So much to do, so little time!

I promise I haven't been neglecting my studies as much as I've slacked off on keeping you guys updated! In fact, that's one of the reasons WHY I haven't filled you in for awhile.

Three of my four professors have told us they're treating us no differently than the students in the graduate courses they teach. Now evidently I've never taken a graduate course, so I have nothing to compare this to, but I don't doubt them for a second. Each night involves about three hours of reading, and they pretty much tossed us right into the deep end with writing papers. They told us they knew we could handle it, and what do you know...so far they're right!

Despite the heavy workload, I'm loving it. The school week flies by, though I guess it doesn't hurt that we only have four days of classes :) When I got the required books for my classes (Virgil, Euripides, Homer, Shakespeare...) the thought of reading some of them made we think I would rather drop them over my head. How naive I was.

I won't deny that The Epic of Gilgamesh can be a bit daunting, and at first I questioned if the people in charge of translating it from the ancient Akkadian language had even spoken English, but after hearing a professor with a wealth of knowledge about the people, events, and historical background, I wanted to go back and reread it. It's amazing how the same text can go from meaningless to inspiring in a 90 minute class when you have the right person explaining its complex beauty to you.

Enough about that boring school place. Time to get to the good stuff. But first, here's the view from our 8th floor student lounge, my favorite place for quiet reading, studying, or nap time between classes!

The Sorbonne is hiding in the upper-right corner.

Bonjour, Notre Dame!

It hasn't been all work, though. In true French fashion, or really just European fashion in general, we've been setting aside plenty of time to play, as well. Thursday last week, we were all a bit burnt out, still adjusting to our class schedules, so we decided to just take a leisurely walk toward the Seine and enjoy the beautiful night. Of course, we soon decided that an ice cream pit stop was quite necessary, so it ended up being a lovely evening!

Notre Dame at night. Just as beautiful, and not nearly as crowded.

The magnificent Hotel de Ville, or City Hall.

On Friday, I added another chapter to my culinary adventures: escargot. The first part of the struggle was figuring out precisely how one eats a snail. They come on a tiny plate, still in their shells, with two apparatuses vaguely resembling a spork and an eyelash curler. Thankfully, I was not alone in this endeavor, and my friend Sanjana and I developed a pretty good divide-and-conquer system with one of us holding the shell with the faux-eyelash curler and the other digging out the snail with the spork (I'm afraid my description of the escargot cutlery would horrify any Parisian reading this). I'm a wuss, so I made Sanjana try the first one. The face she made as a reaction did not give me courage. Thankfully, our waiter had brought out a basket of bread, so I had the bread in one hand and the spork in the other, poised to take a bite of bread if damage control proved itself necessary. And it did. It wasn't the taste that got me, but the texture; they had been cooked in a buttery pesto sauce that would have been delicious had it not been accompanied by a chewy, rubbery snail. Maybe if someone had handed me the spork and said "Here, try this. It's chicken!" I could have fooled myself, but I still doubt it. 

At least they looked pretty!

The wine made up for the snails :)

Saturday, we decided to venture out again, this time to a bar/restaurant close to our residence and then to an Erasmus boat party. Erasmus is essentially an exchange program for college students in a number of European countries, so we figured it would be a fun way to meet other students who are new to Paris, and also, who wouldn't want to hang out on a boat on the Seine?! My parents submitted a request for more pictures with me actually in them, so we made an effort. Please pardon the selfies; I'm not usually one of those people.

Melanie from Connecticut and Jaci from Arkansas

Annie from California and Sanjana from Thailand

Ethan from Taiwan and Jaci again 

That's just how they smile; they actually like me I swear.

Melanie again...my Starbucks partner in crime!

They decided to switch accessories and discovered an uncanny resemblance. 

Jaci, my across-the-hall neighbor AND the closest neighbor to Missouri I've found here.

You can probably expect to see more of them in pictures to come :)

Sunday was our homework day. I don't think I was the only one who holed myself up in my room for several hours until I had tackled the results of my weekend of procrastination. I also made my first attempt at cooking quinoa; I wanted to make a large batch to last me through the week. The instructions said to cover the pot and simmer. The previous resident must have been a kleptomaniac because random kitchen utensils that all my friends have are missing from my room, one of them being the lid to the pot I was using, so I improvised.

Unorthodox? Maybe...but it got the job done!

I have more to share from this week, and it's coming soon to a blog near you!