yay for learning, weird modern art, and more learning!

Yesterday's Paris History class was really cool. We learned about the fortifications that used to be around Paris during the Middle Ages. Today they're the boulevards of Paris. We even walked up the street from my place and saw a part of the wall that's still standing (see photo above). Cool.

Went to Centre Pompidou for the museum with Susie, Taylor, and Lily. Free on Wednesday for students. Waited in the bookstore, and while I was browsing the cinema books, I saw my screenwriting prof's John Ford bio that he just wrote translated in French! I was floored. I knew he was a writer and all, I just didn't realize how huge he was. It had this Scorsese quote on the book sleeve, and it was endorsed by TCM, Positif, and Telerama. It made me grateful to have him for a teacher and a supporter since he urged me to consider a career in screenwriting.Didn't even finish one floor of the museum. We went from each piece, making fun of it mostly. A lot of it was really cool, some pieces were ridiculous. This was seriously three blank white canvases in a row:Will definitely go back more often Wednesday nights.

Went to that grammar class, the one I had to test into, and I got in! Yay! It's really no big deal, a bunch of kids that didn't get in asked if they could stay, and she was cool. Madame PQ is truly a great prof--she wrote my grammar book along with my French history prof! So I'm in good hands. We went over the exam. She kept on asking why we chose "de" instead of "des" or why not "du"? This doesn't make sense to people who don't know French, I know. It was just intense. She wouldn't accept our "It sounds right" or "because it's this rule". She demanded more than that. I love how insane this semester is going to be, it's totally making up for last semester.

Lunchtime. Oh the lengths we will go for something that reminds us of home. Susie, Morgan, and I went to Jussieu to get "sandwichs mexicaines" also known as burritos. We waited something like 40 minutes to get this thing. We stood in the rain to order, then the guy said come back in 5 minutes. We hung out at a papeterie around the corner, came back, and waited like 15 minutes. All for a burrito, and not a true burrito, it was like as if you explained to your French pen pal who has never seen a burrito but maybe googled it, and he tried to make it himself--this would be it. It was rice, cheese, ground beef, chopped tomatoes in a tortilla. It was decent and spicy, but not the real thing. How it made me want the real thing...

After, Morgan and I met up with Lucia at Musée Carnavalet for their exposition on Benjamin Franklin. Walked from Sully-Morland and through Village St. Paul in Le Marais. We stopped by this weird thrift store and looked through the windows, it looked like a crazy garage sale, and these two cute French boys stopped too and were looking. All I could think was, "If this was a movie, and they talked to us, this would be our 'meet-cute'", but it's not and they didn't. I heard them speaking English, reading something inside. Francophone English accents are cute sometimes.

The exposition was really cool. Just the idea of an old dude coming to Paris and living here is pretty cool. I went up the the cashier to get a tarif jeune (youth ticke). I said it like this though, "Euh, tarif jeune, s.v.p?" And the cashier was funny saying, "Mais oui, vous etes jeune!" (Of course, you're young!). It made me happy that he was making a joke, and that he didn't answer me in English or anything, because sometimes they can tell you're not French, but when you get French back or even slight joking, it's nice. It's like you finally accomplished something. Then he made a joke about Benjamin Franklin.

After the exposition, hung out with Lucia a bit before her class. I got a piece of DELICIOUS chocolate while Lucia got dinner. I was still full from the burrito. Tastiness.I read French Women Don't Get Fat, and it actually really helped me appreciate food more and that it should be a celebration. So instead of buying a box of sweets to have in the house, a piece of really good chocolate to savor at an appropriate moment would be better. Also, Lucia and I also changed our eating habits so that we save money for traveling, and it's really helping me lose some poundage for the wedding. Woot.