Fifty Pounds or Less: The World is TOO Small

I keep having moments all over Paris where I realize how very small the world really is. The scenario is this: I was sitting in the laundromat down the street, reading my homework, listening to music and waiting for my clothes to dry. There was a mother and daughter talking in English in the corner. I assumed they were tourists staying in one of the many hotels in the area here to wash something real quick. When I got up to collect my clothes and pulled out my headphones I heard then tell an inquiring man that they were from California..."south of San Francisco" to be precise. So I turned around quicker than anything and surprised them with my, "WAIT. Where? I'm from Gilroy. Hi." Turns out they're from Aptos and were very surprised to be meeting me there of all places. I exchanged numbers with the girl my age and we're going to get coffee sometime soon. She lives in this neighborhood too. It's crazy being so far from home and meeting people from so close.

Other than that, my day went rather well. Laundry was a success. I don't know why it stressed me out before. I just thought that it would be French and complicated. But it was just laundry. My art history class this morning was great. We started talking about the French Renaissance. I enjoyed it because the professor started by giving us a quick history lesson to really understand France in the 1500s. I can tell already that it is going to be my favorite class.

I also had a great weekend. Friday was my little party of four at my place. Saturday I went to the Orangerie museum, which houses Monet's giant panels:

Musée de L'Orangerie- found online- no pictures were allowed there sadly

As well as works from Picasso, Renoir, Modigliani, Cézanne, Rousseau, Derain, and Matisse. It was such a calm and beautiful museum that I had actually never heard about before. Shocking. The collection was small but so well represented Impressionism. Definitely worth bringing everyone that visits and/or telling every person ever to go there. After I just wandered around Paris and walked all the way home. Then stayed in.

Saturday I called my friend to see what she was doing and as it turned out she was going to a huge concert thing with some other people. So I took a quick métro over to the Bastille and joined them just before the festivities began. I met her new French friend, Nadjet (read: nah-gett), who is hilarious and fantastic. The concert was called the Love Life Parade and was for an AIDS Solidarity organization. They closed down one of the largest and busiest boulevards in Paris...on a Sunday, for 10 floats (with a total of 30 bands) to drive down for four hours. It started at the Bastille and went all the way to Opéra Garnier. was so great, and something I feel like I would never see at home. We followed certain floats and stood around watching them pass by other times. Each was energetic and lively and interesting in its own way. One DJ was so good that he had the entire street moving with the music. It was mostly kids roughly my age, and everyone, as far as I could see, was jumping and laughing and screaming for more.The last band we followed for about an hour was climbing all over their float and coming into the crowd. It was such an awesome time and I was left exhausted and ready to rest my poor, tired feet.