It’s been a very long time since I last posted. So here’s a brief recap of what I have been up to:

I went on a weekend trip to Brussels and Amsterdam. And ever since then, time moves so quickly. I keep thinking that I only went a week ago, but nope. I will dedicate a whole post to this…eventually. Then, I started an internship at EPITECH. I shall also dedicate a post (and many more) to this specific subject. I finished babysitting (I will elaborate on this, yet again, in another post) for personal reasons. I had tons of tests and presentations, up to the point where I had to really sacrifice sleep. That was not fun. I also finally went grocery shopping after going on a challenge to see how long I could last without buying groceries. It was grueling. Now why would I do that? Because over the months, I racked up random food that I left in the apartment and never got around to eating because I was no longer in the mood to eat. Then, I would keep buying new food that I was craving and that stack of unopened food just kept piling up. And I explored more of Paris, thankfully.

Basically, I just gave you a list of things that I will write about in the future. Well that’s lame. So I will dedicate the rest of this post to random snapshots of my life in Paris in November.

SCHOOL:
School has been relatively doable. Before I started school in Paris, I was quite nervous because all of my classes were going to be in French. THAT MUST BE SO DIFFICULT. But actually, in all honesty, it really has not. The fact that my classes are all in French rarely fazes me. Except in my art history class. I am one hot mess in that class. Otherwise, writing papers and, especially, doing presentations does not present much of a problem to me. I don’t know how. I don’t know why.

Random things I’ve noticed from my art history class, a.k.a. the only class I take with real French students: French students are not that great when it comes to presentations. They are very timid in front of the class. That’s a bit shocking, considering how much emphasis America puts on public speaking. Also, I just took a quiz that I totally bombed because my notes are absolutely horrific in that class. But if I was fluent in French, this quiz was super easy! So easy. Frankly, I am quite ashamed of myself.

ON THE CORNER OF MY STREET:
One plain old Wednesday afternoon, back on November 6th, as I was walking home from school, I saw tons of police officers standing on the sidewalks. Then, I heard loud honking sounds and soon after came a huge hoard of people marching down the street. It was an organized strike by veterinarians. Then, I saw Christmas lights up. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS UP. Everything is a bit strange here without Thanksgiving in between Halloween and Christmas. But also, Parisians barely, if even, celebrate Halloween. (And naturally, now in late mid-November, Christmas markets are in full-effect.)

And later, when I headed out to go to the doctor, people from the Milka company were standing on the corners of the sidewalks by my apartment handing out free Milka Tuc bars! Naturally, I planned out a way to get one without seeming aggressive and pushy and without missing my bus. It was a success! And delicious~ This all happened in just one afternoon. One very eventful afternoon. What happens on the corner of your street?And in terms of other foods, I went grocery shopping at U Express and saw some lovely tin cans of baked goods for sale. I gravitated towards that section, even after I bought everything I really needed. I couldn’t resist. They had some Magritte boxes, but the cookies didn’t look too appetizing. But, they also had this very pretty box of regular chocolate chip cookies. The box was what really sold me (and the fact that I haven’t had a regular chocolate chip cookie since I’d arrived). So I got it and wow, when I tried it at home, it blew me away! I really like these cookies. They’re not yummy like homemade fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies, but they are quite amazing as prepackaged crunchy cookies. I researched them a bit online and discovered that it’s a famous brand here in France and that they’re pretty high end. I mean, Galeries Lafayette sells them. Here they are in all their glory, Le Cookies de la Mère Poulard, from Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy.