Musse de l'Orangerie and the beginning of travels...

Tomorrow morning I will have my first lecture at 8 am (the not so lovely part). After, I will come home, pack, and head to Belgium until Monday. Definitely excited to see Belgium and of course my friends there :) Wanted to do a quick post before I headed out for the weekend...

I've been taking it easy the last few days. I woke up the other morning with a slightly swollen and painful foot, which I think was a symptom of simply too much walking in boots. I stayed off of it as much as possible the last couple of days and am happy to report it is no longer an issue.

Yesterday was another day of attempted/failed usage of French, but I got some necessary errands out of the way. I opened up my French bank account so I can apply for the CAF, a government program that provides ANY student, no matter what nationality, money back on their rent. I recently signed up for rock climbing through my school here, which required me to get a medical clearance yesterday as well. The people at the doctor's office were rather rude about my French, definitely making fun of me, but the appointment was a joke and I got my clearance. I'm hoping my knee can hold up to one day of rock climbing a week :)

I really enjoyed today. Went to the Musse de l'Orangerie with a few friends, which was very interesting. They had a bunch of different artists--Monet, Rousseau, Renoir, Picasso, Sisley, Matisse, Soutine and others. Definitely learning a lot about art :) A few of my favorites...



Monet -- apparently this guy suffered from cataracts and was pretty much blind for the last two years of his work




Sisley




Derain



Soutine -- I'm not a fan of his figures, but the landscapes/buildings were really interesting

I also went to a showing of a French film tonight at my school. Every Wednesday night the BDE (student association) does a free screening of a film. Definitely something I plan to take advantage of--anything to help me develop my French is highly welcome :)

In other news, I have booked flights with a few girls from Berkeley to spend our "winter" break in Spain! The plan is to fly into Barcelona and head home from Madrid with Grenada in between. Can't wait!! Our flight out is February 28--really not too far away! As for this weekends trip, I haven't decided whether I am taking my laptop on the train tomorrow, but, regardless, the Belgium update will probably have to wait until my return on Monday!