Updates!

A few things have happened since I last wrote...
Yesterday (Monday), we had art/fashion/costume history in the morning with Agnes (pronounced ayn-YESS), which was the first time we had met her. Also there was Ana, the fashion student who we had been told was coming and was in Paris. This was the first any of us had seen of her. I talked with her a bit, and she seems cool, and has lived a few different places.
Agnes first talked to us about the 3 big (in terms of reputation/size) museums in Paris: Le Louvre (ancient times to mid-1800s), Musee d'Orsay (for Impressionism/Post-Impressionism), and Le Centre Georges Pompidou (for modern art, Harlan's favorite). After talking about them and pointing specific works in the Louvre that we'd be seeing, we left for our trip there by bus. (I love that corner of Paris: there's the Louvre, the Palais Royale, and the Comedie Francaise all right there!) We walked around for about 2 hours, where we saw various Greek and Roman statues, Winged Athena, The Wedding Feast at Cana, a few paintings by Delacroix, and, of course, the Mona Lisa (La Jaconde). Then we all took the bus back to PAA together.
After lunch, we had French class avec (with) Nolwenn. It was determined that Ana would be in the level with me. (She had previously lived in Paris for about 4-6 months so she has a pretty good handle on the language. She also has a great accent, I'm jealous.) We discussed likes and dislikes, so it was a lot of j'adore/j'aime and je n'aime pas/je deteste.
After class, Liz, Andrea, Ashley and I went in search of FNAC, which is basically the French Best Buy (but it looks a lot cooler), since we each had to get something electronic. (For me, it was an ethernet cord, since apparently my computer can't get the internet in our apartment without it. Why? Je ne sais pas. The one I had been using has been a little too short, so that it stretched at about a 60-degree angle from the dresser to the desk where my computer sits. I just wanted a longer one.) We took the Metro to the Chatelet Les Halles stop, realized we would've been closer 2 stops ago, got back on the Metro and got off at the Odeon station at Rue St. Michel. From that station, we walked to the right awhile and paused to look at a map. We then saw that it was to left (and a lot closer) to the metro stop from which we had just emerged. Sure enough, it was a block or 2 away.
We got to FNAC and each split up to find her own thing. I find the ethernet cables easily, but didn't buy one because Liz had said she had one she wasn't using and I could borrow it if it fit. I then walked around the store while waiting for everyone else. (Interesting thing: the logo is supposed to be a magnifying glass, but the majority of the way I saw it represented showed it without the stem. That lead to it looking much more like a Muppet eye/googly eye from elementary school art class.) Ashley and I were walking around and we noticed a guy with a dog looking at a table of iMacs. This wouldn't be so unusual (aside from the fact that the dog, while not a guide dog, was inside the store), but the little dog was standing on the display table with all the computers. Dogs here seem to be so well behaved. (We've actually discussed this before.)
We decided to walk back to our apartments (stopping at this Target-esque superstore Monoprix, where they had everything) and hung out at Ashley and Liz's for awhile. We then made our way to my and Andrea's apartment, where I tried Liz's ethernet cable. It worked! Then the 3 of them decided to go back to the other apartment, but I decided to stay back (to FINALLY fully unpack as well as take care of some NCSU paperwork). I finally caught up with them later (after typing the wrong code into their apartment, Skpying Ashley, and getting the correct one), and hung out for about 2 hours. Andrea and Liz were going crazy over the ol'Nutella (at one point, they were dipping Frosted Flakes into it; I had some and it was definitely more Nutella than Flake), which led to the great phrase of the night, "Don't flake in my Nutella!"
Today (Tuesday), we had our first textile design class. I was waiting with the other girls before our teacher arrived, and Peter came up and gave us our schedules for the rest of the semester. So I have Sewing II Monday afternoon, Sewing II and Art History III Monday afternoon; Textiles II Tuesday morning, Stylism II and French (2 or 3? More on that later) in the afternoon; Haute Couture Wednesday morning and nothing that afternoon! (since that's when French I is), Flat Pattern and Draping II Thursday morning, and Costume Research II that afternoon, and then Stylism II Friday morning and Hats in the afternoon. It looks to be good!
Another thing Peter talked about was using us as dressers for some of the upcoming Paris fashion shows. He specifically mentioned Elie Saab, and guess what? That one's on my birthday!!! Seriously, how cool would that be helping out with a couture fashion show on my 22nd birthday?!?!
Our teacher is Anne, an older British lady who worked as a designer for Kenzo for 15-20 years. She told that we needed to start doing research for her class that is due next Tuesday. Our assignment will be to design an evening dress for either a premiere at Cannes film festival (I'm a fan of that one), a night at the disco (regular dance club), or a party at the French embassy in your home country. She told us to pick a time period up until about the 60s (I've already chosen the 1930s for all the film-goddess elegance), and to make 3 sketches of each style so that we can pick the best one to make. The design part is due in March, with the final garment due in May. (The way things work here is that each class connects with the others, so that you essentially work on one whole project within all your classes. So I'll be designing the dress in one class and making the pattern in another, etc.) She told us to go to a good library near here, so I think there might be a class trip there Saturday!
She then told us about embroidery. Our first project in the textile design class is embroidering a bra. Today we were introduced to a lot of embroidery stitches and told to practice them. I'm not sure how I'll feel about this, since I was getting impatient just doing the samples. (Oh, and this relates as well because the design motif for the future embroidered bra will be the same/very similar to the motif/design period we choose for our evening wear dress.) She's pretty cool, she was talking with us the whole time while we worked. (Learned: Anne told us that the reason the French seem to be rude to Americans when they speak English is just because they get so flustered and fearful when speaking in English to one. No idea if it's true, but I thought it was worth noting. It sounded like a similar premise to the whole theory on men intimidated by/outright fearing women for their sexuality.)
We broke an hour for lunch, and then reconvened. I was told my running stitch was good, backstitch...not so much. Currently, I am not such a fan of the embroidery.
3 p.m. rolled around and it was time for French class with Nolwenn. We went over verbs in the present tense, as well as how and when to use them. She also passed out our workbooks for when we break up into our respective levels next week. Now, I had previously been told that I would be put in the 3rd level. Today, I was given a book for the 2nd level. I don't know whether to bring this up or not. (I knew I had been making a lot of elementary grammar mistakes, and I have been frustrated with myself for doing so. On the other hand, if I'm in the 2nd level, I'll be with Liz and that would be fun. Either way, I won't have class Wednesday afternoon!)
Oh, she also said something funny today. Apparently, the only way to learn French well is to learn it "on the pillow" (her words, not mine), as in get a French boyfriend. (Funny thing, before I came over here, everyone was predicting I'd date a French guy.) Well, I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it...
After class, the 4 of us left to go back to Monoprix. Ashley and I were confused since we thought it didn't sell much food, but evidently Andrea and Liz had discovered that the bottommost floor was a huge supermarket! (That was a relief, since I didn't want to live a whole 4 months on bread and cheese alone.) I got a lot of food I had needed (I think I got some better milk), and then we walked back.
And that's been it so far!