Days 2,3,4 in Paris

Ah, It is Sunday afternoon in Paris. As many Americans begin to rise (its about 10 am in Iowa..) I have been out and about Paris.

Day 2 in Paris (who can take the most artistic picture)
Day two was Thursday. Janean and I met up with Sus and Ashley F at St. Michel in the morning to do a little wandering around. After we figured out how to get the un-lost, we ended up a couple of blocks away at Notre Dame. We witnessed some Gypsy women pocket picking tourists and decided to avoid them. We saw a nice little garden that we walked through and then hit to the streets. Eventually, Sus (short for Susannah) and I decided we were hungry for our first french Crepe. we found a stand that had them for 2,50 euro. We split a crepe with nutella and banana. It was delicious. After that, it was time to meet up with the whole group again at the St. Michel fountain. We found our way back and found Ryan and Zach waiting for us. As soon as everyone got there, we took off following Dr. Hagan like ducklings. Well, tourist ducklings maybe. We all had cameras out and we were following a tall guy in an orange rain coat and a baseball cap. We walked around the Latin Quarter looking at small shops and old churches and then toured Notre Dame. Ryan and I had a "Who can take the most artistic picture?" contest in Notre Dame.. Proud to say, I think I won. Notre Dame was amazing. Words cant describe how absolutely aw inspiring it is. We got many history lessons inside from Hagan and made sure we saw every inch of the place. Next we continued our walking tour and saw another church, St. Severin. It was another Catholic church with a lot of history and amazing stained glass. We found a place for some people to exchange money and headed for lunch as it was past time for Americans to eat and we are college kids and always hungry. Ryan, Sofie, Emmalee, Briana, and I found a nice restaurant that had a lunch special of an entree, and un plat (appetizer and main course) or un plat et un desert (main course and desert) for 12,50 Euro. French lunch is like American Dinner, so we went for it. c'etait tres delicious (it was very delicious) We had a french style lunch and took an hour and a half to eat. We met up with Janean and Zach and Zach and Ryan left to nap while Janean went back to our place. Sof, Bri, Em and I went around to shops shopping and then back to the BHV store (a HUGE 7 story department store where we bought phones on day 1) to confirm we had unlimited texting (yes, we do. and yes, this is an absolute necessity.. oh look a new text!) After that, we headed back to our apartments and Janean and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I found a boulangerie and bought some sort of something with chocolate.. I think it was like a croissant. We stopped at the local church to look around. Another HUGE catholic church, got lost in the neighborhood, and made it home in time for diner. Over cooked (or undercooked.. not perfectly cooked) meat, green beans, and leaks for desert. How, um, very un appetizing. After dinner, I headed back to St. Michel to meet up with Ryan, Zach, Eboni, Bri, Sof, and Em to go out for a little bit. After we found out the girls did NOT get taken in Paris, (they weren't answering phones and were an hour late) we headed for a Gilato shop.
End of Day 2

This made my Happy this morning..

Notre Dame

Day 3 in Paris. (who can ruin the most group shots?)
Slept in. Breakfast of toast and nutella substitute that is still very good. Rode the number 6 metro from Bel Air to Tracdero (supposedly a 45 min ride that we made in 20 minutes..)We got there, met up with Ryan and Zach, and headed out. BAM! Theres the Eiffel Tower.. One word. Amazing. We saw the guys from Cameroon that were trying to sell us Eiffel Tower key chains. They're supposed to be 3 for 1 Euro. Ryan and I were offered 10 for 1 at one point, but ended up buying at 7 for one Euro.. (aka i have 7 key chains if you want one.) We walked around, did the tourist thing of taking pictures, and stuff. Then as we were walking down to the tour, i turned to tell Ryan something and next thing I knew i was laying on the ground. Everyone thought it was my knee cause i guess i fell hard, but it was just an ankle sprain. Toughed it out with some help from Sus' advil and kept going. We visited the mini statute of Liberty, and then had lunch in front of the Eiffel Tower. I have no clue what Dr. Hagan put on my sandwich, but it was AMAZING. on a baguette too! We got our month long, all access transportation passes (FREEDOM!) and headed for Le grand arc. The Grand Arc is a big Arch type thing in a very modern part of the city that the french hate. It is full of high rise office buildings, modern architecture and upscale shops. On the way there, we got off the metro at yet another church were a choir was singing. (i don't know what it was called cause my camera was dead so i couldn't take many pictures today) After the Grand Arch, we made a short video for the video Dr. Hagan is putting together. It was us, as a group, saying "Bonjour! Nous sommes au Paris! C'est chuet! Aujord'hui, nous sommes avons vu le tour Eiffel, le grand arch, et the L'arc de triumph." (Hello! We re in Paris. Its awesome! Today we saw the Eiffel Tower, The Grand Arch and the Arc de Triumph) Apres ca, we headed towards the Arc de Triumph. at this point, the pain in my ankle over took me and Dr. HAgan called my host to let her know and he pretty much told me i was done for a couple days. I headed home in tears, to rest for the night. Today was also May 1, or the French version of labor day. So everything was closed and all the tourists were out. Mighty crazy.

Sofie, Emmalee, Ryan and I by the Eiffel Tower

Artsy Picture of Ryan Winder

Day 4 in Paris.
Breakfast was at 9:30. I got out of bed at 9:25. Had a piece of toast. I was hungry. I didn't eat last night either. I was going to go to Mass at Notre Dame with Ryan, Bri, sof, Em, and chanie, but figured id better not. I let them know i'd meet up with them after. On the way to meet up, i grabbed a crepe with nutella (more expensive and not as good as the last one) and met up with them once I tracked them down. We headed towards the Rennes stop where we were meeting Hagan and found some food. We stopped at a Soupe, Sandwich and Salade shop and got sandwiches, drinks and a desert for 8 euro. i got a salade and some peach tea which was basically amazing. (give me a break, no milk or tea since tuesday? what was i supposed to do?!?) We met up with Hagan and Jessie (who just got in today !!!) and went to see the school and toured around a little bit. We ended up at the Luxemborg Gardens and got caught in the rain.. AGAIN. its been raining all day. After a while, when there was a break in the rain for 2 seconds, we made a dash for the nearest metro stations so some of us could head home. After 2 long days, a lot of us were beat and want to sleep. We caught the RER (a train that runs faster than the metro and runs through the suburbs as well..) and rode to the metro then walked home in the rain.. (about a 5-6 minute walk from the station. I would have loved to have walked around some more, but Hagan was pretty instant i not walk around today. So, i'm home now, tried to watch TV online and found out you cant watch American shows out of the US, so i will probably nap some since i cant go anywhere, its raining, and there's nothing else to do! School starts tomorrow, and we do our placement test so it shouldn't take all morning.

The trees at Luxomburg Gardens were perfectly lined up.. It bothered us.. So we took pictures

We saw this at the farmers market today.. Yes, It is a cows head.. There were chickens next to it

We have yet to see the Eiffel Tower at night (it is about a 30 minute metro ride for us as we are way in the boonies of Paris..) but we are taking a night boat ride soon so we will see it then. I love the metro system here. It is (with the exception of this morning )on time, fast, clean and easy to use. We are all getting to be pros at riding it. Well, this is WAAY long, and i've been writing for a while so i'm going to go and try to get some rest (after I put some pictures up for you to see.)