France - 10/2/00

10/2/00

Short one - it's just before 4am on the 3rd, but I figured I should write something.  I'm missing Jamie.  I had mail when we returned today.  (Miserable, rainy weather in Paris so we didn't do anything - just came back a few hours early.)  A wonderful card from my Jamie, a letter from Mom, and a letter from Meme.  I have to be up again in five and a half hours, so I'm just going to do my crunches and go to bed.  I love you, Jamie!  [etc., etc.]

Paris, France - 10/1/00

10/1/00

I just wrote to Jamie so I'd feel like I was repeating myself if I wrote everything in here, also.  We spent the day seeing museums and I'm exhausted.  The Musée d'Orsay was this morning and early afternoon and I spent almost $50 in the gift shop.  Bought some good stuff, though!  I sent Jamie a card - well, I wrote him a card tonight and I'll send it tomorrow.  We went to an exhibition at the Grand Palais afterwards and it was really cool, also... then we ate Haagen Datz ice cream (caramel crème!) and saw Woman on Top in English.  We went down to Place de la Republique for dinner and spent $15 each on a nasty, nasty, nasty dinner... so we got crêpes with nutella to fill up our tummies.  I'm really too tired to write much else.  I love you sweetie, and I miss you.

Musee d'Orsay

Paris, France - 9/30/00

9/30/00

Today was a good, long day.  We ate breakfast on the go (pain au chocolat - fresh), and went to Place de la Concorde , and then sat in the Tuileries watching boats and ducks and kids... then we walked up the Champs-Elysées and I bought some lingerie at an Etam lingerie store.  Also ate Ben & Jerry's on the Champs-Elysées.  We went to the Bois de Bologne after buying sandwiches for lunch and found a place to sit by a life-size board game.  We watched two little kids play and then played ourselves.  It was fun!  We then found a public pay-toilet, which I used for the first time, and then took the Metro to Montparnasse.We went to Galaries Lafayette there where I bought some clothes (cheap, at Jennyfer), and then we ate dinner at a not-so-good place.  I'm tired.  We went up to Montparnasse afterwards and waited forever to go to the top - but it was completely worth it!  I can't describe how beautiful it was!  I took lots of pictures.  We came back here where I got to talk to my wonderful man.  I called him from a pay phone across the street and he called me in the hotel room.  I love him.  [This continues for a while.]

View from Montparnasse

Paris, France - 9/29/00

9/29/00

Long day!  I'm writing from Paris, by the way.  Sarah woke me up at 6 and I got ready pretty quickly.  I went downstairs and called Jamie right before we left for the bus and it was wonderful to talk to him!  I called him at work just long enough to let him know I was going to to be in Paris instead of Nice and to tell him I love him.  I'm going to make an effort to call him tomorrow, but I don't know if it'll be easy.  We got on the train with a bit of time to spare and two girls were taking up the entire compartment and seemed angry that we'd shown up to get our reserved seats.  One wanted to smoke (in a non-smoking car) but we told her we'd rather she not.  We got to Gare de Lyon [in Paris] and called our first-choice hostel, who said they were full, so we ended up getting a hotel near the station.  359F for a triple (with room for 4) with shower, toilet, sink, phone, TV... not bad!   And the hotel people said they'd try to arrange it so we could stay all three nights.  We went to Notre Dame first and went all the way up the towers for a great view of the city.  And lots of pictures of gargoyles!  Then we walked a little bit into the Latin Quarter before deciding to go to Centre Pompidou for the evening.  The fountain is really fun and I finished off a roll of film there.  The museum itself wasn't great.  We got a great view of the city at night, but I am not a modern art fan.  I did see a couple Matisses and Picassos that I liked, but most modern "art" is stuff that was done by someone with no more talent than me, or someone with a really screwed up mind.  We finished our time there with a weird noise and "dance" show.  Awful.  Lunch was at a good Italian place (we had to pull the table away from the wall to squeeze into our seats), and dinner at a really good chinese place.  I ate the whole thing with chopsticks!  There's a lot more to write, but I'm exhausted.  I love you, Jamie!

Notre Dame - Paris, France

Notre Dame - Paris, France

Rose window in Notre Dame

View from the top of Notre Dame

View from Notre Dame

My favorite gargoyle

Notre Dame's bell

Gargoyles at Notre Dame

The fountain at the Centre Pompidou

Centre Pompidou

France - 9/28/00

9/28/00

My presentation went fine today, but the test was hard.  The other three classes had pictures that they had to follow, but we had two topics to choose from to write an essay.  One was about curiosity and the other about politeness.  Ramsey, Sarah, and I ate lunch in the park today.  I'm going to call Jamie real quick to let him know about our change in plans and then I'll write everything down...

[Later]

He wasn't there.  I wonder if that test he wrote me about was today?  I'll try again before I go to bed.   We decided to go to Paris first and then to Cannes/Nice/Monaco after the meeting, so it's just Andrew, Sarah, and me... unless somehow we can get a hold of Laura to see if she wants to come.  We're leaving here at 7:05am tomorrow to catch the bus and meet Andrew at the station at 8:00.  The train leaves at 8:24am.  We didn't reserve a hostel, so I hope we don't run into problems with that!  I'm excited, but I'm just really tired right now... I'd like to bring my Bible, but it's too heavy, so I'm just going to bring my devotional book.  We watched a French comedy (something about Folly & Grandeur) this afternoon with all the other classes and it was good.  I need to finish packing, call Jamie, and go to bed.  Getting up in 5ish hours.  I love you, sweetheart.

France - 9/27/00

9/27/00

My stupid key [room key]  is giving me problems again.  It took Luke and me quite a while to get it out last night, and tonight, Sarah, Aimee, Christina, & I worked on it a long time before it finally came out.  Then I got the guy downstairs on night duty to come up - he finally got it out, but said he needed to call someone to get something done about it tonight,  At this moment, there are two men working on getting the stupid key out.  I'm frustrated.  I want to call Jamie.  They're pounding on the door  (hammering!  And everyone on this floor is trying to sleep!) and I keep hearing the French equivalent of "whoops!" and that's bad.  And some curse words.  I think they just removed the lock.  (sigh)  My teacher is never going to believe that I couldn't sleep because two men were changing the lock on my door all night.  And I still have that article presentation to prepare.  I think I just heard a "ça marche" ["that works"], but now there's more hammering.  Sarah is in here studying to keep me company.

[Later]

They finished!  I just tried my new key and it works.  I still have that presentation to do and my whole getting-ready-for-bed routine.  Sarah and I went to the gare today to buy our tickets to Cannes and the ticket lady told us there's an SNCF strike until Friday morning at 8am, so she doesn't know if our 6am train will be running,  We have to go back tomorrow to find out.  If we have to wait for the later train, there are two layovers and we wouldn't even arrive until 7-something pm.  I hope they tell us tomorrow that the 6am will be running!  We read our stories aloud in class today.  They were all good, but ours was incredibly long and even bored me.  Josh, the deaf guy, is here now and ate lunch with us; he's majoring in French and accounting.  That absolutely amazes me - deaf, and majoring in a foreign language.  He's really nice, though I feel awful when I can't understand what he's saying.  Sarah and I bought groceries at Ecoservice today and borrowed Aimee's pot and skillet to make dinner.  An herbed chicken & pasta thing, and fresh tomatoes & mozzarella in oil & vinegar.  Yummy!  I ate way too much.  Luckily, we'd had dessert over an hour before dinner (a vanilla and caramel ice cream thing) so I didn't have to worry about fitting that in!  Tomorrow night, Aimee is making us all French toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon for dinner!  I'm excited.  I'm going to do my crunches while thinking of my wonderful man, and then I'll try to start the article.  I love you, Jamie!

France - 9/26/00

9/26/00

I miss Jamie. [This goes on for another paragraph.]

We had our meeting with Barbara Lamb today.  [OU International Studies head.]  I vented about level 4 and managed to ask about reimbursement for the bus passes, and then we all listened to Tina and a few others complain about how unlike OU France is.  (sigh)  Barbara brought me Milky Way Darks!!  After the meeting, Sarah and I checked on train times & prices - we'll be taking the first train out after classes end, which is about 6am Friday, and then leaving out of Nice about noon on Monday.  Total cost (both ways) is less than $60!  And Morgan is going to call and reserve the hostel/hotel.  After dinner, Sarah, Luke, and I played Pitch again, but we didn't stay up too late.  Of course, it's almost midnight now and I've still got two essays to write, but that's okay... I got a letter from Jamie today, so nothing much can get to me!  I love you, sweetie!

France - 9/25/00

9/25/00

Well, this really is wasting space in my journal, but I'm too tired to write.  Didn't really do much today, anyways.  I did call Dustin, though, since it's his birthday.  He sounded really surprised and happy that I'd called and it made me feel really good.  I wish I could have called Jamie, too, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow.  I love you, sweetie!

France - 9/24/00

9/24/00

I love Jamie so much.  [This goes on for another paragraph.]

I started a letter to him tonight, and I also wrote to Megan, Holly, and Meme & Pepe.  6 more to write (not tonight!) and everyone will have gotten a letter.  I've still got some postcards to send, too, so I may do that first.  Tomorrow I have to do laundry (the washer & dryer were busy tonight) and go to Auchan for food.  And a facial/mask.  That sounds nice... maybe... no - I'm not going to do it tonight; it's already after midnight.  Mom didn't call tonight, so I called home and Andrea told me Mom and Dad are in Kansas City.  Sarah, Christina, Luke (he's in [room number] 102) and I sat in Sarah's room talking for hours.  Christina said both Kristen & Joanna smoke marijuana.  Yuck.  I'm going to get ready for bed.  I love you, Jamie!

Hiking in France - 9/23/00

9/23/00

I need to go to Auchan Monday to buy croissants, Advil/Aleve, pens, and... what was the other thing?  Dryer sheets.  Whoops.  Tomorrow I absolutely have to do laundry, so it'll be without dryer sheets.  I'd also like to buy some foot scrub... there's still one other thing.  Oh well.  Today was an exhausting day.  My body woke up at 7:00, as usual, right before my alarm (that annoying tick-tock!) went off.  I bought a croissant, some dried apricots, and lemon water for lunch and then loaded the bus.  We got to Sancy at about 10:30am and ended up hiking for 6-7 hours and it was HARD!  I'm so proud that I made it!  We went all the way to the highest point in central France, and I made it!  I wish I could call Jamie to share the news.  When we got back, I showered, shaved, and changed into my long black skirt and went back into the city to meet Morgan for dinner.  We ate at 1513 and when the waiter brought our beautiful desserts, there were these sparkling pom-pom type things in the top - and sprinkles!  Yum!  After dinner we walked around window shopping and talking until my bus.  I just finished Bridget Jones's Diary and it was good.  I'm really missing Jamie now and I'm half asleep...

Andrew

France - 9/22/00

9/22/00

Sarah told me after class today that she decided to go to Lyon tonight (for the weekend), so I'm on my own for the weekend.  Which means I had to set my tick-tock clock to wake me up in the morning.  I think the girl next to me was pounding the wall in time to the clock earlier, though I'm not sure.  I didn't want to annoy her excessively, though, so I covered the clock with my black pants.  I'll have to remove them in a sec, though - I'm afraid the clock won't go off in the morning and I'll miss the trip.  I got a lecture today from Eléanore because I "don't work" - also, she said the class was 15 minutes late coming in this morning (more like 7-8), so she wasn't going to respect the schedule if we weren't.  That meant we were out 10 minutes late for lunch and 5 after class.  I didn't get a chance to check email today, either, because there was testing in both labs.  I wish I could call my sweetheart!  I miss him.  I stopped at Ecoservice on the way home today & bought a baguette, some garlic & herb cheese, and a huge grapefruit.  I don't have any sugar, but that's okay.  Breakfast!  I also need to remember to buy a lunch at that pastry place before loading the bus... and I need to find a pharmacy with Advil or Aleve.  I only have my prescription painkillers.  Time to finish getting ready for bed.  Still haven't written back to Holly or Megan... tomorrow I'll do that.  Or Sunday.  I love you, sweetie!

France - 9/21/00

9/21/00

I got to talk to Jamie last night and tonight!  I was really excited when he told me about his phone bill - calls to me only totaled about $34!  And then I realized those were only the calls from August 29 - September 9.  We're going to try to keep our conversations shorter, and then we'll wait until he gets his next phone bill to see if we need to cut back to once a week.  I hope we won't have to!  I still need to prepare my exposé for tomorrow.  I think I'm going to talk about being a military brat.  Gotta look up some vocab, though!  Yesterday at Royat, Morgan, Sarah, and I (maybe some others) decided to go back to Royat on our next free weekend to talk around and take pictures.  And our next free weekend after that, we're going to try to go to Switzerland!  I wish I didn't have this presentation to do... I really want to go to bed.  Sarah, Aimee, Hannah (from Sweden), and I saw Space Cowboys (in English w/ subtitles) today.  Armageddon with old guys.  It was good, though - there was a shot of the four of them from behind, naked, that made the movie!  I need to get started on my exposé.  I love you, Jamie!