Eiffel Tower, 1:30 a.m.

Most of us just hung around the hotel tonight after eating Chinese food in a little hole in the wall restaurant. I was just drinking some kir (I'm making it for you all when I get home - white wine mixed with creme de cassis, or blackcurrant, a delicacy made specifically in Dijon) and watching bits of the Daily Show with some of my classmates ... when right around 1 a.m., my friend Red got a bit antsy. He gets antsy a lot. Many would say he is incredibly impatient. Bored easily. He said he just wanted to go walk around, so I said I'd go because I was bored and wanted to see more of the city. Even though it was the middle of the night. Which it still is. So, we went downstairs and Red decided to ask the night manager people how to get to the Eiffel Tower; check. It was a straight shot from a Metro station right near the hotel. But the Metro also closes down at 1:50 a.m. So, we only had about 45 minutes to go there, see it, and come back before that time.

It was really fun. Yes, I already saw it last week, but it was also fun going with someone who hadn't seen it before. Plus, it looked different. It didn't have the goldish glow to it - it was all bright, sparkly disco lights. I love doing stuff like that. Just totally, completely random, in the middle of the night.

It's 2:50 a.m. now, and we all have to get up early (for real this time) to hit the Louvre (again), the Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame, etc. We've got to get our sightseeing on because we're leaving on Tuesday! Only two more days and then it's back to Oklahoma. It's going to be weird, to say the least ... but no weirder than going to the Eiffel Tower at 1:30 a.m. on a whim.

Jennie

Shane to French bee: "Surrender like the rest of your countrty!"

We are now in Paris after riding in a bus from Dijon. Everyone went to Hard Rock Paris last night, and we had a great time eating chicken and other American foods and also drinking out of souvenir glasses. Expensive, but a good time nonetheless. We're all glad that our classes are done. We got these little certificates from the Burgundy School of Business, as well as crappy free t-shirts, which I promptly wore.

So, today we went to Versailles. No one could really get up early enough, so we weren't able to see the whole thing. We essentially only saw the main palace, and weren't able to go into the gardens or to Marie-Antoinette's private estate. That was a bummer, but I liked everything I saw. It was beautiful and expansive ... and there were tons of annoying souvenir sellers practically blocking our path into the palace. It's about the most irritating thing about Paris: the souvenir hawkers. And they sell the most idiotic crap, like cheap scarves with Paris written all over it, and icky little Eiffel Tower key chains as well as light up Eiffel Towers ...

We all had a good time buying souvenirs (in the shops) and seeing where Marie-Antoinette used to live with Louis the 14th, but the most fun was on the Metro train on the way back to the hotel. We were standing in a pretty full train, when Hilary spotted a large bee on the window above her head. Thus, we all moved out of the way while Shane tried to beat it to death with his ... umbrella. Not exactly a weapon of choice when it comes to stinging insects, but that's all we had. As soon as he smacked it once, he'd basically just pissed it off and it started buzzing around angrily. He had to smash it with the umbrella approximately 12 times before it died ... and in the meantime we were all screaming and laughing hysterically after Shane shouted, "Surrender like the rest of your country!!" Even some of the stoic French passengers were chuckling ...

Well, I'll try to post more pictures soon. Shane, my Paris roommate, wants to use our shared Internet, and we're trying to decide what to do for dinner.

Love,
Jennie