le 20 juillet et le 21 juillet: Happy Birthday Brittany

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Monday I had my subjonctif presentation in French class. It went pretty well. I explained things more effectively than I thought I would and I think our teacher was pleased with our presentation. We made up some fun excercises, too, playing off what we talk about in class and tease each other about. Did I ever tell you about the hilarious class in which we spent like twenty minutes just going over the pronounciation difference between "passion" and "patient"? It was hilarious. There is a doctor in our class who said she doesn't like when patients come in the night but my teacher heard "passions" lol.

After French class, I had to run home to change my shoes because we were planning on taking a walking tour at four pm. We always wear shoes in the house and I like to wear these slipper like shoes I have here but they are not the best to walk around outside in but in the morning rush I forgot to change them. So I bought a hot dog like thing at a boulangerie close by Madame's as well as my first Parisien Eclair (very good btw) and pulled out my Paris street map.

The other girls we hang out with were going to the Orangerie but I had already been so I wanted to do something else. I was thinking I would walk to Rue Moufftard. It is a place we had been to in Photo class and I wanted to go back to see it and do some dress shopping. I still haven't found myself a French dress that I am in love with but I went out walking and found myself walking down the Seine towards the Notre Dame.

I took a lovely stroll along the river and entered the beautiful church. There happened to be a free tour of the building in English starting in five minutes so I took it. A cute Italien girl led our group around the building. There is so much history and symbolism in the art on both the outside and inside of the church. I am having issues getting my images off my camera card, otherwise they would be here. I hope they can be salvaged. My photo teacher is taking a look at it for me and I bought a new card at the fnac (french best buy meets barnes and noble and phone company) for in the meantime.

The tour ended just in time for me to stroll along the souvenir shops and get a scope on what they have and then buy an amarino cone before the walking tour. Delish. I got noix de cocco again. I think coconut has become my favorite flavor. It is so good here.

The walking tour was pretty amazing. I learned some cool new things about the city and it was perfect weather. Some of the things we had already learned from my amazing Photo teacher and from just living in the city for a month but it was fun to walk around and see the city. I feel like we miss out a bunch when we take the metro. I wish I had familiarized myself with the buses more than the metro but they of course are not as fast and reliable so that makes it difficult when you have to get to class on time in the morning.

For dinner we had pasta with les petits jambons (aka bacon). It was yummy of course. After dinner, Brittany and I watched the movie Chocolat in pieces via youtube lol. It was a lovely evening but we were craving chocolat so much after that movie. It just looks so good. I really love the chocolat here as well. They normally have dark chocolat rather than milk chocolat.

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Tuesday was Brittany's 21 birthday. We had a picnic in Luxembourg as per her request. Her friend Katie who is the Au Pair came up from Versailles to attend and she brought Brittany a box of maccaroons from Laduree (a fancy and famous restaurant/macaroon maker/tea salon/really cute place) They were really good. Brittany let me have a taste of a couple but I think maccaroons in general are slightly overrated. I think Courtney just loves them so much because she can't eat other cookies (she is a celiac) and idk why Brittany loves them so much lol. Don't get me wrong, they are delicious but they are like a euro for a tiny little cookie. I guess they are extremely difficult to make.

For photo class, we went to Place de la Republic. It was a cute little area and we had the strangest experience. Brittany, Alison Best, and I were walking down the street when a man asked us if we wanted to take a picture. We were like yeah, that is what we were doing... But he is like here, follow me, and he like opens a door into this courtyard that is common for apartment buildings to have. So Brittany like follows him in and of course Alison and I can't let her go alone so there we are. It looks just like any other courtyard really but then he takes us past another gate. (Yes, Taken was like playing in my mind. I was like what the heck are you doing Brittany? but never fear, the story has a good ending). So he takes us into the most cool little housing complex I have seen in Paris and like takes us to his apartment which is like beautiful beyond belief. There were several walls that were entirely windows that opened up to let the air in. One wall was covered in a well filled bookshelf and the other had a fabulous piece of art.

It was like my dream apartment in Paris. I was like please give us your apartment. Not really but that's what I was thinking inside. He said a bunch of things that I don't know if I trust the validity of. Such as that the complex was built in the place where the statue of Liberty was built and that one of his neighbors works for the CIA. He seemed a little off the rocker but I couldn't tell if it was just because of his accent and different mannerisms or if he really was. I will never know. All I know is that I loved that apartment complex and like really want to live there.

We left and found the cutest colorful stores. They had these sweet toys and pretty house decorations. The prices for the decor really weren't that bad but the children's clothing was ridic. Same for the women's clothing in the neighboring store that was part of the whole company we think. They like had the same fabrics and colors and everything.

We were so tired coming home that Brittany fell asleep in the metro lol. That girl can fall asleep anywhere. She has even been tested for narcelepsy. Apparently she doesn't have it but she falls asleep every day in class. It is kind of funny but sad at the same time.

Madame went out to Normandy with her friend Tuesday so she had prepared some dinner for us before hand. It was fish and pasta and we took it from the pan and reheated it in the micro-ond. It would have been better reheated in the oven but the ovens here are so complex. Just like the washing machines. So we just had to deal. We had some nectarines for desert and we also took a little slice of the Belgium cake.

For Brittany's dinner, we surprised Brittany with a pastry cake picnic at the Eiffel Tower. It was a beautiful cake with apple slices and strawberries on it. We sang happy birthday in english and french and apparently got a little more attention than we had bargained for because a couple of French guys came over with their guitars and started talking to Brittany about her birthday. They decided to sing to her and we all sang again with the guitar playing.

They decided to stick around and asked Brittany if she had any requests for songs. They said they could play the Beatles so I suggested they play "Dear Prudence". (This song has special meaning for Brittany because she calls her little tummy pouch Prudence lol). They played the song and it was wonderfully hilarious. We all enjoyed it very much. They played some more but we kind of ignored them and just talked amongst ourselves and enjoyed the cake.

It was a good day. I think Brittany had a good time as well which is the most important. I told her I would buy her a pastry the next day. I was going to buy her one at lunch but we were running late for the picnic. It worked out well though. I got her a pain au chocolat armande the next morning before French class which she thouroughly enjoyed.