Another awesome week has come and gone in Parfait Paris!! Classes are keeping me pretty busy (which s prety stupid, cause we're in Paris and living here is a living experience in and of itself and if I have my nose stuck in a book the whole time I'm being deprived of the full experience of living in Paris France, attempting to be a Parisian!! ... sigh! Whatever!) but life is still a blast! Slowly but (hopefully) surely the French is starting to come! Yay! Though sometimes I feel like I'm getting better, and then I talk to a French person and realize that I have a long ways to go... But I still have 2 1/2 months for that!
Highlights of the week:
Tuesday we climbed to the top of le Tour Eiffel!!! I'd been by it to see it in it's magnificent glory, but I'd never gone to the top!
When I say climb, I mean we climbed. Yes, Craig, they have elevators, but they're really expensive, and it's only a few euros to use the stairs. It was a long hike, and by the time we got to the second level we decided to pay to take the elevator up the last stretch to the top.
At the top of the Eiffel Tower.... there are no words to describe the moment when I reached the top... That is the top of the world for me. I felt like... like the queen of France. I felt like I could do anything, that I could conquer the world. I was overwhelmed with a rush of emotions... disbelief, admiration, awe, excitement, bewilderment... It was the most amazing feeling in the world. As I gazed at this beautiful country, I started to cry. Sounds kind of stupid... but I was just so overcome with this feeling that ... that I had made it. I was at the top of THE Eiffel Tower. I was THERE. It was like... like a dream come true. It was so surreal, so magical, that I never wanted to go down...
Definitely Going in my Top 10 experiences in Paris.
Thursday our group hopped on a bus and drove to Normandy!
Normandy is gorgeous! I want to come back in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom! It's so green and ... refreshing? I don't know... As much as I love Paris it was kinda nice to get outta the city and explore the countryside...First we saw the Tapestry at Bayeux. It depicts the Battle of Hastings and the rise of William the Conquerer. It was pretty cool and kinda got us in the medieval-ly mood... :)
Next we went to the memorial at Omaha Beach. That is a place that will stay with me for a long time. There are white crosses everywhere you look, and no matter how far you walk it feels like there's always more. Some are stars of david for the soldiers who were Jewish. Some have the names in Gold; those were the people who were generals or had honorable mentions. Some didn't have a name, and simply said "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms, known only but to God." Later I read stories of people in the war, most with morbid descriptions of how the comrade they were just talking to got his head blown off, or helping a reporter whose leg was laying only a few feet away... These stories really opened my eyes to the horrors of war...
On a less serious note, later that night I learned something: When you get raw oysters eat them with the vinegar -- otherwise it's like swallowing salt water.
The next day I saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time! I know it's still the ocean but... I don't know it was still cool..... We walked along a medieval ... wall? battlement? I don't remember what you call it.... and watched the boats out in the water.... There was even a pirate ship! Pretty cool!
Lastly we went to Mont Saint Michael. It was so pretty! First to get there you had to walk up a tiny street full of shops and restaurants, and I even saw a little boy and his grandma walk into a door and calling it home! IDk I thought it was pretty cool... then you walk up a bunch of stairs, turn a corner, and voila! There it is! Mont St Michael is a medieval monestary that's huge and... well medieval! It really takes you back.... it has a beeaauuutiful view!! It was a little bit overcast, but there was enough sunlight to make the scene perfect... Just gorgeous green everywhere you looked.... loved it! Except the little St Michael on the tippy top... he's got nothing on Moroni! Just sayin...
Well coming back to home... we just can't seem to break this stupid American thing...
Especially when you come home to a bunch of 17 year olds dressed like hippies!
We joined the family's hippie party the Saturday after we got back from Normandi, and it was so much fun! They invited us to their party weeks ago, but we didn't realize how crazy it was going to be! They cleared out their whole main floor, and what is usually very classy and elegant living room/dining room was covered in band posters and signs with french words and peace and love! For the first hour or so there weren't many people around , so Lex and I had the floor to ourselves! Haha we danced by ourselves and were being goofy, and the people who were there started to watch us. Lexi got a little self conscious and said she didn't want to take away from Tiffaine's party, but I didn't care so I kept dancing!
When the fashionably late people arrived, the whole house was filled with a ton of French kids in all their hippie garb! There were so many! They filled up the house and were spillinginto the yard... Yet somehow we still stood out. Probably cause most of the time when the French kids danced it was pretty contained in one area with some jumping and swaying, but mostly keeping to themselves, where Lex and I went all out.
There were some kids who were crazy -- I don't know if they took after us or if they just wanted the attention of the dance floor. One of them I had a little two step competition with. Well... basically he saw me do some footwork (and by footwork I mean moving my feet around under me and pretending like it's something cool) and he started some of his own, and we kind of went to see who went the longest. I won, of course. He was so jealous... ;) This was kind of the whole dance... Lexi and I put our heart and souls into our dancing, always moving around, doing our own crazy American thing. Sometimes people would just stop and stare, other times people would try to join us (or maybe they were just making fun of us I don't know) but all the same, it was sooo much fun!! I'd needed an excuse to dance...
