May 13

Sundays are laid back in France. Good shares of shops are closed while markets and museums stay open for people to explore. My day started with a small book market where I only bought a baguette to eat from a local vender. From there, Jessica Foster and I walked up to the Cite where Notre Dame is located to visit a museum about the underground ruins of Paris. Once again, our pass gave us free entry. Afterward we strolled along the riverside looking at the street art. In Paris there are green bins that the artists keep there work in and fold out into a semi-permanent store when the weather permits. From what I know about art they are not that bad. Our walk concluded at Napoleons tomb under the gilded gold dome at the Invalids Museum. Once again a free pass. From there we took the metro up town to the Paris Fashion Museum that had some crazy outfits dated 1800's to present. Jessica and I tried to look like models, but I think I only became a walking logo for ETK. Once the museum was behind us, we walked along the side streets to the Arc du Triumph and climbed to the top to overlook Paris. Having been here a while I could pick out the different parts of town and realize all that I've seen and have yet to see. The hike up the Arc was intense, so we found a small café at Victor Hugo Place to eat (dinner takes a couple hours) and picked up desert from a chocolate shop.

May 9

Finally we are visiting Versailles! After class our group headed out to the Palace of Versailles to explore the once hunting cabin of kings of France. I first studied the implications of the designer, when made into a palace, Charles Le Brun, in Art History on campus and am thrilled to be seeing Versailles firsthand. The splendor and indulgent tendencies of France are exaggerated here and reflect a society that revolves around presentation. Le Brun oversaw the changes in France during this period of time and is known for his own contribution of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Seeing the apartments of the kings and queens made me feel like a kid in a play ground again wanting to run and jump on all the fancy furniture.

May 6

Today our plans are packed! We met as a group to view the catacombs located under Paris at in the early afternoon. The catacombs are mines where the bones from old cemeteries are stacked in organized and creative fashions. The deep, dark crevice, which acts as a memorial for these cemeteries, is full of thousands of people from hundreds of years ago. The way this is done transforms the act of moving people from cemeteries into the mine as a respectful gesture. The afternoon was spent at the Picasso Museum (which was free!). I think it is interesting that Picasso was from Spain, but lived in Paris where his artwork (portion) now presides. Paris truly is the center for artwork ahead of London and the U.S. as a whole. I love that on this trip we have free passes to most of the famous museums and are given time to explore on our own.

May 2

We have not adjusted to our Paris schedule yet. We are all tired, excited, and anxious to start jumping into our new surroundings. Class in the morning is starting to become a little more comprehendible. For the rest of the students the class is a 7-week super intensive course that is taught in French, even for the beginners. For us it will only last 3 weeks. If they could just explain what we are doing in English I think we could accomplish so much more at this stage. But we are human and will adjust in time. The afternoon was spent at the Carnavalet Museum exploring on our own through different works of art that showed a perception of French history. We are lucky Dr. Hagan stuck with us and explained the deeper meanings.

April 30

We are now settled into our apartment living. Our location is good, a couple blocks from Bastille and only 1/2 hours walk from the site where Notre Dame is. We have split up into smaller groups for exploring what we can in our free time, but mainly we have been wondering around trying to stay awake until night. My main group is Jade Johnston and Jessica Foster. The girls are pretty organized when it comes to planning anything and good at navigating whenever I have us lost, so we all work together well. Even though we had been in Paris now for a day and a 1/2 the girls could not actually believe it until we saw the Eiffel Tower. Tonight we are going to take the subway across town, get out at the Tower, and walk the river back to the site. Should be adventurous.

April 28

Of course I didn't catch up on sleep the last night of choir tour. Here I am, midway through the flight out of Chicago to Paris, knowing I need sleep, not having enough energy to stay awake, yet having problems drifting off. The first couple of hours I was dead to the world- even the stewardess asked if I took something that knocked me out- but now I seem to be in a weird interim of sleep, resting, and restlessness.

April 27

I am one day away from flying out to France. This past week I've been on the Castle Singers Midwest Tour so my clothes are dirty, I'm already exhausted, and I have no idea how I am going to survive the first couple of days in Paris. Usually it is a good idea to stay awake the entire day in a new time zone to adjust quickly, but I don't think I can make it that long. My Paris travel book has been my companion for the past couple of weeks, even though I cannot remember any of the names of restaurants or other sites. French is such a confusing language to simply absorb.