Thus passes Saturday...

Yesterday, we all got up about the same time, if not later, as if we were going to school. Instead of going to the Alliance, though, we navigated our way to the Place de la Bastille via the Metro. We waited there for a couple of minutes (like 10) and our director finally showed up. We sat at a café right next to the Metro exit and drank coffee (which was actually a shot of espresso...) while Monsieur Kevin told us about the history of France that lead up to the Revolution. We also witnessed a fist fight. You see, yesterday was a day full of the French Revolution... and lots and lots of walking. After walking around that part of Paris for a little while, we stopped at a great boulangerie to buy lunch and I had the best "pain au chocolat" EVER. We picniced right in front of the Centre George Pompidou, which is a museum of modern art that is designed inside out... If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up. It's really cool to look at.

After lunch, we walked to the Jardin du Tuleries, which is located right outside of the Louvre on the Eiffel Tower side. From there, you can see Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower. It's a pretty great view. We stood for a while and listened to more about the failures of Louis XVI and the crazy revolutionaries and then we walked a little closer to the Place de la Concorde. I had been there two years ago, but never had I actually walked there. That place still gives me the chills. There are few places that do, but the historical significance of things like the Revolution lend so much meaning and connection to such a place. There, we saw a cyclist run over a pigeon. That was traumatic because other pigeons started pecking at it... and then I couldn't watch anymore. It was cleaned up pretty quickly, but it was nonetheless disturbing.

We went to an amazing chocolate/decadent pastisserie thing after that and it was amazing. We waited in line for about 30 minutes for this and my chocolate thing cost like 7 euros... Thank you, taxpayers of Ohio... (This is what Monsieur Kevin says when we don't have to buy something for food... he just uses the money that BGSU has allotted to him... It's pretty great when that happens. Let's just say I'm thankful for the taxpayers of Ohio.) Then, we went to the Panthéon, which is really close to where we live. We went down into the Crypte, which is where a lot of famous people are buried, such as Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Jean Moulin, Jean Monnet, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Marie Curie, and more. It was so cool. I enjoyed this place so much more than the crypt at St. Denis, where all the royalty is buried.

We went home and rested after that, which was nice because I felt like my feet were rendered useless... I started reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" which I bought at a used bookstore here and it is really intriguing. It's about an austic boy, which is not a usual topic for a bestselling book... And so far, it's been really charming... That might not be the right word for it, but you should look it up sometime. Anyways, we (meaning all 11 of us with the BGSU program) went out last night around 10pm in search of the free dance lessons on the Seine River. After walking for a while, we found it and somehow accummulated 7 bottles of wine. We sat down and watched the salsa dancers and it was very interesting, but also very weird. I was asked to dance by this older man, like the age of a grandpa, and he was nice, but that is all the "dancing" I did. Abbey and I wandered down to the next group of dancing, which was much more classy and ballroom-type dancing. It was so cute to watch the couples dance. There was an older couple there and they were really good. By this time, it was 12:30am and I was really tired, so a group of us headed back to the Foyer. Even then, I didn't get to bed until 1:30... Oh well. I did pretty well compared to the others.

Today, I'm going to go visit my friend from the Alliance and hang out a little bit, then go to church, skype, then go down to the Eiffel Tower for one last time, then to the banks of the Seine River for a different type of experience of just hanging out with people and talking. I'm really excited about it. I don't know what Monday looks like, so I think I'll just take one day at a time right now. We might go see Sacre Coeur... I also want to go to Musée d'Orsay. We'll see.