Kids in America

IT’S CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!!!!!! WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!

Since I last updated a whole bunch has happened.  I spent the weekend after Thanksgiving watching copious amounts of tv and preparing for my medical school interview.  The following week I went to my classes on Monday through Thursday, and I was anxiously awaiting my return to the states!  I don’t recall anything special that happened in classes that week, but I am still entirely enjoying working as an assistant.  I think it’s incredibly fun!  Whether I’m going over an article with my students, teaching them about American culture, or just chatting, I love it!  I think it’s really interesting to listen to them speak and hear the differences amongst how they formulate sentences in English.  They make me reflect and think about how I formulate sentences in French.  It’s also very interesting to just see the how different each group of students is from the next.  Each class I work with definitely has it’s own distinct vibe and demeanor.  I have classes that I absolutely adore going to and those that are more of a challenge.  However, those that are a challenge make me appreciate the good ones even more. 

Well eventually Thursday rolls around and I put the finishing touches into packing my suitcases for the upcoming whirlwind trip to the U.S. of A.  Friday morning I wake up at 6am, get ready, and leave to catch my 7:15 train.  This 20-minute train took me to the nearby city of Le Mans.  From there I had to catch another train to Paris that lasts just over an hour.  Upon arriving in Paris I had to take the metro to another of the large Paris train stations.  From Paris nord I took the RER train to Charles de Gaulle airport.  By the time I arrive at CDG and approach the check-in counter it’s about 11:15.  My plane was scheduled to leave at 1pm.  It’s a good thing that check-in and going through the security only took about 15-20 minutes total.  I ended up having plenty of time before my plane left.

On my plane I met and talked to two very lovely people.  It was the first time I ever spoke to anyone on a plane and it turned out to be a great experience.  My plane arrived in Philadelphia, and I decided that is probably my favorite airport ever!  First of all, the security guards checking us in after going through customs were probably the happiest people I have ever met.  They were so dang friendly I couldn’t handle it!  They all asked where we were going and we just super nice.  I don’t know if it’s just American hospitality that I had forgotten about or what.  Secondly, this airport rocks because it’s like you’re in a fricken mall!  Seriously, the food court is huge, there are store everywhere, and there was a stage with a lady singing CHRISTMAS MUSIC!  This was just the best welcome back to the states I could have asked for!  Anywho, I caught my connection to Chicago and arrived at O’Hare at 7:30pm CST, or 2:30am France time.  I was pretty tired at this point.  But the traveling continues!  My mom, and Olivia arrived, and we drove our butts back to Madison.

It was like I had never left Madison when we pulled onto John Nolen Dr.  I love that city!  Ashley and Maria met us at the hotel, and we did a little bit of catching up but then hit the sack to try and get some much-needed sleep.  Not much sleeping was done thanks to mom and Ashley’s symphony of snoring.  The next morning arrived all to soon and then we were off to the mall!  Much shopping was done, and the obligatory new suitcase was purchased (obligatory, since the Parisian subway had destroyed my last one).  Saturday night a group of 10 of us met at Olive Garden for some tasty pasta!  It was amazing seeing everyone again, but a terribly rude waitress and the 7:30 Packer game encouraged us to peace out pretty quickly.  We divided into the appropriate hotel and alcohol searching groups then all reconvened again at Eric’s house where we cheered the Packers to their win!  After the game the bars were calling!  It wouldn’t be a visit to Madison without a stop at the Red Shed for some long island ice teas.  Then, since there has been a serious lack of dancing in my French life, we went to Whiskey River where we danced until bar close. 

Sunday morning was a little rough, but we managed to get up and check out by 11.  Yanks and chocolate malts were then had at Mickey’s to fill up that empty, upset stomach.  Afterwards, Ashley and I, despite our extreme fatigue, did an epic Target shopping adventure.  I purchased some of the American things I had intended to bring back to France.  Then we pulled into the nearby McDonald’s parking lot where we usurped their wifi to book our motel for the next 3 nights. 

We didn’t have many requirements for this motel, other than it had Internet and it was cheap.  Well, we went with the cheapest option we found at 33$ a night.  We knew this meant it would potentially be sketchy, and that assumption was accurate.  We pulled into the parking lot to see one other nice car amongst a bunch junkers.  Certain that some seriously shady drug deals were going down in these cars we kept our eyes peeled for anyone who could attack us at a moments notice.  Checking in was a disaster as the office was closed and the manager had to drive down from his home.  He was then clueless as to what he had to do and then informed us that they don’t actually have any double rooms available and that we would have to take a room with a king bed instead.  We were tired and I didn’t want to deal with finding something else so I said that was fine.  The room actually turned out to be fine and it was reeeeeeeeeeal warm.  Ashley really appreciated that! hahaha. 

Monday morning Ashley gave me a practice interview then we went to Walmart.  I had to buy the last of my many American supplies.  After that shopping adventure we returned to the motel to nap and watch some movies.  Then I prepared everything for my interview and went to bed early.

Tuesday—my judgment day—had arrived.  I got my suit on and Ashley dropped me off at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.  I was 1 in 20 interviewees that day, and it’s definitely intimidating to be in a room with 19 other people who are trying for the same thing that you are.  Myself and one other girl ended up being exceptions to the normal schedule because we didn’t have our one-on-one interviews with faculty members until 2:00.  Ugh!  That was frustrating because that was the last thing I had to do and everyone else could relax but I still had the most important part to go.  I didn’t let it bother me too much, as I knew there was nothing I could do about it and that it wouldn’t change the way that I would answer any of the questions. 

At 1:45 my heart really started pounding.  At 2:00 I was escorted to the room where I would have my interview with a Dr. Ashley Anderson.  Right from the get go I could tell that he was a serious, pretty intense guy.   But he helped me to relax by saying that he was just trying to learn that I wasn’t a robot and that he just wanted to learn about my character.  He really only asked me 3 questions:  What got me interested in medicine?  Why do I want to be a physician?  What do I believe is the reason why students who start and fail-out of medical school fail?  Other than that we pretty much just had a normal conversation that flowed from one subject to the next.  Then after about 20 minutes of that he asked me if I had any questions for him.  I asked him, in brief, the following 3 questions:  How have the students adapted to the transition of the medical school to the school of medicine and public health?  Have students, particularly with regard to financial aid, been affected by any of the legislative or UW-partnership changes imposed last year?  Finally, what did he identify as being the schools strongest asset and weakest feature?  He liked all of my questions and throughout the interview he was very reassuring, saying extremely nice things.  He told me that in his comments he was going to write that I would make an excellent medical student.  He also told me that I could leave the interview feeling confident.  I was very happy to have such a great review from someone who is such cynic (he even called himself a cynic to me!).  However, I know that my application still has to be re-reviewed by the review board and that there are a ton of other extremely qualified candidates.  Let’s just say I will be keeping all of my fingers and toes crossed for the next 6 weeks! 

That night my dad arrived and we got some dinner before returning to the motel that my father described as “a real cream puff.”  I packed up my American goodies in my new suitcase, which I had a feeling was a bit too heavy.  Then we hit the sack for an early bedtime.  Wednesday morning we traveled to Chicago, and sure enough my suitcase was a good 67.5 pounds.  The lady at the counter put a “heavy” sticker on my tag, but said nothing.  Score one for me!  

Only the bare necessities!

With a stop in Philly at my favorite airport I traveled back to Paris.  From there I took the same ridiculous amounts of metros and trains back to my apartment in Sablé.  I managed to make it back in time for lunch in the cafeteria.  Then I proceeded to sleep from 1:30-5. 

Sleeping.  A lot of sleeping was done that weekend.  My body had never fully adjusted to American time, but for some reason it really struggled to adjust back to France time. 

I spent the past week mostly talking about Christmas in America.  I thought it would be the most fun to show students videos and talk about them.  So I started talking about Christmas decorations and how some families get really into it.  To illustrate this I showed them this.  The most common response was “it’s beautiful!”  I loved hearing their varying opinions about this spectacle.  Most of them thought it was cool, and there were a couple who thought it was “trop” – meaning “too much.”  From there I taught them a couple Christmas songs.   Everyone knows Jingle Bells so I decided to go with the classic Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, and Deck the Halls.  Some students got really into it and proceeded to join along and sing.  Most of them also really enjoyed learning the story of Rudolph since it was something they had never before heard.  In addition to these discussions I also gave away my American candies, and sugar cookie cutouts that I had made on Tuesday.  My favorite part of this was watching several students eat the Reeses peanut butter cups only to discover after a couple of chews that they are wrapped in paper.  Their facial expressions were the best, and I had a good chuckle to myself.  All in all it was a really fun week for me!

Now, it is Christmas vacation for me until January 8^th!  I have commenced my epic tour of Eastern Europe!  I am currently on the train heading to Amsterdam, where I will meet the lovely Katie Reshel!  I am super excited for this vacation, and I know it will be interesting living out of a suitcase for the next 3 weeks.  I look forward for all the adventures and awkward moments to come in countries where I don’t all speak the language!  

The Bells of Notre Dame

I really need to stay on top of this blog more often.  That sure would make writing these posts a much quicker and more pain-free process…  This post is going to be a doozy (btw, doozy is a great word, and I think I’m going to start incorporating it into my daily vocabulary more often.  IDEA! I’ll incorporate it into my next lesson…), updating you on the past 2.5 weeks of my life in France.  So, here it goes…

When we last left off I was planning to prepare some pumpkin bread for my students in honor of the Thanksgiving lesson I had prepared.  Well, after about 8 hours of work I had successfully made about 4 different loaves of pumpkin bread.  Why did it take so long you ask?  Well, this is because I have a tiny little micro-four (baby oven).  Also, I was using fresh pumpkin, since you can’t buy canned pumpkin here.  So, I had to cut the pumpkins in half and then back each half individually.  I had 3 baby pumpkins, so you can imagine that this took a while.  After all of that different shenanigans, I actually had to make the bread.  I ended up making about 5 batches of pumpkin bread at about 3 different times throughout a 5-day period.  Then, once I made the batter I had to pour it into the pans to bake it.  NBD, except for the fact that I only have 2 pans that I can bake in.  This resulted in me being able to bake 2 loaves, one after the other, then having to wait until the first loaf had cooled, removing the loaf from the pan, washing the pan, then baking another loaf.  It was quite the process, and it was extremely ridic.  However, the upside to all of this is that the bread was delicious!  Seriously, I took the bread to class the next morning and the students really seemed to like it!  Several of them asked me for the recipe and had seconds! 

The process

Baby oven

Success!

That 8:30 am class was my only class for the day, so I proceeded to go back to my apartment and take a nap before lunch.  (taking a nap before lunch is my new favorite thing!)  After another wonderful meal in la cantine (the cafeteria), I went back to my apartment where I made two more fresh loaves of pumpkin bread while watching tv and movies.  And when I say that the food at the cantine was wonderful, I’m not joking.  The school that I’m in has a personal chef who plans out all the meals, and it’s known to have the best food out of all the schools in the area.  I shall make a future blog post about all the great food served here.    

That night was Manue’s (a girl from the class I had that morning) birthday celebration.  I took my two fresh, and still hot, loaves of pumpkin bread and went over to her house with my roommate and a bunch of the other students.  It was a great night of eating, drinking, and French conversation!  I am so thankful that they have all been so kind and have included me in their plans!  Joining them all in these gatherings has made my transition to living in France much easier!

Speaking of transitioning, I forgot to mention that earlier during this week (before I commenced my pumpkin bread making adventure) I received a package from my mom.  It was the best package ever!  In the package was a bag of Reeses peanut butter cups, a bag of Red Vines (which are far superior to Twizzlers), 3 boxes of Mac N’ Cheese, an outlet converter, and to save the best for last: 5 bottles of hair mousse!!!!!!  Seriously, this package could not have come at a better time!  I don’t know what I would have done had I not gotten this package.  The French kids would have all seen the crazy Emily hair that you all have come to know and love!  I just don’t think they’re ready for that quite yet.  

The next day the teachers who work for one part of the school were all having a party to celebrate the birthdays that occurred during October and November.  This was a defining moment in my life!  THIS WAS THE MOMENT WHEN I REALIZED THAT I WAS BORN IN THE WRONG COUNTRY!  I cannot think of a more true statement to explain how I felt after attending this party.  So Gerardo and I showed up at this party to see three tables set up in the shape of a U.  The tables were covered with assorted food dishes and candles.  I had brought the last of my pumpkin bread to contribute to the festivities.  We helped ourselves to some of the different dishes and socialized with the teachers.  To drink there was water, orange juice, and champagne.  Yes, champagne!  This is the first reason why I was born in the wrong country—I should have been born in France where you can drink champagne in the middle of the day, while at work.  Besides the food, there was entertainment at this shenanza.  The entertainment consisted of two of the teachers who brought their guitars and sang some songs.  They played a variety of old and modern French songs, and they played Michael Jackson’s “We are the World.”  I absolutely LOVE this song, so I was absolutely overcome with joy when they started playing.  In fact, this song was redone by 25 different famous artists after the earthquake in Haiti.  There was a period when I was absolutely obsessed with this song, and listened to it about 17 bajillion times a day.  I’m sure some of you will remember this… Also, not only did the two teachers who brought the guitar play songs, but other teachers also took turns playing the various songs they had memorized.  But wait!  It gets better!  They had brought printed off lyrics to the songs they were playing, so that everyone could sing along.  Now if this was happening in a teacher’s lounge in America, I can’t picture anyone singing along.  However, all of the teachers were singing along, clapping, and some even started dancing.  It was so much fun, and pretty much the cutest thing I have ever seen.  This is the second reason I was born in the wrong country—I should have been born here, where it is totally socially acceptable to break out in song, and sing along to music.  I’m pretty sure every single one of you reading this knows how much I love to break out in song and dance!  I belong here.  All in all, it was a really nice way to spend my lunch.  I was shocked at how open everyone was, and it was really refreshing to see how different things can be from in the U.S.

After receiving my package, sharing my candies with some of my friends, and going to the teacher’s party, the weekend somehow arrived again.  (week after week I am still shocked at how quickly the time is passing.  How is this happening?!  How is it already November 25^th?!  Holy bojangles!)  On Friday I got a call from a physical education teacher at the school.  She said that she has some exchange students living with her, and that they were wondering if I would like to join them for lunch and an afternoon of shopping.  Of course I would never turn down an opportunity for free food and shopping!  I mean, who would?!  So Pascal picked me up and took to her home for lunch.  It turns out that besides a Swedish girl, she had another American, who also happens to be named Emily, staying with her for the year.  The four of us girls, and Pascal’s son enjoyed a simple French lunch together before we went shopping.  This lunch was also an eye-opener because Pascal had asked the kids if they had seen me around the school.  To my surprise they all said yes, and I then felt a little foolish because none of them looked familiar to me whatsoever.  Her son then even told me a story about how one of his friends had told him about the new American, and how they were talking about me.  WOW!  I guess I didn’t realize I stick out that much!  I mean I didn’t even pull out the pink peacoat until 2 weeks ago! Oie vay!  Well after that discovery, we had a nice afternoon shopping, and I bought a mirror to hang up in my room.  Then Pascal dropped me off at home where my roommate and I went to get a kebab for dinner.

That evening Gerardo and I met up with Pascal and the girls at a local pub.  There was a concert being put on by an alternative folk music group from the west of France, called Santa Macairo Orkestar.  The concert was nice, and the music was pretty good.  It was different than anything I have ever heard before with their songs sometimes sounding Greek, Russian, or Spanish.  The music was really upbeat, fun, and composed of many different instruments.  I really enjoyed the concert, and I think Gerardo did too since he went and got his dance on! Haha.  This is one of the songs they played that I really liked.   

After the concert we walked to another pub in downtown Sablé where we met up with a friend and the Spanish assistant from last year.  We played a game of pool—which the French apparently play differently than we do.  By this point everyone else playing had had too much beer to explain the difference to me.  All I could tell was that there are some times when you get to take two hits regardless of whether you got the ball in or not.  I couldn’t figure out when this was, so I always just took one turn.  After pool our friend and the Spanish assistant came back to our place for a couple of drinks and to listen to some music.  This was when I discovered Max Boublil.  He is a French comedian who has created some pretty great songs.  Here is one of his songs that I find particularly great!  For those of you who don’t speak French, he’s basically saying that he thinks his roommate is gay and wants to get with him.  I know what it’s like to live with roommates that just can’t keep their hands off of you or each other.  ** cough cough Ashley Morgan and Vickie Biel cough cough**  I have included a picture in case you try to deny anything.  After they left we hit the sack.  

This is what happens in my room when I need to
study for Genetics exams.  Yes, I know, it's disturbing!

Saturday was spent relaxing, making more pumpkin bread, and watching more Modern Family than I care to admit.  Sunday was spent much the same as Saturday with the addition of some lesson planning for Monday.  For those of you who haven’t seen Modern Family this is just one reason why you need to watch it!  Lauren will back me up on this!

The next week in class was spent doing the same types of things as the previous weeks.  This week, however, I gave more presentations about Thanksgiving than I can even remember.  Seriously, you wanna know something about Thanksgiving, go ahead, just ask me!  I can tell you everything you need to know!  I also had to give a presentation on Ellis Island.  HA!  I didn’t know squat about Ellis-fricken-Island.  I had to look up everything.  I’m not complaining, it was incredibly easy, and much better than studying for a biochem exam or something like that.  (on that note, I don’t know how I’m going to go back to being a student…)  It’s just that it seems like an incredibly random topic to me.  Oh well, I’m not the teacher. 

Then Wednesday arrived!  Wednesday was spent packing my suitcase for my upcoming Parisian adventure.  But that’s not all I did!  I WENT TO SEE TWILIGHT: BREAKING DAWN PART ONE!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! It was awesome!  No joke!  I was so happy the entire time, that I was sitting forward in my seat with my hands to my face!  At one point I was so happy and into the movie that I thought I was going to cry.  I know, I know, I’m a loser.  It’s ok, I understand and I accept that.  But seriously though, what could be more awesome than watching a spicy Twilight movie in French?!  Umm, ummmmmmm, yeah I can’t think of anything more amazing!  I had thought that I might be bothered by there being different voices than I was used to, or the lips not matching up with the words.  But actually, I was so into the movie that I didn’t even notice.  I was also incredibly proud because I understood everything they said!  YAY FRENCH!

Thursday I went to my 3 classes and spent the entire day in anticipation of 4:30 when I would leave for Paris to meet two amazing ladies: Katie Reshel and Kathi Gadow.  Two hours later, after two train rides, I arrived in Paris.  I took the metro from the gare (train station) to the hotel where I met my two lovely friends.  There was a unanimous state of hunger amongst the three of us, so we wasted no time finding a cute French restaurant near the hotel.  Katie ordered duck, Kathi had the salmon, and I had chicken (something I haven’t had much of since I arrived).  Let me just say right now that there was a lot of salmon consumed this weekend.  The three of us split a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau.  This is a wine that is less than a year old and that is opened nationwide on the third Wednesday of November.  It is said that all of the wine is supposed to be drank before Christmas time.  We can say that we put in our contribution since we drank two bottles over the weekend.  It was delicious!  After dinner we went back to the hotel and chatted before getting some much needed shut eye.  Before shutting those eyes, however, we discovered the incredibly bizarre shiny, reflective, orange, plastic ceiling… 

Yummy food!

Creepy ceiling...

The next morning we woke up good and early to get a head start on the busy day we had planned.  The first stop on the list was a little Patisserie (bakery) just down the street from the hotel.  We got ourselves some pain au chocolat (a delicious flaky pastry with chocolate in it.  How has this seriously not made its way over to America yet?  Someone could really make a fortune off of them.  I could eat that for breakfast every day!), and then we got on the metro to head downtown. 

The second stop of the day was the beautiful Saint Chapelle!  This amazing cathedral has the most amazing stained glass windows!  It’s absolutely breathtaking! 

From the Saint Chapelle we went to the Notre Dame where we had planned on climbing the towers!  Kathi was a little nervous about this due to her fear of heights. However, we began some gradual exposure therapy and she conquered all of those steps like a champ!  You go girl!  (I can’t write “you go girl” without thinking "you go Glen Coco," -- just a fun side note) From the top of the towers we could see most of Paris.  It was a little overcast at this point, but it was a pretty wonderful view nonetheless.  And the gargoyles are absolutely awesome!  In addition to looking out at Paris, we could look in the towers at the biggest bell in the church.  Neato!

Sweet gargoyles!

After the trek back down the steps we wondered around until we found a nice bistro and bought some delicious sandwiches.  We sat down to eat our sandwiches in a little dog park area.  There were absolutely NO dogs in this park.  Instead there was one mangy looking cat, with an f-ed up tail, who wouldn’t leave us alone.  Our sandwiches were so good that not even the creepy cat could get us down!

The very satisfying lunch gave us energy for what was yet to come in this day of extreme touristing!  After chowing down we went to Les Invalides, which houses an army museum.  Inside this museum rests the tomb of the infamous Napoleon Bonaparte!  Such a big tomb for such a little man!  Just like every other building in this magnificent city everything was absolutely gorgeous! 

Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb

From there we went to everyone’s favorite: La Tour Eiffel!!!! The very wise Katie Reshel had made us reservations, so we didn’t have to wait in a ridiculous line like all the other fools!  By this time the fog had dissipated to provide prime photography conditions!  This was my third trip up the tower, but it was fun going up with two newbies this time!  The view was of course incredible, and we took time to have many lovely little photo shoots.  This is when it first became evident that it is absolutely impossible for Kathi and I to take a good picture together.  We tried so hard!  It just couldn’t be done!  We even tried a special technique.  Nothing worked.  Oh well, thanks to my amazing skills at taking selfies we got a couple nice pictures of the three of us together on top of this beautiful piece of architecture!

After fully experiencing the Eiffel Tower we had to descend to make it to our next appointment.  Once again Katie Reshel was on top of her stuff and had a reservation for us on a boat tour of the Seine.  It was very cold, but so very romantic sitting between my two lovers.  ;)  It was on this boat ride that Katie and Kathi had there first experience with the old, French classic "Aux Champs Elysées."   I first learned this song in my high school French class, and I have loved it ever since.  So when this song came over the speakers on this boat ride you can just about imagine how excited I got.  So excited in fact that I couldn’t hold back and I just HAD to sing along.  What?!  If the teachers can do it during their party, I sure as heck can do it on a boat tour!  Plus, the Frenchies behind us were singing too!  That song was just what that boat ride needed.  Then at the end of the tour we ended up back at the base of the Eiffel Tower where the light show started.  We had prime viewing, and it was surprising ending to our nautical adventure.   

From the boat tour we went to the Quai Branly Café for dinner.  To enter the café we had to walk through the museum’s entry gardens, which were very dark and kind of gloomy looking.  However, at the café we ate another delicious meal.  This may sound biased, but you can ask Katie and Kathi, we didn’t eat a bad meal the entire time we were in Paris.  All of the food was incredibly delicious!  All three of us ordered a different menu item and then split them.  (Yes, salmon was included in this meal as well.)  This splitting of the meals is incredibly un-French and we most definitely got some interesting looks from the servers.  But hey, who really cares?  I’m sure they’ve seen worse.  Oh wait!  They did see worse when Katie tried to use the men’s restroom because she couldn’t wait for the women’s.  Well she learned her lesson the hard way when she walked in on a man pooping!  Very un-French moment number two of the night. 

Leaving the café after dinner was a fun surprise.  The previously gloomy gardens were lit with lights that looked like giant glowsticks!  It was awesome!  I loved it; it was so pretty!  

After exploring the beautifully lit up gardens our new British friend Jonathan met us outside the museum.  The four of us entered the Quai Branly museum, which Katie was incredibly excited for.  To Katie’s disappointment we only had about an hour to spend there before the museum closed.  Katie was off doing her own thing while Kathi, Jonathan, and I were all giving our own special interpretations of the pieces.  However, we still had two more stops on our list of things to visit for the day!

Leaving the Quai Branly museum the four of us went to the Sacre Coeur.  Now the Sacre Coeur sits on top of a very steep hill called Montmarte.  This cathedral is one of the highest places in Paris, and has such a majestic aura to it.  It is by far my favorite place in Paris.  The outside of the building is so beautiful and is very different from every other building in the city.  However, we arrived at the church at 10pm.  We were able to squeek in right before a mass started, so we could see a little of how the mass took place.  The entire time I was thinking about how amazing it must be to practice your religion in a place like this.  It’s just such a stunning place.  However, because the mass was going on we couldn’t walk around and explore all of the building.  I did find it particularly entertaining to watch the two different guys shush and yell at all the entering tourists that had managed to sneek in before they shut the doors.  After about 30 minutes of watching the mass we left to go to the last stop on our list: Moulin Rouge!

Moulin Rouge is only a couple of blocks from le Sacre Coeur.  And it’s a couple of very interesting blocks with quite a few scandalous stores, if you know what I mean…  We arrive at the Moulin Rouge, take some pictures of the building itself, and then have another ridiculous struggle to take pictures of ourselves. 

After some good laughs in front of the Moulin Rouge we were ready for a drink and a snack.  We walked a couple of blocks to get to a place where we felt comfortable sitting down to eat.  We found a nice bar and ordered our second bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau.  This time it came with some sausages and cheese.  SO FRENCH!  We had some great conversations and many a laughs while the time passed very quickly—yes, I’m aware of how corny this sounds, but it’s true!  So suck it! 

We left the bar at about 1:30 am and took the metro back to the hotel.  Kathi and I didn’t waste any time going to bed.  Crazy Katie, however, is a totally different story.  This girl was up until about 3:30 typing away on Kathi’s computer until I woke up and told her to go to bed.  Two side notes are warranted here:  SIDE NOTE ONE—I for some reason felt very protective of Katie and Kathi this entire weekend.  I don’t know if it was because of the fact that they don’t speak French or what.  But I was always afraid that we were gonna lose Kathi.  And I was afraid that Katie was going to kill herself due to lack of sleep.  SIDE NOTE TWO—Kathi, despite what she says, loves to cuddle.  I, when I’m sleeping, don’t like to cuddle.  I don’t want anybody to be touching me when I'm sleeping.  Kathi didn’t like that idea and just could not keep herself off of me all night.  Then, she would deny all accusations the following morning.  She would be a great sleeping partner for a certain Rebecca Carnahan…

So this day was jammmmmmmmed packed with things!  To recap the day:  Patisserie, Saint Chapelle, Notre Dame, Sandwiches in the park, Les Invalides, the Eiffel Tower, Boat tour of the Seine, Quai Branly café, Quai Branly museum, Montemarte and le Sacre Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Café near Moulin Rouge, and back to the hotel.  All this with many metro rides sprinkled in!  WOAH!  That’s alotta stuff!

The next day, Saturday, was also full of grand plans, but was thankfully a little less packed.  We started the day off heading to nearby market where I purchased an awesome French flag.  Represent!  **peace sign to the side, with sassy face**  I’m so ghetto!  After the market we went to Gare de Nord to buy Katie’s train ticket to Spain for the next day.  This turned out be quite the fiasco since the bank canceled her credit card.  After a couple of failed phone calls, Kathi and I withdrew money that we owed Katie so she could buy her ticket with cash.  By then it was lunchtime.  We found the perfect restaurant where we sat down for a very French lunch.  Kathi and I both had smoked salmon filled ravioli while Katie had a cod and potatoes type of casserole.  Delicious!

Second stop for Saturday was the Musée d’Orsay.  This museum houses many of the most famous French paintings of all time!  Many of the paintings I had studied in my various French classes.  It was really cool experience to get to see the paintings in real life.  Our time was again cut short because the museum was closing.  I know that Katie was again saddened by this unfortunate situation. 

Looking out the clock window inside
the Musée d'Orsay

Kathi and I could have laid
there all day...

From the Musée d’Orsay we walked to the Jardins des Tuileries, which are the gardens of the Louvre.  We walked down the path to the beginning of the Champs Elysées.  I took full advantage of this opportunity to sing the previously mentioned song.  Several times. Our new friend Jonathan met up with us again!  Woohoo for new friends!  Then we were pleasantly surprised that there was a little Christmas fair and Christmas booths lining a long distance along the Champs Elysées.  We decided to only eat desserts for dinner.  I don’t know who suggested this idea, but it was genius!  We started off with a beignet au chocolat (a donut type pastry filled with warm, gooey nutella = AMAZINGNESS!!!!!!).  Next we hit up a stand that was selling marshmallow cream balls covered in chocolate.  SOOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!  However, we decided that something a little more substantial was in order so we stopped at a crêpe stand where Katie, and I got galettes (crêpes filled with ham and cheese).  Kathi, and Jonathan got dessert crêpes.  I poorly advised Kathi, and she ended up getting this real nasty tasting crêpe.  I found out through a very difficult questioning of some street vendor that her crêpe was chestnut flavored.  It was not good.  Not good at all!

Beignet au chocolat! nom nom nom!

So many cool Christmas booths!

Kathi's disgusting chestnut cream crêpe :/

Katie made me ask this lady how long she has
been making crêpes.  She wasn't a French
speaker and had no idea what I asked her.
It was a disaster!

We continued to wonder the Champs Elysées, stopping once to watch a street spectacle of about 5 guys dancing.  They were pretty good!  They were all doing flips, and one guy did a back flip off of a phone booth.  I thought that he was defs gonna land on his head.  He tricked me!  

Me successfully sitting on top of
this ledge!  I did not fall off!

Continuing to the end of the street we arrived at L’Arc de Triomphe.  The magnificent arc was beautifully illuminated in all its glory.  

The Eternal Flame on the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier

We snapped some pictures, and by then we were tired, wanted to sit for a bit, and Kathi wanted some more to eat since she couldn’t eat her nasty crêpe.  We finally settled on a restaurant right on the Champs Elysées.  Kathi ordered herself a plate of tomatoes and mozzarella cheese along with her first ever crème brulée!!!!  We couldn’t let her leave Paris without ever having tried crème brulée.  The other three of us just ordered some drinks and chatted.  We didn’t stay long at this restaurant because the waitress was giving us bad vibes.  

After walking to the nearest metro stop we bid adieu to Jonathan and went our separate ways.  Us chicas went back to the hotel where we watched the latest episode Glee and exchanged back massages.  We had planned to head out that night, but we decided that we were simply too tired.  Kathi and I spent another night cuddling away (woohoo—said sarcastically), and Katie again stayed up to ridiculous hours of the night typing away. 

The next morning, we got up and packed our bags for our various departing trips.  We dropped Kathi off at the train station, and then Katie and I got some McDo.  At this point we were looking for something cheap and easy.  We wondered the streets a bit and then we went our separate directions—me to the train station back to Sablé, and Katie off exploring on her last day in Paris.  The train I booked for my return trip was a regional train and not a TGV (train de grande vitesse- very fast train).  This means nothing other than the fact that my ride home took much longer than normal.  It didn’t bother me one bit because I slept the entire 3 hours.  When I arrived back home, I made myself some eggs and pasta for dinner.  I spent the rest of the night preparing for class, and watching tv.

Monday is my busiest day of classes, so I didn’t have any down time until that night.  I spent that night preparing for my medical school interview and skyping with the lovely Lauren Stark.  On Tuesday I went to class, skyped with the kool kat Vickie Biel, and then had a mock medical school interview with a pre-med advisor.  The practice interview went all right, but I still need to prepare a lot more and practice before I’m satisfied.  This is tomorrow’s goal—complete the preparation of my answers so all I have to do is practice.  Then Tuesday night I prepared my list of groceries for Wednesday’s shopping trip.  


Wednesday I went to my one class at 8:30am, and then I hit up Leader Price (the grocery store just two blocks from the school).  I was preparing for the Thanksgiving Dinner I was going to host.  After getting all of my groceries I spent the day baking!  I baked two loaves of pumpkin bread, a pumpkin pie, and a banana cream pie!  I also had to bake the piecrusts completely from scratch since I couldn’t buy a pre-made crust from Leader Price.  I was so proud!  I had never made pumpkin or banana cream pies before!  


Then finally, it was Thanksgiving Thursday!  I had given so many lessons on Thanksgiving that I was ready for this holiday to be here!  I went to class, then back to Leader Price, to get some last minute things.  Then, after lunch I prepped the turkey and the broth to cook the turkey in (neither of which I have made before).  At 2:00 I was off to my last two classes for the day, and then I came back to cook everything else.  After all was said and done, I prepared, what I think was, a pretty good Thanksgiving meal (especially considering since it was my first one)!  Six of my friends, who are also my students and are studying woodworking, joined my roommate and I for the meal.  It was the first American Thanksgiving celebration for all of them.  I was super excited, and I think everything turned out really well!  The meal consisted of: rosemary and thyme baked turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, deviled eggs, pumpkin bread, homemade apple cider, and a French baguette; this was all followed by the two pies.  I think that everyone enjoyed the food, and I had a really good time!  I was so thankful that they could all come and spend the holiday with me!  It was really very nice! 

That leads up to today.  I spent the day writing this blog and watching tv.  Yes, I’ve been very lazy today.  But blogging is hard work, and takes a looooooooooong time.  I need to do it more often because this post is WAY too long.  I’m sorry I put you all through this treacherously long post!  Tomorrow and the following week I will prepare for my interview since I return to the states next weekend! 

That’s it for now.  I hope you all had a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving!  And in the spirit of tomorrow’s football game, GO BADGERS!

ENDING FUN NOTES:

SO to Danielle Brockman for correctly guessing the theme of my blog—each blog post title is the name of a song that I particularly like, or that is associated with something that has been happening. 

Writing about that dang “We are the World,” song got me hooked again!  I have listened to the stupid song 6 times while writing this blog post.  It also renewed my love for Celine Dion, since I saw her in the music video.  Well, I guess renewed isn’t the right word because I never really forgot how much I love her.  I guess I should just say that it inspired me to listen to some more of her music. 

Katie Reshel had a mission of taking as many terrible pictures of me as possible this last weekend in Paris.  It was seriously ridic.  Her camera doesn’t make any noise, or maybe it does and I just can’t hear it.  But this means that she can just be taking pictures all the time without me noticing.  This is something she took full advantage of.  For your sake I did not post any of said pictures on my blog.  They are frightening.

I never see married women wearing wedding rings, or at least ones with diamonds on them.  So this means that either they don’t buy big rocks like in America, or that they just don’t ever wear them… Seriously though, I am blown away by this.  I only ever see women wearing a plain wedding band, or simply nothing at all.  Maybe I’m strange, but I find this to be very interesting

I may or may not have watched the Justin Bieber movie while writing this post...