I know there have probably been cool things that happened this past week, but I'm way too lazy to pick through my brain. Summary: I like it here, classes are good, I'm starting to have homework so that's weird. K so this weekend we (Gina, Katie from Australia, and Arielle from the Philippines) went to Paris. We planned this whole trip literally on Thursday night. We barely made the departure time of our bus, but luckily it was late. We stopped at the airport where we were stopped by the police and thoroughly, dogs included. Some people were taken off and questioned, and eventually they took some woman's weed or tobacco or something (the bus originated from Amsterdam). She came back on the bus very upset and screaming that democracy was dead. It was pretty tense to say the least. We finally made it to Paris and then to our Airbnb apartment. I am very thankful for my travel backpack because I didn't have to lug anything up the millions of stairs. We ate dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. I ate all my huge pasta after barely eating anything that whole day. Yum. Then we went back and drank wine in the apartment. The next day we woke up late and headed out to the Arc de Triomphe. It was raining quite a bit, but we went up anyways and it was so so cool despite the weather! You could see anything an everything- the roads all lead to the Arc. After that we went to chipotle because Paris is the only city in France that has it, and we were homesick for it. Portions were small and way overpriced but it was delicious. Then we headed to the Louvre, but once we got in line, they evacuated the building, so we tried to wait it out in the gift shop but ended up just going home. We were all very wet and tired. After taking a short break, I went to Mass near the apartment. The church was so cute, and not so huge that I was freezing. I liked the way the priest did Mass, but I was one of ten people there- nothing like Lille. Maybe it was just the neighborhood or the fact that it was a Saturday and not a Sunday, but I was very surprised at the lack of participation. It was still very nice though. Then I came back and Arielle and I decided to go see the Eiffel Tower lit up, so we grabbed kababs and went out. We walked the whole lawn, and in the middle of taking pictures it started to sparkle :) when the twinkling lights went off we headed bed for crepes, and by the time we made it back on the lawn it was almost time for it to sparkle again so we just waited the five minutes and bam it happened again! Then we headed home and hung out with the rest of the girls, then they went out and Arielle and I stayed home and chilled and went to bed early. They came back with many stories haha but it made for another late morning. As an early riser, I went to the bakery the next morning while everyone was asleep, and when I was finished eating I decided I should go do something since I was awake. My friend who's studying abroad in Ireland was visiting Paris at the same time, and she mentioned that Notre Dame had a morning international Mass. Luckily I had just enough time to make it, so I headed out and went to Mass at Notre Dame. I didn't end up finding my friend, but it was cool nonetheless. It was the same participation- I thought it would be packed being Notre Dame, but it was only half full, and they don't leave a ton of seats out anymore. There were visitors as tours going around during the whole Mass, but they actually weren't that distracting. It was really cool to be able to go to Mass there :) Then I just walked around looking for a place to sit and have a hot chocolate. I ended up walking the whole of Saint Louis, the neighboring island, twice, but I just went back to Notre Dame and got a to-go drink there. Then I headed over the Louvre to meet the roomies and we finally got to go in, an for free :) it pays to go to a French university :) We saw a cool Islamic art exhibition, as well as the Mona Lisa and Napoleon's apartments. Then we got lunch there and bolted over to the Eiffel Tower to see it in the daylight. It turns out that there was a technical accident, and we had to get off two stops early, but that meant it was gonna be an extra 30 minutes walking. We finally made it to the Eiffel Tower and took basic pictures, then headed back home to get our stuff an catch our bus. After waiting for the owner for a while, we finally got our stuff and left. Once we got to the station (which is La Défense, the business district of Paris where buildings are allowed to be tall- AKA it's cool) we searched frantically for our bus. We barely made it on, it was really a miracle that we found it, thank heavens for the French military! They owed us one after the airport search on Friday. Now we're finally seated for what feels like the first time today and I'll probably fall asleep in five seconds...