First Day of Class, First Field Trip, Le Place de Concorde, and exploring!!!
        Today we left to Paris at seven forty-five a.m to get to our class room by nine a.m. We have to be up by seven a.m. everyday because we live in the suburbs. Our host family had put out cereal for us to eat for le petit dejeuner, which was good. We met up with Natalie and Haley, then we were off to our first day of class. I'm getting used to the smell of the city. The suburbs aren't bad, but the city...Everyone smokes apparently and it's a bit dirty. It resembles New York or Los Angeles, but older and, therefore, cooler. Class was good. We're starting with the 18th century, and the sun king: Louis XIV. We went on our first class field trip to le musee Carnivalet, which is a history of France stylistically and architecturally. Its pretty cool. They decorate rooms with real artifacts and designs to look like they would have at that time. The museum itself was placed in a old house converted into the museum by the government. I couldn't even imagine living somewhere like that with its courtyard and garden. C'est tres chic. After the museum we were free to do what we wanted until the class meeting later that day, so we decided to go to a restaurant that had been recommended to us by our professor called Angelina. We were told to try the hot chocolate africain, so we did and it did not disappoint. Super good. Super rich, so perfect. We had passed le garden Tuileries on our way to Angelinas, so we decided to drink our hot chocolate there and then walk around. The garden is gorgeous and huge. Lots of flowers and birds other than pigeons. :) There are also lots of statues and some water fountains. The garden leads to the Concord square which is where the guillotine was during the rein of terror. It's also right by the Seine which made for a awesome view. If it wasn't so cold, it would have been perfect. We then had to go to our meeting, which was a briefing on security and transportation, host families etc. The ladies who talked to us were super nice. After the meeting some of us decided to find some book stores to browse because why not? On the way we passed a gorgeous, extremely old church:St. Germaine des Pres. It was awesome!!! I felt cool just looking at it. Old stuff just makes life cooler. The history freak in me has definitely been coming out. The other day i was wandering how the metro system was built under the city. All i know is that it was built about a century ago. Every building i pass i wonder what it used to be or who it belonged to before it became what it is now. So much history. Finally we came to the bookstore which was recommended to us by one of the ladies who talked to us during our meeting. I forget what is was called, but it was awesome, huge and had everything!!!!We stayed there until we had to go home for dinner. We made it just in time. For dinner we had quiche, spinach and bread.  And cheese of course. For dessert we had ice cream. I could get used to this. I really like our host family. We took more time to talk to them today. They ask us about our day, what we did, what we're learning etc. They're sweet. After dinner McKenna and I did our homework together before working on these wonderful blogs. It's late my friends and our day starts early. Time to get ready for another long day of learning and exploring.

front of LDS Institute

Where we have class and church.

We were there before the teacher. Go us. :) Natalie, Haley, Luke, McKenna, and Carson.

Class field trip to the museum Caravalet

Walking around the museum. We focused on the 18th century today.

Greek Goddess Artemis with her hunting dog in the museum.

King Louis's got some sass!

Random cool building that we passed. Not sure what it is/was for.

Stopped by this gem of a place near the Louvre. Its a little pricy, but it has the best hot chocolate in the world.

Luke trying his Angeline's hot chocolate advertisement pose in front of the book store next door. The first English one in France apparently.

Across the street from Angeline's is the Tuileries garden. We found some sunshine! Some of the first we've seen since coming here. Made me so happy.

The garden is huge and covered in statues.

Example A. Greek myth of the centaurs kidnapping the maidens from the wedding.

 The garden connects to le place de Concorde. The monument to the right of the awesome fountain marks the place where the guillotine was during the rein of terror. We wanted to go closer, but it was freezing, the wind was blowing, and we just needed to find the metro before we died. We'll come back another time.

The view of the E. tower and the Seine connecting to le Place de Concorde. Beautiful.

Le building where parliament gathers.  Greek influence is definitely a thing.

Walking to the metro by the Seine.

We found the metro!!! Doesn't Luke look happy?

Most of the students waiting for the meeting to start. We're missing about five more students.

Did i mention it was cold and that the wind was a killer? I looked down at my hand during the meeting and noticed it looked like this. Fun stuff.

We found this awesome, really really old church on our way to find a book store. It was beautiful and originally built in 543!!!!! Insane right? I got to go inside history!!!!

We've decided to start imitating statues that we take pictures with.  I don't know who this guy was, but he lived in the 18th century which makes him cool.

I  think this is St. Michel's chapel. I could be wrong. It's under renovation, so we stayed away.

 We found le librairie!!!! That means book store. There were seven floors!! It was awesome.

Reminds me of our books where you find Waldo.

They have the Magic Tree House books in France!!!! I loved these growing up!!!

They had some old books here too. These two were from the 19th century. I felt cooler holding them.

I just thought this was funny.

Heading home on the RER after a really long, but great day. Just a bit fatigued.