June 30

We started early and went late today, but we had a nice break in the middle. We met at 7am to go to Musee de la mode et du costume au Palais Galliera to usher at the Alexis Mabille show. The models walked down a runway and back halfway, then around a semi-circle and into the other side of the backstage area. That sounds confusing; I wish I could draw a picture. People were seated lining the entire runway. There were people from every big publication invited - Vogue, Elle, Womens Wear Daily, etc. I was excited to see Anna Wintour and Scott Schuman on the list, but neither had confirmed that they were coming. Sophia Coppola confirmed, but she didn't come. Several of the girls stood at the front table, looking up the names. They would write the person's seat number on the invitation then pass them off to one of us that showed them to their seat. Since we are in France, I spoke to everyone that I seated in French. One lady said "thank you" and then corrected herself, saying "merci" then she said, "parlez-vous anglais?" (do you speak English?). I may be wrong, but I think she mistook me for a French person. Score. The Alexis Mabille show was wonderful. His theme was bows, which were everywhere. The girls wore heels with bows all over them. They were subtle in some looks, like on the cuff on a man's shirt, which was just barely peeking out of his jacket. My favorite look was a black long sheath dress with white bows in a row down the back. The designer was really nice to us, and so was his mom. She was so cute, telling us to promote his line. Everyone was very appreciative that we came to help (for free).

Our next show was at 6:30pm, Georges Hobeika fall-winter 2008/2009. I thought menswear was cool, but womenswear has definitely blown me away today. This show was the most amazing; I can't imagine anything else topping it. The collection was all evening gowns, with lots of crystals and sparkle. The same song was playing the whole time and it was getting really repetitive, then all of a sudden there was a loud noise and the music stopped. All the lights went out, but the camera flashes lit up the room enough to see dressers pulling out a train and a model in a huge white dress. When the lights came back on, it was a wedding dress with a train and a super long and wide veil. The model walked to "My Love" by Justin Timberlake, but a slower and different version. The dress was v in the front, off the shoulder a little, white tulle with crystals concentrated at the top but all over. I don't even know how to describe the other dresses; they were fabulous, very detailed.

Our last show of the day at 8:30pm was Eymeric Francois, Atlantes, fall-winter 2008/2009. It was also evening gowns and also ended with a wedding dress. Some of the dresses looked like they were made from vertical rows of zippers, unzipped a few inches at the top and to just about the knee from the bottom. Most of the dresses were white with brushes of light pink, purple, and green. The wedding dress in this show was strapless, with floral lace. The model wore a huge white belted trench with a big collar before showing the dress.

I can't believe that we have had a chance to go to so many awesome shows!

June 29

Today was packed with four fashion shows that we were invited to - two that we all went to and two that we chose from. Our first show was Antonio Miro at 10am. It was in a hotel, and the crowd was small. Their collection was inspired by Latin America. One of my favorite looks was a hot pink shirt, light pink jacket, and gray and white striped trousers. The pants were all cropped and rolled at the bottom. The colors in this show were much different than the others we've seen because they were bright and there was lots of color.

I skipped the Masatomo show at 3pm in favor of the Juun J show at 4pm. I really enjoyed this show. It was in the same parking garage where the show I dressed for Veronique was, but this time the set was plain, without the pretty bushes and flowers. The models wore pretty conventional looking suits, jackets, cardigans, and trenches, but the looks were undone. A jacket would have one arm in and the other sleeve hanging, with the front buttoned. Or a cardigan would be completely off the arms and just hanging from the waistband of the pants. Some of the outfits were made that way and some were just styled to be that way. There were cropped pants again in this show.

At 8pm, we went to Songzio show called Blackout, which was in a gallery. The models mostly just wore black (a few white) shorts and vests, or sleeveless jackets, with a couple of printed t-shirts mixed in. The gallery was really small and some of the photographers were actually getting in the way of the models. The set-up was terrible, but the clothes were okay.

Today concludes the menswear shows, so it's on to womenswear tomorrow! We are going at 8am to usher for the Yves Saint Laurent show, so hopefully that will be exciting.

June 28

Long day...

We started with class this morning, working with Sharon. We dyed silk gauze scarves. I used the easiest technique - scrunching. The other girls did bottle wrapping and fold and clamp techniques.

Our first show today was Kazuyuki Kumagai Attachment menswear, which we were just watching. Six of us missed the bus - our class crossed the street when the crosswalk was changing and we couldn't cross. When it turned green, we ran across the street to the bus stop right as it pulled away. Then we had to figure out the buses, which was especially difficult because there is a strike going on. The show was supposed to start at 12 (they're always late), and we got there at about 12:30 or 12:45. They let us in and the ushers seated us (we usually stand behind the seats), and the show started immediately. This collection was the most wearable of those we've seen so far. Most of the models wore suits or suit separates, and all of the trousers were cropped. They were made out of unusual fabric, with tiny triangle print in beiges, or textures - some that kind of looked like boucle. The colors were pretty muted. I can see how the Attachment collection could translate into something wearable, much more than the other shows we've seen.

Two of the menswear shows we've seen were in parking garages, and one was in a room with mirrors all over the wall. Our second show today, Damir Doma, had a beautiful location. It was next to the Romanian embassy, kind of in a courtyard. There was grass and trees, with gravel walkways down each side and down the middle. The building at one end of the courtyard looked like it was built out of white marble, very regal. We thought we were all going to dress models, but after waiting around for about 2 hours (standard), they asked for 12 experienced dressers. Since only 8 of us dressed the other day, she sent all of us and 4 others. Luckily, we only had to dress the models ONE time - far less rush. The clothing, however, was interesting to dress. The man who gave us directions at first told us to put on sweaters as pants and t-shirts as head wraps. So we may have had a rack that held 2 t-shirts, a cardigan, a sweater, a vest, a string, and a coat, but it was one outfit. We had to put the shirts as pants on with the back of the shirt in their front and tie around their waists to hold them up. The neck of the t-shirts went on the back of their heads, up to around their faces. We had to tie their boots so that the laces criss-crossed, went around the ankle, and then tied on the outside of the leg with a one-loop bow. So confusing. I wonder if people in the audience could tell what they were wearing. There were white, gray, and black outfits - each outfit was monochromatic. Another odd thing about this show is that there was one woman in the show. She told her dresser that she was a friend of the designer, and our theory is that the designers wanted to show that their menswear is easily adaptable for women. One of the two models I dressed is from London, and he was very nice.

June 27

Today we went to help out with feeding homeless at an American cathedral. We got there really late and had to leave early for a fashion show, so we probably weren't too big of a help. These people make and serve lunch to 64 homeless people every Friday. They always make a 3 course meal - entree; salad, bread, and cheese course; and dessert and coffee. The homeless people came in a few at a time, and once they were all seated, one of the men said a blessing. Then, we served plates, one table at a time, for each course and picked up their plates afterward. It was cool to see what these churches do every week.

We went straight to another menswear show (Kimori Morishita) from feeding the homeless. We were looking pretty rough, but we got to go in and watch the show. The collection was definitely aviation-inspired and maybe also inspired by the time period of the 20's, which is also kind of tied in with the aviation theme. A few of the models wore caps that looked like pilots would have worn then, and some wore sunglasses with an elastic strap, kind of like pilots' goggles. One of my favorite pieces was a pair of seersucker shorts, blue and white striped, that laced up the sides. With all the shorts, the models wore socks/tights and lace up boots or shoes. A couple of the looks were almost normal suits, but mostly the clothes were very unique.

After the fashion show, we took the metro to a mall just outside the city. It was a regular mall inside, with outlets outside. We found some good deals on Longchamp bags. They were one of the first things I've seen that are actually cheaper here than at home.

June 26

Morning class today was an introduction to Shibori dyeing of silk and nuno felting with Sharon Kilfoyle. She showed us lots of samples of her work and started showing us how to dye and felt. Her work can be found at sharonkilfoyle.com.

In the afternoon, we went to a showing of a summer 2009 collection with both menswear and womenswear. The clothes were made from organic materials and were meant to last a long time so they don't go to waste. The showing was in a room with stacks of clothes on the floor that represented 1% of the clothes that Belgium sends to Africa every day.

After the showing, we went to another show where 8 of us dressed models and the rest of the class watched the show. It was Veronique menswear. Kanye West came to the show, but I was backstage so I didn't see him. I helped dress a model who had to wear 3 different looks. The changes went so much quicker than I thought - and we even had to lace up shoes each time. Our model is from Holland, and he said he used to have a roommate from Charlotte, NC. Dressing was fun but really stressful! After the show, the rest of the girls came backstage and we took pictures with the designer and models.

June 25

Today started with a long morning of classes. We had drawing with James for 2 hours then embroidery with Murielle for 2 hours. James taught us how to draw figures for our collections. Embroidery class was kind of like pleating yesterday - we felt like sweatshop workers. We started sewing a sampler of 26 different stitches. I got about 4 done... in 2 hours. After we finish the samplers, we will come up with our own designs and embroider whatever we choose.

We had a lunch break and then headed across town to see Yves Saint Laurent Fondation. We saw an exhibit of his caftans, inspired by Morocco, where YSL bought several homes around a garden in Marrakech. Then we went down into the vaults which hold every garment that YSL sent out on the runway, organized chronologically. We saw several of the originals that are representative of YSL, like the tuxedo for women (Le Smoking suit), African-inspired dresses, the pop art dress with lips on the top, and a safari jacket. I really wish we could have seen more of the clothes, but it was still a great opportunity to see YSL's originals that he sent down the runway.

Lindsay and I cooked again in our apartment, but we're getting a little gourmet each time. We made salad and a low country boil for supper. Dr. Ellis told us about this grocery called Ed that is near our apartment, so we went there, and it is much cheaper and bigger than the others. Too bad we didn't realize that you have to weigh and label your own produce, so the checkout lady made us go back and do it. Thank goodness this nice woman took me back to the produce part of the store and showed me how to do it. Then once I came back with all of our labeled produce, we paid and then were left with a pile of groceries. Some (most) French stores don't give out bags. I was already really embarrassed, so we just started picking everything up and putting it in our purses. This was not a few things, this was a load of groceries - we were even stocking up on things like salt and pepper since we don't have much of anything in our apartment. I kept thinking there is no way all this is going in our bags. I ended up walking down the street with a package of shrimp, a loaf of bread, and a bag of cheese sticks in hand. Overall, it was an experience.

June 24

We flew back to Paris from Nice on Monday night and began class again Tuesday. Madame Picco, who worked in the couture house of Madame Gres, taught our class. She didn't know any English so Dr. Ellis, some girls in the class, and eventually Agnes, a teacher from PAA, translated. Mme. Picco talked about the history of Mme Gres and her couture house. Then, Mme Picco taught us how to make tiny pleats using a technique that Mme Gres invented. Mme Picco is the last of the workers still alive from that house. She has passed on the pleating technique to one younger woman who now works for John Paul Gaultier.

In the later afternoon, we went to the Quai Branly Museum to see an exhibit of the Paracas. We learned about mummies made by Peruvians and looked at the textiles they used to wrap the mummies. It was like a boring elementary school field trip.

Lindsay and I went to the grocery store twice yesterday, and we cooked in our apartment. Our kitchen is so tiny, but it has everything we need. I think we might be saving money eating this way, if we eat everything we bought instead of going out.

June 23

Even though I probably walked 10 miles, this was the best day yet. Lindsay and I spent the day laying out on the beach in Nice. I sunned some and swam in the Mediterranean. It was wonderful. The reason we walked around so much is that we went back and forth between the beach and our hotel an extra time. We left the hotel and walked way on down to the beach area. We ate lunch and bought mats to lay on. Then, we realized that we hadn't checked out of the hotel. It was just a plastic key card, so we figured it was fine that we didn't return the key. But we got worried that we were supposed to do something to check out, and we have no phones, so we walked all the way back to check. Of course, they told us it was fine and we didn't need to do anything. We just got a little extra walking in.

June 21/22 continued

Alright, a little commentary on the night train here. First of all, we jump on this train and walk down the hallway single-file because that's the only way you could do it. I went into one of our rooms on this car that was supposed to be only our group. There are four beds in each room, which is probably six feet cubed, if that. Strange thing is, there is a random Italian woman, aged about 65, sitting on one of the top beds. Lindsay, Avera, and I just came on in the room anyway. We ended up without enough beds for everyone, and we were already very uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping in the same room with a stranger. Peter, our leader from the Paris American Academy, spoke to the woman in Italian. She was very annoyed that he asked her to switch to another room. The conductor came and also talked to her, and finally she moved. Then Dr. Ellis, our trip leader from Meredith, came in our room. We were really glad to have only people we knew in our room. As for the sleeping, I'm not sure how much I really slept. The bed was tiny and I was on the top. Anyone who saw my lofted dorm bed with baby rail last year would know that this was not a good situation for me. We each had a tiny pillow and sheet - folded in half - to sleep with. I tried to sleep as much as I could, and I ended up feeling alright when I got off the train before 6am in Genova Brignole. Most people slept on the bus to Monaco, but that's not really my thing, so I read and enjoyed the view. It was a little frustrating because we kept going through tunnels. I would read a line in my book, then it was dark for 10 seconds, then I read a paragraph, dark, a line, dark, etc.

I had read that some of the design elements in the palace at Monaco were copying Versailles. The palace was pretty, but definitely not as grand or ornate as I'm expecting Versailles to be. There was a lot of old furniture, according to our handheld guide tape thing, but I had trouble believing that it was as old as it told us. Everything looked new and in excellent condition, like fake antiques. There were a lot of portraits, too. One of them was particularly memorable. It was a painting of Princess Grace, Prince Rainier III (?), Prince Albert II, Princess Caroline, and Princess Stephanie. It was painted in 1981, and they looked extremely out of place next to the paintings from the 1800's, if even that recent.

We took a short bus ride from the palace to Montecarlo, where we spent the rest of the afternoon. We didn't do much there except eat at the only restaurant in sight, which was very expensive, and sit in the park. I really don't know how the other girls don't go crazy at times like that. I sat and read my book and was content, but without something to read I would be so bored.

Once the group met up again, we took a train to Nice and checked into our hotel. Lindsay and I shared a room that was much newer, cleaner, nicer, etc. than everywhere else we've stayed on this trip. One weird thing about it was that the shower had a window into the bedroom. There were mini blinds, though, which were up when we got there. Our room also had a particularly hard couch. I was just tired enough to fall asleep on it. Only after taking a shower - it had been 2 days since my last shower due to the night train experience.

June 22

Lindsay and I are in a strange internet cafe in Nice right now. I just found out that Amanda won Miss NC!!! So exciting!

Last night we took a night train from Rome to Genova Brignole. From there, we rode on a private bus to a train station and took the train closer to the palace in Monaco. From that train station, we took yet another, this time public, bus to a stop near the palace. Finally, we got to tour the palace of Monaco, where Prince Albert II lives. The views throughout the ride and the views around the palace were amazing. We spent the rest of the day hanging out (i.e. sitting in a park) in Montecarlo. Our final travel of the day was a train to Nice, where we will spend the night - in a hotel room with lime green walls. All of this needs much more explanation as we have interesting stories, but this French keyboard is killing me right now so I`ll have to explain later.

June 21

Today is our free day in Rome. So far, we have just walked around the city and seen the shopping sights. We went into several designer boutiques - Gucci, Valentino, Prada, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, etc. near the Piazza di Spagna, where the Spanish steps are located. I met up with a couple from Greenville, NC who said they graduated from East Carolina around the time my parents did, and they also have a daughter who graduated in 2007, the same year as my brother. They just came up to Avera and me and asked if we were from the U.S. and where. When I said North Carolina, the woman said she thought we were from NC because of my Saint Mary's ring. I told her it was actually a Carolina ring but one of the girls with us, Canaday, went to Saint Mary's. I took a picture of the couple on the Spanish steps. It was so cool to run into people from home all the way here in Rome.

We checked out of our hotel this morning at 10am and we have to meet back there at 10:45pm tonight to take a night train to Genova. From Genova, we will take a bus to Monaco to see Princess Grace's palace, and then we will head to Nice. I just found out this morning about the 3 hour (!) bus ride, and I've already been regretting the fact that I didn't bring any books with me from France. Fortunately, I saw a book stand at the Republica today and Canaday found me an English book! I couldn't be too selective because there was just the one Canaday found and then several George Orwell books. I'll be reading The Other Woman's Shoes by Adele Parks for the next couple of days.

June 20

The first excursion planned for this morning was a trip to Fendi. Our time at Fendi is one of my favorite things we have done so far, up there with the Valentino exhibit. Once again, we had an adorable guide. She told us about some of Fendi's history and their famous "baguette," and she took us to the showrooms of beautiful clothes, shoes, and bags. They even have baby Fendi bottles, strollers, and teddy bears. We got to see the posh dressing room that they give celebrities who come in. She said that the last person to use the room was Amy Winehouse. Another man did a demonstration of several ways to wear a Fendi fur stole. Then we went upstairs to the fur workroom and saw every step of the fur making process. We saw the ORIGINAL sketch by Karl Lagerfeld, the canvas draped pattern, the paper pattern marked up with how each individual fur would go, and the final product. About 7 people were working upstairs. One man was stretching furs by brushing normal, or Roman, water on the leather side and nailing the fur to a table to dry overnight. Two women were sewing furs, being careful not to sew over any of the hair, but only on the leater. Another man was using a razor to cut the leather side of the fur, pulling the hair through to make designs. Fendi's newest fur technique is putting 24k gold on fur such as fox and mink. On the wall, there was a bulletin board of the next collection that they had covered up with paper for security. Before we left Fendi, we went up to the top of the building for a great view of Rome.

We spent most of the afternoon at the Vatican. We had to wear earpieces and walkie talkie things to listen to our tour guide. We saw the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's church, and the rest of the Vatican museum. I took it all in, but I really did not understand or get too into what our tour guide was telling us.

Tonight we ate dinner at McDonald's. This may seem lame since we are in Rome, but a) we have to visit American businesses here eventually and write about them for homework, and b) it was way better than most Roman food to me. I have heard good things about the food in Europe, but I feel like it is just a bunch of bread, pizza, and pasta, most of which isn't as good as what I have at home. I miss Chickfila, turkey sandwiches with whole wheat bread, chocolate, etc. I haven't been missing sweet tea too much, but I try to get rid of the thought any time it occurs to me.

people watching

Anyone who knows my mom and brother knows that they are major people-watchers. Somehow, I did not develop the people-watching trait. Anyone who is on this trip with me knows that Lindsay and I are always together. Lindsay is totally a people-watcher, too. In this case, we find that it's working out well for us. We compare notes at the end of every day, and between the two of us, we can learn and see twice as much as either of us could alone. See, I am the nerd who reads the guidebook ahead of time and knows to look for the chip on Moses' knee from when Michelangelo became frustrated and threw his chisel, asking the statue, "Why don't you speak?" Lindsay notices the tiny two-foot-tall woman or the man with no arms or the fact that Ms. Bostic isn't wearing her wedding ring today or the guards at the Church of St. Peter in Chains. That is something I forgot about yesterday! We went to the Church of St. Peter in Chains. At the front of the church, there are chains that are all attached so they never end, to represent the chains that Peter was in two (?) times in his life. This church is also really special because it has the statue of Moses by Michelangelo. Moses is surrounded by four other statues, I don't know who they are, though. Michelangelo first carved Moses's face looking upwards to represent him receiving the 10 Commandments from God, then, he carved his face looking downwards to represent him bringing them down to the people. There was supposed to be light radiating from Moses's face and head, but due to a mistranslation from Greek to Aramaic, the statue Moses has two horns. Michelangelo looked at corpses to learn the human anatomy, and it shows in Moses's realistic looking muscles.

June 19

Today was much more relaxed than the other days, as we only had ONE planned excursion. We went to outlets about an hour outside Rome, by bus. The crazy part, however, is that we had to leave the hotel at 8:30 am to go to outlets. I don't even go to school that early at home. I took a really good picture of Lindsay on the bus pointing to her clock to highlight the ridiculousness. That is a whole other funny issue on its own. I brought a watch, but I forgot to bring it with me to Rome. I also forgot my sunglasses, ugh. Lindsay didn't bring a watch at all, BUT, she brought her tiny battery powered alarm clock, which she carries in her purse. We are constantly checking the "pocket watch".

Before shopping, we met with Ms. Petrucci, the retail manager of McArthurGlen designer outlets in Rome. She taught us a few things about outlets and how they offer brand protection for designers because they can regulate how their excess products and materials are being sold - the price, who sells them, and where. I feel like outlet malls are pretty generic looking, but McArthurGlen uses architecture that fits in with each particular area.

Last night I was working on my notebook and I was answering a question about the Italians' attitude about the environment. After Ms. Petrucci's talk, Lindsay asked her about recycling in Italy. She said they don't have anywhere to put the bins and the trucks find it difficult to get down the narrow streets. Also, she thinks that Italians would not want to take the time to sort out recycling. I had written in my notebook that Italians have small cars or motorcycles, which seems like they are trying to be environmentally conscious, but their streets are dirty because they litter everywhere, which makes it seem like they don't care about the environment. Ms. Petrucci also shed some light on this because she said that people have to pay a hefty tax on SUVs here. This is so opposite of my own attitudes, and probably most of America's. I try to recycle as much as I can, but I really don't care very much about my energy use. I turn out lights and only run a full washer and dryer, but as Ms. Petrucci pointed out, we all have air conditioning and refrigerators and all kinds of heavy energy-drawing appliances in the U.S. In Italy, they rarely have air conditioning and only use heat enough to be comfortable with sweaters on, whereas we can wear shorts and be barefoot inside in the winter. Other than costing money, the implications of using a lot of energy are not so salient to me. If I keep consuming and producing trash, however, I can see how that adds up and understand that over time, we will run out of space to put all the mess.

June 18

This morning we started very early, meeting at 640 am at a metro station to go to the airport. We flew from Paris to Rome and began sightseeing by bus right away. After taking our luggage to our hotel, up to the fifth floor by stairs, we went on a walking tour of Rome. We saw so many things, such amazing things, but it really was the walk that never ended. The most famous things we toured were the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain. The Colosseum was so much bigger and more complete than I expected. We could walk all around in the bottom level of it and go up steps to see it from the midlevel inside. I especially liked seeing the cages where the were kept. Our tour guide, Roberto, was very adorable. I have been really impressed with all of the various guides we have had on the trip. They are so knowledgeable and passionate about what they are teaching us. After the Colosseum, we continued to walk. We saw a lot of things from afar, such as the temple of Venus, and we saw the Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps up close. The Trevi Fountain is built onto the back of a building, and I am pretty sure Roberto said it was a natural spring. How someone carved stone aroud a natural spring and made the water come up in at least 4 or 5 different places, I will never understand. I was way too tired to walk up the Spanish steps, and we were away from Roberto at that point so I did not learn all about their significance. Peter led us back to the hotel on the metro. Metros in Europe are so convenient, I wish we had them at home.

June 17

This morning we had to be at PAA at 9am for a presentation on embroidery trends. I have noticed over the last few months that stores like Forever 21 (according to our teacher, H&M, Zara, etc.) have been very closely copying designer clothing. This particular teacher, who works for Anne Valerie Hash, showed us how embroidery techniques and hand painting can be a kind of safeguard for designers against copying. These techniques are time-consuming and result in expensive garments, but for designers, it is worth it to not be copied. We watched a video of Anne Valerie Hash's fall/winter 2009 ready-to-wear collection and photos of embroidered designs by Alexander McQueen, Dior, Chanel, Galliano, Hermes, Cavalli, and Chloe.

At 10am, we got to be the very first group to see the new Valentino exhibit in part of the Louvre. The clothes were AMAZING and our tour guide was wonderful (kind of like Franc from Father of the Bride movies). He told us that Barbie is the Valentino woman. We learned that traditional wedding dresses in Europe are red, but Valentino made a (the first?) black wedding dress for a woman who did not want to celebrate her marriage. Valentino's three types of designs/women are the fleur, the panther (v!), and the madonna. We got to see Julia Robert's black dress from her Oscar win, with the signature V in the front. We also saw some of Valentino's designs worn by Audrey Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Sophia Loren, and Jackie Kennedy.

After lunch, we took a bus to Sacre Coeur, Sacred Heart. We walked way up stairs to get there, and we could see all of Paris. It's a dome-shaped church that is not the same as a cathedral - I can't remember what it's called. I think it is much prettier than Notre Dame, which I haven't seen from the inside yet. In the same area, we visited several fabric stores and took notes on them. Lindsay and I are trying to get our travel journal assignments done sooner rather than later.

Today is Lindsay's birthday so we will probably try to celebrate some tonight before we have to wake up at the crack of dawn to fly to Rome tomorrow. Last night we met some students from U. of Illinois who were very nice, so we'll try to have a little more fun with our new tips from our bud James.

June 16

Today we got to sleep in to recover from our jet lag. We met at 1pm and took the city bus to the Louvre. The most famous things we saw there were Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo. We also saw some paintings by Italian and French artists. After the Louvre, we came back to Paris American Academy. We learned French table settings and manners from Agnes, and James got us started on design project we'll be doing. The owner of the academy, Peter, took us all out to dinner at La Vin Sobre. Lindsay and I are playing on the computers in the academy's basement now. Her birthday is tomorrow, so we're trying to figure out somewhere to go to celebrate tonight.

Paris

I moved into my apartment in Paris, France today. My travel journals can be found at:
http://meredith.edu/traveljournals/france/kathryn-stell.htm