Trying to summarize a week is difficult, but here goes.

Ok, Sunday was homework and laundry day. Nothing interesting to report there, except that laundry is a ridiculous 4 Euros per load. No fun.
Monday I had class, and afterwards Caroline and I went to the Luxembourg gardens and wandered around the Latin Quarter. We saw the Panthéon, but decided that the entrance fee wasn't worth it. Instead, we headed a bit further down the street to discover a beautiful church called Saint Etienne du Mont. That night, three of us tried an actual dinner at a brasserie down the street.
I had escargots for the first time. They are neither fantastic nor disgusting, just kind of meh. Yes, meh. That is the word to describe escargot. The buttery sauce that they're in is really the only tasteful thing, the snails themselves are just kind of earthy. I also had duck. It was amazing.
Tuesday we had a midterm, and that evening, I went to dinner with Caroline, Averill, and Vidal. The four of us had to give a presentation on Machiavelli on Wednesday during class, so we briefly discussed our plan of action, and commenced the eating of French food and drinking of French wine without further ado.
Wednesday I went shopping at the Galleries Lafayette, though I didn't buy anything. I wanted to explore a bit more, but since there was much homework to be done, I headed home.
Thursday is when the fun started. After a very long day of classes, I met my conversation group, and we went to a bar/café where I proceeded to depress everyone by describing my summer job. After we got home around 9, we left soon after at 10:30/11 to go to Club Mix, which lets foreign students in for free before midnight on Thursdays. After waiting in line for nearly an hour, and suffering the irritating French tradition of cutting in line (grrr), we finally got in just past midnight and had to pay the 15 Euro entrance fee, but it was really worth it. It was so much fun! However, we didn't get home until 3, and we all had to get up and meet the bus for our trip to the Loire Valley at 6:30 am.
So, I went to bed at 3:30, after debating staying up and not sleeping at all, because past experience and foresight told me I would not be woken up my alarm at 5:30. Of course, that's what happened. I got a phone call at 6:45 am from a friend saying, "Where the hell are you? We're about to leave!" I threw on some pants and shoes, grabbed a sweatshirt and my purse, and proceeded to haul ass out the door and sprint down the street. Luckily, I did manage to make it to the bus, unlike another guy in our group, who had to find a train to take him to meet up with us later in the day. We went to Amboise, which is in a cute town, but other than the fact that Leonardo da Vinci is buried there, is somewhat unimpressive. Also, it was rather cold and foggy, so there wasn't much of a view from the towers.
Then, we drove to Blois and had a lovely lunch at l'Orangerie before getting a tour of the château itself. Blois is much more interesting, though we did have a very rude tour guide who we all wanted to throw things at. There are four different time periods of architecture in each of the four wings surrounding the courtyard, and the fourth was left unfinished, so you can still see the sketches on the limestone in preparation for the carvings. It's pretty amazing. Then that night, I went out with some friends to an American bar Averill had been raving about. It was an interesting group of people there, French, American, British, Australian, etc, and very congenial. There was even a White Sox beer pong table. Caroline and I managed to leave before the metro closed, so I got a good night's sleep.
Today I went to the Musée d'Orsay, which I really do think is better than the Louvre, and certainly less overwhelming. Plus, we got in free with our Art History student IDs. They worked like magic. Tonight is the rugby match between England and France, so we're going to watch it on a big screen by the Eiffel Tour. I'm really excited about it, and even though I'm in Paris, I'm going to be cheering for England!