Pareeeeeeee

Yikes. I'm way behind on recording my memories on this thing, and it's because of the oddly busy life I've been having recently. From Tuesdays to Thursdays, I leave the house by 8 AM and get back around 9 pm. And then I have a lovely four day weekend to catch up on work, but when I travel, there's no "catching up" that I can do. And I need to take care of all my business regarding my coming home (in less than two months what?!), so I've been taking care of housing, internship applications, etc. It's weird that I'll be "home" so soon! I officially am homeless--not in a sad, cardboard box way perhaps, but in the way where I don't have somewhere to really settle because I'm always moving.
So this past weekend I went to Paris, and I'm going to London, so I've decided to make use of my class time by writing this instead. HEH!
So on Saturday morning, I woke up in a panic because I got up at 8 AM for my 8:13 train... whoops. Luckily, I got to exchange my ticket and pay a little more to take a later train, but unluckily I lost 100 euro in my haste. It's funny that as I was putting it in my pocket, I paused and thought, "This is not a safe place to put it... Oh well!" Sigh. I need to listen to my pauses more often.
I got into the city around 11 AM to meet up with the Rutgers in Belgium group, and we headed off to lunch where I had the most wonderful meal of baguette, cheese, and grapes.

I was so happy. Yum. Look at the size of those grapes!

And the baguette phenomena of France isn't exaggerated--seriously, everyone has a baguette in hand at any time of day. But they are delicious, so I understand why. But how do Parisians not get fat?! Croissants, cheese, bread, wine... it's not exactly a low-caloric diet.
Dr. Healey gave us a walking tour of the city, and Paris is absolutely beautiful with its history. It has the most beautiful architecture, but what got me the most was all the history and background behind everything. I had no idea that there were so many Roman influences and how the city was rebuilt so many times--we even got to see a building with gun shots in it from a rebellion. It's mind-blowing to think about all the events that have led up to what they have today. I guess Paris isn't just a city for fashionistas and hopeless romantics!

The group in front of a cathedral. Buildings like this are everywhere! So beautiful.

Then we went to the Notre Dame--to be honest, I had no idea that it was in Paris. I didn't have much interest in Paris before, as you can tell. Whoops.

It was too big for me to fit it in a shot. I can't help but compare all of the religious building I see to the cathedral of Toledo, and I still like that one better. I may just be biased heh

I love stained glass windows.

After the short visit, we went on a boat ride down the Seine to see a lot of the landmarks. That's when I saw the Eiffel tower for the first time! It was love at first sight.
Then after some more baguette, cheese, and grapes, we went to watch the Paris Philharmonia! It was a nice performance--I feel like I've heard better, but it might be because I'm biased (again). And we were sopping wet from the thunderstorm, so soggy socks could have also impaired my judgment.

This photo reminds me of the All-State band pictures we used to take ha

Then we were released for the night, and the Rut-ies went out for some drinks and crepes! I got a nutella one, but I wasn't very impressed by it. I expected crepes to be crunchier I think, but it's very soft and smooshy.

A pretty bridge at night

The next day, we went to an open air market, which was AWESOME. I love markets! I did some major shopping (big cool rings for a euro each?! parisian scarves for two?! who could resist?) and almost forgot to buy lunch in the process. There were so many cool things to buy and foods to eat from all over the world. The Lebanese deliciousness smelled so good. But I grabbed some baguettes (do you see a pattern here?), and we headed off to the Louvre!

We ate at a small park outside of it and discovered that pigeons are ferocious there. They come mad close!! But it was almost unreal sitting in the grass, eating cheese, and seeing the Louvre on the right and the Eiffel tower on the left.


We saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, of course, but we had to rush through the museum, unfortunately. I couldn't stop thinking about the Da Vinci Code. Whoops.

That ended the Rutgers part of the trip, so Lauren and I left to see the Arch de Triumph (after meeting an American swing dancer! so cool). It took a long time to walk there, but worth it in the end.

Ta-da! Ignore the not-so-beautiful van behind me.

The train left at 9 pm, so I went for a short visit to the Eiffel one more time before heading off. I wanted to take a picture of it in all its night-time glory, but dusk didn't fall soon enough before I had to head back to the hostel to get my bags. But it's still so pretty in the evening.

Ciao bella!