Sunday-Tuesday 14-16

I've been so busy lately I haven't had time to post anything, sorry! First of all, I'd like to say...

HAPPY 30TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! CONGRATULATIONS! I LOVE YOU! It's today, by the way, Sept. 16th, so please feel free to congratulate my parents.

But back to me. I talked to my dad yesterday, and he told me you, Aunt Nellie, tried to post a comment and it didn't work, but thanks for trying to communicate with me. Thanks for the hello, Mr. and Mrs. Yerga! I'm glad you're enjoying the blog. Also, one more thing about communication... if anyone wants to write to me, I know that Mom might have given you my home address, but the program people said not to send mail to our houses, so here's my school address that you can use instead.

Theresa Kretz, c/o IES Abroad

77 rue Daguerre

75014 Paris, France

So on Sunday I finally made it to the catacombs, and they were awesome. There must have been at least a mile of bones that we walked past, and there was only one way through the catacombs so there must be even more bones. Apparently Parisians began moving the bones from diseased cemetaries underground because people kept getting sick from all the corpses that had died of disease back in the 1800s. You have to go down 83 steps to get to the catacombs, which is pretty far underground, and the ceiling is very low, so it's pretty spooky. You have to walk down a lot of very loooong hallways before you even get to the bones. Here's a picture of me in the walkway entrance to the bones, which says, "Stop! Here is the empire of the dead."

You weren't allowed to use flash inside the bones area, so this is the best I could do. The bones were stacked taller than me, which basically meant I was in a hallway of bone walls. There were actually guards in the catacombs to make sure you didn't use flash. What a creepy job!

It was very Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

So after that my two friends and I went back to Callie's house to pick up Sarah's sweater, then Sarah and I were about to take the metro and go our separate ways, but the metro nearest Callie's house just so happens to be right next to the l'Arc de Triomphe (the Arch of Triumph, built to commemorate war victories, maybe Napoleon's but I'm not sure; it overlooks the Champs-Elysees and is the finish line for the Tour de France), so we decided to visit it.

It might look kind of small in this picture, but trust me, it's huge. There's 284 steps to the top, I believe, and Sarah and I climbed every one. The view was definitely worth it, though. Here's the Champs-Elysees.

So that evening, Aurelie and Alex told me that there's a special going on at the movies, so we all went, including Catherine. We saw a movie called "Comme les autres," which means, "Like the others," and it was about a gay man who wanted to have a baby. I was really happy that I could understand the movie because usually the dialogue is too fast for me.

Yesterday I went on a guided visit of the Louvre, which was very cool. I've already been there, but it was nice to have someone actually explain the importance of the artwork there, plus the building itself is just awesome.

Last night the movie special was still going on (3 euro!) so Aurelie and Alex and I went to see "Le chevalier noir," or "The Dark Knight," the second Batman movie. Afterwards we went to a Greek restaurant because Catherine had given Aurelie some coupons and I don't know if we had gyros or not. It was pita bread with meat, and I'm pretty sure Aurelie said it was lamb. We had to hang around for a while after we were done eating because some soccer game was playing that Alex wanted to watch.

Today I had my academic advising meeting. I'm taking History of France and Civilization, Literature of the 20th century, Theater in Paris, French Politics in a European Context, and Advanced French Grammar. All of these classes are within the program, which means I'm in class with the other Americans; we just have French professors. The advisor strongly urged me to look at taking an outside course, like at the Sorbonne, but I have to check and see if it will work for my credits back home or not. If it will, I'll really have to think about it because it would be very cool to take real French classes, and she seemed to think it would be hugely beneficial. In fact, she told me "it's necessary!"

So for dinner tonight I actually did have crepes! It was just me, Aurelie, and Catherine so we ate in the kitchen so Catherine could make the crepes as we ate. Aurelie's crepe turned out really hard, but Catherine ate it anyway. Here's a picture of Catherine and Cooky, the cat, sharing the Frisbee crepe.

Cooky is the nicest cat ever. He really likes attention, so often he'll come into my room while I'm on the computer and he'll just jump on my lap and start purring. Aurelie showed me a picture of Alex's cat today. His name is Simba, and he looks exactly like a miniature lion. It's pretty funny. Slimen, Mathilde's boyfriend, was over working on Aurelie's computer when I got home from school and he told me that Aurelie used to hate cats but after she met his cat, all of a sudden the whole Douville family was all about them! I think Slimen speaks a lot of English because he always knows the English word for French words I don't know, like "dwarf." We were talking about dwarf cats, which apparently exist. Who knew?