Friday, March 5, was a very full day! We attended classes at St. Do in the morning – some of us attending English class, some French literature, some working with younger students in their classrooms, and a few of us even attended P.E. class. While there are several similarities between St. Do and NA, it has been so interesting to sit in on classes and view the differences between our daily life back home at NA and the educational system here. The most striking difference is how many students are in each class here; it is typical for there to be 30-35 students in one classroom. Also, each week, the students take an exam for an entire afternoon, to provide them with practice leading up to taking the Bac. Can you imagine taking a 2-4 hour exam every week??

After lunch in the cantine here at St. Do, our leaders of the day, Elise and Taylor, navigated the metro to the famous shopping center Galeries Lafayette. We had about two hours to wander around the area, shop, and eat lunch. Many of us enjoyed going in Printemps, another more affordable shopping center, nearby, and other stores on the street that are unavailable to us at home.

We spent the afternoon in the gorgeous Palais Garnier, or the ornate Opera House designed by amateur Charles Garnier in the 1870s. The ceiling in the auditorium was

Marc Chagall ceiling at Opera Garnier

repainted by Marc Chagall in the 1960s and remains controversial since the aesthetic is very different than the rest of the building. The beautiful main hall reminded several of us of a mini Hall of Mirrors at Versailles – absolutely breathtaking! We learned that you can rent the space for $200,000 for a wedding; some of the girls were dreaming of doing this! We stopped by the Phantom of the Opera’s box and were reminded of the story that was inspired by events at Palais Garnier.

The Phantom of the Opera’s box.

After reconvening with our hosts back at St. Do, we all went our separate ways to spend the weekend exploring the city with our host families. It has been an incredible jam-packed week thus far, and it is hard to believe that our time here is almost half way over.