Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Final France update

well it sure has been a long time since my last blog about my stay in France.
Once I arrived in Paris, the only time spent on a computer was paid for through my wallet at the hostel, so I only had time for one chat session on g-mail, and a quick reply to a message.

Paris was overall, not as I hoped it would be. Only because I was always imagining it to be romantic, beautiful and somewhat devious as it is in each movie I watch where the characters reside in the moon lit city. This might only be because I was in a hostel, and did not have the chance to meet too many residents. And probably because every person spoke english, as well as french and some spansish or italian. However, the area I stayed in was the biggest "hot spot" in town, meaning there were sex shops, lingerie stores that spread for 3 blocks minimum, hippie like people, and not to mention the scene of the Moulin Rouge was right in my alley. I was in the bohemian neighborhood. The lack of the romantic setting only seemed to entice couples to publicly display their affection with each other in such a way that is only occurring behind closed doors where I come from. It was a rush.

From the moment we stepped foot off the train in Paris, we were immediately on an expedition to see the sights. We emptied our luggage in our rooms at the Hostel, and hopped on multiple subways to visit the world famous Rodin (pronounced ROH-DUH) museum. It was beautiful, but the only thing on display was MORE PDA. Each statue seemed to be having "alone time" with itself, or another statue! But it was still enjoyable. I had Schuyler snap a shot of me in front of the grass with the museum in the background:

Not long afterward, we were already on our way to see and experience the single most exciting thing of my life: The Eiffel Tower. The one thing I have always wanted to witness! I was so excited, but not looking forwards to walking up 700 stairs. The closer we got to the tower, the bigger and bigger it was getting. I always though it was maybe 2 or 3 space needles together..but I was far wrong. It was probably exactly...4 million space needles ;) I took video updates of me walking up the tower, and I will soon piece them all together to make a video of my trip involving music, videos, pictures, and possibly commentary!

The shopping was EXPENSIVE, but quite enjoyable. Of the days in Paris, we all went to the most famous museum in the entire world, the Louvre (pronounced LOOV), where the Mona Lisa is being held in captivity. I was pumped to finally see it, and pay close attention to the detail of the work, and create an opinion on if it is a man or woman, but there was a rope surrounding it from about 15 feet away, a bullet proof glass case, two body guards, and a tiny picture frame.. Not even my camera could get a good view of the most famous painting to go down in history. Still exciting though.

Ahh the Champs Elysees..Where millions of celebs have purchased their Aston Martins, Versace wear, and million dollar chocolate eggs. The 8 car-wide highway leading to the L'arc de Triumph. It was so exciting shopping along the most popular shopping lane in the world, but also exhausting since my pockets were emptied after one purchase. It was of course at a Sephora. This store was soooo enormous! Here is a picture =]

I wanted to have my makeup done and find new shadow shades of blue to match my scarf, so she used custom colors, and i decided to buy the look. She told me it was only going to be 50€, so I bought the custom pallet, and it turned out to be 100 bucks!!!! But I don't regret it. I wore it to school yesterday and I looked like a mermaid =] (my nickname growing up)

I will be posting so many picture shortly of the entire trip, so don't worry!

I also was able to go into the castle of Versailles! (VER-SIGH) This is where Maria Antoinette lived, and became infamously involved during the french revolution! I went through her bedroom and everything and saw the kind and queens very beds!
Tammie and I became super close on the trip =] We were getting left behind too often by Adrienne and Collrane, so we decided "whatevaaaa" and we roamed throughout the million acre garden! It was so beautiful, and we shared the most tasty sandwich ever! But I was really sad because I saw a bird choke on bread, fall over on it's side, struggle in pain, and slowly lower it's limbs to the ground, giving up =[ I was almost in tears.
I also was able to attend mass in the Notre Dame!!! It was so amazing, and the stain glass windows were breathtaking.

By far, the most beautiful thing I experienced in Paris, was the Eiffel Tower at night when it was lit up, and the light show was going on! Each night for a few hours only lasting 10 minutes at the top of each hour, there is a light show on the tower, and I would fly back to Paris just to witness it again, with a lover only to make the experience richer. Here is a video, but imagine being directly under it, and having all of the lights catch your eye like diamonds reflecting from a chandelier in a dark room.

One of the funniest memories on the trip was during "fish day" which is April 1st. No one had played any jokes, and I could not take it any longer. When we were all on the subway, we had to rush to get off and make 22 people out of the doors before they closed and run out to see more sights. 3 people accidentally exit the wrong side, and there was no way we could make it bc the doors were closing. We had to wait for the other 3 to take the underground stairs and end up on our side, the correct side. Once they were gone, another train pulled up. I yelled that everyone should run through for fish day, and when they arrived on the right side, we would be on the other side, and tell them that they were still on the wrong side. EVERYONE RAN! it was hilarious!!! except they saw up, and showed up right where we were so it didn't work haha.

I will definitely miss getting sick of the gypsies, and getting fed up, and going up to them and being pushy begging TO them. hahaha. They got so mad that I was begging them for money, they started cussing at me in french! Everyone was laughing so hard!

This was definitely a trip to remember, and I only hope someday in my life I will be able to move to Nantes and feel at home.

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