Washing Machine: 1 Katie: 0

The French have found a way to turn something so simple as a two-hour wash/dry cycle to a ten-hour event. The wash cycle alone practically requires that you have a specialized Bachelor's degree in order to operate it. Never get in a fight with a French washing machine. You will always lose. Always. First of all, French washing machines have so many buttons that they are more akin to airplane cockpits than American washing machines. Just one look at the reincarnation of R2-D2 and I knew I was in for trouble. I loaded it up with my vetements, Madame pushed what seemed like 50 buttons, and my they were done within an hour or so. Simple, right? Wrong. When I took my clothes out of the washer, I realized that the necks on many of my shirts had stretched enough to accommodate a watermelon. One of my chemises miraculously shapeshifted from a normal size small to a triple XL belly shirt. I'm not kidding. It's now about ten inches long and three feet wide. Also, dryers are a foreign concept to the French. Madame mentioned that she'd heard of them but never seen one, but the rest of the family had no idea what I was talking about. They were baffled when I explained that Americans have a machine to wash clothes and one to dry them, too. Hanging my clothes dry isn't too much of a hassle, but I definitely miss my clothes being soft and without wrinkles. I'm lucky that my host family gave me my own drying rack to use in my room. One of my classmates said that his host mother hung his clothes up on whatever sufficed around the house. He noticed his underwear hanging from the oven handle during dinner one night.

Before my Paris by Site class, I went to get my French textbook at a store called FNAC. It was an enormous combination of Barnes and Noble and Best Buy- I was in heaven after I finally found it. Someone a while back thought it would be a good idea to make this store underground and entirely unmarked from the street, so you can imagine how difficult it was for me to find. I was on a bit of a time budget while there, so unfortunately I didn't get a chance to browse around much. I'll definitely have to go back and spend more time there, now that I know where it's located.

Paris by Site met at St.Denis today, an enormous Gothic church with beautiful stained glass windows and crypts with remains of certain French Royalty, like Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It is said that right after St.Denis was beheaded, he picked up his own head, walked six miles, then dropped dead at the site where the church now sits. The church was built in the 7th century- as you can imagine, it has an incredible amount of history. I recommend that anyone participating in a study abroad program take a history course specific to that location if possible. There's absolutely comparable to learning about a church that you're standing in, or talking about a painting at the Louvre while being an arm's length away from it. As interesting as the church was, we were all eager to leave after an hour and a half because it was so freezing inside that we could see our breath. None of us had anticipated this, so we all wore light jackets / sweatshirts. Everyone kept joking that our next site visit will be to the hospital, because we're all bound to come down with pneumonia after today's class. 

 

my mille-feuille

On my way home, I stopped by the patisserie right by my apartment and got a mille-feuille, which is a combination of vanilla, custard, and pastry, topped with a little layer of chocolate. It was delicious, but I didn't want to ruin my appetite for dinner, so I saved the majority of it for tomorrow. We had tarte aux épinards avec chèvre (spinach pie with goat cheese) for dinner. I'm not a big fan of steamed spinach because the texture kind of grosses me out, but it wasn't bad when baked and combined with cheese and flaky pastry.

Affectueusement,

Katie