Un année.

I realized a few days ago that it has been an entire year since I was in France. A year! How did this happen! It still feels like it was just yesterday. But at the same time I am currently dying to go back. Since my whole blog seems to be dedicated around France and making those sentimental lists I'm going to combine them into one: Things I miss about France. Ahem.

Street crepes from the Latin District. The glittering Eiffel Tower. Baguette sandwiches for lunch after school. Little kids and dogs on the Metro. "Ah, les petites Américaines!" Cobblestone streets damp with rain. Five course meals. Statue impersonations. Museum marathons. Burnt toast and grapefruit juice. Seaside runs along the (nude) beach. Rollerblading parades. Mediterranean brick oven pizza. The padlock bridge. Parties at the Metro station.

Brazilian watch salesmen. Tunnels made of human bones and rings made of human hair(...). Oscar Wilde. Parisian vintage shops. Gelato. Flea markets. Street artists braving the rain. Disneyland Paris. Planning outlandish wedding receptions at Versailles. Cigarette smoke. Picnics beneath the Eiffel Tower on a Sunday afternoon. Winged Victory.

Fashion shows. "Bonjour les filles!" Crowded bedrooms. Showers that make you not want to shower. Olive oil based salad dressing. Tennis matches on television. French dinner conversation. Skyping friends at weird hours. Fridges that look like cabinets. Phantom of the Opera. Skipping out of a real opera. Gargoyles. The top of Montparnasse Tower. Gypsy children. Sitting in a train station for hours. An afternoon visit to Italy. Straining to glimpse the turquoise ocean. Frog legs.

And really, the best thing about France was that when I came back, I was different. I left as a nervous kid with a few years of French under my belt, an overpacked suitcase, and a hunger for exotic food, but I came back knowing what I am capable of: making my way in the world even when it rains or I miss the train or I can't quite understand what people are saying.

I don't agree with the idea that you have to travel to "find yourself." It's all about creating yourself and there are a million ways to do it. I'm just super glad that France was a part of mine.

If you haven't read the whole story about my adventures in France, you can do so by clicking here.

Appreciated.

Well, I have officially been back in the USA for seven whole days. It's a little weird, but also super great, to be speaking English full time again. Even though the ads on the side of my Facebook page are still in French, but then again sometimes I don't even notice. It takes some getting used to!

However, there are other facets that don't take much getting used to again. France taught me to appreciate many little things that I take for granted in my daily life here in America. For example...

• Showers. I'm sure you all guessed this would be on the top of the list since I was whining about it for four weeks straight. Seriously, though, is it really that hard to attach the nozzle to the wall? Come on, France. Keep up with the times.
• Ice. This little, often overlooked luxury was nowhere to be found in Europe. I just wanted my water to be cold!
• Water. Not that water is hard to come by there, but I'm just used to my water glass never even getting close to empty at restaurants. I'm such a spoiled brat.
• Driving. Even if I had a car in France, I would never ever drive it. That terrifies me. But I was so happy when I got behind the steering wheel of the Darth Evader for the first time in over a month. I love driving.
• Closets. As much as I love living out of a suitcase...

That being said, there are a few things I miss a lot about France:

• Crepes. No explanation needed. I'm an addict.
• Walking. I walked everywhere and I walked so much that I feel like I can't stop. I have taken my dog on one to two hour walks a couple times and he is dying by the end of it. I could keep going for like four, probably.
• Humidity. My hair hated it but the rest of me loved it!
• Nude beaches. (Just kidding!)
• French. I actually do miss speaking it all the time. There are some things that just can't be said as well in English as they can in French.
• The food in general. Also known as the real reason I went on that trip.
• What am I talking about? I miss it all. (Except the showers.)

My life back in good old Sandy/Draper sadly is just not as exciting. I started my new job at Cowabunga Bay serving food to waterpark goers. It's pretty fun.

I have also gone rock climbing, seen a couple movies, and made s'mores. Seeing all these faces again was probably the best part. (Note: None of these pictures were taken this week. I'm sure you can tell by the fact that my hair is a different color in every single one.)

It's weird going from nonstop new and captivating experiences all day every day in Europe, to coming back to my parents' house and not having much to do but work. I plan on making the most of it though, which is why Danielle and I made this summer to do list that we can turn to in our moments of extreme boredom.

• Tennis
• Swimming
• Draper Park
• Draper trail
• Geocaching
• Scootering/Ripsticking/Biking
• Learning to cook
• Floating the Provo River
• Hiking
• Dance Central
• Make videos
• Rock climbing
• Cowabunga Bay
• Drive in movie
• Camping

Also, I am adding on paragliding and skydiving, since they are on my lifelong bucket list and what better time than this summer? So, if you're ever bored in June, July, or August, and within an hour of Draper, let me know! I have a plethora of fun things for us to do.

PS: I forgot to mention that I have a new little thing on my sidebar! I finally got rid of that music playlist because it stopped working, and let's be honest, it was kind of annoying anyway. So I made a little list underneath the follow button (which you should click) that lists my five favorite songs of the week, with links to YouTube so you can listen to them with the click of a button! I will be updating it every Sunday. Just because, you know, I like good music, and other people like good music. So we should share our good music.

Nice is an understatement.

Well, my time is France this summer is drawing to a close. Luckily it ended with one of the most extraordinary weeks I can remember.

Monday May 28:
The group went to Ventimiglia, Italy for lunch and mostly just to say we went to Italy. We ate a delicious meal (caprese salad and calamari for me) at a restaurant right by the water, then spent some time on the beach, got gelato, and walked around the town a bit.

Notice the man in the background that tried to sell us
knock-off sunglasses moments after I took this picture.

The only thing I know in Italian is how to order gelato.

Tuesday May 29:
Started off the day at school, which was ten million times better than in Paris. Afterwards, Sydnie, Ariel, and I ate some amazing margarita pizza on the beach, followed by taking a nap in the sun and going swimming despite the fact that there were thousands of jellyfish eggs in the water. At least that's what we deducted they were after doing some research. I went running, which was magnificent, and then we watched tennis with Colette over dinner: Serena Williams verses some unknown French girl. The French girl won after a long streak of "avantages" and "equalités" and Colette was very pleased.

Running alongside this sea: Perfection.

Wednesday May 30:
After school our group headed a few towns over to the little ville of Eze. It's a town famous for their medieval city and perfume factory. We climbed to the top of the medieval city and ventured into the "jardin exotique", or exotic garden, which turned out to have some of the most gorgeous views.

Who has dreamt me?
Who has created me?
To whom have I said yes?

Sometimes I think the prettiest thing in the world is when
you can't tell where the sea ends and the sky begins.

We made a quick stop at the perfume factory and then headed down a path for what was supposed to be a 45 minute walk to Eze sur mer, the part of the town by the beach. It turned out to be a hike down a huge canyon but it was honestly one of my favorite parts of this whole trip. To be in the mountains and the trees, hiking down to the beach, and every once in a while get a glimpse of views like these... it was surreal. My calves are still knotted and sore (I was in flip flops. Who's surprised?) but I would not have it any other way. When we got to the bottom we found that there weren't any restaurants open, so we hopped on the train and took it one town over to Beaulieu for a three course dinner of escargots, lamb chops, and ice cream. Perfect day in my book.

Thursday May 31:
School in the morning, as usual, and then Sydnie and I made a beeline for the promenade alongside the beach and rented rollerblades. Apparently rollerblading is a favorite activity of the French, so we had to do it at least once. Even though it didn't exactly help our already sore legs and may have resulted in numerous blisters, it was a blast. After an hour of that, we went shopping for a while and then headed to the beach again. It was cloudy so we didn't say long before heading home for dinner. That night we walked down a few pedestrian streets and watched painters and street performers do their thing.

Rollerblading picture fail.

Friday June 1:
Might have skipped out on school two hours early... but it was our last day in France, what do you expect? Sydnie and I went to the marché to finish up our shopping and then spent the afternoon at the beach. There were no jellyfish eggs to be found this time so I swam for a long time, until my limbs started falling asleep because of how cold the water was. I could swim in the ocean forever, though. There is nothing better in the world.

Tonight we went to an opera, or tried to. We were on the very back row and I'm pretty sure that opera house doubles as a sauna. We could barely make it through the first act without passing out so we opted out of the other two thirds and (bet you can't guess) got crepes instead.

It's time to bid a final adieu to the Mediterranean, the Eiffel Tower, the cafés, the baguettes, the Metro, the showers, and the Nutella banana crepes made on the street. It's been one of the most amazing and life changing experiences for me, and I know that even after I leave it will continue to teach me. So, here it is: Au revoir. But I know it's really more like an à bientôt.

The importance of punctuality.

So, imagine this scenario. The following is based on a true story.

Your train leaves at 10:49. You wake up at 8, finish packing, eat breakfast, and say goodbye to Anne Charlotte. You leave the apartment at 9:45 to get to the train station by around 10:15. When you get to the bus stop, a bus is just leaving. You try to wave him down but he wags his finger at you to say no. So you wait ten minutes for the next bus. Next thing you know, it's somehow 10:30 and the bus is still basically where you got on. So you jump off the bus and into a taxi. The taxi driver tells you it's a ten minute drive. Then, next thing you know, it's 10:47 and you pull up in front of the train station, throw money at the driver, and start running like a crazy person screaming things like "Où est Hall 2?!" and "À quelle voie est le train pour Nice?!" and then a French man says to you in English "Too late, gone." and you have a panic attack for a minute. That's when you realize maybe you're really not that calm in stressful situations like you say in all your job interviews so maybe you should rethink that statement.

After that, though, you do some breathing exercises, accept the fact that you're buying a new train ticket, and get in line. When you get to the front, your card doesn't work and you have another mini panic attack until you realize your card never works in those machines and you always have to type in the numbers but for some reason you can't do that in France. Luckily you have an amazing friend named Sydnie who buys your ticket for you and you now owe her big time. Then you call your professor, explain what happened, and everything is fine. So you sit on a bench and stare at a wall for two hours. Then you get on the train with plenty of time to spare.

Okay, stop imagining.

When I got on the train, I was not a happy camper. Which should not happen when you are on a train through the French countryside on your way to Nice. I tried to tell myself that these things happen, but all I could think about were questions like "What if that bus driver had just stopped and waited for us? What if I had woken up 15 minutes earlier? What if I drank my grapefruit juice a little bit faster?" (Side note: One time I read a book/short story/something that was about a girl making the choice between milk and orange juice in the morning, and how that choice changed her day completely. I don't know if I believe it or not, but still: "What if I had chosen milk?")

That's when I decided that all these things needed to go away so I could enjoy the rest of my trip. So I filled my headphones with Trevor Hall, got out a piece of paper, and wrote down everything I was mad or unhappy about. By the time I was done, I was feeling a million times better, so I made a list (I've realized I make a lot of lists) of things I should remember.

• Everything happens for a reason. You may never know that reason.
• You are never alone.
• I'm going to be in Nice, France for the next week, and there's a beach there.
• Things will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end.

After that I listened to the song "Carry On" by fun. and enjoyed the amazing scenery that was outside my window.

I made it to Nice. I met my new host, Colette, who is an incredible cook. I have my own beautiful room. I spent the day at church, where I met a missionary that knows people from my high school, and then walking along the beach of the Azur Coast.

Even after all that madness, this honestly could not be more perfect.

Life on the daily.

Bonjour, bon soir, ou bon moment de la journée où vous lisez ce post.

Today I present to you: a day in the life of a Parisian study abroad.

7:15 am: Wake up. Take an awkward and dreaded shower while sitting in a bathtub and holding the shower nozzle. Try to shave your legs. Give up and feel a little more European.

7:45 am: Eat breakfast (toasted baguette) in the tiny kitchen. Anne Charlotte provides corn flakes too, but it's not very French, she tells us.

8:00 am: Leave for school. Walk to the Metro, board the Metro, leave the Metro, walk to school. On the way, pass by the cute little primary school where we sometimes see our relief society teacher dropping off her child. School starts at 8:30, but get there at 8:45.

12:30 pm: Leave school (finally!). Get a sandwich at the boulangerie.

1:00-8:00 pm: Explore Paris! Shopping, hanging out in a garden, and eating crepes are among my favorite choses à faire.

8:00 pm: Return home to eat dinner. We have enjoyed many delicacies courtesy of our host Anne Charlotte. The frog legs from last night's dinner are among the more exotic.

9:30 pm: Head out for a night on the town, which mostly just involves walking around to see and be seen. And eating more crepes.

Wash, rinse, and repeat.

Other things I have done since my last post are as follows:

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Oscar Wilde

Edith Piaf

Jim Morrison

Saint Sulpice

Statue of Liberty

National Treasure 3 here I come! 

Catacombs 

Also, a list of the little things that have made me happy this week:

• The adorable Brazilian boy at the Swatch store that learned my name, said it in a likewise adorable accent, and then sold me a cool watch.
• The owner of the café on our street that always says "bonjour les filles!" when we walk by. Yesterday he asked where we were from and welcomed us to Paris.
• The cute old man on the Metro that said "à tes souhait" to me today when I sneezed, and then told me to have a good night when his stop came.
• The lady at a museum we tried to visit that put up with my terribly formed French sentences.
• The little boy on the Metro that danced to a street performer. He screamed when he saw a dog, but I think he just wanted us to laugh.
• This conversation that I had with some kid while I was on the lover's padlock bridge today. Keep in mind it was all in French.
• Him: Hi.
• Me: ...Hi?
• Him: I like your outfit, it's very charming.
• Me: Uh, thanks.
• Him: How old are you?
• Me: 22. (Ha!)
• Him: What's your name?
• Me: Michelle. What's yours?
• Him: (Something incomprehensible)
• Me: Nice to meet you...
• Him: You should give me your number.
• Me: Uh, no.
• Him: Do you have a boyfriend?
• Me: Yes.
• Him: What a shame. Let me give you my number.
• Me: Thanks, but no. I have a boyfriend!
• Him: That's not a big deal. Let me just give you my number, then you can choose to call me or not.
• Me: Uh, okay. (Pretend to type his number into my phone)
• Him: I would like to take a walk with you if you want.
• Me: No, I'm meeting my friends in like ten minutes, so I should go. Thanks though!
• Him: Okay. Call me!
• The party we had in the Metro station tonight with street performers and an old man who loved to dance.

It's been real, Paris. But it's time to say au revoir. En route to Nice, France at 10:49 tomorrow morning!

When it rains.

You know what they say: "When it rains, it pours."

We decided not to go to Erasmus on Thursday night, which was a good idea since we have been doing things nonstop all weekend! Friday there was school again in the morning, followed by a long and much needed three course meal (mussels, duck, and crème brûlée) and a trip to the Pantheon and a little vintage store shopping, where I tried on this fantastic Three Musketeers leather jacket.

That night Sydnie and I were going to go rollerblading in this giant rollerblading parade that happens every Friday night. After doing some research and discovering it was an 18 mile ride over cobblestones, though, we decided to just go watch them leave and then walk around the Latin Quarter and get crepes.

Best sneaky picture I could get of the boy wearing the alligator costume

The French love rollerblading!

Saturday morning was the Marché aux Puces: gigantically huge flea market. Sydnie, Ariel, and I spent a good four or five hours there and got some fantastic stuff before we decided we were completely tired and headed home.

That night after dinner we met up again and went to the Centre Pompidou since it was la nuit des musées, and all the museums were open all night for free. Pompidou is another modern art museum. My favorite was this one. It's a piano placed in a room that has the walls covered with rolls of sound-absorbing felt.

"She was a piano in a place where everyone had their hands cut off."

We went to church yesterday, and it was amazing, of course. I had been a little burned out, I guess you could say, with school and walking all over the city. Church was just what I needed, though. The subject was "testimony" and even though I didn't understand every word (Especially since one girl spoke in Chinese for a minute. I have a hard enough time with French, thank you!), I definitely felt better afterward.

These last couple of days, though, have been some difficult ones. I didn't expect that a simple, month-long study abroad in Paris would be hard, but sometimes it is.

After church, Sydnie and I went to walk around in the Luxembourg Gardens, where we got stuck under a tree and our parapluies (umbrellas) while it poured rain around us. Our feet got soaked (I was wearing Toms... again, not the most practical shoes. But they're still my favorite!) as we walked over to the Latin Quarter for more cheap crepes and then on to meet our group to go to a Molière play. We were about ten minutes late because we went to the wrong theatre, but we still got in... and I have no idea what happened for the next two hours. I did not understand anything in that whole play, and I was super discouraged. I've been studying French for over seven years now, and for what? I was ready to throw in the towel.

We went home for dinner, and then Sydnie, Ariel, and I decided to make it a girls' night since we have all been a little bit homesick lately. We went up to Montmartre, the home of Sacre Cœur and also known as one of the most romantic places in Paris because of the grassy hill that couples like to sit on and overlook the city. Just the thing to cheer us up, right?

As soon as we got there, it started to rain. Hard. We went into the cathedral and listened in on the service that was going on for a few minutes, and then walked around the square that usually has the street artists and vendors and lots of cafés. The artists were there, but everything was pretty subdued because of the rain and many of the restaurants were closing. By this point we were soaked, so we stopped to get some ice cream and hot chocolate and called it a night.

Today, I woke up with a new and more optimistic attitude because it was Disneyland day! Sydnie and I bought tickets last week and we were super excited. The weather said it was supposed to rain, but from our experience so far, rain doesn't last long in Paris. And we already bought the tickets. So we hopped on the train to Disney!

The rain started before we even made it halfway to the park, and I'm not completely sure as to whether it has stopped yet or not. It poured all day. We were soaked and freezing by the first ride. Of course it was still fun, and the lines were very short so that was a plus! I guess it just wasn't what I was really hoping for. And Disneyland Paris does not have a single giant pickle. What is Disneyland without those? That's the real question.

So we came home early: drenched, frigid, and a tad dispirited. You know what the funny thing about this is, though? The last ride we went on was It's a Small World. And that stupid ride with its annoying song actually made me realize that its true. I might be 5000 miles away from almost everyone I know, but is it really that far? I am in Paris, France, having one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I was letting a little rain and a little loneliness get me down. There are only two weeks left and then who knows how long it will be until I get to come back?

So I'm making a list of things I am thankful for, and then I am going to go out there and give it everything I have.

• My amazing family (extended family included!). Without them I would never have this opportunity.
• My friends. Who always text me back or Facebook chat me when I'm missing them and who (hopefully) won't forget me by the time I'm home!
• Growing up in the circumstances that I did, where I have the chance to go to school and learn a beautiful (if difficult) language like French.
• Rain. Without rain, the Earth would not be the gorgeous green place that it is. Also, it helps us appreciate the sunshine a little bit more.
• Of course, these glorious four weeks that I have to spend in France and learn things about myself and the world that I could never learn in a classroom. There honestly is nothing more I could ask for.

Museum edition.

We'll just call this week Museum Week, plus Versailles and Chartres. My feet have walked so many miles on museum floors that they don't know how to walk on any other floors.

Saturday May 12:
Versailles was first. Palace of King Louis XIV. Not technically a museum but I think it might as well be! Sydnie and I entertained daydreams of Alice in Wonderland themed scavenger hunts or huge wedding receptions/parties in the massive gardens.

That night we headed to the top of Montparnasse Tower for a view of Paris that included the sparkling Tour d'Eiffel, as opposed to one from its viewpoint. It really was breathtaking. Isn't any view is when you're 59 floors above the Earth?

Sunday May 13:
Church! We might have arrived almost an hour late and had to stand in the back because it was so packed, but it was still so good. It's always reassuring to know that no matter where you go to church - Utah, South Carolina, or halfway around the world in France - it's always the same gospel and the same amazing members. There were two meetings to choose from each hour, either French or English speaking. I went to French Sunday School and Relief Society, and even read a scripture out loud in my awful American accent.

After church, Sydnie and I had a fabulous little picnic lunch underneath the Eiffel Tower and stayed there for a while enjoying the sun and the people walking by. Then we took a walk down the Seine to les Invalides (Napoleon's burial grounds) and looked around before heading home. It was lovely!

Monday May 14:
This was the day of our journey to Chartres, the site of one of the oldest cathedrals in France. It's a cute little town spreading out from the church, with winding streets and lots of fun shops. The strained glass windows are exquisite and tell the stories from the Bible in a way I have never thought of them before.

We then stopped to eat at one of the many pizzerias lining the streets, where I proudly ate this entire pizza by myself. Why don't I entire eating contests and make a living off this talent?

Tuesday May 15:
Back to school, unfortunately. But then again, this was the day that the museum hopping began, so maybe I should be glad I got to sit down for at least the first half of the day! We started with the Museum of Modern Art, where I saw many things that I enjoyed. Lots of people think modern art is too weird and too abstract, but I think it's cool.

Immediately following that, we headed to the Rodin, home of "The Thinker", and a nice garden, and a lot of other sculptures that are pretty sweet. This is the real and true Thinker over the doors to the Gates of Hell. I think the rain adds to the effect.

After dinner that night, our group met up again in the Latin Quarter for some crepes (How many days have I been here? 11. How many crepes have I eaten? 8.) and some very cold window shopping. It might be summer in other parts of the world but not in Paris!

Wednesday May 16:
More school and more museums. First up was the Shoah, which is Paris' holocaust memorial. It made me think a lot about what it would be like to go through things like concentration camps, losing family members, and starvation. I will admit that I have been a little homesick since coming here, more for people than places. But seeing that made me realize how blessed I really am. I can't imagine what it would be like to be ripped away from everything and everyone you know, without knowing if you would ever return.

There were pieces of walls in the museum that had inscriptions that people had made, perhaps in the hope to be remembered. Many of them had the person's name, the date, and the words "destination inconnu" - unknown destination. We still don't know where they went, and we may never know.

Next up was the Carnavalet, the museum of Paris' history. Personally, I'm just trying to find out where I can get one of these rings. It contains Marie Antoinette's actual hair. I know you want one too!

Which brings me to today.

Thursday May 17:
No school since it's a French holiday, so we got to sleep in all the way until 9:30, instead of our usual 6:30. A great start to the day, if you ask me. We got to the Louvre at about 11:30 and started off strong with the Mary Magdalene and the Code of Hammurabi. After lunch, though, stairs were looking daunting and people were being just a little bit pushy. However, we did make it to all the must-sees and even had enough energy for the crown jewels! It's not as easy as it looks, especially when there are literally miles of things to see. But it was worth it, of course!

My hair idol

I had to battle about three thousand people for this picture. Appreciate it.

Probably my favorite statue ever created.

Tonight Sydnie and I are thinking of hitting up Erasmus, also known as the free club for international students. But then again, we are exhausted from Museum Week, which probably still is not over, or may become Museum Weeks. So we'll see what happens I guess!