Sk8r Boi

So on Zabrina's last Sunday here, we went to church in Versailles where she saw a guy who went to school with her in Hawaii, oddly enough. Once again, this world gets smaller and smaller! Anyways, after church, I went home to take a nap and Zabrina went to check out the catacombs.

That evening, we went out to dinner for the true French experience: escargot and frog legs. Next door neighbors to the best creperie in Paris, I practiced more French with the waiter who was eager to get us in. Turns out, we were not dissapointed! The escargot was fabulous; garlic and parsley butter can make anything delicious. And the frog legs were pretty good, too. While they actually freaked me out a bit just looking at them (and the leftover bones), I just envisioned them as chicken legs. It's funny because people always say "tastes just like chicken!" when actually it tastes like a fishy-chicken. I did enjoy them though!

After dinner, we walked around in the still-bright city despite it being 10pm and we ended up on the pedestrian bridge of Notre-Dame. That proved to be a fabulous choice of entertainment for the evening. There was a roller-blading show going on by four very attractive men. Immediately, we gave them names: Blue Shirt was the most attractive right away. Black Guy was a fabulous dancer and performer with some nice little dreads goin' on. Gerard Butler look-alike was alright, both in looks and performance. Then there was Black Shirt. He looked like the youngest out of them all with some nice skater hair goin' on and just killing it on the course. Hands down, he was the most skilled performer of them all. My eyes were definitely on him the whole night. And he knew it.

Zabrina and I went from standing in the crowd to sitting on a bench and watching the rest of their performance while definitely cheering louder than the rest and enjoying the music they had going. At one point, Zabrina gave a huge thumbs up to Blue Shirt which then prompted him to come sit next to us and talk. Well, he only spoke French so I did all the talking hahahaha. He got up and did some more runs, I was still eyeballing Black Shirt and I'm pretty sure we were just giving him more motivation to keep going.

We were enjoying ourselves so much that when they announced the music was over, I was so sad! But since I'm a dummy and I have no experience with guys, I took that as our cue to leave. So we left! Whattttttt!? Immediately I regretted it. In fact, I was acting like a weirdo and just wanted to go back so badly. The guys were still practicing but with headphones in. We actually walked back up to the bridge but I chickened out and kept walking away. I devised a plan where we could walk around the back of Notre-Dame and come back over the bridge on the opposite side because, why not.... We ended up back on the bridge but just staring awkwardly the other way. How awkward are we!? Finally Blue Shirt came over and started talking to us again, me in my broken French, and him in his thick Portuguese accent. Finally, finally, finally, Black Shirt came over and introduced himself. Turns out he spoke English! Holla at me. The shocking thing though (if you know me) is that he was actually from Moscow and moved to France for his Master's degree and was now working in banking. Portuguese guy was out of the loop because he really spoke zero English. Unfortunately, all I got was Blue Shirt's contact info and not Tim's! I am still kicking myself. I don't like Blue Shirt, I liked Tim! Needless to say, I'm going back to that bridge on Sunday night and really hoping Tim is there. And NOT Blue Shirt. My last chance for a Paris fling? Even Zabrina got one and she was only here for two weeks! What is wrong with meeeeee. (Actually what's wrong with all the guys!?)

Zabrina's Last Day

It's Monday morning and we had two things left to check off the list for Zabrina. 1) go to the top of the Eiffel tower and 2) go to Angelina's cafe so she can buy some cocoa to take home. After being elevatored up to the top of Paris' finest tower, we met up with Lily and Aubrey for a picnic next to the Seine. We got some lunch meat, cheese, and rice cakes for me and I brought my kilo bag full of cherries. The security at the lady thought I was a freak for carrying around a bag of cherries, but hey, they were only 4 euros at the Versailles market!

Anyways, us girls sat along the Seine and had a cherry seed spitting contest in which I barely won after Lily proved to be quite a formidable competitor, Zabrina in third, and Aubrey whose first seed went about two inches from her feet. In the meantime, we were definitely taking turns staring at the attractive men running, stretching, and doing pull-ups on the bars behind us. What a prime picnic location. Like Aubrey said, "why haven't we done this before?"

Afterwards, we went and picked up Suzanne from the Louvre after she had an absolutely miserable time with the crowds, the shoving little Asian people, and hardly seeing anything at all. Poor thing! We all walked over to Angelina's for a little chocolate therapy and enjoyed some cups of cocoa to go. Zabrina and I headed back towards home where she left to meet up with her boo from Hawaii who she randomly saw at church and I went and fell asleep on the park bench for a good thirty minutes before getting children.

Our dinner that night consisted of a big meal with the grandparents and a cousin who came to get Julie for a surprise vacation and Zabrina did a nice send off with kekui shell necklaces for the fam. That night, she went out again with her boo thang and then got back at 4 in the morning before taking an uber to the airport two hours later. Crazy girl!

Gare de Lyon

The story of Jordan's terribly, hilarious bad luck which someday must be turned into a movie. You'll understand afterwards.

So there's this guy who just moved to Paris named Jordan. He's originally from Utah then San Fran then Madrid and we just met him at St. Merri last Sunday. Since Aubrey's mom and sister are in town, they decided to go to Fontainebleue this past Saturday and Zabrina and I tagged along. At Carter's farewell hangout, we invited Jordan to come, too, since he is fresh into France dwelling.

We all planned to meet up at Gare de Lyon around 12:30 that day and by the time Jordan actually made it to the station, he had accumulated quite the collection of stories and a few self-portraits. But we'll get to that.

Our train left at 1:19 but the hour leading up to that was quite hectic. Zabrina and I arrived first, sat down on some benches and waited for the rest of the crew to show. Aubrey and her family got held up at Chatelet but when they did arrive, I was so excited to meet Suzanne! Aubrey made it to me first and said, "Okay, when my mom and sister get out of the bathroom, greet me with the bises so they think we actually do that on a regular basis!"

Meanwhile, I was playing phone tag with Jordan trying to figure out where he was and if he would make it on time. The second time I called him, he was clearly not listening as I had to repeat "Hall 3" about a gazillion times over the phone. Exasperated, he explained that 1) some homeless guy was hassling him, 2) he was trying to take a passport picture for his Navigo pass, and 3) trying to listen to my directions through the gare. Not a good combo!

It was nearly five minutes until our train left so we walked up to the platform and called him again. Apparently everything that could go wrong that morning did for him. But we'd get to that later, we had a train to catch. Minutes to go, we were running from machine to machine trying to find the ticket to Fontainebleue for him but some old guy was holding up the yellow machine while we scrambled around on the black machine with no luck. Another frantic French guy was behind us doing the exact same thing. He, however, did not make it on the train because karma is too good (he yelled "shut up b-word" on the phone behind us) and Jordan's ticket printed at a glacial pace. With literally seconds to spare and convincing the platform worker to not blow his whistle yet, we all jumped onto the crowded train.

Now begins the story of the awfully, hilarious morning for Jordan. Apparently he started out by going to the Orange store to try and get a French phone plan. They shot him down real fast saying that the online deal he saw is only good online and in-store deals are different. But he has an American bank card and only French bank cards work.

Then he tried the train station to get a Navigo. There he was told he needed a photo so he went to photocopy his license and use that photo. Upon further inspection, the copy machine in the metro only took 20 cent coins and Jordan only had a euro coin on him. He went around asking for someone who could break his euro into change but nobody could, not even the store he went into. How is that possible? It's one euro! Then he found a homeless man and tried communicating the fact that he wanted 20 cents in exchange for one euro. Obviously the guy understood nothing and Jordan doesn't even speak a word of French so basically the homeless guy held out his change and Jordan picked out a 20 in exchange for the euro and ran off to the machine. What he didn't expect was that the homeless guy followed. The copy machine ate his money, endured a nice kick or two I'm sure, and still wasn't working. A security guard came by and said that the machine is actually broken. All that hassle for nothing. Except now he has a homeless guy trailing him. He went to a nearby photocopy store but they weren't even open yet so his next attempt was the photomaton machine. In the meantime, Mr Homeless man was still begging Jordan for some money or food or whatever and Jordan was just trying to lose the guy. Didn't work. He sat in the photomaton machine and that's when I called him on the phone. Apparently he just sat down and chose the cheapest option for a photo and was getting blabbed at by the homeless dude who was pulling out pics of his daughter and speaking in French and trying to help Jordan with the machine (or so he thought) and I was telling him where to meet us in the station....blah blah blah....in the end, he ended up with a nice big portrait of himself and a stalker.

The fact that his picture is of him on the phone made me want to die laughing.
I told him to try again and this time, to select the passport photo option. He still wasn't gettin' it so apparently the homeless man started pressing buttons (which Jordan thought meant 'helping') and instead of getting 5 little passport photos, he ended up with a mug shot. Literally. Just look for yourself.

It's an Orange is the New Black mugshot. Oh my word. When he pulled that thing out in the middle of his story, I was nearly in tears. His new friend was not only begging for money after landing a pretty sweet deal of an 80 cent increase, but now just got him a free mugshot. Thankfully, Jordan got the message and called it quits with minutes to go and us waiting for him on the platform. Now commence the ticket fiasco and the 'seconds to spare' bit.

Basically after we finished at Fontainebleue, I took him and Zabrina to get falafels in the Marais and that ended up being the best thing that happened to him thus far that day. At the end of the day, he ended up with a Navigo that won't work for another week and a half, no SIM card because apparently Orange "ran out" due to an increase in tourists watching the Euro Cup, a bomb falafel sandwich, and two self portraits. Not to mention the awesome story that really needs to be sent into Hollywood.

Montmartre and Stuff, etc.

One of the most beautiful places in Paris!! Even though I wanted to show Zabrina the spiral stairs of death in the Abesses metro stop, she opted for the elevator. And then going up to Sacre-Coeur, she also opted for the funiculaire. Can't blame her! Those stairs are intense. As we made our way up the hill, I just marveled at the church. For those who don't visit Sacre-Coeur when they are in Paris, they are missing out on half the beauty of Paris itself. I would argue that Montmartre is the most "picturesque" part of Paris with it's artist's square, perfect cafes, beautiful homes, alleyways, colorful stores and flowers, and slanted streets.

I took Zabrina over to the artist's set up and after admiring all of the portraits being done, Zabrina decided on a style and sat down for her own portrait. She even bargained down the price to 40 euros. I sat and talked with the neighbor artist guy (all in French, booyah) and was shocked at how well I did. We were joking and laughing and while some things he said were a bit confusing, I was following just fine! Since I explained I was a poor student and couldn't afford a portrait, the guy just told me to come back with a rich fiance. I agree, man! He said his favorite thing to draw was the love stories. Oh, I was so happy my French came out fine. I even talked to a woman whose grand daughter was getting her portrait done. She began in English with Zabrina and I then passed by again and I went on in French! She was thrilled at how well I managed to speak. Heck, I was thrilled at how well I managed to speak. Zabrina's portrait turned out great and we went on our way.

We dropped down and sat at a thai restaurant for some soup but the portion was so small, we definitely felt the need to get more food later. First off, though, I dragged Zabrina through all of the fabric shops. I was looking for the perfect fabric to make my Parisian dress but I just cannot decide on a pattern, material, or style quite yet. I will need to go back soon, after all, it's sale season!

We got our share of souvenirs and treats and spent all day out on the town. As everyone must do, I showed Zabrina Moulin Rouge and then we found Amelie's cafe just around the corner where we took a picture for Mr. Abrahamson. My host family left for the weekend so when we decided to go to Carter's farewell picnic, we just dropped by the house to freshen up before hand.

Carter's farewell picnic was at Parc Monceau, a place that was actually on my list of places to visit before I leave. Turns out, it's a cute park with giant fork and knife art and giant bottles of wine in the grass. We hung out, ate tartes from the bakery that Carter stopped by, and listened to some tunes before getting kicked out at sunset. We went back to Carter's place and played games but unfortunately, Aubrey was the first to leave since the RER doesn't run very late. We all wanted her to have a special goodbye from Carter but, as she predicted, "she wouldn't have much to tell me about since I witnessed it all!" Everyone else left around midnight and the official fling for Aubrey and my wingman days came to an end.

Notre Dame Towers

climbed the towers, went to Shakespeare, crepes, pont neuf animal stores, rue de rivoli. HOTTT

As one of the things that Zabrina wanted to do here in Paris, I took her and Julie to Notre-Dame Thursday morning so we could get in line early enough to climb them to the top. After dropping off the boys to school, we arrived on the island in perfect time. As the first group to go up that day, we had plenty of time to enjoy up there with not too many people and it was still cool enough before the heat really settled in.

The view from Notre-Dame took my breath away! The day was 100% clear and we could see in every direction. The gargoyles were just as I had envisioned them but the towers were definitely much smaller than I had anticipated. The little spiral staircases going to the top got smaller and smaller as you climbed and some of the spaces you had to squeeze through were surprisingly small!

Thank heavens the climb was free for me, but even so, I would have paid for that view, hands down. And I am so happy Julie got to come with! She had never climbed the towers (let alone, done much in Paris!) so this was a great memory for her as well. I'm going to miss showing her around the great city!

Afterwards, we went through Shakespeare and Company and Julie marveled at the typewriter there. She couldn't envision anyone ACTUALLY using one to type things! Crossing the street to St Michel, I took us to the best crepe place in Paris, Creperie Genia, where we ate Nutella and strawberry crepes for lunch and then over to the Pont Neuf pet shop. Seriously, I cannot get over how darn cute those puppies and bunnies are! I think I've decided I definitely need a pet in college and might just be a bird. Tempting, tempting.

After acting like crazed people in the pet shop, we crossed through the unbearable heat and onto Rue de Rivoli where we did some shopping. Zabrina went ham in Yves Rocher and Julie got a little sun kit and I got some souvenirs and such for my sisters. It was a great day with the girls!

Merci pour cette annee, Julia!

After an afternoon of water fights in the backyard and my impromptu snooze on the couch (oops, hahaha!) my host fam took me out to dinner as a big thank you and a farewell before the end of the year craziness set in. Well, not even the craziness but the fact that I have like two weeks left in France! Anyways, we went up the through the woods to the little restaurant tucked away under the trees called the La Mare aux Canards. It has a huge outdoor dining area and we enjoyed the nice, summery air.

As one might guess according to the name, the restaurant is known for their roasted duck and chicken which apparently is hard to make at home in such a way so, of course, I had to order it! I ended up getting the same thing as Delphine but just cooked a little more. When the waiter asked how well I wanted the duck cooked, I did not understand a thing so my dumb American-ness had to show through. I get so nervous speaking French with my family, hahah! Plus Julie and I enjoyed some virgin mojitis. The duck came out in a tiny little chunk, cut so it was layered on half of the plate and then my little bowl of ratatouille on the other side. The duck was actually divine with a spice and honey sauce that I could have drank and the veggie ratatouille was s French, I just had to have it. They even served house-made potato chips as the starter.

To my utter surprise, the kids started pulling out gifts for me at the table! They started with handing me a big, homemade card with different things each person thanked me for. Some things they wrote: Fred will miss my cooking and positive attitude every day, Delphine was thankful for my patience with Alex at shower time and my being a good role model for the kids, Julie is grateful for my sharing the Snickerdoodle recipe, Malo for playing outside with him, and Alex for walking them to school and sharing stories. I actually almost started crying when I read all of those. Julie was like, "I saw your eyes!" when I admitted that. Hahaha. Good times. The they got me a pencil pouch tat says "Merci pour cette annee" and a Lego Eiffel tower to construct for my college room. And last but not least, a bottle of Yves Saint Laurent perfume called Mon Paris. I wanted to fall over, I was so happy!

As hard as this job was, I really am grateful for the family I got. I can think of a million other jobs that I would have wanted over this one but none of them end up in the friendship I have made here with them and the true French family experiences that I've been a part of. I really am blessed! A lifelong friendship will come from this!

Palais and Party

Since I needed to get in as much "Aubrey time" as I possibly could before she left France, I tagged along with her and her friend from Lyon as they went and viewed the Opera house. I was completely blown away by the amount of detail that each wall, tower, staircase, and ceiling had in that place. One room, the ballroom I suppose, was so ornate and gold and breathtaking, we quickly concluded that it topped the Chateau de Versailles easily. As we walked around and viewed the costumes on display and drooled over the ornate rooms and sweeping staircases, we discovered the ballet exhibit they had to the side of it all. Even though I had to quit dancing, Aubrey and her friend (the ballerinas), were just as much in heaven as I was. Aubrey and I even tried copying the dance of a man and woman projected on the wall, It all kind of went south when Aubrey tried lifting her leg up to my neck and was like, "Nope! Not happenin!" She came over to me limping and we shared laughs over our old lady injuries now.

After that we went to lunch with the Soeurs and then went and picked up children. Zabrina took a nice nap (jealous!) before we went out to the fan zone that night and then off to a boat party on the Seine. The game was between Spain and Croatia and the group we met up with were definitely all Spanish fans. Soooooo Zabrina and I were automatically cheering on the Spanish too :) We watched the game with Jordan, Luz, Abbey, Kike, Margo, Linnea, and Emily. Unfortunately, the Spanish lost. The fan zone, however, was quite nice since it wasn't packed shoulder-to-shoulder with crazy drunks. Yes there were drunks, but there were just less of them!

We followed Luz on over to an awesome free boat party for the Fete de la Musique night and met up with Carter, some other chick with big hair who I didn't fancy, and Anna. Since Aubrey never came out to party, I was on duty as wingman to talk about Aubrey and to relay the happenings. Let's just say that Aubrey's hot Paris fling got a million times hotter that night with his freakishly crazy awesome dance moves, hilarious hilarious hilarious personality, and the sudden workout on the quai-side pull up bars. Oh my goodness, am I in love too? Hahahahahahaha jk. But ya it was a super fun night of dancing like a crazy person on the Seine and having the Louvre, the Grand Palais, and Musee d'Orsay lit up in our view.

After all the sweating and dancing, we had a little jam session on the dock with a random group of kilt-wearing musicians who came and performed "Up all night to get Lucky" and thus commenced Carter's upside-down, side twist, oblique workouts on the pull-up bar. With still a ton of energy left in store, we walked down to St Michel and got some crepes at 1:30 and then headed for home, only to arrive at 4 am. Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED the next day with the kids. Zabrina was gone to the Louvre all day and I was looking forward to my celebration dinner that night with the fam. :) But that's a whole different post.

Farewell Soeur Simpson!

La Defense Waffle Factory

I met up with Aubrey and the Soeurs Tuesday afternoon to say farewell to the amazing Soeur Simpson before she heads off to the coast in Brest. This was officially the start of my "goodbyes" in France and I can't say I liked it...at all. Thankfully her mom or sister or someone keeps up her Facebook account so I can still see just how awesome she is over the next year.

They enjoyed some delish looking waffles while I ate my Marks and Spencer quinoa salad :) A quick show around La Defense and then Zabrina and I headed home to get kids and recharge. Playing tour guide is exhausting!!!

Saint-Germain-des-Pres with Zabrina

Today was our Saint-Germain-des-Pres day. It was drizzley so we looked for things to do inside before I headed to work. A quick tour around Luxembourg gardens showed her what they hype was all about and then we headed to the Pantheon. I didn't actually know you could go in until that day so we went to check out what it was exactly. (As I'm writing this, I feel like I have totally been in there before....Is my memory seriously that awful!? Oh my gosh, do I have Alzheimer's already?) Down below the Pantheon is the crypt and it is full of some really awesome people. Marie Curie, Voltaire, Rousseau, people who helped hide Jews during WWII, the man who created braille, Victor Hugo....some cool peeps.

  Next up we did something I've always wanted to do: lunched in Les Deux Magots cafe. I never felt classier than I did sitting there drinking some fabulous hot chocolate and eating some eggs and canadian ham. The waiter who brought out our food apologized for speaking English to me when I responded in French. Basically it was like being on cloud-9. Highlight of Zabrina's stay here!

Since it was still raining, we hopped on over to the Saint Sulpice Cathedral and looked around and then walked throught he neighborhood and across Pont Neuf. The weather was shaping up so I dropped Zabrina off at Rue de Rivoli for some shopping and I headed home to cherche les enfants.

I'd say it was a pretty successful Monday!