La Défénse, Père Lachaise, and the first days of class

So the last two days have been the first days of all my classes except the one at L'institut Catholique (which my host parents informed me last night is just called "Cato", pronounced Cat-OH.). I have the same professor for both my political science classes (which are consecutive on M/W), and he is really cool. He told us we can be informal with him, use his first name and the "tu" form when speaking to him. The only catch is that he told me and the 2 other students who are taking both of his classes that the first few days of both classes are going to be the same thing. Ah well. At least he's cool. The first class I have with him is a comparison of French and American governments, and the second is about France's role in the EU. Both are really relevant in current affairs because of the American election and because France is president of the EU until December.
Today I had my French language class and my art history class. In French, we had the test we were supposed to have the last day of language review, it wasn't that bad. Art history looks like it's going to be really interesting! We have several museum visits on weeknights throughout the semester, which is going to make those nights a bit hectic because of my class at Cato, but I should be able to make it to all of them. And I get to do an oral presentation with Becky so that should be fun!
So I finished class at 2 both days, and Megan finished early on Monday, so afterwards we went home and went for a walk in a neighborhood that's practically in our backyard--La Défénse, the only place in Paris where there are skyscrapers. We took the metro two stops to get there, and exited into a huge station that looked a lot like Port Authority...except for the fact that there is a GIANT mall/cinema called Les Quatres Temps (the 4 seasons) attached to it. But the atmosphere in general was much more "NewYorkais," as the French call it. Then we went out and saw all the insanely tall skyscrapers, La Grande Arche, and a really modern church called Notre Dame de la Pentecôte. It was weird. There was a statue of the Virgin Mary that looked more like Buddha and all the lecterns were shaped like fire. It was kinda creepy actually. We walked around the quartier a little, then went to the mall, of course. But it was cool how much that part of Paris looked like New York--except there are no cars driving through. It's all by foot. It's also still very quiet. There's a garden with trees and sculptures in it in the middle, and it might be nice to study in if it doesn't get too cold. And just in case you forgot you were in Paris, you can look up and see L'Arc de Triomphe.
Today after class I went for a walk in what my guidebook says is the world's most-visited cemetery, Père Lachaise. At first I spent my time wincing because cobblestones and heeled boots are not the best mix (no matter how comfortable the boots feel at first), as well as gaping at how big the cemetery was. Then I realized it wasn't as big as I thought and successfully located the graves of Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, Oscar Wilde, and Edith Piaf. I was too tired to try to find any others, so maybe next time...Moliere is there too, as well as a ton of other famous French people. I almost missed Oscar Wilde's grave except that I turned around to see why there were all these lipstick marks on somebody's headstone. Apparently at some point it became traditional to kiss Oscar Wilde's grave, as well as write messages on it, and now there are all these signs up about not defacing his grave. You can barely read the letters that say Oscar Wilde. But it was still pretty cool. I saw Edith Piaf last, and I had been listening to a CD of hers the entire time I was in the cemetery so that was pretty sweet. After that I listened to my aching feet and went home, where I am now trying to get organized. Luckily I have no homework so far!
Here's an article I thought was interesting: how the US is becoming the US of France
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1843168,00.html?cnn=yes
the latest Facebook album with the results of those explorations:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2052984&l=ee7c5&id=15805278