Top of the World, Beautiful Normandie, and Stupid Americans

Bonjour tout le monde!!

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...

La Premiere Semaine

Bonjour fam and friends!!!

First of all I read through my last post and after findin out that so many people are reading this now I have to put out the disclaimer that I just kinda type my thoughts away, so I apologize for bad grammer misspelled words and long rambly sentences....

Anywho... Bonjour de Paris!!!!

It's been a week and it's felt like so much longer and so much shorter all at the same time... if that makes any sense... Either way it's incredibly that I've been here a week! One down, about eleven more to go!!!

Paris is absolutely gorgeous!!! The architecture is ancient and articulate... Walking through our neighborhood is fun just because all the houses are different, but all so beautiful! I actually found out that the house I'm living in is over a thousand years old!! So much for the US's "Founded in 1976" that's found on a lot of buildings. but our house, it's big and white and beautiful. When the cab pulled up to it the first day, my roommate and I stood forever just gawking at the huge wall and gate wondering if this was for real. While we stood there a cute, energetic 13 year old girl came out to greet us and help us into the house. I've heard lots about how everything is smaller in France, which is kind of true, so we weren't expecting much. This house is 3 or 4 stories high with a huge backyard and is literally right across the street from the Seine river! Alexi and I have our own rooms and they're HUGE!! Mine has a little bar in the corner where we put half our food, and the other half we put in OUR fridge!! We share a bathroom with eachother, but it's our bathroom, and we basically get to do anything we want. The monsieur simply said that we were like his daughters, that as long as we were careful and didn't party too late and didn't go around drinking and kissing boys, we were good to do what we pleased!

The family is so nice! The dad is a surgeon.... What kind of surgeon I'm not sure of...BUt he's a surgeon! He's really nice, and is very forgiving of our terrible French. He is very kind, always willing to help us when we need it. The wife is very quiet and sweet. She has made some of the est dinners! They have 5 kids. Their oldest is married and the next youngest is at college, so we haven't really seen them. The next oldest is 17, Tristian. He's the only boy in the family. He has long untamed curly hair and he likes to wear British rock tees. He kind of comes and goes as he pleases, but when we do see him, he is a funny boy. The other two are a 16 year old girl,( .... her name starts with a T... :/ ) and a 13 year old girl, (Lidwine). The youngest girl came out to greet us the first day, and she is very happy and energetic. Jason I think you should check her out on Facebook..... Jk ;) Haha but the girls are very nice and love to help us with our French. :) One night at dinner the Mom kept talking to us in French, and the 17 year old kept telling her that she needed to speak in French so that we could learn. Every time she talked in French T--- would get mad at her and tell her to speak French. It was very funny.

Speaking of speaking French..... it's really hard.... I'm getting better at understanding the people when they talk to me, even though they talk really fast... but I'm still having problems putting words together, remembering the words I need to express what I want to say... It doesn't help that all the music I hear is American... Since we've come, on the radio or around the house we keep hearing songs like Dynamite and Club Can't Handle Me, even a new one by Keisha that I've never heard before (not the Take It Off one). We asked Lidwine for some good French artists, and she couldn't think of anybody. "Well," we said, "What do you listen to?" "La musique Americaine biensur!"Hahaha! Well hopefully I'll find some good artists who speak French so I can really surround myself with French....

For the first week I visited the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, le Pompidou, L'arche de Trioumphe, Champs-Elisees, La Louvre, Le Palais Royale, a good chunk of Chateau-Croissie, and, of course, the Seine. As my dear roommate Lexi often says.... No big! ;)

To Obtain the Impossible Visa

When you love someone, you don't stop loving them easily. You stick with them through thick and thin, no matter how annoying or frustrating they may be. But the annoyance and frusration that came from the French people at the French Consulate in San Fran nearly ruined my love for the French, making me hope dearly that this is simply the way of the American French and not the way of the French in general...

Part of my Prep for Paris is getting a visa. Why? Because you can't stay in France for more than 90 days without getting a visa. BYU has everything covered for the 89 days of the program, but if my mother and I are going to backpack around Europe from my 90th day in Paris up until Christmas, of course I need to get a Visa.

First the biggest hassle was going to the French Consulate in San Francisco in person. First we thought we could go to the one in LA and make a family trip out of it. But no. I am from Utah; therefore, of course, I must go to San Fran for my visa, even though it is significantly further away. My mom ended up just booking me a flight there and back Monday August 21st. The plan was get in, get the visa, get home.

It was a good plan and everything was set to go the Saturday before until I discovered, to my horror... The letter from BYU explaining that I was covered financially and that I had housing and health insurance, was missing. For two days we literally turned our house inside out, searching every nook and cranny frantically for the stupidly important letter that I had stupidly lost. My flight left early Monday morning, so there was no way that I could get another copy of the letter before I left. We ended up having to cancel the appointment until we could figure out what to do.

My mom changed the flights to Thursday, the last day I could fly out that week (You need to get your Visa at least 3 weeks before you leave). I went to change my appointment too, but when I went online, the only place you can schedule an appointment at the consulate, the next available appointment was September 8th -- the day I leave for Paris. In a panic I grabbed a phone to call the Visa section of the consulate. There was no answer. The automated French voices kept taking me around in circles. I called another section of the consulate and asked if they could help me. They gave me another number that took me into another circle. Before I could get another real person again, 3:00, their closing time, had come and gone.

The next day I tried again. No luck in the Visa section from either number, so again I called another section to get a real person and asked to be transferred to the Visa section.

"No one can talk to you. Everyone's too busy," she said.

"But I'm having a problem with my appointment..."

"Go online and book your appointment there."

"I tried. The first available date is the day I leave!"

"Well... I think one came up on Thursday, check again."

"So basically if nothing opens up then I'm screwed."

After a short pause she finally gave me an email address in case something didn't work out. I kept checking the schedule, and when an appointment came up on Thursday morning at 9AM I snagged it.

Bright and early the next Thursday morning, after an adventurous shuttle ride among San Fran drivers and a night in an old hotel, I headed out for the consulate. Ok sidenote a minute: Why do Utah drivers get so much crap? Every place has their crazy drivers, but for some reason Utah has acquired the reputation of having the worst. If anybody cuts me off on the freeway, the person next to me says, "Stupid Utard drivers!" First time my Freshman roommates at BYU drove with me, one of them turned to the other and said, "And this is why we hate Utah drivers!" Come ON people!! I know I'm one of the crazy drivers, but honestly we're not that bad!! You want crazy drivers?! Go to San Francisco!! They drive 85mph on the freeway with their nose glued to the bumper in front of them while brake lights flash everywhere in front of them. The residential streets have no lines in the middle of the road, so you drive down the center of the street until someone comes barreling toward you head-on. Now I'm usually Ok with crazy drivers-- I'm Ok driving with my brother, and that's saying something! But in that shuttle I swear there were a few times that I really thought that I was going to die! So anyone complaining about Utah drivers please take a trip to San Fran.

Anyways, back to the consulate.... at 9AM sharp they opened the doors. After getting through security I stepped into a room with a bunch of chairs and a TV with a French weather-woman telling us it was going to be cloudy today. I sat in a chair and looked at a long counter with a long window with a couple of holes that you spoke to them through... it reminded me of a bank teller, or better yet like a box office except 3x bigger. K couldn't believe that they had made such a stink about getting an appointment when it was basically just like going to the bank. You didn't even go in a certain order-- sure we had appointment times but it was basically first come first serve. I was near the front of the line, so I got to go up almost right away.

I handed the lady my papers, smiling and relieved that this was finally almost over. She looked over my stuff and said in an almost whispered, very bored voice, "Do you have your preh fahbie fillhou?"

".... What?"

"Do you have your bablie racket?"

"I'm sorry..... What?"

She rolled her eyes. "Do. You. Have. Your. Semile macking paper."

"I...I... I have all the documents that you said I needed on the internet... That letter is from the group I'm travelling with that explains..."

"Alright alright hold on." She then turned to the person next to her, (who seemed very relaxed and available to help for being one of the people in the Visa section who were "too busy to talk to anybody"), and they started speaking in French.The guy read the letter then looked over at me. Luckily he spoke better English.

"Listen, this school that you're traveling with, they're not approved so there's no way we can get you a student Visa..."

"No no no I need a Tourist Visa. I'm not studying at a French University."

"Ok... and are you staying on a campus...?"

"No we're staying with host families."

"Ya I'm gonna need some sort of proof..."

"It's in the letter!"

"Oh Ok.... well you're also missing a bank statement..."

"The letter explains that I'm financially covered!!"

"Well... online it says you need a bank statement to show that you will be able to support yourself...."

"The person who gave me the letter assured me that that was proof that I have prepayed for this trip!!"

"Oh... well.... so you need to fax us a copy of your or your mom's bank statement and proof of your housing and then we can send you your visa."

"THIS LETTER SAYS THAT I AM COVERED IF YOU DINGBATS WOULD JUST READ IT!!!! IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM CALL THE PROGRAM DIRECTOR HER NUMBER IS RIGHT THERE!!! OH WAIT!! YOU GUYS DON'T USE PHONES HERE!! BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO BUSY SITTING AROUND AND BEING STUPID!!!"

Actually I didn't yell. I just signed what I had to and promised I'd send them what I needed. I left calling my mom and sobbing. Then my mom called the program director who made a thousand calls to get in touch of the consulate trying to help me with this stupid problem. She told me she had never had a problem like this before, that the consulate always accepted the letters. I'll tell you why they didn't accept it, because I had horrible service from snotty ignorant little people!! Well I'm sure they're actually good people, I just don't like them.... Because because pf them, I spent the rest of my last day in San Francisco waiting in front of the stupid consulate waiting for this stupid problem to get resolved.

I am never getting a Visa from San Francisco ever ever ever again.

Heya!

Hey! So this is my first attempt at a blog… Please forgive me for my shortcomings! Hopefully I can figure this out by next fall — the main purpose of this blog is to give updates when I am living in Paris! There won’t be much to see here during the summer, but I promise that come September it will be much more interesting! ;-P