time is going by way too quickly. i haven’t really been posting because every day has been filled up to the brim, and even today i have hardly any time. so this is going to be a quick overview of the past 3 weeks.
three weeks ago, nothing particularly exciting happened at first. i had fhe, made a new friend (sam bowen from england) and hunkered down for midterms. friday, however, i went on a boat tour on the seine with landon, shelly, tatum, linda, rachel, noelle, whitney, and krista. it was gorgeous. also really nice to orient myself a little bit more in the city after seeing where everything is in relation to the river. whitney and i also got two new temporary roommates – fifteen year old girls from england for 5 days. they were nice enough, but a little on the bratty side. it was nice to speak in english, though.
the next day my group got to have a tour of the opera garnier. it was cool and gorgeous and i couldn’t get phantom of the opera out of my head. after that, ashley landon and i went to meet maddie’s brother, alex, who happened to be in paris and grabbed some crepes. you can never go wrong with the 5 euro crepes and a drink deal. sorry for the lack of pictures, my camera died early on in the tour!
the next day, whitney and i met linda, rachel, krista, shelly, and brayden in versailles to see the palace gardens. the fountains were going, the leaves were just barely changing colors, and it was just gorgeous. once we left and were walking back to the train station, it started pouring. and when i say pouring, i mean everyone (including the french) instantly ran for cover. we all were soaked to the bone, we probably looked like we had jumped in a pool with all of our clothes on. but, it was fun and funny and memorable, and an overall good day.
the next week was mainly dominated by the uk trip (which i will cover in another post) but monday i was still able to do some fun stuff around paris. krista, alyssa r, tatum, whitney, shelly and i did the concorde walk out of our paris walks book. it was beautiful! all of us but shelly went to the musee de l’orangerie afterwards, which houses monet’s water lilies and other gorgeous paintings by him and other artists. i loved it. it might be my favorite museum after the musee d’orsay. krista and i went and “read” (talked) in the tuileries gardens afterwards and it was just lovely. fhe was a blast, and i saw turbo with tom, luz, melissa, nadine, and sam. it was actually so cute and i had a blast being with them. mondays never disappoint thanks to my wonderful ja/ysa friends.
after my long travel weekend in the uk, things got real and i realized i had a lot to get done. somehow i still managed to procrastinate until the last possible second, but i think it’s understandable being in paris. fhe was amazing as always, morgan linda and i decided to join the decorating committee for the dance that’s happening on november ninth, and it was a great choice. that committee formed club google, with pedro, scott, sam, abish, grace, and a couple others. i laughed so hard i cried. and then i almost cried on the way home because i realized how soon i had to say bye to these amazing people… still am freaking out about that quite a bit.
tuesday brought another fun adventure, a walk in the strange land of la defense with whitney and ashley. it’s the complete opposite of paris, huge shiny buildings and skyscrapers. i loved it. it was so unexpected and awesome.
wednesday was uneventful, but thursday was a good day. it was halloween, but i basically pretended it wasn’t because not a lot goes on in paris for halloween. we did have art in the musee d’orsay, which i love, and i got to eat lunch by the seine with linda alex rachel and whitney, so i’d say it’s not too bad of a trade-off. after art, rachel whitney shelly linda and i made a trip to the american store to get some good old reese’s peanut butter cups (peanut butter does not exist here, it’s so weird) before heading to the movies to see gravity, which was surprisingly very good. it was so intense i could hardly breathe at points! and i love george clooney, so that’s always a plus.
friday we went to the quai branly museum with our art class (basically the “other” category of art to the french, we mainly looked at african art.) it was cool, but we were all starving by the time class ended to rachel whitney linda landon and i headed to the crepe place and happened to run in to scott as well! after we went to shakespeare and company for quite some time, i could easily spend hours and hours in there. after that it was once again time for dinner at chez dupetit.
saturday was amazing, linda and i did the montmartre walk and then explored the area and shopped a bit with rachel and whitney as well. it was a gorgeous day and such a cool part of the city. after that, whitney rachel and i met up with bree and ashley to see thor. it was a great movie, and the amorino’s gelato afterwards was even better. we ended the night with some antm at rachel and linda’s house, a solid saturday.
sunday was amazing. a super spiritual day. it was testimony meeting and i got to go to young women’s to cheer on alex and krista teaching. all of us girls bore our testimonies about missions and in general and it was perfect. the strength of the young girls here is amazing to me. i can’t wait to go on my mission.
yesterday was pretty boring, just a lot of class and working on papers. fhe was wonderful, as always. i never will stop singing praises about it. we had a quick second club google meeting that again ended up with me in tears from laughing so hard.
that brings us to today, which involves me procrastinating my paper and other various homework assignments and studying for finals. my time is quickly running out here, i only have 8 days left here in paris and 14 left in the program. heartbroken is a light way to put how i’m feeling. i love paris, but i will miss the people here even more. i can always come back to this city but i will never have the same experience i’ve had here again. that being said, i am so grateful every day for the chance i had to come here with the amazing people in my program and meet everyone here. you bet i’m going to make the most of the short time i have left, after i get this dang homework done. if only i could do study abroad without the whole studying part….
song of the day: paris – magic man
rivers and roads 