sunny in paris

I'm having a great sunday.
peaceful.
b u t
I miss london so much.
But today Paris made me realize how much I missed Paris. It seriously is an incredible place, and theres nothin' like it, nor that compares.
I'm so lucky to be here.
And to have had the chance to live in this city for such a long period of time. I've missed lots at home and I'm excited to be able to go back and have some new fun but I'm more excited to spend the next 18 days in Europe, living it up while I can.

Daryl stressed to us the importance of being on time to church, so today, I was on time. Or about fifteen minutes early. When I was walking up the stairs of the metro a man was trying to get my attention, and I've learned to go into an ignoring mode, where, no matter who, I just ignore the person because most of the time its just a randy french who is creepy.
But this guy was like "Oh excuse me.. Miss, miss?"
and I turned around and he started talking, in english, asking me where a bridge was. And I just looked at him really weird because I could not think of any bridge he'd be talking about, so then he totally thought I was french, [ :) ] because he kept repeating "bridge" and making a sign for it. Then finally I was like "OH, i speak english!" haha.
It was a couple who were from london, fancy that, and we talked for a bit and I directed them where to go.
Then, I didn't even walk two steps and another person came up to me asking me something in french and I completely understood and told her where to go, in french.
I was pretty proud of myself this morning.

After church, which was hard to stay awake through, me and Anna went to check out the
holocaust memorial.
Its right by the notre dame so we walked, and it was pleasant.
The memorial;
You walk down some stairs, so you're at the same level as the seine [the river] and it was just a bunch of white stonework. We were like, is this it?

I forgot, the lady told us we could take pictures, but just for us, were not supposed to publish them to the internet. But I think the outside is okay, right? Just pretend you never saw these.{There it is. Thats the whole memorial}..

But then we found a tiny entry through these big blocks.It was a small memorial, it had a couple quotes from the time and had these little lit balls that represented all of the french that did not return from concentration camps. One quote said that the place was to remember the 200 thousand, that had passed.
There were two empty jail like looking cells in there also, just a barred door and no windows. The whole memorial was supposed to represent what a concentration camp was like, and how it felt, narrow staircases, and obstructed views with no sight of the horizon.
It was really cool to go to and I'm glad I did. I wanted to do something today at least.

Afterwards we decided to go down and sit next to the seine.
I loved it. And definitely want to do that more often during the two weeks that I have.
It was really nice to just sit there, in such an amazing spot, and just talk.
And it was really really sunny today in Paris, so I even took off my coat and got comfortable.
Anna took a picture for a french couple, and after talking to them for a while the lady said "I want a picture of you two, you're so nice." And took a picture of us on her phone.
So presh.

Then I saw this guy:

{ a fishbowl balanced on his head, red clown nose, and tap shoes, all set to some great african music. }

I walked over to the metro, but it literally took me forty minutes. I stopped to watch some fun.
This guy was performing on a bridge, and this is for my mom and aunt debbie because I know how much they love mini stuff. He had set up this mini chairs for children to watch, and he rode that mini bicycle.


The bubble guy, makes me smile every time.

There was some showcase or exhibit at the hotel de ville, so I walked around and looked at that, no idea what it all was about.. something with foreign countries.


Now I'm napping.
And writing in my journal.
Planning the next three days I have in Paris until I go to Prague for the weekend.
Studying for my french test

And this...

{all day everyday. This is how you become french}

I could of been, royalty, sitting in a palace like a queen.

sorry but there is literally no possible way that I can do another london post at the moment.

Yes: I was just "at school" for almost eight hours.
Yes: once again I was late for french. not gonna worry too much.
Yes: On the rare occasion that WiFi worked at the institute during my religion I definitely pinterest-ed, blogged stalked, and learned how to make no-bake cake balls the entire two hour long class
Yes: I found another favorite baguette in Paris.
Yes: I'm still off gelato

No: I did not take any pictures today
No: I still haven't gotten a good nights' sleep
No: French is not my second language, yet.

When I first got to Paris and could not resist having my camera on my person at all times, I wondered if there would ever be a day that that was not the case. Paris has literally been so exciting since September 6th for me, but I've found myself going throughout my days like its actually a regular thing. This has been happening for a while now, and I think its because I've done a lot of Paris and now am just so keen on going to class and being so exhausted after my day that all I want to do is come home and sleep, so things have just flowed into a system?

It is weird though, to feel like I am really living in Paris, France. Because thats just so unreal. Who thought that would ever be something I'd be able to say? Its so weird to me, still.

But slowly becoming less and less weird.

We had a huge review sesh with Daryl tonight, and afterwards I stayed and chatted for a little while after, and should have gone with monseiur Lee and check out the paraguayan flan place he was talking about but I didn't and I regret that. Next time.

But on my way home, I was alone and I just was thinking about if I actually like living in a city. Because do I? I just could not come to a conclusion. But when I got home me and Hailey ate dinner together and I was talking to her about that and she said she was contemplating the exact same thing on her walk home earlier. So strange.

Well that was just some random thoughts.
And the question still remains.
But I do know that I ADORE getting to walk down the street and finding a boulangerie/patisserie immediately and be able to eat a baguette with a macaron for breakfast for less than two euros. now that, is the life.

{and I guess I lied. I took one picture today. During our three hour review annie's computer died so she just gave up on taking notes and was drawing pictures in her notebook instead. I thought it was funny.}

and I am still thinking about how much I love london.
I got this super chouette magazine there. I love it a lot.
It's called "oh comely."



obsessed: coin laundry. I play this on repeat all day long.

<3

passport out of paris

day one:



I just had the best weekend ever.
It's called LONDON, england.
[I literally took over 1-thousand pictures.]
And I've been practicing using my camera on manual so.. disclaimer; a lot of my pictures are blurry. So excuse the unnormal shakyness.
But I'll be back in two days and be able to get some re-do's.

I'm in love with london. Every single part of it. And I could not get enough. It is a complleeetely different atmosphere than paris. Everyone, from the very beginning when we got our passports checked, is So incredibly nice, &funny. and they speak english. Which is a +plus, except for when you still can't understand what they're trying to say to you even though they literally are speaking my first language.
From the moment I got there I fell in loooove. It was just so fun and lively and exciting. Just a completely different vibe than there is in Paris. [which I still love, don't worry]

We booked a hostel in hammersmith. Weren't really sure what we were getting into, but just hoping it was accommodating. Turns out it was connected to a bar/restaurant/hottest club in town at night. It was way nice, and not at all what I expected a hostel to be like. We lucked out.

Me, Annie, Maddie, Kelly and Riley took the eurostar train through the english chunnel thursday night. HOW exciting?! It was really cool

We got in, checked into our hostel and were directed by them to the best authentic fish and chips just right around the corner.

It didn't take us very long to find our hot british men.

one word:Twins.

Out to dinner with their mother. The perfect family men. So obvs we got some great boystalking pics.I've never had fish and chips, and I have no idea why. . they were the best thing on this planet. AHmazing. Ours were huge, and I ate every bit of it, youknowme. I wanted fish and chips everynight.

After, we took the tube out to piccadilly circus. It was thriving. Some street performers were out and there were tons of people everywhere so it was way fun.

{classic}

{this theater sign said Herbert on it}

London has tons of bridges. over the Thames river. Theres so many, and I love them all. We walked across this one first, and got some good glimpses of the London eye lit up beautifully.

Also some big ben in there.Of course it started raining. But that didn't stop our fun. We all had umbrellas and walked around with them out the rest of the night. We were really cute.

I wore rainboot the entire weekend too. It really only rained the first night, the most. It misted a couple other times, but not bad at all. That was a relief.{theres benny in the background.}

We did lots of city night walking, which I loved. Everything lit up and sooo much fun. We walked to Buckingham Palace and by Hyde Park and then down to the arc du triomphe replica I swear.. I thought we were back in Paris.. which I didn't even want to think about because of my new found love of the most beautiful city on this planet.

After romping around through the night we headed back to our hostel and met up with Anna and Michelle who had flown. And turns out the hostel didn't charge them to stay and said we had already taken care of it, so they charged us 140 pounds less than they were supposed to. We did NOT complain. London is sooo freakin' expensive.

I couldn't sleep after seeing all of london for those couple hours, I was so excited! We were split between two different rooms at the hostel, and the room that me, kelly, annie and riley were in had four other girls who were all sleeping when we came back. But naturally, we are loud people, we can't help it; were American, and were girls.

I guess we were just a little bit too loud while we were all in our bunks talking across the room, a voice from the darkness got snappy at us and told us to be quiet. Whoops, goodnight london.


cheers.
<3

english accent heaven.

Recognize this place? Yes, I will be there, in way less than twenty-four hours. I'm taking the chunnel tmrw after class with Riley, Anna, Kelly, Annie, Michelle, and Maddie.
I caaannnnooooottt waaaiiiit!

<3

bois de boulogne

This one time we had tons and tons of fun. It was a Friday and we all met up in the morning to go to this place:{bois de boulogne}

Its Paris' central park. And its like five minutes away from my apartment apparently. Its way huge, we only went in a tiny portion of it. We walked around a bit then found a bike stand with a cute old couple that we all rented bikes from.

{this wasn't allowed, we got yelled at.}

So the last time I got on a bike was in rexburg probably sometime in April. Things didn't go so good, I fell in the street and almost got hit by a car maybe and then ended up walking my bike up a hill for about two hours. Not the funnest experience. So I was hesitant to get a bike, but braved up and did it.

And so glad I did.

Bike ridings easy! I got over my fear quickly and did great.We tried taking some pictures on a timer, and this is what we got first;So finally an italian man came over and asked if we wanted his assistance. Grazie old man, our pictures turned out better then.

{courtesy of Annie's camera? je ponce..}

We biked around for about an hour then had to return our velos.
But of course we had some fun with a mini photoshoot. This time the timer worked out.

<3

sometimes the french eat chocolate cake at midnight.

Okay. I really am lucky, I do have the sweetest, cutest, old lady french host. She's just une bonne femme. [don't ask me if that is even right, I could be saying something bad for all I know]
She went out of town this weekend to her country home to visit her husbands grave. She took two of her daughters and the other stayed here at the house with us. -that was just a little bit awkward. So she got home tonight, and we had already eaten dinner and her daughters were here unloading groceries and stuff, and I was finished that midterm I told you I really should've started earlier.
But later she started talking to hailey and asking about the trips were taking/weekends we'll be gone because she wants to drive us to the loire valley for a day.
We talked and figured out all of our schedules and marked it all on her calendar in the kitchen. I understood a lot that was going on and was even able to throw in a couple of the french words I knw, that was exciting.
Then I successfully asked her if Tiffany could spend the night the last night here.
And then I started to ask her another question,

"Je suis un outre question.."

and her response was

"j'ai.. j'ai"

And then I realized/hailey told me, I was saying I AM a question. So she told me how to say I HAVE a question. My french is really de-proving. {you know, the opposite of improving.}
Anyways, the other day when I went to versailles they had one whole ceiling that was painted but covered with tiny pieces of paper. Me and tiffany wondered about that, and if it was for restoration, and Katherine, my lady is an art restorer so I took a picture of it so that I could ask her about it. RESULT! She explained everything to us, how it works, and I understood a lot of that also, which is so good for me, that was an advanced subject I would say.
So we ended up talking for what feels like twelve hours. And it was nice, not too boring which it usually is, but a good convo.
I finally made it back to my room and looked at the time and it was 11:20 pm. Wowzas. I continued working on my homework then Katherine broke out the chocolate cake. She got it for us for the weekend but we never ended up eating it and she asked "why!?" So her and hailey stayed in the kitchen and ate some but I did not really want any [I already have felt pregnant for a week from all I've been eating] and I needed to focus.
Then like twenty minutes later she walks into my room with a little plate of chocolate cake and set it on my bed next to me.
"Viola" -I love when the french say that, and she always says that.
Thank you katherine for being such a cool lady.

school should not be mandatory in Paris.

Happy tucson day! It's all saints day, November 1st and how you say it in french sounds like "tucson." When my french teacher was talking about it yesterday I raised my hand and said

"Je suis de TUCSon!"
and smiled.

Everyone laughed at me.

Its tuesday night, and tmrw is wednesday - fine arts class. The one where we go to museums and learn art history while we look at the real things. Pretty chouette if you ask me. And that is the exact reason that I might not do so well in this class grade-wise.. Walking around the louvre for three hours kind of makes you loose focus. My notes are not at all good enough to complete the midterm assignment that I am supposed to be doing right this very second. Instead I turn to the reasons why I can't do it.
[and maybe I just don't WANT to do it. period.]

I get side-tracked in this class, and do things like this;

Macro shots of Anna's eyes.

{these are the hallways of my school}

This will always be the funniest picture in the world.
So i'm protesting school right now. Its just not fair. I'm in PARiS gosh darn it, I don't have the time to focus on schoolwork, give me a break.
Okay but seriously now I have to get back to working on my paper.

Carrot soup for dinner. Still hungry.
<3