Perhaps a substantial update would be a good plan.

After a fun-filled week of pretending to be Audrey Hepburn in "Charade" and Meg Ryan in "French Kiss," eating numerous baguette sandwiches, visiting Sacre-Coeur, having egg rolls and pizza for dinner, trying Coke Blak (prepare yourselves, America, for coffee mixed with Coke), seeing Napoleon's apartment at the Louvre, and sleeping a LOT, Becky left Friday afternoon. Tear. I spent much of Friday being bummed and tried to use retail therapy to cure my ails, but nothing fit at H&M (damn French people and their weird bodies). It was not uplifting. I did, however, buy new shoes, which I have since fallen in love with. The feet hurt, but that will be fixed with time, I hope.

I spent Saturday doing homework (or trying to do homework and not actually accomplishing anything because, well, that's how I roll). I recently realized that I have a 15-page paper due in nine days on Simone de Beauvoir's autobiography, which I haven't actually read yet. Congratulations to me. This will be an interesting week.

In other news, I got sick yesterday morning for reasons unbeknownst and I NEVER get sick, so that was pretty weird. All is well now, though. At least it passed quickly.

And on that note, I'm off. Later, yo.

Becky's here! Life is grand. Although I think I may have lost her because I have no clue where she is right now...but hopefully I'll find her soon.

The weather was beautiful yesterday, so we went to the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and La Defense (which is Paris's downtown area). Good times were had by all. There has also been a lot of sleeping (she's jetlagged and I have no excuse), a lot of eating, and a lot of catching up. Too bad those pesky classes keep getting in the way of our fun.

Okay, I'm going to go try to find Becky and hope that she hasn't been eaten by the metro or something...

Large, strange man standing next to me on crowded metro: "Souriez!" (Smile!)
Me (in my head): Ignore him! Don't look!
L,SMSNTMOCM: "Souriez! Vous etes [indiscernible]."
Me: [smiles] (in my head) Just do it. Then he'll leave you alone.
L,SMSNTMOCM: "Oui?"

In some way or another, everyone in this city is crazy. But what's even crazier is that I'm turning into them. Funny how that happens.

I am standing at the Georges Pompidou library after waiting an hour to get in and 45 minutes to use a computer. Hmm. This seemed like a better plan in my head.

Ris left this morning after a rocking, reunion-filled weekend. We went to the modern art museum at the Palais Tokyo yesterday--it was freaking weird, but the nice lady let us in for free for no reason at all. Kickass.

Okay, this keyboard is driving me nuts, so I'm going to finish this on Monday. Bon weekend.

Apologies (once again) for the lack of updates. Life's been busy.

To make up for this, I will grace you all with a summary of my weekend, which I'm sure you will find very exciting. Riiiight.

On Friday, I went to the Musee d'Orsay with my friend Sam because we felt we needed a little culture. The museum is actually held in an old train station, so the set-up is pretty unique. I think I like it better than the Louvre, mostly because it's less overwhelming. I saw some Cezanne, Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, etc. etc., so, all in all, it was a pretty artsy afternoon.

Our other friends Shaina and Alexis spent the day in Chantilly on an IES-sponsored field trip, so they had plenty of stories to tell upon their return to Paris. We ended up making dinner at my place (tortellini...mmm) and mocking the IES employees. What can I say? It's what we do. They're just so mockable.

I spent most of Saturday doing homework, which was as fun as ever. Sam came over in the afternoon with the intention of studying, but we ended up talking for many hours. She's from Hopkins, so we always have a lot of ground to cover. Anyway, the four of us went out for dinner at La Fee Verte, got some free drinks from the bartender because we had to wait 90 minutes for a table, and then ate a lot of food. The metro stops running at 1, but, once again, we stayed at the restaurant until 2. It's a constant issue. Luckily, we found an American bar/restaurant place to hang out at until the metro started running again at 5:30. I have never in my life been such a night owl...

I got home at around 6 on Sunday morning and slept for a while, then ate, showered, etc. Basically, all remaining homework was neglected. It's how I roll. I saw "Fun with Dick and Jane" on Sunday night, which kind of sucked, particularly because it was dubbed in French. Can't really say I expected anything different, though.

Unfortunately, I have three tests tomorrow and one on Thursday. I'm hoping they won't be too difficult...we'll see, I guess. In better news, Marisa's coming today! I don't get to see her until Thursday, but she IS staying at my apartment on Friday night. Yay friends! I'm really excited.

I think that's all for now. A bientot.

I'm walking in a winter wonderland. It snowed in Paris last night, which isn't that weird in itself, but it actually stuck to the ground. I know, I know. Such horror. Perhaps March will bring warmth. I'm sick of putting on 18 layers of clothing everytime I leave the house.

In other news, I have to give a presentation in my lit class on the French author Colette and the really f-ed up relationship she had with her husband. Fun times. My lit professor is the scariest woman on earth, so I'm a little nervous. And in an attempt to look snappy, I wore black pants today, but promptly spilled toothpaste on them. I am clearly the ultimate in class.

I have midterms next week, which should be interesting, considering we haven't learned anything. At all. Or maybe it just feels like it. I really have no clue how or what I'm going to study, though I have to keep reminding myself that this is IES and, really, how hard can it be? Apathy might be my downfall.

Okay, I think I'm going to work on my presentation before my class. Maybe.

For some weirdly edited pictures (and a few good ones), go to: http://photos.yahoo.com/anniebanannie07
(they're also on Facebook, so you may have already seen them)