Today was amazing. Even though we had to get up early and get to the train station on the other side of the river by 10am. Soooo worth it, though, so I'm not complaining haha. So, after snoozing my alarm for the shortest half hour that has ever passed, I got up and got ready to head out for the day. It was our first excursion, so I was really excited--a bike tour of Giverny and a trip to Monet's house, gardens, and studio. Everyone was on time at the train station, so I was really impressed. Our resident director, Tawna, brought her little boy and I know I've said this before but he is the cutest thing ever. Her husband came, too, to accompany some of the kids who can't ride bikes. The train ride was ab0ut an hour, and when we got there we got the bikes and headed to an open air market to get food for our picnic lunch. We got 10 euro from Tawna, which was funny because it felt like getting lunch money from our mom. Then we were let loose in the market for about 45 minutes. I got a sandwich and a few clementine oranges. A lot of people just got baguette and cheese. And ate a whole baguette and all the cheese haha. While it looked delicious I was glad I didn't choose that option. Then we rode our bikes to the beautiful picnic spot, and ate lunch by a river. The weather could not have been better, it was amazing. It was also funny because a lot of people were dressed for "last week in Paris" weather, which was kind of rainy and cold. I was in shorts and a tank top lol everyone was like "I'm so jealous of your outfit" haha I came prepared :) After lunch, we got to ride the bikes for longer than 2 minutes, and it was SO much fun. I forgot how much I love bike riding. We all had beach cruiser type bikes, and the path was mostly flat and so beautiful! I ended up taking pictures as I was riding haha. There was a "hill" at the end and most of us college kids dominated it, and it was funny because there were some other people on the tour, too, who were older and they were like "how long is this hill?" It was barely an incline. At the top, we locked up our bikes and walked a little bit to
the gardens. They were sooo beautiful. Monet built it all himself. There are the Japanese gardens with all the water lilies (one kid didn't know about the water lilies I was like who are you?) and the other garden was in the more traditional French style, semi-organized. Monet arranged the flowers according to color, though, which I thought was interesting. I felt like I was in Ferngully the whole time. And the pictures just can't do it justice. Then we went into his house, which was so cute. All the rooms were painted a different bright color, and there were so many windows! There was a bunch of (copies of) his
art hanging everywhere, along with the original Japanese prints he had all over the place. After (even though I probably could have stayed there another hour) we went to a café and got coffee before taking the bikes back toward the train station. We also got to see Monet's family grave. Our guide told us a really confusing story about how everyone was somewhat related to each other and like step-siblings got married and if someone's spouse died they would just marry a sibling of their dead spouse. I don't know, it was all very confusing. I needed some sort of visual diagram in order to follow the relationships.
One thing, though, on the grave one of the couples was "Jim and Lily" and my mind was instantly thinking "James and Lily, we found Godric's Hollow!"I know, I'm a freak, self-proclaimed, so you don't have to tell me haha. Riding back to drop off the bikes was fun.
A few of us flew ahead of the group, and I got to ride with no hands like I used to LOVE doing. Tawna's baby, Skye, fell asleep in the little seat on the back of the bike, and it was so adorable. He was wearing a helmet so he was literally slumped over in half because it was heavy. It was the cutest thing. After getting snacks for the train ride, we got on board. The ride back seemed faster than the way there, which was nice because I was exhausted. I took the Métro back with Kristen and Kelli, and we all just kind of stood catatonic the whole time. Tonight we were going to try and find the UCLA vs. Cal game at a sports bar, but I guess it wasn't broadcast here. Probably for the best since I'm GameTracking it and I definitely would not want to be actually watching this.... I think tomorrow we're going to a flea market or something, so hopfully they have good stuff!
Today was amazing. Even though we had to get up early and get to the train station on the other side of the river by 10am. Soooo worth it, though, so I'm not complaining haha. So, after snoozing my alarm for the shortest half hour that has ever passed, I got up and got ready to head out for the day. It was our first excursion, so I was really excited--a bike tour of Giverny and a trip to Monet's house, gardens, and studio. Everyone was on time at the train station, so I was really impressed. Our resident director, Tawna, brought her little boy and I know I've said this before but he is the cutest thing ever. Her husband came, too, to accompany some of the kids who can't ride bikes. The train ride was ab0ut an hour, and when we got there we got the bikes and headed to an open air market to get food for our picnic lunch. We got 10 euro from Tawna, which was funny because it felt like getting lunch money from our mom. Then we were let loose in the market for about 45 minutes. I got a sandwich and a few clementine oranges. A lot of people just got baguette and cheese. And ate a whole baguette and all the cheese haha. While it looked delicious I was glad I didn't choose that option. Then we rode our bikes to the beautiful picnic spot, and ate lunch by a river. The weather could not have been better, it was amazing. It was also funny because a lot of people were dressed for "last week in Paris" weather, which was kind of rainy and cold. I was in shorts and a tank top lol everyone was like "I'm so jealous of your outfit" haha I came prepared :) After lunch, we got to ride the bikes for longer than 2 minutes, and it was SO much fun. I forgot how much I love bike riding. We all had beach cruiser type bikes, and the path was mostly flat and so beautiful! I ended up taking pictures as I was riding haha. There was a "hill" at the end and most of us college kids dominated it, and it was funny because there were some other people on the tour, too, who were older and they were like "how long is this hill?" It was barely an incline. At the top, we locked up our bikes and walked a little bit to 
the gardens. They were sooo beautiful. Monet built it all himself. There are the Japanese gardens with all the water lilies (one kid didn't know about the water lilies I was like who are you?) and the other garden was in the more traditional French style, semi-organized. Monet arranged the flowers according to color, though, which I thought was interesting. I felt like I was in Ferngully the whole time. And the pictures just can't do it justice. Then we went into his house, which was so cute. All the rooms were painted a different bright color, and there were so many windows! There was a bunch of (copies of) his 
art hanging everywhere, along with the original Japanese prints he had all over the place. After (even though I probably could have stayed there another hour) we went to a café and got coffee before taking the bikes back toward the train station. We also got to see Monet's family grave. Our guide told us a really confusing story about how everyone was somewhat related to each other and like step-siblings got married and if someone's spouse died they would just marry a sibling of their dead spouse. I don't know, it was all very confusing. I needed some sort of visual diagram in order to follow the relationships. 
One thing, though, on the grave one of the couples was "Jim and Lily" and my mind was instantly thinking "James and Lily, we found Godric's Hollow!"I know, I'm a freak, self-proclaimed, so you don't have to tell me haha. Riding back to drop off the bikes was fun. 
A few of us flew ahead of the group, and I got to ride with no hands like I used to LOVE doing. Tawna's baby, Skye, fell asleep in the little seat on the back of the bike, and it was so adorable. He was wearing a helmet so he was literally slumped over in half because it was heavy. It was the cutest thing. After getting snacks for the train ride, we got on board. The ride back seemed faster than the way there, which was nice because I was exhausted. I took the Métro back with Kristen and Kelli, and we all just kind of stood catatonic the whole time. Tonight we were going to try and find the UCLA vs. Cal game at a sports bar, but I guess it wasn't broadcast here. Probably for the best since I'm GameTracking it and I definitely would not want to be actually watching this.... I think tomorrow we're going to a flea market or something, so hopfully they have good stuff!
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