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!)