Saturday, December 21, 2013

116 Days of Adventure

Saturday, December 21st 2013

I'm sitting in our flat in Paris, eating pain du chocolat, drinking some coke, listening to my dad snoring and French TV, which I wish I understood, trying to stay awake for a few more hour. I'm exhausted. The plane ride was a sleepless, 10 hour flight. I sat in the middle, between Gabrielle and a nice stranger. I was supposed to get the window seat, in an emergency exit row, but somehow Danielle and Camille weaseled their way into that row, leaving me trapped in my less than luxury seat. But, you know what they say about karma.... Though they could stretch out their legs in their spacious seats, because of the emergency door Danielle and Camille had blasting cold air aimed at them, the whole flight. Suckers. 



The food was pretty good... If you consider Chuck-O-Rama at room temperature good. Gabby and I, chose the chicken meal. Bad decision. We also ate sandwiches, randomly given out at 11 O' Clock at night, served with a package of Malino cookies, much to my dad's delight. His favorite is orange and we have stock provisions of them in our cupboards, at all times. For breakfast, they served a hot mess egg on a bagel situation. The cadbury eggs, I brought, were basically the highlight of my dining experience. I haven't been on a flight where they actually served meals since my last trip to Hawaii, way back when. They haven't really stepped up their game in all those years though. 

The movie and TV selection was surprisingly amazing. I watched How I met your mother, The office, The middle, and bits of Monsters University, Epic and The Croods. I took 2 benadryl's, which would usually knock me out, but due to excitement I only got maybe an hour of sleep. I would turn on a movie, doze off and when I woke up I had missed half the movie and would just start a new one. I also watched 500 days off summer. I had only seen it once before, years ago. It's a pretty good film, yet I'll never understand the attention it got, I mean its not THAT good.  I was minutes from the ending when they turned it off, since we were landing. Luckily, it tells you the ending at the beginning of the story, which I don't particularly like. I like going along the story journey with the characters. What I did like was the films emphasis on time and it got me thinking about how many days I have here on this adventurous study abroad trip. Today is December 20th and I come home April 14th. That's 116 days of adventure.

We made our way through customs, got my first stamp in my passport, and headed to baggage claim. Our bags all came out together, luckiest thing ever. My bag was over the weight limit by 5 pounds, but the nice guy at the SLC airport let it slide because he was excited for trip. How nice is that? We had a driver waiting for us (luxury) and off we went for a quick tour around the city.

Okay, let's talk about the Eiffel Tower for a minute. I have taken French classes since I was a Freshman in High School, my name is French, my mom is obsessed with any and everything (and I mean EVERYTHING, hence the 7 foot tall Eiffel Tower outside our house) French, my favorite song is La Vie en Rose, my favorite movie is the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I have 2 giant pictures of the Eiffel Tower in my room and multiple other mini towers from ring holders to music boxes. Basically, I am the biggest wanna be Parisian there ever was. I have had recurring dreams about what it would be like the first time seeing the Eiffel Tower since I was about 14 years old. In most of them I was standing on the large grassy garden in front of it. The excitement building up, and bursting as I turn around, taking in all its grandeur through my tear filled eyes. To me seeing the Eiffel Tower is like seeing a mermaid, or Neverland, its that magical and unattainable. Its hard to explain my feelings about the Eiffel Tower, but the words that keep going through my head are, "you made it." Like my life finally reached a peak I had been hiking for my whole life. Its a symbol of my life transforming from provincial to spectacular. 

"I want to live where things happen on a bigger scale" - F. Scott Fitzgerald

So, as you can probably tell, I was quite an emotional mess upon seeing the Eiffel Tower, off in the distance as we rode into the city. I immediately burst out in tears, and everyone turned their cameras to me, to capture my breakdown. I made it. I made it to Paris! I was seeing the Eiffel Tower with my own eyes! 


We got settled into our flat, which is so cute, freshened up a little and headed out into the city. Our flat is about 1 block away from the Seine river and 4 blocks from the Notre Dame. We walked around in a zombie like state, till we stumbled upon a cute little restaurant, where we ate crepes and Croque Madames. Then, back to our flat where we all passed out for a few hours. 


Where Hemingway and Picasso would dine.


For my bestie, who is always with me. 




Its freaking me out that its only 2:30 pm in Utah right now. Like. Mind freak. Its 10:30 pm here. I just got my daily email and video from the Kennel-free Doggy Resort Dooney is staying and Lizza took a sleeping pill, but won't go to sleep and forced us all to sing Silent Night together because she doesn't want to miss Christmas, aka its time for me to go back to bed. Je suis très fatigué. Envoyer mon amour de Paris. Bonsoir! 

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