Busy week!

So after I last wrote, I gave my presentation (done!) and had a wonderful weekend in Paris. Last week was Paris Fashion Week, and since I've never been in a city during its fashion week, I decided I'd give it a whirl. Luckily my Colgate friend who was so kindly putting me up (love you, Kristen) is taking classes at Parsons in Paris for the semester and her roommate just happened to have an internship working for a designer for the week (Halston? Heard of him?). With the help of Grace (the roommate), my two-days' exposure to the week of fashion was lots of fun. She gave us handy tips on how to get into fashion shows (such as shouting "I'VE GOT THE SHOES!!"--apparently it works all the time in NY fashion week. give it a try.) and what to wear to get photographed by fashion bloggers. Our attempts to get into the shows were fruitless, but we were asked a total of two times (that's two more times than I've ever been stopped on the street for my photograph before), which was very exciting. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find our photographs on any blogs. Here's some on mine though!

Fashion Week in the Tuileries:
Me and Kristen:

And Friday night Grace also got us into an Armani Privé fashion show/party. We missed the fashion show, but we did have the experience of partying with models, both male and female. It was a little surreal....

Armani Privé Fashion Show at Le Cab:Saturday, after brunch at Ladurée (soo chic), I picked up Jim at the airport! We had a great week together.

Me, Jim, and Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie:

We got a lot of time in Paris and he got to see my digs here in Dijon. It was so great having someone to show around, especially having it be him. Last night we had our last dinner at this really good (though not cheap) restaurant in Paris called "La Gare." It's in an old train station and it's huge, but it's very chic and the food was delicious (as was the wine). After a lazy Saturday in Paris together, he got on a flight home and I got on a train back to Dijon.

And now it's time to step back into reality. Having had Jim here and now having him gone is making me a little homesick for the first time this semester. Part of me is envious that he gets to return to the comforts of home while I stay here in Dijon living with my host family. But there is still that part of me excited by the development of my French and eager to continue improving it. But suddenly the semester seems really long, which is something that I never felt when I was in Venice, and I'm not quite sure how to shake the feeling. I think I just need to get back into my Dijon regime and hopefully things will feel normal again. I have a hard week of classes ahead and then Friday I'm off with the group to the Loire Valley to spot some châteaux and, as usual, eat some good food (on Colgate). À toute!