My Last Parisian Post!!

By the time you are reading this I will probably be in America! Yay! But that's for another time. Keep checking because I'll probably have stuff I forgot to write about that I post after I'm home!

This is my friend Emily. From the second week we were here we planned out our Louis Vuitton excursion. She had been saving for a long long time, so I was her personal shopper :) and we went to the Louis Store on St. Germain. And it was a good time. The guy was like, "I am here to serve you!" and when Emily didn't like the look of something he would say, "Should I take it away?" To which Emily would reply, "Yes, take it away!" The irony of this picture is that she is digging for the metro ticket she had to buy because she didn't want to pay for another month of Navigo (unlimited metro usage). It's kind of funny I guess... and there's a Louis bag in it. We had fun on the way home on the train too. When people would get to close to the bag we would say PEOPLE! Do you NOT see the name on this bag? Back off. Only to ourselves, don't worry we didn't really yell at people. They wouldn't have been able to understand us anyway.

This was the same day that our apartment building got broken into. The apartment below me had a computer, ipod, and some other expensive things stolen. So Emily was really worried about her Louis while we were in class. She hid them behind the curtains and everything. And that night she had watched an episode of the Tudors that had people getting executed in it, and I had watched a Desperate Housewives where Fairview has a guy who is going around strangling young women. I was too afraid to go to the bathroom :)

This is Emily and my last night out. Sad day. We both took pictures on this bridge near Bastille. We went to a café in front of Notre Dame and had a drink. Then we went to Bastille to have Nachos at Indiana! It was quite delicious. It was FREEZING. But you gotta do what you gotta do to look good in a picture.

Me and Alexa Bear!! We had fun making delicious chicken soup. I missed her a lot and I'm really glad she got to come. We went to Versailles. And got separated from her parents. Really long story short. 5 hours later everyone was randomly reunited at my apartment. And we went to Notre Dame and Ile Saint-Louis. Then the next day she got a really bad eye infection. Which is unfortunate. But I got to play tour guide and showed the Wilcoxes around Paris. I hope I did a good job.

Miss Emily P and myself on the 6 on our way towards the Eiffel on my birthday! Look how young and naive I look right? One of my friends congratulated me on never being a teen mother. I laughed. But anyway, Emily and I went to the Eiffel and I turned 20 in front of it where Hitler stood. I feel like I've written this before. But oh well. I got my picture taken with it right when it started sparkling!

Class let out early one day, so I just went to the Champ de Mars to read a book.. and this was my view. I'm gonna miss this.

I'm more than a little excited to go home and have Taco Bell and White Castle and to see my family and everything. But I'm going to miss Paris! It's been a blast and it's hard to believe I'm leaving. Everything became so ordinary... Oh hey. Want to go shopping on Rivoli today? Nah, I was thinking something more like going to the Louvre or something. This has been my life for the past 4 months. And in Springfield it's pretty much: Do you want to go to the Walmart on Glenstone or the one on Campbell. haha I will adjust I suppose. We shall see.

More to come probably! So for one of the last times-

À tout à l'heure!

So here's the deal

My roommate moved out today. HALLE-freakingLUJAH. But she took all the toilet paper. And the shower gel. To her boyfriend's house. Oh. Actually I meant to her boyfriend's mom's house. Because he's 23. And he lives with his mom. And his girlfriend is moving in. But if he still lives with his mom. I'm pretty sure it's still his mom's responsibility to buy him toilet paper. and shower gel. I'm livid. And it's kind of a downer. Because I was so excited when she left. At least she cleaned the bathroom and swept the hall liked she was supposed to. But left me with the mile high pile of recycling, the trash, the greasy stove, dirty countertops, and sink. But she's gone. So that's the good thing.

I'm done with finals today! Yeah! And I get Taco Bell in T-3 days. So that's exciting.

That's all I got for now.

À tout à l'heure.

This is my friend Emily and I on one of our brutal French Civilization walks. Our class has to walk around Paris while the teacher tells us stuff. Sounds fun right? That's what I thought. But not so much. The professor is always six miles in front of the group and only tells what she has to the two people that can keep up with her. It's so bad that some of the kids pop into the supermarket and get some Heinekens to get it through the walk...and during class people crack open a bottle of cab to make it through. Just to describe how it is.

This is in Lyon :) they have their own Eiffel too. I can't remember if I already posted this. If I did... oops! But it is the same as the top-most section of the Eiffel and they use it as an electrical/satellite hub. So Lyons is basically a mini Paris.

Mom and Catie have deemed this picture "sex-pot" and want me to take it off Facebook. I don't really understand why and I just like to make them mad :) What say you?

One of the girls in my sorority came through Paris on a tour she is taking (she studied in Edinburgh, Scotland) and we threw down the gammas in front of the Eiffel :) We also went to Angelina and while I was waiting for her at the Metro a creepy Moroccan man came up and sat down next to me and asked me if I wanted to get a coffee. When I said no thanks he asked if I wanted a Coke instead. And then he asked me if I wanted to go sit on those benches "just over there." At this point I was calling Ashley to meet her or something... And then she showed up! And then he followed us. So I suddenly needed to go into a souvenir shop to look at something for my mom and he didn't follow us anymore. But I was on the lookout for him for the rest of the day and I firmly believe I successfully avoided being human-trafficked in Marrakech. All in a good day's work right?

That's all for now!!

À tout à l'heure!

Lots has happened

So. I've been to Italy, Germany, and the South of France since my last post.

I don't have a whole bunch to say, but I'll post some pictures with explanations.

Look how cool I am taking a tourist picture at the leaning tower of PISA. I'm not good with awkward tourist pictures.

Me and my dear sweet cousin Rachel at the train station in Cologne. We had a wonderful long weekend together filled with biking, walking, and E4 (a British TV station with American shows).

Theo, lookin too cool for school in my one pound sunglasses from Primark in London. Ain't he cute?

We made chocolate mousse at Alexia's house in Lyons... I love chocolate. (and no I'm not bleeding, it's chocolate)

Alexia's apartment is roundabout the big crayon building. This is a view of Lyons from a Church we walked a mile and a year up steps to get to. When we went out of the house in the morning I didn't sign up for such a trek, but I guess you could say it was worth it in the end.

Now I am back in Paris, soaking up my last few weeks, not quite ready to leave, but ready to see all the friends and family.

À tout à l'heure!

Since I'm Procrastinating Enough Anyway...

So this week I have a presentation, an accounting test, and a persuasive speech. I'm ready for the presentation, don't even know what the test is over in Accounting, and haven't chosen a topic for my persuasive speech... I'm doing fine right? HA. Today wasn't nearly as productive as I had hoped, but I did watch two intense episodes of 24. Which is always a good day. Well, for me, it's not such a good day for Jack Bauer...

Anyway... look at this picture!

While Paden was here we saw a huge march/demonstration. It went from Bastille (above) almost all the way to my street. Which is like a mile and a half. And it didn't start in Bastille, I'm pretty sure it was throughout the city. Paden really really really wanted to go march in it. But I'm a killjoy and said no because for all he knew they were demonstrating to cut the heads off of every third person in Botswana. Turns out it they were the communist party (that's what one of my teachers said at least, but she's kind of an idiot, so who knows). Anyway. They had flares and megaphones and "We hate Sarkozy" stickers. Poor Sarkozy. haha. So that was pretty cool. There were I think 800,000 people who marched in this thing then we saw 2 people that were the opposition that were hold up a piece of cardboard that said "Work less to live better" on the side of the road.
Thank you English man for taking a picture of me and Paden... but we kind of wanted one with the Arc de Triomphe too... Oh well. It was FREEZING this day. And we did lots of walking the whole time he was here. We walked from my apartment to the Louvre a couple times. And we got a falafel in the Marais, which happens to be the Jew/Gay district of Paris. We also went to Angelina that day and got drinking chocolate. Which is probably the most amazing drink in existence. Then we went to Bordeaux and I could only put 6 pictures up at a time, so there is a big time lapse between the picture above and the next one. But in between the two we met mom and dad in Bordeaux, went to some vineyards, Padey left, and then mom and dad and I went to Fontainebleau which is the hunting lodge of the royal family. I can now see that I am going to have to do another post with more pictures because there is a lot more missing than I thought. It will be out of order, but what does it matter to you, the reader. It only matters that I tell you about it :)
So this was Easter at Mont Saint Michel. Mom, Dad and I went there with the Navions. Alexia and I have this picture from 3 years ago in the same spot only we were in shorts and flip flops then. It was really fun to watch mom go around and be in awe of all the stuff at Mont Saint Michel because I had already been there and she hadn't :)
Here you go Sherri! There's momsie and popsicle. We are at the 7th best bar in all of Europe. It's a landmark that can't be changed apparently. But it was really cool. We were in Bretagne, so we HAD to get some calvados right? Mostly right. I got a Malo Saint which is lime juice and cointreau. And then I tasted the calvados. I'm not a fan of the calvados, but cointreau I am in favor of. (And mom really wanted a picture on my blog, so here you go mommy)
This is my French brother Thomas sitting on a wall that is like 40 feet down on the other side. But that's the English channel in the background. It was very pretty, and St. Malo was the perfect place to celebrate Easter. We were going to go to the 11am mass at the cathedral of St. Malo, but it wasn't at 11. It was at 10:30 and the front desk people told us the wrong time. And then wouldn't let us use the upstairs bathroom. They weren't very nice. But we stayed for the end of the service and when they finished the choir sang "Alleluia" and it reverberated in the cathedral. Then we walked outside and the bells were ringing and ringing and ringing. It was very Eastery. And according to Alexia the church bells don't ring from Thursday to Sunday morning, and to celebrate the raising of Christ they ring like crazy after the Easter service. Very cool!

Okay, so there will be more to come about Fontainebleau and Athens in the future. Hopefully this will tide all four of you who read this over :)

À tout à l'heure!

It's been too long

Soooo, I realize it's been about 8 years since I updated everyone. Sorry about that, but unfortunately, this is the best I can do for now. I went on Spring Break, then Paden was here :), and now my parents are here. Then the week they leave I have a test, a speech, and a presentation, then I will be traveling. But hopefully I'll get a good update in there somewhere... But I'm still in Paris! And it's still awesome! The semester has flown by though! I only have a little more than 6 weeks left!

(HI AUNTIE M :) :) )

Le le Loire. Valley that is!

Welcome to the Loire Valley! A group of people took a day trip to see Chenenceau Chateau and Leonardo Da Vinci's house. We had to meet at 7:45, early for a bunch of 20-22 year olds that haven't woken up that early since they pulled themselves out of bed every morning in High School. The bus ride was about 3 hours, so there wasn't much talking on the way there. Our bus was awesome too! When we went to Normandy we ended up with this really sketch bus with two drivers who didn't even know where they were going. I'm sure we got lost a couple of times, but that's a different story. THIS bus was the batman bus. It was all black and when you stepped into it you saw smooth black leather and chrome. There was even a button you could push for coffee (we didn't pay for that option though, so there was no coffee involved). The point being- it was a cool bus. We called her Harmony.

Oh ya know, just Leo's backyard. Or part of it. This was just the view from the back of his Chateau that François I gave him. He also received the same amount as a prince each year (700 units of whatever currency). This was the coolest part of the whole place, it had his inventions scattered throughout and you could play with them too! But the grounds go on forever. There's a couple ponds and some bridges and a movie theater back there too. It looks a lot like the setting of the movie Ever After too, but maybe I just thought that because Da Vinci was in it... The actual chateau (which was behind me when I took this photo) was quite disappointing. Nothing looked original and there was a bunch of random stuff that was really out of place in it. And you weren't allowed to take pictures! I took some anyway, but they aren't very good. My favorite part was the blown up photo copy of the Vitruvian man... it was pretty tacky.

This is a house that is built into a hill in the city of Amboise (where Da Vinci's place is). It was really really neat, this is just one of a few that we saw on the way to Da Vinci's. You can even see the chimney coming out of the top! It'd be awesome to live in a house like this. Amboise is a really cute little town too. After we went to Da Vinci's we were going to go to the Chateau of Amboise, but we got there and found that it was 8€. Everyone agreed that was a little too much to see a chateau (I mean, once you've seen one you've seen 'em all... right...?). So instead we went to a little café and got some hot wine since it was about 3 degrees outside. It was pretty good, it might have to become an alternative to hot cider at Christmas time. Once I'm 21 of course.

This is at Chateau Chenenceau (there's a picture at the bottom) in the gardens. There was a cool maze (like Harry Potter) with a gazebo in the middle of it. When the Navions took the family to Chenenceau we got some good pictures here! The vines actually had flowers on them then though. But I bet you're wondering why we're holding up L's-or at least why some of us are haha. We had a race (boy against girls, there was only one boy) to see who could get to the middle fastest. And we lost. The boy took a victory picture, so we had to take a non-victory picture I guess.

This was a day full of Harry Potter references. If you will notice this tree is a miniature version of the Whomping Willow in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. And if you further examine the photo you will see that I am, indeed, holding a wand and taming the vicious tree, just like in the book (but not the movie). Yes, I realize the implications of this picture, but I took it for my friend Maddy Johnson who is also a Harry Potter aficionado. So hopefully she reads this.

Et voilà, le chateau de Chenenceau. I'm pretty sure Catie doesn't read this, but she says this is her favorite chateau. It was kind of a cold, gray day, and it was under construction, but it's still a very cool chateau! It's famous because it spans the Loire. Henry and Catherine lived here (don't ask me which ones...) and on the inside there are decorations that have an H and a C overlaying each other. And when you do that there are two D's that are formed. Well, Henry had a mistress named Diane, and Catherine couldn't deal with that so she either didn't live here anymore, or she had most of them removed... I don't really remember, as Mom told me this like 3 years ago in passing. So it's also possible that I made most of that up, but it's still a cool story!

But this is definitely a true story: the second level on the left is a long gallery, and during World War I it was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers. I know that one's right!

Well, I hope you enjoyed your petit tour of the Loire, there are about a million and five more chateaus to see, but that's for another time. I should probably go write my speech I have this Thursday or something now...

Oh. and PADEN comes in less than 2 weeks. And Spring Break starts Friday. And after Paden is here my parents come. And then it's APRIL! And I go to Florence and Germany and then it's May... where has this semester gone!?!?

À tout à l'heure!