Day 7- Tuesday 14 June

Geezum, a week, 'nuff said.

Waking up rather early for orientation with the group, I still managed to be almost late. Running from the Port Royal train stop to class, I realized I needed to find me some frisbee to stop me from going crazy, and to this end I have just finished some research to the effect that there may be some pickup down where I used to live, but most games you need to have shoes and pay to access the stadiums. Sigh. Orientation took an unnecessary number of hours, and between tangental spats it was actually somewhat useful, especially the walking tour of the area [like, they sell stamps at the tabac, I had no idea], so I can't even vilify it with any sense of dignity, but I did mingle some more and eat pain au chocolats, explore the buildings better, and later we went together to a museum about Parisian history to really focus our attention, being already in Paris, in a Paris museum, but unfortunately I fell semi-asleep on a couch. Waking up to the abrasive reveille of American syllables, I was reassured that we would be coming back, and felt rather better for my singularly cursory visit.

Afterwards, I got an ice cream [coconut and pineapple, super-yum, especially the pineapple] and walked around Ile St Louis for a bit, and hung out in the parc behind Notre Dame attempting to sort through all of the dendritic carcasses I'd been given during orientation [like, they gave me five different schedules, what the hell, I am so bad with schedules, I was absolutely unnecessarily very unhappy]. And then I had dinner [quiche again] and dessert [yogurt with bread?] with Heloise and Denis, the daughter and father bit of my host family, and should have had enough time to get a jump start on my online class [oops] and Moliere reading, but somehow .... just didn't.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHH.

a bit of Reid Hall and its first mini-courtyard, complete with gorgeous roses, where class will be held half the time, and the rest at different places, except pretty much none of the classes will take place at the same time, ever, dang it

Place des Vosges, once frequented by royalty as it was the courtyard of a royal residence, I believe, and is now another combination mall slash expensive place to live

Eglise Saint Paul, one of at least three in Paris, but I did like the inside

Square Saint Jean XXIII, behind Notre Dame

western point of Ile St Louis, tres picturesque

Oh man, I almost forgot today's weird things about France! I know it's the only reason you read this, Tori. Things I don't really think about that are different: I live on the fourth floor here, but in America it would be the fifth. Unlined paper is larger. Lined paper looks like grid paper, because they don't sell lined paper, to the point where their notecards are either blank or grid, too, and sorry, that's all I've got, I'm kinda tired.