So Much Culture...And So Much Food

We just finished up another fantastic week full of French culture. The first few days were tourist days and school days. Then Thursday we experienced our first French strike! ...by staying home all day. But hey, class was canceled! Our teacher was worried by how easily the demonstrations here in France can get out of hand, plus the transportation was ridiculous! They were only running the metro about once every half hour rather than every 5 minutes, so if you needed to get somewhere you'd just have to pray to be there on time. We spent the day watching Youtube videos, napping, reading, grocery shopping, and pretending to be productive.
On Friday we tried to be a walk from our manual that covers Notre Dame and the Conciergerie. We saw some really cool things, but Karin and I were rather grumpy because it was cold and we were outside forever. We went home, warmed up, then headed over to Professor Patterson's to watch a movie.
Saturday started early! We woke up, or intended to wake up, a little after 6:30. We somehow made it to the train station by 7:45 to meet with our group to go to Chartres for the day. It was our first TGV (train de grande vitesse, or very very fast train) ride and was very exciting! We made it safely there, complained about the cold, got some fries as McDonalds, then walked to the Cathedral for our morning tour with Malcolm Miller (google him, he's an expert). We were so lucky to have such a knowledgable guide to the cathedral. My first impression was that it was just like any other cathedral. But wow was I wrong! Chartres Cathedral is not only the best preserved medieval cathedral, but it also has the largest collection of stained glass. Each pane was so detailed and had so many stories to tell. Malcolm could be looking in the other direction and tell us about every picture on every pane without ever having to second guess himself. His life is dedicated to learning more about this Cathedral and he promised us yesterday that he would be there until Judgment Day! We had two tours with him, then we climbed 300 steps to the highest tower. I've realized that 300 stairs is a lot more than it sounds like. My legs were J-E-L-L-O by the time I got down! It was worth it though. What a place! I feel like I learned so much.
After coming home and grabbing some food, Karin and I went back to our favorite l'Eglise de la Madeleine for a performance of Ave Maria and Mozart's Requiem. It was so fantastic! A few of the old men in the choir liked to bounce on every note, and we think that another seemed to think he was a soloist when he really wasn't. But the real soloists were fantastic! I continued to get the chills through the whole performance. About half were from how good it was and the other half were because it was just really cold.
Karin and I are basically twins. Everyone should read her post from a couple days ago that explains how alike we are! We are just kindred spirits I suppose :) Professor Patty's daughter didn't believe us today when we said that we just met in the prep class. She thought we'd been friends for much longer than that. And we certainly act like it! Karin is so great and I love her to death and I'm so happy that we are roommates!

Today at church Karin and I didn't use our translation head sets at all! I was very proud of us. Our French is...coming along I suppose. We typically dread our dinners with our family just because it takes so much concentration to speak in French, and sometimes it would just be easier to turn our brains off and eat. We decided yesterday that we are limiting our pastry consumption. Whether our pants fit or not, we know we are completely destroying our bodies. We are sticking to one pastry a day! Or two for special occasions. Either way, we are making an attempt to fight our disgusting eating habits as of late. Wish us luck!

This is me being rebellious and touching the dangerous fan in the Conciergerie!


Beautiful Chartres Cathedral!

Matching with Zach

The amazing stained-glass. Look at all of the little panes! And Mr. Miller could tell us about every single one without looking. Incredible.

Karin and I on step 295...

This is how high up we walked! Look at all those tiny little people...

Awesome view of the town from the top.

Beautiful hand-painted plate that I promised my mom I would buy for myself!