1 week till spring break!!

I can't believe its already APRIL 1st!!!! It makes me so happy though that spring has finally decided to show up in Paris. I thought Athens had pretty sporadic weather, but Paris is even worse!! One day it is magnifique and the next, it's 38 degrees and raining outside.
This past week was not too eventful for me. However, on Tuesday evening, I attended an amazing concert, with an orchestra who played pieces by Beethoven and Mozart. It was so wonderful despite the awful seats that we had. It amazes me how talented Beethoven was even though he was deaf! On Wednesday, Madame Richer, my homestay mother, planned a little surprise birthday party for LA, and invited all her grandkids over. We all played in the apartment for a while, and then had cake and ice cream, followed by piggy-back rides to the park to play there for a little while. I had so much fun playing with the little children and conversing with them in French and they conversing with me in english. I absolutely love our homestay family as well and I really could not have asked for a better situation.
This past weekend was my roommate, LA's 21st birthday!! So for a celebration, we went with some friends to our favorite little mexican food restaurant and had margaritas!! It was quite fun.
On top of the fact that it was April 1st today, two other things made my day exquisite as well: the beautiful weather, AND going to Giverny!! We went on a group trip first to see where Vincent Van Gogh spent his last year painting before he killed himself-which was a neat, small city in the countryside right outside Paris. Then we went to Giverny and ate a little lunch, hung out in the Monet's amazing gardens, and saw his beautiful pink house. I absolutely LOVE Giverny and the gardens. It might be one of my favorite places on earth. The flowers are so beautiful and the pond-the pond with the lilie pads!!!-is so peaceful and serene. I just wanted to stay there forever!!! I can only imagine how nice it would have been for Monet to live there and be able to paint with such peace and quiet.
So there is only one week left until I adventure into Italy and Switzerland for Spring Break. I'm so excited to finally be exploring Europe on my own a little without a tour guide and without any schedule. I'm pretty pumped!