. And she picks at her fleas in my room. It is the most disgusting thing. She picks (you can actually hear her chewing things) and then proceeds to lick herself. That is just disgusting. Colin, when you come stay away from the evil cat.

Side Trips

I finally bought the tickets and now Colin and I are going to go to Rome, Venice and Athens. I'm very excited. Venice is one of my favorite cities and I've always wanted to go to Athens.

The hotel that I booked for Venice is right on the Grand Canal and hopefully our room will look over on that side. I was reading the reviews and people were saying that it was a fantastic view from the hotel windows. Very close to Piazza St. Marco also.

The hotel in Rome I'm not too sure about. It was part of the timeshare network so at least it was free! I think it's in a good place...very close to Ancient Rome. Supposedly it's also very close to the metro so we can easily go to the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and the Vatican.

Athens...I'm not sure yet. I haven't booked anything but it's very cheap. I like that.

I'm also trying to go to Dublin with my best friend. She's supposed to call me tomorrow night to let me know if she can take some days off of work. That should be fun...I haven't been on a trip with Alli in forever! When in Dublin I'm definitely going to have to make sure I visit the Guiness Brewery. :)

Today

I started out at the Marais. This used to be a swampy part of Paris that was eventually filled in and is now an area of artisty stuff. I went but it wasn't very interesting because most places were closed. I stayed for a little bit but then I decided to go to the Bastille.

The Bastille is the area where the Bastille prison used to be before the French people destroyed it during the Revolution. Today there is a pillar in the square to commemorate where the prison once stood.



It was very strange because while I was walking down a street in the area a brass band of about 5 or 6 people was just walking around playing. Ummm.....ok. I just like walking around seeing things so I walked all the way to the Republic. Mostly I was just looking for a cafe to have lunch but most of the ones I found were Indian, Russian or fish, which I didn't feel like having.

I finally found a really nice restaraunt near the Republic where I had lunch. I had fish, a glass of wine and some chocolate mousse. Mmmmm. I don't know what it is but I must look American (probably because if you refer to my post of a few days ago I don't dress like a train-wreck) but a lot of people talk to me in English. I even ordered in French! I didn't pronounce everything right but, damnit, I tried. Of course when people do come up and talk to me in French it is usually to ask directions and I'm not sure what to tell them. Figures.

After lunch I walked some more until I reached the gates of Paris. Back in the day, when Paris was surrounded by a wall (way, way back when), there were huge gates through which people had to pass to enter the city. Unfortunately, most of the gates and the wall were destroyed with the growth of the city but these 2 still remain.




They are very impressive. You can almost imagine what it would have been like and how intimidating it would have been to have to walk up to these gates to enter the city. Very cool that they are still there and are in the middle of the city.

I walked along the street some more, did a little bit of shopping, and then decided that I wanted to see Pont Neuf. POnt Neuf is the oldest bridge in Paris. By looking at the bridge there would be no way to tell...it is very modern looking. It's very nice because it has little alcoves along the span in which people can sit. I rested there for awhile before I decided to go back home.



Unfortunately (or fortunately), the bridge is being restored so some of it is covered by scaffolding. My aunt laughed at me when I told her that I had gone to Notre Dame this morning, then the Marais, then the Bastille and then back to Pont Neuf because Pont Neuf is right next to Notre Dame. Oh well, that is the beauty of a monthly metro pass...I can ride the metro and the buses as often as I like so I don't actually have to organize my trip very efficiently.

At dinner we were all talking and I think I'm going to be taking a few trips in the next few weeks. One weekend I am supposed to be going with my uncle to make a presentation in Tours (France), then I am going with my aunt to Brittany (France), then I am going to take a few days off to go visit my friend in England and then I'll go to Dublin (Ireland). I'm also supposed to be going down to the south of France around my birthday as my other aunt suggested that my cousin and I celebrate together (we have the same birthday). A few days after that my brother is coming to France and we are going to go to Italy and possibly Spain or Greece. I'me very excited!

I'm lazy...

so I don't update as often as I should. Also, I've been at work late a few days this week and been working on homework the rest of the time. This week I have 3 papers due for my management class, one of which is a group paper (which would be fine if my group actually went online). Anyway...

Last weekend I went around Paris with my aunt. We walked around the Gobelins area. We were going to go to the factory near there where they make glassware but it is only open to the public during the week. Instead we just walked around the quartier. It was the weekend so there were a lot of people out. We did end up finding this really nice tea shop and my aunt bought a few different types of tea, some cakes, a cute little urn to store tea and something else (I forget). Fifty euros later we left and went on our way up the hill to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon was built as a church but after the Revolution the people decided that it would be a great place to bury famous people. So, it is a big, ornate tomb. I didn't think I had ever been inside of it before so we decided to go in. Of course they charge you to go in so I paid for the tickets and in we went. First off, what a rip-off. If you ever get to Paris, don't bother paying to go inside the Pantheon. It is much prettier from the outside. Inside there are lots of paintings on the walls (mostly of battles or people dying). Of course when I saw this statue I just laughed and thought, yep, this sums up the French mentality.



You can't see the inscription on the statue but it translated to "Live Free or Die". You should appreciate this picture...I got yelled at by the security guards for taking it!

Outside the Pantheon I had to take a picture of my beloved Tour Eiffel. I can't believe I've been here for over a month and I've only visited it once! Shocking isn't it, Mom and Dad?



So, after just walking around some more my aunt took me to an outdoor market and then we sat and had a cup of tea at a cafe before going back home. Unfortunately, most stores and stuff are closed on the weekends so we just walk around and see things.