Le deuxième semaine (The second week)

So, I've made it thru one week, though that's not to say anything bad, cause it's been a blast!!!

After I posted on Sunday, I went out with several other students to celebrate the Fête de la musique, a European festival originating in France in the 60s where there's music in the streets all day and especially at night, and where everyone pretty much parties in the street the whole night. While we didn't stay out the whole night, we did have a pretty good time watching the different musicians perform in all the major streets and squares, and we even got to dance some salsa for an hour or so (yes, very French!). The top two pictures are from my phone from that night. It's really quite a unique experience, with nothing like it in America. It actually reminded me of the night we celebrated our victory over UNC my frosh year to go to the Final Four when all the students were celebrating in the streets. Not as crazy as that, but close...

Tuesday, our class went to a shopping center to visit a "hypermarché" called Carrefour, which was basically a Super Walmart/Target, but with much stricter security. When we tried to go in, they made us use special twist ties to lock our bookbags shut so we couldn't steal anything, and they also wouldn't let us enter with our worksheets out into the open because they said it was "industrial espionnage," until our profs presented them with a fax allowing us permission to complete our worksheets. Apparently, this is something very French. I bought a big of French chocolate and other goodies for our train ride next week, as well as a couple of Astérix comics in French to add to my English collection.

Today, we had some time to visit different places on our own in Tours for our homework. I went to the Musée des Beaux Arts with my friend Stephanie to see lots of art from the 15th-20th centuries. The prize piece of the gallery (which reminded me of the Portrait Gallery in DC) was a Rembrandt, "La Fuite en Egypte," depicting the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt after Jesus' birth (last picture). There were also works by Monet, Rodin, and Delacroix, so overall, not a bad collection!

Tomorrow we've got our placement test for the Institut, so I'd better go study! Tchao!

Peace