falling in love too much.

i have a problem. i love too many places. i love paris, i love lille, i love bruges, i love bordeaux, and now? now i love prague, too. i went for just a quick weekend trip with my closest girlfriend here and we had such an amazing time. i took my first low-cost flight through easy jet (and yes, it was so easy) and made my way to eastern europe.

i had a few signs of lust before i realized it was love. first, the sunset. i only saw it for a few minutes before getting to the metro, but it's been quite some time since i've seen something so beautiful. second, how clean and quiet the metro was. no homeless people begging for money, no smell of bodily functions, just the hush of people moving around. third, the single file lines on the escalator. it's incredible. people actually ride the escalators in one line on the far right so people in a hurry can pass on the left.

i was still lusting on the metro listening to the language. we got off and walked through wenceslas square. the national museum is at one end and in front of it sits a statue of saint wenceslas. the first post-communist president (václav havel) passed away around christmas time and so there was a memorial there for him. candles and flowers were everywhere--it was lovely.

i was lusting some more over an espresso learning some basic phrases to (hopefully) help us get by for the weekend. our host was very patient, which is terribly important when 'learning' a language that literally sounds nothing like the two that you already know.

the first signs of love came soon after. we saw the astrological clock in the old town square then walked toward old charles bridge. i could just feel the charm, the city was oozing with it..even in the dark. i'm a sucker for charm, so i could pretty much tell i was doomed from that point on. then we had dinner. we ate at an incredible restaurant. the food, in a word, was scrumptious. and the beer? amazing. i had a sauerkraut and bratwurst soup followed by a budweiser goulash. don't let the name budweiser fool you, the czech budweiser has nothing in common with the american budweiser (thankfully). we had more beer for dessert and called it a night.

the next morning was when it was all over. it had snowed over night. my first snow in europe. there is such a calm that comes over a place when it snows. luli and i made our way to the prague castle. we missed the walking tour we wanted to take that morning so we decided to tackle the castle ourselves and go on the second walking tour offered later that day. the castle was amazing. the view was beautiful and st vitus' cathedral was breathtaking.

it was snowing while we walked back to the old town square for our tour. beautiful, gentle falling snow. the tour was perfect. we learned so much about the city. we walked all over the place, saw amazing things, and met amazing people. it was pouring snow when the tour ended so we decided it was a great time to sit down and have a beer. best place to do it? at a monastery. my monk-brewed beer was fantastic.

we decided to keep up with our new friends and all go on a bar crawl together that night. it was so fun. we played flip cup, jenga, reenacted famous sculptures, and had the most amazing night. i don't know if any of my nights compare since moving here.

i decided there is no such thing as too much love, so i'm in love..again (and i don't hate it.)

reflections and lasers

i just looked down at my calendar and somehow it's been more than two months since my last post. i'm the world's worst writer. just like ever other journal i've ever started, my attempts at writing have gone right down the drain. with actual journals i think i stop writing because i get bored with my own thoughts and opinions. however, for this 'journal', i wanted to make it more of a documentation of my life and adventures in france. somehow i'm still awful at it. i'm not big on new year's resolutions, but i'm going to try really really hard to keep up with my life here before it completely flashes before my eyes.

the holiday season has come to an end. the holidays (as always) are a time for reflection, hopes, wishes, dreams, and for love and happiness. this was the first year of my life i didn't spend the holiday's with my parents. this whole experience has made me realize how obsessed with my family i am. they're the most wonderful people in the world and my days would be incredibly dark without them.

we'll start with thanksgiving. i wasn't going to celebrate at all, then a horribly tragic event happened and i found myself in normandy with my little sister. we reflected on a life lost and got to spend the holiday weekend together. we ate turkey and pumpkin pie, watched 'elf' over and over again, decorated for christmas, and drank apple cider. i can never express how much i am thankful for and this year is no different. i'm so lucky to continuously have so many blessings come into my life, they all add to my already long list. trying to explain the meaning of thanksgiving to my students was rather tough. they don't have a holiday even remotely close to it and just don't seem to grasp the importance of reflecting on your life and being grateful for the things in it. yes, little frenchies, there is way more in life to be thankful for than shopping, video games, and money.

the weekend after thanksgiving cari and a friend of hers, rachel, came to lille to visit. the christmas market was in full swing. ferris wheel, carrousel, mulled wine, waffles, christmas trees and christmas lights everywhere. france really knows how to do christmas. we spent the day in the city wandering around vieux lille and the centre ville, went to the musée des beaux arts, and even got to catch a free show at the opéra. it was one of the best weekends i've had in lille since i moved here. it's the type of memory i want bottle up so i am able to remember every detail forever.

i've had a lot of memories like that since coming here. there'd be about a hundred bottles from my christmas vacation alone. for starters, my older sister got engaged to an absolutely incredible man the day before she flew over the pond for her visit. i cannot wait to call houston my brother, he's so great. cari and i are going to be co-maids of honor in the wedding. here's a little snippet on how she told us he proposed and asked us to be her maids of honor:

we had a seriously amazing trip together. i picked dani up at charles de gaulle on the 17th and we met cari at gare de lyon in paris. we got lunch then started our two week vacation. first stop: marseille. we stayed at the most adorable hostel (vertigo, vieux port) and got to walk around a beautiful mediterranean city for a few days. we ate 'moules frites' by the port, walked to the old fisherman's village, wandered around 'le panier,' and saw amazing cathedrals.

after marseille we headed to bordeaux. i don't think i can love a city more than paris, but bordeaux came pretty close. i love wine, so it's not really a big surprise that i would fall for a place like bordeaux with it's  many vineyards. perks of being there during the winter: cheap wine tastings. we went to two different chateaux and tasted one gross wine and two tasty wines. the weather wasn't the best while we were there, but for the most part it held out and we didn't see too much rain. we walked all over the city--saw old ruins, an enormous park and botanical garden, incredible architecture (of course) and took plenty of time to sit in café's drinking coffee and hot chocolate.

we headed to paris on the 23rd. i am like a little girl when it comes to that city. there isn't anywhere in this country more incredible to me. i discover new things each and every time i'm there and it never ceases to amaze me. the more familiar i become with the streets and the metro, the more i love it. rachel met us at the hostel and we got settled and went walking around before dinner. we decided to splurge and spoil ourselves for one meal during our vacation. when my parents were here in october, we got the greatest restaurant recommendation from the concierge at our hotel. just a few minutes away from the eiffel tower, a little place called 'café constant' provided the best meal i've ever eaten. we loved it so much we ate there twice. the second time was just as good as the first, and taking dani there was a must. we considered it our 'christmas dinner' knowing a lot of places would be closed christmas eve and christmas day. i tried fois gras for the first time, we had a great bottle of wine, incredible meals, and fabulous desserts. if i could afford to eat at that place every day, i would.

on the 24th we got up and started our day at the musée d'orsay. we spent hours looking at the impressionist art on the 5th floor and could have stayed much longer if we weren't so hungry. we grabbed sandwiches and walked along the seine towards notre dame. we had a very important place to go: shakespeare and company (my favorite bookstore in paris.) i was dying to take dani and cari there. from the second i saw it i knew how much they'd love it. it's so quaint. there are hardly words to describe how great the atmosphere is. we went back to the hostel to talk to our mom and dad and our grandma and grandpa in louisiana. probably one of the most difficult conversations i've had. in a few words, i never want to spend christmas away from my parents again. it's a tradition for my dad to read us 'the night before christmas' every christmas eve before we go to bed. this year he read to us on skype. we hardly got through it, but it was a piece of home i can't do without. to lighten the mood my grandpa read us the cajun version afterwards. we left the hostel again to go to notre dame for the midnight mass. it was packed, but so beautiful. the choir sang hymns from 11 until 12, then mass started. the smell of frankincense and myrrh filled the entire cathedral. it was a great experience, but made me miss my church from home...so i hummed 'silent night' to myself on the way back to st. christopher's.

we had a really slow start on the 25th. i spent the whole day pretending it wasn't actually christmas. it was an amazing day, but didn't feel like christmas without my parents...so i decided it was just the 25th of december, nothing special. dani, cari, rachel, and i went ice skating on the first floor of the eiffel tower. easily one of the top 5 greatest things i've ever done. i haven't been on skates in years and it came back like riding a bike. the view was great and we laughed practically the whole time. when we had our ice skating fill we walked down the stairs, across the street, and rode a carrousel. we walked through one of the many christmas markets and headed to see the arc de triomphe and the big ferris wheel. there was another christmas market on the champs élysées--this one was an enormous 350 shop marché de noël that smelled like waffles and crêpes the whole way through.

on the 26th it was time to head to carentan, cari's adorable little town. we walked around for a while, and got the chance to relax for a few days. we played the french version of 'clue' and will be officially instating a family board game night when we move home. we got to skype with my mom and dad and gram and granddad in florida and tell them about our holiday.

we left carentan for lille on the 28th. we got in, had sandwiches for lunch, and grabbed hot chocolate and macaroons from paul (a lovely pâtisserie chain here in france) before going to check into our hotel. we read and relaxed a bit (traveling is exhausting in case you wanted to know) then went to grab dinner. we moseyed through the centre ville and along the rue de béthune and ate at my favorite crêpe restaurant. before heading back to paris on the 29th, we walked through vieux lille--my favorite part of the city here.

we stayed at the sheraton at the airport that night because my dad is the most amazing man that ever walked the face of the planet. dani's flight back home was the morning of the 30th and i'm pretty sure both cari and i were plotting ways to sneak on her flight so we could go home. homesickness hits me hard every now and again, and even pretending like christmas wasn't actually christmas didn't really help. i absolutely did not want to say goodbye to dani--we had such a fantastic trip and i would have given a lot to go home and share it all face-to-face with my family.

cari and i stayed at the aiport hotel until the last possible minute then took the rer-b back to paris for our last two nights of vacation. on the agenda: disney land for new years eve. it rained, but was still great. i forgot how much fun amusement parks are. roller-coasters, the smell of popcorn, people walking around in cheesy poncho's. and disney themed amusement parks? a buzz lightyear ride that lets you laser blast the evil emperor zurg, a peter pan flight, a pirates of the caribbean boat tour, and the swiss family robinson tree house. incredible. we had gross tex-mex for dinner (but what can you really expect in an amusement park in france?) the rain was pretty miserable, but the fireworks show at the end of the night made it all worth it. they were b-e-a-u-tiful. not a bad way to ring in the new year.

i made it back to armentières around lunch time on the 1st, unpacked, ate poptarts for lunch, then proceeded to sleep for about 20 hours. i have a few trip countdowns that will (hopefully) get me through my last few months here: first to prague, then to turkey and southern italy, and last but not least to greece. all before flying back to charlotte in may. it will be an exciting 4 months.

i'll be photo dumping onto facebook this weekend. so keep an eye out.

even in the rain..

so this past weekend my sweet sister, cari, came to visit me alllll the way from carentan. the weekend had an eventful start. there was a train strike on friday and all the trains throughout the country were off schedule. the train stations were disasters everywhere, people with luggage all over the place.

i spent the day in lille friday with luli, joe, and melissa. we took care of some very important paperwork then did some very important shopping at h&m. we went to meet cari at lille-europe and it was a mad house. we had a café while we waited--her train was delayed only about 20 minutes. so glad it wasn't longer than that (we were starving). when they posted her platform we walked down and for the first time in my life i saw two trains attached together to make one train. lots of people apparently wanted to come to lille for the weekend from paris. i can't blame them.

we decided on crêpes for dinner again..which is never a bad idea. i branched out of my usual crêpe box and had a savory one rather than sweet. cheese, mushrooms, ham and an easy over egg. it was incredible. i can't believe i almost went 25 years without having had a savory crêpe.

we took the train back to armentières and went to bed early--we had a big day ahead of us on saturday. we went to brugge, belgium. we wanted to leave early from armentières to catch the train at 9:05 from lille across the border. we of course missed our train. here's why:

ever since i can remember, before my family would go on a trip, my dad would do a 'roll call' of sorts. call out things to be sure we remembered to pack them. cell phone. cell phone charger. computer. computer charger. drivers license. plane tickets. underwear. socks. pants. you know..the usual. as a joke i did this in the hall way before we all headed out the door. "does everyone have their passports? train tickets? shoes?" we laughed. ha. ha. ha. of course we have all of those things! we get to the train station with just enough time for people to buy their tickets for the 8:21 train to lille who don't have passes. one person was running a bit behind and missed my 'roll call'. she didn't have their train ticket to belgium. i said to myself 'well, it's kind of pushing it, but there's another train that leaves at 8:36 to get to lille.' so then i said to her 'we can just take the next train. run back home and get it, we'll wait here with your stuff.' it was early. 8:15ish. i hadn't had coffee. what day was it again? oh, that's right, it was saturday and all the train times are different on the weekends than they are during the week. when was the next train again? 8:36? nope. 9:38. so our hopes to catch the 9:05 train to brugge flew right out the window. the next train to brugge was at 13:05.

on the bright side, i got to show cari around lille. we walked around vieux lille, had croissants for breakfast, and got sandwiches from 'paul' for lunch. and we played outside of the opera:

we got on the train at 13:00 and were in brugge by 14:45. another surprise of the weekend: the national language in belgium is not french. i don't know how i didn't know this. i thought they were one of those countries (like canada) that has two national languages. i thought it was dutch AND french. in canada, every sign has to be in both english and french. i figured it'd be the same thing in belgium. wrong. (i really should start doing a bit of research before i travel places.) dutch is not easy to understand. it's a strange mixture between english and german, so i can read it easily enough, but can not even come close to understanding the spoken language.

we took a rocky (understatement) bus ride to our hostel and got everything settled in our rooms then headed out to the center of town. we walked the wrong direction (of course) but finally made it. we were on the hunt to find 3 things: waffles, chocolate, and beer. it was the easiest thing i've ever done. there were all three all over the place. my personal heaven--chocolate everywhere. practically every other shop we walked past was a chocolatier. and in case you were wondering, belgian chocolate is everything everyone has ever said it is. it. is. amazing. we found a tiny place to have waffles for dinner. since i had a savory crêpe for dinner on friday, i convinced myself it was just fine to have a waffle covered in hot chocolate syrup, bananas, and whipped cream for dinner on saturday. i threw in a cup of hot chocolate just to make sure i got my fill of all things chocolate while i was there. it was melt in your mouth delicious.

we finished with our wonderful meal then walked to the main square. this is what took my breath away:

there were horse drawn carriages everywhere. we walked down so many charming, gorgeous streets i could look at my pictures every single day and never get tired of them. the only thing i wish was that it hadn't rained practically the whole time we were there. but even in the rain the town had this sort of romantic charm to it that i've never noticed a town having before. we were walking down streets and came across canal after canal, it was gorgeous. we heard it was 'the venice of the north' and i was certain it couldn't compare. it did. in its own way.

we went out to a tiny place called 'bar des amis' we met so many different people, it's incredible how friendly people are here. it's so easy to talk to people. also i can add a new beer to my list of favorites: leffe blonde. if you can find it back home, try it. it's yummy.

while we were walking through the square on saturday we noticed a big sign with salvidor dali's name on it. it was an exhibit. it was closed by the time we got there, but when we walked up we saw that you could by a combination ticket for the dali exhibit AND a picasso exhibit for 11 euros. so amazing. the picasso exhibit was from a private collection of picasso, matisse, braque, miro, and others. it was the most incredible thing i've ever seen. we spent hours walking through hall after hall and room after room of original sketches and paintings. a few favorites:

 picasso

 picasso

 picasso

 picasso

 

matisse

 dali

 

dali

it was the perfect way to spend a rainy day. after the exhibits we had lunch at the most amazing restaurant. really the only thing amazing about it was the food. a "petit" spaghetti that could have fed 3 people. it was warm and perfect. we had to head back a bit early, cari had trains to catch from lille to head back to carentan. we all fell asleep on the train back, we were exhausted.

next weekend: carentan to visit cari.

the day i fell in love with vieux lille

i can't decide if i'm used to the daily struggle of living in the high school or if things really are getting easier. i do know that my french is getting much better. all of the assistants living at the high school have arrived. there are 4 americans now, 2 argentinians, and 2 germans. one of the german girls just arrived tonight so i'm not sure if she speaks english or not, but sabine (the one who arrived on friday) doesn't speak any english, so we all try to speak french when we're together.

yesterday we decided to take a day trip to lille. one of the teachers at gustave eiffel (the high school) invited joe to spend the day there with him and he would give him a tour and show him around, and he extended the invitation to us all which was so kind. we took the train from armentières to lille a bit before 11:45 and got to lille-flandres just before noon.

we ate lunch..i don't really know if i would call it that though. a few of us ordered the same thing--le welsh--it sounded so appealing. here's what i pictured in my head: bread topped with ham and a piece of cheese nicely melted/browned on top. what i got: stale bread topped with gross ham swimming in thick cheese soup. the first few bites were manageable. then it turned heavy and kind of gross. maybe it'd be a good dish to have in the dead of winter. we'll see..i don't know if i'll be able to bring myself to eat it again. it was also served with a side of fries. so healthy. they love fries in the north. it's so strange, they're not even that good. usually when a place is famous for something, or everyone always eats something it's the most amazing version of whatever that thing is. i have had better fries before. many many times.

after we finished lunch, we started walking around. i could have walked for days. it was so absolutely beautiful. we went to the town center then walked to an area of the city called 'vieux lille' (old lille). all of  the streets are cobblestone, all of the architecture is heavily dutch influenced. there are flower boxes from almost every window, cafes on almost every street, chocolatiers and pattisiers everywhere. it's so charming. it also helps that the weather was utterly perfect. not a cloud in the sky and 75 degrees.

we went to the zoo (which is free) and saw tons of birds, rhino's, snakes, the cutest little monkeys that did tricks when they saw it got a reaction from the people watching, zebras, and the sweetest looking red panda sleeping in a tree. we walked all over the place. we mapped it out later and walked 7.5 miles. we had dinner at a chinese place and then went to see our first french film. l'apollonide: souvenire d'une maison close.

it was the perfect day. lille is such a wonderful place and i am so thankful to be living somewhere so great.

that time i almost got arrested in france...

living in a high school kind of stinks. it's definitely interesting. my room is so small. i have a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a sink in my room and share the shower and bathroom with the other people on the hall. the bed is SO uncomfortable. there are about 300 of the 1000 students that go to school here that live here. the first night they pulled the fire alarm 5 times. my sink leaks and even though i've told a few people about it, no one seems to fix it. the shower is the most awful thing i've ever experienced. it basically just sprays water in every direction except for down. it floods the whole shower room every time someone uses it. there is one computer lab in the school. NO WIFI. kill me. i thought the lab would be easily accessible. wrong. it's only open one hour a day..from 5:30-6:30. we've kind of been a bit persistant about using it so the man at the front desk opened it for us after we ate dinner tonight..but it's closed all weekend. so we found out mcdonalds has free wifi. dear mcdonalds..i hated you in america but love you in france. the food in the cafeteria here is really cheap--2 euros for lunch and dinner and 90 cents for breakfast. the meals are HUGE. i really need to be careful how much i eat or i'm going to gain 75 pounds by the time i leave.

i went into perenchies today which is the town where my other school is. it was supposed to be really easy to get to. take the train and it's a 5 minute ride. well, i got to the train station in armentieres earlier than i needed to get there (i'm never early for anything) and so i went ahead and took an earlier train that left at 10:00. except the train i took was nonstop to lille and didn't stop in perenchies. so i got to the main trainstation in lille at 10:15 and the next train to perenchies was at 12:15. my meeting in perenchies was at 11:00. panicking. i had to take the metro then take a bus the rest of the way. i got my metro ticket, and the booths to stamp your ticket in this station were different than the ones i was used to using in paris, and i guess i didn't put it in far enough, so it didn't stamp. i didn't really have time to ask around to make sure i was doing it right so i figured i'd just go ahead and get on the metro. um. huge mistake. these people got on about halfway through my ride that are similar to police to check everyones tickets. they of course don't speak any english (it seems no one here does) and they made me get off the metro and thankfully he just walked me over to the thing to stamp my ticket to make sure that i really had bought it that day and let me get back on. i was petrified. i really thought i was going to get in trouble with them. wah arrested in france, just my luck. i got off the metro and onto the bus and somehow was only 5 minutes late to my meeting. i met with the english teachers and observed a class. the kids are really cute. they asked me tons of questions, but mainly just want to know how old i am. everyone here is practically obsessed with new york. they all just assume that i've been there. the kids figured out how old i was by asking how old i was when 9/11 happened. tricky little monsters.

i had lunch with the teachers in perenchies. i'm glad that my time is split up evenly, i like it in perenchies a lot. for now i'll be spending 6 hours a day there on tuesdays there. one of  the english teachers there and she dropped me off at the train station when we were finished today (at 1:30) and asked if i wanted her to wait with me. i said no because i figured that the trains were frequent, or at least every 30 minutes or so. boy was i wrong (again). the next train to armentieres wasn't until 3:55. so i went to the supermarket and bought some cereal and nutella for this weekend. i just stayed close to be sure i wouldn't miss another train. when i got back i did mysore ashtanga in my room for the first time. i haven't been able to practice since i got here, so it was nice to be on my mat again. one of the administrators at my school in armentieres said that he and his wife run on the weekends and he invited me to go with them. although noone speaks english here, everyone is really welcoming and wants to be sure i'm getting settled okay.

since i'll be teaching tuesdays in perenchies for 6 hours, i may see if i can do 3 hours on wednesdays and thursdays in armentieres and then i'd have off mondays and fridays which will make travel a bit easier. i am going to start looking into places i want to visit and rail passes, etc.

tomorrow i'm going into lille with the other assistants to walk around and have lunch and dinner since the high school shuts down on weekends and we have to fend for ourselves for meals.

maybe one day i'll post my pictures.

that's all for now. i didn't get arrested..it was a good day.

crêpes for dinner

paris. ummmmm. paris. don't really know where to start, so i guess i'll start where i left off. at the airport in charlotte.

we finally left at around 8:30pm and flew across the pond to charles de gaulle airport in paris. i got to watch some great movies with their on demand. something borrowed (a book i loved) and water for elephants (a book i loved more). they were both cute..not as good as the books, but when are they ever? we were supposed to sleep as much as we could on the plane, but my seat wouldn't recline as much as i wanted to, it was cold, and my pillow sucked. i probably slept an hour the whole flight. when we got to paris it was 10:30 in the morning. we had to stay up allllll day (again). we got our bags and started to try to navigate our way around the airport. france is a silly country and the airport doesn't have free wifi. we couldn't pull up the address to our hostel and of course neither me or my sister thought to write it down. we found the RER B to take us to gare du nord, and from gare du nord we were supposed to take the 2 line to sacre coeur...or so we thought. we both thought our hostel was really close to there, but we were so so wrong. after dragging our suitcases and carry on bags through the streets and train stations of paris for almost 3 hours we finally decided to just take a taxi. we got to our hostel a little bit after 1:30 and skyped with our parents (it was 7:30am in charlotte). the 6 hour time difference has been something in and of itself to adjust to.

oh, i forgot to mention! our french stunk. we had such a hard time communicating..looking back i'm going to blame it on exhaustion.

we took a nap (even though we weren't supposed to) and then got up and walked around near the hostel. we're staying at st. christophers inn right along a canal that leads to the seine. it's a great place, highly highly recommend staying here if you're ever in paris (or any other city where they might have a location). we got our first french meal..a baguette with chèvre, tomatoes, and lettuce..it was most delicious. we walked along the canal, sat along the river, then came back to the hostel and had a few beers. we met some wonderfully friendly scottish people and hung out with them for the rest of the night.

we got up on friday and decided to conquer the louvre and the eiffel tower. we got lost on our way to the metro station..the first of many many times getting lost. we finally found the stalingrad station, bought a bunch of metro tickets and got on the 2 to head to the louvre. we took some pictures of the pyramids then decided to just walk to the tower and we would go to the louvre later. the walk from the louvre to the tower was not short. it was long. very long. but it was beautiful and we only started complaining when we got hungry. solution: un patisserie et boulangerie for another baguette sandwich. we ordered then walked the rest of the way and ate on a bench at the bottom of the tower. the lines to take the elevators up the tower are so long, so we decided to take the stairs. 669 stairs (equivalent to 43 stories). holy tired. but SO worth it. the view was breathtaking. we walked back down and got an ice cream (une glace) and ate it on the lawns looking towards the tower. we took a nap and sat for a while, then got up and walked along the seine to find dinner. we ate at a café. it was good, but expensive..so we decided not to do that again. we found our way to the metro and headed home.

every day we've had has been long and tiring but we managed to space everything out nicely so we haven't felt rushed. yesterday morning we woke up, showered and got ready and came down to the café/bar attached to the hostel, watched a bit of rugby and had lunch. my first croque monsieur this trip and it was so yummy. so yummy i may have that for lunch again tomorrow since my mouth is watering now just thinking of it. we went and ran errands. we got french cell phones, went to gare du nord to buy my train ticket for tomorrow, then to saint lazarre station to buy cari's and to be sure we knew where to go as to not miss our trains. from saint lazarre we went to sacre coeur, montmatre, and le moulin rouge. sacre coeur and montmatre are not as high as the eiffel tower, but it's breathtaking to look over the city from higher up. we did lots and lots of walking and climbing more stairs. on our way home from the moulin rouge we stopped at a pizza place just down the street from our hostel and had a homemade pizza. ham, mushrooms, and cheese. i don't remember ever having a more yummy pizza..well, maybe when i was in italy after high school..but this one is a very very close second.

this morning we decided to get a bit of an earlier start so we could see everything except the musée d'orsay (which we'll do tomorrow before we leave). we had breakfast at the hostel and were out the door by 10:30. first stop was the louvre (for real this time). we got our tickets and walked all around the museum. i don't even know where to start with how many amazing things we saw. the statues are so lovely and i cannot believe how the artists were able to make them so detailed. we of course saw the mona lisa, venus de milo, winged victory, and the sphynx, but there was so much more and it was all incredible. after a few hours in the louvre we went to find the arc de triomphe. we got lost. again. really really lost this time. well, not THAT lost, we just walked the wrong direction..for at least 2 miles. we found our way to ave champs elysées and made it to the arc. it was huge. and beautiful. and huge. then we took the metro to notre dame, which was also huge and beautiful. we caught a little bit of mass while we were there, i am not catholic, but the hymns were lovely. when we left we found a crêperie right outside of the cathedral and had crêpes with nutella and banana for dinner. we're allowed to do these things because we walk so much during the day it cancels it out. after our dinner we took the metro back home and here i sit in the café at the hostel.

i packed my suitcase for tomorrow, had a chocolat chaud, and am getting ready to head up to bed. we're going to the musée d'orsay tomorrow morning before we have to leave. my train leaves gare du nord at 16h 58 and i'll arrive in lille at 18h. the principal of my school is coming to pick me up from the train station and i'll stay with him and his wife tomorrow.

more to come from lille in a few days once i get settled in my dorm/flat/studio/wherever it is i'll be living.

it's time

so what better time to make a post than waiting for my flight to board. are we delayed? of course we are! they're making the announcements in french and english. my sisters response to this: "at least i know what they're saying." i psyched myself out so much that i had myself convinced i couldn't speak any french and i was going to be walking around aimlessly, unable to communicate with anyone when i got to france. SURPRISE! i still can speak and understand french! what a relief.

so, my younger sister and i are flying out of charlotte today. it's pouring down rain in charlotte. wonderful day to fly. sike. i thought today was going to be so long, but surprise again! it flew by. i ran a few last minute errands, said goodbye to a dear friend, and then packed and repacked my bag. magically it was under the weight limit of 50lbs. i don't know how i managed to do that, but i did. i do have two pretty large carry-on bags, but, i am so amazed at myself.

saying goodbye to my dogs and my family was just about the hardest thing i've ever had to do. thank god i don't have a boyfriend that i would have had to leave behind too. riley (my sweet sweet puppy) was upset with me all day long. she had me sobbing before i even left my house. then came lots of water works at the security check at the airport. it's no shock that my family and i are very close. when i was in college i came home almost every single month. this will be the longest i've ever been away from home. it's going to be hard. i am so relieved that i have my sister with me.

the flight is about 9 hours long (assuming we ever leave the airport) and the time difference is 6 hours ahead. it will be about 8:30am when we get to charles de gaulle. perfect timing to get my first pain au chocolat and espresso.

a bientot!