It's been quite a long time since I've gotten to write in here.

The Jayhawks lost the National Championship to Syracuse. The whole program, even one of our grad instructors, came to watch the game. Okay, I guess Libby didn't come. But she was going to!! It was painful, but they had a great season and made it so far.

So I'm two weeks behind now? Jeeze.

What have I seen in the past few weeks? The Orsay Museum again, several times. I'm doing my final art history project over Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, and the paintings I'm using are in the Orsay. What I love is how people will stop and take a second look at a painting when someone is doing work in front of it.

The rest of the two weeks has been kinda of a blur. We went to Saint Denis, the burial place of almost all the French monarchy. It was the first Gothic cathedral in all of France. We saw the graves of the infamous--Marie Antoinette, Pepin the Short, Louis XIV.

Last Wenesday we went to the Pompidou Center and saw their art gallery. Art from Matisse to Pollock on the 5th floor and more modern stuff on the 4th floor. I saw a lot of stuff that I really liked. I didn't really have time to look around as much as I wanted to, but hopefully I'll get to go back before we leave.

Just now I went to Palm Sunday mass at Norte Dame. It was very similar to Palm Sunday in the US--except the palms we had were more like shurbs taken off with a weed whacker. And you paid for them. But it was just as long :-) but luckily I had a translation of the service. I tried to follow with the French, but I know so few words, and mostly because of Spanish.

Shoot, again I need to head home. Internet places get sketchy at night, as I'm sure you can imagine. One week left of classes and then it's the biggest vacation of my life!! WOOHOO!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited?

P.S. I'm going to see Neil Young, on an acoustic solo tour, in Munich. So so so so thrilled. Thank you Mom and Dad.

 
So first, I would like to congratualte the KU basketball team for making it to the National Championship. What an awesome game against Marquette. If I hadn't seen them play against Mizzou, I would have thought it was a first round game. We were in a Canadian bar at 1 AM this Saturday. Tonight it will be a 3 AM.

Back to Brittany. . .

Mont Saint Michel was amazing. Easily one of the most impressive places I've visited on this trip. It is an abbey and church built on top of a perfectly triangular island. We visited on a misty day, and you could just imagine visiting as a pilgrim during the Middle Ages. It was cold and beautfiul. So impressive. The monks spent most of their time illuminating manuscripts, and that was the only room with a fireplace.

In the afternoon, we took a tour of the city of Saint Malo, walking along the ramparts (the old city walls). Originally a privateering town (pirates for the French Government), the town lives off of shipping and seafood. Brittany is also one of the 6 Celtic lands of Europe, like Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Galacia. So there was Celtic knotwork everywhere, and I guess some people still speak Breton, the old Celtic language. Very cool place to visit for a weekend. Local specialties are apple, apple cider, and calvados--a hard alcohol made from apples, much like congac is made from wine. They also have mussels and oysters everywhere. I figured if I was going to be brave and try mussels, where better than a seaside town? They were actually really good. It was stange to eat any form of meat, but still tasty. I did feel guilty pulling them out of their little shells. . .

Sunday we went to see the Baeyux tapestry. It's a 211 meters long embroidered piece of linen and tells the story of the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Impressive.

This week was full of work and site visits. The Metro workers had a strike on Thursday and we had to have class cancelled!

Okay, I have to run to lecture, and tonight we have the ballet, and then the KU game.
ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!!