Faire du Velo

"To do/to make some bike" as the literal translation goes.

After the cafe and hot cocoa, we kept walking through Paris on this gorgeous day and ended up renting a bike in Paris to get back from Notre Dame to Hannah's place. Can I emphasize enough how gorgeous the weather was!?

Right before turning the bike back in, some cranky old French woman told me off for riding it on the sidewalk. Bucketlist item- check. Bonne Journee, madame!

 And nice-cream!!! Frozen bananas whipped into cloud form!

Cafe de Flore

Saint-Germain-des-Pres

Top 3 Best Chocolat Chaud a Paris :)

Hannah and I skipped the run for today and took a nice brisk walk through the cutest parts of Paris while the heavens smiled down on us and the beautiful sunshine came out. AMAZING.

We started out with trying out some of Paris' finest hot chocolate. Everybody knows Angelina's has some liquid gold, but I will say, this cocoa was a bit better. It wasn't too thick or too rich to drink and the cafe itself was adorable. Right across the street is Les Deux Magots which apparently also has some of Paris' finest cocoas. This could be a new hobby of mine; drinking expensive cocoa every Friday morning and then taking a long walk through the most beautiful city ever.

After our cocoas were sadly finished, Hannah was a peach and bought mine as a birthday gift! I have the best of friends here, I swear. We kept walking down the street when, by fluke, I mentioned that I wanted to send my mom a cooking magazine from Paris because I think she would love it. We happened to be passing a newspaper stand and I randomly selected one to look through. I noticed it because of the yummy pie on the cover and the fact that it said "à table!" a French calling which I love. And then Hannah was like, "wait! It says Seattle!" In fact, there is a whole inside story on Seattle and it's food and all things lovely. I just haaaaad to buy it! This magazine has 75 recipes in French, beautiful pictures, a story on donuts, and Seattle! And then to add to the coolness, it's an Elle Magazine which is a must-take-home souvenir from life in Paris. Hannah and I agreed we don't like their fashion so the fact that Elle has a food magazine suits us way better.

With magazines tucked under our arms, we strolled through Saint-Germain-des-Pres on the lovely day and I couldn't have been happier. A classy part of Paris with the cutest little streets and alleys to discover.

Finally- A French man who can't take his eyes off of me. This was my Valentine, guys.

Skippity-Doo-Dah

Last three days of school? Skip them.

That's about the extent of the conversation that went on in my head.
Missionary Monday, Aubrey/Cemetery Tuesday, Thursday?

I decided that since I won't be in Paris forever, I want to get to know the city as best I can before leaving. I had not spent much time above ground near Chatelet so I wanted to walk Rue de Rivoli and connect Chatelet to the Marais (I'm a visual learner).

So I did! It was so cold that, in fact, it snowed on me while I meandered through the magical city of Paris and it was amazing and cold but really amazing. Had I been in school, that moment would not have happened. Case closed on that matter.

So I walked (and slipped over the cobblestones in TOMS) and finally pieced that part of the city together in my mind! Great day. And then I was hangry and caved and bought a famous falafel sandwich which was everything I wanted it to be and gluten-ous and warm. Goodness, I'm going to die in Italy. Then Ems came into Paris and we went shopping for makeup! Got me some new lipstick because sometimes we just need to put on a little lipstick.

Then back to the grind with children....hooray.

 Thank you, Zara, for reminding me. Let me just eat my falafel sandwich now.

Pere-Lachaise Cemetery

Yes, Aubrey and I skipped school again just to meander through a huge cemetery which was actually really beautiful! Of course, it had to start with a crazy race through ten different metros and showing up late and running in circles when it comes to Aubrey and I!

When we got to the cemetery, we really didn't know where to go exactly. We knew there were famous people buried there, but who exaclty? And where? It's kind of hard to find a gravestone in a sea of other gravestones that are random as heck. We googled it, and for some odd reason we decided we wanted to find Isadora Duncan. Who is that you ask? No idea. But Google said shes famous so... Turns out, she didn't have a normal tombstone; she was actually in a box on the wall of seven-hundred-thousand-gazillion other boxes of people in ash form. We were not about to give up until we found her! "Knock, knock, Who's there? Isadora, where are you!"

Next up, Oscar Wilde. And don't get the idea that this cemetery was in neat rows and well marked lanes because it was not. At all. I was trying to imagine how people under the ground were buried because their stones and statues and mantles and tombs were angled into eachother, randomly scattered over this huge plot of land. The roads were windey and hilly and confusing but it was a beautiful day for grave-hunting! We ended up finding Oscar Wilde, Chopin, Jim Morrison, and a bunch of random statues to impersonate and/or take selfies with. Surprisingly really, really fun!

 "Julia, will you accept this rose?"

We were starving afterwards so we ordered some stressful chinese food which I then ate half of Aubrey's and we parted. I wish these fun adventures didn't have to end in parting all the time!

Karma- It can be good!

So Hannah text Emily and I Sunday night that she was called in to work all day Monday because a kiddo has the flu. Well, my heart goes out to her because that really sucks. I know the pain. I decided that since Mondays suck and this one would be even suckier (and I was thinking of my future sucky Monday too) that it would be nice to drop off a treat to Hannah during the day to ease the suckiness of it all. I took her a yummy looking palmier from her bakery in Paris (in the shape of a heart!) and delivered it to her doorfront. Its kind of just a thing I do; food can be a gift for any ocassion. Especially the sucky ones!

Well, the Universe must have seen me because my Monday turned out fabulous. I had lunch with Aubrey and the Soeurs, my 5 year old was super happy at school pick-up time, the kids played just fine after school, he finished his English homework today (!??!?), he took a shower without the full-fledged warfare, and he ate dinner with no complaints while my host family did their piano lesson. Oh my gosh! This day was unreal.

Moral of the story: I'm delivering fresh baked pastries to people more often.

Soeur Walton!

It's Monday and I skipped class with Aubrey to go have one last lunch date in Paris with Soeur Walton and Soeur Simpson before the coolest person and one of my favorite human beings finishes her mission and moves back to the states. It was so fun being with them but it was all edged with this heart wrenching sadness. I'm just glad Soeur Simpson is staying in Versailles ward for a while so half of my heart can remain pumping and functional. Meanwhile, the other half is getting on a plane to Utah!

I'm going to miss that hippy. Claire, when you read this, I'm dead serious about moving in with you in Provo and going to yoga festivals and Two Door Cinema Club concerts and road tripping to sunny places and sending pics to Aubrey and Soeur Simpson. Oh and watch the Bachelor together. And go on your boat. And ski since I've never done it. And cook yummy meals and eat crepes and be cool ex-Parisians.

Je t'aime! Tu me manques deja. Et.... tu est a Paris encore. Sigh....

So I made this picture to hang in my room to keep the happy vibes alive.

Mon Anniversaire!!

J'ai dix-neuf ans!! Oui!!!! Je suis tres, tres, tres contente maintenant parce que je ne suis pas une bebe plus. Le meilleur anniversaire!

My birthday festivities started with a Friday night out of the house! I went through Monoprix, bought some fried rice, some riz au lait, some eggs and some apples as part of my dinner/dessert//breakfast because I was having a night over at Hannah's!

We watched "Crazy Stupid Love" (so hilarious oh my gosh) and killed a ton of time waiting for it to be 1 am so that I could see the magical, last sparkle of the Eiffel Tower. What a way to start off my birthday! But the best part was hijacking her host kids scooters and scootering through Paris's streets feeling free and a bit like 10 year olds.

The wind in my hair, the deserted city streets, the laughs and leg kicks; it was amazing. Our thighs were burning from the unexpected workout, but that didn't stop me from taking laps around the street in front of the tower and bunny hopping and ballet kicking around while the romantic couples in their drive-in styled parking were watching. Clearly, I am so easy to please when it comes to a birthday celebration: a scooter and a tower!

The silver sparkle started and we raced around it during the fastest 5 minutes ever stopping to take photos here and there and soaking up life's little treasures. When it finally went black, we scootered back home where I managed to fall into a deep sleep before waking up at 7 am for my first race in Paris.

It took every ounce of energy to get my booty off of Hannah's floor and get to the race. So tired!! But I made it to Port de Pantin for the Course de Saint Valentin and I felt right at home with my running enthusiast friends. It was a "love" race so naturally there were quite a few couples running either the 6k or 10k while holding hands the entire time. Umm, no thank you. But also, it was a race sponspored by the running club "Amour Pour Tous".... it was a big gay fest! In our running bags that we got, we got a granola bar, free rainbow sunglasses, and a condom. Well, always a time for firsts!

I ran the thing in 59 minutes and pouring rain and wind. Not bad for my first race in forever after an inadequate amount of training and a previous night's workout of scooter/lunges through Paris. Felt great!! After the race, I sped back home and showered/got ready to meet friends for lunch in a total of 16 minutes while my host family barely had time to say happy birthday! Its basically tradition to eat sushi for my birthday so, of course, I got my friends to go out and eat sushi with me! We went to Sushi Yaki near the Sorbonne/Luxembourg gardens and I fuflfilled my intense sushi need. So good!! There was a Valentine's menu where you could buy a boat of sushi for 40 euros and, had nobody been able to come to lunch with me, I probably would have bought one and ate my heart out! But since I have the best friends ever here, they made it and made my birthday afternoon the best.

After lunch, I went back home to do a little celebration with my host family. My host mom made a gluten-free apple tart which was amazing, but it was quite funny the way they went about it...After an hour of sitting and doing nthing, the kids yelled out to me "Julia! We're doing your candles now!" Hahaha okay... the three kids sang to me and I blew out my candles and wished for sunny weather:) We devoured nearly all of the tart and each kid gave me a homemade card which I will treasure forever. And then silly Julie was like, "Oh wait. You're gift! Of course I would forget that." They got me a really pretty blouse that I loooove. WhenI was thanking Delphine a little while later, she was saying how she was going to take it for herself at first but they didn't have her size. She's a funny lady hahaha

A Skype session with my mom, then my birthday-twin niece, and the rest of my family happened and I loved actually talking to them! My niece, Kennadie, was showing me the Legendary Donuts she was eating and Harrison was laughing and smiling and Juneau bug was laughing and smiling at me too and Billy was saying America was the best and it was fun to hear all their voices again! My birthday was just getting better and better.

But it doesn't end there!! There was a Valentine's dance at my church building and it was the happenin' place! Lot's of people there whom I had never met which means lot's of new eye candy French men and a wild night of dancing like there's no tomorrow and watching Emily move like no white girl should. 99 boxes of Dominoes pizzas was extremely tempting to just stuff my face with but I held back and kept dancing the night away. After the scooters, the 10k race, the running home to shower, the running to the sushi restaurant, and the sprinting to catch my bus to Versailles, I was surprised my legs didn't fall out from under me while I busted out my wildly-freakishly-awesome moves. I even got Aubrey to dance! #success

Obviously, from the midnight movie/Eiffel Tower/scootering to the midnight of dancing and going wild, I can clealry say this was the best birthday ever! France, I love you!