Harmonieuse!

After talking with my host mom tonight, I believe I have found my one word to describe Paris: elle est toujours harmonieuse (she is always harmonious). Harmonious has a different tone than balanced… it captures the awe one has every time they leave the metro and see a beautiful building that they have seen a thousand times before. It is also a better word to describe the personal feeling I have in Paris. So, this incredible place cannot be summed up in a word, but this one sure comes close.

I can’t remember if I’ve written this before or not but my host mom also described Paris to me as an old dame. “She has large buildings which are very beautiful but she can be a little cruel and VERY expensive.” :-)

I had my big Sorbonne test on Saturday. Taking the test was an experience in itself. The test was held in this large building just a little south of Paris. The Sorbonne uses this building for all of their large exams. There were four wings to the building and five floors on each wing. We were split up by level and then alphabetically. Every room was being used on Saturday! They let us into the room at 2pm where we each had our own numbered desk with only a sheet of green scrap paper sitting on it. We were required to put any bags on the windowsill and only allowed pens and water bottles at our desk. They were very prompt about starting the test at exactly 2:30 (kind of like the SATs…). I had heard that we weren’t allowed to leave the room for any reason, but apparently in the room my friend was taking her test in the proctors let a student leave for a smoke-break! (Only in France…) The test was a little more difficult than I thought it was going to be. It’s hard to explain but the exercises were a little bit different than those I had practiced in class. The essay topic was SO easy though: “What aspects of French culture do you love the most (cinema, cuisine, architecture, etc.)?” I could talk about that for days. It wasn’t so difficult that I’m worried about my grade, it’s just kind of scary because the way this program works this test essentially counts for 4.5 credits!

I had the last meal my host mom will ever cook me tonight because tomorrow night is our farewell dinner with the people from ACCENT and Thursday night I am cooking for them! I’m planning to make macaroni and cheese, my amazing salad and possibly lemon poppyseed cake for dessert. There are so many things I wish I could make for them but I just can’t find certain ingredients here.

My host parents are leaving on Sunday as well. They spend the month of June in their home in Spain and the months of July and August in their country home outside of Paris. Tough summer…

Speaking of summer, now that it is summer for a lot of Americans they have INVADED this city. There are American tourists everywhere! I might have mentioned this before but France is the number one tourist destination in the world, meaning Paris is the most visited city. I’m even getting a little bit annoyed with the American tourists, and I’m definitely sick of being mistaken for one!

One more exam, four more days in Paris and three large bags to pack… yikes.