Well, I learned the hard way to always have an umbrella with me. Even if it is sunny and clear when I leave my apartment, and I plan on returning within the hour.

On Saturday, I had walked to McDonald’s, to check my email, and check on my Dodgers (mark my words, they will win the World Series, mostly because I am not home, that’s my luck…) It was sunny, and nice. I even decided to just put on flip flops, stick my computer in my bag, and go. Hahahaha. I spent about half an hour there, and I go to leave, and it is raining. Not too bad, I figured I could probably make it home fast enough to not worry about my bag getting too wet to soak through to my computer. And then all of the sudden, WHOOSH, it just started pouring. I took cover under the overhang of a building, but that didn’t help the splash up from the ground. It poured super hard for about 15 minutes, and once it started letting up, I decided to head for my apartment. The rain got really hard again once I made it to a little side courtyard near my apartment. I was able to take a shortcut through there, and was pretty sheltered. The rain had stopped by the time I got back to my apartment. But my jeans were soaked. Luckily, the rain never got past the first layer of my bag and my computer was safe.

But lesson learned. My umbrella is always with me now.

Saturday night, Sylvana and I went to a party that was thrown by a girl who used to be a teaching assistant, and was supposed to be a mixer for this years assistants. It was kind of lame. But I did meet a few people who seemed cool, including a girl who SCUBA dives. She was talking about some of the great diving around here, so I gave her my number and email address. Hopefully something will come of it, that would be cool.

This Sunday was the first Sunday of the month, so that meant free museum day. We decided that we were going to go to the Musee D’Orsay. Wow. The Museum was a converted train station, and housed mostly French art from the 1800’s. You know what that means, Impressionism! I was in heaven. I cannot even describe how incredible these paintings are in person. I was standing in front of a Van Gogh, not looking at it in a textbook. It gave me a completely deeper appreciation for the paintings, and I am in love even more. And there were, of course, Monet’s. And paintings from Degas, Renoir, Pissario, Boudin, Manet, Cezanne, and that is just the more famous. The painting “Whistler’s Mother” is normally housed in the Musee D’Orsay, but it was on loan to an exhibition in Tokyo.

And I discovered a new artist (well, new to me) who just absolutely astounded me. Eugène Carrière. His style is amazing. His portraits look ghostly, I just fell in love with his style. They featured his work with Rodin sculptures, apparently the two artists were friends and worked together.

One of the more amazing things about being a year long tourist here, is I can spend all day in a museum, and not worry about the other things I am missing out on. I spent all day at the Musee D’Orsay, and could easily spend another. I got to see most of the works on display there, but I would not mind seeing them again.

Monday, I went and actually enrolled for my classes. Which was quite an interesting experience. I showed up to the office listed on my paper, told them which classes I wanted, and they wrote my name on a piece of paper. I guess that means I am enrolled. I am a little leery, because it was easy.

So my classes all start next week, and I start my set of meetings for my teaching job tomorrow. It will be all new experiences, but I am really looking forward to them. With my umbrella in my hand, of course.

P.S. I think Flickr hates me. There are way more pictures from the Musee D’Orsay. Just wait. I have to get a chance to sit and let them all upload. I thought they did, but apparently I was wrong.