The evil that is midterms.

the beautiful view from my picnic lunch this past weekend
(what I did instead of study...)

Midterms this week.
And rain.
And cold.
Can I just fast forward to Dana, London and Barcelona?!

It's been such a rewarding experience that I almost forgot I'm in school and have an evil thing called midterms. We have to attend every class (so don't worry Mommy, I'm not slacking) and I've never been one to miss much class anyway... but it's nothing stressful. It's fun learning about the the culture, history, politics and language of the city that you live in... especially in a place that is or was, at some point so entirely 'foreign.' Still- there exists the evil that is midterms. The thing about midterms is that in my experience, they're not much less important or much less difficult in content than final exams are... but they're much more difficult because while trying to exert the same amount of energy that one would for a final exam, I still have to attend class and maintain all other normal responsibilities. During final exams, life stops for the week and one's only concern is finals.
So I still have to wake up at 6:30 am and attend class every day and be home for dinner (which, if there is a cheese course included, is like.. a two hour affair).. but in the midst of all that, I have to study... study, study, study with no fun or exploring at all :(

Okay so it isn't SO bad. I have three midterms- two in class essays tomorrow for Histories of Paris and French Cinema. For Histories of Paris we had the choice of two questions - I picked the one about the "use of power" particularly in terms of the changes and additions of buildings and infrastructure during three different regimes. Things could change but as of right now, I'm pretty set on using Henri IV (Place des Vosages, Pont Neuf), Louis XIV (Versailles, Invalides) and Napoleon III (worked with Haussmann to 'redesign' the streets of Paris). Sounds rather dry, but I assure you it's quite interesting. For French Cinema we have an essay about Jean-Luc Godard with emphasis on his movie Le Mépris ("Contempt") staring Brigitte Bardot (the French Madonna) and Michael Piccoli. It's a good movie - part of the Nouvelle Vague ("French New Wave") and entertaining to say the least. Thursday I have my French midterm which will probably prove to be the most difficult for me. For whatever reason I can write coherently but language is just not my thing! The past and present are complete opposites that I can differentiate between quite clearly, yet in French, I can't seem to get either tense straight.

Aside from that, all is going well. I continue to receive much more snail mail than I could ever hope to and once midterms are over I will be sending out mail to alll you family :).

Recent accomplishments:
*I found chicken soup! It's amazing... I stocked up.

*I learned how to do all of the accent marks (é, î, à, etc) using my keyboard rather than copying/pasting/inserting it into the document. This is HUGE. Trust me.

*With a bit of Danielle's help, I asked Madame in French if Dana could stay with me when she visits! (Mon soeur me rende une visite pour la vacance, est-ce qu'elle peut dormir ici dans ma chambre juste pour un nuit? Ce samedi? Parce que nous allons partir pour londres dimanche.)

*I found chicken soup.

*Found a new coffee shop close to school... it's adorable and the owner is the cutest little French lady ever. They are super polite and smile when they make eye contact with you. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but it is uncommon, even for store clerks, to smile when you make eye contact with them at any time other than upon entering the store. Strange, isn't it? Eye contact is just avoided unless you WANT to make contact ... if you catch my drift...

*Did I mention that I found chicken soup??

L'opéra / Théatre de l'Académie Royale

(Napoleon III commissioned this new opera house to be built during his regime. The foundations took a year and the entire budget planned to spend on it. After Napoleon III, a grass roots movement protested the Opera House and wanted to turn it into a temple. Fortunately (and unfortunately), the old opera house burned down so they had to build a new one, especially given the recent recognition of Paris as the city of arts and fashion. At the time, it had an eclectic feel to it and has a fancy schmancy hall inside of it that is modeled after the Hall of Mirrors at Versaille).

Beaucoup bisous,
Michele :)

C'est la vie :)

view of chateau villandry from the gardens.

Soo I've officially given up on consistently updating this blog... I don't think I'll make anymore unreasonable promises :)
This past weekend we joined Danielley's parents in Loire Valley and visited the castles there. Among them were Chenonceau, Chambord and Villandry. They were all quite beautiful :)

view of the gardens from a tower in the chateau.

Loire Valley is near the city of Tours and is basically the countryside and it was so pretty getting to see all the little old towns. They all had so much history and the buildings had so much character that walking aimlessly in the residential areas was just as enjoyable as touring the castles. In Amboise, we stopped by an old house of Leonardo Da Vinci and along the way, walked through a suuuuppper old neighborhood that had remains of houses built into the rocky hills... these are called "troglodytes" [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troglodyte]. I wish I had a picture to show you but unfortunately, my camera had no battery to begin with :( ... I know, Sorry Mommy.

Other things...
*As the new school year is beginning at home, the massive amounts of pictures being uploaded onto Facebook are making me rather homesick! Not to say that I am not enjoying every second of my life here, because I truly am, but it is quite a moment when you realize how much life is going on without you back at home! Last night Dana gave me a bunch of new songs to download as I had been listening to the same ones since I got here... bleh. It's going to be so strange to come home to a radio that is entirely unfamiliar and a blockbuster full of new choices :)

*Although, thank you all SO much for all of the mail :) I felt so so sooo loved, too! It's been wonderful having a reason to check the mailbox! I just bought stamps so I will be responding shortly :)

*Official school started a while ago... forgot to blog about that.. I'm still taking French along with Histories of Paris and French Cinema. Histories of Paris is really amazing... on Mondays we have lecture and on Wednesdays we go on excursions to see those places we are lectured about. It's like applied european history and it's great. Daddy you would love it! For example, we learned about Napoleon... his crazy military successes and his crazy Napoleonic code and domestic policies.... and then went to Invalides where his tomb is that is basically filled with artwork in remebrance of all of his accomplishments.

*Madame Anne (my Fran-mere/ host mom) is speaking almost all French at our dinners now. Danielle converses well whereas sometimes I just smile and nod. It's not that I can't understand, it's just that I can't think up a response quick enough, haha. Although I am getting much better with my French... occasionally I miss the negation in a sentence and totally get it backwards, but I'm no longer falling asleep in class so I know there is an improvement since before, I'd doze off because I didn't know what was going on :)

*I have now officially wasted far too much time blogging and way too little time doing my paper on Invalides.

Love you all!
A tout a l'heure,
Micheley

Porquoi est-ce que ils ne sont pas gros...?

me at st. tropez.

Why aren't they fat? It's one of those things Americans always talk about regarding the French.. and even after living here for two months now, I've come up with a long list of speculation but nothing substantial. Maybe it's because they walk everywhere... or because they aren't fond of preservatives or genetically modified products...? Maybe it's because they eat sooo much, their metabolisms never slow down? Or maybe they're just all freaks of nature. Je ne sais pas (I don't know). But I do know that I can't rely on the French lifestyle to keep from getting myself plumpy soo I invested in some running shoes :)
I have gone jogging the past three days so far and feel great... and how could I not? Look at where I jog:

c'est très jolie, oui?

Love you!
Micheley