Since I haven't posted at all and have probably let most of you down, here is a list of all (or many) of the things I've done while in Paris:

• Eiffel Tower on New Years Eve
• Musee Rodin
• Musee d'Orsay
• Musee de l'Orangerie
• Pompidou
• Climbed the Eiffel Tower
• Climbed the Arc de Triomphe
• Visted and climbed Notre Dame
• Visted Saint Trinite
• The Catacombs
• Seen Werther, an opera
• Seen two orchestra concerts
• Seen a photography exhibit
• Eaten a lot of crepes
• Shopped on Rue Mouffetard
• Eaten a lot of ham and cheese
• Visted the Louvre and seen the Mona Lisa
• Walked on the Champs-Elysees
• Eaten at Les Deux Magots
• Visited the interior decoration exhibit at the Louvre
• Seen "Paris Story"
• Cite de la Musique
• Cite de l'Architecture
• Seen a ballet at the Palais Garnier
• Maison La Roche
• Musee Francais de la Photographie
• Ballets Russes exhibit at the Palais Garnier
• Spoken with a composer and a violinist
• Seen people drink absinthe

I think that's a pretty exhaustive list.  We've done a lot.  A whole lot.

So I have been completely lame and haven't updated AT ALL since I've been here.  That is because I am super busy every single day and I don't even have enough time to finish the exorbitant amount of work our instructor has given us, much less write in this blog.  And I would just copy and paste my journal entries here, but our journals are basically supposed to be reports of what we've learned.  Frustrating.

Anyway, the actual city of Paris has been awesome.  It's gorgeous and fun and lively and amazing.  It's also cold.  Very cold.  And the sun doesn't really come up until 8ish, which is a little strange.  C'est la vie.

Ok I need to actually go do some assignments now... I'll try to update this thing this weekend when we have a lot of free time.  Lataaa.

I have two whole days to update you on.  You better be excited.

12/31/09:
My flight was pretty uneventful and definitely not bad.  I got a window seat, and although the man next to me insisted on taking up more than his fair share of space on the arm rest and elbowing me in the ribs, I was pretty comfortable.  I, per usual, did not sleep very well, but that's ok.  They served dinner AND breakfast... the dinner was pretty good (and filling), but the breakfast was lacking.  I knew the yogurt was going to be bad (read: unflavored) when the whole cup only had 50 calories.  The best part was each seat had its own touchscreen TV where you could watch any movie or TV show you wanted, or play games, or listen to music (radio or CDs)... FO FREE.  So I watched The Hangover, listened to Messiaen, and played Mah-Jong.  Sweet.

Once we landed, getting through customs was pretty easy, and here's the best part: when we got to baggage claim, not only were there very FEW people there, OUR BAGS WERE RIGHT THERE WAITING FOR US.  I know you might not believe me, but I promise it's true.  We got a sweet shuttle to take us to the hostel, and as a Christmas present, the driver took us around Paris... so I saw pretty much every recognizable monument in Paris within the first hour I was here.  When we finally got to the hostel, we found out we couldn't get into our rooms until 4 pm.  This was at... 7:30 am in the morning?  Needless to say, we were not a happy bunch, but we made the best of it and wandered around our area of the Latin Quarter for a while.  We found this amazing street with a bunch of open air stores and vendors... definitely going to blow some money there in the future.  The food looked and smelled amazing, and I had crepes.  AH.  Delicious.  We eventually headed back to our instructor's hotel, and I napped in an armchair until it was time to go check in to the hostel.

So maybe I'm an idiot for not expecting this because I haven't been out of the country ever... but our hostel is TINY.  I'm talking the size of a single in a UMD highrise, but with four people instead of one.  It's insane.  We're making it work, but it gets really frustrating really quickly.  And the lock-out hours are really obnoxious, especially since they didn't really clean anything today.  That's fine.

Anyway, we ate at this super swanky restraurant last night (the one I linked to in my first blog).  I had champagne, wine (that I actually didn't hate... that's impressive for me), a lobster... thing, braised doe, and this amazing dessert that kind of resembled tiramisu, but not really.  It was so good, but I was stuffed when I left.  We then walked to the Eiffel Tower, which took about 2 hours, but we saw Notre Dame, the Louvre, and some pretty sweet bridges.  We got REALLY close to the Eiffel Tower and I took some pictures, I'll post them later.  That was awesome, but a little anticlimactic.  I was expecting massive fireworks or something, but there wasn't even a countdown.  Ah well.

AND THEN.  Oh my goodness.  It took us 3 hours to get back to the hostel.  There were SO MANY PEOPLE, and by people, I mean extraordinarily intoxicated people.  They had police blocking off metro stations because there were just too many people, and I counted no fewer than 5 puddles of vomit while walking down one street.  Everyone was screaming and yelling "Bonne année", which was fine, but some sketchy guys got a little out of hand.  We tried to get on a few different metro stops but it just wasn't happening, so we walked a decent portion of the way until we found one that would first, let us in, and second, get us back in a timely fashion.  It got a little scary at times, and it was absolutely freezing, but we all got back safe and sound and promptly crashed in our squeaky bunk beds.

Good times to be had by all!  I'll write about today later... this entry ended up being longer than I expected and I'm ready to procrastinate some more.  I hope everyone had a great New Year!!

Today's Lineup:
1h00 - Go to sleep, and not get enough sleep for all the being awake I'll be doing over the next 48 hours
7h00 - Wake up to finish packing and doing all the important things I didn't do tonight, like copy my passport and print my research paper
9h30 - Load up and leave the Bury.  Destination: Dulles.
10h30 - Stop at the Chevy Chase Bank in Easton so I have cash monies to spend
Midi - Eat lunch at an unknown restaurant
13h30 - Arrive at Dulles.  Say good-bye to the parents and try not to freak out about going to Paris all by myself (ok, not all by myself, but without my parents)
14h00 - Go through security as fast as possible (read: turtle's pace)
14h30 - Sit in the airport waiting for my comrades to arrive.  Text as much as possible before I am no longer able to text for three weeks (WHAT WILL I DO)
16h15 - Board plane????
17h00 - LEAVE FOR PARIS AAAHHHHH
...try to sleep on plane, inevitably fail, spend an exorbitant amount of money to watch TV on the seatback in front of me, read, eat, try to sleep again...
0h30 (next day, 6h30 Paris time) - Arrive in the land of Ooh-la-la

And yes, I did finish my paper today.  AND I have almost all my clothing packed.  AND I don't think I really overpacked.  Great success, why can't I always be this productive?

I have started to make a packing list!  I have no idea what clothes to take though, and I'm desperately trying not to overpack.  Everything I come up with is black or gray (which I suppose is very Parisian).  I'm trying to come up with clothes I'll want to wear three times, because I'm only packing enough shirts for a week, but hopefully I'll be able to mix and match and come up with outfits that don't make me look too obnoxiously American.

I don't know what shoes to take, though.  I have my slouchy boots for dressier occasions, but it's supposed to rain.  What do I wear in the rain???  Maybe I'll try to find a pair of classier sneakers today for walking around/rain wear.

Also, my suitcase isn't very big.  This could be problematic.

You'd think I'd be more stressed about the 10 page paper I have due on Thursday than about what I'm packing, but no.

Salut!

This is my blog for my Paris trip... hooray! It'll also probably serve as my required journal for my class, so pretty much everything I do will be documented RIGHT HERE. I'll try to post my schedule for the day so you all know what's up (and so you can be super jealous), as well as pictures, stories, what I ate, etc. etc.

So far, I have not packed anything and I need to get on the ball with a lot of pre-departure stuff. Oops. But here are some fun things you can look at until I actually leave:

My hostel!
It has free wi-fi, so I'll be able to email and Skype on occasion.

The course description!
It doesn't have an exact itinerary or comprehensive list of what we'll be doing, but that'll give you an idea of what I'll be studying.

Where we'll be eating our first and last nights there!
SO EXCITED FOR GOOD FOOD.

I have to give a presentation on a concert we're seeing... there are many more places we'll be visiting for which I'll post links later, but here's some info on my specific project.
The theatre where we'll see said concert!
(This is where The Rite of Spring premiered!)
The specific program we'll be seeing!

That's all I have for now... if you have any suggestions for a packing list, or where I should eat, or what I should do on my days/nights off (we have A LOT of free afternoons and evenings, as well as a few days off, including a full weekend), let me know!

A bientot!