Excursions

The International Office here at INT has kept us pretty busy with classes and excursions. We are continuing to enjoy ourselves and explore around Paris and Evry, the town that we live in. Its starting to feel a little like "home" because we are learning to get around, how to use the public transportation system, and we have a routine. Because we are only 30 minutes outside of Paris we tend to go into town a lot. After class on Friday Tasha and I and the 4 other Hawaii students went to the Louvre because it is free for students under 26 on Friday evenings. Free in Paris is hard to find especially to such a famous museum. It was a lot of fun to walk around and see all the famous paintings, statues, and artifacts. It wasnt very crowded, which was nice because we were able to get around easier. While at the Louvre because it is so big we decided to just see the things that we really wanted to see. Our group began looking at Egypt: stones with markings, statue of Ramses II- Greece: statue of Aphrodite (aka Venus De Milo)- Roman antiques: Sarchophagus of Married couple. We also saw the Mona Lisa, The dying slave (by michelangelo) and much much more. After the Louvre we made our way home on the metro so we could get a good nights sleep for our class excursion on saturday.

On Saturday INT took us into Paris Via bus for an all day excursion. Our day began with breakfast at the school, then we went to take a boat ride along the Seine River to see all of the sights and neighborhoods in Paris from a different view than we would get on foot. After the boat ride we had lunch on our own, Tasha had a crepe for the first time and I had a hot dog (it was served in a baguette). Our teachers then took us up the Eiffel tower. The tower didnt look anything like I had imagined nor was it as big. The view was really pretty and we could see so much from the top. After the Eiffel tower we travelled to another part of Paris, Montmarte which is the romantic district. We looked around a church and did some shopping in the little gift shops, which were much cheaper than in the city. We drove by Moulin Rouge and saw all of the crazy shops and billboards surrounding it. Our teachers took us for our first official dinner in Paris. We had a traditional Parisian dinner which began with predinner drinks, white wine with black liquor, then a starter, shrimp cocktail that tasted like the ocean. The main course was duck in an orange sauce with fried potatoes, then sorbet with liquor to cleanse our palate and help us digest what we ate, and then dessert, an icecream cake thing that our waitress lit on fire. They provided us with a bottle of white wine and red wine. As we were sitting at dinner and enjoying ourselves the table behind us was getting ready for a big event. A guy proposed to his girlfriend and the whole restaurant went crazy. There was a trio playing music around the restaurant that was quite entertaining. We decided to stay in paris for a bit after dinner but by the time we were on our way we got tired so we decided to go back home. It was a bit confusing, but we managed to find our way home on the train.

Check back tomorrow to find out what we will do today (Sunday)!