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!