Back in the Internet WiFi bar again because the wireless that we were able to harness in our apt. is gone. Sadly.

Today in grammar class Jessi and I were called on to act out a scene for everyone else to guess. We each drew names of who we were supposed to be acting-- she was George Bush, I was Jacques Chirac, oddly enough, and then we drew our scene. We were supposed to be "en boite." Now, the French word for box is boite, so we just thought "ok, we are supposed to be 2 leaders of the free world in a box. If anyone can do it, we can." So we sat down on the ground and began to act out our scene, all the while watching our grammar prof giving us odd looks. Pretty soon she figured out what was going on and doubled over laughing so hard she couldn't explain what was so funny. Eventually she caught her breath and told us that apparently "en boite" is different than "en UNE boite" and it means "in a nightclub." And we were acting like homeless people on the side of the road. Hilarious. At least we made that mistake in front of her instead of some unsuspecting frenchperson.

Leave it to me to get a 25Euro traffic violation in a country where it is not even legal for me to drive. Tuesday we were coming home from school, much later than usual, me still sick, when we see French RATP agents (I have no idea what that stands for, BTW) stopping everyone in the Metro station and wanting to see their tickets. At the beginning of every month, we buy these things called "Cartes Oranges" that cost 52,50Euros but let us use the Metro as much as we want all month. So I whip mine out, but it turns out it is mandatory that these silly little tickets have my PICTURE on them. So the guy (who does not even look official, with this RATP rubber band around his bicep) pulls me aside and tells me it is a 25Euro fine. I tried to play the "I don't speak your language" card (which was not difficult, since I barely do) then the "But I didn't know" and then "Are you sure? Why should I believe you?" But he would not let me off and so I blew half the cost of a MONTHLY pass on one silly infraction with the ridiculous French bureaucrazy.

I am feeling better, finally rid of my fever, which is lovely, and the weather is amazing too. Last night we went to the Louvre (it's open late, so we were there till they kicked us out at 22h00), which was amazing and fabulous, even though most of the galleries in our wing don't have electric lighting (it's expensive and bad for the paintings anyway) so after dark it got... really dark. But we did the whirlwind tour and hit up the major things, dodging tourists on the DaVinci Code tour and pretending we were natives. Ha. Then to a cafe for a 8,50Euro bowl of ice cream with chantilly, which I thought was white wine, but as it turns out is just whipped cream. SO DELICIOUS having something familiar though... Yum.

Last time we went to the grocery store (INNO) we bought cereal-- we ended up getting these things called Frosties with Tony the Tiger on the box, thinking they would be Frosted Flakes. Or at least similar. No. Of course not. That would be so very not French. They are these weird pillow shaped... lumps that are orange with brown tiger stripes on each one filled with Nutella. I feel like such a petite fille francaise every time I pour a bowl... Especially this morning when a set of Asterix playing cards fell out. Ha.

Other than that, we chose classes today. A lot of art history for me... A lot of promised visits to the Louvre and a lot of fingers crossed that the credit will transfer to Emory. I really have eaten nothing, it seems, but bread, eggs, cheese, and wine since getting here... and a lot of room-temperature water. They don't refrigerate drinks here, which is well and good when it is 60 or below, but right now it has got to be in the 80s, but I don't really know because all they ever use is Celsius. So it is 23degrees right now. Useful, no?

Useful fact of the week, gleaned from a French tour of Les Invalides, the place where Napoleon is buried: Napoleon was 1.69meters tall. This is only like an inch or something shorter than me, which is fairly impressive for 200 years ago and all the criticism about him being so short.
~B