I'm like a kid in a candy store... oh wait

So apparently your lovely blogger has been taking a page out of the workers' books and gone on strike. It's been sooo long since I posted! Sorry! I'll do my best to recreate what's been going on the last 11 days.

Strikes have really been the name of the game here. Strikes and demonstrations. Last week, particularly, featured a lot of scary-looking pictures of people clashing with the police and setting things on fire. There actually was a demonstration that escalated at the end of my street. My metro station got blocked off because there was some tear gas action. I took a funky way home but it worked out. My internship sent me out to do publicity a couple of days, which is not my favorite thing to do. It's a good exercise for my French, I guess, but asking people if I can put flyers in their establishments is nerve wracking. At one point last Wednesday, I was in the equivalent of city hall, surrounded by three or four native Parisians, doing my best to answer rapid fire questions. It was terrifying and invigorating all at once.

I also went on two mini-class excursions! The first was Wednesday. My internship seminar went to a school and learned all about the educational system in France, which was really interesting. On the way, we ran through the Montmartre cemetery, where we found a famous grave or two...

Thursday, my art history class went on a tour, too! We went to a small museum or two and walked by the academy of beaux-arts, which is still fully functional. It was a beautiful afternoon!

Over the weekend, I went to Belgium! Our plan was very simple-- leave no chocolate shop unexplored. We got up for Bruges at an ungodly hour (we met at 6:30 AM!!), and then arrived there around 4 hours later. I sat next to a French guy on the bus who was fun to talk to, but also seemed to feel very strongly about continuing my education. We listened to a few French songs and then he asked me to recite lyrics that I could understand. He does know more about American music than I do... oh well. It was fun to practice my French with a real Parisian boy! Bruges is a beautiful town, but it rained the entire time and was about 45 degrees, if not colder. Wearing nothing but tennis shoes and thin socks, with a gap between my leggings and my socks, I was completely frozen within 20 minutes. I'll let the pictures for the weekend to the rest of the talking. So fun and so yummy... didn't do that much other than run into and out of chocolate stores though :-)

Essentially what passes for a main street in Bruges...

Merry Christmas in October!

I was so unbelievably cold in that picture.

Inside Notre Dame

Truth.

belgian waffle!

That's a chocolate dragon. Oh wow.

We then got back on the bus and headed to Bruxelles (Brussels)! We walked around for a while at night and it was lovely :-)

Star trek reference!!

So many colors of chocolate.

I was convinced this cookie store was unique and amazing. It's still amazing, but there's one in the exact square in Paris in which the tour bus picked us up and dropped us off.

We heard techno at 9 AM and were a little bit confused... Work out party!!

Nice digs for the royal fam

Peace Palace!

Teehee.

For my Chi O girls. I so wish I could have bought these for you, but they don't last long enough...

He's for some reason a huge deal in Brussels. In French, the name is "Le Pisseur" which is slang for "The Pee-er". He's been around for a long time and was the most crowded tourist attraction we visited.

There he is again! Only a lot bigger and with a waffle and a Belgian flag.

My second waffle. Oh boy was it good :-)

Yes, I took a picture of a sign detailing the history of chocolate.

I think it might be prettier at night.

They had a whole display about different parts of the UN. It was cool!

These skyline pictures were taken from the 10th floor of a parking garage. 

Covered shopping area!

You would have spent 50 or 60 euros worth of chocolate if you were faced with this kind of thing all weekend, too...

Thanks, I think I will have to.

Delirium bar, which we photographed but did not partake in. The menu has literally over 2000 brands of beer.

Gotta get those fries too!!

After all of that, I was pretty much in a food coma for the rest of Sunday. So worth it though!!

I'm going to stop here and publish. This past week, I stayed in Paris and didn't do a whole lot, and then Rachel came this weekend. Look out for more pictures of chocolatey things!