Sorry!

So it´s been awhile, like I warned, so my apologies. I´m alive and well, with many many stories to tell, although I´m already starting to forget a lot of what I wanted to tell you all. So I´ll start with my trip to Paris! A couple weeks ago (that far away already? wierd), I went to Paris to meet up with my mom and grandma and mom´s friend Denise. We litterally did Paris is 2 days, and it was awesome. My mom and Denise were jet-lagged, which is bound to happen after an oversees flight, but I didn´t let them get much sleep. We walked around the Louvre and the tuleries right outside (one of the prettiest areas of Paris- in my opinion). Then we checked out the Champs-elysee (sp?) area (but every city has an Arc de Triomph so once you´ve seen one you´ve seen em all). Our museam for the day was Orsay, which has some Degas, Van Gogh, Monet and Manet and more that im forgetting. Degas, according to my mom, has a wierd foot fetish because all of his paintings and sculptures have women in some way or another touching there feet. It was a weird observation, but once she said it we all kept noticing! Later that night we ate by the Notre Dame (not as impressive as the Sagrada familia in barcelona, but still cool) in the Latin quarter (cheap food, lots of ppl, its bumpin). Then to top off our day we hauled over to the Eiffel tour so we got to see it during daylight and we stayed till it got dark and saw it all lit up and even at one point in the night sparkling. That was my favorite part, i think. I always pictured the Eiffle tour being this ugly metal structure that just didn´t fit with the city (can you tell I´ve been hanging around the french too long, they´re opinons are rubbing off on me), but it was the opposite. Even up close it was gorgeous, for one, and the height was breathtaking. So all in all, a fun filled day.

Saturday we saw the biggies in the Louvre (which was a fun run around cause we didn´t feel like poking around the overcrowed museam all day). Mona was okay, and so was Venus, but I liked the crown jewels and Egyptian stuff we stumbled upon the best. We found this big pair of feet in the egyptian section that momma thought Degas would love! We also saw more of the Latin quarter and Notre Dame, and I can´t even remember what else. Sunday we went to the Rodin museam, another of my fav spots, and it had his famous thinker statue. The dude really makes you wondering what´s on his mind. The place there was cool cause all the statues were outside so it was like a walk in the park slash museam.

Overall I do know that momma is obiviously at home with the french because she can cafe sit with the best of them. I think we litterally spent half our time sitting out at cafes just eatin or drinking, rain or shine, watching the people go by, frenchies and tourists alike. This tradition continued when we went to Nice and then to my hometown Montpellier.

Nice was pretty, and we got to check out the mediterranian and the famous rock beaches. For the most part though, there wasn´t much to do and there were just too many people (its not even tourist season yet). We enjoyed our day trip to Monaco much better. We skipped on seeing the famous Monte Carlo and instead went up to the Prince´s palace. The whole city-state was absolutely beautiful. I could never live there tough because you can just feel the money in the air. Everyone there is super wealthy and the atmosphere lets you know that. It´s beautiful, but unless I win one heck of a lottery then one day trip is about all I can do there.

Finally on Wed we were back in my town. I think everyone liked my city the best of all. Its beautifull, which I often forget since I see it everyday, and its not too big and not touristy. There are outside cafes galore, and of course shopping. So while I unfortunately headed off to class, the other gals spent the day at cafes and shopping till theirs hearts content. Later that night we took my roomies and Elodie out to dinner, which was a ton of fun. There was a little bit of a language barrier between Elodie and my fam but that just meant I got to try my hand at a little translating. After dinner Elodie went with me momma and denise to a cafe to chill for a bit, and thats when I completely lost my ability to speak. I would talk to Elodie in english and my mom in french and not even realise till they couldn´t hide it any longer in their faces. Momma thought it was hilarious. She also decided that I tell stories funnier in french than in english, even if she doesnt understand what I´m saying. I think this is because with Elodie its easier for her to understand me if I act out motions and make appropriate voices for different parts of the story. So what I use for helping her understand my still not so great french, makes me funnier, I guess. I think by that it means I just look funnier. But overall it was a very enjoyable week, and I was sad to see my family leave. It was cool being able to show them around and esp to have them meet Elodie (who by the way has a cool new badger sweatshrit from mi madre which she loves! along with some pb and mac and cheese and ranch to keep her on track to becoming american at heart....). When worlds collide like that you never know how itll work out, but as I´m sure God had in mind, we had a wonderful time.