"bonsoir? that sounds too sexy."

to make 2 weeks short (because I know I've already forgotten much of what's happened and am currently too lazy to think about it): my last two weeks in italy was spent cramming/studying for classes, going to venice, having my family visit me, and enjoying as much pasta/pizza as i possibly could before i left.

leaving rome was harder than expected. i was depressed most of the bus ride to the airport. it hit me the hardest as i had to say good-bye to my family for the SECOND time in a 5 week span. then it gradually kept hitting me as i left the building, then went down the street away from campus, then saying goodbye to dominico at the airport!

the flight was...bearable. i stuck my nose in my paris guidebook to avoid conversation with someone. we arrived at the airport and dragged my ridiculously heavy luggage to the bus where there was actually not enough room for everyone's bags! we had to stuff the bags in the back of the bus and some people didn't have seats =/. was this a bad omen?

as we drove the streets at night of paris, i wasn't initially impressed, unlike my first ride through rome. but then I saw the eiffel tower at night and felt a little better. the campus is very...rustic. especially the dorm rooms. in comparison to rome (which i'll be doing a lot of), the rooms are ridiculously small. but i do have a view of the Eiffel Tower which is really cool! i spent the first night unpacking and then passed out.

the second day was spent in orientation with the staffpersons here in the Paris campus and then going on a boat ride on the Seine! It's very gloomy and foggy here in Paris, but being on the boat was really cool. i came back to the dorms and passed out once again and woke up around 9:30pm and that's REALLY late in Paris to go find food in the area I'm located. we had to search for a McDonalds (yick) since it was the only thing open. then we went to this club/bar called Cafe Oz and had some fruity drinks which basically lacked any alocohol whatsoever and did some dancing. the french guys are hilarious. we couldn't take the metro home because it stops at 12:45am and doesn't restart until 5:30am, so we basically had to fend for ourselves as we walked home with the helpful advice from a very friendful french girl from cafe oz. what was supposed to be a 25 minute walk turned to 40 minutes because we definitely did not know where we were going.

i woke up the next day and went on a historical tour of paris (with my future art&architecture teacher) and learned a couple new things like why the streets are Paris are now paved and have very few cobblestone streets, where the center of paris is, and the concept of flying buttresses. After the tour, we went to go find food and were unsuccessful and spent too much money on more italian food! haha, i definitely missed italy as I ate the pasta. later that night, we went to go see slumdog millionare at the theatre near the campus and we definitely defined ourselves as the 'loud americans'. i mean, howcould we not! the movie was amazing. i'm so glad it won all 8 oscars it was nominated for.

i don't have classes mondays or fridays and internet sucks here. i need a street map of paris. 'till next time folks.