(Not finished, no worries)

Ma skills

I've been experiencing an artsy flair the past couple weeks. I've learned four songs on the piano (outside of these four I know one tune), worked on a charcoal I started in January, visited quite a few art museums, and lounged in the sun pondering life and such. It has actually been pretty fun. 

Applying to jobs gives me anxiety like none other. But, I did do a few adult-responsible things like that as well. I wrote my graduation speech. Yeah, sorry ahead of time. It's short, to the point, includes nothing about high school, and is not in French. But, I like it. 

There are two families and a woman staying here at the present and I do believe that they are my favorite. The woman speaks a little English but doesn't use it very often, she has been helping me a lot with my French.

 The two families in total brought 5 kids. I. Have. Missed. Children. They are all over the place here but I haven't gotten to actually hold one in a while. They are all boys except for one girl who is not afraid to make friends. The baby had these gorgeous brown eyes and was dressed better than most guys I know, in suspenders. The girl came downstairs all by herself with what I assume to be her parents phone to show us pictures of her artwork while sitting in my lap. 

Jacob came back from his week and a half trip yesterday and recounted his journey. Never put him in the drivers seat of a manual car. I hope these last few weeks are filled with laughter and day trips and French. 

Collection Of Pictures from Wednesday

Yes, those are stingrays. No, this is not normal. 

We walked two hours both way to get to Cabourg (this town with the Ferris wheel) 

(I won) 

Paris: Round 3

I got to visit my fave city this weekend. We went to:

The house of Josephine (Napoleon's wife/lover?)

Versailles 

Marie Antoinette's Home and Gardens (gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous this lady knew how to landscape) (also, fun fact, she installed a village on her land for the poor and often dressed like them and worked among them when she tired of being the most wealthy woman in the country)

The Latin Quarter

A medieval  museum

Notre Dame (there was a choir)

The oldest church in France 

Underground ruins

The site once believed to hold the thorn crown of Jesus (all stained glass)

A famous jail where Marie Antoinette and other "celebrities" lived and were sentenced to death 

The Arc de Triumph (which I climbed, yet again, to the top, this time I walked the entire circumference and got a great 360 of Paris)

The "lock bridge" (a favorite)

The Champs-Élysées (where I bought a single tube of red lipstick) (and had a lemon and then a rose macaroon) 

The Louvre (not a fantastic experience I must say)(it's overwhelming in the first place but on top of that we had thirty minutes because Jacob had to leave, I could have stayed longer but after sprinting through crowds and up and down stairs to find the most important relics and then finding that they were cool but not life-changing, I was kind of over it)

The Musée D'Orsee (my most favorite museum to date) (it was renovated from the old train station and holds the BEST art) (I bought a bag and a magnet)

Musée de l'Orangerie (had Monet's huge painting and a new favorite sculpture of mine, Aldolfo Wildt, unfortunately there were no pictures allowed and on top of that tight security)

Mémoire de la Shoah (a holocaust museum)(which held a room where all the ashes from the camps are buried in soil from Jerusalem and a single flame burns 24/7) (there was also an exhibition that has actual footage of the concentration camps during WWII)

Other bits and pieces 

I've got to say, it's always the things you don't plan for on trips that make them worth while. 

Jacob's family came to visit him and travel for a week so we met up with them on Saturday night. I'm so glad they did come, I didn't realize how much I had missed the family scene. We are a little family here, but not in the traditional sense. He has two brothers; John and Justin. We all went to eat at a Creperie and had a grand old time. From there we went to my baby: THE Eiffel Tower. 

I love it so much. It's neat during the day. But it is magical at night. 

Why yes, yes I am a hopeless romantic. 

It's not really a feeling I can describe so I will let you all discover this for yourselves. 

We ate some great sandwiches for lunch on Sunday. Next to the place we ate was a bookstore. Not any old Barnes & Noble. This place had character. There were tables set up in the street and sidewalk full of dirt cheap books. There was 90's music playing from the inside, the doors were propped open, employees were singing along. There were metal spiral stairs leading upstairs to the used and new CDs and downstairs leading to an even more cluttered collection of literature and manuals. It all had a perfectly disorganized feel, which I can relate to. Here I purchased two things. The first: a hard back pocket-sized French children's book of Noah's ark with the best illustrations. Second: a CD I grabbed last second when I decided I wanted some French music. 

After experiencing the metros of Rome I have an entirely new perspective of the French transportation system- they are doing something right. Rome= complete chaos and bodies pushed up against every inch of you. Paris= a well oiled system of letting the elderly sit and the rest fill in around. I can handle the metros of Paris, I didn't feel like I was constantly being pick-pocketed. 

After the second day, when Jacob had already left, Elvira and I unanimously decided to get Chinese take out to eat in bed because we were so exhausted (the last time my feet were that sore was when I was finishing my 14 hour hike ar Long's Peak). 

So we basically vegged out that night. We half watched a black and white French film and I practiced reading my children's book.  

The ride home was one for the books. It was like a scene from Eat. Pray. Love. Okay well I slept for about an hour because I couldn't help it. But it was just the most chill ride. We paused for dinner at a rest stop (much cleaner, much nicer, and inhabited by much more normal people than some I have experienced in the US). It's normal to eat in the car at these sorts of things. It's either illegal or simply unheard of to eat while driving. Why do two things at once? There is no rush. Life's a journey. Blah blah. 

We ate in the sunset. Shoes off. Salmon sald cold. Chocolate waffle melty. That's when I pulled out the total gamble of a CD I purchased in Paris and tried it out. Yeah. It's basically the best thing ever. So Elvira and I finished our trip with great music, French countryside, and lots of laughing. I was pretty high on life. 

Salut

Salut c'est moi. I found my phone. Well it was returned to me anyways (Mimi, I have only lost it one time in four months so you can quit shaking your head). 

Lots has happened ofcourse. 

So, much to say. 

My favorite parts of the last few weeks has been the sunshine. And the great weather. Maddie, Marcie, John, and Romane have all ventured out here to the beach multiple times thus far. It's always a good time. Those days consist of lots of food, volleyball, walking, phase 10 and piano playing. 

I love going to our bible group each Tuesday. I loathed it at first because, well, I don't speak French. And it was and still is sometimes awkward. But the people are great. I am awful with names. So I can't exactly describe each individual in detail. But they are all awesome. That's all there is to know. The actual study is great too. They aren't allowed to hold a religious meeting so it's more of a discussion which makes it a million times more intellectual than what I am used to. There is no "because that's the way it is" explanations. We look up references, Greek translations, dig deep into human understanding for a meaning. 

I have learned a lot about relationships on this trip (far more than I expected). It's amazing and so fun for me to see who is placed in my life and how they contribute. I have learned patience, courage, maturity, flexibility, how to be a hard worker, how not to act in front of a professor, who to be afraid of, who needs love, and how tender my own heart is all from the array of people I have come to know here. 

It's apparently culturally correct to ask perfectly random strangers for cigarettes here. I can't count how many times this has happened. In fact, that is one conversation in French I have most definitely gotten down.

Classes are going well. Good grades. Good teachers. Yesterday I gave a presentation in Troncy's class who the absolute most French woman I know. And she gave me the second best compliment I have received to date. She said my pronunciation was very close to a native French speaker. 

My time here is almost up. This makes me so sad. I want to see everyone back home but I don't want to see this adventure end. 

I can't imagine how I would have been if I hadn't taken this risk. I can't imagine being in high school right now. This trip will serve as a permanent reminder to always take the road less travelled. It's harder and more stressful and sometimes I think I took a wrong turn and got lost. But it's more like living. 

And it doesn't have to be another country. I'm excited for college in the fall. I'm excited to get a job this summer. I'm excited to be an adult. 

I am alive

But currently without a phone so I mean who would really know right?


Also convinced I am coming back with lung cancer from all this second hand smoke.


That is my input for this fine day.