French word of the day: dejeuner - lunch

So Friday we woke up, had some breakfast, and made our way to the Orangerie museum.  It's a small museum built around 8 large works that Monet donated to the French government.

Monet specifically asked for the paintings to be displayed in an oval shaped room as well.  So there are two rooms, each with 4 large paintings by Monet.  On the other level, there are a bunch more paintings, but all the ones that I liked were on loan (they had photos of what was supposed to be there).  Afterwards, we met up with Pelham (Sara's highschool friend) and Laure (Pelham's friend).  We ended up going to an italian restaurant in Paris.  It was supposed to be great.  It was decent.  I think I'm a little spoiled since I've been living in Italy for the last 3 months.

We did a little bit of shopping and looking around on the Rue de Rivoli.  It's one of the main streets for large affordable shops (unlike the champs elysees).  But, it was a little rainy, and all the stores were absolutely packed.  When we got back to the apartment, I took a nap.  Then when I woke up it was time for dinner.  So that was nice.

We decided to go to a french restaurant for dinner.  I didn't really know what things were.  I knew that foie gras was goose liver.  But I saw saw foie veaux or something like that which I knew was veal.  And, I've never heard of veal liver.  I decided to take a chance and I ordered it.  It was good.  It wasn't squishy like a liver, but it wasn't really meaty either.  I think I did eat a veal liver.  I guess even baby cows have large livers.  It was good but the more I thought about the liver I was eating, the more and more soft and less "meaty" the dinner became.  Anyway, I had desert and a cafe to end the dinner which was great.  There's nothing like a great espresso at the end of a filling meal.  Anyway, the only seats for this place were outside (at least for people without reservations or people who are obviously american, I'm not sure)  and it was a little chilly.  They had the heaters on, and the plastic tent thingy on the sidewalk but it was still a little chilly.

So then we had to clean up the apartment so we could check out the next day.  I had to leave at 6:30 am to catch my 9am flight.  Sara left a little later, at 7 am (she had to meet with the apt owners to get the deposit back).  I was worried about catching the metro and RER's to the airport, but everything worked out OK.  On the way to the apartment the first time, it took me 1.5 - 2 hours to get from the airport to the apartment.  This time I knew where things were, I didn't have to buy tickets for the metros and RER, I didn't have to wait for checked luggage (Sara is taking one of my bags home for me), and it wasn't quite rush hour yet.  So I made it there in good time and sketched for my field trip class.

Things are getting absolutely crazy here.  I'm excited for studio but have been unable to devote a lot of time to it because of all of the other things I've got going on.  We've got a final on Monday, a final on Wednesday.  We finished up a class last Wednesday.  I've got 2 weeks until Studio is done.  Woof.  Plus I have the MBA paper I should write sometime.  grrr.  18 credit hours while in Italy, plus a random MBA thing is too much.