Paris Week 2, Classes, Notre Dame and the Louvre...

Our second week of Paris was great. We had more walking tours of the city, including the Moulin Rouge, Sacre Coeur, the Marais District, Versailles, and many others. Classes started for me this past week. Monday, I have 20th Century French History from 2-5. We are talking about background events leading up to WWI. Tuesday's I have French Language in the morning from 9-12, and in the afternoon, I have Phonetics. My French Language class is like my regualr french classes back home. Phonetics is really cool, it is basically learning the proper pronounciation of words, as well as learning the different vowel sounds. It should really improve my oral French. Wednesday and Thursday mornings I have French Language from 9-12. My half day off on Thursday plus half a day on Monday gives me 4-day weekends. On Friday I didn't have any class so I decided to go to 12pm mass at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The Church itself is absolutely gorgeous!! Mass was really cool. I followed it for the most part, but it would have been easier if I had a miselette in French so I could follow the readings. However, the only two prayers that I know in French, the Hail Mary, and the Our Father came right back to me. I then went to Maison Berthillion, the best ice cream in Paris which is located on the Ile St. Louis. The Island in the middle of the Seine. I had one scoop of Raspberry, and one of Lime, and it was so amazing. Saturday, I woke up with a stuffy nose. Instead of wasting my daym I decided to head over to the Louvre for a bit and wander around. I bought a "carte Louvre jeunes" for 15 euros I have unlimited access to the Louvre for the entire year. It's a pretty good deal. Sort of by chance, I found the Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa (La Jaconde), and the Venus de Milo. Today I have just been hanging low and doing some homework. Next weekend we are going to castle of Mont St.- Michel in Northern France near Brittany. More to come later.