I remember when I was little, on the first day of school we would all get a pencil, a small box of crayons, and half of one of these pink erasers. I used to love the first day of school, and I guess it still retains a certain excitement. The new teachers, course outlines, text books, classmates... all these things that you at first find thrilling, but the feeling quickly fades as you slip into the tedium of schoolwork.
That said, Jesus fucking Christ, it's already August 23rd! I go back to Waterloo in a week! I am elated to see my Waterloo friends again and thrilled about moving into a new house. But I'm not looking forward to the stress of moving. I feel pretty unready for school to start, to be quite honest. It seems I only have 3 classes lined up, one of which is distance ed, so I need to find 2 more classes once I get there. AND, because my parents are making me, I need to get a job. Please God let Chapters hire me!
How to make money while flying: If the flight is overbooked, volunteer to take the next flight. As compensation, Air France gave me 150 Euros cash AND they didn't charge me for my overweight luggage (another 100 Euros). In the end I was on my original flight in my original seat, but I got to keep the money! Cha-ching!
When I stepped off the plane in Montreal, my family got my flowers and a big "Welcome back" balloon. It was really wonderful to see them after such a long time.
I quickly got to re-integrating myself into Canadian society. I was a bit thrown by the French spoken in Quebec compared to France. I started to notice that in Quebec we say bienvenue instead of de rien. Or if you want to eat in a restaurant we say pour ici rather than sur place.
I'm bad at conclusions. I'll just end with another non sequitur image.
Then I walked to Bastille to have a quick coffee with Phillip. Here's Place de la Bastille.
And here's a pic of me that I took in a reflective window. I think it looks cool! I like the jogger in the background.
Found this open door, and decided to trespass...
La Mosquee de Paris, as seen in Paris, je t'aime.
An example of Gothic architecture, apparently.
Les Arenes de Lutece, which is a gorgeous park/site in the 5th. I had never seen in before this tour, even though it's right by one of the schools I have class in.
Here's the "arene". It's like a huge outdoor ampitheatre.
Once we left the arenes, we headed up these stairs.
Here's the view from the top of the stairs. Typical Paris street, so beautiful.
The staircase had a fountain. I think the people of Paris used to count on these fountains for drinking water, and they can be found all over the city. Our teacher said that you can still drink from them unless there's a sign saying you can't. This one seemed to not be running, however.
This is the street at the top of the stairs. The sign says that I was in Place Benjamin Fondane. You can see the gutter in the middle of the street, good for rainwater (and sewage I suppose, once upon a time...)
A picture of the History of Paris class. Look at how cute our teacher is, with her hat!!
Elections are coming up, so every arondissement's mairie has this election boards up. One board for each party.
Place de la Contrescarpe
Two pianists played on Marcelle's 100-year-old (as of this year!) double-piano. Well, this is a picture of them on one the sides, but for some of the pieces they each took a side. I remember they played Rhapshody in Blue, and some West Side Story.
