Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

Wednesday was class with Muriel, where we worked on our evening dresses. In the morning, Muriel showed me how to pin down the pieces to ensure a consistent grainline. There was some confusion since she told me to pin them with the grainline straight, and Anne had previously instructed me to cut my pieces on the bias. Muriel told me that since my pieces already had 45-degree-angle curves, I didn't need to turn them sideways. So I got too much fabric (I had originally gotten 5 meters, thinking I would need it all), but I figure that I can use some of it for my bag for Susan's class. It took me the entire afternoon to get all 10 of my pieces for the back laid out and cut out with my fabric.
I stayed after to work on some of technical samples for Anne's class. Before Muriel left, I asked her when I should reasonably expect to hear back from companies. She replied, "In about a week or never". So I was a bit down about that for the rest of the afternoon.
That night was Redza's birthday, to which Nisa had invited Sharon and I. We walked to an Italian restaurant on Saint Germain for dinner. I had salmon pasta and profiteroles for dessert. We had a great time, all talking and joking around. After I got back that night, I applied for 10 more jobs on FashionJob.fr, so hopefully something will work out.
Thursday was a public holiday, so no school for us! I slept in a bit, and decided to visit La Defense, which is the area right outside of Paris with a lot of business buildings. On one of the metro stops, a guy who smelled really bad got on, and so I got off at the next stop and got on the next one. (I know, it was juvenile, but some other people-older than me-did the same thing.) I got on the next metro and took it all the way (without incident) to La Defense. The station let out right under La Grande Arche, so I had a great view of the underside of it. I then saw that there were capsule elevators going up to the top of the Arche, so I quickly bought a ticket and went up! It was really exciting, since the elevator was made all of glass (except for the floor) and we were afforded a great view. (I kept thinking about one of my friends who's afraid of heights, and how much he would have hated it.) Once we were on top of the Arche, I went and took pictures of the view, attempting a panoramic shot (as much as I could, seeing as we were only allowed on one side). I got a clear, straight-shot view of L'Arc de Triomphe, and took some pictures specifically of that. I also spent some time in the gift shop, getting 10 postcards for Grandma of places I had been. After coming back down, I wandered around La Defense, basically being a photography geek and got some shots that I really liked.
I eventually tires of La Defense as a photography subject, and decided to go to Parc de la Villette. (I'd wanted to go there for awhile, to see a Claes Oldenburg sculpture I had seen in a book that looked really interesting.) It was really modern, and was near the Cite des Sciences. In the parc itself, there was a lot of green space, dotted with red, angular sculptures. I succeeded in finding the Oldenburg sculpture, which consisted of a wheel, bicycle seat and one pedal sticking out of the ground, as if it had been tipped over and submerged into the ground.
(When I was uploading my pictures to my computer that night, I was really surprised to see that I had taken close to 200 pictures-191, to be exact, just that day! Go me.)
After that, I was tired, and went back to my apartment to rest. I had originally planned to go to the Musee d'Orsay (Thursday nights are free for students), but it wasn't open due to it being a national holiday. I decided to take a walk down there to see how long it took. I made it there in about 40 minutes. I was going to walk further and go to the Hotel des Invalides, but decided it was too far since I didn't want to be walking back in the dark. I stopped for a croque-madame (ham-and-cheese sandwich with an egg on top) for dinner at Cafe Sufflot on my way back.
Friday was Stylism with Jen. She asked to see our work and I was first. She approved of my revised sandals (completing my shoes category), and picked one of my clutches for me to make. (Incidentally, it happened to be a drawing that I had doodled during class last Friday when I was feeling particularly uninspired.) She then showed me how to make a pattern for it, and that took some time. Jen checked it for me when I was finished, and had me redo it since the measurements were a bit off. So I did that again, and she approved it the second time.
Since we didn't have Jean-Pierre for Hats that afternoon (and wouldn't for the rest of school), I decided to get started on my evening bag for Susan. Tenzin, Po-Lan and Tu were in there when I came in after lunch, and Tu and I talked about getting internships and learning French for a bit while I cut out some pattern pieces. I cut out pieces for the center panels and the side flares, which came to 8 pieces. (The bag will be made of 14 pieces, and these will be the most difficult, so I wanted to get them done first.) I traced in the lines for the center panels in chalk, and debated doing so for the side panels before deciding against it.
I finished at about 3:15 pm, dropped my stuff in my room and took the metro up to Montmartre. I first went to Dreyfus where I got a half-meter of green jersey to go with my bag. (It'll be a layer which I'll quilt through.) After that was done, I decided to go around exploring for a bit! I first walked down to the Moulin Rouge and took some pictures. Then I discovered something really cool. In the movie "Amelie" (which is one of my favorites), the titular character works at Cafe des Deux Moulins (Two Windmills Cafe). I happened to find it completely by accident! (I saw it, and was like, "That cafe sounds familiar...", and then it came to me.) So if anyone's interested, it's on Rue Lepic, about a block north from the Moulin Rouge.
I took Rue Lepic nearly all of its winding entirety. It was uphill a lot of the way, but totally worth it. I turned onto Rue des Saules in hopes of finding the Lapin Agile, famous cabaret from way back. I finally found it, and while I was taking pictures of its outside, I hear some raucous singing going on. (They must have been preparing for the show they put on every night of the week except Monday. I think it'd be really fun to go to.)
I then wandered into Place Tertre, the artist's square. I was surprised to see that there was an open-air cafe set up in the square's center, since that wasn't there the last time I had been there. (But that had been in winter, within the last few weeks at December.) One corner of the square opened up and there was a balcony that gave a great view of the entire city. I was able to pick out the golden dome of Hotel des Invalides, the golden-winged angles of the Opera Garnier, and the dome of the Pantheon. The Tour Montparnasse and Eiffel Tower each towered over everything else.
Then I decided to walk back down. I didn't look at a map beforehand, but reasoned that if I just kept going downhill, I'd eventually be where I wanted. (Sure enough, when I finally pulled out my map to see how much further I had left to go, I was only a street away from my intended destination.)
I needed to go to BHV to get some embroidery thread for the evening bag (just in case I ran out), and ran in there quickly, also picking up Grandma's scarf. I went to Paul a couple doors down and bought a vanilla macaroon to eat. I had originally planned on walking to the Place des Vosges from there, but got a bit confused on the directions and decided to leave that for another day. So I went back and relaxed, and talked to my parents on Skype.
I think that tomorrow I'll go to the Place des Vosges as well as the Hotel des Invalides, and then come back and begin work on the good ol' embroidery. I might apply for more internships as well.