Well, my weekend was a little bit more relaxed than last weekend. Yesterday my friend came into Paris and we ended up walking around, shopping and talking, for about 6 hours! I think we walked all of central Paris yesterday, from the Marais to the Ile de la Cite and St. Louis, to Odeon the surrounding neighborhoods. I finally caved to my shopping addiction a little bit and bought a dress. I really want to go back to some places. A lot of the clothing I saw was really different and I hadn't seen anything like it before, so I really want to go back and maybe buy something more. After catching up on the last two years worth of information, it was already dinner time, so my friend took the train back, and I, too exhausted to eat out, went home and rested my very blistered feet. It was really great to see my friend again, though! Our friendship is to the point where we are totally comfortable around each other, no matter how often or rare that occurs, so it's just so easy to spend an afternoon with her! I was shocked when I looked at my watch and it had been like 5 hours. I feel like I really learned the neighborhoods in depth yesterday by walking around for so long.

Today added to my repertoire of Paris streets, too.  I spend the morning doing almost nothing except riding the Metro. I had intended to go to Reims this morning, spend the afternoon and return this evening. I didn't book my train tickets ahead of time because last time I did, it was chaos and I ended up loosing half of the money for the ticket and having to pay for a different train. I get to the train station, go select my train tickets on one of the ticket machines, and when I enter my credit card to pay, it says the card isn't an acceptable type of card. Yes, some American cards don't work in Paris. However, my card has worked everything else, so I'm not sure what the deal is. Of course, I next tried the actual ticket window, but since it was Sunday, and everything in France closes on Sundays, there was no one working. So I ended up just going back home so I could revise plans for the rest of my day. I ended up just taking it easy. I had a lot of fun just walking around my neighborhood and wandering down streets I hadn't been down yet. The French never cease to amaze me with their architecture, even when it's just an apartment building or small house on the side of the road. I found even more public parks, and I actually stumbled across a Boulangerie (bakery) that was open! Even the supermarket isn't open Sundays, so this was like an Oasis in the desert. I bought a baguette and came back and made myself a really fantastic egg sandwich. It reminded me of a Spanish tortilla Espanola, but I didn't intend that. It was good to have an afternoon off all to myself before I start a new week. The last week, in fact!

I've been continuing to plan out the time when my mom and brother come over, which is in 9 days! Yikes! Where did the time go? I'll be wrapping up class this week, which doesn't even seem possible! I want class like this all year. I'll have to start thinking about packing and consolidating my stuff. I've already cut back on the groceries. I'd be dishonest if I said I'll be sad to leave my roommates, but I will be sad the program is ending. After all, it's Paris! But for tonight, I will focus on what I have to do for tomorrow, like my readings. Almost through another book, so that might keep me up tonight too! I think we're heading up near Montmartre tomorrow for class. Can't wait to visit there!

Don't have any photos today, but I compiled a movie clip out of my photos showing everyone my walk to Mont Saint Michel last weekend. (I previewed it and the quality looks terrible, but I'm hoping that it's just my low bandwidth connection, not the video.)

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! Bonsoir all!