Sicily II

I can't believe it has been two weeks already. Seriously, it feels like I have only been here for four days! 

This post is not going to be very long because if I told you what I did every day, things would get quite repetitive. In the mornings we go to the beach. When we get home, we have a late lunch, and then Prune takes a huge nap and I read and then it is dinner time and we eat again and then we go to bed. Really! That is what I have done for the last several days hahaha. When I say it like that it doesn't sound super fun, and to be honest, it isn't the most EXCITING way to spend time, but things could definitely be much much worse. I mean, first of all, the beaches are beautiful. I described them in my last post, and when I get back to Paris to post this you will get to see pictures! Everything here is colorful, which I love. And the food is amazing, which I also love. And, since I have been here, I have read five and a half novels in French! That has to be great practice hahaha. 

The first half of this past week I spent alone with Nonno and Prune. A few times while Prune napped, instead of reading (or in Nonno's case, watching TV) we spent time cleaning the house in preparation for Cecile's arrival because she likes things to be CLEAN. 

The day before Cecile arrived, Nonno and Prune and I explored the ruins of a castle near the house, and that was pretty fun! 

Prune was sooooo happy to see Cecile when she arrived! She had missed her mamon. 

The rest of the week continued on as it had started except with Cecile here too. One day, we went furniture shopping instead of going to the beach! 

Since I have gotten a little tired of being on vacation, I use most of my energy trying to make it the best vacation ever for Prune. Together we explore the garden and make houses for the snails and we sing lots of songs. On the beach, we make lots of sandcastles and I have started teaching her how to swim. Prune LOVES the water! I keep telling Cecile that if Prune took swimming lessons where I worked as a lifeguard in California, she would no doubt be everyone's favorite student hahaha. She is fearless because the water means nothing but FUN for her, which is kind of stressful sometimes but seeing a kid be so happy fills my heart with joy. 

Today we had a big Sunday lunch with Nonno's close family. I hadn't seen them since Christmas when they all came to Paris, and it was nice to see them all again! During lunch, everyone spoke in Italian, and I was surprised by my ability almost completely follow the conversation! Upon realizing that I could understand Italian, some of them began to ask me questions, and I realized I had no way to respond! Being able to understand a language and not speak it was a whole new experience for me. It was different with French and Spanish because I was studying those languages as I began to understand them, and therefore I had some words to use when it came to responding. In Italian, I have hardly any words! It is kind of hilariously frustrating. We figured out that if I responded in slow Spanish, they could get the just of my responses, so I stuck with that for awhile. Sometimes I would use French verbs in my Spanish because I knew they would be more similar to their equivalents in Italian hahah. It was an interesting afternoon with lots of food. 

Now I am cuddled up in bed, safely tucked beneath my mosquito net, trying to finish up this blog post in the notes section of my phone. I don't feel homesick, but I would really like to be able to go online and send messages to friends and family just because I really like to talk to them. I want to send Michael a particularly interesting paragraph in an essay I read yesterday. I want to send my mom a little red Facebook messenger heart. I want to go read Molly's tweets and send her funny pictures of Prune. I want to send Caleb some random thought because I like it when he knows that I'm thinking about him. I also want to send Cherish a message. And Angela Green because I don't talk to her enough. 

I know too many great people and it is overwhelming sometimes but I am learning to cope. :) 

Goodnight world. 

 

Sicily I

I apologize, my dear blog readers, that you could not read this post sooner! As I type this post in the "notes" section of my internet-less iPhone, it is Sunday, April 24th and I have been in Palermo for just over a week. When I get back to Paris, I will email myself this post and finally be able to put it online for you lovely people to enjoy. Thank you for your patience!  

On Friday, April 15, Prune, Fred, Cecile, and I all woke up at 4am to drive across Paris so Prune and I could catch our early morning plane. Everything went smoothly in the airport. Prune was sleepy and hungry, but she really hustled though security and was sweet to all the flight attendants! It was pretty darn early in the morning, but of course I was thrilled to be catching a plane. I love airports, which you all must know by now, and it was an all knew kind of exciting to be taking a plane with a five year old who was just as enthusiastic about the whole experience as I was! During the two hour flight, Prune mostly watched a movie and I mostly read, but every quarter hour we couldn't help ourselves from chatting and day dreaming about all the things we would do when we got to Sicily. Prunette couldn't wait to build sand castles and see her grandpa, and I couldn't wait to feel the sunshine on my arms and eat gelato hahaha. The flight went by quickly, and before we knew it, we were being greeted at the exit of the airport of Palermo by Nonno, our Italian grandfather! 

Nonno drove us through Palermo and up the big hill to his house so we could drop off our things. My first impression of Sicily was greatly influenced by my shock of riding in the passenger seat in a car being driven through Italian traffic by a true Italian. So much honking and so little personal space! I am usually a bit nervous in cars, but I was honestly too distracted to pay attention to my nerves. How were the pedestrians so fearless? How did a two lane street become a 3 1/2 lane street? How had nobody crashed? I was entertained by this driving when I first arrived, and after being here for a week I have learned to gasp less every time a car swerves inches in front of us. 

Other than the crazy driving, my first memories in Sicily revolve around my joy at feeling the sun all over me as I rode in the front seat of Nonno's car. I had been soooo looking forward to not being cold, and in his car I was hot! I felt so grateful to be under the sun and beginning an adventure. 

That afternoon, we headed down to Mondello, the beach we have ended up going to almost every day! Just like we had dreamed on the plane, Prune and I made sandcastles and splashed in the water and when we were done playing, Nonno took us to get some gelato! 

It was a fine first day in Sicily and that night I slept happily under my mosquito net. 

The next morning, I got up early to go on a run. Nonno lives up on the top of a mountain, so I knew it would be a bit hilly, but that didn't really bother me. The hills didn't end up being a problem, BUT the dogs did. After only running for about three minutes I was excitedly greeted by a pack of stray dogs who thought that nipping at my ankles was a realllyyyy fun game hahaha. I was terrified, and I ran back up to the house and decided I would only run on the beach from then on. About an hour later, we had eaten breakfast and it was time to go to the beach! I brought my running stuff with me and that is how I have been able to get workouts in during this vacation. Here in Palermo, we mostly go to the beach in the mornings and the weather is perfect for running and not too hot as it would be if we were to go in the afternoon. That second afternoon in Sicily, Fred's parents arrived from the South of France and they stayed with us up until two nights ago (Friday the 22nd). 

Now, trying to blog on my phone is a rather frustrating task, so rather than reporting each and every thing we did over the last week, I am going to just talk about my experience here so far in general. 

With Fred's parents (Marie and Jean-Philipe), Prune and I got to do a lot of beach going AND exploring. We spent most mornings at the beach and most afternoons marveling at beautiful cathedrals and hill-top castles. Everyday at noon on the way home from the beach, we would stop and get fresh Sicilian sesame seed bread from the baker at the base of Nonno's mountain and it would make the car smell like heaven. Going to the beach and seeing the different Sicilian towns and cathedrals was nice, but one my favorite things about being here so far is getting to enjoy the nature that I have seen here during the car rides that is like nothing I have seen before. The mountains look like jagged sandy rocks speckled with super green trees, and at the bases of the mountains are huge patches of forests and vineyards that surround different groups of dusty orange apartments and houses. When you drive through the city, the streets are so small and you can hear all sorts of people yelling incomprehensible Italian sentences from the hundreds balconies that rule the lower skies. And the beach! Oh my goodness. The water is transparent and such a magical color of blue that fades to green and then to a lighter blue and then a darker blue off in the distance. Palermo is a painting and my eyes don't want to look away! 

Nonno's house is another thing I should blabber about. It is perfect for Prunette! There is a huge garden with a slide and a tree with a swing and from the top floor of the house there is an exquisite view of the valley below. And Nonno has been so hospitable! He makes us delicious things to eat for every meal and for dessert there is plenty of almond cookies and fresh fruit. The oranges here are to die for. 

Since there is no internet in this house up in the mountains, I have had lots of time to read and daydream. This has been both a blessing and a curse. I would like to say it has been refreshing to not be able to communicate with those who aren't only a few feet away, but to be honest it has made me feel a bit homesick. I don't know if homesick is the right word, actually. You could say it has made me feel lonely, maybe. I haven't been able to talk to anyone who isn't a host-grandparent or a five year old for a week, and I miss partaking in conversations that make me feel alive and passionate and interested. Don't get me wrong, these grandparents are all lovely people, and Prune is a sweetheart, I have just missed being able to share my thoughts with people who will listen to them and respond with enthusiasm and curiosity. The good thing about not having internet is that I have been forced to speak almost ONLY in French and Italian since I arrived. Of course I still speak to Prune in English, but unless I am talking to her I am practicing other languages, which is fantastic! 

Today on the beach, however, I had a bit of a language mix up. An Italian news reporter snuck up on me with a microphone and before I knew it there was a camera in my face and questions were being asked to me in Italian. I then heard myself say "I'm sorry! I don't speak English!" in French! Hahahaha. The reporter looked so confused! We eventually worked out that he understood English and I understood some Italian, so he asked me a couple questions in Italian about the beach and I responded in English that he could translate later. What a Sally moment! 

I am getting very sleepy as I type this post out, but before I fall asleep there is one more EXTREMELY important thing to tell you about! Prune got her first wiggly tooth here in Palermo and proceeded to lose it on the fourth day of our trip! Watching her push the wiggle tooth around with her tongue made me shiver with disgust hahaha but I did my best to look as excited as possible, because I remember how enchanting the idea of the tooth fairy was as a kid! When Prune's tooth fell out, I told her about how I used to write letters to the tooth fairy, so Prune drew a picture and then dictated which I wrote to the tooth fairy for her (which in France isn't a fairy but a little mouse). That night after Prune had gone to sleep, the grandparents and I got together and constructed a letter to Prune from the Petite Souris and drew a picture of a little mouse on it because we knew she would love that. We put it in an envelope with some coins and then exchanged it with the envelope Prune had put under her pillow. 

It was so cute watching the grandparents getting so into the spirit of entertaining Prunette's imagination! Usually, I feel like a part of the family, but there are moments where I feel like an outsider with the special opportunity to study a bunch of family members tending to the Fred-Cecile-Prune family as if it were a garden. Fred and Cecile were worried when Prune's tooth was loose because they didn't know if she was too young or not, and all the grandparents were worried about how many hearts to put in the letter from the French Mouse Tooth Fairy and all of this worry was out of the great amount of love they have for Prunette. My parents and grandparents must have gone through similar things when I was small, and I feel lucky to be able to see what it is like from a perspective that is neither fully adult nor little child, but somewhere in between.

Prune was fascinated the next morning. Fascinated that the tooth fairy really existed and had found her all the way in the south of Italy! You could tell she was proud of herself, and you could tell the grandparents were proud of pulling the whole thing off. I was just happy to witness all of this, really hahaha. The au pair perspective is sure an interesting one! 

Luxembourg: City of Dreams

Are you in Europe and looking for a nice weekend get-away? Are you really into stairs? Do you love yourself? 

If the answer to any of these questions is “YESSS!” then Luxembourg, Luxembourg is the city for you! 

My dear blog readers, I just got back from such a wonderful weekend in Luxembourg with my Belgian friend, Michael. 

I really don’t know where to start this blog because I am so in love with the world this morning that I just don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about anything because everything seems sparkly and beautiful.

I just spent the weekend exploring a city that used to be a fortress and talking and talking and talking with a friend who understands my mind AND still wants to spend time with me hahaha. When I talk so much to someone, it is hard for me to get the right amount of time to process my thoughts and emotions. I spend so much time alone (or with a French-speaking five-year-old) in Paris and because of that, I am used to having a lot of time (almost too much time) to myself to reflect on what I think about what has been going on around me or just wonder about millions of other things. So, after spending a weekend of continuous conversation, my mind feels a little numb and blurry hahah. I am not super crazy and I love talking to people, but the thing about having conversations with Michael is that he makes me think a lot and it makes my brain tired.

Sooo, yes. This morning my brain feels kind of calm and tired and blurry but everything, even this rainy, cloudy day, seems lovely. 

BACK TO LUXEMBOURG.

I made Michael plan the trip. I figured he would do a better job than me, and also I knew I would be more fun to hang out with and less stressed if I had 0 expectations. 

To get to Luxembourg, I took three trains! This was my first time taking TGV trains alone and navigating myself through train stations. Before this trip, I never understood why Europeans prefer train-travel so much, but now it is so obvious! It is SO efficient and simple. It is also comfortable, relaxing, and pretty! I even made a friend on one of the trains! There was an elderly woman sitting next to me and we started talking and found ourselves very interested in each others lives. She told me about her grandchildren and her Canadian husband. She said that he was studying in France for a year when they met and fell completely in love and now they have a beautiful family together. I love these kinds of stories, but I what I loved best of all was how after telling me this, she said “Wow! That was forty years ago, already. I have so enjoyed my life. Make sure you enjoy yours, okay? It is so important!” Her name was Beatrice, and she agreed to take a selfie with me to put on my blog after I told her that she had very much inspired me and that I do not want to forget about her. :)

When I arrived in Luxembourg, Michael was waiting at the train station. Right away, we took off on our well thought-out adventure. Michael had made a document on his iPad, yes, THAT is how organized he was for this trip hahah. While we walked along, he even played tour guide! Some of my favorite parts of the trip were when he messed up his tour guiding, though hahah. For instance, when we first started walking to a park that we were going to hike through a bit, he said that we should come across a river soon, but when we got there, there was only this suuuuper tiny stream hahaha. It was quite underwhelming and hilarious and we named it THE GREAT LUXEMBOURGISH RIVER or something along those lines. 

Now, before you ever go to Luxembourg, please do yourself a favor and understand how NOT flat it is. Michael and I spent most of the weekend walking up and down stairs and then occasionally resting on benches or in coffee shops when we got tired. The park that we first walked through was about 9 flights of stairs below the city center. It was a bit of a hike, but it was such a pretty one! Also, it was a beautiful day which made the trees and flowers look even nicer. We made our way to the city center so we could get a map at the tourism office, and then walked around the city for a bit before heading down a hill to explore some ruins. Before going to the ruins, we stopped and got coffee across the street from the Grand Duke’s Palace at a really cute chocolate cafe! 

Once we had our caffeine, we headed out of the city center where we walked along a big wall (which I liked to refer to as the West Cliff of Luxembourg) from which we could see the peaceful and quaint little canyon bellow. What I am choosing to call ruins aren’t really ruins, but old tunnels inside a big and really old wall. We spent a couple hours wandering through the wall we had been walking on top of before and finding little rooms with different views of the city. We quickly learned that a trip through Luxembourg is all about seeing the same view from different towers, windows, and heights hahah. It was really fun running around in that wall with Michael. He is as easily pleased and adventurous as I am when it comes to exploring walls, apparently. Inside the wall there were so many spiral staircases and dark little passages. We eventually found our way into down to the bottom of the wall and sat in the grass to rest our legs and shoulders for a bit and enjoy the sunshine. It was a nice little spot by the ACTUAL river hahah. 

After that, we decided to climb up the other side of the canyon to, you know, see the view from over there. It looked exactly the same except we were on the other side of the fiver hahaha. As it got later, we decided to head into town and choose a place to eat dinner. We got back to the city center and Michael started searching for restaurants that he had heard nice things about. I was very insistent about not spending a lot of money, so we walked to each of the restaruants to check the prices and see what seemed like the best deal. When nothing in the center seemed amazing, Michael had the idea to walk all the way back down the 456 thousand flights of stairs into the canyon and check out a typical “Luxembourgish” restaurant. When we got down there, however, most of the food contained meat and it was just as pricey as the other places, so we decided to walk back up the 567 thousand flights of stairs to the city center and go to a really cool looking Italian place we had spotted before. Complaining about the stairs became a fun thing for me to do while walking hahah. I didn’t actually mind them that much, but it was just such a ridiculously hilly city that I couldn’t help myself! The thing about our walks though were that they were all so pretty and I was in such fantastic company that complaining made me laugh! I enjoyed every second and every step! 

 

We worked up quite an appetite by the time we got to the restaurant, so when our food came out it felt like the best day of my life. I cannot express how much I ADORE eating food when I am hungry. But this was different because I was hungry AND it was really good food AND I was with Michael AND I was in freaking Luxembourg! 

After a long dinner, we headed down to the base of a different canyon to check into our hostel and drop off our bags before exploring a different part of the city on a night walk. Luxembourg felt so peaceful and safe at night, and it wasn’t even cold out and we didn’t have to carry our backpacks anymore so it was a very nice walk. 

We found our way over to a street that had lots of lights and loud music and a bunch of night clubs, and we sort of just strolled by like happy old grandparents hahah. While we were on our little night walk, I couldn’t help but thinking how lucky I was to have found a friend like Michael. As people, we have our differences, but our conversations just work so well and we understand each other on some strange level. I was happy to have a friend who wanted to walk by the noisy night clubs and have a conversation with me instead of go in them and get drunk and dance the night away. HOW DO I KEEP MEETING SUCH INCREDIBLE PEOPLE?!?! I am too lucky and it simply isn’t fair to all the people in the world who will never end up meeting the amazing people I know.

The next morning, we got up around 8 to take advantage of the free hostel breakfast that was served until 9. Neither of us slept very well because the German guy who was in our room kept moving and snoring and talking in his sleep hahaha so we were both a little less energetic than the day before. Breakfast was still nice though, and afterwards we got ready for another day full of walking and museums and Luxembougish things! The first thing we did was walk up a HUGE hill to check out a museum that Michael had been interested in. My legs were pretty sore from the day before, but walking up another big hill actually helped stretch them out a bit. The museum wasn’t open yet when we got there, but there were little ruins that we climbed around in for awhile while we waited for it to open. About ten minutes before the museum opened, we found a sunny cliff to sit on that overlooked all of Luxembourg, so we sat down and began to talk. An hour passed and we didn’t feel like leaving that perfect little cliff. And then another hour passed. And then another. I think we spent about 3 and a half hours up there, but it wasn’t a waste. It was where we wanted to be and it was beautiful! We stayed up there talking for so long that we ran out of time to go to the museums we had planned to go to, but we were so okay with it hahaha. 

We decided that Luxembourg is an underated country because it is so tiny and people never really dream of going there. It is now our job to go around telling everyone that Luxembourg is the COOLEST PLACE EVER and that EVERYONE needs to go there because it is the CITY OF DREAMS!

 

The only complaint I have about spending so much time up there is that it made the trip end quickly after that. We walked back down (and then up) the the city center to find somthing for lunch, got coffee, walked some fore through a different park, and then it was time to leave. We found our way back to the train station and said our goodbyes, and then all of a sudden I was on a train and the trip was over. I had been needing time to think alone for a lot of the weekend, but once Michael was gone I had to fight off the bummed feeling of not getting to enjoy his company anymore. I wished he was on the train with me so we could talk and laugh some more. I cheered myself up by reminding myself that we would hang out again in the future and his company would be just as fabulous as ever.

My thoughts were interrupted by a bit of a panick when, once the train had crossed the French border, I tried to turn on my French phone and it was completely dead and I realized I hadn’t taken my charger! This was a big deal because my plan was to take the train from Luxembourg to Metz and then use BlablaCar to get back to Paris. BlablaCar is a carpool system where you can pay to join drivers on their trip to a city you need to get to. The problem with my phone being dead was that I didn’t have a way to call Paul, the driver, and find a place to meet up with him! When I got to the Metz SNCF Station, I had no choice but to go up to the nicest looking lady at the train station and ask her ifI could borrow her phone. She was an ANGEL! Not only did she let me use her phone, but she walked me to where he said he would be to make sure he seemed safe and that I didn’t run into any other problems! This was such a sweet thing for her to do, but when I met Paul I realized there was absolutely nothing to be worried about! He was a super friendly 26 year old guy from Metz, and in the car were aslo his perfectly lovely girlfriend and another 22 year old BlablaCar user named Fanny. Riding in the car with them for three hours was such great French practice! They used what I like to call “young people French” so they sounded just like French teenagers in movies! I felt very safe the entire ride back to Paris, and it was a friendly and warm environment to be in, too! When we got into Paris, I was only a couple short metro rides away from home. I was sleepy when I got back to Asnieres, so I fell asleep quickly and happily, grateful to exist in a universe where Luxembourg and Michael and kind strangers also exist. 

That is probably why I woke up so happy this morning! Today it is rainy and Prune doesn’t have school and neither do I! I don’t have school because my last day of classes was last Friday, and Prune doesn’t have school because her teacher has something important to do (or something like that). So today started off with a morning of blogging and this afternoon, Prune and I will go find something fun to do in Paris! 

My last week of school (last week) was a good one. Our classes that week were on the canal, so every morning I had a prettier-than-usual walk to school. I will miss seeing the people from my class every morning, but I am okay with not going to French class anymore. I will still practice by reading and watching things in French and talking to Cecile and Fred and Anastazja all the time. I am not worried. This way I will also have time to enjoy my last little bit of time in Paris, so that is good! 

The last thing worth blogging about for this past week is how great things have been going with Prune. For some reason, the more and more we get to know each other, the more fun we have! I am not getting sick of her at all. In fact, sometimes she is the highlight an already fun day! I wanted to blog about her because I have some adorable pictures of her from this week hahaha. 

SHE LEARNED HOW TO WRITE MY NAME! :,)

 

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!