Ayiyiyi!

Ah! I can't believe so much time has passed since my last post, the time is really flying! I am going on my first trip tomorrow for our February break with three of my friends to Berlin, Prague and Vienna and I have been so busy figuring all of our trip plans out I totally forgot about this... So the past two weeks..they have been amazing as has this whole trip! i dont even know where to start hmmm basically classes have really started and my teachers all have decided that their class is the most important. this means 2 hour classes are 2 and half, one hour classes are 2 - to put it simply i have been to the louvre for 8 hours in the past week for one class :) i mean how could i honestly complain about that but it seems to be getting a little excessive.
sites in the past 2 weeks
- for a class we went on a walking tour of monmartre which was gorgeous, and i always love climbing the stairs to Sacré Coeur. I attempted to brag and whip out my "Etudiant de la Sacré Coeur" passport but then everyone realized its on a business card and weren't quite as impressed...
- being an American, i love the super bowl. not for the game, solely because i dont understand the rules, but for the commercials. because of this desire to see the best gathering of american commercials in one day on tv. i gathered my friends together at 1 am to watch the game at a canadian bar. We got there only to meet tons of other american students from all over the US but much to our dismay they aired french commercials! my friend sarah and i were thoroughly disappointed and after watching Christina Aguilera flub the national anthem, went to the only restaurant still open at 2 am and ordered fries.

- this past friday was quite possibly my favorite day in paris thus far. it was 63 degrees!! Luckily for me, my classes end at 12 on fridays so I casually went to the gardens of the Rodin museum, nicely situated across the street from my house, and sat, attempting to tan and do work for 3 hours. it was absolutely heavenly and for about 3 minutes i had even convinced myself that i was french.
- anywaysssss for the weekend a bunch of people from my program decided to go to a famous fondue restaurant called Refuge des Fondues where they serve wine in baby bottles. although it seems completey absurd the atmosphere was so fun. the restaurant is so small that when you walk in the owner literally pulls out a chair for the women and tells you to "climb"(one of the few english words he knows) and you literally have to climb over the table to get in on the other side. i cant wait to go back soon with friends that come to visit!

- Sunday it unfortunately was rainy and freezing again so what better thing to do than march around underground with the dead bodies in the catacombs. I never really realize how clausterphobic i am until i get into small areas like these. adds a couple thousand skulls, arms, and legs and you have me literally shaking in my boots. the ceilings were about 6 feet tall and your arms could nearly touch the side of either wall. while being super freaked out, it was a very cool experience. to think that someone literally spent hours and days taking bodies out of their burials and nearly rearranging them in an underground cave is pretty crazy. the quotes around the bones were very interesting, all with the common theme - death- but still somewhat inspiring.

Finally the end of this post and the most interesting thing i have learned so far in Paris - the word dingue.  pronounced dangggg it means crazy and for some reason my roommate and i feel like it is the most fun word in the french language. i have decided that when i get back to america i am figuring out a way to add this to everyone's daily vocabulary - dang that girl is dingue! ...anyways try it out and let me know how it goes! i am off to berlin, prague and vienna so i will have plenty to add next week too! Happy almost spring!!! 

xoxo Magpie