la vie en rose: April 2016

Friday, April 29, 2016

ANNOUNCEMENT: I'M MOVING TO CHARTRES!!!!!!

22:34 29/4/16

So probably not within the next 10 years or even 20, but its official. Even if it's just for a year I am going to live in Chartres. I absolutely fell in love with the city. Don't get me wrong, Paris is absolutely incredible, but Chartres is just so charming and picturesque. Many of the buildings in the center of town look like something out of Beauty and the Beast (so of course we were singing those songs as we walked through the town). And they had an (incredible) art exhibit inside La collégiale Saint-André and there were no pictures allowed, which is okay because they would not have been able to capture the feeling inside. A little background: La collégiale Saint-André is a church that dates back to the middle ages so it is over 1,000 years old. Wow. Of course we had a tour both of the inside of Chartres Cathedral and the crypt beneath. The stained glass windows were gorgeous on their own but we were able to be told about the stories that are being told by the pictures which make them even more incredible. It was beautiful (but cold) weather right up until when we needed to go and then it decided to rain. Pretty sure I saw some cats and dogs falling from the sky as well. Thankfully we had a very scenic train ride back into the city.
After getting back to our apartment we had dinner and can I just take this opportunity to say how flipping grateful for the apartment I got put in. Our host mom is absolutely hilarious and dinner conversations are always amazing and insightful. Oh my heck I love it so much. Another thing I absolutely love is the metro. Our morning commute is about 20 minutes on the metro and it is bomb bc you hardly see people with their phones out, for the most part they either have a newspaper or a boom out to read. Something about that just makes me so happy. Anyways sappy moment over. Enjoy some pics. Also FYI the pictures totally don't do anything justice. Guess y'all will just have to come see it for yourselves.

pro-tip: use panorama vertically to capture moments like this

cool clock

so many stories in this glass

so many stories in these statues

fricken gorgeous

secret garden?

lil garden

that door is old. and creaky.

smilez

pretty flowers

hearts because i love this house

i will live on this river

little town its a quiet village

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Hot Chocolate and Walk #5

21:38 28/4/16

I was on time for class today!!!!! Even though my alarm didn't wake me up this morning, by some sort of miracle I only woke up 15 minutes later than I had planned #blessup we are actually getting a lot better with finding our way to the metro stop in our area which is pretty dang awesome. after class we headed out to find a lunch place. being the cheapskate that I am, I made a sandwich and grabbed some cuties this morning so while everyone was eating their nice food my roommate and I pulled out our sandwiches wrapped in aluminum foil and I peeled my cuties and ate that haha then we started walk #5 "Place de la Concorde: The Guillotine and More
After lunch we headed over to Place Clemenceau and the sun was out so we sat and enjoyed that while we waited for the other group to show up. Then we gave up on them and started the walk anyways haha. We started walking down Champs-Elysées and man if I had about $100,000 to spend I'd buy a water bottle there. But the street was so beautiful and we passed the Palais de l'Elysée (gorgeous) and the Ministry of the Interior. Our walks book told us to be careful about taking pictures of the government building so that we would not look sketchy. We also passed the US Embassy. Needless to say, with all of these government buildings there were lots of police with very big guns.
After walking down the street we went to Place de la Concorde where they have the Luxor Obelisk and a big ferris wheel. It was so cool to be there and see the Obelisk up close! They also had a pretty sweet fountain so of course we took some pics in front of it. After that we headed to a little museum (Orangerie) right next to le Jardin des Tuileries where they had the Nymphéas exhibit up!!! (aka Monet's water lily paintings!) After that we wandered down to the end of the Jardin to l'Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. And that was the end of the walk! Definitely shorter than yesterdays haha
After the walk we went to Angelina which is right next to the Jardin des Tuileries and ohmygoodness we all agreed that the hot chocolate was the best we had ever had. like ever. I really mean it. We waited in line to get seated and it was totally worth it. We sat and relaxed there for at LEAST an hour and had a nice chance to just sit and talk.
After rejuvenating at Angelina we all went our separate ways and my roommate and I took the metro back over to the Notre Dame area and we were actually able to go inside Shakespeare and Co. and I finally got my book! yay! ("I know why the caged bird sings" if any of you were wondering) then we took to metro home.
My host mom just came in to talk to us (warning: sorry bout to get a little religious up in here) and she was asking about our families and we were talking about how our dads/families were coming at the end of the program and how both of our dads served missions for our church in France (hers in Paris and mine in Lyon) and then I mentioned how I was actually getting ready to serve a mission in Lyon as well and she started asking us questions about missions and she told me how it would be such an incredible experience for me. I don't know if anyone else felt it, but for me the spirit was so strong in the room during the conversation and it was such a witness to me of how I am supposed to serve and it made me so much more excited to go! It has helped strengthen my testimony of God how provides countless tender mercies to His children.
All in all, it was a wonderful day and I am actually going to try to head to bed soon because we have an earlier day tomorrow because we are headed off to Cathédral de Chartes.

nice sky. nice clouds. statue in the garden.

ferris wheel and the obelisk!

fountain! yay!

closer up pic of the obelisk

Monet's painting!

L'arc de triomphe du carrousel

snapchat saw it first

Louvre!

friendz & Louvre

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Walk 1 yay

23:36 27/4/16

17,824 steps later and I'm back at home in bed. according to the built in iPhone app that means 7.59 miles and 36 floors, so that should hopefully help me fall asleep pretty quick tonight since it's like 4,000 more than usual haha. I guess that's sign #1 we started completing our walks for french 345 today. more on that later doe.
This morning we had some yummy cereal for breakfast accompanied by a really nice conversation with our host mom who has lived in so many different places (like the Caribbean, the Middle East, etc etc etc) so she is very wise and has a really interesting point of view of most subjects. the conversation was totally worth being a couple minutes late to class which was A-OK because we were still some of the first people there lol thankfully we weren't the only ones that had a little trouble getting there. but hey, it was the first day so cut us all some slack. after class we grabbed déjeuner (lunch) and then started our walk! we did walk #1 which is entitled "Paris in Layers: Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Conciergerie". There were so many moments that just completely took my breath away because we are talking about the jaw-dropping-pinch-yourself kind of places. Because I'm a dork and I think it'd be cool of you could do the walk with me (virtually of course) I'm gonna have pictures and then do my best to explain what exactly you're looking at with all the wisdom of my 18-year-old self.
First Stop: Mémorial de la Déportion - a modern crypt dedicated to the memory of Jews and other groups who were deported to Nazi camps during world war 2

Sign at the beginning of the memorial

That black shadowy hole is the door you use to enter the memorial

200,000 illuminated crystals; each one represents a deportee who died in a concentration camp

many other engravings of the same genre covered the walls with other things like quotes, the names of concentration camps etc.

I left this memorial with a very heavy heart and a new perspective. In a hallway they had lots of pictures and captions up that explained a lot of the aspects of everyday life and the processes prisoners went through. I know that in school we learn a lot about the Holocaust and Nazis under the control of Hitler but there was something about the stories told in the captions and this memorial in general that really touched me and I would highly recommend this memorial to everyone. It is not something I would have normally gone to and I am so grateful that it was included in our walk so that I could experience it.
Second Stop: Notre Dame (climbing to the top and going inside the church itself)

back of Notre Dame when ITS NOT RAINING AND YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE THE SKY

some of my friends. they rock. #punz

if you look closely you can see 3 brides in their wedding dresses taking their pictures #goalz

had to get that tumblr basic picture. but hey I deserve it after walking up 387 stairs for this view.

more blue skies!

inside of Notre Dame. I thought I was pretty artsy.

Even though we thought the stairs would never end, Notre Dame was an incredible experience! Everything is absolutely breathtaking (even the stairs. literally. lol) and at the top you get an incredible panoramic view of the city and its a special way to experience Paris from above.

Third Stop: Crypte du Paris

I am going to take this opportunity to talk about the most incredible thing: Beaux Arts Cards. Literally flash them at the people and you pretty much get in everywhere for free! and I am choosing to share this now because it saved me about 35 euros today and I would not have been super thrilled to pay 7.50 Euros for this

if you're into rocks on older rocks on older rocks this is the place for you! but actually it was cool to see the old architecture down below the streets of Paris.

Fourth Stop: This lil flower market

the face of the guy about to tell me you can't actually take pictures here, I just was not able to see the sign yet. lol.

Fifth Stop: La Conciergerie

there is currently a photography exhibit in the main room of la conciergerie

entryway to the "cour des femmes"

that sign says this little area was Marie Antoinette's holding cell before her execution

we're still not sure what exactly this place was used for besides holding prisoners and weapons, but nonetheless it was a cool experience. It was a little creepy to see a recreation of a room that was used at Marie Antoinette's prison chamber complete with a replica of her and a guard, but still cool.

Sixth Stop: Palais de Justice (well actually just Sainte Chapelle which is inside the Palais de Justice)

front gates at Palais de Justice

inside the top of Sainte-Chapelle

inside the gates of Palais de Justice (notice camera crews bc I guess an important court case was about over)

One of the coolest moments of the walk was climbing up the stairs to the top of Sainte-Chapelle because we were so done with stairs and then all of the sudden the stairs stopped and we walked into one of the most beautiful rooms I have ever seen. It was absolutely without a doubt worth the extra stairs to get to the top and it was awe-inspiring to think about how much effort people put into building places like this. I took a glass cutting class with my mom once and I remember how hard it was for me to make a single PLATE let alone a whole room filled with beautifully crafted floor-to-ceiling windows. And I was using modern technology to do it. It is really cool to see how important peoples' faith was to them by the amount of work they put into honoring and remembering God and Jesus Christ in their buildings and artwork.

Alrighty that ends the walk! Afterwards we split into our groups of roommates and my roommates and I wandered around that area some more looking for a mini backpack purse for school and we also stopped by Shakespeare and Co. which was cool! Afterwards we came home for dinner with our host mom and one of the girls staying here. It was quiche, with rice and salad and some strawberries for dessert. Miam miam! Then we got our hw done and somehow I got distracted while writing this and its a little past 1:00 so i'm going to finish here and head to bed. Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

I have a family! AND A CAT

11:15 25/4/2016

guys. i had the best indian food ever last night. like wow. so good. almost made me forget how expensive everything is here. lol. but not quite. pretty sure I need to buy some tissues for my bank account because it has definitely shed a few tears with many more to come.
but more important than that: I met my host mom today!! My roommate and I were nervous at first and had a bit of a struggle fitting out giant suitcases in the tiny elevator but we made it! The apartment is super cute and our host mom is super sweet! So excited to live here for the next 6 weeks. And its cool bc there are 3 other american girls around our age staying here for school as well and we've only met 2/3 so far but they're both super chill. and did i mention that they have a cat!?!????! he's so cute. and he may or may not have joined me for my nap today which may or may not have been 3 hours #typical.
For dinner one of the girls took us to a super cute restaurant on Rue de Levis and I would highly suggest taking a stroll down that street if you're ever in 17e arrondissement. After dinner we did some grocery shopping at the Monoprix which is apparently like a french version of Target. After that we headed back and got our hw done bc oh yeah...we're actually still in school right now? classes don't start until Mecredi (wed) though so I think tomorrow we planned on going to the catacombs and wandering around Notre Dame. Its been a pretty chill day (prob bc very long nap) so that's all I got for now but I'm sure theres more to come tomorrow!

22:27 26/4/16

jet lag is literally the worst thing ever. either you wake up at 3:30 am and can't go back to sleep or you and your roommate accidentally sleep in till 12. its a lose lose situation. especially when you're running late and still out of it and get on the wrong metro and end up at your group meeting a half hour late. #swag #hypercool. after the meeting we went to the catacombs!! so cool! especially if you forget about the fact that you're surrounded by tons of dead bodies! haha one of the guys behind us was telling us that if we think about it the probability that some of our ancestors are buried there is pretty dang high. aw hi great great great great great great great great great great grandpa, glad to see you're doing well! also protip: if you're having a hard time finding a bathroom when you're out and about theres a 99% that the nearest mcdonalds will have one you can use for free #blessed. after catacombs we all split up bc some people had to go back to their host families for dinner. my roommate and I headed to Notre Dame and wandered around that area because there are so many amazing things to see! (pics below) it was raining pretty much all day but somehow Paris was still completely gorgeous. at Centre Georges Pompidou (in the rain) there was music playing so we walked over to the square and there was like an impromptu zumba class thingy going on so we both were like #yolo and we embraced the fact that we look white af when we dance and we joined in. they had a big screen set up and the back of my head was on it for a while so ya know, if you want my autograph let me know because I'm kind of a big deal now. it was very very very fun. after that we got some dinner which was also bomb and then we picked up a few necessities at monoprix and now we're back at home chilling and getting ready for bed. Our first class is tomorrow morning and hopefully this time we'll get on the right metro. lol. mdr. all in all, I am already so in love with the city and the feeling here. lol speaking of feelings, let's talk about feeling uncomfortable. like when an older french guy starts to hit on you and your roommate but hey I guess being called naturally gorgeous isn't the worst thing he could've said *flips hair, pats self on back* also LESLIE ALARCON I hope you enjoy these pics. I think you'll be able to tell which ones are for you.

TODAY: