Sunday, October 12, 2008

Châteaux, boat rides, and midterms - Oh my!

This weekend started on Friday with a midterm in my French class! It was 100 points instead of the few 20 point quizzes we've normally had and a bit scary. Hopefully I did well (I studied). Afterwards, Michelle and I picked a random metro stop to explore so we picked Miromesnil. Apparently it's part of the business section of Paris, so there wasn't much to see. We did find an excellent Chinese restaurant though. I've been combing restaurants in Paris for two things: tofu and sesame seed balls. I have yet the find either.

Saturday was eventful. We had our second (and last) day trip to Fontainbleau and Vaux le Vicomte. Both are gorgeous châteaux right outside of Paris. Fontainbleau was probably my favorite. Vaux le Vicomte was the château that inspired Versailles. A guy named Fouquet owned it and threw the biggest and best party ever so the king (Louis 14th) threw him in jail. He threw him in jail either because he was jealous or because Fouquet was wasting money. However, considering that he then went on to build a bigger and better château, I'm likely to say the former.

After seeing the châteaux, Michelle, Kirsten, and I went on a boat tour of Paris. Our program gave us tickets so we decided to use them. It was the warmest weather we would get for the rest of the semester, but it was still a little chilly. We were able to see the mini Statue of Liberty and really great shots of the Eiffel Tower.

Today, Sunday, I've done nothing. People are holed up studying for midterms, so I'm left to my own devices. I have studied some (I'm writing a brief on everything we've had to read for Islam in France), rented the Scorpion King 2 (still downloading), scoured CNN, and have perused the internet. Hopefully I'll end up doing something for dinner.

What would you do if you won a 50 million dollar jackpot? And how much would you donate? I asked Ally and she shook her finger at me for saying I'd donate only half of it. She claims she'd give away all but four million. I guess that makes sense, but I think I'd share a little with you people too. : )

I bought a couple books as presents on September 17th, but they have yet to get to me. They were supposed to reach me by the 20th. I looked them up and apparently they're in a random post office just outside of Paris. Now what?

Random things I've been craving: Hershey's Chocolate Cake, my dad's chocolate sauce, my mom's coffee brownies, sesame seed balls, chips, English books, friends and family, a couch, FREE things (yes, including refills), prime rib (my mouth is watering right now), and reeses peanut butter cups.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think I have eaten all those things in the last 2 weeks, except for your dads chocolate sauce (maybe).