Lately

Well, lately a lot has been going on. Besides homework-of course.

Three of us went to an English play near Pont Neuf. The theater was absolutely charming. Basically it was a platform in a tiny basement that looks like a World War II bomb shelter. It was really really cool. The play was called Betrayal by Pinter. It was an interesting story, but it was almost more interesting to watch the old guy in front of us mouth the words to the whole play and then get really angry when the actors didn't deliver a line like he thought they should. Then every once in a while he would swat at the air at a bug that kept flying around. Eventually he killed it by slapping it against his face... ew.

Then later that night, after the play, we had dinner at our apartments then went out to a friend of Alexia's! It was really fun! I got to meet her super sweet boyfriend (hehe :P Alexia) and a couple of her friends that live in Paris. The people I took really enjoyed it, and everyone had fun speaking Franglish :)

I also went to dinner at the Cartier's this week. I got some French speaking in there too. Dr. Cartier had a dinner meeting he had to go to, so he wasn't there. But Geraldine, Vincent, Aliette, and Rianna were there (Rianna family friend who is staying with them while her husband recovers from surgery-I'm pretty sure her name was Rianna! But, unless they were joking she knows karate, and was one of the Vampires in Buffy). We ate genuine fondue! It was really really good. Really really bad for you, I'm sure, as the sauce that was mixed with the cheese was mostly butter. But as Julia Child would say-butter makes it better.

The fondue was a nice mix up as this is my recurring meal- pasta which eggs and tea. Not very nutritious (well, neither is fondue), but it's cheap. A bag of 68 cent pasta lasts about 2 weeks.

Geraldine- Dr. Cartier's daughter was super nice and told me to call her any time. She's on Spring Holiday right now, but I'll try to call her when I get back from London :) More to come on that! She and her boyfriend have been together for 5 years I think, and she wants to go on a double date with me and Paden when he gets here (her boyfriend is half English, so there won't be a language barrier for Padey :)

Well, I suppose that's all for now! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

À tout à l'heure!

A few photos from Normandy

This is from Point du Hac. It was a good day for pictures Ben-overcast :) Well... when it wasn't raining or snowing. It was really muddy up here, so the bus drivers checked peoples shoes and if they weren't clean enough you had to go wipe them off in the grass. Which made your boots...my boots... soaked all the way through again. So I guess I owe a big thank you to the bus drivers for being sick. But ANYWAY. At least I didn't fall and get mud all over my pants and side like on of my other friends did. They weren't going to let her on the bus until she cleaned up, but there wasn't really much possibility of that because the bathrooms were closed. I think someone had a blanket or something that they let her sit on.

This is Omaha Beach. You can walk down a path from the American Cemetery to the beach. It was really windy and through lots of little treed over paths and stuff. It it weren't so solemn it would have been quaint.

This is only part of a part of it. It was incredible. It sounds really lame now, but the only thing you could really think as you were walking through was thank you.

This was taken part way down the path I was talking about earlier.

There was a monument before all of the crosses. We didn't really get a closer look, but I did get a chance to snap a picture.

Watching Jack Bauer being tortured on 24 somehow makes my throat hurt less.

Well. Last night was awesome. NOT! I had a fever and I was freezing even with socks, sweats, 2 blankets, a hat, and the heat turned up all the way. I fell asleep for a couple of hours and had really weird dreams that had Gandhi and Squidward from Spongebob in them. It was bizarre. But then woke up because it was really really really hot. And that's how it went for the rest of the night.

This morning I gargled some salt water- not a good experience. And had some hot tea. And I go to meet Alexia in about 30 minutes.

But before all that happened! Alexia came over and hung out for a while and we tried to work out plans for going to Lyon or Angers :) We're both pretty booked though!! And we were speaking in French! Finally!!

Normandy pictures soon!

À tout à l'heure!

Snow!

These are all but two of the girls in my program :) We had our welcome dinner near l'Opéra and it started snowing! So we got a picture. It's so picturesque :)

More from Normandy later!

Demain

Tomorrow the group is leaving at 8 to go to Normandy to see the DDay Beaches and the American Cemetery and Point du Hac. It should be a good trip!

And then on the way back I am getting dropped off a train station to go to Alexia's house! A friend that I met when I was staying with her is having a birthday party, and she invited me :) So I'll be au Mans for the rest of the weekend.

I'll keep you updated! And there should be lots of pictures from this weekend!

À tout à l'heure!

Greece!

So, today I booked my trip to Greece! My friend Emily and I will be staying at a five start hotel. We're pretty excited about it. It was a super deal too! We have poolside room. With a view of the Acropolis and a rooftop garden/ bar open 365 days a year. Needless to say, it's gonna be a good time. Most def.

That's pretty much all for now! More pictures to come!!

À tout à l'heure!

It's neiging!

Don't worry Missouri!! Paris is getting snow too :) It's not NEARLY as much, but it's still happening!

Oh global warming.

À tout à l'heure!

People do run in Paris!

SO! I just got back from an AWESOME run from my apartment to a nearby monument that I won't say on here so I don't get in trouble for posting things about where I live :) It was about a 1 1/2 miles! It was really really really good! We're going to make it a goal to go from our apartment to the Eiffel Tower!! It's going to be great! We both want to come back and have people be like WOAH! You need to eat more, only we're actually just going to have six packs :) hahaha

Anyway, that's pretty much the only exciting thing that happened since the last time I updated. Literally :) just class and stuff, which isn't exciting!

I think I might be getting sick, and I'm really cold, so I think I'm going to take a bit of a nap and cuddle up in my blankets!!

À tout à l'heure!

Some pictures :)

Alexa making us wait....
My friend Emily and me before we went out on the town :) Waiting for Alexa!

Our little meal :) This is the first meal I made for my roommate and me (or I... can't figure out which one would be better). It's kind of a rendition of something I made for Mom and Dad before I left: Chicken with shallots and garlic with a honey/dijon/mayo sauce (which was a rendition of the Frederick Family Christmas pork loin sauce!) . The carrots, salad and bread are just Frenchie things :)
I think we all know what this is... But this is a sweet sweet victory because it was after our indirect trek there from Notre Dame. Oh what college kids will do to save a buck... or a euro :) (We were avoiding the metro so Alexa didn't have to pay)

Alexa took this one because her camera malfunctioned for a while. But volià la Sacre Coeur! We were pretty close so it was hard to get a good shot.

So this is Notre Dame... with a Christmas Tree in front of it! That's pretty much it. This is right before we went to mass inside of it. Which was really cool! We had a guy take our picture in front of it, but it's on Alexa's camera. So that might be up later.

It's been a while!

Sorry, I've been pretty busy! Alexa got here on Friday. I got two hours of sleep the night before and woke up at 6 in the morning to take three trains to go get her. And when I get there it's just when her plane is arriving and I ask where the gate is because it doesn't say on the sign. The guy tells me that the flight number I said was coming in at 9:30 tonight, so this is the point where I start to get a little nervous. So I walk around and look at the signs a little bit, and see that there is a flight that is one number off that she is probably on, so I go ask where the gate is for that and the guy gave me the number and I wait there for an hour. And it has her flight number and everything on the screen saying the baggage is being unloaded. So I went to the counter and asked if she was on the flight and the lady was like... well... I can't tell you... but yes. So I walk around and I was freeeeeaking out! I just kept thinking to myself, "I lost my best friend in Paris, I lost my best friend in Paris....." so after I had waited and asked around I just went and sat in a corner and tried to figure out what to do. I turned my phone on and texted my mom and Paden and my trip advisor, and at this point I'm pretty much in tears. And I look up and there she is! It was like she was a shining star hahaha. I now know what true relief feels like. I was very very scared. Because I gave her directions to get to the apartment, but, obviously, she didn't write them down.

SO after that crazy moment was over I had to go to Macroeconomics. Which is not going to be fun at all. We'll see how that goes.

So then a group of us went out on the town for a while, and that was pretty fun. We went to Bastille and a couple other places. And we got back home and fell asleep. Then Saturday we went shopping for food and got some bauggettes and made a little lunch at home. Sunday we had a really cool day! We went to the Champs Élysée and went shopping (there were big big sales!) I bought 2 things and both of them were marked at one price and when I got to the register they were even cheaper! Yeah! I love that!

We got an outrageously expensive meal at George V of french fries and hot dogs- it said sausage on the menu, I did not intentionally order a hotdog on the Champs. I got my first citron pressé this trip too, but it was waaaaaay to lemony. After shopping we took the train in the general direction of Notre Dame. We were just going to take pictures of it and then head somewhere else because it was so insanely cold. We bought gloves from this vendor in the metro for 5€ and Alexa put on her new coat and I bought a new overcoat thing. And we were following behind these Americans and they were talking about going to mass. And Alexa and I looked at each other and I was said, "Want to go to mass?" and she was like, "Yes I do." So we followed them in a non-creepy way and we were wondering what church this mass would be in. Turns out it was in Notre Dame. So, you know, we just went to mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France... no big. It was pretty cool though. I've only been to a couple of other catholic services, and I always feel weird when I don't take communion, but I guess it's the rules. But it was really interesting to see the people there because it was like a church community, but it was in Notre Dame. They had announcements and offering and the people were greeting each other and babies were crying and everything a church back in Rolla would. But it was in Notre Dame!

Any way, after that we decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower to save Alexa's metro tickets. And we were just following the spot light, so we got a little bit turned around... and then we saw something glittering like it does every hour and we got really excited, but it ended up being a hotel :/ BUT! We FINALLY made it there! And we passed Invalides on the way. We walked up there and took some pictures and we went up to where Hitler got his picture taken and then we came back home, had a bottle of wine, and went to bed!

And now I'm here updating this blog :)

I need to do some homework sometime today... But we're going to go shopping again because the stores on Rue de Rivoli will be open. My brown boots I just got at Christmas are lookin pretty rough because I wear them every day... literally.

:) Sorry it's been a while, I'll have pictures up too, once I get them all on my computer!

À tout à l'heure!