A Simple Little Week

Oh my goodness it is BEAUTIFUL outside today and 70 degrees!!! I am going to write this blog post, but I am going to keep it short because all I want to do is go frolick around Paris in the rare sunshine hahaha. It has been pretty rainy this past week, but what a nice Sunday today will be! This will be the warmest day we’ve had so far this spring and I am pretty excited about it. :)

The last time I blogged was on Monday morning after my weekend in Budapest, but the rest of Monday deserves to be blogged about because it was “Easter Monday” in France which meant I was free to do what I pleased all day long! I spent the afternoon sipping coffee in my “blogging cafe” with Alessandra, my favorite Italian in Paris! I think I have mentioned this before, but I love spending time with Alessandra because, well, she is very sweet and funny and fun to hang out with, but also because we are forced to speak in French to communicate so we both get a lot of practice! After about two hours of talking and laughing and hiding away from the rain, we decided that we didn’t want to go home yet so instead we went to see a movie. We didn’t know what movies were playing, so we just went to the theater to watch whatever was playing next. We ended up seeing “Zootopie” which is a childrens movie and it was extremely entertaining! I was proud of us for understanding the little jokes in French hahah. I am glad we went and saw that movie together! That night I got home, ate some couscous, and skyped my family. I was still feeling a tiny bit sick, but I could tell that it was the end of my sickness so I went to bed hoping I would be well enough to run the next morning. 

The next morning, I woke up with so much energy and motivation to run that I could hardly focus on tying my shoes hahah. It had been like 10 days since I had gotten to get any sort of exercise, and I was soooo ready. I started on my normal loop to and through the park, but when I was half way through the park, I noticed another exit and decided to explore a little and see where it would take me. Aaaaaand it took me to ANOTHER PARK! A bigger park! So I happily ran around in that park for a little. When I decided it was time to go home, I couldn’t find the exit that I had used to get into the park, so I ran around until I found a different exit and took it. That is when I got extremely lost, and spent about 40 minutes running down random streets in my city until I found one I sort of recognized and then found my way home hahah. When I got home, I was exhausted from running for about an hour and a half, but I was so stoked about the new park I had found and I couldn’t wait to run it in again! 

The only other interesting thing that happened on Tuesday was that it started pouring when I went to pick up Prune from school so we decided to decorate cookies together and give them to her friends the next day at gym class. Prune is either getting a lot better at being my baking assistant, or I am getting a lot more patient. I cannot tell. But we had fun! 

Prune’s friends at gym class loved her cookies! When we passed them out on Wednesday morning, Prune definitely felt like the cool kid who made cookies and all the other kids were happy to be surprised with something sweet. The rest of my work day on Wednesday was normal, but after work I decided to do something different! When Cecile got home in the early afternoon and Prune was taking her nap, I took off to Paris with my laptop and poetry journal to spend a rainy afternoon in my little cafe. My Belgian friend, Michael (remember him?), likes to write short stories, and he had asked me to look at one of them and help edit it a little bit. I really enjoyed getting to help out a friend in a cute little rainy cafe on a Wednesday afternoon! It really was a lovely afternoon. When I was finished, I spent some time doing some writing myself before heading home. Once I was home, I was pleasantly surprised with the fact that Fred had ordered Japanese food which meant I got to eat yummy sushi for dinner! 

Thursday was, quite simply, not the best day. It rained ALL DAY LONG. And usually I like the rain, but this was a cold and steady rain and I had to do things like walk to school and then walk home and then walk the dog and then walk to get Prune from school, and I wasn’t very into that. But then a miracle happened; Cecile showed up at school when I did! We got into the warm car and went grocery shopping at the organic store, and then we spent some time driving around and looking at pretty houses hahah. It was a peculiar afternoon, but I was so happy to be in the car and not in the cold rain! 

Friday was a super happy day because I got to see a group of students from UHS who are doing a Europe Trip, and part of that group consisted of Sarah Teran and Charlie Luc(I dont know how spell his last name)! Sarah and Charlie and I got lunch together at a little French restaurant near the Opera and I cannot express how happy seeing them made me! I love those two so much! And they KNOW me! Catching up with them was so simple that it felt like I had never left, except that it kind of did feel like I had left because we mostly talked about my life in France hahah. I wasn’t super hungry, so I ordered a cheese platter and made them try French cheeses, which they were happy to do! Seeing their openness to this culture that I have grown to care about so dearly was very pleasing. They wanted to try everything! They would be such great exchange students, I think. After lunch, the idea was to try their first espresso, but we ran out of time. When we said goodbye, we made plans to meet up on Sunday aftertoon (which is this afternoon!) so I wasn’t sad. I felt so lucky to see them after such a long time. They really are amazing. This afternoon the plan is to go to the Catacombs together, and I am excited about that because I have never actually been! So that should be fun. 

Friday was also cool because I got to learn about the April Fools traditions in France! In France, children make little fish out of paper and stick them on peoples backs as a prank. That is about it. It is called “Poisson d’Avril” which means “Fish of April.” On Friday night, Prune and I were put in charge of making a vegetable soup so now I know how to make soup, too! 

Yesterday was Saturday, and that was a sweet day too. It was another Sally and Alessandra in Paris day! We met up after lunch (which I ate with Fred because Cecile wasn’t feeling well) near Hotel de Ville and from there we walked over to Notre Dame so she could show me a cute little Parisian cafe that she loves! While we were over there, we also spent a bit of time in Shakespeare and Company, which is a well-known and adorable book shop that used to be kind of like a hostel for writers! I had been wanting to go there, and I was glad to have finally gotten the opportunity. The cafe was just around the corner, and oh my gosh, it was too cute! It was very quaint and hidden away, but from it there was a splendid view of Notre Dame! We drank our coffees and talked about missing the sunshine. Alessandra comes from a warm part of Italy on the coast, so she understands me hahah. That day is was super misty in Paris and not great weather for walking around, so we decided to go to the movies again hahah. We took the train to a part of Paris neither of us had ever been to before, and found the theater with ease. We decided to see “Allegiant” which is the third movie in the “Divergent” series, which were made after books that I read while I was in Chile. We had an hour to kill before our movie, so we went to a bagel place and split a bagel haha. When it was time, we walked back to the movie theater and watched our movie. I enjoyed it, although I was stressed out because, you know, I was attached to the characters after reading the books and I didn’t like watching them go through difficult things. It was a bit complicated for Alessandra because she is Italian and the movie was in English with French subtitles, so she had to really focus to know what was happening, but she didn’t complain at all! When it was finished, we took the metro part of the way home together and said goodbye at Saint Lazare. I enjoyed the walk home after the metro. It was misty but not too cold and it kind of reminded me of Santa Cruz. When I got home, Fred made me an omelette for dinner and then I went to bed early because I wanted to get up early this morning to write this so I could make the most of this super sunny Sunday. 

And now that I am finishing up, it is 10am and I will probably leave in an hour or so for Paris. This past week has been a simple but fun one, and this weekend will be my only weekend in Paris for all of April! I have two trips coming up, you know! One to Luxembourg and then three weeks in Italy with the host family. Today I want to enjoy a full day in Paris because it is the last one I get for a whole month! 

SO. I am going to go outside and play now hahah. I hope you enjoyed reading this aaaand I will write next week and tell you all about the random little weekend I will spend in Luxembourg haha. :D Bye!