Tuesday, May 28, 2013 A day of standing in the rain, then standing in museums, eating in the rain, then eating, I mean taking pictures in the museums...

I was so tired that I fell asleep last night. We went to so many museums yesterday, that I don’t know what to do with myself!  My feet hurt sooo bad.

The street cleaning people. 

This is the view we had for an hour while we stood in the rain, waiting to get into the museum.

7 statues of women and ironically enough the only one that actually has her breasts covered in the one that represents Europe! What the heck??

Apparently I wasn't supposed to take this picture, but i thought the sign just said, "no flash" not "no camera" Oops! I like it do you?

Yummy, yum, yummy...I love French pastries...it's a problem!!

Tuna on your pizza? Well, it's normal here!

Musee Rodin. There is a pole with all of these stickers on it. !I thought they were cool!

Napoleon's tomb.

Loved the feet on the sculptures. Great details

I won the "bueno bar" for trying to speak lots of  French

Monday, May 27, 2013

Monday, May 27, 2013

Today has been so great! After waking up at 7:30am, got in the shower. I had already packed my bags the night before, so it was really easy to just hurry and get the other stuff ready. Went down to breakfast. I love this place, they give us fresh hot cocoa from a cappuccino machine, so it is really good! I love it. Gilbert had eaten all of the croissants from our table so the guy who owns the place was mad at him. When I got around to asking for a little bit of water for my “Emergen –C”  he made fun of my French. I asked for “un pu d’eau” so he brought me back steaming hot water from the machine!  Craziness. I pour a little bit into  a saucer to help it cool off.  The Emergency wasn’t as bad as usual. My allergies have been KILLING me! I’ve been taking my oils, but still, they just hate me. 

On our way out I asked if I could get a picture of the guy who was in charge of us at the hotel. He was like, “No…” then grabbed my camera and took the picture you see below!

Off we went to get on the bus to go to what very well may be my favorite place we have visited so far. What I love about France, is that everywhere is so different than the last.  Each château has its own feel.  This one, Chambord has 365 fireplaces!!!  And 440 rooms, only 80 of which we can see. It has the coolest pillars on top, that represent the smokestacks from the fireplaces. It was originally a hunting lodge.  I took tons of pictures of the fire places.  The staircase was amazing too. I just loved the whole thing!

You could even paddle boat. If I would have known, I would have liked to do that. 6 Euros for 3 people!  I bought some cool postcards there.

Then we were off to le Château Cheverny.  That was cool. They still live there on the 2^nd and 3^rd floor.  We got to tour the first 3 levels (the math doesn’t add up does it?? Well, really it does because when you walk in a building here, the first floor you walk onto is actually level 0, then you go to the other levels 1, 2, 3, and so on!)  What I really liked about the Cheverny house was it was quick, not too big (because half of it is currently being lived in!) but the designs were all different.  The kid’s toys were a bit much for me, but they had scenes set up with tea time, dinner time, a wedding dress and real family pictures.  The beds these people slept in back in the day were so small, even for 1 person.

After we toured the house, we were kind of white trash and ate right on the steps of the mansions our white trash French bread from breakfast that morning, our apple sauce and cream cheese kifed from breakfast!  I ate some honey, hoping it’s local to help these awesome allergies.  Myra has said that I’m not allowed to sneeze anymore, that I’ve been “cut off”…I told her, I wish I was cut off. I just can’t stop sneezing. My right nose is running as I type!!!

So after we ate our white trash meal, spread out on the steps, (notice Myra’s shoes off!)  We went to see the hunting hounds.  These people have a bunch of dogs and they feed them at 5pm everyday, and the dogs are so well behaved that they put the food out and then say “Go” and then they run and get the food. Unfortunately, we had to leave before we could see it. But we did go over and say hi to the dogs.  I had just eaten apple sauce, so they were smelling my hands. They were for sure hunting dogs! They were way brilliant!  I loved them!  Then we went to the garden and they were pretty. Some bumble bees, were bumbling around on the flowers and I got some pretty pictures there too! Then onto the bus we went and now we’re on the train. We still have a lot to do. We get to trapes back to the hotel with our luggage in the subway (that’s my favorite!! NOT!!! And to make matters more fun, my luggage strap broke! Fun stuff huh! Ironically I bought new luggage for this trip, then at the last minute said, that I would just use my old stuff!!)

It has been an awesome day. I got a nap in between castles and got some playing cards! I love my life!  I also gave professor Christensen a massage.  She was all tight, but now she feels better. She said it was like she went to the spa while at the train station (that’s where I massaged her at)!  One student said maybe I’ll get an A in the class!  Well, I’m going to nap now I think or go find le toilette! 

Tonight we’re going to dinner together, everyone on the program! It’s going to be great! Love it!

Okay we just got back from dinner and the best night ever! Talk about fun!!! Oh my word! 11:22pm

We totally just had the night of our lives! We just went to Moulin Rouge and took a picture then to the sacre Coeur (the sacred heart a huge chapel downtown) we never made it inside, but it was sooo cool because the soccer guy is out front and it is the coolest thing ever. He dribbles the ball on this tower, then he literally takes off 3 shirts, climbs a poll holding the soccer ball on his head, poses holding the ball on his foot while hanging on the poll…it was the coolest thing ever! Then when he was done, he shakes everyone’s hands as we give him money and then he grabbed Lyndsie and pulled her up on his pillar and picked her up and held her for a picture! It was awesome! We were all cheering!!!  Then he let me come around and give him a hug and pose for a picture. He was awesome!!!  I loved it!

I also bartered for some Eiffel towers! I bought 2 medium ones and 2 small ones for 7Euros! Pretty good huh!  It was so fun!  Poor guys on the street. Sometimes I feel like I should just give them their asking price.

Then we went to dinner at this nice restaurant. It was so fun, it was like we were in Spain again! I miss eating out with everyone! This time, we all ate together! It was fun!  We bonded. I got to know a bunch of people better. I got up to go to the bathroom and this guy escorted me to the bathroom. Then he said if I was okay to get back on my own. I said yes, but that we needed to take a picture together. He said okay.  Then I went to the bathroom and we took a picture together, a silly one, then he told me to kiss him on the cheek, so that was my first mistake, I went to kiss him on the cheek and he turned his head really quickly and kissed me on the lips!  I’ve had that happen before, in Mexico, so it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I was like…no way this is going to happen.  He said, “you’re single so what’s the problem?” I was like, “Um, je ne se pas” and walked away laughing!

Then we ate dinner and enjoyed conversation. It was really nice and yummy!  Then as we got up and these guys were doing some sort of dancing and they pulled Tammy, or professor over by them and danced with her. It was one of the best things I have seen in a long time! It was awesome!  We were all laughing and then after he was done with her, he grabbed Myra!  It was so funny!

He was getting crazy.  The he ran and jumped into her arms! My camera was sadly dead at the moment, so I got nothing, but Sam did record it all!!! What a night!! I loved it!

Then we walked over the sacre Coeur (sacred heart) cathedral and you should have seen Gabby’s fancy bartering skills. She was like a mean French lady. It was great!

Came home, tried to write in my journal, but fell asleep!

Phrase of the day: Je prendre _______ (I’m asking for (like ordering at a restaurant)______))

Word of the day: achete-he/she buys

New words:

§  Oevres-works

§  Une corde de lin-flaxen chord

§  Fortes cords-strong chords

§  Lait-milk

§  Achetez- vous buys

§  Miel-honey

§  Sans- without

§  Dans-in

§  Argent-money

§  Sans rien-without having to pay

§  Lumiere-light

§  Ouvrier-worker

§  Travailler-to work

§  Travaillera-will work

§  Il périra-will perish

§  Meurtre-murder?

§  Envient-envy

§  Lui-him

§  Noirs-blacks

§  Blanches-whites

My knight in shining armour!! He'll come some day!!

365 fireplaces in this mansion/chateau!! can you believe it? One for everyday of the year and one for every type of cheese France has!!!

The queen is me!

I love Lindsey and her fashion!

The hounds at the Chateau 

K, sometimes they have these cool things you can slide your bags down, since you have to bring your bags up and down all of the stairs at the train stations, metros...everywhere!!

Chase being a gentleman and carrying my 50pound bag up the stairs! Look at those muscles!!

Stinking bag handle broke! Not cool! 

The original Moulin Rouge!!

lots of motorcycles in Paris!

The stairs to walk up to the Sacre Coeur...we took the tram!

The Sacre Coeur (The Sacred Heart)

Tricky waiter...he kind of kissed me on the lips. He said for me to give him a kiss on the cheek (that is custom here) so I did and just at that second he turned his head...not too honest, but kind of funny. I just laughed and said that was tricky...He said, "You're single right? So why not me?" I tell you...if you want to feel good about yourself, go to a foreign country!!

Pretty huh!

French Onion Soup in France!!  Da Bomb!