so where was i? oh yes, the shopping.

so yeah, meg got the cutest outfit EVAAAAA. and then we were on our way. so the metro in barcelona is super nice but the system itself still needs some work. we found a metro with the correct line so we bought tickets and went in. wellllll come to find out we were supposed to be on the OTHER side going the opposite direction. in paris, this is no problem… you just go up the stairs to the other side. in barcelona, not the case. we had to exit— go up to street level go across the street and go down into the other metro and buy ANOTHER ticket to get to it. so annoying. dafslkdjflasjdf. blah. finally we make it back home (to willy’s house) and get ready for la plage. everyone else was already at the beach so we asked willy for directions. he took us, like got on the metro and walked us all the way there! what a sweetheart! best house dad EVA. so we get to the beach and it’s awesome. but there’s something you should know about the beaches in barcelona and europe in general. clothing is optional. i’ve never seen so many topless people and better yet, naked people in my life. really? cover yo’self. it was nast. so we were walking along, semi-searching for our friends while trying not to see anything graphic, when we happen upon the W. actually we didn’t really happen upon it. my sister told us we should go and we purposefully were walking in its direction. technicalities. so we walk up and there are so many empty lounge chairs and towels and we are like “hmmm we didn’t bring towels or chairs… LET’S MOOCH.” so we did. it was glorious. we laid out at the W for about 4 hours or so and then we went in and asked for dinner recommendations. she gave us a few options so we set out to find one. we found one but it didn’t look very good so we went next door bc 1. they had the match on. 2. it looked waaaay cooler. it was called “foc” which means fire, apparently and it was THE COOLEST PLACE EVER. personal tvs at every table. but we sat at the bar. we ordered some sangria and were just hanging out for a bit… but a bit turned into about 4 hours which included more sangria and nachos (delicious!!! they had jalapeños. and guac. thank you, spain) and meeting some study abroad kids that go to school in canada but one was from the woodlands (haaay h-town), one from LA, and two from egypt. coolest people EVER! did i mention the bartenders loved meg and i and they played the entire “black eyed peas” soundtrack and we sang every word? so glorious. by 1am we were EXHAUSTED and headed on back to our house and passed out.

slept in on saturday and then when everyone was ready, we headed to la boqueria once again and grabbed lunch and some snacks for the beach. meg and i ate at “organic is orgasmic,” hilarious name, DELICIOUS food. i had a falafel pita and they just pile on the food. veggies, paella, etc. it was seriously the best thing i’d eaten in awhile. so good. we got more fresh fruit juices and fresh fruit for the beach. then it was off to the beach! we got there and found a spot for all 8 of us. It was so hot but so great to lay and soak up the sun. After awhile meg and I went and shopped around a bit— bought some souvenirs, I bought a dress, etc. then it was back to meet up with the frannssss. We started walking back to the metro when meg and I remembered that there were 8 of us and one shower at our house so we stayed behind and ate salads at “foc” one last time. Soooo gooood! Then it was back to the house! Got all showered up and thennnnnn that’s when I started to get sick :( I ended up going with everyone and watching the euro cup game and seeing the beginning of the saint juan festival for the longest day of the year (summer solstice) buttttt then I had to go home cuz I was not feeling well at all. Sucks to be sick in barca! I was glad to sleep but was jealous that everyone else ended up going on a great adventure to the beach and seeing crazy crazy loco Barcelona in action!! They had a million stories for me in the morning. And boy did the morning come quickly—- our cabs arrived at 5:30am so take us to the airport. We said bye to Willy (so sad) and we were on our way. We had time to kill once we got there so obviously we sat down for some McDonald’s and shopped around a bit. The airport in Barcelona (there’s only one) is HUGE and has like full sized stores that are open like all the time. They had Zara, desigaul, etc. open at 6am… What?? Cray. It was good for us though cuz we had something to do. Finally we got on the plane and headed back to Paris and were greeted with disgusting, cold rainy weather… Thanks for the nice welcome, Paris. We finally made it back to our dorm around 11:30am and we had a lazy day of laundry, naps, and the market. Meg picked up some fruit, vegetables and a rotisserie chicken and we had a fabulous dinner. That’s probably one thing I will really miss… Our roomie dinners! Anyway… That’s all about that. I have so much to tell about the week!! I’ll write again soon!!

helllooooooooooo…where was i? OH! the dinner. 

so we had our wine, our appetizers, and then it was time for the main course. i had mussels which ended up being pretty good (i’d never had them before). then dessert, we walked across the street and got churros with nutella and raspberry gelato and all split it. OH EM GEE— SO GOOD. then we went and laid down in a park and dozed off for a bit with the warm sun shining on us. before we knew it, it was time to get back on the train. we played some 20 questions while we waited and then got on the train for our 45 min ride back to paris, got home and went straight to bed. 

monday was a chill day since we didn’t have school. we worked out, went to the grocery and finally GOT READY FOR THE KANYE AND JAY-Z CONCERT IN PARIS. literally, it was awesome. best decision EVER. we had amazing seats and we danced the WHOLE time. they played their “paris song” 12 times. yes, 1-2, 12, TWELVE. i loved it more every single time. after hanging out with friends and talking about what we just experienced, we made it home around 3:30am and then i talked to trevor on the phone and didn’t get to sleep until 5am. yes, i am aware that i’m insane. i also had a test the next morning at 10:30am. yes, still insane. still me. anywho so yes, the test. it was fine. it’s over. grades are not eternal. (note: i’m not saying that because i don’t think i did well because i think i did just fine, i’m saying that simply because it’s the truth). anywayyyssss the rest of the week was pretty chill. school, come home, school, sleep, ehh. UM EXCEPT FOR ON WEDNESDAY WHEN I MET HILARY SWANK. yep, i sure did. we went to versailles for our cultural excursion on wednesday and kyle and i walked around the whole chateau with our audio guides then headed out to check out a small portion of the 2000 acres that is versailles. it’s absolutely gorgeous. if you haven’t been, you should go. if you don’t want to see the chateau, there is free admission to the gardens. people like go on runs and bike rides and stuff and bring their dogs… which leads me to HILARY SWANK. so yeah. we were wandering through the gardens when i see a little restaurant stand thing-majig and i’m like “hey i need a coke” and then bonnie and i split a crepe too (obviously i can’t control my eating). when we were done we walk out of the little thing and are standing by the trash can and kyle is like “i want ice cream” and goes back in to get it. i look up and there she is. with her italian (hot) boyfriend, his kids, and their dog, she stood before us. i’m like in my head “that woman looks familiahhh…. OH EM GEE THATS HILARY SWANK.” can i mention she was literally standing two feet from me and bonnie, kyle and i were like ME: “OMG THATS HILARY SWANK” BONNIE: “ARE YOU SURE??” KYLE: “who is hilary swank?” she was totally laughing at us. i was too scared to ask so bonnie’s like “hi are you hilary swank?” and hilary’s like “yes” and then we chatted it up for a few mins ya know. and by we i mean hilary and bonnie because i stood there smiling like a creep and said literally 3 words. whatev. eventually the convo is over and we’re like NO WHY DIDNT WE GET A PICTURE ALSKJDFOWAIUEGSLDKVASLKDJFALJSGDL. but then fate stepped in. or Jesus. or both. hilary and her clan ended up walking back our way and we (bonnie) were like heeeey can we get a picture with you and she’s like yeaaaah me and my ice cream haha. so we did. and it was glorious. and then i called my mother and was freaking out. and then my sister. such an awesome day. 

thursday came and all we could think about was barcelona. after class, i ran to H&M to get some last minute stuff and before i knew it i was blogging, packing, and then running out the door for the airport! all 8 of us made it to orly safely and then to barcelona safely. y’all, the barcelona airport is SO NICE. i couldn’t believe it. amazing. we got in our taxis and headed to belen’s house. so we rented a house that we found on airbnb. it’s an amazing website— they have houses/apartments/etc. you can rent in essentially every city in the entire world. so like i said, we rented this house from belen but belen had her brother’s wedding this weekend so she wasn’t in town. so we had her baby daddy, willy. we were a bit nervous to arrive but we were excited too. at around 1:30am we got to the house and willy answered the door. he greeted us with drinks and had us sit out on the terrace which was beautiful, even at night. the funny thing was willy doesn’t speak any english. he speaks french, spanish, catalan, and portuguese but no english. it was amazing how yet we were still able to communicate effectively. 4 of us spoke spanish and 2 spoke french and of course we all used a lot of hand gestures. it was really cool to watch. we finally got to bed and were ready to get up and at ‘em the next morning and check out beautiful barcelona! 

well by up and at ‘em, we left the house around noon. willy took us on a walking tour of the city. we saw the gaudi church that is still being built, we saw gaudi’s house, and the city center. he had all these facts to tell us at each one and we would translate for each other. something really cool he told us: gaudi never made any sketches or plans or anything. he created everything in his mind and the morning of, he would sit his team down and say “this is what we are doing today” and they would do it. so brilliant. incredible. everything in/on the church has symbolism. for example, there is fruit (sculpted, not real) on top of many of the pillars outside and it symbolizes the body and blood of Jesus Christ aka communion. cool, huh? anyway, finally we made it to la rambla and sat down for some tapas! i had potatoes with garlic (it was like potato salad) and we all sampled each others. next was the market. LITERALLY la boqueria is my favorite place on earth. it’s food heaven. we had fresh fruit juice, bought fruit and trail mixes and just had a fabulous time. meg and i, that is. everyone else was underwhelmed by this greatness. they all headed out for the beach but meg and i stayed awhile to soak up the culture of barcelona. next, we went shopping at custo. it’s an AWESOME store in barcelona with the cutest clothes ever. meg and i tried on essentially everything in the store and i found nothing but she found a cute short and top outfit!! 

once again, i’ve gotten distracted. by pinterest and other things… so this blog post is TBC (to be continued) once again. sorry i suck, y’all. i gotta do some homework. and get up early for stupid company visits tomorrow. oh well. i’ll write soon, promise!!

xoxoxo

<3 SEK

WHAT’S UP Y’ALL?!

so. i haven’t written. i’m sorry. i have had time to. but i’ve been lazy. oopsies. please forgive me?

so i last wrote you on wednesday night. now it is thursday evening (a week and a day later) and i have so much to share.

thursday’s lecture was interesting for two reasons. 1. being that we learned economics and i haven’t learned economics since i was a senior in high school. 2. being that i had Prof. Strauss-Kahn teaching me economics. Yes, she is in fact, Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s daughter and Gabe did in fact, asked her if she was related to him. her response? “oh uhh… no one really asks that.” we googled her when we got home and there they were. pictures of her with her dad at the trial. what the what. so needless to say that was entertaining. anywho so after school that day kyle meg and i explored the opera area once again. its definitely my fave. we went to “repetto” which is the ORIGINAL ballet shoe store. i literally died and took 9 million pictures (note: the previous statement is a hyperbole). we walked all around, going into tiffany’s and chanel and pretending we could afford stuff. we can’t. we are in college and also in paris where a coke at a restaurant is like $6. that is not an exaggeration. finally, we sat down at a fruit bar for a snack. i had a mango smoothie and an INCREDIBLE apple, gouda, turkey panini. i will return there before i leave. once we got home, meg and i went on a run and came back, showered, and went across the street for dinner. we decided not to do anything else because we knew megan was arriving later that night and we were going to get up super early and head out to show megan paris. megan FINALLY arrived around 12:30-12:45am to the dorm and we all went straight to sleep. yes, megan and i were in my tiny twin bed for 3 nights in a row. we know how to rough it. (ha. bring it on wilderness). 

so friday morning came and we were up and at ‘em. first, we hit up the pompidou and got our museum passes. totally worth it by the way, you get free access for 2 days to a bunch of museum’s in and around paris and you get to skip all the lines. only 39 euro. so yeah, we did the pompidou which is a modern art museum. it was interesting to say the least. some of the stuff in there i’m just like, are you sure that’s art? its black paint on a canvas. whatevaaa. then we stopped for crepes on our way to notre dame! we did the crypts of notre dame first. it was pretty cool— history of when germany took over paris during the world war, roman ruins, etc. then we went inside notre dame. it’s my second favorite church in this city *sigh*. then we climbed notre dame. yes, we did. all the way to the very top. we saw the bell that quasimodo rang and atop notre dame is one of the most beautiful views of paris because it is in the very center of the city. next up was the cluny museum which is a medieval times museum. no one really goes to it. it was kinda empty. but it was pretty neat. theeeennnnnn we went to napoleon’s tomb. he’s so full of himself. the roof of the building is made of gold and there are multiple shrines to him in that place. it was definitely cool to see though. and then we were off to meet our friends for the ukraine/france futbol match. at first, it was rained out but all of a sudden we heard screaming and obviously, the match was back on. it was awesome to see all the pride the french have for their country and team. afterwards we went to the latin quarter but it was kinda lame so we grabbed some food and then headed to the eiffel tower! it was raining by the time we got there but we definitely got some cool pictures in the rain. meg and i started singing “washed by the water” when we were there. praise Jesus anytime anywhere! and then it was back on the metro to take our 19 stop ride home. we were exhausted and to bed we went. 

saturday morning came and we slept in. it was my last day to show megan paris because she was leaving to go back to spain the next morning so we started around noon and didn’t stop til late that night. we attempted to do the fashion museum but couldn’t find it so to the louvre we went! said “what’s up” to mona and saw some other cool art. down the champs elysees we went. it’s a 3 mile walk (what up leg muscles). shopped a bit, grabbed a bite to eat (megan tried escargot :) ) and up the arc de triomphe we went! she loved it! next was the opera area, the opera house was closed but i showed her repetto and we stopped for un cafe and du the. next up was montmarte and sacre coeur (my fave church in the whole city). montmarte is my other favorite area. it’s just so picturesque and reminds me of “midnight in paris” because that’s the area where all the artists used to live that owen wilson visits in the film. we did some souvenir shopping and then we were off to pont des arts! pont des arts is a bridge where couples lock locks on each side of the bridge with their names and date written on it to symbolize togetherness and love. megan and i both purchased locks, wrote our names and our boyfriends names on them and locked them on the bridge. i’m pretty sure this was the most documented event out of everything we did haha. next was dinner. we went to a restaurant near orsay. it was super good— i got prosciutto and melon and megan got hamburger with egg on top and fries. yummmmmm. then we headed to the eiffel tower again, in hopes of climbing it. but yet again we got there too late so we just watched it twinkle in awe. after our long day, we headed home to get some rest before her early departure. 

at 7am i walked megan to the metro and saw her off. my friends and i weren’t leaving for reims, france until 11am so i came back and slept for a bit longer before getting ready. at promptly 11am we met and headed to the train station with caitlin as our tour guide, to go to our champagne tasting! we took a 45 min train ride to reims, france- the heart of the champagne region- and did a tour of the cellars and a champagne tasting at G.H. Mumm. it was so interesting to see how champagne is made and it was amazing to do the tasting! i bought a bottle of rose for my parentals and then we went into town for dinner. asha, meg, melissa and i sat down for our very french 3 hour dinner. first we had wine and appetizers including a salad with prosciutto, melon, watermelon, and tomatoes and another regular caprese. SO GOOD. i’m obsessed with prosciutto and melon, but its harder to find in france than italy which sucks so i eat it literally every chance i get. 

sooooo i have to leave for BARCELONA RIGHT NOW!!! so i’ll finish writing when i return :) :) :)

MAY THE LORD BLESS YOU AND KEEP YOU MAY THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON YOU AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO YOU MAY THE LORD LIFT UP HIS COUNTENANCE UPON YOU AND GIVE YOU PEACE BOTH NOW AND FOREVER MORE AMEN!!!

SEK <3

hey there. haven’t written in a while… sorry about that! life in paris has been PRETTY crazy. but i’ll start with last weekend…

at a mere 6:50am last friday morning, we hopped on a bus for a 3 hours bus ride to the Normandy region of France. I had NO idea Normandy was a region… all this time i thought it was a city. after everyone’s nap on the bus ride, we found ourselves in Caen where our first stop was at the World War II museum. everything was still set up from the d-day festivities earlier in the week. as soon as we got inside we were allowed to roam around the museum for a few hours and take in as much of the history that we desired. a few of us headed for the “after 1945” section of the museum. next was a short film highlighting the allied attacks on the germans on omaha beach. the video was very well done with a split screen showing what the germans and allies were doing simultaneously. it was amazing to see the preparation that went into the attacks. i was in awe imagining these young men—my age and younger— jumping off these planes and parachuting down into the water to fight a war not knowing if they would survive or not. what courage that takes. after, we wandered around the cold war exhibit and were surprised to find a UT Austin national championship t-shirt from 1969 in the display case. UT never ceases to amaze me— such an extensive and amazing network. off we went to visit many other sites… next was the cemetery that holds only 1/3 of the americans killed during the second world war. i was astonished… miles of graves and this was only 1/3?! as i walked around looking at the graves, i started getting emotional almost to the point of tears. these men fought for my country and essentially, for me and my family. i found myself saying “thank you” and praying for these men and their families, wondering if any family members were able to make it to the gravesite. although many of these men were from north eastern states, i saw several crosses that read “texas.” there is a chapel onsite where people of all religions are welcome to pray or meditate in.

before we knew it, we were off to omaha beach— the place where many lives were lost and blood was shed. i love that the historical part of the beach (where allied forces actually landed) are kept from being a leisure hot spot. very respectable. i learned a lot here… our tour guide told us about the 4 spots with code names where our men were supposed to storm the beach and the valleys into the town that they named as well. we also found out what went wrong… apparently the tanks were dropped too far into the water and weren’t able to make it all the way up to the beach. on one side, only 30 made it up to the shore while less than 10 made it up on the other side. the tide and undertow are so strong in these waters that none of our men came up to shore where they were supposed to, therefore disorienting them. although for one company, this worked in their favor— they came up near a cliff where the germans were unable to see them so they were able to make a surprise attack. right before i arrived at omaha beach, my dad informed me that my great uncle was one of the young men that stormed and survived the omaha beach battle during world war II. i was so blessed and honored to be able to see where my very own family fought for our country. seriously an amazing trip. i HIGHLY recommend it.

after a long day of seeing so many historical places in normandy, we settled down in our (sketchy) hotel in Caen and set out for some dinner. we’d been eating french food for a while so we decided some italian was in order… seriously some of the best lasagna (sorry, mom) that i’ve ever tasted… YUM. i HAD to finish off the meal with a little limoncello… unfortunately it was not nearly as good as the stuff mariella has. oh well… after dinner, we checked out a street that we called “caen 6th street” where there were tons of bars and pubs flooding with locals. it was very interesting… i find it so strange that pretty much every where you go in france (or the places I’ve been and noticed) they play american music! we heard so much eminem. it was bizarre.

the next morning we were back on the bus and off to honfleur, which is a little port town about an hour away from caen. it was SO precious. we went to the market, ate some fresh seafood, and walked around. we stayed there for 6 hours which was a bit lengthy but on to next! we stopped in deauville for about an hour and half, which we decided was like las vegas with a beach. so many casinos. it was nice to chill on a beach and relax for a bit but i was glad to get back on the bus to head back to paris. we got back to paris at 9pm and were literally running out the door at 9:15pm to meet the texas exes trip near the eiffel tower. we ate a pizza place close by and waited for THREE HOURS until they finished climbing the tower. meg’s brother was on the trip so we hung out with him for a bit before heading home.

we slept in on sunday and then had a tour of la cite area starting at 2pm with our liaison, charles. we went to notre dame, saint-chappelle, and la conciergerie. id been to the first two before but la conciergerie was super cool— it was a palace turned prison where marie-antoinette spent her last night. later that day, i was super craving mcdonalds (gross i know) so jazzyn, jasmine, and i went to grab a burger. but i shouldn’t have… because at 2am i woke up and threw up from eating it. i just can’t win.

this week has been very school heavy, rain and cold heavy, and even a bit homesick heavy for me. monday, we did the montmarte walk— we saw moulin rouge, where all the artists used to live and a beautiful view of paris. at the end of the walk, we visited sacre coeur and meg and i sat down to read scripture in the beautiful basilica. it was such a blessing. i even documented it in my Bible what i read when i was there. afterwards, we enjoyed some savory crepes at la boheme. after stopping by h&m we headed home to finish our school work and watch moulin rouge before bed. yesterday was ROUGH to say the least. we had EIGHT HOURS of lecture. it was absolutely ridiculous. after the long day we decided to try a chinese food place that our professor recommended… the MOST disgusting thing i’ve tasted in a while… note to self: never take restaurant suggestions (or any suggestions for that matter) from a man who says not to go to Nice, France and bashes Naples, Italy. he obviously is out of his mind. yuck. anywho, afterwards we came home did homework and went straight to bed. actually doing work SUCKS y’all. why can’t i be one of those study abroad kids that barely even has to go to class??? oh well. at least i got to talk to trevor last night!! i was so glad to hear his voice and everything he has been doing especially since i was having a downer of a day. oddly enough, a year ago yesterday is when we met at LTUMC and our 5 month anniversary is friday. yep, we are those people that know that stuff… well, i’m that person.

today wasn’t too bad as far as lecture and such but our company visit to the european commission today was a struggle. but first, on our way to the company visit, these stupid parisian girls picked a fight with some of girls. i was told it all started because one of our girls gave a friendly smile to them but apparently it set them off. they were spitting at our girls, ripped the hair tie out of krystal’s hair and poured coke on her, and then hit jasmine in the head with a coke bottle. what the heck?!?!!? all in all everything was fine. our liaison turned them into the police and no one was hurt. note to self: don’t smile at strangers in paris— cultural differences cause it to be misconstrued. when we safely made it to the european commission, i was in the front row and literally falling asleep. i retained no information from the presentation and have never experienced something so boring and monotone in my whole life. bummer. after that snooze-fest, meg and i hit up angelina’s for some chocolat chaud and a pastry. most adorable (and expensive) little tea room i’ve ever set my eyes on. definitely a must-do in paris!

well only one more day of school for the week and then a four day weekend!! we are staying in paris this weekend and thank goodness because my friend and ex-roomie megan is coming to visit!! i’m so excited to show her paris!!

i would love to leave y’all with some scripture trevor shared with me this morning…

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling, no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; -Psalm 91:9-11

May the Lord bless you today.

<3 SEK

whoa so the past few days have been super eventful… so. Wednesday morning we had some extra time to sleep before school which was amazing because we like never sleep as it is. we stay up all night to experience paris which sounds like a good idea buuuuuut we shouldn’t do that every night… so we had class and it was super interesting! We learned about the internal market in the EU and then we compared the EU and US in trade and global marketing. I’m actually enjoying school over here waaay more than I expected to which is good! After class, we had a welcome lunch at our school. It was a full 4 course meal and took an hour and a half. Im still surprised about how impatient we Americans get about waiting whether it be during the meal or waiting in line at the grocery. All of us on the program find ourselves being like “gaaaah hurry up! We have things to do, places to be, people to see!” but to really experience French culture we have to slow down and experience life as they do. During lunch I was talking with one of the faculty at ESCP about how I’m studying film and would love to come live in paris for a while after I finish my degree, etc. she immediately told me that I should come get my master’s here in paris and that her colleague’s daughter was studying film as well and will be coming to California to do an internship in a few months! I was so blessed by this!! She took me to meet her colleague and I got the daughter’s name and email and I gave her mine so we could be friends on facebook haha. I’m so glad the Lord blessed me with this connection in france!! Next we had a company visit at Fat Tire Bike Tours in the afternoon so we left the school and were on our way! The company visit ended up being a bit of a disappointment to be honest…. Sure we learned about their business model and about the different tours they give but it was a bit bland and only lasted for 30ish minutes. It was really cool that the owner of the company is from Austin and graduated from…. dare I say it…. a&m. boo. But they gave us a discount so all is well in the world. We are either going to do our discounted bike tour here in paris or in Barcelona when we go in a couple of weeks! Since we got out of the company visit fairly early, we went ahead and went over to the area around where we were having dinner with family friends Ariel, Jim, and Evelyn Lively. We shopped a bit, bought some wine, sat down for a café and then made our way to their apartment! They were so incredibly sweet to us!! We had a true French meal with champagne and savory pastries to start, followed by caprese salad, chicken, and broccoli with parmesan. Next was the cheese! And then amazing macaroons and tea. It was an amazing dinner and such great conversation and love all around!! Meg and I were extremely thankful and blessed by the Livelys!! After dinner we took our 19 stops on the metro all the way home just to freshen up to head back out. We went to the Long Hop which is a bar near saint-michel that was started by a Longhorn!! It took FOREVER to get there… 3 different lines on the metro to be exact but we finally made it. we played pool with some guys from the UK and hung out for a bit before heading back to the dorm before the metro closed. With all 15 of us or how many ever were coming home we totally looked like Americans bc we were so loud! Oops. Sorry… we aren’t sorry? Once we got home, meg and I finished up our assignment and booked our flight to Nice!!!! I make it sound like that was easy but we got home around 1-1:30 and didn’t go to bed until 3:30-3:45am. Sucks to suck. OH! And I FINALLY got to talk to Trevor!!!!! That being said… I used all of my minutes on my French phone and some more minutes on my iphone because viber wouldn’t work. Oops. But really…. I didn’t mean to do that it just happened. I miss him a lot y’all…. Long distance sucks!! Especially when you have a 6 hour time difference and can’t skype bc SOMEONE is at camp (for a fabulous reason I might add) and can’t use his computer and has terribly service. Oh well. Its just a month. Ill survive. J’espere! Anyway, after much drama we finally booked the trip to Nice for the last weekend in june and after finishing our assignment got about 3 hours of sleep before we had to be up this morning…. Im not sure why but this happened within the first week I was in italy too but today, I got sick. Probably from diet changes and lack of sleep is what im assuming. meg and I left for school early this morning so we could print our assignments. On our way I was feeling really sick and while in route to our second metro line (as in walking between one metro line to the other underground) I go… “uhhh meg im gonna throw up” and proceeded to vom in a trashcan with tons and tons of people walking past me. That’s cool… NOT. I was thankful for it though because I felt tons better and it was better to take place there than ON the metro or during class or something. But I’ve spoken a bit too soon on that part… stay tuned… so we got to the computer lab at school and OF COURSE it has to be the most complicated thing ever and we cant understand the printer cuz its all in French and im just like REALLY!!??!?!? So we go to class and Dr. Hoyer said we could print it on the break which was super nice of him. Meg and I were struggling to stay awake in class but having breaks every so often helps a ton. During our first break we finally got our assignments to print with the help of one of the interns at our school. During the second break is when I got sick again. Voming in the bathroom at school. EW right?! But I did feel better after. After class I went straight home by myself and got in my bed for a nap. I slept for about 2.5 hours and then everyone wanted to go to the Opera area to look around and I felt much much better so I joined them. We bought scarves in the metro which was fabulous. I got cheetah print… obvi. The old Opera house was closed today unfortunately but we got to walk around the area and visit the Gallerie Lafayette which is a GINORMOUS department store with literally every designer and has an incredible view from the terrace on top of the 10th story. Right outside, Meg fulfilled her dream of buying a beret! She got a yellow one and its totally cute! We went all the way to the top on the terrace first and took some pictures which was fabulous bc you can see the tour Eiffel! Après, we went to the mickey d’s inside the store (okay I know but they have wifi AND I hadn’t eaten all day cuz of being sick and I was craving a little something from home) and I got a cheeseburger while we figured out the rest of our plans for the evening. We went to check out the famous “café de la paix” but it was SUPER expensive… we are talking at least 50euro per person and that’s not on a college budget yo. After some people went to the ATM or exchanged dollars for euros we went to eat at “hippopotamus” which is a super cool French restaurant with reasonable prices and a great red interior! Caitlin and I shared a fabulous crepe sampler that was literally gone in seconds—so tasty with whipped cream, chocolate, caramel, and raspberry sauce! After that we briefly ran through monoprix picking up some essentials before our weekend trip and such then we headed home. When we got home others wanted to go out but meg and I decided to get ready for the trip to Normandy tomorrow and stay in and get some rest. We did face masks (pictures to come) and have “the lizzie mcguire movie” all set up for us to watch!! We even pushed our beds together haha. Sometimes you just have to have a girls night no matter where you are in the world. I will post again soon sharing about the Normandy trip this weekend!! Until then… A bientot!! <3 SEK

so… last night didn’t end up being an early night at all….

gabe, asha, and i were hanging out in my room when we randomly decided to hit up this pub semi-nearby for some 5euro ciders. we texted meg, colby, and bonnie to meet us and we headed out! it was called james hetfeeld’s pub and it was SUPER cool. lots of locals, cheap drinks, and the rugby and soccer games were on. we ended up meeting some girls from north carolina that were only in paris for one night and we were talking about all the cultural differences between paris and the US. its so crazy how as soon as you find americans over here you feel so relaxed because you know you can relate to them even if you aren’t from the same place in the US. FINALLY colby, bonnie, and meg arrived and we enjoyed some more cider before heading out to catch one of the last metros for the night. leaving the pub, the four of us probably looked ridiculous because we were just so excited to be hanging out in paris and experiencing so many new things. I’m so amazed at how God has blessed me with the amazing people on this trip. i feel like we’ve have known each other FOREVER and we are like best friends and i’ve known them LESS THAN A WEEK. its insane how attached you feel to someone when you experience something with them. we finally made it back and crashed around 1:30am. we were up bright and early around 7-7:30am though! meg and i did our quiet times and got ready for the day. did i mention its FREEZING IN PARIS. okay… not freezing but its in the 40s and overcast and a bit rainy which makes it worse. our outfits were ridiculous today bc we didn’t bring winter clothes!! we made plans to shop for at least a jacket after class. our class was long but interesting today. we talked about consumer behavior, marketing strategies, and even products in the future (which meg and i started to get REAL passionate about for a minute). when talking about the future and what we will experience with products, our professor said we will wear glasses that when we see someone we can bring up all their info including name, profession, age, etc. i literally YELLED and said “OMG THIS FUTURE STUFF IS RIDICULOUS AND STUPID I MISS THE OLD DAYS WHEN EVERYONE HAD TO DO STUFF MANUALLY. WHY IS THE WORLD TURNING TO TECHNOLOGY ONLY??? EVERYONE IS GOING TO BE STUPID AND FAT!” Im not sure what got into me…. just alotta passion haha. but thats how i feel. meg ranted a bit too. meg and i talked a lot in class today. anywho, we had a couple breaks during class so it didn’t seem AS long. we got a cafe and a pain au chocolat and headed back to class. everything at school is SO CHEAP I LOVE IT. after class we ate lunch at the cafeteria and then headed out to buy warmer clothes. we went to the mall at les halles. its pretty great… we went to zara, h&m, mango and some other french stores but only bought stuff at h&m and zara. i got a lot of cute and warm stuff so hopefully i’ll be able to keep using it while I’m here cuz with my luck it’d start being hot tomorrow haha. after shopping, we came back and started looking into our weekend trips. everything is waaay expensive which was unexpected and obviously the internet would go out when we were trying to look stuff up…. when the internet came back up it was time to get ready to go to our “paris by night” bus tour. it was so great to drive around the city and see more and figure out where to go while we are here. it was also great because it was really nasty outside and we still got to see paris instead of being stuck in our rooms for the night. we did get to get off the bus a couple of times to take pictures which was awesome… will post them soon. when we got home from the bus tour we immediately RAN upstairs to book at least our barcelona trip… after some difficulties we finally got our flights and we are planning to rent this woman’s home for 8 of us while we are there!! its so exciting!! so many adventures are to be had. i love that everyone on the program wants to travel together and like hang out all the time. and everyone is ALWAYS coming to 310 (meg and i’s room) WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. come over. but really. we love it. we are working on some homework now (obviously meg is a better student than me as i procrastinate by writing this post) and then heading to bed. excited for a new day tomorrow!!

a bientot

<3 samantha erin

TODAY WAS THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! but i don’t really wanna go to school because i just want to walk around and explore paris. 

i woke up at 7am today and the sun was up so i literally jumped out of bed because i thought we had overslept for class. i forget that the sun sets late and rises early here. after that little scare i was too awake to sleep until my alarm went off so i just got up and started doing stuff around the room which woke meg up (oops). we both had some yogurts and read our Bibles and then got ready for class. it’s super cold and rainy here right now so we were trying to bundle up as much as we could before setting out for the day. we all went to class together this morning so we wouldn’t get lost… it was definitely a sight to see about 60 americans aimlessly wandering through the metro when all of these people are trying to get to work. when we made it to the school we had a tour and then a welcome breakfast. it was a traditional french breakfast with pain au chocolat, croissants, cafe, tartines, et jus d’orange. c’est tres bon! after breakfast we went to our first class. it was with one of our french professors and all he talked about was paris and the culture and such the entire 2 hours which was fabulous. we learned so much but it was fun! he explained the education system to us— there is l’universite where students go if you want to do anything with liberal arts, doctor, lawyer, etc. and its free (no tuition, what what?), the other is grandes ecoles which there are 4 types- teaching, public administration, engineering and business and its about 11,000 euros per year for 3 years for tuition. the school system is SO different here. we learned about some french architecture and our professor was very insistent that we go for long walks while we are here. he said he has been on hundreds of walks and he always discovers something new. when he was telling us about the architecture he asked who had been to versailles and as the eager beaver that i am i immediately raised my hand. when he looked straight at me (obviously bc i was front center in the class… stupid sam, stupid) and asked me what the roof of versailles looked like i answered with “….uhhh…. i don’t remember?” and then he said “is it flat or curved or what?” and i said “OH! i think it’s flat” and he said “EVERYONE SAYS THAT but it ain’t!!” that was hilarious bc he is like this super french man and he said “aint” whaaaat?? haha. so then he explained to us how the roofs here are built a certain way to let light in as well as to hide the slave quarters on the top floors. super interesting stuff, yo. 

after class we ate lunch in the cafeteria at the school (food was decent and only 3 euro for a 3 course meal) and then head out for our walking tour on the champs elysees! it was super cold and windy but we had a great time taking pictures and such! we were almost to the champs elysees when we lost meg and bradley. we decided to just keep walking because they knew where we were going so we assumed we’d find them eventually. as we walked down the champs elysees we saw all the amazing stores including LOUIS VUITTON!!! i died a little… i will be purchasing a bag before i leave. then la duree which has the BEST macaroons ever. and then to the arc de triumphe where we FOUND MEG AND BRADLEY!!! it was a great day. we went all the way to the top of the arc de triumphe (if you don’t want to walk up a million stairs, don’t do it… my thighs are still killing me) and the view was BEAUTIFUL. you can see everything— d’orsay, louvre, sacre coeur, tour eiffel, champs elysees, etc. once we took some pictures up there we split up and obviously some of the girls and myself were dying to have some la duree macaroons. we briefly walked through LV (again died a little) and made our way to treat our tastebuds with some sweetness. 7 euros later i had 4 delicious macaroons that we ate on a bench along the champs elysees. there were 2 french people- a guy and a girl- who worked at a restaurant/bar next door and they started talking to us. they spoke pretty good language for just picking it up off the street (they told us they never learned it in school). they told us about some bars/clubs to hit up while we are here and also how to get back to the metro. i love the french so much. we made our way back just in time to set up our internet as a hotspot so we can get wifi on our phones and both computers!! i love Macs haha. i just got back from putting more money on my french cell phone, grabbing some sandwich stuff at the grocery and enjoying my first homemade french meal of a jambon et brie sandwich! it was yummy :) having a early night tonight we can be alive for class tomorrow and then go shopping!!!!

a bientot

<3 samantha erin