For Jessica

Ha ha, so I remember the story Jessica told me about the people who try to lasso your finger. When I went to Sacre Coeur the first time it was cold, rainy, cloudy and deserted. So to add insult to injury, on t he day I can't travel, it's BEAUTIFUL! So I made a small trek to Sacre Coeur to see Paris in the sunlight. What a difference!!First time I went to the Basilica. Note the dreary desertedness.

Today! And the top was really crowded with people. A creepy guy asked my if I wanted to rendez-vous with him. Creeper.

People who ASSAULTED me saying 'Miss miss!!' And trying to tie a string around my finger or a bracelet around my wrist! I had to beat them off and jump into the grass to escape them.

Un Greve

There is a big strike today. "Black Thursday" as our Professor has decided to call it (He told us he found it in the newspaper, I don't believe him). Anyways, the embassy issued an email to all Americans in Paris urging them to stay out of the parade route and not take the metros or drive. The RER's and Metro's are running on about 20% capacity. Classes were canceled. Schools are closed. They told us to stay in our neighborhoods. Those of us in Paris, stay within a few blocks of home. This is not fun. I thought I would take this moment of boredom to showcase some of my better moments in Paris.
This was my favorite pastry so far. It was so pretty! and so tasty!!!This is from the bakery on my street. Extra exciting? I bit into it and it was filled with chocolate cream. :)
This was the first place I got hit on by a random stranger, and got asked to dinner and a 'personal tour of Paris'. I couldn't help but laugh as I walked away. This is the Tuileries btw.A pretty bridge leading to Les Invalides. On the only day so far the sun came out for more than 30 seconds.
Les Invalides: This is where Napoleon is. And everyone else in his family apparently. I hadn't know that going into it. There is also a Museum of the World Wars, an Army Museum, and a Charles de Gaulle Museum. This reminded me of a friend of mine, who does not in fact read this blog, but loves war history.
Eiffel Tower just after sunset. So pretty.
This is my favorite building, the Hotel de Ville. At night they turn sparkly lights on the roof. Why? Not sure, but it's awesome. And there is an ice skating rink in front of it in the winter. :) I love it. If only I had fulfilled my last year's dream of being a professional ice skater.

Devotional

I saw this on Sam's Blog, and I listened to it. I loved it and wanted to share it with even more people.
Elder Holland's Devotional

Laundry

So I keep meaning to do my laundry. And I keep forgetting. Mme had company over today and I didn't want to barge into the living room and ask her about my dirty underwear. So I thought I would wait until tomorrow. I got ready and left for FHE. While there we had a conversation about the word 'Moist'. When I hear 'Moist' I think of cake. Delicious, delicious cake. Apparently some people have very appauling opinions about the word. They insist that moist is a terrible word. A few examples, I snuggled into my moist sheets and went to bed. My socks were moist. The walls are moist. Ok point taken. So I was not really in a moist mood.
Then I came home. And apparently my host family did my laundry. And they don't have a dryer. So I came home to... a big pile of MOIST clothing.
So they gave me this nifty indoor clothes line. Exciting. I put it by the radiator. I don't know how else it will dry. It's pretty cold in the house. I guess we'll see...

I miss dryer toasty socks.

Musings

I know this won't come as a shock to most people, but I can sometimes have very strong opinions. One of my very strong opinions is that America = Great. I love The United States. I don't always agree with what happens in America, and I don't like all the politics, but America to me is fabulous. While reading through my Paris tours book I keep noticing snubs against the U.S. How unrefined we are, or our terrible eating habits, and our lack of diversity. This makes me sad. I just wanted to share that. France is not better than the United States. They are different, and they can be quite the same.
Anyways, I just wanted to say that. And I thought I would add some more little thoughts and general observations:

• Everyone wear scarfs all the time. Night, day, man, women, young, old. One thing in common: Scarves.

• I love it when the accordion players get on the metro and play really cheesy Parisian songs.

• I saw a car today that said 'Baby on Board!!' (in French) and it just made me laugh, I wasn't expecting it.

• People really enjoy their boots. It doesn't even matter if they match. You can be wearing all black, and have brown boots on. Also, a lot of young girls (like 20's) wear really tiny skirts/longer shirts-dress things, leggings and boots. I don't know how they stay warm. It barely covers their butt. Must be the scarf.

• I have yet to meet a mean person. Everyone is so nice. Men and women alike hold doors open for me at stores, restaurants and in the Metro. If anyone bumps you, you are guaranteed a 'Pardon'. (I missed that in the beginning and said 'desolee' to everyone, whoops)The guys we met at institute acted as tourguides to us and showed us around for an extra 2 hours, finding us better and cheaper food even though one was on a diet and wasn't even going to eat with us and they had school the next morning, but they found us all metros and hung out with us. They even switched between English and French depending on what each person prefered.

I just thought I would share that with you, I didn't do anything exciting today, so I don't have much to report.

La Vie est Belle

Today was my favorite day so far! Everything about it was wonderful. I woke up and had some hot chocolate and bread, then got dressed and headed for Sacre Coeur, which you can see from one block up from my house. :) I look at it everyday as I walk home. It didn't rain a single time today! I met two girls in Montmartre and we toured and took pictures and ate crepes and had a wonderful time. The cathedral is absolutely gorgeous, augmented by the fact that it is where my favorite scene of Amelie takes place. Afterwards, we split up and I went to tour the 8eme arr. It is absolutely beautiful. Full of the most beautiful mansions I have ever seen in my life. And the Parc Monceau! It is not very far from my house and it is absolutely amazing. They have a pond and Greek ruins. Not sure why, but it's very pretty. After some random walking I found the Cathedral de Paris (also very close to my house) and a statue of Joanne d'Arc in the middle of a street. After that I got on the Metro to La Defense and looked at all the sculptures (that seems to be where they put all the really big/modern ones). I went into H&M and bought gloves for 70% off making them 2.30 E. Not a bad deal. *plus my hands were really, really cold, it was about 28 degrees today* I came home a satisfied lady. Then to top things off, we had a great dinner followed by ICE CREAM!! It was so exciting. :) La vie est belle.

The Marais

Not much happened on Sunday. The sun shone for the first time since I have been here. For an hour. It was exciting. We have church in the Marais, and Institute, and class (same building). Monday I toured the Nôtre Dame (but I forgot my camera) then we had meetings and class. And FHE was really fun. We had tacos. Delicious.
Which takes us to today! Today I slept in until 9. It was wonderful. Then took my NEW metro route (I like to try new ones, spice things up a bit) into the Marais. Eight of us met at the carousel and proceeded on our tour. We saw the original wall of Paris, (such a tiny city then, it's in the 4th arr) and the Place des Vosges as well as the Victor Hugo house and the Musee Carnavalet. The Place des Vosges is absolutely beautiful. With a lovely statue of Louis XIII. Who doesn't want that in their park? And I plan on going back to the Musee Carnavalet because I didn't get to the 19 and 20th century areas. They look pretty exciting. Afterwards, I thought I would take advantage of the soldes. I knew of two large department stores, and was hoping for some great deals. So I put a few Euros in my bag and hauled myself off to the Galleries Lafayette and Printemps. Oh boy did I have no idea what I was getting myself into. I walked out of the Metro and right in front of me was Printemps. Great! I thought I was of to a wonderful start. I went in and was immediately lost. I was in Bridal registry. I soon found the Women's department. All 9 floors of it. Dolce and Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, BCBG, MaxMara, Burberry, Gucci and Fendi. To name a few. I was WAY out of my league. So I kept going up. The CHEAPEST pair of pants I found were 100 euros, and that was after the 60% off. So I thought I would try Lafayette. First of all Lafayette has not one or two but THREE stores. All the size of a large mall. There were 7 floors and 2 basement levels (for each store). I thought Printemps was a bit pricey so I knew I was doomed when I walked in. Instead of perfume counters on the first floor, it was jewelry. Tiffanys and Cartier were just the beginning. Dior, Prada, Chanel, Luois Vuitton. I only had 2 goals in mind. Boots and pants. Cheapest pair of boots I saw were Guess boots. 189 Euros after a 50% markdown. As for pants, Ralph Lauren and 67E. I didn't accomplish either of my goals. Thinking of a new goal: keychain.
So I guess my shopping in Paris will be very minimal. Sad day.

J'arrive

I'm sitting in my chambre in the 8eme arrondissement in Paris right this very moment. I got in the car on Thursday at 9:45 am and checked into my hotel at 3 pm on Friday. It was a long trip. It's cold, and rainy out, but it's PARIS! Land of floor zero.

This morning I woke up and had a French breakfast (I think I can eat baguettes everyday until the day that I die, and to help aid in that my host family is buying me one every day). Then we got on the Metro and saw our classrooms, in the Institute/Church/Mission house. We walked around and had lunch then all the other students went to their host families but mine were not home yet. (It's hard to get to your home in Paris when you have parties in Versailles and a country home in Provence). So how to spend 2 hours in the afternoon in Paris? Tricky. NOT! Of course I headed over to the Eiffel tower (which is just a few blocks from my director's apartment, in fact you can see it from his living room). It was exciting, seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time, I just couldn't believe my luck.
When I got back to the Patterson's we took my bags and got on the Metro again (thanks to my director and his son, all I had to carry was my purse). I am staying one block from the Metro station in the 8em arrondissement, just 3 km from l'Arch de Triomphe and the Louvre. :) Mme doesn't speak a single word of English, but M. speaks it well enough to help me when I get stuck. I have another roommate here, I believe her name is Amy (I met her for about 2 seconds) she is Japonese and studying classic ballet and jazz. She also speaks no English, but speaks French much better than I do.
I have church tomorrow, and hopefully will come across some shampoo and conditioner as I forgot to pack that.

Disneyland!

Woke up this morning and drove an hour to DISNEYLAND!!

First we went to California Adventure, and it was amazing! I had never been before so it was all new and exciting. I absolutely loved The Toy Story Mania 3-D ride. We rode Soaring Over California twice because we liked it so much. We rode all the rides there and Disneyland, and the longest line we had was about 20 minutes, it was incredible.

Add beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the high 80's and it was one great California day! Mom and I ate lunch at the Blue Bayou Restaurant overlooking Pirates of the Caribbean, and it was great. At around 6 we decided we should go on Splash Mountain, and we got completely soaked... not the most fun walking around in squishy shoes and wet pants at night. I lost my phone on the Dumbo ride, but the attendant Dennis found it and had it 'rushed to City Hall" where it was waiting safe and sound for me.
Overall, one of the best days I've had. Everything was fun today. :)

My First Blog!!

This is my first blog!

As most people know by now, I am going to France on Thursday, so I made this blog to keep everyone posted on my adventures. I thought I would start my blog before I actually left so that I can get warmed up.
Today was a big step towards my Parisian adventure, it was my second trip to the French Consulate in LA, and I was victorious this time around and obtained a visa. I got my first taste of the French, and apparently they are rude, but if you do everything they ask of you, they are quite nice. After I got my stamp of approval I had lunch with my mom and brother in Westwood. However, I was soon discouraged when I realized they spelled my name wrong on my visa. Not sure how that is going to work out. Then I wanted to go to the beach with my little niece. We had a great time! Did I mention it was around 85 degrees? I'm going to miss California. It was a beautiful day, and we had a lot of fun, until Libby had to go home. I heard "NO DOODLE!!" more than once. Afterward mom and I made a quick stop at Disneyland! It was great, I got a season pass, and we even got to ride a few rides. That was my big Monday Adventure! I don't know if I could have crammed anything else into it, which is how I assume I'll be in Paris; busy, busy, busy!