just studying.

Check out where I studied and read for about four hours on friday. Just the tulieries gardens. I sat in this perfect chair, people watching, reading the most boring book ever, napping, chatting, eating &laughing. It seemed like a perfect day.

Hailey

hello delicious food. The one thing I can always count on here in Paris. I don't think I will ever be disappointed.

these cuties

I love myself some people watching..

chocolat chaud

This lovely is Angelina's. If you've ever heard of Paris, love hot chocolate &treats then I'm sure you've heard of it. A couple of us went to get our first fix of the deeelicious hot chocolate the other day.
Me, Holly, Tiffany,
oh &if you look real close you'll see the bellman in the background behind the glass posing, who ran out the door after yelling at us in french {we didn't understand} until we saw the picture.

I don't know why this is so funny to me.

Oh we were nothing but classy at Angelina's. Live piano player downstairs included.

Me and holly. We both got white hot chocolate. Oh my gosh. SO GOOD. Couldn't finish it though, it was so rich, and I had just eaten a humungous falafel. Holy yum to that thing too.

Then we decided to walk around the louvre. Just outside real quick. It was so awesome to actually be there. Still hard to believe. And this gigantic museum is where I have class every single wednesday for three hours.
Jealous?

<3

first day fun

remember when my first day back in paris was almost two weeks ago?
wait what..?
time is going by too fast.

Breakfast set out in the kitchen for me and Hailey. Nutella, toast, pancakes, apples, cereal, and chocolate cake.
After going to the eiffel tower for a picnic with the whole group most of the girls took of to H&M for some shopping. On our first day in Paris? American shopping? No thanks. Me, tiffany, michelle and hailey went sight-seeing. It was a special weekend, celebrating something that only happens once a year and all museums [or most] are open for free, including some special ones that are usually never open to the public. Like this gem, the british ambassador's residence. It was one of Napoleon's wives homes back in the day, i'm pretty sure. Paulina?
We almost didn't go inside.
But luckily I made us.
And it was b.e.a.utiful. And was a once in a lifetime visit. Or.. once in a year-time.
The place du Concord. A fun square. I have yet to learn all the history about it. But it has something to do with the egyptians, who gave the french an awesome stone pillar as a thanks for translating the rosetta stone. {the champollian musuem in the south. If you go, don't get a recorded guide. So boring.}
This is what I mean by turning corners in Paris and finding yourself in the middle of something so fun. We took a wrong turn and ended up in this park, where the cutest band ever was playing. "Marshmallow." We quickly fell in love, and tiff bought their cd. We will now be following them around europe.
I'M IN PARIS!
You can see the tiny arc du triomphe behind me.
We went up on top of that beauty also. Such an amazing view from the top. Waaaay too many stairs though.


<3

la citee

Here's some randoms. Just wanted to get some up.
They're really not in order, and I really don't care. I have plleeennty of pictures, enough to fill up at least four entire houses. And I still have two more months. .

{love lock bridge}
me, annie, kelly
This place is amazing. We accidentally walked across this bridge one night, what a nice surprise :) My favorite part about paris is the fact that you can walk in any direction and end up somewhere amazing, with something extraordinary happening, every time.

{Tour eiffel} obviously.
kelly, hailey, annie, me, ally
Our first day back in Paris was Anna's birthday so the whole group met up to have a cute! picnic at the eiffel tower. I wished it was my birthday.
Next year

{George Pompidou Centre Square}
I love this place. There's always something going on, music, food, bubbles, massages?, and always always always art. These chalk drawings are my favorite to walk past every single day. I've always seen pictures of ones like these and have been dying to see some in real life. Dream come true.
The drawings change everyday, and they're always cool.
I put 11 cents in that treasure chest for the guy [thats all i had okay?] and he laughed at me.. Guess I'll just take my eleven cintimes back monsieur. Not appreciated.

{first day of school}
tiffany, hailey, me, holly, shelby, maddie

okay maybe it was the second day. But I am so disappointed I didn't get a first day picture. When you don't have your parents around to wake you up at seven in the morning with a delicious breakfast followed by pictures out front by the flowers its hard to remember how important it is.

Or just important to me because I was raised by the man who takes pictures of every moment of life. I learned from him.

pour ma maman.

This is for my mom, who has constantly been asking me to send her a picture of outside my window. So here it is, for all to see, the view out my bedroom window.

And no I still don't have pictures of the rest of the house, but I will do that as soon as possible. I'm nervous to take my camera around the house because the one time I left the dinner table to run and get my camera to take a picture of our deeelicious meal my host kind of laughed at me and was asking questions. So I'd rather her not be present. But the whole tour will come later, don't you worry I promise.

Today was a fun day, I didn't have my camera though. I ended up twenty minutes late to my french history class because my host made me make a sandwich for myself.. didn't really understand why but okay, free food. Won't turn that down. THEEEEN, me, annie, michelle and tiffany went down to the "princess crepe," the place we tried to go to last thursday, but they were closed and we learned they are closed every thursday. Then yesterday, we tried again and oh what do you know, its closed on mondays aussi. . So today we joked the whole way there about it not being open again. Third times a charm right? It had to be open.. we turn the corner, walk down to the creperie and surprise surprise, once again, CLOSED. uh what? Doesn't open until one o'clock. Next time you really want to go to a place, make sure you read the entire sign before going back. Oh don't worry, we took a picture of it this time just so we'll remember.
so pissed.
me, annie, tiff

After that we did a Paris walks. I'm in a class thats kind of a "do it on your own" thing where a book has a ton of different "walks" around paris. So I get to do that, learn about all the different things along the way, oh and get credit for walking through the streets of paris trying all the best food suggested. Our walk was based around Saint Sulpice and the Abbaye Saint Germain. Some pretty awesome places. The Saint sulpice church is the 2nd largest cathedral in Paris. [Notre Dame is the first] And we ended up at Pierre Herme again, the place famous for macaroons. I got rose, and creme brulee flavored. The rose one was sooo so good. Then me and tiffany went to the eiffel tower to finish our reading for classes. We found ourselves a nice secret spot on the side of the tower. It was away from all the tourists and still so pretty, I mean the real eiffel tower was just a glance away from my book. Unreal. Then I pretty much just came home. Oh wait. No, it didn't happen that easy. . I got on the metro. And usually when I'm going home I take the same metro and ride it basically to the very end. So I wasn't paying any attention. Then I looked at the sign and realized I was on a completely different line and had already passed my stop. So I had to get off that metro, switch directions, and go back a couple stops to catch a different metro. Got on that line and thought I was good to go. Thhhen, we kept slowing down and stopping every once in a while, [pretty normal for the metro, especially around that time, everyone was heading home]. But we were stopped for like 20 minutes at one stop, and the announcer kept coming on saying there was just a lot of traffic and we had to wait. Until finally he announced something that had the words "la defense" - [where I was heading], "porte mailot" - [a couple stops from my house] and a bunch of other stuff I didn't really understand, but after everyone was complaining and sighing and getting angry. Wish I spoke french. Some people got off, and the doors still stayed open and we waited for even longer. Finally we left that station and ended up at porte mailot, and everybody got off. So my guess is that something was going on at la defense and the metro had to stop. So I get off, no idea where I am. I follow the exits and end up at a park in the middle of a huge roundabout. A roundabout that after I had walked all the way around I realized it was a roundabout you could not cross the street from. So I'm stuck on an island pretty much. I go back underground, take a different exit, and end up in a mall.. {for some reason I seem to always end up in a mall when I get lost off the metro. Maybe its a sign? I need to shop more?} got myself out of there. Next exit I'm finally on the street. And I could see la defense, the huge city part of paris that I can see from my apartment and metro so I just headed that direction. I got home all by myself, safely, and without using any maps. go moi

Chicken for dinner.
Chocolate cream for dessert.
Imagine [uh or go look in your fridge] a chocolate snak pak, not just chocolate pudding. Thats exactly what the chocolate cream tastes like. Loved it.

Louvre tomorrow for class.
Rice and beans after :) aaahhhhhh

<3

au jourd'hui

today's schedule;
french class from 9-12 at the catholic institute.
Tarte au sucre [sugar tart] from Paul
Another peach kiwi icee mmm
Religion class 1-3, fell asleep.
Creperie hunt after, ending with the most delicious savory crepe invented by moi.

-jambon, creme fraiche, et pommes de terre. {ham, creme fraiche, and potatoes} best.thing.ever.

Homework/reading at the Pompidou center library.

Fhe at the institute
Ice cream at Pozzetto with some new friends to end the night.

short &sweet, I'm supposed to read 100 pages of notre dame by 9 o'clock tmrw morning. Thats a little impossible..

saturday nights fireworks show. spectacular.

<3

three things

I've got three things on my mind right now.
I've been missing my home a lot. Where I grew up my entire life and thought I'd never want to go back once I left. But I'm missing myself some arizona everything. Cactus, dirt, la parilla, heat burning my skin, sunsets, &eegees. but 'specially my family and friends.

Waffle things. Reading the name of these twelve times a day has not helped me to remember what they're called ..or maybe its just in french &I'm striking against the language that's been causing me so much stress and frustration. So for now; waffle things. Or heaven.
This one right here was my last one. {I'm all out.} And I thought I'd die without them but its been at least twenty four hours since I ate one. I miss them so much.

And this bow. How is that even possible? iloveit.
But none of this is happening for me right now because I'm stuck doing homework. I forgot I actually have to do work while i'm in paris. What a let down.
And I am reading boring stuff. That I can barely understand one word of. Here it is. The lovely work. That will take me eternity to read.

But this keeps me going; oh and makes me cry everytime I listen to it.
We sang it the last sunday that I was home in my home ward. Ironic?
I've been so frustrated lately with countless things in my life right now and this song just helps me remember who I am and where I come from. I'm so blessed to be out here in Paris, it may be the hardest thing that I've ever had to endure in my entire life but I think its totally worth all the scary stuff and has strengthened my testimony thus far.

<3

greatest place on earth

How could I forget to post about the chateau Marqueyssac. Oh my gosh the gardens. My mom found this place online one day &wrote it down for me to go to &then when I got my itinerary saying we were going here I was sooo stoked. This was what I had been waiting to go see the entire trip, and it was literally the very last thing we did. A perfect ending to our ten days in the south of france.

That's a real picture. That I took with my own camera. This place was incredible, and just didn't seem real. It was sooo real. This was the very beginning of these laaarge gardens. We got maps when we entered and could've spent the entire day there, but we only had two hours {which wasn't even long enough}

Am@ZiNg view. Oh hello river that I canoed on for eight hours. Thanks so much for being nine miles long. Really made my day.

Me and Annie found a playground. And a childrens Labyrinth. Of course we played.

Hailey &me. A million of these pathways. LoveloveLoVe.

And as we walked down the path to start heading out we saw all these hot air balloons in the sky. There were four already flying and two that were taking off. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen, I fell in love with this place, &did not want to leave.


<3

harlowbabe

My beautiful niece turned two yesterday. I'm super bummed about not being able to be there, but I celebrated her bday here in Paris. She means so much to me and in a weird way, even though she's not my own daughter I feel like she has inspired me to grow up a lot more and has been that impact in my life that pushes me through a ton of times. Just thinking about her tiny smile and crooked teeth makes my day so much better. She's my first niece and will always have that special place in my heart for that reason. But I cannot wait to have my first nephew in four months. I'm so excited, and so anxious to meet this little boy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARLOW SUE HERBERT.
You're the cutest, smartest, sweetest two year old on this planet. Miss you more than anything.

<3

what I ate:

Eating is the best part in any country right? Spending a majority of my money on food is what my life has been like for the past fifteen days. How can you not? Everytime you walk past a crepe stand and smell that nutella its hard to keep walking. But I've been good.
Today was an interesting day for food. We tried to go try a creperie that is supposed to be way good called princess crepe. I was pretty bummed out when they were closed.

So we walked around a while more and finally decided to get some street hot dogs that we've seen everywhere. They are hot dogs in a baguette with cheese baked on top. They look delicious. They taste,.. alright. Not the best and definitely not a satisfying lunch. It was good to try, but not again.
P.s. we got them from some indian guy who touched everything with his dirty bare hands. gross

I know, that does not look safe. Exactly what I was thinking the whole time eating it.

But we walked through the jewish/greek? district and stopped in a patisserie that smelled sooo delicious. They had all kinds of things thought that I've never seen or heard of. I got a something, kind of looked like a snickerdoodle or.. I don't even know the name right now. It was reaaally really good though. Oh, tasted like mexican wedding cake.

We shopped around for a while, checked two things off my never-ending to-do list; sent my postcards {which hopefully make it to the U.S.} and bought a new bag. Finished off all that sipping a peche-kiwi icee from the indian cart once again.Then met up with some more ladies and walked the champs elysee to find some macroons at Pierre Hermes which were supposed to be prime. This was my first macroon purchase. They were pretty dang freaking good. But that place didn't have much variety. So I wouldn't say the absolute best. We went to laduree after, famous for the macroons, and they were a lot better there. I might just have to try everywhere.

I loooove the waffle things here too. With the fillings. Might be my favorite. And i may or may not be eating one right now..

love me some frenchie food.
sushi for dinner

<3

paris is so exciting, alright?!

Paris, today; has proved to be more like home than ever before. This morning I had my fineart/arthistory class where my teacher [who lives here in paris] told us all about a mexican place not too far from our class that is pretty good. All of us, who have just been craving ourselves some mexi tacos since we got here, were so stoked. {the french do not have mexican food, I'm pretty sure they don't understand it} So obviously we got a group together &went there after class.

No; your eyes aren't deceiving you.. that sign really has dirty mexican food written all over it. And it really is in Paris. I promise. I was freaking out, sooo excited.

It was called "rice &beans." And it had such a cool atmosphere inside. So,.. mexican. I've missed that so much. Day of the dead skulls, pinatas, weird posters in spanish that make no sense. Oh &really creepy bathrooms.

The menu was little; simple and had only the reg. exactly what I like in a mexican station. [that's why I love taco stands &the taco buses in rexburg.]
I could literally live off of mexican food, so finding this place made my entire day. Yes; that is a bottle of cholula in Paris. MMmmMmMmMMMmmm

real guac ^^^^

{kelly, tiffany, annie, me}

I got two tacos; each three euros [not a bad deal]. I know they look tiny, but they had heaps of meat on them, and totally filled me up. I got one "poulet chipotle" (chipotle chicken), and one carnitas. They very easily made my top list of tacos. Every single bite was so so so delicious. I have been waiting so long to have myself some trashy tacos &I finally got them. My FAVorite things in the entire world.. okay but I do love crepes.. &I went running yesterday so hopefully you can't tell yet that I might love them just a little too much.

And now, I'm at home where I just happened to find an unopened pack of swedish fish &just could not resist. &Right after I had already brushed my teeth. But who cares? You can't pass that up, especially in Paris; where candy is almost non-existant. I guess I was just feeling super american today.
Miss you red, white &blue. -the stars and stripes kind.

<3

p.s. The people in paris never cease to amuse you. Today a cRazzzY man was walking down the sidewalk yelling, "Paris is so exciting! Alright!?" over,&over,&over,&over. Throwing his hands in the air every time. We could not stop laughing the rest of the day. More than once a day these type of experiences happen.

south of france, done.

These are all very out of order, pardon. But I'm finally getting them all on here right?
This is still all from our ten day trip throughout the south west of france. There was so much beauty there, and there still is here in Paris. You'll see soon :)