Notre Dame & Sorbonne

Sunday was pretty lazy. We headed back to Montmarte and I got most of my souveniers so I'm pretty set. We decided to take the side stairs up to the little town and that was the worst idea ever. There easily had to be 150 steps at a ridiculous incline. We were gasping for air after the second set. Awful. We finally got to the top and checked out the artists because a couple people wanted to buy stuff. We went to a cafe that had a special for 12 euro you got a burger, fries, drink and dessert. It was really yummy and it was fun sitting outside but our waiter was a punk. Liz and Attiya ended up buying art and then we headed back home because we were dead. I didn't do much when I got back. I watched Project Runway online for a solid 3 hours.

Monday was alright. We had to meet Armoogum at Notre Dame at 9:30 and we were a solid twenty minutes late. There were a ton of people there too so it was kind of a pain. We had to walk up this tiny staircase and we were already sore from walking up the steps at Montmarte. Everyone was so dizzy and tired. We went out to this viewing area and it was really pretty. Then we crawled through this little door where Quasimoto used to live or something and saw the giant bell. It was way too crowded and people don't know how to move so this trip was really more hassle than it was worth. We went up a little higher and then had to go down the small spiral staircase all the way to the bottom. Some of us went inside the church and I lit a candle. It was very pretty inside, but hard to take pictures without the flash. Then some chamber singers came out all dressed up and started singing so I took a video. We waited for everyone to go through the church and then Armoogum talked a little bit about the area. He said Notre Dame was built where it is because the soil is special and they believe it has the power to connect to Heaven so it is sacred. I'm not sure what he was talking about. It was very pretty none the less.

Then we walked to Sorbonne which is a University in Paris that was the sight of the student's revolution in the 1960s. They shut down the school because they wanted better education and as a result they now have dorms for men and women that are closer and school is a heck of a lot cheaper than it is in the U.S. It is a beautiful area and has a lot of historic meaning. I think ISU needs to have a revolt so we don't have to pay so damn much for school.

We left Armoogum and headed to school for lunch. Negocia and Accent clearly don't know how to make our schedule because we had an hour to get back to school and to eat lunch before class but it takes a solid forty minutes to get there. I ate a rushed and crappy lunch of rice and fries and chocolate pudding and all the bread was gone. What a disappointment. We had class with Henri and it was kind of a snoozefest. He is really nice and tries to make jokes but it was so hot in the classroom and we were walking around so much that everyone was ready for sleep. Not to mention we were still hungry. We did a few exercises in class and then were done at 4:30 where we had to get back on the Metro and head to Accent for a meeting. Dumb.

We finally got to Accent and everyone was drained. They gave us weird cookies and warm drinks. Thanks for that. We had a meeting with the director of Accent who wanted to see how everything was going. She is kind of annoying. Nobody really had much to say. She did mention that a volcano in Iceland is erupting and the volcanic cloud is supposed to be here by Thursday so flights may be canceled. It was only like a 15 minute meeting and it was stupid so afterwards a bunch of us got Subway because it was close and American. It was delicious. I got a footlong, which here is 30 cm or something and I inhaled it. I am so hungry all the time here. They don't make eating a priority like we do. After that I mailed some postcards and came home to watch the finale of Project Runway. Me and Kara and John wanted to go out so we sat in my room with Meredith and Gabby and drank for a bit and hung out. It was fun. We decided to go out because we didn't have class today until 1:30. We went to Iguana again because it is familiar and we had a good time. We saw some familiar people there which was funny. The music wasn't as good as it has been and none of us wanted to stay too late so we didn't get too crazy. We walked to this food place and got a bite to eat and the people working were pretty amused with us. I came home and went to sleep hoping to sleep till noon and instead my roommate woke up at 9 to do laundry with Gabby and they thought talking loudly and turning the lights on and slamming doors was a good idea. I'm so. freaking. tired. I will write about today later.