Halloween in Paris

It's been a busy few days!
On Wednesday and Thursday I had four midterms, three of which went really well! The good part was that I got to leave Art History super early when I finished my midterm, and go wander around Paris for hours! I started at Ste-Germain-l'Auxerrois, the church where Eva Longoria and Tony Parker got married. It's really old, right across from the Louvre, and absolutely gorgeous. I was going to head straight to the Louvre but then I saw a sign saying Ste-Eustache was in walking distance, which I hadn't known, so I went there too. It's gigantic and gorgeous, about 500 years old. Louis XIV received his first communion there, Mozart's mother's funeral was held there, and Richelieu, Madame Pompadour, and Moliere were baptized there. Next to Ste-Eustache was Les Halles (or under it, I suppose). It used to be a big aboveground covered market, and now it's a huuuuge underground mall. I walked around in it a little bit, and got ice cream and took in just how huge it is. It's pretty huge, just for clarification. Next up, I went to the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, which my host dad has been recommending for the last two months. It's basically all about interior design and furniture and art from the Middle Ages til now. It was pretty cool to see. Finally, since I'd wanted all along to spend a rainy afternoon in the Louvre, I made visiting the Code of Hammurabi my last stop of the afternoon.

Friday was Halloween, obviously, and Megan, Maria, Hayley, and I went to celebrate! We went to Disneyland Paris, which was having a special Halloween celebration, and basically had the time of our lives running around, acting like little kids, going on rides, eating junk food, and taking pictures with pumpkins and Disney characters. It was so much fun!!!! When we got back to Paris, we tried to go get rush tickets to Edward Scissorhands: the ballet (for real, yes) but it had already started, so we got a Pariscope (a little magazine with all the shows and movies in the city that week) and checked out the movies. We found a showing of the Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D!!! (and in French, which was just amusing) We finished off our Halloween with an amazing movie...after some guy tried to pickpocket me on the metro, but he was unsuccessful.

Today Mom and Dad and Andrew and Alexa arrived! I went to pick them up from the airport, and then we checked in at their hotel and ate lunch. Since it was raining, we decided to go to the Louvre instead of the Eiffel Tower. Poor Alexa was so tired it was hard to keep her focusing on the stuff in the museum, they were all jet-lagged and hadn't slept at all on the plane. So eventually we put her out of her misery and went to dinner and then I sent them to their hotel to go to bed. Then I met up with Megan and Maria and we succeeded in getting rush tickets to Edward Scissorhands this time! It was sooo good. The ballet was choreographed by the creators of Swan Lake, and we paid 15 euro for 3rd-row seats! Gotta love student rush.

Anyway, I'll upload the Disneyland pics soon, so check them out!