Dancing Through Life

Second week in Church. It was good. I wasn't falling asleep so much as last week, so that's definitely good :) For Relief Society, it was combined with Priesthood for a fifth Sunday lesson. I understood very little. Then I headed over to the English Sunday school. There were about 10 people in the class, all were adults except for Emily, who is another girl on the program, and me. But it was really great. I was paying really close attention to the lesson because I could actually understand what he was saying. It was a really interesting lesson actually. We talked mostly about Cain. Interesting insights. Anyway, then off to Sacrament meeting. I grabbed some English translating headphones, but they were mostly static. I caught a couple words, but the rest was loud static. Oh well. I think when I get back to the states, I will want to pay really close attention to what is being said because I will be so grateful that I understand! That was pretty much everything I did this day. I ...

Warning: Picture overload! Walk #11, entitled Lutetia Pulchra est: Musee National du Moyen Age, Sorbonne, Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, Arenes de Lutece, was very long and there was so much to see! We started here, at the Cluny Musee, which was once a fifteenth-century hotel. (By the way, when I mention a hotel, it doesn't actually mean hotel, but rather a residence) I think this is from Notre Dame. Not entirely sure. One of the many, many tapestries that are in the Cluny Museum. Original stained glass from Sainte-Chapelle. A cool arch... not sure where it is from, but you can be sure that it is really old :) Part of the Woman and the Unicorn series. The room was really dark, so I couldn't get a very good picture. The book calls them "breathtaking." They are way cool, don't get me wrong, but they aren't really that different than the other tapestries in the museum. Cool story from Courtney: When they were in their original location, the bottom part (you can see that ...

Today we, Hanna, Haley, Courtney, and I, went on Walk #7 entitled Marais Walk 1. We were planning on going on Walk #8 - Marais Walk 2, but it was raining quite prolifically by the time we finished the first one that we decided against doing that. This is Hotel de Sens which is one of the oldest buildings in Paris. From the book: "Until Paris has its own archbishop in 1622, the archbishop of Sens presided over Paris and spent much time here. Of course, he needed a nice place to stay, os he had this private residence built. Construction on the Hotel de Sens began in 1475, and it was completed in 1519. From 1605 to 1607, the first wife of Henri IV, Marguerite de Valois (Queen Margot) lived at the Hotel de Sens. Today, the hotel houses la Bibliotheque Fourney (the Fine Arts Library of Paris)." This is the wall that was built by Philippe Auguste around 1200. He built it to keep Paris safe from outside forces while they built the city. Notre Dame was finished during the time that t...

At home, I was never much of an eater. I liked food, sure, but I never really craved food in general. Not that the food wasn't great, I just never really thought about it much. Paris has changed me. The food, even the most basic things, are SO good. It is difficult to explain properly. Anyway, I find that I can't wait until dinner. I love eating lunch around the corner from the institute. Breakfast, not so much, but it's going to get a little better since I got some yogurt to supplement my toasted baguette and confiture breakfast. Anyway, just thought I would share. It will be interesting to see if this want for food diminishes once I get back to the states or not. We shall see. Yesterday, Rosalie and I went to the grocery store that is around the corner (kind of) from where we live. I got some yogurt and pudding stuff for breakfast, snacking, dessert, whatever. I just don't want to be hungry, ya know? Anyway, I wanted to get it cold and I'm not sure what our refrig...

After we went to see the Eiffel Tower, we did Walk #10. Isn't it cool that we did Walk #10 on day 10? I think so. Anyway, this walk is called Playing Hooky in le Quartier Latin. We started off by looking at this fountain. It is of Saint Michel and he is slaying a dragon. Cool. On our way to the next stop, I took a picture of this. Look at those needles. Store owners in the city will sometimes put these up if they have a sign on which birds can perch so to prevent said birds from perching and excreting on customers :) It will sometimes kill the pigeons, but mostly it will injure of take off a toe or two or a foot. I'm going to quote from the book again. I do this because it is hard for me sometimes to try to explain it especially since I haven't done any research on it or anything. Plus I think it is interesting and you might too. Here goes: "One of many small experimental theatres that popped up in the years following World War II, La Huchette had modest success until ...