last weekend

Saturday was BEAUTIFUL! it was entirely too pretty to tale the metro anywhere, so since this was one of my last weekends in Paris, I decided to walk around the city & soak up as much of it as I can while I can. I walked towards Strasbourg Saint Denis & passes Arts et Metiers and then began to notice exactly where I was when I was walking. We had met on the same street last year before we went to the Comedie Francaise & I remember the Indiana & McDonalds near Christina's house! I was at Bonne Nouvelle!! I saw 2 structures that vagualy resembled a much smaller version of the Arc de Triomphe! SO cool! Bonne Nouvelle runs into Grands Boulevards, which is a really good district to do some serious shopping damage! I found amazing panorama postcards that fold into 3's so OFCOURSE I had to buy them! You coud see a Lancel store in the one displaying the Opèra, which I thought was super neat! There was a really cool store & ofcourse I forgot the name, but they hand made all their clothes! They were all very colorful & looked like patchwork but in a really eclectic vintage way! You could even see the little station where some of the workers were sewing the clothes! Everything was SOOOOO expensive! I love being by the Seine on days like this, so once I got to the Opèra, I hung a left and headed straight for Tuilleries & passed the cute café area where Mrs Marty took me to dinner. I saw a lilac purple doodle bug & several bedazzled skull heads that looked SO Ed Hardy. I got to walk across the really metro/modern bridge that I love so much! For the next 20 minutes, I just sat on the ledge of the river & tried to soak it all in. It was breathtaking. How in the world have I already been here for 3 months? It was getting close to 5:45 & I still had to go home to change before meeting everyone at the Thurbur room for Chris & Lisa's going away party. I got there relatively on time (GO ME! I'm never on time anywhere!) & started helping with the pizza making. Everyone was chopping & slicing & dicing & heating the marinara sauce! I ofcourse couldnt wait to take pictures!!! I immediately put on an apron so I would "look the part." I was in charge of putting the cheese on top of the pizza! Destiny & Jimmy set up the tables & everyone was hustling & bustling around to get everything ready. We all said a prayer for Chris as he heads back to University in Toulousse & Lisa as she heads to school in Wales. The pizza was SO good! I overheard one of the new girls, who I had never seen before, mention that she was an American & I started eaves dropping once she said she was from NC. Naturally, I had to ask her what she was doing here & it turns out she arrived 2 weeks earlier & is an au pair in France for a year. She is from Raleigh, NC & went to PC!! SMALL WORLD!!!! Jimy accidentally froze the Coke, but by the time we ate it had turned into a slurpee & reminded me of 7Eleven! I sat next to Kimmy & Raphaela who was dying to get back home to watch the US Open! She is German & working in Paris as a sports journalist! Did I mention that she speaks 5 languages & English is like her 3rd best & her english is better than mine? Things like that amaze me! I barely speak 2 languages!!! She knows German, Portuguese, Spanish, French & English...amazing! We all had the best time! After, we hopped over to the Eiffel Tower to see the Advertising Exhibition at Champs des Mars & ofcourse we missed it! BUMMER! However, there was HUGE crowd of people gathered around a guy singing so we decided to go check it out. He was singing GREAT songs like, I will survive, Summer of 69, Youre Beautiful by James Blunt (I couldnt help but giggle & think of Ash because that is one of my favorite impersonations she does) & then he sang Hey Jude. Just as we all chimed in "naaaaaaaa na na nananana, nananana, hey jude" the eiffel tower started twinkling! I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE HERE!!!

Sunday I got up early because someone at church told me that Hillsong of Paris is really close to Rèpublique. I googled it & it's not only close, it's literally right across the Place from my apt! I walked there in 5 minutes! It was raining & cold & dreary that morning & all I wanted to do was sleep, but this is the last opportunity I have to go to church there & I wasnt going to miss it! The building they hold service in is very eclectic & funky! There was a very cool chandalier type thing hanging & it was decorated in a shabby chic decor. It used to be a cinèma, so all the seats were red velour & they had big 1950's-esque paintings of Marilyn Monroe & Bob Marley. When the band came on, I felt like I was at a rock concert! They were full of life & energy & jumping up & down & everybody was SO into it! They sing some english songs, some French songs & it was just amazing! I feel so lucky & blessed to get to experience something like that! The preacher is Australian & there is a translator, so every 30 seconds you hear english then french then english then french. It was great! I tried to grab a croissant or pain au chocolate & a café before I went to ACP, but nothing was open! There is Paris on a Sunday for ya...NOTHING IS OPEN!! Not even the grocery store!!! I was so sleepy that I kept nodding off in church! ah! I met up with everyone for coffee & snacks afterwards & had another interesting conversation with the French guy who called me a liar a few months back. Apparently he is crazy, but he was telling me how he has lymphoma & sometimes gets depressed, so I felt bad not talking to him. He wants American pen pals & wanted me to try to find him some, so I had to take his business cards & promised I would give them out...weird! I didnt know how to react!!

We went to EXKI near the bibliothèque where I visited last year & had some yummy tomato honey soup!!! I was sleepy & some of the other girls were going to watch a french film, but HELLO why would I want to watch a movie in french when it was pretty outside? Lisa & I went back to her flat & had coffee & just spent some time together! She is leaving Paris on Thursday :( After the coffee was done, I walked through the streets & passed the Eiffel Tower, the Suisse Village (which was built for the World Fair in 1900) & ended up near Emilé Zola. I spied a patisserie that was open & bee-lined it over there & bought a baguette because I had been craving one! I was in search of a cute little park bench to sit on & ended up back on the Seine near the Eiffel Tower. I was having dèja-vu when I passed a certain mètro stop because it was the first metro stop I used last year! It was right around the corner from Hotel Novotel- which is where we stayed last year before going to Brussels then moving in with our host families!!! I was walking walking walking walking & cross the road when suddenly, I felt like I was dreaming! I looked up & saw where they filmed the part in Inception under the metro tracks when there are the big mirrors! I was like "WHOA" then proceeded to take 21540 pictures! Just before that, I saw the replica of the Statue of Liberty so I was seeing all sorts of cool stuff today! There was a monument from one of the panoramic postcards I had bought that I hadn't ever seen before I what do you know, there it was right across the street from the Inception sight!!! It's in the Bir Hakeim area & it was to commemorate all the Jews in Paris during WWII. There was a beautiful 1/2 moon & a perfect orange sunset! SEE- God is a CLEMSON fan :) It was getting cold, so I had to pry myself away & head back to Rèpublique and get ready for work tomorrow..BOO