30 days Till Home (yeah, Im getting homesick)

Yesterday, t
he first day of class, we met Walt and his wife Judy at Notre Dame. I must say, disney and hollywood have ruined me for its splendor. That or all the other catholic cathedrals I have seen on the trip. WE did not go inside, but instead walked to a memorial of the resistance of WWII. WE then walked to the Garden De Luxenbourg and spent quite awhile talking over what we had done in the past 7 weeks. Walt gave us ample time to sketch and I got to finally start to break in my new journal. That is really all we did the first day.

Last night we met up with classmates at about 11 pm at the arc de triumph. We walked to towards the Eiffel tower and waited there at the Trocadero, taking pictures of the uplit tower. At midnight we got our reward. The tower becomes what people call a standing firework. It started to twinkle. The entire thing is rigged with thousands on flash bulbs that go off for about 5 minutes at 12 and 1 am. It was what Sahoko calls phenomenal and we got many, many pictures of the occasion.

This morning, we met at the end of the Champs del Mar. We talked a little and then we went to go climb the tower. We decided to walk the 700 some stairs instead of taking the elevator, both because it was cheaper and the line was shorter. While some people say the tower is not as big as they expected, the must say this before they climb it. Luckily, there are 3 levels and the final level, you have to take an elevator up to. The last elevator ride seemed as though we might be in tghe tower of terror, springing towards the sky, with a view of the city all around, many of us half expected to feel our stomachs drop as we were let go. While the view is magnificient, it does not do the city of paris justice and makes it seem more like a pile of buildings than a place of history and curiosity. When we climbed back down, we were all tired and we spent time recupperating and learning about the Trocadero. WE then walked past a museum with a living wall of plants and finally ended class for the day on the lawn of Les Invalides, the "Hotel" that Louis the 14th built for veterans of war.

We've walked around since then, and eaten dinner. Now I am in an internet cafe called MIlk. Around me are about 100 other computers. Half of them are filled with boys, sitting in front of Blizzard's Crack, either World of Warcraft or Defense of the Ancients.