Beaucoup d'activité!

Wow, looking back, it's been quite a while since I last wrote, and a lot has happened since then!

I ended up going to the Musée d'Orsay on Thursday with the group from IES. It was really great because we went on a guided tour, and I have to say, our tour guide knew a lot! The entire museum is filled with the art of people who went against the grain in the 19th century, creating works that were beyond the realm of comprehension for the people of their time. It's a weird feeling after seeing all these famous pieces of art in pictures and in replicas and then finally seeing them in real life. Like the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, it's kind of surreal that I had Monet's water lilies and Degas' ballerinas in front of me.

Then on Friday, we went to the Père Lachaise cemetery, where famous people like Edith Piaf, Molière, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison all rest. I find cemeteries relaxing. I guess it's kind of like knowing that all the people there are resting peacefully. I don't know, maybe that's kind of weird. We also had our own personal tour there, too. Our friend Celeste had gone the previous weekend, and one of the guards showed her around, so when we came, he took us around, too. So that was nice not having to navigate on our own and being taken exactly where we wanted to go. In the corner, there were memorials for the people who died in the concentration camps during WWII, which all really moved me a lot.

Over the weekend, we did more walking and the like and went out on the town, but nothing else too exciting.

Mimi had been gone for about five days, and I got really excited when she came back. She's so nice and we get along really, really well. I also spent some time with Chloé while Mimi was gone. My family is really great.

But I do miss my family at home. I try to talk to them every once in a while, but it's just not the same as seeing them. Yesterday there was a suicide bombing in Israel, the first in over a year, and although I know Michelle isn't there and wasn't harmed, it still made me worried. I hope she's having fun with those cows on the kibbutz!

Tonight I've got my chorale rehearsal. The conductor is really funny and reminds me a lot of Mr. Brown. It's nice to be back in a chorus; I've really missed it. I've missed singing in general, actually. Aurélie's husband is a singer/actor, so I should talk to him and see if there's anything I can get involved with on his end.

I've got class soon, so I've gotta run.

Ciao!