-At a light sprint-

I've neglected my fledgling blog since last weekend, so I will have to recap this week at a light sprint, which is fitting, as you'll soon see.

My France and Islam class with Prof. Habibi went to the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration in lieu of our regular class on Tuesday.  This building isn't much of a tourist attraction, and it's easy to see why: nothing in the building explains why it was originally built or why it's still there today.  It's just...a large building with a lovely carved façade on the front, and a few contemporary exhibits following immigrant culture in France inside.

What this building doesn't tell you is that it was created exclusively for the Paris Colonial Exhibition of 1931.  An international affair (the United States also participated, with a scale model of Mount Vernon), the Colonial Exhibition aimed to show visitors some of the people and cultures France had conquered through colonialism.  On the bright side, this meant the creation of the building my class visited as well as an entire park with scale-model huts and local-style buildings from different countries and regions.  Only the building remains, and as we saw, it has been expunged of its original meaning.

Unfortunately, this Tuesday was double booked, so it was a rush from the Cité nationale back to my room, a quick change into something nice and hairstyle, and I was back out the door on my way to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées.  ACCENT offered us special tickets at a discount price to see the evening performance of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, with 2 guests pianists who were sisters.  I bumped into another girl near the metro, and searching for the theatre together we got lost and ended up running down the street (past Valentino, Dolce&Gabbana, etc) because you're not allowed in after the program begins.  But we made it!  The seating wasn't great, of course, but the performance was beautiful, especially the piano duets that flowed together seamlessly.

Following the performance, I convinced some fellow concert-goers to find a...snack.  And naturally, since it was freezing outside at 10:30pm, all I had on my mind was the Haagen-Daaz I'd seen on our way there.  What you have to keep in mind about this is that everything in Paris adds an extra element, to make sure the Parisians feel special, and not like their city is just as overrun by chain stores as everywhere else.  And so, Haagen-Daaz does not just offer to-go service, but also has a tea room, where you can sit and order your creamy creation.  Yes, Haagen-Daaz is a tea room.  So much for a quick cone.

I may have been laughing at the tea room, but my dessert was no laughing matter.  My Vanille Speculoos Crêpe Cone was a warm crêpe wrapped like a cone, filled with vanilla ice cream, some kind of nuts, caramel sauce, whipped cream, and topped with two ginger cookies.  Delicious, and definitely more than the number of calories I need in a day.  My fingers were numb for the metro home, but Tuesday was a good, busy day.

Wednesday was almost as exciting, even though I was a bit sleepy from my late return...my Paris Civilization and Culture class was meeting (for our weekly excursion) at the Pantheon.  If you are not familiar with the Pantheon, a quick overview is that is was begun as a cathedral, which is why it follows the traditional cross-shaped construction, but before being finished it was designated for another cause: it houses the remains of great French men.  Yes, the sign outside states it is for great French "men and women" but only two women are in the Pantheon, primarily due to their husbands.  I personally doubt whether they would have put Marie Curie in on her own merits had her husband not been her partner in accomplishment.  Still, it is a big, beautiful building, and I need to go back another day when I don't forget my camera.

One last odd phenomenon while we were waiting outside the Pantheon for class: we witnessed the purple people.  Some sort of amateur film was being shot in front of the Pantheon, and though George Clooney wasn't there, they did have a lot of equipment and a lot of people asking us to get out of the way.  Jerks.  But all of their "actors" had a purple accessory: scarf, hat, take-out box, etc.  It was odd, but if you ever see a French film with purple people, look and see if you can see me in the background.  I was having a bad hairday.