Four Days

I only have 4 days left in Paris! I've made a list of the things I've been putting off that I need to go in the next couple of days...they include going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe, visiting La Defense, visiting Jim Morrison's grave at Pere Lachaise cemetary, and going to Les Invalides and Jardin du Luxembourg. I think me and some people are planning on La Defense and Arc de Triomphe tomorrow since they're both on the same Metro line.

This weekend was pretty low-key, like my usual Paris weekends. Friday was the 4th of July...but it was weird because here it's just like any other day. I just went shopping along rue de Passy, which is not far from my apartment. Katrina eventually met up with me and we had lunch at a Chinese place (I've fallen in love with these sauteed noodle things they have here). We went to Gallerie Gaite over by IES for quite awhile. On the way there, I sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" because I was sad that no one was acknowledging the USA on our birthday. Since the French act like no one else exists in the world when they're walking down the streets, I didn't get any weird looks or anything, which was funny to me. At the Gallerie, Katrina bought a bunch of stuff at Mim and I made some incredible (and excellently priced) purchases at Tati. After shopping, we went to a bar and restaurant called The Indiana Club to celebrate the 4th with a taste of home. It was funny because this place didn't seem to have ANY idea what Indiana is like...there were Native Americans all over the walls, then all of the "Indiana Specialties" were Mexican dishes, like enchiladas and chimichangas. I got a good old cheeseburger and fries...after all, what else says "American" quite like a burger and fries? It was happy hour, too, so we got some (somewhat) affordable drinks...I had a Screaming Orgasm (which is just fun to say...but it was also delicious) and a strawberry margarita (which actually tasted like a margarita, which is weird cause the other margarita I had in France was essentially lemon juice with a hint of tequila in it). After dinner, we just hung out at my apartment. It was weird not seeing any fireworks!

I had quite a late night/early morning talking online, so I slept in quite a bit on Saturday. After finally getting out of bed, I went to Carrefour and had the incident on the Metro that I shared the other day. I again had Chinese noodles for dinner, and that was about all that went on that day.

Sunday was my final Eiffel Tower picnic. As usual, we brought bread and cheese, then some other random foods. Me, Ashley, Emily, Heather, and Katrina all just sat around talking for several hours. Our favorite topic of conversation seems to be the lack of attractive men in France. Ashley has coined the term "French googles" for when one of us says we see a cute French guy...because if you want to find a cute French boy, you have to lower your standards of what is cute. American guys definitely trump the French, for sure, for many reasons that we discussed. One of those is that French guys will never make the first movie (not that I have any experience with this, but some of the others do). And, of course, there's the fact that attractive French guys are pretty much extinct. A funny Polish artist came over and drew a portrait for Katrina and commiserated with us on our complaints about the French. It was fun. My chocolate and pistachio ice cream cone was amazing, too!

Now, I have one more day of regular class, followed by two days of finals...then, at 1:30pm on Friday, my plane will be leaving! It's been an interesting, once-in-a-lifetime experience here...it's crazy that it's already almost over! And I know I've said that like 10 times now, but it's true!

Riley =)