We blew a fuse.

Wow. My feet hurt. I love walking everywhere, but I also love taking the metro. I used a map and figured out a good way to get where we needed to go today and I was so proud! I know most people can use maps and I don't think I have a special talent, but with my newfound map skills and the French that I didn't expect to remembered and yet somehow have made me realize: I think I could get around Paris, order food, ask where things are and all of it by myself! So exciting.

So this morning, Kait blew the lights out with her straightener. She told Chiareli that "our" power went out when "we" used "our" straightener and we all burst out laughing. We got it all under control, but it was pretty hilarious to refer to each person as a collective unit there for a while, haha. You know, as in maybe if "we" were smarter "we" wouldn't have to straighten our hair. Probably wasn't that funny when I just wrote that, but oh well. You had to be there.

This morning we spent the first bit of our day talking about strategy and what we are starting to do, but then we headed right out to Montmartre, our research site (picture above). We heard rumors of a strike with the metro workers, but thankfully we were able to get on it as long as we stayed within Paris. It was about a 20-minute metro ride, but it would have been much longer if we had walked, and as I mentioned, we already walked tons this week! This is where my magical map skills come in. I got us to the station, figured out our route, and got us out! Mary, Mc, and I led the way and it was so liberating. When we got to Montmartre, we did observations first of all, but to be honest it was the least interesting sociological observation I've done. The nature of the square is that tourists come and then artists sell, which makes it very routine - good for observing, I suppose, but not fascinating. A bird pooped on my sheet of paper in a swirly S shape, but it's not so pretty when you know it's poop. I did get to eat a chicken, egg, and cheese crepe, though!

We left to go back to the hostel because we found out that on Friday nights, the Louvre is free for students! We transcribed our observations and took 20 minute naps and then got up to go. We decided to walk to the Louvre to see more of Paris and because some of the metro passes stopped working (?). The Louvre was beautiful from the first sight of the outside...duh, it used to be a palace! So, we got in for free and I got to see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and other greats! My favorite, though, was seeing Monet's paintings, because impressionists are my favorite and I especially like Monet. Our feet were especially worn this day, though, and our minds were tired from the week, and our naps had put us in weird moods, so a few of us decided to sit outside and watch the sunset over the Louvre. It ended us being just me and Mary Claire, which was so wonderful. We talked for probably an hour before the whole group found us and made us walk home.

It doesn't get dark until about 9:30 here, so it had just gotten dark when we were walking back. The walk back was so interesting! We saw Paris night life, which consisted of a lot of sitting outside on bridges over the river drinking wine and eating baguettes while having lengthy chats and outbursts of laughter, just like you'd think! We also walked past neat little restaurants and buildings, and all along the river where the boats had lights and people sat by the water with their friends. Some people stopped for gelato, and we got back just in time to listen to J.Lo, facebook stalk, and blog. Good life.

This has been another update from Paris. Join us tomorrow.

Sophy