Paris, Je T'aime: L'Ecole

This week was the start of classes at ABS!

I'm taking:

Advanced French

French Civilisation

Consumer Behavior

American Law

and

International Economics

Mary and I don't have class on Monday and Tuesday (score!) so the beginning of our week was pretty quiet.

Quiet means lots of opportunities for macarons....

and "MacDo"

Wednesday we have class at 8:30 so we had to get up before the sun and make our way to school. Our classes are 3 hours each, with a 15-20 minute "smoke break" in the middle. Typique français. Both my french classes seem chill, and I'm excited for my french civ class because we're doing a wine and cheese tasting next week, a Marie Antoinette movie day with croissants, and we'll be doing walks around the city some days instead of a lecture.

Thursday was an adventure. All Thursday classes are at the Eaubonne campus which is a 30 minute train ride outside of Paris. Mary and I made plans to meet up with another girl from USC, Rachel, and ride together since it seemed confusing. At Gare du Nord, which is where we switch from the metro to the train, we found 3 other girls from ABS trying to get to Eaubonne as well. Unfortunately the ticket booths were unmanned and the machines only took coins or a European credit card with a chip in it. None of us had either of those things. We finally figured out that we could buy a €1 stack of cookies at a shop and have enough change for the machine. I'm not looking forward to doing that every week. Once we got on the train we met up with 2 other guys from ABS, so we had a group of 8 people going to Eaubonne! My class is great and its only 2 and a half hours which is awesome. Theres sports at the Eaubonne campus for all ABS students, and Mary stayed after class to play volleyball. When I got back to Gare du Nord, I split up from the group because I was the only one taking the 4 metro back home. Once I got on the train, it stopped. There was a technical difficulty with the train so after about 20 minutes when we finally made it the next station, I got off and decided to walk home. Unfortunately, I walked about 15 minutes in the wrong direction. I found another metro station though, and was able to take that home. It was a very long day.

Friday I have class from 12:30-6:30, which sucks. I like my first class, International Econ, but my professor for Am Law thinks the capital of the US is the District of Washington and has a voice that sounds like Siri, so I'm not planning on getting a lot out of that class. Sad face. Zach is in my class though, and after it ended we went to a mexican restaurant down the street called El Nopal because we've been having serious cravings for a taco. Everyone that goes to Paris has to try El Nopal it is that good. I got the 3 taco meal, which comes with 1 chicken, 1 pork and 1 ground beef taco each in a soft corn tortilla. The chicken is marinated in some sort of tomato sauce and the pork and beef are really flavorful. I ate all three in about 2 minutes.

But seriously how good does that look

Even Zach's burrito looked delish

That night, Mary and I went out with her friends from ISA, Matt, Billy, Nora and Meg. We pregamed at Nora and Meg's apartment then went out to a bar in Bastille called Yellow Mad Monkey.

A little Metro entertainment

Cant wait to go to the Heineken factory in Amsterdam this weekend!

Meg, Me and Mary

Its expensive (€7.50 for a pint of beer) but it has a cool atmosphere that is reminiscent of Rainforest Cafe. I had a really good time and I'm excited to go to Amsterdam with them next weekend!

Today (Saturday), Mary and I met up with Jules and her friend Campbell to get hot chocolate at Angelina. We waited in line to be seated and got a seat on the second floor. The tearoom is really fancy with gilded walls in the Belle Epoque style. We got the famous Africain hot chocolate and pain au chocolates to eat.

Mary and Jules

Campbell and Me

You could eat this with a spoon

Death by chocolate

Two of my favorite things

Fresh whipped cream? Yes please.

Def stocking up on bottled hot chocolate before I leave

The aftermath...

It was so so so good! It was also so so so rich that I thought I'd have to be rolled out of there. I think I'm going to have to make this a monthly outing.