Cloisters and Naives

Today I woke up at 7:45 and unfortunately had to drag myself out of bed. I was still really tired so I don’t know if I am just worn out or if I am fighting to not be sick or what. But it was really hard to drag myself out of my warm bed and into the cold of the world. I ate some breakfast and as it got closer to eight I decided I was in the clear to shower. I know now I can’t shower at night but I have never thought about the morning and whether it has been okay. I figured though that if they can bang nails next door then I can shower. So I waited until 8. I took a quick one and am already missing the hotel shower… That is something I am wishing I had…

I got all my stuff together and (after getting dressed) went off to school. I put my laptop in my locker and then ran upstairs to get my mail. I have been expecting a letter from Thad but I also found an orange envelope from the family. I happily put them in my bag and headed to the cathedral which is where my class was meeting again today. It was rainy but I found a dry spot to sit and read my letters. I opened the one from my family and it was a Halloween card. It was nice J I was glad to get it. Then I opened my letter from Thad which he had sent a few days before break so I have known it would be there when I got back. Which is nice to get because I haven’t really gotten to talk to him in over a week… Hopefully tomorrow… with the new internet. I miss him…

Then we went into the Cathedral for class and looked and talked about the naives and the cloister. It was cool and kind of interesting but less cool than the last time that we went to the cathedral. This time we spent most of our time talking about the different architectural things and the names of them. It was more boring because of that but I did learn some cool things such as that in the gothique period was when they started doing the big stained glass windows because before that the arcs that they were making were so heavy that if they put a window in the arc would fall because it wouldn’t be supported well enough. That was a bit of a cool fact and made a lot of sense to me.

The cloister was really pretty and was made of a square of columns that used parts of old gravestones and older elements of stone. It was kind of cool and each side of the square of columns signified something different. There was the Old Testament, the New Testament, the early history of the church, and the history of this church specifically in the 12^th century when the cathedral was done or added onto.

After class I went to grab a baguette because I was really hungry. I went to my locker and grabbed my laptop and then went down to the cave. Cassandra was there so I talked to her a bit about our breaks and she gave me a muffin that was really delicious but very crumbly. She went to Germany to see a friend. I pawned off my gross smelling soap to her. It isn’t really gross just too unfamiliar to me so every time I smell it on myself I get confused. So I am going to buy something more familiar. After a while she went to class and I watched some of Spencer’s videos. I tried to buy a hot chocolate from the machine but it was out of powder so all I got was hot water… I put a sticky note up so no one else would experience my disappointment, of not getting a hot chocolate on a rainy day. I also put a bunch of photos up on Facebook of Barcelona and added a bunch to my Paris blog posts. I didn’t get to putting them on my Barcelona posts but that is a task for tomorrow. Or another day. But today I did that until Cassandra got done with class at 2 and we went to find her some food. I wasn’t hungry after my baguette… oops I ate the whole thing. No half loaf sale :-P But you can do that in France no problem or judging! (That’s why I like France!) But we walked to the pasta place and I ran into Monopo to get a bottle of water. The water in the not very cold cooler is 1.75 but upstairs for three times as much water that is virtually just as cold is 61 cents. That’s something they don’t tell tourists but you have to figure out for yourself. We went to her pasta place and she got pasta and I got speculoos tiramisu. It was really delicious but less creamy and thicker from the last time I had it.

After that we went back to the school and she started eating gummies she got from Germany. They were really good but like the most random shapes. There were bears, churches, hearts, guns, diamonds, dots, and oranges all in the same bag, talk about a really weird mix of shapes! They were very delicious though. We hung out in the cave while I did some homework for my next class. Then Jonny came in just as I was leaving and I asked if he was doing anything this weekend because it is a three day weekend with Armistice Day (Same as the street I live on!). I was thinking maybe I could figure out something for me and that group to do after some of us get back on Saturday night. But that was just a little idea. I had to run to class.

We got our midterms back today and I did pretty badly… I got a D+ but with the curve a C. So… yeah not so good. But luckily I was kind of pegging myself there so it really wasn’t a surprise. I knew I hadn’t done too well. And again it was the stupid verb tenses! I am going to have to ask her about that because it really is my biggest problem in French. I know lots of vocabulary and how to make the verb tenses but don’t understand their English equivalencies or how to tell which to use. So that’s a problem… We corrected the test and once we started I did really well at guessing what it should be and such. I think it was just a bad combination of the break coming up and having used all my brain power on the midterm that day before this one and then not thinking very clearly. So that is my excuse… The rest of the class was pretty chill and easy. There were only 5 of us today because 3 of the others were absent because a lot of peoples parents and stuff are here because of the break. I wish my peoples were here because of the break…

I am really homesick right now probably because I just did all the cool stuff I have really wanted to do and now am like okay time to leave! Or I know that there are only 6 weeks left and now I am like okay time to be done! Or maybe I just miss talking to people I really know… In any case I am homesick again. It seems to be a thing though as other people are saying the same thing. Also maybe because everyone’s parents are here…

Over the break I have heard that a lot of people got their stuff stolen, their bank cards eaten by ATM’s, and losing their passports and iPhones. I am very glad that none of these things happened to me. I wonder how like careful some of these people were being though… Some seem not the type who would even think of a backup plan. I however had a back up bank card in my luggage and another on my person. Also I didn’t bring my passport but a photo copy. So go me?

I came home and was unlocking the door just as Madame opened it. She asked if I had work and I said no so she said go se Paul and I will be back in a minute. I went upstairs and Jean-Claude and Laurence were there with Paul too. He lost another tooth. Also Laurence has been sick. But sick to a French person is like… a cold. So we stayed and had chips and red wine down there and talked about my trips and Paul went crazy as normal. He showed me his Halloween costume and their apartment was decorated for it. It was fun and enjoyable. Then Paul started to get too crazy so we came back upstairs for dinner. Paul ran up and stayed for a few minutes before Madame kicked him out.

For dinner we had a VERY delicious minestrone soup with vegetables! It was VERY good I really liked it. We had bread and cheese. Madame bought a huge camembert because she knows I like it. Not I feel obligated to eat lots of it. Oh darn… Then we had ice cream bars and watched I don’t even know what on TV until she got tired and went to sleep and I stayed up to finish my blog and talk to dad! :-)

OH! I almost forgot. At Dinner Madame asked if i wanted to go to another family birthday for Elise and Matisse in Orange on Sunday and Return Monday Morning. So that is the plan for my weekend after my class trip! Its at Madames ex-husbands house. Should be fun!

The Day of Sleep

Today I woke up at 8, went to the bathroom and then immediately went back to bed. I woke up at ten and decided I guess I should probably get up even though all I want to do is sleep. I woke up and had breakfast and then talked to Madame a bit before she left saying I don’t know when I am going to be back. I said hm okay. So then I did my history homework and read a bit before saying well its like 12:30 and she will probably be coming back soon so I should go get lunch so as not to be awkward and not be scolded for staying in all day. So I went to the school to use the internet but the school is closed on the weekends so I had to sit outside. I messaged Cassandra and she was back so I asked if she wanted to do lunch and she said sure give her an hour. It was really cold and I didn’t wear enough layers so I could feel myself being in a position where I would get sick. So after 35 minutes Cassandra was still online so I asked her how much longer she would be. She said probably another hour. I said What are you even doing that is taking you so long? She said Oh I’m watching Downton Abbey.

… WHAT. I even told you I am sitting here outside in the cold by myself waiting for you 35 minutes ago. And then you don’t have the decency to pause your show? … Okay. So I said whatever I’m going to get lunch and I’ll see you tomorrow. I was pretty annoyed… I didn’t even wait for her to respond back I was just like screw it and left. I went and got a piece of Pizza from a place and then headed back home. After being out for over an hour and a half I was hoping Madame would have come home so that it looked like I had been out a while. She wasn’t home though.

Plan ruined. But then I started reading. After about 10 pages I fell asleep. The book was being really boring. I slept for another two hours and then woke up and said whoops I better not fall back asleep or I won’t sleep tonight! Then I fell asleep for another hour and a half… Oops. Must be tired from all this vacationing. I read another 30 pages, got half way through the grand inquisitor scene and said “Really this is what I have been waiting for the last 300 pages for?” And then I got bored half way through and watched a movie on my iPod. After that finished I finished that scene and read a little farther on. I’m still about 50 pages ahead of where I am needed to be but that is less of a lead than I wanted so I will probably read a bunch tomorrow too. Maybe. Madame came home at about 8 and said she had run into her friends and they had gone to Marseille for the day. I said oh that sounds fun!

Then we had dinner of ham and avocado to start, followed by cordon bleu and green beans. It was good minus the avocado. We ate and then watched this like show where people do stupid stuff and get hurt. Kind of like funniest home videos but like less commentated. It was interesting. Then we watched a stupid comedy movie that was so dumb I really didn’t watch it. I used 2 minutes of free internet. Then it kicked me off. :-/ Which is weird because it was the Orange internet that I used to have a pass for all last month but then it never worked. And now SFR isn’t working… How weird. I am almost tempted to buy some… But we get internet on Tuesday… so I feel like that is stupid. But mom just told me y cousin and Grandpa and Bill and Kathi are there now… And I could Skype them… Hmmm. The question isn’t the money it’s whether I should tell Madame I am buying a day’s worth. Because then I would have to explain why I have internet when my month has expired… Hm. 

Last day in Paris

This morning we woke up at 9 to be gone by 9:30 which sort of worked. We got all our stuff and left at 9:40. We smartly figured out how to leave our luggage at the Louvre because we couldn’t take it with us to the Eiffel Tower but the Louvre has a baggage check place which is free if you have a ticket and with our Paris Pass we did. We dropped off our stuff and then headed to the Eiffel Tower. Getting between these two places by Metro isn’t easy though so by the time we switched metros twice and stuff we were a bit late to our time but they let us through anyways. There were SOOOO many people in line so I was really glad that I had bought our tickets earlier. We would have been there forever. We went up to the second level by elevator and then went up to the top. It was really cool to know I was on the Eiffel tower, and the view was good. But it was a little like hey this is almost the same view from the tower from the first day but missing the coolest part of the city… Because we are on it. There was a champagne store at the top but I said heck no! It was 10 bucks a glass!

It was really cool to do the Eiffel Tower and I’m glad I did it. I think it would have seemed cooler if I was with someone more romanticy. In fact that would go for all of Paris. But hey I had a good time. After that we went to lunch at a Café/restaurant and I had a delicious burger and then we headed back to the Louvre to get my bag. It was hard to find the metro stop and I was getting really freaked I would miss my train. We found it and then metroed back. Grace didn’t have to leave until like 5 so she stayed and walked around another part of the Louvre. I went and got my bag, said bye to Grace, and then headed back onto the Metro. I found the stop I needed and got there easily. I got a little turned around looking for the train but I eventually found it. There were a ton of people getting on it though. Also I sat in first class again but this time on the top of the train. It was fun. I watched movies on my iPod and contemplated my life. 

 

The train ride went by pretty quick and then I was back at the AIX tgv station. I took the bus back to Aix an d then arrived home. I talked to Madame a little and then Paul came up and “helped me unpack”. Then Paul left and Madame made “la raclette au fromage”. It was pretty good but SOOO much cheese. We had it with potatoes and some special hams. You melt the cheese in like a thing and then put it on your potatoes, but more cheese than potatoes. It was good don’t get me wring but toooo much cheese for me to handle. It was fun though. And Madame liked making me something new. We watched Password before dinner and then after we watched Fort Boyard. Now I am so tired I’m going to go pass out!

Its not Paris unless you are Lost

So today we woke up around nine and decided that we wanted to go to the Music museum but then we learned it didn’t open until noon. We had nutella and bananas using a broken plastic cup as a knife. So we decided to go look at the Opera house and see if they had a tour we could go on even though it wasn’t one of the days listed in the guide. We headed out there and played and made faces with a funny kid in a stroller who was very friendly and noisy. Then we learned we could take an English tour (free with Paris pass) in about half an hour. We went outside and stumbled upon a Lindt chocolate store. We went in hoping for free samples (nope) and then decided to get chocochinnos . They were good and very chocolatey. Also lots of just like free flowing chocolate in there.

We took a tour of the 13^th Opera house because all the others burned down. Its here that a lamp fell on the person in the 13^th chair and killed her. But the story has been changed to a him and the him is the Phantom of the Opera. So now there is no number 13 chair. Kind of funny all of the 13’s… But it was supppper gorgeous and our guide was really funny. We took lots of pictures and got to see a principal dancer in rehearsal on stage. We were forbidden to take pictures of it but naturally I did… It was relly awesome though.

Then we went to a Gluten Free place Grace found online and they only had fish and there was a mix up so they brought me some so I gave it to grace and ate some of the zuccinni it was on. Then we split a piece of cake and a piece of cheese cake. It was delicious cake. Then we went to our wine tasting which was really fun. We met a nice couple from Illinois who the husband had surprised his wife with the trip. It was clear they were pretty rich but they were really nice and conversed with us. Then I was kind intoxicated which I did not really want to be but I hadn’t eaten much. This is kind of where things got weird because Grace was going with the flow and I was not really making a decision on what to do so we tried taking a subway and I ate a bag of chips to try and get something to take up the alcohol. We got off at the champs elysee named metro stop but then it wasn’t actually near it at all. So then we looked at the Grand Palace which was just a big emptry cool looking building. We jumped on a red tourist bus which we had passes for. We sat on top but then it was freezing and started raining so we got off at the next stop which was at a marine/boat museum place. We went in there because we could and used their bathrooms and then walked around. We think that they had prettier paintings than the louvre and lots of cool little boat miniatures.

We then decided we should go to the perfume place. We jumped around on the metros and then found it. It was actually the same perfume place I went to in Eze. It was closed but the boutique was open so we smelled some far too expensive perfumes. We went back past the lindt chocolate store and this time they had samples when we walked by so we popped in and took one and then left. Then we went to a store that looked like it was black Friday in there. We asked some sales guy what the heck was going on and if there was a big sale or something and he was like oh uh no its just a holiday and a Friday. So we said okay bye and went to au Printemps which was like equally as scary but also a big designer people store (Gucci, Fendi, Michael Kors, other famous things I have never heard of…). We promptly left because it was scary in there. Then we went back down the metro and one of the metro machines ate graces ticket so we had to get the guy to come make the machine give it back. Then we went towards the touristy part of town to go tourist shopping. Then we didn’t find any tourist shops so we got confused. We went to a McDonalds to use their bathrooms and wifi and then realized we were on the wrong side of the Seine. By the time we walked across it we went to two souvenir places and then were like nope we are done. We went to get some dinner to bring back to the hotel room. I bought a pizza and some stuff from the grocery store. Grace bought a little wine opener. We took the pizza on the metros with us which was comical because I had to turn it on its side. When we got home and ate food and chilled. I took a shower and then we tried to use a tiny bottle opener to open a bottle of wine we bought yesterday. It was really funny to try as the first hole we made just like came out all swirly like. Then we finally got it out without breaking the silly bottle opener. Then we just stayed in and chilled and talked and drank the wine really slowly and made tentative plans to drop off our bags in the Louvre tomorrow before going up the Eiffel Tower!

 

We literally were like retracing our steps all day which was silly because we didn't have a good plan. Now we are tired. Goodnight!

Happy Halloween from Paris!

 

Today was amazing.We woke up on the later side after some great and much needed sleep. Grace slept on the floor of the airport before coming here because of a big storm. We slept and then woke up and headed out. Got breakfast at a cafe close by and then headed for the catacombs. The line was super long because of it being Halloween so we waked to a close by cemetery where we saw Samuel becketts grave. I kind if hate his stuff though so that was lame that he was the only famous person I actually recognized there. Then we went to the Notre dam cathedral. Got a little turned around finding it. We saw the palace of justice and conciergerie buildings.

After Notre dame we got lunch at a cafe I had lasagna and grace had soup. Then we went and walked around past a bridge with a cool little band performing on it until we found the louvre seeing some cool buildings/ public parts/ church buildings. We passed the hotel de ville and some bridges and walked along the Seine river. Walked in the louvre, and saw the glass pyramid.

 We went to the Italian paintings section and saw the Mona Lisa, ( both kind of unimpressed) I didn't know nearly as many painting as I thought I would with it being the louvre. Saw the Spanish paintings and some sculptures  as well. Then we went and found a Starbucks in the main area of the louvre. It was heavenly and both of ours first Starbucks since Oregon. We then walked through the gift shop and past the postcards from each section and based on what we saw decided to go to the Egyptian part. It was so awesome! We saw a mummy and mummy cats and really old stuff over 6000 years old, ancient hieroglyphics and everything! It was awesome. Took a selfie in a room tomb thing of heiroglyphics. Then we had to leave because it was 6 and closing so we left. It was dark out so we took pictures of it lot up. We also got a picture with some Cambodian Buddhist monks randomly. They wanted a picture with us after they asked if they could take out picture.

Then we went and walked through the Tulleries Gardens towards the main road and under a big arc but not the arc du triumphe. The road was the champs élysées with the real arc du triomphe! We saw it but didn't go down it. Then we took the metro toward where we thought the lock bridge/ lovers bridge was. We went into a shop to ask if we were close and found locks we could buy. I bought one and wrote Thad and Kacy on it. With keys. We went and found the bridge. I counted 25 rungs (day of anniversary) and then went half way down and locked the lock. :-) Always wanted to go to the lock bridge. It is gorgeous!

Then we went to a Thai restaurant to get dinner. It was really good and not too expensive. Then we went and bought breakfast for tomorrow and a bottle of wine from a carrefour. Then we took that and walked some more through a really lively part of the city. We saw a cool spray paint artist. Then we got ice cream at a place and headed back to the hotel where we internetted and realized we hadn't eaten any candy on Halloween but did see lots of halloweeny stuff. I found a gummy smurf in my bag and we split it. We laughed. I booked our wine tasting tomorrow for 3o clock. We are really having a blast here. Grace makes a really great travel buddy too! No complaints here!