Doing laundry is always a good plan.

It seems that the dryer likes me today!

Also, I FINALLY bought pants here! I was in dire need of new pants. I bought them at the Monoprix, which vaguely ressembles a Target. Some are just supermarkets, some are supermarkets + clothing stores, some are really small essentials markets. In any case, I went to the one on Avenue des Champs-Elysees, which is basically 42nd Street but a lot more French. There's a movie theatre every couple buildings, car dealerships, gorgeous patisseries, and of course, McDonald's (or "Mack-doe", as they call it here). There's also a place called "Quick" which says, in English, "Fast hamburger restaurant".

I am never at a loss for amusing signs in English here. Yesterday, I saw a sign that said, "Alcool and stranger wine". I'm pretty sure they meant to translate it as "Alcohol and foreign wine".

I went to frisbee practice again this week. It's only Mondays and Tuesdays for now, while the hard-core players practice on Thursdays. Wednesdays are for super-beginners. I love how the French say "Ultimate". They call the sport "l'Ultimate", which is pronounced "lool-tee-MAYT". I made new friends: Emma (the Canadienne), Kevin (the Francais), Brilleu (which may or may not be how to spell his name), Giovane (easily Spanish or Italian), Kristin (the Amherst player), Jeff (the kid from GWU who's too competitive for my taste) Emery (the American who was quite taken with me at indoor practice), and Inga.

When I tell my Smithie friends about the people I'm meeting at ultimate, they get jealous because they haven't found any real groups that they feel a part of. That's what I love about ultimate frisbee: it's pretty much the same feeling everywhere. Spirit of the game is super important, everyone is ALWAYS late, but everyone works really hard for the team.


In other news, my blisters having blisters has gotten worse, and now my blisters' blisters have blisters. I could hardly walk today. We went to the Musée Carnavalet, which was all about the history of France and its people. It was really interesting, but I found it a little dry. It felt like a history lesson that I'd already had, but the building was stunning, as usual.

Afterward, Alix, Hannah, Rachel, and I went to a cute Israeli restaurant. They got bagels, and I got a mini veggie pizza with hot chocolate. SO GOOD. Alix and Hannah decided that we'd have to celebrate Rosh Hoshannah, so we went next door to check out the wine selection. No Manuschevitz, but there WAS Kedem! Woot!

We decided to walk home. Also a poor plan for my poor feet.



We walked along the yellow line 1. We were on the right, at stop Saint-Paul, and I had to walk all the way to the end, and then further along the blue line past Charles de Gaulle to Victor Hugo. It took about an hour, but it was a nice walk. I'm just worried about walking tomorrow, since my feet really are killing me. I may take a bath tonight. Mm, that sounds nice.


Tomorrow, we have our last official meeting of our orientation program. Mme Toumi (or just "Toumi" among us, pronounced "Too-mee") has us going on another jeu de piste (scavenger hunt) and will meet up with us afterward at the bar called "Deux Moulins", where Amelie went to in the movie Amelie! She also inferred to the fact that she may be sitting there drinking a bit while she waits for us to arrive.


On Saturday, we leave at 7:30 a.m. from Reid Hall to go to Chateau de la Loire. It'll take about 2 hours to get there. We're staying overnight, and we have lots of fun activities. Our first night there, we're having a fondue night for dinner.


Alright, I'm going to check on my laundry, take a bath, plan our course for tomorrow's scavenger hunt, and go to sleep! Good night, world!