a few pictures of everyone's favourite "tour"

This weekend was quite fabulous!

It didn’t start out looking promising though. I had 2 yogurts explode on me in one day—one all over my floor right before I stepped out the door for school, and the second one in my backpack, all over my wallet, cellphone and papers. And I forgot my umbrella at school all weekend…yup, it rained. And then my metro stopped in the middle of a tunnel and the lights went out and I had a small panic attack because the conductor said something about an “accident”. But in the end I got the yogurt cleaned up, my cellphone still works, I didn’t melt in the rain, and my metro made it safely to the station.

On Friday after school Steph and I went to Starbucks for a coffee and enjoyed an hour of lounging and chatting before heading over to the train station to drop her off for a weekend away in Bordeaux, where she lived last time she was here. I saw some of the TGV trains for the first time and I’m getting super excited for our trip to Switzerland this coming weekend, since it’ll be my first time on a train (besides the Go-Train, which I’m told doesn’t count as a “real” train). Nate and I decided to go out and take some pictures down town, so we went up the Arc de Triomphe and had a fantastic view of the city. In one direction was La Defense, the opposite was the Louvre, and Place de la Concorde (where the obelisk stands), and we could also see all the other major landmarks, like the Sacre Coeur, La Tour Eiffel, La Tour Montparnasse, Notre-Dame and Invalides. It felt like we were on top of the heart of Paris. We walked down the Champs-Eleysées and headed along the Seine towards La Tour Eiffel to get a few pictures of it all lit up and sparkling. That was beautiful too; I don’t think I’ll get tired of seeing that while I’m here.

Saturday the rain finally stopped for a few hours and the weather was beautiful, I’d say at least 15 degrees! We walked up Montmartre again, wandered the shops, sat on the steps of the Sacre Coeur and walked around the quarter a bit more. At nite we headed out to see a couple FREE concerts; the first was a stringed-orchestra playing in a church that is basically a smaller version of the Invalides. They played Debussy and it sounded incredible! Then we headed over to another church for a jazz concert with a saxophone player and pianist. They were really good too, but jazz isn’t so much my thing…or at least not that kind. We stopped at the Franprix on the way back, and guess what I found!? Skippy Peanut Butter! I’ve finally found something that tastes exactly like it should! I’ve already had 3 peanut butter sandwiches since Saturday nite.

Sunday was really chill. We went to church in the morning and then I spent the afternoon on my bed reading a book. Around 5 I got restless, and since it was raining and I couldn’t go outside, I decided to attack my bedroom with a sponge and bucket of soap. And attack I did—baseboards, walls, back of the fridge…I cleaned EVERYTHING for a good 2 hours. And my room looks and feels wonderful. My boss used to tell me he wanted to be able to eat off of the shelves when we were done wiping them. You could eat off of any surface in this baby… I think I’ll make a good wife (not that cleaning is all they’re good for!....)

And now it’s back to Grammar and Phonetics! But thank goodness I get to start the week off watching another movie in class!

I hope you all had wonderful weekends too and got to have a bit of fun, despite the fact that it’s essay season. I miss you all!