First Weekend!

The Eiffel Tower
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Friday night I ate dinner with my host parents, their daughter Charlotte and her boyfriend, their son Gregoire and his girlfriend, and their daughter Pauline. We celebrated the feast of the epiphany (a little late). In France, it's a big tradition where all the bakeries sell cakes with a small ceramic favor baked in. On the feast of the epiphany, the cake is cut and the person who gets the favor is the "king" or "queen". The way my host family does it, the youngest (me) had to go under the table and decide who would get which piece.

Notre Dame
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Saturday I met some girls for lunch at a sandwich place (again in the Marais) and then spent the afternoon reading tour books in a coffee shop. I'm trying to do some research about places in France other than Paris that I want to see while I'm here. Later, I went to a party at the house of the study abroad program administrators. She lives in France and had her son bring some of his friends so we could meet some legit French guys. :) It turned out to be a lot of fun...I learned lots of important French slang. I spent the rest of the night in the Latin quarter, which looks beautiful at night. There are Christmas lights everywhere, tons and tons of people, lots of great street food, fun bars, and street performers. Unfortunately I wore high heels which is a mistake I will never make again...I still haven't recovered.

The Grand Palais (lit up blue because of an underwater Ancient Egpyt exhibit)
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Today I walked down past the Champs Elysees to the Seine, where my study abroad group took a boat tour down the Seine River. It was fun but horribly cold and I was definitely ready for it to be over before we finished. It was also really hard to follow the tour because they said everything in about seven different languages so before they got to one I understand we had already passed (or not yet arrive at) what they were talking about.

After the cold cold boat ride I went with some other girls to a cafe for some coffee and then went to the Petit Palais to see an exposition of Rembrandt's "eaux-fortes" which are (as I understand) prints made from engravings done in metal. They were incredible, and it was great timing because today was the last day of the exposition.