Thursday right after my gender class (I presented about gender dynamics in the classroom and it went well), Julianne and I took the Oxford Tube to London, and then the subway Tube to her house for the night. The next morning we woke up very early and took a cab (my first time in a cab!) to the San Pancras station for our Eurostar train ride to Paris! The journey was very relaxing actually; I read for my tutorial paper, gazed outside at the view, and took a short nap during the part where the train goes under the English Channel. My friend Tiffany was at the Gare du Nord station waiting to begin my trip.
I purchased a 3 day metro card so that I wouldn't need to keep buying tickets every time we wanted to take the metro, and we ended up using it most of the time, so it was a good investment. First, we went to get her host family thank you gifts for allowing me to stay in their home. I bought the dad wine and the mom flowers, and they were both very nice. After we dropped off my bags, we went to the Musee du Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and the glass pyramids. Then we walked throughout that area and came to the lock bridge, which is a bridge across one of the rivers in Paris that has locks on both sides. The locks usually have the names or initials of couples, and sometimes dates, so it was cute to look at how many people have gone to that bridge. Afterward, we went souvenir/postcard shopping (I was able to find some great bargains) and I also got some yummy gelato. We stopped by Angelina's, which supposedly has the best hot chocolate in the world, but one we saw the prices, we decided on gelato from a sidewalk booth. It was 8 euros for a cup of hot chocolate...that's more than $10?! When we had found everything we were looking for, Tiffany took me to the Centre Pompidou (pronounced pompydoo) because it has a wonderful view from the top. When we were leaving, a street dancer was impersonating Michael Jackson and dancing to "Billie Jean" so I had to stop and record it. It was almost time for dinner, so we headed back to my friend's host family's house. She lives near the main street in Paris that leads up to the Arc du Triomphe and has a ton of shopping stores, so we walked along there on the way home. Her host mom had made a delicious dinner that consisted of a croissant with cheese (of course), salmon and creme, peas and carrots, more cheese, and chocolate mouse with strawberries. The host dad poured me wine to drink, and I didn't want to be rude so I drank it, but it tasted awful! Then I realized that was the bottle I had just brought them as a thank you, but they seemed to like it, so that's all that matters. Afterward, Tiffany and I got ready to go out, and some friends came over to her house (one, Jordan, is a friend of mine from my freshmen dorm who was very excited to see me, and another, Rachel, was in my Global Catholicism course in the fall who recognized me and became a closer friend to me over the weekend). There was actually another girl named Arielle, but she pronounces it "air-E-L" so I thought everyone was going to say my name incorrectly the whole night, but they instead said her name incorrectly! We hung out in Tiffany's room for most of the night, then decided to go to a club but someone had rented it out for the night, so Tiffany and just went back to the house and caught up with each other until the early morning hours, until we couldn't keep our eyes closed.
The next afternoon (we slept in from the previous long day) Tiffany wanted to take me to the best crepe restaurant in Paris, mainly because she knows I love dessert crepes, but also because she hasn't been yet, and she wanted to try a savory crepe with me. We went to Breizh Cafe and shared a ham, egg, and cheese crepe, which was delicious, then an ice cream and caramelized apple crepe with whipped cream and extra caramel for dessert, which we devoured in less than five minutes. After that, we headed to Moulin Rouge, which I was very excited about (I love musicals) but we found that the streets were full of certain kind of stores that we didn't need to shop at! Good thing we went in the daytime; apparently the streets are laced with women in the night hours... We could see the big church from where we were, so we walked to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur Montmarte. It was so beautiful, and the view from the top of the hill was amazing. There was a little stage set up, and a puppet show was going on - we thought it was Genesis because it seemed like it was telling the story of how the Earth was made, Adam and Eve, and Noah's Ark, but then it turned into some different story that I couldn't understand because it was in French. We went back to eat dinner, then Tiffany had a whole plan for the night. She wanted to take me to the top of the Arc du Triomphe before sunset (it takes forever to climb those stairs!) so that we could take pictures, watch the sunset, and take more pictures, and then lead me to the lit up Eiffel Tower were Rachel would be waiting with a bottle of wine (that's what people do in Paris, drink wine in front of the Eiffel Tower). First of all, the view from the top of the Arc was amazing; however, the Eiffel Tower is literally one of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen! When it's lit up at night it's incredible, but when it glistens on the hour, it's seriously something that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime (hence me wanting to bring my family here)! We were at the Trocadero since that's one of the best viewing places, and we found a spot to sit near a performer who was playing the guitar and singing to the crowd. Rachel and I knew every song he played, so we sang along with the crowd and the man. Then, a girl made her friend go up and sing Adele's "Someone Like You" (pretty much the hardest currently popular song to sing), and the girl didn't really know the lyrics and was super anxious, so she ran away after people were screaming when the Eiffel Tower lit up. I didn't want the song to end short (like the other songs did when people would stop singing) so I ran up to finish it. I really can't believe I did that, especially with a song so difficult to sing, but I did it, and Tiffany was recording the whole time! It was pretty much the highlight of the trip :) After the man was finished performing around midnight, we went to grab food (I had a double hot dog in a baguette and churros which were both delicious) all three of us walked to the base of the Eiffel Tower to ponder its massiveness. We also had a short girl talk before we headed home. It was pretty much the best night ever.
On Sunday, Tiffany took me to the underground mall in the business district before I had to take the Eurostar back to London. It was a nice relaxing end to an eventful weekend. I was sad to leave, and she really didn't want me to, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to go in the first place. I slept on the ride to London since I hadn't really gotten sleep over the weekend, and we took a cab back to Julianne's house since we had so much luggage. Then we got take out Asian food (coconut rice and teriyaki chicken noodles for me!) and watched a movie with Julianne's younger brother. Afterward I was so exhausted that I fell asleep.
Monday was a "work now; play later" type of day, since I needed to get my tutorial reading done before the two plays we were scheduled to see (with the Stanford group) in the evening. After a morning surprise, I read until it was time to pack and head over to the theater. When Julianne and I arrived, we saw that our friend (who I drew with for next year's housing) had brought us both boba! Mine was a large and my favorite flavor :) The two shows were very interesting - we saw "South Downs" and "The Browning Version" - and then headed back to the Stanford House. I couldn't believe that I hadn't been home since Thursday afternoon, but I got right to unpacking so that I could start my paper. I was able to finish with enough time to sleep for about 4 hours, and I just got back from my meeting with my tutor. He liked this paper again, but he realized that he had drifted away from my primary area of interest, children. I didn't mind, but he cared enough to choose a child-related topic for my next paper, which will be my last with him. He even went through the trouble to bring a book that he felt I will enjoy, mainly so that I would be able to read it within the comfort of my own room/house/friends' rooms/etc but also because he knew the topic would intrigue me. I really wish I could start reading it today, but I have to finish the paper for my gender class first, so that's what I will be doing in the next couple of days. Oh, but I might be attending a BOP (Big Ol' Party) with my roommate tonight, as well as a ball this weekend (it's the cheapest one and it's on a boat!) so I'll definitely take lots of pictures. Here are some pictures from Paris!!
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