This morning for the first time…

The alarm clock worked! While it has been nice to know what time it is, sadly the alarm has not gone off the last two days. This morning, the final of the conference, it finally went off. But in order to turn it off I had to reset the entire clock. It no longer shows the correct time. Tomorrow I am asking for a wakeup call. In terms of work, things have gotten better. I will send back about half as much stuff as I came with. Yesterday the congress took a break for the afternoon so I had time to go take a nap, visit Notre Dame, a cemetery south of the city, and have a lovely dinner. Still having plenty of time to get some good reading and journal writing in, do my laundry, and take a walk after dinner.







Yesterday I was finally able to enroll in the last course I have to take for my Master’s program. It is strange to think this will be my final class. Even stranger because I already have taken the class – with the same instructor even. Unfortunately that semester was when my boss P quit and I was working 15 hours a week in Sacramento while working 30 hours a week at UCD, and taking three classes. Plus this instructor and I did not get along – hopefully we can overcome that this time. Because I have already taken the course I had to wait until after classes started to enroll with the instructor’s permission. I got the last spot. She did make me panic a little when I emailed her and she indicated she had given the permission number for the last spot to someone else. I would only be able to have it if this student decided not to attend, and none of the other professors would let me into their sections because they were full. Thankfully the professor frightened the other student off by mentioning how difficult her class would be – something I know from experience and I got the spot.

The only remaining element of the program is my thesis. I submitted my proposal almost two weeks ago and still have not heard anything from my committee, not even a “Thanks Kristen, we received your proposal and will get back to you”. I am going to guess they are busy rather than fear that they hate it. Though knowing the three professors I have asked they will tear it apart even if they like it.

My hotel room is located on the 4th floor of the hotel (which in France is actually the 5th floor). Thankfully they have a miniature elevator (so small in fact that I missed it the first day and walked up two flights of stairs with my luggage before they stopped me to point it out). The elevator is quite interesting, it probably has not been examined for safety in years and though it says it holds 3 people you would have a difficult time squeezing two people in. The fourth floor happens to abut someone’s apartment and this someone is a fantastic opera singer. Amazing. The first night I arrived he was singing Broadway melodies and I assumed it was a CD. Then two nights ago he was singing Opera until 2am. I realized at about 1:30 that it was a live performance. Last night he was trying to sing a song where he just couldn’t seem to hit the correct note because he kept singing the same notes and stopping then repeating, over and over again. I'd liken it to a broken record, though not painful.

Today is my last day in Paris! I must say I am quite excited about heading to Atlanta to visit L and B. What will I do to enjoy my final day in Paris? I would like to simply walk around – but after this week I already have some rather nasty blisters. Perhaps I will just go sit in the Park and relax, after I sit here at the conference for a few more hours and do my homework once the participants have all left at 1:00.