soooooorryyyyyy....

sorry everyone! i've been so caught up in everything that's happening here that i've neglected my blog. now that my three weeks of hell are over, i'm readying myself for the start of the actual semester. it actually began today, but as i've avoided having class on mondays, it begins for me at 10AM sharp.

since i'm an idiot, back at USF i registered for 21 hours of classes, something i'm regretting now... it shouldn't be too bad, though. on tuesdays, thursdays, and fridays, i have a french language/grammar class in the mornings, and then tuesday through friday evenings i'm taking different cultural classes: french cinema, written french, contemporary literature, and art from the renaissance up through impressionism.

i've managed to make a bunch of friends outside of my classes, which is really nice. my friend patrick from usf connected me with his friend elli, who's been living here for three years. through her i met a bunch of american students that are studying at beaux-arts for a semester, and we've been going out every weekend. i've made some french friends as well, who love practicing their english with me (which is annoying, since my aim in being here is to speak in french).

i haven't done much sightseeing since i've been here, aside from two trips to the musée d'orsay and one to the louvre. i haven't really even done much shopping... my purse's zipper broke on thursday, so i've been frantically searching for a purse but so far it's been to no avail, thanks to my budget. what i have been doing, though, is just experiencing daily life in paris; riding the metro and getting lunch at the patisseries and waiting in line forEVER at monoprix (which is like target+safeway combined). what i love about the parisian lifestyle is that, although everyone has a destination, there's no rush to get there. unlike americans, who overplan every second of their day and are always in a hurry to get somewhere a few seconds quicker, parisians don't mind waiting for things. it's something i've grown to appreciate.