Paris and other ramblings

Oh. My. Goodness. Paris is SUCH a beautiful city! I'm so glad that I went, like for serious. Plus, it was really good to get to hang out with people from home; it was kind of like we were just taking a trip randomly (minus that I had to spend a good amount of time working on a presentation for my culture class). Plus, we got to see Brett, which I was so incredibly excited about.

We went on a free walking tour and saw a whole bunch of stuff that I can't pronounce (including the French Academy, the New Bridge, the Grand Palace and the Petite Palace, see my Picasa album) and had a really cool tour guide. Then we saw the Louvre (I was shockingly not as impressed by this as I thought I was going to be; yeah, it has a lot of cool art, but just not my style of art, and it said it had a big section on Spanish art and there were only a few paintings), the Eiffel Tower (WAY bigger than I thought it was going to be, and it was really pretty at night; we even got to see it sparkle!), the Arc D'Triomphe (also very cool, and gargantuan), Moulin Rouge (but it wasn't open so we couldn't go inside, but the street that it was on was quite sketchy (most definitely the red light district)), Sacre Coeur (There was a service going on, so it was kind of awkward, but cool nonetheless), and the Musee d'Orsay (I loved, loved, LOVED this museum; it's the museum with all of the impressionist paintings, and it has Cervantes, Degas, Monet, Manet, Picasso, and all of these other artists and I was so blown away). It was just a wonderful trip, although I'm not sure I've ever spent that much money on food in one weekend.

In other news, I can't believe that I only have a little over a month left here. Now that I'm traveling and seriously in the downhill slope and have a ton of school assignments to occupy my time with, time is seriously flying. I can't believe that I've been here for over seventy-five days already. That is SUCH a long time!! I will say, though, I am still incredibly excited to head back to Champaign and see everyone that I haven't seen in a long time. I'm feeling very sad to have missed some of the Koin/Strat events this semester, which seems so ridiculous to say because I'm in EUROPE, but still.

Also, I can't tell you how busy I'm going to be in the next three weeks or so. I had a culture presentation today (that went well, I think), an art history take-home test due tomorrow, a linguistics exam next Wednesday (the 19th - after my weekend in Barcelona), and then an art history paper due the 24th, as well as an art history presentation the 24th (after my weekend in Madrid). So I'm going to definitely have to use my time wisely in these next few weeks, and still find time to spend with people since I won't be around for a couple of weekends. I just have to keep reminding myself that school isn't everything and that people are more important than school.

Other than that, I don't have too much else to report, except that my sister decided to come home for Christmas, which I'm incredibly excited about, because I thought it would be really sad for her to be by herself on Christmas and also for us to be without her. So yay!