Last few days in Dijon ...

And I have definite mixed feelings about it. I'm happy because I want to see everyone back at home, and I'd like to stop having stomach cramps and I'd also like to eat chicken again and stop living out of a suitcase. However, I also love all my new buds and enjoy being abroad. Here's a picture we had the waiter take tonight at dinner:



This isn't the entire group. It was just the people who wanted to eat at the little Italian place that Lauree, Jenna and I fell in love with a few weeks ago. We had our wine tasting session earlier in the afternoon, and then afterward as we were milling around in the classroom, we told people we were going out for Italian afterward, and everyone sort of wandered over there with us. We had a lot of laughs and good food, which we do a lot. Around the table starting on the left front: Amy, Reddy, Meghan, Christie, Jenna, Shane, Hilary, Jen, Lauree, Ashleigh, Katie, me. Anyway, there aren't many boys as you can tell, but they don't seem to mind ...

This has been a pretty great experience, all in all. I may be downing Pepto-Bismol tonight, and sweating because there is no air conditioning in this dang college, but it has been pretty great. We haven't all gotten along all the time, but we've done the best we could considering the circumstances (around each other 24/7 for weeks at a time). I'm wearing a dress I bought at Monoprix, the grocery store/Target sort of place here.

See you all pretty soon!

Love,
Jennie

I even procrastinate in France!

Well, I've got a presentation due tomorrow morning at about 9:45 a.m. And one of my group members is sick to her stomach and sleeping, another one is in the lobby of our hotel playing cards, another is completely MIA, and then there's me. Blogging at school. So, I guess we'll be putting together our PowerPoint presentation on EU-US trade relations at some point tonight. But not now.

Now it's time for some pictures of Paris. Here we go:



After getting into Paris via train, we promptly had to get onto the Metro and try to figure out where our hotel was. We asked an information person at the train station and she snubbed her nose at us and told us to "call the hotel." This picture is of Jenna laughing hysterically when we realized we got on a Metro going the wrong way. Everyone else had gotten off and we had to sit in an empty subway train, waiting for it to reverse directions and start its path over again ... we had fun with it.



The Paris Metro ... we finally found our stop: Victor Hugo. It was funny because our hotel in Lyon was on Victor Hugo Way, and then our Metro stop in Paris was Victor Hugo as well ... it seems this writer is "popular" or "famous" in France for some bizarre reason.



Pretty classic shot of ole Eiffel. Hard to get something "artsy" when it's so enormous, and every picture in the world's been taken of it. This was after the sparkly white lights had turned off. They turn off and turn on at intervals.



Another shot of La Tour Eiffel.



The picture I'd been waiting all trip to take: the self-shot in front of the Eiffel Tower. Who knows what that lady was doing in the background. Ruining tourists' photos, I guess.



Julie and I in a Paris cafe, right across from the Louvre. I think I was the only one who actually liked my food. Everyone says I'm the one who will "eat anything," which those of you at home will hardly believe. But it's true: when I'm hungry, I will eat it. Plus, I like the food here. I don't know what they're complaining about half the time. I also have an upset stomach more often than the rest ... perhaps there is some link I'm missing out on.



I am a huge tartlette fan! This is a tartlette fraises, or strawberry tart. Sweet!!!! I ate about three tartlettes that day. They are so much better in France than at home, because the crust is sweeter and more graham-crackery delicious. At home it always seemed like the crust was waxy. At any rate, that's also an espresso in the shot. Since this is how they serve it here, I've gotten used to just drinking shots of espresso with sugar, or avec sucre. I've learned coffee French. :) I just say "dou-blay expresso AVEC SUCRE!!!" I had to have my strength up for walking around the Louvre all day!



The Louvre! This is after you walk into the courtyard. All four of us were so thrilled to finally see the glass pyramid ... it really made our trip. We spent a lot of time just milling about taking pictures of it and looking around and just generally being awed.



This is the entrance lobby of the Louvre. The entrance is inside and below ground underneath the pyramid. Then you go to whichever wing you want by taking an escalator back up. There are, I think, four floors of stuff. Someone said you could spend six months inside of the museum and still not see everything. So I just did the Da Vinci Code stuff, milled about, and saw the Vermeer paintings. It took hours just to do that.




Julie and I in the sculpture garden. There isn't much modern art in the Louvre at all, but this was there. And it was odd. We had one of the security guards take this picture. :)



We'll be back on Friday!