I can't believe it's almost been a month since I updated. It feels like I just wrote that last week!

I'm getting really depressed that my time here is coming to a close. It'll be nice to be back in America where everything is as it should be and I can yell at people again, but I was just starting to form relationships with the people that I know everyday and I'm sad that has to end. I made a new bff that works at the boulangerie (sandwich place) by school. I go there everyday and he sees me so much he's decided to look past the fact that I'm annoyingly smiley and foreign and like me. Every time I go in there now, I don't even have to say what I want, he just gets it for me. And, here's the kicker - he SMILES when I see him. This may not seem like such a feat, but the fact that the french hate to smile in the first place along with the fact that he hated me when I first went into his boulangerie in January makes it one. Hate might be a strong word. He definitely disliked me because I wasn't sure what I liked and what I didn't like and all I wanted was a fucking turkey sandwich (warning: you will not find one anywhere in Paris, so don't try) and I was just frustrated that I couldn't get one and had to settle for his other sandwiches. Funny part is, this man has the best sandwiches in Paris hahahaha so clearly I got over it. And now, after all of our months together, he actually likes me. I almost want to get him a gift when I leave. hahahahaha

The homeless men at school have even stopped screaming obscenities at me when I walk by and have switched over to a much more civil "bonjour madame!". I'm well aware that this has a lot to do with the fact that I give them spare change every week but it's worth it. One girl got chased down the street by a crazy homeless man with a frying pan because she didn't respond to him when he said hello. Let it be a lesson to everyone.

I've also picked up so many social tricks. For example, the trick on the metro is to look like you're completely dead inside and no one will so much as look at you. It helps to ward off the creepy guys who think they're going to get your number before the next stop (has that EVER worked??) and the crazy homeless people who want to sit next to you and yell. It works like a charm but I don't think I'll be bringing that back to the states. Everyone would just think my dog died and also I would get frown wrinkles. As a side note, all of the french women have frown wrinkles instead of smiling wrinkles and I find it upsetting and I think if I lived here longer I would have to give up the metro face for that fear. The other trick to winning friends is to give up your seat for old people. It should just be known (and if you grew up at Camp Kirby, aka my home, it would be) but it's not and I've seen people get screamed at for not getting up. This girl refused to give her seat up to an older (but not old) woman and the older woman freaked out and I thought she was going to beat her up with her purse. Eventually the girl got up - probably out of embarassment - but I thought it was weird she would even fight it. I gave my seat to a really old lady the other day (I swear she was 98) and when I walked to the back of the bus an old lady stopped me to tell me how nice it was. I also gave my seat to a 98 year old man, who apologized profusely. He literally said "I'm sorry for taking your place ma'am, but I'm so old". hahahahahahahahaha It seems so weird to me that there are those two extremes. Its absolutely expected that you give your seat up, but the people are always very grateful for it and let you know it.

I really like taking the bus more than the metro, but the bus lines are so weird. And Paris doesn't think it's important to list the stops online so the only bus I take is too and from school. It's not that I don't like the metro because I actually really do. My problem is that I have the worst luck with it. Every time I get into a station or to the train I need, one JUST left and I have to wait 5 minutes for the next one. This happens to me EVERY TIME. But another plus as to being here so long is that I know a lot about each metro line. For example: you're going to need to get secure and balanced on line 1 before it starts moving or you will eat shit, line 9 waits for no one, the 14 is from the future, you're bound to see at least one penis on the 8, and never get off and try to switch lines at Chatelet. Also, the entire area around Opera is good for shopping but you WILL get pick pocketed. I'm seriously a wealth of information, hit me up if you need traveling advice (don't worry Sierra I'm compiling a list for you! hahaha)

I just found out that my last final is May 3rd, which is so awesome because I don't fly home until May 15th and I'll have a lot of time to see everything I haven't seen already. Technically I'm supposed to have finals until May 14th since thats when the semester ends but none of my teachers liked that idea so they all changed it to be sooner. The American Business School is so weird and not like the US at all. The teachers are rude (my french teacher tells people to shut up or shes going to kill them) and very unstructured. I don't really like that because I like environments where I know what's expected and how to get a good grade. Here they just give you a sheet of paper with some vague outlines for a project and expect that you know what should be in it and how long it should be. It's really annoying. And they're always playing really loud music and having dance parties in the main lobby. I walked in last tuesday and they were playing "Dancing Queen" (at 8am, mind you) and I walked in yesterday and there's a crowd of people and the song starts "NOD YO FUCKIN HEAD NIGGA, FUCK YOU!" and the group broke into dance. A dance that everyone seemed to know... my life is turning into a weird musical.

This past weekend Taylor and I went to this outdoor market that they have on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, and we finally found the ghetto of Paris. I stepped off the metro and it was like an entirely different, much creepier, world. On the plus side of things they have amazing moroccan leather bags that you can haggle down in price. They also have clothes and shoes and all sorts of stuff, but the leather bags were the best finds in my opinion. I recommend that you go there but the earlier the better and definitely during daylight hours.

I've been trying to go and see and do stuff that I haven't done yet, and we've even made a bucket list. The other day Taylor and I had a picnic by the eiffel tower, it was so pretty. It was a really nice day and everything is so green and in bloom. We also went to a really pretty park near my house that has a huge Paris sign (which I obviously took an obnoxious amount of pictures in front of - to be posted soon) and lakes and beautiful flowers. I feel like I need at least 6 more months here to be able to spend enough time in each place to appreciate all of it. all this walking in my flats without socks is killing me. They're cutting up my heels and I've never needed a pedicure so bad in my life. When I go home I'm going to have to go to a different place than I usually do because I'm too embarassed for the girl that normally does my pedicures to see my feet. It's serious emergency status.

Moving on -  lets focus on this volcano for one second. Never did I think that a volcano would affect my life, much less one in Iceland. That's all we've been talking about in class for days and a ton of people are stuck in random countries without a way to get back to Paris because all the trains are packed. The other students studying abroad at the Sorbonne have their Spring Break now and can't go anywhere which totally sucks. The Paris airport was supposed to open at 8pm tonight but I'm not sure how well that worked out, and people are saying that the ash might delay our flights in the middle of May if it doesn't clear. And apparently there's talk that it might keep errupting or that the one next to it is going to? I'm not sure. I don't even know what I would do in Paris for extra time, where would I stay? My host family is moving! I would have to live at the airport and be homeless. I could probably do it because they have excellent food and shopping, but I don't really care for sleeping on airport floors. Been there, done that, not my thing.

On a final note, the thought of buying people souvenirs is really stressing me out. Partly because I'm extremely low on cash and partly because there's just too many things here and it's hard for me to decide who would want what. With that being said (haha, for anyone who watches curb your enthusiasm), I'm really not going to buy anyone anything unless you ask me for something specifically. It's not that I don't love you (this message only apply to those that I'm AWARE are reading my blog... it might actually be that I don't love you) but I just don't want the stress of having to find everyone the perfect gift. So there, its out. You're getting nothing from me except my love and a warm hug upon my return. Hope we can still be friends.

Hopefully I'll write again soon, but if not don't hate. It's been too pretty in Paris to spend my time at my laptop writing! And besides... I'll see you soon!