Mara (!), Chartres, and Back to School

The day after I got back from Bruges, Mara came in from England!! Her train didn't get in until kind of late, and it was seriously the longest day ever. When it finally got here it was all I could do not to do the cheesy movie run-across-the-station to greet her haha. It was soooo good to see someone from home. Mara insisted on buying Metro tickets, which turned out to be a good thing because the first time we got of the train, there were controllers at the exit scanning everyone's tickets to make sure you had them. I've never seen that before, and probably never will again, but good thing she didn't want to break the law like I did lol. We got Nutella crepes (since *somebody* had already eaten dinner on the train) and walked around the city, and then sat down by the Seine near Notre Dame for a while. The next morning we got up and got croissants from the bakery around the corner and headed to the Catacombs. It was just as awesome this time, and kind of better because my heart rate was a lot lower this time since I knew what to expect. There was one point where the ceiling was dripping a lot of water, and I didn't want to get wet so I got out my umbrella and walked through. I was kind of laughing at myself and at the ridiculousness of it, but who knows what's dripping from the ceiling really far underground with a bunch of piles of bones. Mara loved it, which apparently people back in England thought was weird since it's a bunch of bones in piles underground. Awesome? Creepy? You be the judge. After that, we headed to the Marais to get our falafel. I don't know why I don't go to that place for lunch every single day because it's amaaaaazzziinggggg. Like seriously. I could eat 10 a day and not get sick of them. After walking around there for a while we headed up to Montmartre to see Sacre-Coeur. On the way, we passed Rue Nicolas Flamel, French writer and alchemist. I about had a heart attack it was one of the coolest things I've seen here yet. If you think that's sad, you're obviously not a HP fan and we might not be able to be friends anymore. But anyway, Montmartre is probably the shadiest area of Paris I've seen yet. The church was beautiful, and we got our workout in climbing the stairs up to it (man, there are a lot of stairs). Plus, the view of the city from up there was amazing. Also when we got to the top there were two people with guitars playing Free Falling. So random. There were a ton of kids there, though, who were begging and trying to get tourists to sign their petitions. I always feel bad when I ignore them, but then when they really get in your way and don't let you pass I don't feel as bad. After that we decided to walk down to the Moulin Rouge just to see it. I can't even tell you how many sex shops we passed on the way. It was sooo seedy. I can't imagine there's any real competition between any of them, either, because there are just so many. I wondered two things about them: 1. how do any of them stay in business? and 2. how can there possibly be a need for that many sex shops? The Moulin Rouge was less than impressive, too. And Christian wasn't there waiting for me so that was disappointing.

After Sacre-Coeur we went to Ile St.-Louis and got Amorino gelato, and I swear I could eat that every day and not get sick of it. We had been walking a ton so we just sat by the Seine and talked again for awhile. We then went on a macaron search, which took surprisingly long. And they weren't as good as the gelato. Maybe we just didn't find good ones. I shall try again soon haha. At that point we had walked all over the city and climbed so many stairs and taken the Metro sooo many times all we wanted to do was shower and just chill. We came back to Montrouge and got groceries to make dinner. Bibiane was like, "So, big plans? Going out tonight?" And now she probably thinks my friends are just as lame as me for wanting to just stay in and eat delicious pasta and watch movies. Oh well, now she knows I'm not the only one lol. After dinner we were hanging out in my room and all of a sudden the bed, like, collapsed out of nowhere. It turned out the slats had just slid off the part that holds them up, but it was sooo funny. The next morning Mara's train was leaving kind of early so we got up and headed to the train station. They announced something about her train and we didn't hear it, so I asked someone in really bad French (it had been a week since I had used it) and he just responded in English.... It was just that her train was leaving from the first floor, which the sign said within the next two minutes anyway. I headed back home and as I was walking through the neighborhood I saw meat being delivered to the boucherie. Like huge almost-whole cows. Nasty.

The next day, we had our excursion to Chartres. We all met at the train station at 9am, but it wasn't too bad this time because the station was actually on my Metro line and only a few stops away. I realized I had been in a train station 5/7 days that week. On the train, some of the kids were talking sooo loud and pretty much the whole car was staring at us, it was kind of embarrassing. I don't think they realized they were being that loud because it's probably a normal volume in the States haha. When we got to Chartres it was freezing and rainy like Amboise. We went to a stained glass museum and learned how they make the windows, which was pretty cool but kind of boring. I was almost falling asleep during the presentation. We learned that the windows tell a story that you read from bottom to top, left to right. We also saw a cool modern stained glass exhibit. After that, we got lunch in the town, and then we had our tour of Notre Dame de Chartres. They're in the process of restoring it, so the oldest stained glass windows weren't there. But the part above the altar was totally redone and it was beautiful. It was all white and gold and sooo bright compared to the rest of the cathedral. I guess it's going to take about 5 or 6 more years to complete the restoration, but just to see what it's going to look like is reason enough for me to come back then. Our guide was this 76-year-old British man named Malcolm Miller, and he has been studying the cathedral for over 50 years. Apparently all of his tours are unique and different because there is just so much to talk about. We got the "history and the stories behind some of the stained glass windows" tour. Guess who knew the date of Charlemagne's coronation? :) He told us so many cool random facts, including the origins of a bunch of words so I was totally geeking out. Like the word "bank" for example. Bankers used to have benches they would work from, and the word for bench was pronounced "bonk" (not sure on the spelling, maybe just "banque" like in French). So the word for bench became the word for bank. Also, "bankrupt" technically means "broken bench" because when the banker was dishonest or something the other bankers would break his bench so he was out of work. ("rupt" like rupture). So interesting!! Also, apparently in the Bible it never says that the Forbidden Fruit was an apple, but the word for "apple" and the word for "evil" are the same in Latin (malum) (in Italian it's male=evil and male=apple) so apples just became the forbidden fruit. So fascinating I couldn't even handle it. He told us so much more, but I won't bore you because I've been told that things like this aren't as exciting for everyone else as they are for me haha. We made it back to Paris even though there were more strikes. And I held onto my wallet this time, so it was an all-around good day :) When I got home I was exhausted so I just made some dinner and passed out.

The next day (this is Sunday now) was Guillemette's birthday, so the family was here for lunch. Which was amazing. We had gratin dauphinoise, which is basically potatoes with cheese and cream and probably going to give me a heart attack but ohhhh man are they good. My mom used to make them all the time, too, (Bibiane's recipe!) so it was like being home. We also had beef fondue which I'd never had before and was amazing. Then we had a salad course (to lighten up the meal apparently), and then a strawberry tart. I just about died it was so delicious. I think I took a nap after that. Lunch was actually really entertaining, though. I'm starting to follow conversations a little bit better, but it's really hard because everyone talks over each other and talks really fast. But I'm working on it! Some of the gifts were little gag gifts, too, like it was her 30th birthday and Antoine had a huge road sign with the number 3o and a big red line through it which was funny. For dinner I just made myself a really small salad haha.

Monday was the first day back to school and it was rough. Waking up early and heading out into the freezing rain was not fun. It was SO cold. Class wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. We did a listening exercise and I actually got one of the answers totally right! I'm starting to feel a little bit more comfortable every day. Finally. That night, I watched a movie totally in French with no subtitles and I think I got most of it. It was kind of a really violent movie, though. On Tuesday I watched Friends in French, and it was totally weird. Still funny, but the voices were a little off. Janice was nowhere near annoying enough. Wednesday I had 7 hours of class it was ridiculous. French was good. We listened to an Edith Piaf song (so good!) and had to try and figure out some of the lyrics, which was really hard. Then I had my first conversation group. There were only two other students and the teacher, but it was really nice to just practice speaking. My art class was awful as always. That class is so useless I can't even handle it. And sometimes the teacher just disappears for like 30 minutes, I guess yesterday she was making copies, but shouldn't she do that before she gets to class? Next week they're going to the Musée D'Orsay, which I'm bummed I won't be able to go, but stoked I'll be in London :) Last night I watched the news and amazed myself at how hard I was focusing. I think I figured most of it out, too. I'm finally getting better! lol. Took long enough. I went to bed early again, and I think one of my dreams was in French! Exciting. Today is another super rainy day, so I'll most likely be inside for a lot of it because it's also 39 degrees outside. No thanks. They did start putting up Christmas decorations around the city, so I'm really excited for the lights to come on and everything. I think that's all for now. Only 6 more weeks of this crazy adventure. I hope it stops raining before then.