Shopping et plus...

Today I went shopping with Agathe, and got more clothes that are very "fashion" haha. It was a lot of fun, but kind of overwhelming because I feel like everything I already own is not in the "fashion." We got kind of a late start because we woke up late. Gossip Girl started last night, so Agathe watched it late. At dinner last night with her friends they were talking about "le scandeloos livez of Manhattanz ee-leete." Before we left we watched part of He's Just Not That Into You en français, which was funny. Then, to get to the shops on rue de Rennes (which is literally next to my school), we rented bikes right outside the house. It's 1 euro for half an hour, but you can return them at any of the "Velib" stations around the city. It was kind of scary because there is no bike lane and you can't ride on the sidewalk. Also they're these awkward big plastic bikes so that was interesting. We went to a few stores, including H&M (pronounced kind of like ahsh-ay-em) and Zara. Then we met up with a few of Agathe's friends, and they ate at MacDo (McDonalds haha). It was a really nice McDonalds, though, with paintings on the walls and all wooden booths, no plastic. The food even looked a little better. Keeping it classy. I tried really hard to talk to her friends en francais, but again it was proving very difficult. It was interesting talking to one of her friends. His English was better than my French, but it was still really hard. He's in a band here, and knows The Doors, and was really excited that I go to UCLA where Jim Morrison went. It's interesting not many people here know of UCLA. One of Agathe's friends did, though, and called it "Oo-cla."

After more walking around, we met up with more friends at les Jardines du Luxumbourg. It's a huge and beautiful garden that is right next to my school. I'll definitely be getting lunch and eating it there all the time. There are a lot of statues and so much grass and a massive playground for kids. They also have a mini statue of liberty in there. Again, I was surrounded by cigarette smoke...I always seem to sit downwind of everyone. I'm gonna have to work on that. After more time sitting there not knowing what was going on, we left to come back home. Crossing the streets here is really strange and scary. They have the little stop/go signs for pedestrians, but people walk when it says stop, and if it says go, it might suddenly change to stop without warning. And some of the streets have three stop/go signs for one street and you stop on little medians between them because they don't always say go or stop at the same time. We took the Mètro home because we were too tired to bike. Bibiane was making croques monsieur (grilled cheese with ham) in preparation for the huge party on Friday, so we ate some of that. Now we're watching Julie et Julia, which is fun since half of it takes place in France.

Tomorrow, my mom and I are going to La Tour Eiffel finally, and her plan is to walk up instead of take the elevator...we'll see how that goes!