Ne fumez que deux fois par jour...

So I'm going to explain this bag to the left. In a few minutes.

First, my day.

This morning, I met my employer at La Bibliotheque Nationale de France at around 1030. She was so cute, walking extremely fast (and I know fast walking) with a rolling suitcase in her right hand and a purse on her left shoulder. Amazing how fast she was walking. I couldn't find the library at first and asked a man at a kiosk but he started joking with me and I was just so perplexed I couldn't respond coherently. Finally he realized my lacking sense of humor and simply told me how to get where I needed to go.

Well I didn't see much except a dusty old reading room with a bunch of desks and offices. I ended up taking photographs of breadstamps from various angles for about two hours. Thankfully, only two hours. Je croyais que je serais la pendant cinq heures. I thought I was going to be there for five hours. I would have died of boredom and hunger.

Afterwards, we met her friends for lunch and coffee. Really cute: the French always always always go from lunch straight to coffee. At the cantine at the Sorbonne, the cafeteria exit actually leads into a cafe with couches and really soft mod furniture. So I had a small pasta salad for lunch because she was paying and I wasn't hungry and listened to them speak for a couple of hours. At first, I enjoyed exercising my comprehension and trying to follow them. Afterwards, I started falling asleep. That was not so polite. Thankfully, at around 3pm, we left and Beatrice (my employer) showed me around the Sorbonne University. It's beautiful. Looks just like any another famous old building in France: ancient, ornate, historical, epic.

Third french pastry of the week on my way back home: petite brioche au chocolat. Super cheap. Super good.

After I got back to the foyer, I realized that I would have to go on the bike tour alone because none of my Princetonian friends wanted to go with me tonight. So I decided to save it for another night. Instead I decided to go out (I'm really restless in Paris) because a) I was bored and b) the heat is insupportable au foyer. Meaning, the heat is unbearable. Couldn't just stay in my room with the sun beating down at 6pm. Ridiculous.

Took the metro (I'm an expert now) to Place D'Italie where there's a gigantic centre commercial. Walked around for a bit looking at all the stores, searching for a handbag. I've wanted a nice oversized tote for a while now and all of France is en solde right now, meaning sales are mandatory. So everything is discounted. That is how I went into a quasi-Macy's and found their handbag section. Spent about an hour trying to decide how much a good handbag is worth. Finally stared at the one above for about twenty minutes. Talked to a saleswoman about how I couldn't afford it, and she told me simply to smoke fewer packs in a day or eat less to make up the money. I think I will actually have to do just that. It was a good dime. (Mommy--don't ask how much. Please love me anyway.) But I needed that bag. Designer. Parisian. Beautiful. Convertible. I'm in love. It's currently locked in my closet.

So I got back with my purchase and had dinner with my roommate. Ran into another Princetonian and hung out with her talking for a good while and going over plans we had already made for tomorrow. We had a really nice time getting to know each other and talking about our experiences so far in Paris. She's leaving Monday so I unfortunately won't have her to hang out with for the next few weeks.

But tomorrow should be fun. We're doing Notre Dame/Ste. Chappelle/Conciergerie/Le Pantheon, all of which are right by where we live. Should be awesome. Also buying crepes and eating them on the quais by the Seine. Sounds magical already. Can't wait to see L'Allemagne redeem themselves tomorrow night!

Woot.

I'm also sweating bullets right now. There's no place here with good wifi and breathable climate. Death.