I feel like I can't post my blogs unless I come up with a title I really like...Fail.

Alright, I have not written for about a week and I feel like such a bum. But life is so busy here and now I'm behind so it feels even more busy! I'm going to do my best to remember what's happened in my life, but I do so much better when I write that same day. Sadly, I already have the memory of an elderly person and so we'll be lucky if I can remember what I did. (I guess I can use the pictures and my journal for reminders) Here I go!

To start out, here is a picture of the backyard. This is what I saw from my window Saturday night (I think it was Saturday.) It's so gorgeous, I'm going to miss this view!

Friday I didn't do anything besides take a test. This class is actually a lot more work than I was expecting.  I thought this was supposed to be a "Vacation Abroad" I was sure when they called it a Study abroad that the first word was just a typo.  Sadly, I was the one who had made a mistake, not them.  Good news though: I saw a man give up his seat to an old lady on the metro on the way home and it was just the cutest thing ever. I love it when you see people do things like that. It just makes your day even when it has nothing to do with you.  (so does that make me sort of pathetic if the best part of my day happened when I was creeping on someone else?...)

Saturday was actually quite an exciting day. I don't think I took pictures, which is strange for me, but we went to the Worlds Largest Flea Market!  I mean, not like I've been to any other flea markets, but I agree that it was indeed very large. It was interesting.  And after we returned to the institute building so we could have a place to sit down and eat our crepes. Then we just laid in the sun and enjoyed the warmth. It's sad that it's not warm more often here, but whatever. Not like I can complain, I'm in Paris! After that I went home because I didn't feel like doing another walk for class. 

Sunday we generally don't do anything, no pictures, no adventures, nothing like that. But seeing as it was Mother's Day, I did skype with Mom and that was amazing.  My second time to talk to my Mom since I left the country. I would be more impressed by her self-restraint if it wasn't for the fact that I'm pretty sure all her free time is taken by our new baby Daniel.  (oh well, understandable. When I go home, he can take as much of my time as he wants :D)  Oh and Ashley and I went to the ward in Versailles for a musical fireside that night. That was fun because we just listened to some girls sing. It was funny because they sang everything in English, and when we talked to them after we realized they were from BYU too.  Pretty funny that we'd randomly meet at a little church building in Versailles. Oh and also Ashely and I talked to the missionaries for a while after church and it was fun because they were all so excited about getting to talk to their mothers. It made me think of my own missionary friends out on missions who would get to call their mothers too. It's so cute. I've never been around missionaries who were looking forward to the call, because I've always been on the other end, waiting with Mom for a call from my brothers.  But it was fun to see :)

Monday- the darn RER was 10 minutes late, which automatically made us 10 minutes late to class (I realize I shouldn't cut it so close, but seeing as it's my blog, I'm going to rant). Ashley and I ran into 2 other girls that live in Le Vesinet, so the 4 of us finally made it off the metro and were booking it to class when we ran into the missionaries. They beckoned us over to talk, and we ended up meeting the investigator. She was so cute and had the cutest british accent. I could have listened to her talk all day as she said things like "we go to the Uni" and stuff like that. Seriously, she was so funny. She didn't believe that we were mormon too at first because we weren't wearing the name badges like the elders have. Anyway, we could only talk to her for 10-15 minutes because by that time we were like 30 minutes late to class, but it was so fun :)

For about an hour Heather and I wandered around looking for this crepe place that David had told me about, but it was sort of difficult. The only distinguishing feature that I knew was that there was a second floor you could eat at, so of course I had to go creep through the windows of all the crepe places we stumbled across. Sadly, I don't think we found it, but we'll go back!  Around 12 we met at the park in front of the Eiffel Tower for FHE.  That was kind of super epic, and I didn't want to leave. It was exciting because something dramatic happened too! While we were eating lunch, these little boys came and shoved something in one of the girls face, trying to get her to buy something supposedly. But what no one saw was that they totally jacked her iphone at the same time.  We didn't even realize something had happened until the police brought the phone back to her. Turns out they had caught the boy, so it's good that she got it back, but she had to spend the next 3 hours at the police station and I don't even know what happened to the boys. They were so little, it's sad :/

  

Today we explored the Latin Quarter.  This is me almost touching both sides of the smallest street! Pretty exciting, right?  And this is me at the Cafe Procope. This is one of the cool places that the Philosophers started hanging out in the 18th century when they were kind of kicked out of the court of Versailles. What those lamers didn't know was that the social/intellectual wasn't really at the court but with the philosophers, because once the philosophers moved, so did the center of all the action.  Anyway, I guess since I've taken this picture there it probably makes me a bit more intellectual now :P  

Also, I think I found the crepe place that David was talking about. We are going back later to do a little bit of reconnaissance!  I'll let you know how it goes.

Tuesday: VERSAILLES. soo exciting. but really the weather was kind of cold/really really kind of windy and cold. so we just explored the castle and then left. (and when I say explore what I really mean is the slightly less exciting "took an audio guide tour through the rooms that weren't closed off.")  Sadly, we didn't even go explore the gardens because it was cold and not as enjoyable. Good news though, I live less than an hour away, so it's not even a big deal to go back.

Plan: Go back, bring a picnic, ride a tandem bike, have fun! 

requirements: food, camera, and the sun.  

but for now, I just have a couple of pictures of the castle for you.  Obviously I tried to get a picture of everything important before my camera died. Naturally this huge fireplace  was the top of the list (not to mention one of the first rooms)  It's too bad that there were so many tourists at Versailles, it made it really hard for me to take my traditional nap in front of the fireplace. oh well, maybe when we go back. :)

(I guess that's the only picture I decided was worth putting on here, if you want to see more, I put a ton on facebook just now)  I went home and ate a delicious gyro with Heather in the Latin Quater. (it's such a handy little place, I like it a lot)  and then we watched an episode of City Hunter together at her apartment. It was my first time being at an apartment inside the city, it was pretty cool. Plus it was interesting meeting somebody else's host mom for a change.  Overall: very cool.

Today on the metro home I decided to take the missionaries advice and talk to someone on the metro. (disclaimer: this wasn't advice to go and preach the gospel. backstory: I had told them on Sunday that I was sad I didn't have more chances to talk to people. I only talk to Nannicq really besides the professor and the other students. But a lot of the time the other students speak English, and even when we speak French, we don't know enough to correct each other's faults...so, it's not super helpful)

Anyway, after a couple of stops, I worked up the nerve to talk to the lady next to me on the metro, and I had a great time.  I was actually able to keep the conversation going (meaning, I understood enough) which was a huge relief because I was worried I would ask her to talk to me but then not understand. (That would be embarrassing)  Anyway, I'm really glad I talked to her. It was good practice conversing with someone, plus she told me about a crepe place that I need to try. So double win!!

Wednesday: ahh today was a nice day.  I spoke with another person on the metro this morning. Again, once I worked up the nerve to ask her to talk to me, I found that she was actually very nice and willing to speak with me and my rudimentary french.  Yay Parisians! Plus I think it's getting easier to ask people with practice. Anyway, after class we decided to go check out the crepe place. However, it wasn't open until noon so we wandered around for an hour. Obviously, I made good use of my time, by doing things such as visiting Irish Pubs and what not.  It's weird because I always dreamed of visitng an Irish Pub.  I would walk in like I owned the place, sit down and with a completely straight face, order an apple cider (or maybe chocolate milk).  That's always been the dream (that's not my only dream!)  Yet I always sort of dreamed it'd be in Ireland (I guess because the highschool band almost went to Ireland, so it's been sort of on my mind since that)  Anyway, I wasn't expecting to find one here in Paris, but I guess it works :P Well I found it, but I didn't actually go in today, so the dream is still unfulfilled.   Next time... 

For lunch we went to the crepe place, and it was super yummy. I mean just look at these crepes!

we were so excited to be there. Plus it was sort of fun for me to imagine Mom, Dad, and David eating there too (If it was indeed the same place) 

After that we decided to start our walk, which was supposed to be a fairly long one, but we knocked it out!  We went to the musee Rodin, and it was way cool. I liked it a lot. Especially because it was short :)  Obviuosly I had to get a picture with the one art piece I actually knew about BEFORE the visit (art isn't really my forté)  Plus, sometimes I like to think too, so it was perfect! 

I'm pretty sure the lady we asked to take this picture thought we were a bunch of strange Americans, but that's okay (because we are.)  There were a lot of interesting statues here.
Also, it looks like Heather is just sort of embarrassed to be with us, but let me just say she was also doing the pose.






This is a really cute little archway that we found out in the gardens at the museum, I really love this photo :)  I don't know why, it's just adorable to me.










And this is the 5 of us at the museum.  These busts (can a bust be just the head or does it have to have a part of the chest in there as well?...I don't know.) were actually based off of us. Can't you tell?






This is us doing the walk. Sometimes we just love to pose so the Eiffel Tower is in the background. It's kind of our subtle way of showing off the fact that we're at Paris :P

If I remember correctly, this was the building that held Napoleon's tomb and some other good stuff like that.


We also visited the museum that housed a bunch of stuff from the wars.  I might be wrong, but I don't think Rachel is using this canon correctly.  But obviously, I've never used a canon.

This was used to break down the doors at Helm's Deep (If I translated the sign correctly)
It might confuse you because in the movie there was fire in the mouth.

Here's me bowing Boromir's horn.  If only I was epicly resucing little hobbits from capture. Alas, I was just in a really old building....touring.

This is the sword that Shan-Yu threatened the Emperor of China with before Mulan saved the day.

I also appreciated that they had a life size replica of the Tanks from the Wii game Tanks because that was something that I could finally relate to about the war :P

And even though I don't really watch Star Wars, I still recognized this.

After we finished the museum we decided to call it a day. And since it was kind of cold and windy all day we decided to wrap up with some warm hot chocolate. And as exciting as it was to be chilling in Paris drinking hot chocolate and watching the people, I have to say that this hot chocolate has got nothing on the 7/11 hot chocolate :)

Oh and on the walk back to the metro to go home we saw this, because Paris is very diverse. (which is why they can have Star Wars, Wii games, Mulan, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings all in the same city)

Thursday: (Okay finally caught up to today, don't worry, it's only 1 am now....pretty sure I started a little after 11 pm...ah)  Highlights, here's my favorite part of the first museum that we went too.  Apparently heads are not chic.

Or at least it's not chic to have the heads attached to the bodies. Obviously it's much more useful to have them in different places..........Now that I think about it, maybe it was like a theft-prevention measure.  That way someone couldn't steal it all at once. Hm, that's got to be it!

A lot of the walk today was seeing crazy historical sites like this. I mean, sometimes I just like to go visit the Sorbonne.  Really no big deal. It's not like I'm also learning about that in my class.... Oh and we also visited the tombs of Marie Curie, Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. It was pretty crazy. I can't believe all the things I'm doing with my life. It's especially cool because I learn about it in class in the morning and then go and see it in the afternoon. That's the way to do it.  :)                                       And to top off the walk, we visited the arena where the used to have the people and animals fight to the death. Pretty exciting, right?  Well actually, the best part was when I realized that if that had been me back in the day, I wouldn't  have been killed by any animals. I totally managed to climb out of the arena from the wall. Sadly, this isn't actually the wall, but this is what I looked like.  This was one of those "I have to do it for whatever reason now and if I don't I feel like a failure so I keep trying" things that sometimes I do. So I kept jumping into this wall and trying to climb, but there wasn't really places for my feet and I could only reach the top with my fingertips by jumping.  Anyway, long story short, I did make it eventually because: 1) I didn't give up. 2) I took a running jump start. 3) my friend stood behind me and pretended to be an angry animal that was going to eat me if I didn't climb out in time (so motivating)  So ya, good news. hundreds of years ago. I would have lived.  That's a relief, huh?

After the walk, we went back to the Latin Quarter and bought Flaffles for lunch. Mmm. And then I went to Emily and Megan's house in Chatou-Croissy.  That was my second time visiting somebody else's home here. It was pretty and their home was nice. It was strangely shaped, and I liked it a lot. Sadly, we went to do a test, so it was not super fun. But we did just end up talking a lot before the test, and while studying, so that was still fun.  Then I ate dinner with them and their host mom (and I found out that I like rhubarb) and finally I made it home. The only thing I have accomplished since then is this blog. Now it's 1 am and I need to finish my homework and get to bed.  I guess that's what I get for getting behind on my blog.
Everyone wish me luck getting up in the morning!  :P
oh speaking of the morning. I was the first one to class today! I even had to wait for the teacher for like 5 minutes. That really is a new record for me :)

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!