These French are crazy!

It's enrolment day here at Sorbonne - for my departments at least. I've got a couple of hours until my next enrolment session (the painful one) so I'm investing my time exploring Sorbonne, asking questions and trying to learn all the things that I think I'll want to know. Right now that means learning how to use a French keyboard.

I've been trying to find out where in the university I can print, knowing there's gotta be somewhere to print things unless every teacher in the university wants hand-written assignments. I found myself in a little computer room on the fifth floor with printer facilities (which I _think_ use my Moneo card. Don't hold me to that, though). I'm now practising my typing on a crazy French keyboard which has more than halved my typing speed. The full stop needs the shift key, the 'a' is where the 'q' should be (and the 'q' is where the 'a' should be) and the bloody 'm' is over by the Enter key so I keep going to type 'my' and it comes out as ',y'!

It appears I can also buy Sorbonne branded clothing (to match my Monash t-shirts) at the student life office, so I think I'll go and knock on their door next. Anything to stop me either being bored or worrying about enrolments and timetables. I've taken to prefacing everything with 'I'm an international exchange student, I have no idea what's going on!'

The next evening...

I'm going to keep this as short as I can since I would really like to go to bed early for once. 

So...now that I have my own qwerty keyboard again (as opposed to the 'azerty' used above) let's see how fast I can type...

It was excitement central here on Rue Rigaud yesterday! When I left for uni there was a cop car parked on the footpath with two coppers staring at a couple of burnt-out cars. Guess someone let the firebug loose last night. As I headed out again yesterday evening there was a massive tow-truck hauling away an equally massive regular truck which I guess had broken down on our street. And all in one day!

Yesterday's enrolment wasn't too painful. If you discount the fact that I was there for five hours (not all of which time was spent on enrolments) then the actual process wasn't too bad. The worst part was that the whole thing was a pen-and-paper version of the Monash enrolment process - and I'm told that, like at Monash, the French students at Sorbonne get to enrol online too! But for the exchange kids, oh no, pen and paper is good enough.  Lucky I'm good at Tetris when it came to creating my timetable! 

Anyway, I now have a mostly problem-free timetable for semester one (three hours on Wed arvo, three hours on Thurs arvo and two hours on Fri morning - definitely a lot of backpacking in my future!) and a semi-problematic timetable for second semester which, thankfully, I have a whole semester to try and fix.

I headed home just before 4, grabbing a light lunch on the way - yes, it was that kind of day. A trip to the boulangerie (which has become like a daily routine, in true French fashion) for a baguette and I went home for an hour, eating some dinner and catching up on emails and the like. Then I repacked my bag and headed out again - I had plans

When most 19-year-olds say they have plans on a Friday night, you'd probably assume a party, or drinks with friends. Both were on the agenda for my friends yesterday, and I was hoping to drop in on their pre-drinks at Lisanne's house if I had time. No, this particular 19-year-old had plans to spend her Friday evening at - Le Louvre.

The Louvre is free on Wednesday evenings to EU nationals under 26, and on Fridays evenings to anyone under 26, these being the nights the museum is open until 9.45pm. Of course, as I confirmed yesterday, the museum is free all year round to people under 26 who live in the EU economic area, regardless of nationality. A flash of my passport and I have access to one of the biggest, coolest museums in the world at any time. I'm down with that.

I invaded the Ancient Egyptian section with incredible single-mindedness and speed, since my prior trips to the museum barely afforded me enough time to glance at the things I really wanted to see. Two hours and I had seen all the architecture, mummies, tombs, jewellery, samples of writing, animals, amulets, statues and so much more on the ground floor of the Louvre. My feet/foot/foot-and-stump were/was beginning to hurt by now, so I was thinking of heading back to the Caroussel for a hot chocolate, a little souvenir shopping and a trip home (now being a little too tired for a trip to the 5th to see Lisanne and the others). I glanced at the map to check the way out and my jaw nearly hit the floor.

I'd been looking at the Egyptian section on the ground floor.

The other half of the collection was on the first floor.

Two hours and I'd only seen half of one collection!

Covering the whole Louvre is going to take me quite a while longer. Needless to say, I think I see a Friday night tradition developing here. That is, when I'm not on a plane or train to Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Holland, or...pretty much anywhere in Europe, really.

Since the tunnel between Metro station Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre and the Louvre Caroussel closes at 8.30pm, so I headed out the exit up to rue Rivoli. Unable to find the street level entrance to Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre Metro, I went for a casual stroll alongside the river Seine (as you do, on crutches, on a Friday night) until I reached Pont Neuf Metro station in Saint-Germain-des-Pres and headed home for the night.

Today? Well, I went clothes shopping, since I need some winter warmies for Paris, and wrote a lot. A lot. And it is now DEFINITELY bedtime. Fingers crossed for a post from Lille tomorrow night!

Yes, it's the pyramids

The Old Royal Palace from inside the Louvre pyramid

Sphinx, anyone?

Casually sketching Egyptian statues at the Louvre on a Friday night...

Steles covered in hieroglyphs

Osiris, Horus and some pharoah

Cool, huh?

A super-creepy rendering of Osiris (who was actually a pretty nice guy)

Totally want these shabtis for my afterlife!

Does this mummy look ready to wake up at any moment to anyone else?

Hey, Mum - does this look like the one I made in high school?

Bes, the dwarf god, god of mothers and childbirth.  No, I'm serious

A wall full of steles

(L-R:) An ibis sarcophagus and an ibis mummy

Inside the Louvre after dark

The Louvre/Palais Royal at night

Smurf lollies!

My new white fedora, the aptly-named Blanche

Mum, show this to Dad and Kiri - I couldn't resist!