Au revoir, Tours

So, after nearly two weeks here, we are heading to Paris tomorrow. I can’t begin to say how excited I am, but I’m scared all over again. Coming here, we were all too tired to be really scared, but now, I’m nervous.

But first, there’s so much to catch you all up on. And I must apologize in advance. This was – and, mostly, is – going to be a G-rated journal. For the more sordid tales of my life (ha!), you’ll have to talk to me, or email me, or something. However, there have been some hilarious goings-on of late that I find too funny not to recount here, and since they’re not really sordid, I feel okay writing about them. But that comes later.

First, I picked classes for Paris yesterday! For the moment, I will be taking the world’s greatest art history class through the program – meet once a week and go hang out at the Louvre. Oh life is hard. ;-) At the Sorbonne, I’m taking two literature classes and a modern Euro history class. And then a photography atelier, or workshop. Which will be very exciting. I think, though, that I may add a class to take care of a Georgetown requirement, but we’ll see how hard this courseload seems like it will be.

Second, today’s preoccupation is that everyone found out housing today! As it turns out, I am not living with Kaki’s former host-family, because Mme Paul needs semester students, because she’s going to visit her daughter for a while in the winter. Sadness in my heart. However, I am living in the 10th, a stone’s throw from Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, and Gare du Nord. Think Amélie, if you’ve seen it. And I’m in the same building as another one of my friends, and apparently my family has kids my age, so it should be good. Fingers crossed. This is a large part of why I’m nervous. The part of Paris I know and love is the Left Bank, the sixième and the cinquième arrondissements, so I guess this year will be about getting to know new parts of Paris. Besides, I know that Montmartre has lots of good hostels, so you all should come visit and stay near me! :-D

But now for the other more exciting stuff. haha One of my profs here is this young guy, and from the beginning, a lot of the girls have thought he was cute. My roommate nicknamed him ‘the hot prof.’ But anyway, so, last night, we had this goodbye reception with our families, here at the Institut, and afterwards, a ton of us were hanging out here in the courtyard, just being crazy and fun. And some of the profs and administrators were hanging out with us, including Mme Grée (our on-site director, who’s awesome), and ‘hot prof.’ haha We were going out to grab a light dinner (there was tons of food and wine at the reception, but not like dinner food, so we wanted real food), so we invited them along with us to Place Plume. It ended up being absolutely hilarious, because, seriously, it seemed like practically all the girls were trying to hit on Alexis (the prof), except for a few of us, because really, he knew they were all hitting on him, and it was kind of absurd and off-putting. But it was really funny to see these 20-year-old girls falling all over this 36-year-old French guy. And they were getting all catty when someone got to spend more time talking to him, etc; makes me happy that there aren’t more guys on the program, because then it could get bad.

So that’s my funny story for the day. ;-)

Other than that, we’re just enjoying our last days in Tours. The weather has been painfully hot, but it’s getting better. We’ll see how it is in Paris.

Ah! I can’t believe I’m going to Paris tomorrow! Kind of crazy. Give me a couple days to get settled in, and hopefully it’ll be way good. We shall see.

Also! My friend Laura was looking at plane flights from the US, for her friends, and she found flights on Air France from New York for a little over $200. Which is so good, you guys. So, all you east coasters should come visit me! :-D I miss you all so much!

In other exciting news, Rachel and Nuritzi are coming next week, and the week or two after that, I’m going to London to visit Jojo and Philippe for a long weekend! Anyone who’s in that area should come in for a day or part of a day to hang out. Otherwise, get yourselves to Paris!

ETA: Those Air France fares are only available through Saturday, but they’re applicable through March, so go buy your tickets now if you want to come visit any time in the next few months!