On Mondays, I have three classes which always make the day feel super long. However, I hardly ever have plans on Monday after classes so it is also my day to just relax, take a nap, catch up on email or do some relaxing activity. Then Tuesdays always get busy. In the morning this past Tuesday, I went to the school I am teaching at each week, except this time, we just decorated the school with Halloween decorations. I got to meet a girl named Anna who is from the U.S. who is here for the school year as a teacher's assistant. She's 25 and this is her second year doing this teaching assistant position. Her first year, she was in Galicia in Northern Spain. She was super fun to talk to and we had a good time chatting. So we had decorations in our hands and were walking around the hallways when a class came filing down the hallway and saw us with the decorations. They recognized Anna, and said "Hallo" in their Spanish accents and then the little ones got excited and said, "Halloween!!" Adorable. Then after that, I had my one class at the University and then I went home for lunch and then headed to the ISA office downtown for tutoring. I am practicing Spanish with one of the directors from our program each week so that I can improve as much as possible. The hour went really fast and then I headed back home and spent the rest of the evening writing a paper. The 2,000-word essay was due on Thursday, but I wanted to get it done that night so the next night I could just edit it and relax and not worry about trying to cram. I finally finished it late at night and was pretty brain dead. I had two other assignments due in other classes the next day that I hadn't even worked on yet, so I decided to go to bed and wake up early the next morning to finish my homework. However, the homework was so much harder than I thought it would be and I ended up running out of time. Therefore, my entire Wednesday was very stressful because I felt two steps behind what I needed to do. However--as always--it worked out and I even did pretty good on my reading quiz despite not reading the article. After classes, I was brain dead but knew I had to get the essay done. I took a nap after lunch and I had planned to lay down for an hour but accidentally slept for four. So, I knew I must have been super tired. I finished my essay though and was very proud of it. I even turned it in more than 12 hours before it was due so go Kellie! It was an interesting topic. I had to write about: Arguments for and against Wikileaks: Transparency vs. Privacy. Communication and journalism is something you can talk about for long periods of time and we have many discussions in class. What is the solution to genuine journalism? I really enjoy my teacher--Rúben. I think I have talked about him before. Anyway, then on Thursday I had tutoring again through my University to practice my Spanish some more. Lola is her name and she helped me with my Spanish homework that was due for the next Monday which was great because my goal was to get all my homework done before that weekend so I could enjoy my trip to Paris. After class, I had scheduled an appointment to get my eyelashes redone so I went in to see my amiga de pestañas (eyelash friend)--who, I found out later, her name is Sonia--and she made my eyelashes look all pretty again. Well, after that I ran some other errands and then I went home and, as bad as I wanted to veg out and watch a tv show or something, I knew I should finish homework. I spent the rest of the evening doing all my homework that was due Monday, which, I had been assigned a good amount of work. Normally, I don't have a ton during the weekend so I was disappointed, but I also knew I wouldn't want to deal with it on Sunday or when I was in Paris. I finished all of it right after dinner and then still had to pack. I realized I hadn't taken a plane since my flight from Paris to Madrid to start my program in early September, so I was a little nervous. I hate the liquid rule. It is ridiculous. But I finally got to bed around 1am and then was out the door by 7am the next morning with just a backpack. My packing skills have gotten much better while being here because, well frankly, you can't bring hardly anything with you when you travel because there are so many rules! So Paris...
Friday morning... I had allowed myself an hour for the bus and then an hour and a half to check-in, get through security, and find my gate. I left promptly at 7:05am and was sitting down waiting for my flight by 8am. I guess it's better to be early rather than late but I quite overestimated how long it would take to get through the whole process...oh well. The lady at the check-in desk was so nice. I asked for a ticket in Spanish and handed her my passport and then she started talking to me in Spanish and it was a glorious moment because I didn't have to think at all...I just understood what she was saying. She then realized I had an American passport and said she could tell me in English but I assured her I wanted to practice in Spanish. She then said that was great and goes, "Gate 8" and then corrected herself and said "Puerta Ocho" and flashes me a smile. I liked her. I then got through security with no problems and practically no line. So then, I just sat and decided to read the book I had brought by Nicholas Sparks called "The Choice." It is a really good book and I highly recommend it. I buried my head in it and the time went so fast. At about 8:40am, I went to my gate and realized I couldn't understand the language. I had been so confident in my Spanish that morning...what had happened? And then I realized it was because a ton of people were speaking French. It's a weird concept and not one we deal with in America. When we fly from DIA (Denver International Airport) to Dallas, we don't hear a whole other language. Yet, here in Europe, a two hour flight means a whole different culture, city, language, everything! It is kind of mind-blowing, kind of weird, kind of overwhelming...and all of the above. I was doing well with my languages that Friday because a lady in front of me needed to fill her water bottle and she asked me to watch her bag. Although she said it in French, the language of gestures is universal so thank the Lord for that. She had said "Merci" to me earlier because she was putting something in her bag and the line had moved but I let her go in front of me still. I just nodded and smiled the first time, but this time I had remembered from my trips with Amanda and Peter that "You're Welcome" was "Prego." So I said "Prego" and we got on the plane. Well, ahem... I should have just not revisited this in my mind because I was happy with how the situation had turned out and thought (as I wrote just a few lines above) that I was doing so well with languages. But now that I am thinking about it I am thoroughly embarrassed. Prego is you're welcome--just in Italian, not in French. 😳😳😳😳😳 Don't trust me with my languages. Do not use Prego in French. It doesn't exist. Oyy, Kellie. Well, let's just move on. SOOOOO. Ahem, oh wait. There's more... as if I didn't probably seem stupid enough to that French lady, on the plane, I was in the emergency exit row and the flight attendant was trying to give me the instructions in French and I had to tell her I only knew English. She told me she was going to tell the couple next to me the instructions in French and then she would tell me in English. Well, the couple goes "We can do it in English" and it made me feel so small because the French know 30 languages and I know one. I might have been able to do it in Spanish, but I sound very English anyway so ugh. I wish I could be cool. So, I read my book the entire way to Paris and it was a pretty quick flight. I was on an airline I had never taken before and I liked how quick and organized they were but they were super strict about bags. My bag got marked as a bag that goes under the seat but, since I was in the emergency exit row, I couldn't have any bags under the seat anyway. It all worked out and it was nice to have the extra leg room. Well, when I got to Paris, I was meeting my friend there from DU who is studying in Amsterdam. He landed about 40 minutes before me and had sent me a text saying he was waiting at a restaurant named Paul's and as I walked into the airport, there was a big sign saying "Paul's" literally right outside my gate. I figured he either knew which gate I was coming out of, the stalker, or it must be a really small airport. Neither were true--he just happened to choose that cafe (apparently). So we made our way downtown and made it to our Airbnb by 11:30am. We had until 2:30pm to check-in though so he had found a crepe place that made their crepes with buckwheat (so I could eat them, yay!) and it was a 20 minute walk. Because I had thankfully packed light, the walk was easy and we made it to the restaurant in no time. It was packed and we ended up getting take-away and then eating at a park close by. It was great because it gave us a couple hours to settle in, enjoy a French delicacy, and catch up on the past few months. Our host had messaged us and told us that she would be late and would meet us closer to 3pm, so we finally meandered our way over at 3pm instead of 2:30pm and waited for her. She didn't show up for about 30 more minutes, which was strange, but she seemed unorganized and frazzled. I felt bad for her. We made our way upstairs and then she rummaged through her purse for about 5 minutes until she realized that she didn't have the keys and that she left them at her own place. She said she'd be back in an hour and took off. We didn't know what to do so we went to a cafe down the road and had a glass of wine and beer. We were people watching and enjoying soaking up the sun. There was a definite temperature drop in Paris, but the sun felt great and I was happy for the change of temperature. She finally came back and we got into our room about 5pm. It was a great place, though. And although it was a little inconvenient having to wait with our bags, I felt bad because she seemed to have had a horrible day. That night, we set out to have dinner at a Jewish food restaurant about 20 minutes away but because it was a Friday night, they weren't open. They aren't allowed to be open until Saturday night according to their laws, I think. So then we walked back towards this other place that was back the way we had come but on the way there, we realized that place closed in 15 minutes. So, a third time we walked back and found a cute hole-in-the-wall restaurant. It was really busy so we knew it was probably good. I don't know what type of food it was but it was fresh tortillas with meat and hummus and veggies and stuff inside. They didn't have gluten free but we finally convinced the guy to give me a bowl instead of wrapped in a tortilla. They played some fun music. The area we lived near was so cool. I had to keep reminding myself that this was real. We were really in Paris. After dinner, we walked around some more and decided to try to find a place to have cocktails. There were so many places to choose from and that's the awesome part. We walked all over and there were these neighborhoods full of bars and restaurants and just amazing places. We saw the Notre-Dame at night, also, and it is so pretty. We also saw another really beautiful building that had the Olympic Rings in front of it. Apparently Paris is holding the Olympics in 2024. Cool, huh? Crazy what you stumble upon when you are in PARIS. Sorry--I just have to keep reminding myself that all this actually happened. So anyway, for our cocktails, we wanted a place that was popping, but all of them were so full and, being Americans, the concept of space is quite important to us. All the tables were so close together...Europeans just have no personal space. We finally compromised on a place that was busy, but had seats on the very end with a table in between us and the next people over. After drinks, we went and got ice cream at this yummy place. My friend had lived in Paris for a month a few years ago, so he had some good recommendations of places to go from his parents. We learned very quickly that Paris is quite expensive. After ice cream, despite the freezing weather, we walked back. As long as I walked and had pants, boots, and a coat on, I did okay. So that was the first night. The second day was full of exploring. We had tickets to see the Eiffel Tower at 5pm. We had stumbled across a Japanese restaurant the day before the smelled delicious so we went there for lunch. It was as good as it had smelled, don't worry. Then, we went to the catacombs. So I was excited to see these considering it was Halloween weekend, but that excitement quickly failed as I realized the line wrapped clear around the block. We would have had to have waited for hours. So a little tip...it's worth the extra money to pay for the tickets online and skip the line. We then visited the Luxembourg gardens, which were pretty but you could tell it was fall. Things were starting to wither and there were leaves everywhere. After that, we started making our way towards the Eiffel Tower. We stopped by a grocery store and got a bottle of wine, cheese, salami, and a bar of chocolate and took our picnic to a park bench in front of the Eiffel tower. That was one of my favorite moments. It was like I was in a movie. After, we went inside the gate to wait in line for the elevators to take us up to the top of the tower. Well, what's life without adventure? I had brought along a knife with a bottle opener for the wine, but little did I think about the security for the Eiffel tower. It wasn't my knife so I felt bad and I got through the first security point (shh, don't tell anyone) but then the second one had a bag scanner and there was no way I was going to get through without being caught. So I tossed it right before security. Living life on the edge, everyone. Well, the timing of our tickets was the most perfect thing ever. We got to go to the very, very top and we watched the sunset from up there. Photos do not do it justice, but it was so wonderful. The view of the city and just being there. It was another movie moment, but instead of pinching myself, I was reminded that it wasn't a dream because of the intense, bitter, frigid wind. Right as the sun set, we decided to take the elevator down to the second level (which is actually super high still) because we wanted to go outside of the Eiffel Tower back to the grass to get an overall view of the tower because, at dusk, they turn on 'the twinkling lights' for just a few minutes. This was another favorite moment as we were running down hundreds and hundreds of stairs (I told you the second level was high) just laughing and having a great time. I didn't care one bit what people around us thought. We ran outside the gate and turned around, and literally the timing could not have been more perfect because the lights started to twinkle at that very moment. It was breath-taking. After the lights stopped twinkling, we took a bus closer to our apartment and looked for a restaurant. We ended up going to a Thai food place, which is my favorite type of food. That was it for Saturday night. Sunday was weird because, when I woke up, my watch said something different than my phone so I was super confused, until I remembered my host mom saying something about a time change on Sunday. We fell back an hour which actually worked out nice because we got an extra hour in the morning before we had to check out at noon. Sunday was rainy, which I didn't mind, but it was unfortunate that we had our bags to carry around all day since our flights were so late at night. After checking out, we went back to the crepe place that we had gone to the first day for breakfast, but it was so crowded and you had to have a reservation. So we found this other place called Season and there was an hour wait time for the restaurant, but there was a take-out section that was more like a second restaurant since it had tables, so we ate there. It was a healthy, gluten-free, all-natural type place but I got gluten-free avocado toast that was really good. It was such a cute little place. No space--but hey, welcome to Europe. Afterwards, we went to the Louvre museum. Unfortunately there was a huge line so we couldn't go in but I got a picture by the pyramid and can still say I've been there. We went to the underground mall after that and I had my first Starbucks since I've been in Europe. Sad I know, but it was at least a cool Starbucks since it was underground. We then just visited a whole bunch of different places around the city like the Grand Palace which is across from the Petite Palace. We saw green fountains, we went into a prison that was also a palace in the 14th century. We saw lots of cool buildings and parts of the city thanks to our super duper metro passes. I highly recommend it because the metro takes you seriously everywhere and because Paris is so big, it is necessary. We got a pass that was 4 Euros ($4.66) and it includes zones 1-5 and was an unlimited pass. So we could use it to get all over the city (including the airport). It was perfect! ALSO! One of the trains that we got on was playing the perfect French music which completed my French experience. It was loud, too, which I loved since it drowned out the noise of the train. Ready? Think classic French music where you are sitting at a quaint cafe in the bustling city, sipping your coffee and tapping your foot to the beat of the music playing. You are sitting at a table, and you pick up your coffee to sip it as you look out the window just as a snowflake falls to the ground. The snowflake is incredible, but what really catches your eye is the incredulous view. Right before you lies the Eiffel Tower. You smile as you realize how content and perfectly at peace you are as you sway to the music. Think music from Sleepless in Seattle or Ratatouille. Good ol' classic music or good ol' disney music (depending on what era you are from). Ah. I sigh just thinking about it. #moviemoment. I should just start a hash tag for all my movie moments. Okay, back to real life, friends. So, after exploring different parts of the city, we ended up going to the other crepe location (same place, different location). I finally wrote down the name--it was called the Breizh Cafe. This one was much more "tranquilo" (calm) than the other one that we had tried to go to that morning. It seemed a little fancier, too. Guys, another movie moment. It was so fun because we went in and enjoyed our last supper, taking in the surroundings while enjoying some scrumptious food. I ordered a crepe with egg, Iberian ham (from the Basque country of Spain!!), and cheese. We also ordered cider because the restaurant was known for its delicious cider and it sure was good. Finally, we shared a chocolate dessert crepe with ice-cream. I just have to say, the crepe without the ice-cream was around 6 Euros, but with the one VERY SMALL scoop of ice cream, it was almost 10 Euros. THE ICE CREAM IN PARIS, MAN. So expensive. Negativity over. Because really, it was such a beautiful place and another movie moment/one of my favorite moments. Oh, and the best part was... there was this older lady sitting right next to us when we sat down (and I mean right next to us because remember space...you know, not a thing). She was eating a crepe roll with tea that came with a mini tea pot. She seemed so sweet and content and I enjoyed watching her. With her amazing French accent, she waved the waiter over and asked for more hot water. Then, for the check and then she left and gave a tip, as well (which is pretty rare in Europe). Well, less than two minutes after she left, another old lady comes in and the waiter seats her in the exact same spot. She orders a dessert crepe and the exact tea as the last lady. She then enjoyed her crepe and seemed so sweet just like the last lady. And then she asked the waitress, with that same awesome French accent, if she could get some more hot water...weird right...and then after finishing her tea, she paid and left a tip. The minute she left, my friend and I were like, "Did you see that?!" I think they should be good friends or would be if they knew each other. 30 minutes. They missed getting to know each other by that much--que pena (what a shame). But having them sit next to us just added to the ambiance and beauty of the restaurant. That and the music and people who were laughing and chatting around us. It was an embrace-the-moment, people watch, and relish the moment type of meal. After we finished, we walked around a little more and I was able to FaceTime my mom, who was at church, and say hi to some friends from back home. Another movie moment, because they go, "Where are you?" And I was able to say, "No big deal (even though in my head I was freaking out), I'm just in Paris." I flipped the camera and showed them the plaza where I was currently standing which, at the end of the massive street, was the Eiffel Tower. Yep. I was in France. It was such a different experience from the first time I was there. I think I was more comfortable since I had been there before but that also made it awesome, that even though I went to the same big city twice in 3 months, I had two completely different adventures. After that, we headed to the airport and I headed back to Sevilla. Crazy enough (but not that crazy), I ran into one of the girls on my program at the Paris airport. That's how we Americans are--we have the travel bug. So I wasn't actually that surprised at the likelihood of one or more of the people from our program being in Paris the same weekend I was. My flight landed at 11:55pm, and my goal was to be home before 1am. I had class at 10:30am today and I needed sleep... I was exhausted. I made it home by 12:45am and my host mom is a saint and had dinner waiting for me. And another perfect end to the weekend was my roommate waited up for me just to welcome me home, the sweet dear. So needless to say, it was a wonderful weekend and no words could explain the emotions I felt throughout the three days at being in such a city.
It is now Monday the 30th, and I only have one more class tomorrow before I leave for Morocco on Wednesday at 4am. It is going to be six days full of adventures such as riding camels in the dessert, camping in the sand, eating lots of new food, and who knows what else. I get back next Monday, so I will probably have another long post for you next week sometime of my time in Morocco. So until then, friends, remember to enjoy any #moviemoments you have and to live life to its fullest! And you should listen to some classic Sleepless in Seattle/Celine Deon/Frank Sinatra type music...it's good for the soul. Au Revoir, mes chéries (goodbye, my darlings).
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| Just an everyday building near the place we stayed at... |
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| Olympic rings! |
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| Notre-Dame! |
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| Notre-Dame is in the background |
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| Look carefully! you can see the twinkling lights |
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| La Louvre! |
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| Even the metro stations in Paris are cool |
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| The green fountain! |
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| The Grand Palace!! |
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| Dinner at the crepe restaurant the last night |
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| Isn't that ice cream scoop RIDICULOUSLY small?!?! |
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