one heck of a long (but awesome) weekend

My weekend commenced right after my last (and only) class on friday, which let out at 4pm. I walked outside of my building and who was walking down the street?? None other than Ruth Allanbrook. She's studying abroad right now (which most of you know) in Amsterdam and decided to spend a weekend in Paris. I think me, some of my friends and some of ruth's friends did a spectacular job at entertaining her. She seemed to have a wonderful time, as did I. Hmm...what did we do...Well on friday we walked around a bit around the 2nd arrondissement (where my classes are) and then I showed her where I lived. After that we went to the Bastille and there was some hip-hop/techno part for the earth going on. We sat on the steps of the Librarie d l'Opera and people watched and caught up. Talking made us hungry, so we got dinner at a semi cheap indian restaurant. After that we met up with some people near the Moulin Rouge so that we could go into the Museum of Erotica. It was, well, very interesting and informative. It wasn't raunchy. It was a legitimate museum with a lot of historical works of art. They also had a huge section on prostitution in France and how it played into the culture. It cost us 5 euros, but we all thought it was worth it. Then after that ruth and I went to the Eiffel Tower because it lights up at night (and sparkles every hour on the 10!) and just looks really cool. We talked more and did some more people watching, and then we went our separate ways to go to bed.
I have to mention that throughout all of this I was sick and bogged down with a stupid sinus infection (so I probably looked and talked like I was cracked out half of the time) and Ruth was really tired from her 6am (or was is 8am....it was early) flight that morning. So for us to do so much that day really took a lot of energy.
Ok. Saturday. What did we do saturday?? Oh yeah, we met up at the metro stop nearest to my house and decided to go to the Catacombs. Ruth's friend that she hasn't seen since high school is also in Paris for the semester, so she contacted her and we met with her before the catacombs. Holy moly the catacombs are awesome. Plus they were only 3,50 euros, so they were also pretty cheap. These things are way underground and the only way to get there was to take a long, narrow and spiraling staircase. I'm getting dizzy just thinking about it. It was a relief to finally make it to the bottom. We walked for a while, following all of the others through caverns and tunnels until we finally made it to the ossuaries. There are signs everywhere before even descending into the catacombs that people will nervous disorders, respiratory disorders and small children may be disturbed when entering the ossuaries. They should've also warned people with claustrophobia may also be disturbed down there. Anyway, past the warnings it was amazing and very creepy. The ossuaries, in case anyone doesn't know are where they keep the bones of dug up graves. They weren't just thrown down there, though. They were neatly placed in large dug-out holes, usually in different formations. One was a heart, there were crosses made of leg bones, arm bones and skulls and there were a number of other designs. There were also a lot of monuments to different people who may have been buried down there. Pictures would be a key element to this entry, but ruth has them and will post them, so I'll just steal them from her so that you all can see just how awesome this was. If anyone is ever in Paris or London or Rome, I would suggest that you check out the catacombs. I may revisit them on halloween..... Ok, after that we hung out at ruth's friend Amanda'a house, with her friend Chloe. It was really nice to meet other people that weren't from my program. It also turned out that we are all vegetarians so we're going to try to orchestrate vegetarian dinner parties every once in a while. For that night we were planning on going to a bar so that we could watch a baseball game (Yankees and Red Sox). They searched online earlier for places that might be airing something other than Rugby (right now is the Rugby World Cup) and supposedly this bar in the 16th arrondissement was going to air the game. We get there and guess what....only rugby. We were all a little disappointed, but it is the world cup, so I'm sure more people in Paris want to watch rugby and not baseball. So we just sat outside at another bar and talked for a while before departing.
Sunday we slept in!!! We had done a lot in the past two days, plus I wasn't feeling too well so sleep was needed. Around 1-ish we decided that we should check out the Louvre. I got a card from my program (laminated with my picture and all official looking) saying that I was an Art History student staying in paris for a year. Yeah, that's not at all true, but they just did that so that we could get in to the museums for free. The Louvre is obviously a museum so I was able to get in for free after a long ordeal with a woman at a computer who was just trying to give me my pass. We probably waited for about 20 minutes before we were able to go in. But we made it. The Louvre is amazing. It's huge and beautiful with just about every artist that's ever lived. They had ancient egyptian art, greek art, italian and french painters and sculpters and not to mention the Mona Lisa (or La Jaconde in French..). She really does seem to be looking at you from ANY angle. Ruth and I looked at her from many different angles and she followed us any which way we went. It was one of the most celebrated works of art in the museum. We spent quite a while in there and still didn't get to see everything. I know I'll be going back several times so that I can have a look at everything now that I have a free pass. After that we just walked around that area of town because she had to get on the metro soon to get to her flight. We got some cheap Paninis at a street vendor, and then got a crepe with Nutella (the best thing since peanut butter). We also took a look inside Notre Dame since it is right across the street from the Louvre. it's really beautiful inside. They were having a mass though, so we didn't look around for long. Now I'm here and ruth is getting ready to get on her flight back to Amsterdam. That's all. Pictures soon (from Ruth).