Day 94

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving is obviously not celebrated in France, but I didn't let that ruin this holiday for me by any means!

I woke up late, close to 10:30 I think. That's definitely later than I like to sleep, but I think I needed it. I didn't let myself rest hardly at all over the weekend!

I didn't do much in the morning, and I was perfectly content with that. At some point, Katie left to go pick up her mom from the airport (her mom is here to spend Thanksgiving break with her), and then I finally decided to get dressed and get moving. I ate the rest of my baguette and hummus from the day before, and then met up with Shavonne, Shaq, and Gemma (one of the Paris semester students) to go explore the Latin Quarter.

It was actually a "nice" day; temps in the upper 40s, very sunny, and not that windy. I couldn't let it go to waste! It's been much too rainy here, and it'll undoubtedly rain in London this weekend (although I'll suffer through that and still do everything I want to do).

On the way, we went to Starbucks. I was just DYING for a chai tea latte, and Gemma really wanted some coffee. I tried to tell the barista my name in the French way, but all he heard was "Emma." So our cups ended up saying "Gemma" and "Emma," which was kind of cute.

We first stopped at Shakespeare and Company, which was once a popular cafe frequented by Hemingway and Fitzgerald and all them. Now, it's, well, also a cafe, but mainly a really cool bookstore. The first thing I did was find a pretty copy of Pride and Prejudice (my favorite book--I'm trying to develop a collection of different editions of it), and then I did some browsing. I loved it in there! I may have also got a couple more surprise books...but we'll just have to wait and see!

Next, we went to Notre Dame because we were running away from Frolo and needed to find sanctuary (jokes). Seriously, though, I was shocked at how short the line was to get in! I mean, it was still a line, but the last time I went there the line was at least three times as long. The inside was still just as beautiful as I remembered, but now, after seeing Seville Cathedral, I'm a little less impressed with it.

Picture didn't turn out that great, but this was the coolest, fanciest nativity scene I've ever seen!

Not the greatest selfie ever taken

So after that, as you can maybe see in the picture above, we visited the lover's lock bridge. Last summer, I had taken this really cute picture with my cousin, Laura, and two of our EF tour friends, and I was just dying to recreate it with my new study abroad friends. I think it turned out cute!

We then went back to Shakespeare and Company because Shavonne couldn't decide on a book earlier, and then we headed to McDonald's because they were all hungry. On the way, though, Shaq decided to get Chinese food instead, and then we continued on to McDonald's. I got talked into buying a medium fry (I'm weak). It seemed fitting, though, that I would have Starbucks and McDonald's considering it was an American holiday.

We headed back to campus so that we could see Katie and her mom for a little bit. It was so great seeing her! I'm excited for them in all the exploring of Paris they're going to be doing this weekend.

Later, after many struggles trying to decide what to do for Thanksgiving dinner, I ended up going to a nice little restaurant close by with Anissa, Michelle, Vinny, La Shay, Shavonne, and Shaq. We splurged a little, but MAN was it worth it. I had good rosé wine, good bread, good cod, good vegetables and potatoes, and good chocolate cake-type dessert. Honestly, calling all of those things "good" is a gross understatement. It was easily the best meal I've had all semester! Just amazing. Our waitress was extremely sweet and helpful, too. She translated the entire menu for us! What a trooper.

Didn't get a picture of the dessert because I started eating it the second it was set down in front of me! But here's my fish!

So it was very different than any Thanksgiving I'd ever had before, but it was absolutely wonderful. I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Day 93

I was very happy to sleep in until 9:30 on Day 93. (I feel like I start every blog post where I got to sleep in in that way, but oh well. I don't like getting up early).

We had our weekly meeting at 10:30, which only a few people showed up for, but that just meant the few of us who were there got to have more snacks! They gave us a variety of little French cookie things that were all quite tasty. I even took some to-go!

Following the meeting, Matthieu took us on an excursion to Montmarte, one of my favorite parts of the city. We had an easy trip there on the metro, and then came right out into Paris's pseudo-Red Light District. Everyone was freaking out. It was funny.

He took a group photo of us in front of the Moulin Rouge, and then we headed to the more quaint part of the area. He showed us the bakery that was voted "Best Baguette of 2013" (Paris is so cute, I swear), and then popped into another bakery to buy us some treats. I had a pain chocolat (chocolate croissant) which was, obviously, amazing. I love how much food they give us here!

This is a wall that says "I love you" in something like 180 different languages

The walking tour was really cool, even though it was a little rainy for part of it (but of course, I had my umbrella). We ended up by the Sacre-Cœur, and then some of us went inside after. From what I remember, I didn't get to do that last year, so I was very excited. Photographs weren't allowed, but take my word for it--it's beautiful. I did, however, take pictures outside.

We then made our way back to that one bakery with the best baguette of 2013 to get baguettes. They were HUGE, and only 90¢! Also, they were totally delicious. On the way back to campus, I ate some of it on its own, but then I ended up going to the grocery store to get some hummus to have with it. I only managed to finish half of the baguette! Saving the rest for tomorrow...

It was already around 4 by the time I finished eating my lunch of bread and hummus, so then I just chilled until dinner. Dinner was all right: couscous, cooked cauliflower, and an unevenly-cooked piece of fish. A little while after dinner, Katie and I went to hang out with Gina and Tiffany in their room before they left to go catch their night bus to Amsterdam. We had fun as always, and I gave them some recommendations on where to go and what to see in Amsterdam.

I went to bed even MORE excited than I did the night before because this time I didn't even have to set an alarm!

Day 92

Day 92, aka my last day of class before Thanksgiving break! Yay!!

I had some mango yogurt for breakfast (no hot chocolate for once...I'm trying not to consume TOO much sugar) and then headed to class for my group presentation on Gattaca.

The presentation went pretty smoothly, and definitely lasted at least 40 minutes. Prof. Garrau and the class seemed to really like it! Well, most of the class seemed pretty sleepy throughout, but many people gave us compliments at the end. I feel pretty confident that we got a good grade.

For the rest of the class, we read and answered questions on St. Thomas Aquinas and Jean-Paul Sartre, both of whom argue for the idea of free will. I've studied both of them before, so these readings weren't too hard for me.

After class, I had my usual chill time while everyone I know is in class. I caught up on the blog, did some coloring, and downloaded a chess app on my laptop (I'm so bad and desperately trying to become decent).

I can't remember if I did anything of significance in the afternoon. I'm pretty sure I just continued doing whatever until dinnertime.

I randomly just remembered that I did laundry on Monday and failed to include that in yesterday's blog post. I guess it was such a painless laundry experience that I forgot it even happened!

The weather continues to be cold and rainy here, so going outside isn't all that appealing. Have no fear, though; I won't leave Paris without doing all the things I want to do here.

So dinner was actually really tasty tonight! It was buttered elbow noodles and some vegetables in a sort of tomato sauce, as well as the usual sides and whatnot. I even had a happy plate at the end (aka, I ate it all).

A little while later, after showering, all the usual suspects (well, minus Gina) came to our room for iPad games. We played Family Feud, an anagram-solving game, and, of course, Life. We jammed to some classic Pop2K hits, so everyone got to hear my lovely renditions of Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, Kanye West, and more. I'm sure they can't wait for the next time they get to listen to me sing.

Needless to say, after everyone left, I was very happy to go to bed and only set my alarm for 9:30.

Day 91

It was pretty hard getting up for class on Day 91, but I managed.

I had hot chocolate and cereal for breakfast to try and wake myself up some, and it actually did help. I felt much better when I got to class.

We finished discussing Minority Report and continued to learn more about arguments for and against the idea of free will. The material was a little confusing today, but I think I have a decent enough understanding of it.

After class, I caught up on all the social media happenings from the day before and worked on this blog. When Katie got out of Theology, we met up with Melissa and Caterina to work on our Metaphysics class presentation. Katie and I left at 3 (along with Gina, Tiffany, Shavonne, Shaq, La Shay, Wendy, Vinny, Anissa, and Michelle) to go on a "Tea and Pastries" excursion. They took us all to a nice, super expensive cafe at the Luxembourg Gardens and let us each get one drink and one pastry (or whatever combo, as long as we kept it around 15€). I got their signature tea, which tasted like hot Capri Sun (amazing), and a chocolate eclair. It was amazing! It's also amazing that St. John's has something like that in their budget for the Paris campus...and then the Seville campus is the way that it is.

We went back to campus and then met up with Melissa and Cat again to finish up our powerpoint. We agreed to meet up again later that night to practice presenting it.

I continued to work on the blog a little more (as you might know by now, writing Day 90 was no small feat) until dinnertime rolled around. Dinner was kinda eh (mashed potatoes and green beans), but it was fine.

I did some coloring and whatnot until Melissa and Cat got back from being out and about in the city, and then we did a run-through of our presentation. We were confident that our material was good and would fill the time requirement (30-40 minutes).

I didn't get to go to bed as early as I wanted to, but knowing I only had one more 8:30 am class before my Thanksgiving break made having to wake up at 7:15 not seem so bad.

Day 90

So the reason I was too excited to sleep was because WE WENT TO DISNEYLAND ON SUNDAY!!! Yaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy! I was so, so happy.

Katie, Gina, and I got up pretty early to make sure we could get to the park for its opening at 10. We had to take the metro and an RER train to get all the way out there, and that all went pretty smoothly. Some guy tried to scam us when we were buying our RER tickets, but I knew better and ignored him.

When we got to Euro Disney, we were a little confused about where we needed to go to buy tickets. You see, my Disney trips are normally planned for me. However, we figured it out easy enough.

Disneyland Paris is set up kind of a lot like Disneyland in Anaheim; there are two parks right next to each other, and a Downtown Disney-esque area right outside them (I think here it's called Disney Village). There are also resorts connected to the Disney Village, and even one inside the main park.

So there's the main park, which is just like the main park in California as well as the Magic Kingdom in Florida, and then there's Disney Studios, which is just like MGM/Hollywood Studios in Florida. Even though both parks have a ton of attractions, they feel sort of small, but in a good way. They're easy to navigate and not super overwhelming. It might've also helped that neither park was really all that crowded (it was freezing cold and, for obvious reasons, there aren't a lot of tourists in Paris right now).

A 2-park ticket costs 90€, which seemed pretty standard to us. However, as I went to buy the ticket, the lady asked me if I was a student. It turns out that they offer a student discount! I only had to pay 71€ to get into both parks. That was definitely a pleasant surprise!

We started at the Studios, so that Katie could ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster ("avec Aerosmith") and the Tower of Terror before they got too crowded. As you probably know, I'm just a baby when it comes to rides, and Gina apparently passes out on most roller coasters. We just acted like moms and waited for Katie while she rode her "crazy" rides. We got to meet Spiderman (but never went and looked at our pictures), we got hot chocolate and muffins, and we made a game plan for the rest of the day.

After Katie had ridden both of those rides, we headed over to Aladdin's Carpets and Crush's Coaster. Crush's Coaster wasn't operating, so the three of us rode the carpets.

Crush's Coaster opened up while we were on the carpets, but by the time we got off, the wait time was already something like 110 minutes. We said "no thanks" and headed to the unbelievably adorable Ratatouille area.

Little Chef!

So I knew there was a Ratatouille area, but I had not heard that there was a Ratatouille ride!! It was pretty much just like the Spiderman and Transformers rides at Universal, but sooooooooo cute. You wear 3D glasses and sit in a little rat-mobile. The ride is half in English, half in French (as were pretty much all of the rides. It was confusing, but also hilarious). 

2 cool 4 3D

We decided it was probably time to head over to the other park, but made sure to pass through the ADORABLE Toy Story area on the way out. They have a few little rides, one of which is like a Slinky Dog kiddie coaster. So cute!

This Buzz was switched to his French setting, not his Spanish one!

There was also a little Monsters, Inc. area that we saw on our way out, where you can pose with Boo's door and test the strength of your scream. 

As we were about to exit Disney Studios, we saw Mickey and Minnie out in beautiful Christmas outfits. Obviously I wasn't about to wait in line to get pics with them, so I did what I usually do when I'm pressed for time and took a picture of them with other people.

So then we went to the main park (which is just called Disneyland Park). It was so pretty and Christmas-y!

We took a counterclockwise path through the park, which means that we started with Frontierland. I was SOOOOO excited to ride Big Thunder Mountain...BUT IT WAS CLOSED FOR RENOVATION. I'm still not over it.

We did get to do "Phantom Manor," though, which is basically identical to the Haunted Mansion, but with some story about a bride throughout. The majority of it was in French, though, so I could not tell you one thing about that bride. In the stretching room in the beginning, I brought my friends underneath the painting of the lady with the umbrella because I knew that in Orlando, that's where the entrance is. Luckily, that was where the entrance was here, too, so we were the first ones out of that room. This was especially great because there were about 500 small children in there behind us, and I wanted to be as far away from their terrified cries as possible.

Look who was hanging out outside of Phantom Manor: Jack Skellington in his Santa suit!

We opted to have a nice, warm lunch at this little "Mexican" restaurant in Frontierland since it was about 2 pm. We each got this meal that came with vegetable taquitos, Mexican rice, salad, onion rings, and a drink. The food wasn't bad, and all that really mattered was that it was nice and warm.

Next, we headed to Adventureland, where we immediately stumbled upon the Indiana Jones roller coaster. It looked almost identical to Primeval Whirl in Disney World (one of my favorite rides), and the wait was only 25 minutes, so Katie and I got in line. I had noticed on the entrance sign that it said something about a 360 degree turn or something, but I didn't think anything of it. Then, as we approached the loading area, I saw another sign and read it more carefully. It said that the ride had a 360 degree loop. I was confused, though, because normally upside-down loops are very visible on a roller coaster. Sure enough, though, in about five steps I saw the hidden loop and immediately freaked out. As you might guess, I ended up not going on the ride, and Katie rode alone. She still enjoyed herself, of course, and I was very happy that I didn't go on the ride unaware of what was going to happen.

So I found Gina near the exit, and then Katie found us after going on the ride. It was high time to ride Pirates of the Caribbean.

We waited about as long as usual for Pirates, and at least the last part of the waiting area was indoors and toasty. The ride itself was cold, but still fun as always. This Pirates actually has two "drops," and on the second one your picture is taken. I thought that was pretty cool, and I think our picture is hilarious.

That's us in the second row...I especially stand out amongst the dark coats

Oh, before I forget...look what else they have in Adventureland--the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse! (This is all for Mom, of course). There's also a little Agrabah area (from Aladdin).

Our next stop was Fantasyland. We got to walk through the Sleeping Beauty castle, which actually has a cool little upstairs viewpoint reached from inside of it. Also up there are some scenes from the movie. It's really cool!

Our first ride in Fantasyland was Snow White, or rather, Blanche-Neige. It was just as "scary" as always, but this time very confusing because it was totally in French. Still a classic, though. 

Next, we did the teacups, and were super into it. Pretty much no one else was trying to spin their cup, but we were very intense with our spinning. 

We made our way to "Discoveryland" (for some reason Tomorrowland isn't a good enough name for Paris I guess) which is actually even cooler-looking than Tomorrowland in Disney World. 

The first order of business was to do Buzz Lightyear. I liked this Buzz Lightyear better than the one in Florida because you actually get to remove your little blaster gun thing and therefore have more mobility with it. I especially liked the photos of us on this ride!

After Buzz, we went to check out the wait time for Space Mountain. It was 5 minutes!! Katie and I quickly set a meeting location with Gina and then ran into the line. Before going in, though, I made sure to check the sign JUST IN CASE it said anything about a 360 degree loop. Katie thought I was crazy for doing so, but sure enough, it said that it has a loop! So I left to find Gina, and Katie rode Space Mountain. She said it was actually more intense than the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, with a loop and a few corkscrews. Thank God I checked! Although, if I had gone in and seen people getting on the ride and putting the overhead protector things on, I would've known it wasn't for me.

Adorable statues of WALL-E and EVE

Next, we rode Star Tours, which has definitely not been updated like the one in Florida was. It was still stupid and fun, though. I was laughing at myself for remembering the exact lines, and therefore being able to understand what was being said even though it was in French.

Katie then went to go ride Space Mountain one more time while Gina and I looked around in the Star Wars gift shop. They had this really neat "build your own lightsaber" station. I was saying that I bet after kids participate in the Jedi Training Academy (which is right around the corner from the ride), they're told to come build their own lightsaber (because that's the last step to becoming a real Jedi). Gina did not seem particularly impressed with this piece of insight.

We returned to Fantasyland to ride Peter Pan and the carousel. Both were very classic and very fun.

Hungry and cold, we left the park and went to eat at Planet Hollywood in the Disney Village. Gina and I got this drink called the Casino Royale, which was really good, and actually kind of tasted a lot like Motrin. I ordered potato skins, which was actually more like half of a baked potato with cheese and bacon (no complaints). Our waiter freaked out when we said we're American because apparently he lived there for a while and desperately wants to get a green card and go back. He also panicked when we only got drinks and appetizers, but everything worked out okay. It was yummy!

We tried to leave, but the train station was all blocked off, and no one knew why. It was pretty stressful. We went inside a movie theater and I texted Aubrey asking her to see if anything had happened. She said everything seemed fine and normal. In the end, we think some "suspicious package" must've been found on one of the RER trains, so they closed the stations as a precautionary measure. We waited for about 30-45 minutes and then were able to get on our train for free.

We got off on a different stop so that we could take the metro more and walk less. Finally, a little after 11 or so, we were home and sufficiently exhausted.

It was a long, cold, tiring day, but MAN was it worth it. I am so, so, so, so happy I got to go to Disney. It was almost as good as being in Orlando with my family right now would be!

Day 89

Well, I definitely made good use of my weekend!!

On Saturday, Katie, Gina, Tiffany, and I got up to go to the Orsay Museum because Gina and Tiffany needed to make sketches of paintings for their class. Katie and I obviously just like going to museums.

On the way there, we stopped at a bakery, Eric Kayser, for breakfast. Figuring out how to go about eating at a French bakery was a little confusing at first, but the people working there were very nice and helpful (and spoke at least some English). We did our best at ordering in French, and the waitress definitely appreciated that. French people are so funny about those things. Even if you butcher every word, they really do just love that you're attempting to speak their language (for the most part). 

I had hot chocolate and a Viennoise de chocolat, which was basically this little loaf of bread with a bunch of chocolate chips in it. (Don't judge me for how much chocolate I consume every morning). It was obviously a very yummy breakfast!

The Orsay Museum is so cool! I highly enjoyed wandering through its galleries for 2 and a half hours or so. Katie and I kind of lost Gina and Tiffany while they were working on their sketches (it's a deceivingly huge museum), but we got to see lots of amazing pieces by artists like Van Gogh and Monet, the latter being my favorite painter. (Unfortunately, the Monet painting I have in my bedroom at home is apparently in DC. I was hoping to see it here, but oh well). There are also lots of rooms in the museum that can only be described as the holdings places for all the things that go on the Antiques Roadshow, aka basically rooms with antique furniture set up to look like real, functioning rooms of a house. It was neat!

Didn't totally know what was going on here, but thought this was cool

By the Impressionism wing, they had these weird, octopus-looking lounge chair things. We just had to try them!

We waited a little while by the exit to see if Tiffany and Gina would turn up, but we ended up just heading back to campus without them. Katie and I wanted to get some work done on our Gattaca presentation anyway, which we spent quite some time doing in the computer lab. Well, we spent a fair amount of time making the shell of the powerpoint, and then kind of a lot of time looking at stupid pictures and gifs from the movie on the internet (don't ask). 

Later that evening, I bought my train tickets to London to go spend next weekend with Umme! I am SO excited. Right after that, Katie and I headed out to take the metro to an English-speaking Catholic church near the Arc de Triomphe for 6:30 pm mass. 

It was certainly an interesting mass. One man led all the singing (which there was a lot of, but I'm used to that from St. Elizabeth's), and he kind of sounded like what I imagine Brad Garrett would sound like if he tried to sing hymns. In other words, he was pretty bad. But as Aubrey and I would say, he gave it a lot of heart. The priest seemed to be in pretty bad shape, age- and health-wise, but it was soooooo nice to be able to understand the homily for the first time in forever. 

We took the metro home after mass and then went to get food at the grocery store with Gina for dinner. It was pretty cold and rainy out, so we didn't have much interest in really going anywhere. I got some bread, goat cheese, and a cucumber--the dinner of champions.

A bunch of other people had the same idea we did, so we all ate together in the cafeteria and then hung out down there for a couple hours. Wild Saturday night, am I right?? 

I had some trouble falling asleep. You'll understand why when you see my next post...