Back after Technical difficulties

So it has been a week since I last updated, sorry about that but my internet has been a little shady this past week and if you reading this it means my 8th attempt at this post has finally gone through (although blogger is blinking red saying this will most likely fail grr) Anyways quite a lot has gone down since my last post. Miranda came through town with Katherine and we did touristy things in Paris, and then Katherine and I skipped off to LE mont saint michel last weekend for some touristy things outside of our respective cities. 

Miranda and I on top of the tower of Montparnasse.  Looking out over paris towards the Eiffel Tower.
Miranda's got jump skillz.
Inside the tower Montparnasse- they had really cool lights.
Miranda and katherine were excited to see the louvre and Mona.
They can float over water.
Photos from the strike they are holding signs for CGT the largest communist party in France. Breaking News! Apparently some disgruntled workers have taken their boss hostage!
THIS is LE Mont Saint Michel. Built in 708 AD it is like traveling back in time (well if you edit out the village of tourist shops. But it is surrounded by a Bay that in high tide the water would cover the whole area and make it and island. But we visited at low tide so the water you see is a river going out to see.
It even has a draw bridge- something I find awesome. My house will have a draw bridge- right next to that Louis the 15th architecture.
Me and in the background you can see the sandy bay all the way to the ocean... it's somewhere out there.
The shadow
Katherine is being a pilgrim- they always were hunched over right?
it is like a desert 
we decided to personify falling rocks
ANTM here we come!
Me and my traveling buddy 
This statue is a copy in silver of what the statue in gold is at the top of the monastery. It is the arch angel Michel slaying a demon.
The little church in the village had beautiful stained glass windows. The colors were so vibrant. Much different than Saint Chapelle but I think these might be a lot newer. Reminds me of the beginning of Beauty and the Beast. A movie I've been thinking about a lot actually- maybe it is that whole france thing. 
Katherine is the keeper of Sunsets.
Soccer anyone?
Katherine's favorite spot in france. Ended up that her train was at 4:30 and she spent about 6 hours at the train station- in the little town of Pontorson which we decided was stuck circa world war 2. The whole weekend was time travel. Definitely not the big cities we're used to! I think the town where our BnB was had a population of 30 tops. 

AS Always all of my photos can be found on my picasa page!

I went to a true Japanese restaurant this evening. It was a lot of fun. I know that it was a real japanese restaurant because my japanese friends took me there and there were a lot of japanese already there... and the employees spoke japanese. (Gotta watch out for those chinese people charading as japanese because us westerners typically can't tell the difference) Anyways I'm convinced that I ordered a never ending bowl of noodles. I kept on eating until I was full, but in the end it looked like all I did was eat the meat off the top. My friends said that the longer the noodles stay in the water the more they expand. They must have been doing the same thing in my stomach because I was stuffed- how would a normal skinny japanese person eat it all? 

I discovered that the word wolf is a very strange word and difficult to pronounce don't think too hard about it. 

I also discovered that I have better chopstick skills than my japanese friend. The girls were shocked that my chopstick skills were what they were. (Then we talked about our hello kitty chopsticks haha) 

Anyways  a fun night. Sorry but I didn't take pictures. I should've video taped my bowl of noodles... I might have solved world hunger. 

Next time they promised to take me to a sushi place because I still am not sure about my sushi eating technique.

General Strike Set for Thursday

In response to the way that President Sarkozy has handled the financial crisis, the people of france have planned their second nationwide strike of the year. On Thursday March 19 there is a call for all the people of france to take to the street and protest. The french word for strike is grêve so they have created a play on words by making this strike's anthem rêve générale meaning everyone's dream while calling for a grêve générale everyone to strike. Typically on thursdays I don't have class, but this week I am supposed to go on a tour of the opera with my opera class- I'm kinda wondering if that will work out or if I should ask my professor about it in class tomorrow. The likelihood is that I will receive an e-mail from the embassy telling me to stay inside my apartment and away from the protesters because strikes may become violent and a lot of french people blame the americans for starting the crisis so I don't really want to participate.

Anyways here's a lovely video they made to get people on the streets. 

Being a Tourist

at the opera house
In front of versaille
Eiffel Tower at Night

This week was fun, I got a chance to be a tourist all around Paris. I got to see some things that even I haven't seen since I've been here and discovered new areas of places I've already been. Unfortunately next week I have some work to do. But before then I get to tour Paris all over again. Miranda and Katherine are coming up to visit for the weekend. It will be Miranda's first trip to Paris so- Here we go again! 

Lauren made it into town! horay! (I don't know why this is hyperlinked) 

Lauren and the Eiffle Tower!

Then we went on a hunt for the twin to the statue of liberty! It was given as a gift to the US from France back in the day. Designed with the help of Gustav Eiffel- eiffel tower architect dude.
Pretty much the best idea of the day! Flip the hair up see what happens shot.
My turn
Lauren and Sacré Coeur and all the tourists.

A good day- I dragged lauren all over town to keep her from falling asleep and to get rid of the jet lag. The key is to stay up as late as possible. But she's acting a little loopy now (noticeably loopier.)

A Weekend In France

I spend Sunday in Dijon with Katherine and some Australians (Clare, Briony, and Kate). We took the sleepy city by storm-Sundays in France means no one is doing anything!! Some of the pictures are being cut off if they are landscape instead of portrait so you can click on them to see the whole thing or use the link for picasa to see all the pictures.

The owl marks the path to see the sites.
Pretty view of a church from the top a tower. I really like the patterned roof.
They really liked gargoyles on this church
We took a moment to have a mini ballet class.
More (maybe better : ) pictures of Dijon here on Picasa!) 

Saturday Was an absolutely gorgeous day so my friend Ashley and I headed to the southeast of paris to see Chateau Fontainebleau, the weekend home of French Royalty through Napoleon III. It is a really cool castle and they allow you to see all of it and it has been kept in great shape.

One of the bedrooms. Sorry it is a little blurry. But I see can some inspiration coming here for my next dorm room.
Me in front of the castle
One of the room's ceilings.
The library of Diana
Then we went outside and had a picnic a swan swam over to visit. I don't know why this picture came out smaller. I did crop it-but I was hoping that it wouldn't shrink it like that! 
RWe found another fountain with more swans and they wanted to eat out of the palm of my hand but I was a little afraid-especially since I didn't have anymore food.
Check out that blue sky!
we ran into some friends from school and joined their picnic.
Ashley.  

More pictures from Chateau Fontainebleau Here!