yesterday and today

it snowed in the morning; a white paris is divine. but because the weather was rather drab, we didn't do much. we have these meal plan cards that recharge, so we had to put the first installment of monies on them. the rest of the day was spent inside watching planet earth and drinking wine. a pretty boring day. i went out to dinner with amanda, suzy, cathleen, and robyn to this hidden restaurant. it's run by a family i think, and it was pretty delicious. we then all came back to my room to watch corpse bride.

today was much more eventful. this morning we had a tour of musee d'orsay. i have one thing to say about that museum: edgar degas is fucking awesome. i did a research paper on him in high school, so to see all the famous works of art that i wrote about was rather mesmerizing. the tour lasted about an hour and a half. i, of course, made our group get there late because i hadn't woken up in time... typical jona fashion. we saw a bunch of impressionist paintings and sculptures, and learnt about parisian orgies and how they were depicted in impressionist art.

after the museum, a few of us had to go to the API center for a mandatory meeting for information on our teaching internship. i really like our advisor. she's the epitome of a parisian woman, really smart, talks 100 mph, and just overall gives off a very cool vibe. i will hopefully be teaching english to middle school or high school kids. it's pretty exciting.

afterwards, we went ice skating in front of l'hotel de ville right on the seine river! it was so cool! they pretty much opened this large outdoor rink in the middle of the plaza to the public. it's located right in front of this beautifully ornate castle; it had a pretty romantic backdrop. i was one of three who knew how to skate well, and i surprised myself even when i had the rentals on. so i ended up guiding the girls, holding their hands making sure none of them did a faceplant. after a while, this random guy started skating up behind the girls and grabbing their waists, forcing them to pretty much fall over. he was a mad creeper, and the girls became very uncomfortable. when we were inside taking off our skates, the guy got up and sat down next to the girls. our program director approached him assertively and asked him to leave us alone. after he started being rather forceful, the security guards came and physically removed the guy. as they lifted him, he spit on gaby and kicked her with his skate. so much for a fun afternoon of skating...

we stopped at a cafe for some coffee and snacks, then just returned home. drew and i went to one of the crous-card (our meal plan) places, which are scattered all over paris. it was actually decent food, much more appetizing than that of american cafeterias. now i'm sitting in my room waiting for people to come over and start drinking; we're going out tonight.

cheers, jhabra