Déjà-who?!

Wednesday's walk started out with a nice little walk that took us to Pride and Prejudice land! That was actually the middle of the walk, but since the beginning was a museum where I couldn't take pictures I thought I would just skip it. (I'm not really a huge museum person anyway, so whatever). Oh but I did take this picture with Aslan, he was keeping watch outside the museum for thieves. Obviously, I'm not a thief and so he and I took a buddy-buddy pictures.

Anyway, here's a couple of pictures of the park we went to, it was beautiful! And they had a carousel! And I bought chocolate bread again! (I have it every day, but it's so good every time that I still get excited)  Oh and here is

It looks like Pride and Prejudice, huh? Ah I was dying. Except of course all of these adventures are just happening to me and my friends, not me and a boy. But that's okay, it's better this way because boys are a distraction! I'm obviously way too busy eating crepes to have time for boys.  (right, Dad? :) 

Anyway, speaking of eating crepes, that's what we went and did right after we left this park. Because I'm hungry all the time! yay! That's the only walk we did that day, so yup. Oh but there was this one tree at the park that was perfect to sit in! Sadly it wasn't so perfect to climb. Rachel and I tried really hard, but it didn't work out. Turns out climbing in a dress isn't as easy as you think it would be. (And if you're like me, then you don't think it would be very easy in the first place!)   Oh and here is a random little guy that I thought looked like a Razorback so I had to take a picture with him even if no one with me knew what I was talking about :P  Woo Pig Sooie!!!!

The next day we had a bus trip to Fountainbleu, and it was incredible! Oh and I have a slightly sad story to share.  But by sad I actually mean pathetic and that I fail at Europe.  In the morning my host mom told met hat it was going to be 25 degrees today and so I ran back upstairs and put pants on, with my black boots and grabbed my jacket.  Then we went on the bus trip.  No big deal. We get to the castle around 12:30 pm, and I'm burning up! Ahhhh!!! I forgot that it's Celsius here! I was going to die all day! I felt so stupid lugging around my coat all day :P Anyway, the castle was pretty epic, what with all the history and that jazz, but even cooler was the backyard!  

Here's a picture of the castle..from the backyard! :) 

After wandering around for a bit I found another field.  I've decided taking pictures in random open fields should be my new thing in Europe.  Kind of like eating crepes. I should try to do it every day! But sadly, I never find nearly as many open booths as crepe stands. (though I have found as many open booths as crepe stands with speculoos..)

 I was just kind of really excited to be there.

Although the best part of the day was yet to come. Because as cool as the castle was, I was even more excited to get back to Paris. Because look who was waiting for me there!!!! :) Ahhhh all those days Whitney and I had been counting down last semester and now we were finally in Paris together! It was crazy! And of course I took her to get a crepe :) We only had a short time together, so I had to make sure we had our priorities straight.  Don't worry, obviously we did (as you can see by this crepe picture)

And the picture where we're posing like asians...very necessary. We also took the time to dance in the street together, because that's kind of our thing. The only downside is that it wasn't raining. I guess it's more of a lack-of-a-plus than a downside, but anyway..

We had to say goodbye after about an hour or so, but we did so much. Like...walk around Paris together! and take touristy pictures together! and take more touristy pictures while eating crepes (very necessary), saw a street fight, looked at the Eiffel Tower, and ride the metro together! So that probably covers all the things to do in Paris :)  I'm glad we had that opportunity to be tourists together :)

Le Tour Eiffel!

I'm sure this is the post you've all been waiting for, and honestly I don't know why it took me 2 weeks to make it to the Eiffel Tower, but I finally did! However, that's not until the end of the day, so you will all have to wait to hear about it :)

   So we started our walk after class, as usual. And it was pretty chill. We wandered into a lovely little bookshop, where I could have spent all day, and magically, the books were in English. So that was a pleasant surprise.  I wouldn't mind going back there.  We also found a really delicious pattisserie which had the most tasty pain du chocolat that i've had since coming. Ah man, my mouth is watering now.

We also found a pretty well known shop,  Hermé, where my friend Rachel went crazy and bought a ton of macarons again.  The good news is that right after that shop we found a pretty fountain we could sit and eat at.  And it was such a nice day today!  We've learned to appreciate those because 80% of the time it's raining here

.  Right after that we went into this cool church which was right next to it.

No big deal that this is the church that is in the Da Vinci Code.  

And when I walked out of the church after wandering around for a while, this was my view.

 So ya, that was pretty epic.  After that we decided to hit up this shoe store which supposedly sold them for really cheap, my friend had heard about it.  So while walking to the metro we stumble upon these guys just chilling in the street.  I guess it's normal here to just bring a piano and full drum set out onto the side walk and perform.  The good news is that they were actually really good so I had a great time listening to them while munching on a crepe with speculoos. (I was so happy to find a crepe stand with speculoos, it was my 2nd time in 2 weeks! That's like 20 times not enough) Anyway, eventually we took the metro and got off at the right station, but when we walked outside it was kind of a super sketchy place.  I almost took a picture but decided I shouldn't make myself any more of a target than a group of 6 American girls already was.  So....after a few minutes discussion, we decided it was probably better to just go back on the metro. Sadly I never saw the cheap shoe store, but happily we avoided any Taken situations. So, yah.

 We were going to go to the Luxembourg Gardins and just do homework there but I was distracted by a thrift shop. And then I was distracted again by the prospect of a buffet, so I really didn't do any of the homework I brought (oops)  Bad news though, those darn frenchies don't know what a buffet is! That or they do know what it is, so they called this a buffet to trick americans like me into eating there. darn them.  So here's what happened.  It's set up buffet style, but you end up paying for each individual plate you put on your tray (soooo the opposite of buffet) Plus it wasn't even really that good, so I am never going back there again. But still, I guess it was a good experience because now when the teacher mentions I wont feel the need to go and try it out.  Anyway, after dinner was FHE where we listened to a professor from BYU speak  about the Good Samaritan. Pretty random, but it was fun listening to him, especially after that trip to Chartres.
But the best part of the night was still to come, because after FHE my friends and I decided to go to the Eiffel Tower! Weeeeeehh. I was so excited. Seriously, I have no idea why we waited 2 weeks. But it's okay. All's well that ends well.

 It was around 10:15 when we arrived. Luckily, we were just in time to see it sparkle! (It's sparkling on the right, just normally lit up on the left)  Then the 6 of us, plus Dustin (some guy that Heather had met a month ago and randomly saw at FHE in Paris) all sat under the Eiffel Tower and enjoyed the view for about an hour.  But after a while it was kind of cold and we were all super tired.  I feel lame because by 10 I'm out here, but when you literally walk around all day you get exhausted. I didn't realize I had it so easy sitting in classes back at school! :P But anyway, we made it back home around midnight and I pretty much just got ready and fell into bed.

For Tuesday, all I did was eat a crepe after class, which was delicious. And now I'm home. I need to be studying for a test we have tomorrow...good thing I'm blogging!  Oh and before class Brother Livingstone came and talked to us and told us that the French family home evening group asked us not to come to their FHE anymore.  Apparently we overwhelmed them with our American-ness.  Which I think it's actually really funny that happened, but still sort of sad. The only reason I liked to go was to try and meet people, but now we just have to have FHE with our study abroad group. The funny part was, I think our teacher was trying to make us feel better and he sad something along the lines of "they said they were uninviting you." ...so good at comforting! Anyway, it's not really a big deal, more amusing than anything. Plus ridiculous. I think the French culture is funny. I would have felt super awkward 'uninviting' someone to something.  Anyway, that's all I have for today.  Maybe I should go write my paper (also due tomorrow...so on top of things!)

Nothing stupid happened to me!

I'm really excited that I don't have any embarrassing moments to post in this blog, but I realize it might not be as exciting for you readers. Sorry!
So yesterday was Friday and it was a fairly normal day. Went to class (was on time again!) and then went on a walk with Rachel and Heather.  Took a couple of nice photos.

Does this look like something from Pride & Prejudice to any of the other girls reading this? Because it totally felt like it! It was even raining on me :) Hooray!  I love these beautiful old places with fountains. Can I please live somewhere like this? 

I had to post this because it looks like Hogwarts, and I'm a nerd.

This is called the Obilisk, but I like to call it the basilisk sometimes. Also, side note. Right next to this was where we saw a motorcyclist get hit by a car.  He looked like a little turtle on the ground, trying to get up.  It was sad because I'm fairly sure he broke his shoulder and maybe something else, but obviously I didn't go ask though. It was impressive how quickly the police showed up to the scene. Literally five minutes (if even)

And this is Poseidon's fountain that we threw pennies into and made wishes!

Really, that was it for Friday. I went home early and wrote a paper for class. Yay.  Wow, if it's possible to have a boring day in Paris, I think I might have just done it. Oh well, even the boring days are still full of history and pictures here.

Saturday! Today was good because it started out with us climbing to the top of Notre Dame. Who wouldn't love that? :) 

 This is us waiting in line. We are so excited if you can't tell :)

 A view from the top. So epic. It was so worth waiting the 45 minutes to get up. Sadly, it wasn't free like our friend said it would be. But we think he used his manly charms on the french lady to get in. We don't have any manly charms-->5.50 euros :/ But so worth it!

Nothing too noteworthy happened up here, just sort of checking out the city.

Just looking for Quasimoto up here.  Seriously, because I recently watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame it made this place so much cooler to me. I don't know what it is about Disney movies, but it makes me love the places I'm visiting so much more than I would otherwise. 

I'd make such a good gargoyle, look how scared Rachel is!

After leaving Notre Dame we went and grabbed some lunch at a crepe place because we had an hour till class, and for once everybody else was hungry with me.  The crepes were so good, but I've still only found one crepe place that has speculoos here. It's breaking my heart, but I'm doing my best to endure, don't worryr! I just eat a ton of everything else to console myself.  Don't even worry about the fact that I just eat 24/7.  All my friends think I'm crazy for eating so often, but when you walk all day you have to eat all day, right? 

A statue of Jeanne D'Arc. I love her, she's so cool! I just think her whole story is really amazing.  Someday I want to help a ton of people like she did.  But I'm not hoping for a gold statue of me to be put in Paris. that would be cool though.  

We actually did 2 walks today, since both were short. The first one took us to the opera house. Can you believe it! The opera house from Phantom of the Opera and Anastasia! (We ARE watching that when I get back Whitney, it's time)  Again, having seen the movies made the place soooo much cooler to me :)  Also, a cool little story. Some random lady came up to me in the opera house when we were waiting in line, and asked me if I spoke French.  Then she had me translate something she wanted to say to some other random ladies. I felt so legit! I walked back to my friends feeling all cool :) But also hoping that I translated correctly :P haha that would be embarrassing. Don't worry, I'm fairly sure it was right! (Maybe this counts as something interesting happening to me today, it's just not something embarrassing this time?) Oh also I forgot to mention that we went to the Opera House to buy tickets! That's right, I'm going to see the Tokyo Ballet at the Opera House in Paris!  How awesome is that going to be? (answer: way!)  Also, how funny is it that it's the Tokyo Ballet? Super lucky :)  I feel like I should buy a pair of binoculars or something for it. But whatever. This will be good preparation for the ballet class I'm going to take with Whitney next semester.  (Because we all know that BYU dance classes require a lot of prep and all that jazz)

Anyway, moral of the story. I can't wait for the ballet! I'll feel like Anastasia! Except I won't be super nervous about meeting my grandmama, maybe I can meet a boy though? (Would I want to meet a boy who is willing to go to a ballet without a girl though?...hmm..)

I had to put this photo up because I love carousels! They are so great! Plus this one was two stories! How often do you see that?!

These are just random photos that I liked from the last walk we did. Everything we saw looked so cool. It's like that whole part of the city was just modern art-ish. (look for a bunch more photos on facebook)  But seriously, makes me jealous for the people who lived there.  But I think I do actually prefer the grassy/green places with trees that we've visited to this.  But it was still cool. There was a building that looked like a thumb. But, not sure if that's actually cool or not. I'm still deciding.  

Alright, that's the end for today. Sorry nothing super exciting happened. But even I get to have normal days once in a while I suppose.  Now I must go eat some more pain du chocolate (bread and chocolate) because it's what I live off of here. (so healthy) Though I do eat an apple each day, so don't worry Mom!

Goodbye friends!

Getting Lost In Paris

Don't worry Mom, that was the name of the Walk for today (the walks we do for class), but what a great walk it was! (and so easy too :D)
First of all, it feels like it's been so long since I've blogged but really it's been like 4 or 5 days. But when your days are so packed, it feels like an eternity, and I start to forget things that happen.
Anyway, getting lost in Paris, that was Monday. I spent the day with Rachel and Ashley. It was fantastic! We got on the metro and got off at some random stop, without even looking at the name. Then we just wandered around the city for a while. ((literally 4/5 shops we passed were Men's clothes. No wonder the guys are so well dressed here!) Eventually we got hungry so we picked up a lunch and decided to eat river by the Seine! A great idea, right? :)

A great idea until my waterbottle lid somehow rolled into the river...so....that sucked.

Oh well! C'est la vie, I believe is the correct saying. But I believe it would be more accurate to say "C'est ma vie"   Anyway, we continued our wandering after that and we walked through a pretty park with some modern art pieces, as well as this random guy doing yoga or something. I really wanted to join him, but my friend said it would be weird. (Instead she just took a creeper video of him..... and I'm the weird one?)  We randomly stumbled across the Paris zoo, which was really exciting because I've only been to the zoo once before in my life! (With Sam!! :)  So we decided to go, because, well why not? It was only 8 euros!! Also next to the zoo was this garden thing with an epic building in the background.  It was also next to a dinosaur museum, but that was closed.  

This is the garden/epic building

And here's us at the zoo! Weeee the zoo in Paris!! :)

Good news, I got a boyfriend at the zoo!!!

Long story short: I was trying to get a good picture so I said "Bonjour mon petit-ami" without realizing that what I should have said was "mon ami petit"...turns out calling a little panda your boyfriend can get you some weird looks...oh well. Like I said, c'est ma vie.

(Also, all I could think of at the time is that part in Aladdin where Jasmine pretends that Abu is the sultan and she just starts praising a monkey...but mine wasn't on purpose, so...)

I'm not going to put up anymore  pictures of the animals because they aren't that great (because they were either moving or the cages made the pictures awful) so here's some nice scenery from the zoo, because we all know that you really go to the zoo to see the scenery.

Yep, that's me posing at the zoo, because there's no better place to strike a pose.

And that's the highlights of Monday. Oh and we had FHE so we decided to head back about an hour early. But Ashley wanted to walk and Rachel and I were tired, so we parted ways (so we could take the metro) but then we felt bad about her being alone, so we creepily stalked her the whole way back. It was great because by walking, but without her knowing, it made it much easier to ignore my tired feet :)   I was really hoping their would be more asians there. Sadly, there were only 3, and 2 of them were girls.  Plus they spoke Chinese not Korean or Japanese, so I didn't understand anything. (Okay, not that I understand the other two, but they are at least a little more familiar to me) 

Tuesday!! We didn't have class today. I don't know why the first of May is a special day, but it is here, and that's fine with me :) Ashley and I took the day to relax, we didn't even go into Paris today. No metro!  

We went for a really long walk and just sort of explored the surrounding towns. We took this cute little walkway and took some good pictures.  

Yah, check me out wearing dresses in Paris. Who knew I was secretly such a girl? :) Just kidding, it's not really that great because when I try and sit or do normal things I always have to remember to keep my legs together. It's kind of a pain. But at least no one here wrestles with me, that could be embarrassing in a dress (*cough cough* Chad and Eldon)   

Yah, so no big. This is just where I live now :)  

And we stumbled upon this little treasure a few minutes later while walking.  

Ya, nothing too exciting for today. We literally walked for hours just wandering around and talking, but it was very pretty (as you can see).  Good news, we watched Confessions of a Shopaholic that night and it was great (as always) Bad news, I felt like texting Whitney Gould every quote from the movie possible, but I couldn't. Sad day France...

Anyway, onto Wednesday.  Back to class for the morning. It was our first time being on time to class, I'm rather proud of us! :)  Yesterday we did a very short walk, and that was nice. I spent the day with Rachel, Heather, Amanda, and Bethan.  

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SECTION IS NOT FOR THE EYES OF MOTHERS

So we got on the metro to get to the first stop of our walk. The metro can be pretty hectic here, with people rushing on and rushing off, it's crazy.  So we hear the noise that signls the door is about to close and I look back and notice Bethan hadn't been able to shove her way on...so, without thinking, I stuck out my arm.  See, sometimes the doors open again when there is something in the way. Sadly, not these doors.  So my arm was awkwardly sticking out the other side of the metro (that's all Bethan could see from her angle)  while I just stood there unsure what to do really.  I'm very disappointed I didn't think to have someone take a picture, but it wasn't really on my mind at the moment.  After a few seconds this french lady started scolding me (I didn't understand, but I'm guessing it was something about silly American girls sticking their arms out in the metro) she pulled open the door and I took my arm out and the metro left.  (the door opened, but the gate didn't so Bethan couldn't get on) Luckily we were able to meet up with Bethan a few stops later. Good news: she said that was the most noble thing anyone had ever done for her, so I guess that's pretty epic, huh? :P We'll probably be friendship bonded for life now or something after that.  

Note: Mom feel free to read again now!

After that we just walked around doing the walk, nothing too extraordinary happened really. We ate lunch at this random Italian restaurant because the waiter came out and started talking to us. He was super friendly, and we didn't know where to eat, so we just went in.  Well, I was going to insert a picture here, but I've lost them from yesterday and part of today...(so good with technology) 

It was a pretty uneventful day but still packed. As all days here are.  We ate dinner with Nannicq and her nephew (her nephew's name is Daniel and he's probably around 50) My favorite part of dinner was when my roommate accidentally mixed up some vocabulary and ended up saying that she paid $7 to eat some refuse today (instead of her lunch)  It wasn't that funny because she mixed it up (obviously, I have no room to laugh, I do that all the time) but because Nannicq laughed so hard she started crying, it reminded me of my own Grandma :)  It was great. 

Thursday, today was the day at Chartres and we went to the cathedral! It was so amazing, seriously I learned a ton. I had no idea before today that stained glass windows were more than just interesting to look at. Our guide today at the cathedral has been doing this same tour for 55 years and he had his stuff down, it was amazing.  He told us that back in the day, before paper existed in Europe, people would record stories on the windows. And he told us the story of a bunch of the windows in the cathedral! He even explained the window that told the parable of the good samaritan, and it was amazing. I was amazed when he started explaining how these things were interesting on the surface, but even more interesting when you consider that they all have a hidden meaning which points to Christ. For example, he explained that the Good Samaritan parable is also the plan of salvation.  Seriously, I was in shock because I had just learned that whole double meaning thing about the good samaritan myself this past semester in New Testament class, and here I was hearing it at a church(/stained glass window story) from the 1200's in France! Epic, right?

Here's a picture someone else put on facebook, enjoy :)

After we finished our tour of the cathedral we had a few hours to our self so I wandered around Chartres with Rachel.  I actually spent money and bought clothes.  I haven't bought anything yet because I keep telling myself not to spend money (I'm a thrift store shopper at heart) but when I found a dress I really liked I finally cracked and bought it.  I said "whatever, I'm in Paris!" (which probably isn't the best motto, because money is money regardless, but it's kind of like my "I'm on vacation" motto. :D)

Alright well that's all for now. Sorry I don't have pictures for the last 2 days, I just lost them somehow. Anyway, I'm off to be studious!!  Goodbye everyone!

Oh poop... literally

Today's travels started out with a lovely view of the bridge.  

This river is so beautiful, I think I'm in love! Don't tell my boyfriend back in the States...oh wait, I don't have one. That's probably because I fall for sights like beautiful rivers instead of handsome men. I'll need to work on that...in 2 months.  

    From here we walked around a bit enjoying some pretty parks and what not and taking cute pictures with friends.  Oh and lets not forget the classic Laura moment where I somehow manage to get bird poop all over my bag, jacket, and class book before I realize it's even there. Talk about gross!  Here's a commemorative photo, who wouldn't want to remember this?   

  After that we visited Notre Dame and let me say how amazing it was! I mean it was so amazing that it inspired me to watch the Hunchback of Notre Dame. That's pretty impressive considering I don't like to watch that movie because Quasimoto ends up alone, and that's sad. Anyway, here's a few pictures because well, it's the Notre Dame.  The first one is me sneaking in, because obviously I didn't want to wait in the long line. 

The next one is of the window that Esmerelda finishes her song "God Help the Outcasts" in the movie, because that makes it legit. 

After Notre Dame we had to find some lunch (I feel as if I'm constantly hungry here. It's such a problem because I never pack enough food.  I guess all the walking I do means that I need constant nourishment.  Side note: I'm planning on keeping France's milk economy thriving single-handedly.  I drank this container of milk and something that's like chocolate milk, not sure what it really is, in 2 days!) 

Anyway, we did a bit more touring, visited a museum of some of the ancient architecture of Paris.  I somehow managed to drop 5 euros in one of the displays but luckily the guy at the desk was pretty kind and  so he went and got a literally 15 foot long reaching stick to retrieve my money for me. Too kind of him, really.  That was the most exciting thing that happened that tour.  This was a picture from another church that we visited, it was pretty cool too. 

And to top it off, here's a pretty photo of Le Vesinet.  I managed to get lost walking home from the train station.  I rode home with another girl from class to my train station but we live in different houses.  I thought I would be able to find my house since it's only 5 minutes away. And I did!! but it took me roughly 30 minutes to find it instead of 5 because I went the wrong direction from the station. Good news though, I found another pattisserie and bought another baguette (which I dropped on the ground, but ate anyway! yay!)  so I wandered around for a long time but the good news is that at least it looked like this (not quite the same as getting lost in provo and wandering around apartments and townhouses...)

So...sorry I don't have any super exciting stories to share really.  I didn't get lost today (sunday) but I was with people all day.  Um....I'll work on my exciting life and hopefully the next blog will be better :)