Soldes

Last night, a group of students arrived at the cité universitaire and stayed up all night talking and laughing in the echo-prone halls. I feel like such a grinch, but 2:00am is not the time to have loud conversations in the hallway about Monster's University. Even after I put earplugs in, I couldn't block out their voices. Eventually someone down the hall came out and told them to quiet down, which they did for the most part. Unfortunately, the girl in the room next to me started having a conversation with her parents back in the US over video chat shortly after it had quieted down in the halls. I could hear every word of her conversation. It was ridiculous. I didn't think the conversation would go on that long, but they just kept talking and talking. I could even clearly hear her parents on the other end. Anyway, after over an hour of this, I crawled out of bed and asked her to quiet down a little, which she did.

This meant that I got barely any sleep last night, so I woke up in a grumpy mood. I went in to work and started my rheology measurements and then didn't have much else to do except read and write. After staring at the computer screen for two hours having read several articles without retaining any information from them, I decided to take the afternoon off. 

Pretty dress

I came home and took a nap then went back to the Luxembourg Garden area in Paris. It is very beautiful over there. Also, July is the month of "soldes" in France, which means all of the stores are having big sales. Most of the items are at least 50% off. This is the first things the girls in my lab told me when I arrived in Paris. "Oh, you will be here in July? This is such a good month. It is the month of the soldes!" I bought a cute flowy dress and a belt and then spent some time in the garden.

The garden was more enjoyable today than the last time I went. I think it's because it was a little drizzly, so there weren't too many people hanging around. Also, I could walk around with my eyes open since the sun was not shining with its full brilliance.

I also stopped by this cute bookstore that had a beautiful selection of old French books and illustrated children's books. You would have loved it mom. I plan to go back there soon. I bought a children's book that has a poem to help learn the numbers 0 - 10. The illustrations are very beautiful and I hope to understand the words someday too! I've got to start somewhere.

Beautiful flowers and monuments at the Jardin du Luxembourg

The children's book I bought on numbers