SEPT 16 et 17, 2011.

Sept 16: Travel Day

-First thing in the morning we got dressed, got breakfast, and then got on the bus. I tried to sleep on the bus, but I couldn’t stop coughing. When we got to the train station I remember hearing that Annie and Kelly got gypped by some guy into buying some candy when in reality they were cough drops. It worked for me because Annie gave some to me.

I sat next to Lesie on the train. I basically just listened to music and tried to sleep. It was about a 5 hour train ride. When we got into Paris we had to take the bus to the Lee’s apartment. Because we had such a big group we had to split up on different trains. Once we were there we threw our stuff inside and sat down to rest. I was so glad to be back in Paris, that way I don’t have to carry around this dang suitcase anymore.

A group of girls were going to McDonalds to get their fountain drinks, we tagged along for a bit then we left them to go buy our host family a gift. We went to Olivier & Co. on Ill Saint Louis and bought some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. We wandered around some shops near Hotel De Ville also. Then we went back to the professor’s apartment where we saw a flower stand earlier. We bought our host family some little pink roses then went inside to get ready to go. I was getting so nervous the whole time! We hung out a bit, but it wasn’t long until we were in a taxi on our way!

Once we got to her apartment, we called her and she came outside to help us with our bags. We had to take the elevator up one level. When we first walked inside I was a bit surprised. I knew that the area we were in was a nice area, and she has a very nice apartment… but, it is so messy. So messy to the point that I am getting stressed out. We first walked in and we sat down on her couch for some juice and some chocolat pistachio cookie things. Then she showed us the two bedrooms and we got all of our stuff in our rooms. Michelle’s room is on the complete other side of the apartment.

Afterwards we walked around the area a bit where she showed us a few restaurants, and she took us to a boulangerie and a bucherie. We got some bread, a pear tart, and some roasted chicken. We went home and hung out a bit until dinner was ready. She noticed I was coughing a lot so she got me some medicine to take, which was nice. Dinner wasn’t too bad, she made some spinach soup. We also had the roasted chicken, the bread and the tart for dessert. She had some goat cheese that I tried and I didn’t like it, it was WAY strong. I liked the other goat cheeses back in the south of France, but that one was nasty. Then we sat and talked… for a very, very long time. More like she sat and talked to us in French while we nodded and said, “Oui.” “D’accord.” “Merci.” I did not understand one thing she said to me. She speaks English, she has just been speaking in French to us almost all of the time.

She would not stop talking for the longest time, we finally had to tell her that we needed to e-mail our families and go to bed. We asked her for the internet password and she had it written down somewhere, she just had to look for it. Her house is so cluttered it took her a good 15-20 minutes to find it. I don’t even know how she did in all the piles of papers. We finally got the internet to work, and then she told me that it wouldn’t work in my room because I am on the other side of the apartment. So I have to sit in Michelle’s room to be on the internet, way annoying. When we were about to go to bed, I started to get really scared. I was in a room all by myself, in a strangers home. I have been a little bit home sick. But once I fell asleep, I slept well.



Sept 17: First free day.

In the morning I kept waking up to hear people walking around the apartment. The floors in the apartment squeak like crazy. I tried to sleep in as much as possible. I woke up around 10:45 and then went to go wake up Michelle. No one was home, which I really liked. I didn’t feel as weird. When we finally were awake, we went and sat down for breakfast. The lady we live with had set us a place on the table. She had the plates and cups full of juice out ready to go. When we first sat down we went to take a drink and we noticed little white speck on our glass. We thought it was from the dishwasher at first, but then Michelle noticed that those white specks were moving. They were bugs, little white bugs all over our cups and in our juice. Definitely did not drink any juice. She had some baguette laid out for us with jam and butter. We were a bit paranoid, but we still ate it. She had some warm milk out for me to drink with honey. I went in the kitchen in a cupboard where I noticed the day before she had some plastic cups. There was no way I was going to drink out of bug invested glass. I got myself a cup and got my milk and honey for breakfast. It felt good on my throat and good for my cough.
We started to get ready for the day. I have a little sink and shower in a little room next to mine. The shower was filthy. I was so uncomfortable. I got my makeup done and we blow dried our hair with her curling iron because we were a bit paranoid.

Once we were all ready we walked up the street to go to the store. Michelle bought an apple and some water, and I just got an orange juice. Then after a quick stop in Sephora, we went down to the Eiffel Tower to meet up with the girls. They were all sitting on the ground having a little pique-nique. We stayed and talked for a bit then we went off on our own to go see the sites.



Hailey and Sam joined Michelle and I and they told us that this weekend in Paris is a special weekend where everything is free! They said that once a year all of the historical sites, museums… everything was open and for free! So we went to L’Arch de Triumph and went to the top for free. Then we walked down the Champs Elysees. We were all so hungry so we walked down a little street to see if they had a crêpe stand. We found ourselves walking on Saint Honore which had some amazing clothing stores. Then we saw one building where a lot of people were going inside. We decided to go inside as well. We found out that it was the British Ambassadors home. It was beautiful. I noticed a lot of sculptures and different books out on Pauline. (Je pense que Pauline Borghese.) So I asked a British worker what she had to do with the house we were in. The woman told me that we were actually in Pauline’s house! It was her own little home back in the day, and that it was the only day of the year they open it up to the public. Very cool experience. After we saw her home we went to Place de le Concorde. Our first plan was go to the Tuileries Gardens then to the Louvre. We decided since things weren’t usually free that instead we would go to the Notre Dame and walk up to the bell towers for Free.

Once we got off the metro and walked to the Notre Dame we stopped to get a crêpe and then walked no more than 5 steps to get to the Notre Dame when we saw that it was closed! We were standing right there buying crêpes right when it closed! We walked to the back of the Notre Dame where we saw a cool band playing. We stopped and listened to the last two songs they played. Then we went and got a cd. They were a new band and only have about 3 songs on their cd, but oh well. Sam and Hailey just wanted to be close to them, and to talk to them which consisted of asking how much it cost to buy a cd.

For our last attempt of getting into places for Free we went to go to the Pompidou, but it wasn’t free. We could have gotten in with our art cards, but Michelle didn’t have hers with her. We sat down on a bench and looked at the bookstore. There are so many cool things I could buy at that bookstore, but I didn’t…yet. We left and went to a pizzeria nearby. We ordered a pizza, pasta, and salad to share. Our waiter was a bit rude, which made us feel uncomfortable and pessimistic. I started to become really homesick. I did not want to go back to our apartment. It is so messy and the woman never stops talking. I was really missing being home. Once we finished our food, it was raining really hard. We got soaked but we got to the metro and home in good shape.

When we got home, our host mom started to talk to us. And just like I said, she didn’t stop. I asked her if she could help us to know how to get to Versailles since we had stake conference there… and boy did she go off! I figure out how to get there in about 3 minutes and she went on for like half hour trying to explain it. We finally just said, well we have church early so we have to go! We hurried and left so she wouldn’t bring up another topic like she has done before. I Skyped my mom and went to bed a bit earlier. I was freezing at night. I don’t think she has any heating in her home. So I had two comforters on my bed and they were both over my head while I slept. I was really, really homesick… but I fell asleep pretty quickly.





















This view is about 1 minute from my house. All I need to do is walk down the street. Amazing!