I <3 Paris

No matter how crazy/frustrating/tiring/annoying/long my weeks can be; the weekend seems to always save me. This one did just that.

Not that my week was necessarily awful, but the weekend was especially good so I will quickly recap for those of you who care.

My host mom took me to Montmartre Friday afternoon (=missing my math class) to grab lunch and then go to mass at Sacré Coeur. I had an extremely good quiche with goat cheese, after which we headed up the steps to the Basilica to go to Mass. It was the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, which I learned is more about Mary being born sinless than Jesus being conceived with the Holy Spirit, which I never really knew. I actually realized I could learn a lot of French by going to Mass, but that may be a sacrilegious reason for going. In any case, it was a great experience, but I still prefer churches where contact with other humans is important.

That night I went to an Australian guy from the church’s apartment to jam, as he’s a musician and has a cool little set-up in his apartment with guitar and drums. Then I went to the church’s actual service (which is once a month, as opposed to the home groups every week), which was fun and Christmas-y. After we went to an American style restaurant called Indiana where I will be taking my dad when he comes to visit because, although not up to Texas Roadhouse standards, it’s actually pretty good.

Saturday morning I started Handball for P.E., which everyone else in my class has been playing for the last 2 years at least and in which my only experience consists of a couple games in Mr. Wood’s P.E. class, so what I’m saying is I’m not exactly stellar and running hurts my feet.

My feet continued to be pained throughout the day as some of the other exchange students and I got together in Paris and walked basically forever. They are so fun, I love hanging out with them. We got some Starbucks (as is necessitated by the fact that it’s the Christmas season and the Holiday cups are out) and basically walked around. Walking around Paris becomes a lot less humdrum when there are likable people to talk to. That was really fun, and we’re going to try to do more stuff together and see each other more, as for the first 3 months after our welcome weekend we did absolutely nothing together.

Garth (Australian guy) was having a dinner get together esque thing at his house Saturday night, where I consumed amazing soup and cocktails, and met some really nice people. I was super tired coming home and fell asleep on the Métro, missing my stop, but luckily only by one, so I could walk easily back to my house.

This morning I went over to Leo (Brazilian exchange student)’s host family’s apartment to have lunch that he made. His host parents and host brothers are really nice. I got annihilated in a chess game against his little host brother and had my second cocktail in 24 hours made by a Brazilian. A friend of their family who hangs out with Leo every once in a while invited us to go to a Rugby match so we went and it was really fun. It was a pretty big game, with one of the best French clubs versus the best English club. The French team’s colors are pink and blue which I find somewhat humorous, but as no one could really tell a rugby player that he is effeminate for wearing pink, I guess it works out. Rugby is a really exciting sport to watch and the atmosphere in the stadium is awesome. I really enjoyed it.

Then, like all Sunday nights, I went to the home group. Jen and Justin (people whose house we have it at) recently had a baby so a lot of the time was spent ooing and awwwwing over the little creature. Again, like normal, loved the fellowship with friends.

I’m tired and done writing.

I promise next time I’ll try to spice it up a bit. This was probably extremely boring to read.

2 weeks till Christmas. Score.

Cheers,

Brent