Day Eight

June 24th

Thursday marked my fourth day of classes, and one was already canceled for the day. It was also national strike day for the transportation system. My host family called the transportation department and found out the buses would not be going into the city (behind the walls), so Brittany and I got a ride from my family. We got to school with plenty of time to spare before having to go to history class.

History class was pretty normal, except the professor could not get the projector to work to show us a video. The class had to huddle around his Mac to watch a video on the elections to change France's constitution. It was really neat, and from there we continued to discuss the political structure and why General de Gaulle was pushing for a change. Once class was over, I went to the 4th floor and began to work on some of my homework.

After everyone else in the group was done with classes, we talked about our plans for the evening. It was decided that we would meet at 10pm at the first bar we went to and have a few drinks. Making sure everyone knew what was going on, a few of us headed to a Jardin next to the Palais de Papes. We found a comfortable spot on the grass and just hung out until Brittany and I had to leave to catch the bus home. I love hanging out in the parks in France because they are so relaxing and a change of pace from constantly walking around the city.

When I arrived home, my host family had a couple over, that they are really good friends with. The first thing the guy says is asking if I am Italian, and they told him no she is American. Everyone believes that I am either Italian or French, which is a good thing since I am not pegged at being an American. The man even spoke a mixture of French and Italian to me, and I found out his mother was Italian from somewhere in Northern Italy. It was very interesting to come home to seeing my hosts with friends over.

Ate dinner, and proceeded to get ready. Brittany and I left around 9:30 (21:30) and started our trek into the city. I do not remember if I mentioned this before, but Brittany and I decided to walk to and from the city in order to not take the taxi. It was fine for the first weekend, but we found out we are only allotted 60 euros the whole time. Both having already been reimbursed for close to 30 euros, we decided walking was the better choice. We are perfectly safe when we walk home, and by this time we are so used to it that we do not even think about a taxi. Meet everyone (aka Wong, Maggie, Emily, Amanda, and Chase) at Les Celestines and had a fun time, before heading home around 1.