As the end draws near...

Well, I'm in the library in the Centre George Pompidou in the middle of Paris in the process of writing my final paper. It's on Auguste Rodin who is actually quite an interesting chap but I'm quite exhausted as I've had a very long and quite strenous week. Let me tell you that a "devoir sur table" which means a 3-hour in-class written exam is really difficult. Of course, it didn't help that I hadn't finished one of the books, but all the same, my slow brain doesn't like writing papers on three-word prompts in a language that it isn't completely familiar with. However, I did manage to scribble down an adequate paper that should be passable for a foreign student. I probably shouldn't say scribble as opposed to write with an elegant precision. That's how I would describe the way in which all french students write here. It's truly amazing actually. I would say that 90% of them write in perfect cursive which makes mine look merely average and the most amazing thing of all is that their notes are more like essays. Yup, I've never seen a bullet point to date. In fact, most of them never stop writing because they are continually writing sentences which summarize their notes. At the end of every class it looks like they've written about a 3-page essay. In my opinion this takes a lot more time and detracts from how many notes they can take but hey..... it seems to work for them. One final thing is that about 25% of them use foutain pens too! How cool is that?!  Anyway, I've been trying to do as many things as possible before I have to leave. Last weekend was chock full of them. After my first experience of having an exam on a saturday morning I was set to have a little fun. So, saturday afternoon/evening I journeyed just north of Paris with Duncan (a whittie) to the Stade de France to watch a premier league rugby match! It was SF Paris vs. the London Harlequins and it was so so sweet! First of all, the stadium is gigantic! There were 76,000 people there and since the colours of the Paris team are bright pink and royal blue, the whole stadium was just a sea of blue and pink flags. Man, even the rugby team is distinctive. It was quite a good game and very close, but the 'Arlequins won by a try therefore everyone was a little disappointed. It would've been nice to have the stadium erupt. However, after the match, we were treated to a spectacular fireworks show. It was definitely the best fireworks show I have ever seen in my life because it was just so darn close. They did all sorts of combos and synchronised it with music. Then, that evening we took the train to the completely other end of Paris (to Meudon in the south) where we met up with the other two whitties (Iris and Ian) and our strange, but very nice French friend. He treated us to a great dinner, and afterwards we went exploring deep, deep underground into the catacombs of Meudon in true Indiana Jones fashion. I am not exaggerating one bit--it was phenomenal! First we had to find this little alley, jump a fence, search through the brush, and finally climb through a little hole that was five feet up a wall. This wasn't unexplored territory though, the Meudon youth sometimes bring food and drinks and most definitely flashlights in there for a picnic, which is exactly what we did. It was so cool and also slightly scary. The tunnels go on for a llooong way around you and it seemed extremely easy to get lost. I think it's the closest I'll ever get to the Mines of Moria haha. Anyway, we set up camp, lit about 30 candles and just hung out. We did a little exploring down the tunnels which really reminded me of the movie, the Descent. Ahhhh, and PEOPLE HAD DEFINITELY BEEN THERE BEFORE! haha, that one's for those of you watched that in California. So, all in all, a great saturday. On sunday I got to play tennis with a decent older player which brushed off some of the rust. I've been managing to play every weekend so I shouldn't be terrible when I get back but it certainly makes me want to play more when I do. On tuesday night, I had the lucky chance to hear a friend of mine from the IES program sing at a jazz club. He is absolutely legit by the way! I think I could really get used to the jazz scene here because there are swingin' little clubs with great musicians and very talented singers. Other than the daily life of city-walking, museum-touring, french-reading, paper-writing, and general fun-having that's pretty much it. I have to say though that my favourite times of day are when I just get to hang out with my French student friends at the Sorbonne or in-town. That is definitely the best and most fun way to improve one's french because you get to learn all the colloquial sayings and phrases that the French say but that one would never learn in an institution. Well, there are literally only seven days before I make the long journey home. I'm definitely feeling all kinds of mixed emotions. At first I kept thinking that I didn't want to leave at all, but now I'm gradually starting to think that I'll be ok once I get back, I mean....... if there's anything that'll pull me away from Paris, it's my cat, George. Haha and maybe my freinds and parents on the side. Having said that, I'm going to live it up here in Paris as much as possible this last week and then let myself be flown home to all y'all. So giddyup and best of luck to those writing their final exams and winning the IM soccer championships! Ciao.