♫ I'll show you that French joie de vivre! ♫

The days seem so long here when I sit down to write about them. I think it's because, even on days where we're not doing that much, we do a ton!

Today, church was really cool. We started with Relief Society, where one of the counselors (who was from Africa) taught a lesson about Elder Osgulthorpe's (sp?) talk Teaching Saves Lives (or something like that...I can't really remember the exact translation into English). I felt so cool because I didn't need the sister missionaries to translate, and I understood most of what was said! There were some Americans there who had to have translators.

One sister got up and told her story about coming to Paris from Africa, and her journey toward having a family, going to the temple, and surviving poverty in Paris. It was so cool! I didn't understand her as well, because she had a heavier accent, but the Spirit was so strong there! I love the Paris ward's Relief Society.

After that was Sunday School...in which, I must admit, I checked out a little because I was tired and I couldn't hear very well because we were sitting in the back.

Then came Sacrament Meeting, which was pretty cool. Some people were really easy to understand, and some were a little more difficult. But I think it's funny, because some phrases that EVERYBODY uses in bearing testimony in the U.S. are also said in France. And there are people who tell their life stories and people who give thankimonies. It was kinda funny. :)

Oh, and we met Elizabeth Smart. She's one of the sister missionaries in the Paris ward. That was cool, I guess. lol.

After getting home and talking to my family and Jeff on Skype, Paris and I went for a walk in the Bois de Boulogne. It's a huge park in the middle of Boulogne. It's really pretty, although it's a bad part of town at night.

Then while she was talking to people on Skype, I helped Madame Devarenne in the kitchen cooking chicken with a curry and coconut milk sauce, cutting strawberries for dessert, and arranging vegetables on a plate for our first course. Mme Devarenne is one of the funniest people I know! She told me all about her family, how they moved around a ton, and about how she only likes American movies. They have happy endings, she says, unlike European ones. She thanked me for probably ten minutes straight for helping her in the kitchen. lol.

Then we ate dinner, which was really yummy. We started with the vegetables and had some sausage-like stuff. We don't have it in the states. It's like dried meat, but it's not really dry. It's pretty wet. I don't know what they do to it, but it's not cooked, I don't think. It looks kinda gross, but it's not too bad. Apparently it's Monsieur Devarenne's favorite. (And Boby the dog's too.) Then we ate the main course of the chicken and rice, and then we had cheese and bread (essential in France) and then we had strawberries and this weird canned Chinese fruit for dessert. The Chinese fruit was different, but it was pretty good.

We talked a lot with the Devarennes at dinner. It was fun to learn more about them and to tell them more about us. (Although, explaining what my dad does for a living was ten times harder to do in French than in English, and it's pretty hard to do in English!) Mme Devarenne says a lot of random phrases in English sometimes, but with a really French accent which is totally hilarious! Mr. Devarenne is a little quieter and he uses bigger vocabulary sometimes, but he's awesome. He brings us French things, like the flowers and the sausage and a book of cool places to go in France.

So, we found out there's going to be work on the only line that gets us into the city from tomorrow until July. :P That means we take the Metro to where the line stops for construction, run to the next stop, and continue our journey. Although, Madame Devarenne said she's making us a yummy breakfast tomorrow, so we might just be late to class anyway. After all, Prof Erickson said we could miss class if we're spending time with our families or if we're feeling really tired or there's another cultural activity that would help us improve our French better than coming to class. I think we might be taking him up on that tomorrow morning...:)

♫ C'est grand, c'est tout too ♫

"Est-ce que vous aimez le gateau chocolat?" (Do you like chocolate cake?)

"Oui!" (Yes!)

"D'accord, je vais acheter du gateau chocolat pour le petit-dejeuner!" (Ok, I'll buy you some chocolate cake for breakfast!)

We've been eating chocolate cake for breakfast the past couple days. lol. Well, it's really like a sponge cake with chocolate inside. But it's interesting. lol. Never actually had cake for breakfast before. Yesterday we had cereal with it, but today cake was all we had time for. (Instead of waking up at seven to go running in the Bois de Boulogne, we slept in until nine and had to run to the Metro in order to get to class on time.) These cakes are individually wrapped and don't take as much time as cereal. They're probably about as healthy as poptarts, so maybe it wasn't so bad. lol.

By the end of class, we were both STARVING! So we went to a little crepe shop near where we have class. It was so yummy! Guess what the crepes were dripping with. Chocolate. lol. We're so gonna get fat. Running on Monday! Maybe. If we get up in time. We have to go to class early on Monday, so we'll see.

Do you know what the coolest part of the crepe shop was? The guy (I assume the manager) was taking our dishes, and he said that we spoke French very well. Then he asked, "Etes-vous anglaise?" (Are you English?) lol. And we answered that we were American, and he got this smile on his face like, "Really? No way!" and he complimented us on our French again. Isn't that cool? lol. Americans have a bad rap for not trying at all to speak French and assuming everyone else will just speak English to them, even if they're in a country that doesn't speak English. (They were serving an American couple at the same time we were eating.) So it was so funny and cool that they assumed we were English. Yes, it's kind of an insult to Americans, but I think our speaking French showed him that some Americans aren't so ignorant. :)

Ah! Monsieur Devarenne just gave me some little white flowers! Today is a national holiday, Fete de Travail, which I'm not exactly sure what it is except an excuse to not work. lol. Mme Devarenne told us yesterday that the French have a lot of those. But today I noticed there were people everywhere selling little bouquets of flowers. These are tiny, tiny bouquets. Not like the one-rose bouquets in the States, but really short bouquets. Most of them are those little white flowers that are bell shaped. I can't remember what they're called... But anyway, he got us those little white flowers. They're so cute. :)

I've decided that along with the Eiffel Tower, I'm in love with French children. They are adorable! With their little accents, talking really fast... *sigh* Maybe it's just because I'm baby crazy and little kid crazy. I can't wait for Sunday, though! Because I think a lot of the Devarennes' grandchildren are coming over, and that will be so much fun! :)

Oh, the flowers are lilies of the valley. lol. Yay, Google!

So today we went to La Defense. I'm not exactly sure the significance of this place, but it's really cool! It's in the heart of the business sector of Paris, where there are tons of uniquely-shaped office building, as well as cool pools and sculptures and trees all over. It's also directly across from L'Arc de Triomphe. You can look straight down the Champs Elysee and see the arch in the distance, and if you turn a little to the right you can see our beloved Tour Eiffel.

At the end of La Defense, opposite L'Arc de Triomphe, is a modern arch. It's kind of more post and lintel, though. Because it's square. There are a lot of steps up to it, and then you can go down stairs on the back too. I'm pretty sure it's one of the best places to look out over Paris.

One of the coolest parts was going down the back side of the arch, where there was a bridge you could walk across. Around the bridge was a cemetery that had lots of pretty bushes around it. We decided to investigate it, because there was an American flag in one part of the cemetery, and we wondered what it was for.

So we went off the trail outline in our pamphlet to see the cemetery. It was pretty cool, actually, even though most of the graves weren't that old. We found the American flag, which was placed there for soldiers who were members of the American Legion. There were several graves around it too. Then we walked around, looking at all the interesting graves and the weird little shrine/house things some of them had on top of the graves. We also so one grave marker that had a side punched out of it. I thought it would be like the one I saw in England, where the side was punched out and the stone was leaning up a little bit, but you couldn't see anything. But Paris looked down into it (it was a deep hole!) and saw a coffin at the bottom! There was no other covering! She jumped back really fast. lol. And I didn't want to look in the hole. But she said it was really ornate.

Then we passed a place where there was a memorial for British and French soldiers who died in northern Africa in WWI and WWII. We also passed the Jewish section of the cemetery, which had a lot of people who must have survived the Holocaust, because they were born in the early 1900s. We thought that was cool.

After that, we ate chocolate cake that Mme Devarenne made to celebrate the holiday, and we went to the store. We ate sandwiches and Nuttella on bread and crackers after that. The end. On to reading for Monday. Yay.

Oh, just FYI, the titles for my blogs are mostly from the songs "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart" from Anastasia and "Bonjour, Paris" from Funny Face. :) There may be a couple other songs, but those are the main ones.

♫ When they parlez-vous me, then I gotta confess that's for me... ♫

I've met so many interesting people in the last couple days in Paris! Most people here stick to themselves as they march through the streets on a mission to somewhere, but there are some who take time to relax and enjoy the humanity around them.

Take Madame Devarenne, for example. So funny! The stereotypical French person is rather quiet and reserved in everyday life. Not Madame Devarenne! You should hear her. lol. Whenever she's in the house, she sings loudly to herself. She doesn't care if Paris and I are in our rooms and can hear everything. (Even if she didn't sing loud, we'd still be able to hear everything because of the amazing acoustics of this tiled house.) She doesn't usually sing words, though. She just hums and sings a lot of sounds, and I think they're all made up on the spot. When she's not humming, she's talking to her little dog "Bouby" or something like that. She calls him "Monsieur Bouby" sometimes, and treats him like he's human. lol. She also loves to laugh very loud and tromps down the street, not seeming to care where she's going even if she has somewhere specific to go.

Then there was the Jamaican we met in the Champs de Mars (the park near the Eiffel Tower). True, he was trying to sell us stuff, but he was really funny and the bracelets he made for us were pretty cool. He spoke in a mixture of French, English, and Jamaican to us, and kept saying "Hakkunah Mattatah" over and over again, telling us how bright green and yellow bracelets would make our boyfriends fall in love with us. lol.

Then there are the Middle-Eastern beggar women who are all over! We met one under the Tour Eiffel, and she asked if we spoke English, then gave us a note that said something about needing money, and she had a story about how her children were sick and her husband left her for another woman and she needed money. I felt bad telling her no, wondering if maybe some of that was true. I quickly realized we were so right to turn her away! Those women are everywhere, trying to get money from English-speaking tourists! There were probably ten of them outside Notre Dame de Paris this afternoon! Three of them came up to us in fifteen minutes! I finally started responding, "Non, je parle francais" when they asked if we spoke English, and they left in a hurry. lol. They all have different stories, which is funny and I guess somewhat creative on their part, but they're all sob stories that are almost too bad to be true. And the funny thing was, they all congregated together to talk while we were there. They're all dressed similarly, all carrying cards with messages in English. I wonder if they really think that people won't notice they're all together. lol. It was funny.

Then, when we were at the Eiffel Tower again eating lunch, we stopped to take some pictures of the Eiffel Tower, and I was posing with my arms out wide, and this random guy (who I think was from Italy) ran over and put an arm around me for the picture. lol. Then he said thank you and walked on eating his strawberries. lol. Totally random, but it was so funny!

We went to la cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris today. It was so weird seeing something that everybody talks about in classes and movies and books. It's very beautiful, and the detail is amazing! Although it didn't seem as big as it does in movies and pictures. I think it's smaller than it looks.

After that we went to a museum underground where you could see excavated ruins. The ruins are from Roman and medieval times. There must be tons of ruins underneath Paris! It's such an old city. It was cool to see how all the new civilizations built on top of each other.

After that we bought baguettes and went and sat in our favorite place- the Champs de Mars parc with the amazing view of La Tour Eiffel. Paris and I decided we were pretty much in love with it. It's soooo beautiful! Much more beautiful than any picture or cutesy image you find in the U.S. There's a beauty about that structure that you can't really capture with a camera. We can't wait to go up there at night to see the lights of Paris (even though that's the most beautiful light Paris has). I think we're doing that during the second or third week.

Paris and I planned out all of our walks and when we're going to see things. It will be nice having a plan, I think.

Tomorrow's a national holiday. But guess what. We have class. Joie de vie.

♪ Here, have a flower on me... ♫

Well, we arrived safely at the home of Monsieur and Madame Devarenne. Madame Devarenne is so nice! We sat and talked for a while when Paris and I got here, and then she drove us around Boulogne to show us places to shop and things to do. She showed us where the big tennis match will be held in the middle of the month, and the Metro station and the best place to get food. (It's on the corner of our street, like twenty steps away!) She also bought us little flowers to go in our windows, which was so cute. :) They have a tiny dog who doesn't bark or anything. They also have 10 or so grandchildren, but we haven't met them yet.

My computer's being pretty frustrating. For some reason, it couldn't connect to the internet, even though I tried a million times and restarted my computer and everything. It finally started working, but it's pretty faulty still. It logs off every so often and I can't connect to the network again for several minutes. :P

There are some really interesting things about the house where we're staying. For one thing, all the bedrooms are tiled, no carpet or wood floors. The living room downstairs has wood floors, I think, but not the bedrooms. Also, there's no shower. lol. Just a bath tub. I haven't taken a real bath since I was little! Only showers. So that's interesting. lol.

I just got back from eating dinner with the family. They all seem very nice. The youngest is 24, her name is Aude, and she works as a chiropractor (or something like that, her job isn't exactly the same thing, but close). The second oldest was there too. She has two kids and is expecting one more. They talked a lot, and it was fun to listen even though I was lost sometimes.

For dinner we ate fruit first (cantaloupe that was soooo yummy!) and then we had a main course of salmon, potatoes au gratin, and this mashed zucchini stuff. After that we had cheese (so many different kinds!) and bread, followed by dessert. They bought chocolate ice cream for me and Paris, but they all ate fruit for dessert. There were a lot of different choices of fruit, too. It probably would have been the healthier choice, but I decided to eat ice cream since it seemed like they bought it especially for us.

Tomorrow class starts at 10:30. Professor Erickson showed us the place where we'll be having class, and it is so cool! It's the same place where the institute is, where the missionaries live (or at least spend a lot of time...), and where the Paris ward meets for church. The building was built in 1624 or something like that. It's beautiful! In the institute part of the building, the ceilings and rafters are painted with cool designs, and there's a big staircase leading up to it.

Anyway, I'm about ready to hit the hay. I'm still so tired! lol. It's supposed to be colder tomorrow, but luckily it's not snowing. :) Our host family kept laughing about the fact that it snowed in Utah this week. lol. :) They kept saying, "At least it won't snow this weekend!"

A demain!

Welcome, My Friends, to Paris...

Ah, Paris.... Where the most essential item needed to drive is not a license, but a good, loud horn and the second most important thing is a trustworthy set of brakes. Where street art is oil on canvas instead of spray paint and kids play soccer in the shadows of the Eiffel Tower.

Well, we made it! Although Paris almost didn't make it... lol. (The plane she and two others from our group were on got delayed, and they had fifteen minutes to get from Terminal A to Terminal E in Boston, through international security, and onto the plane.)

The flight was pretty uneventful. I sat next to an old man who didn't speak French or English (I'm not exactly sure what he spoke, but every time he told a flight attendant what he spoke, they got an "uh oh, I don't know that one" kind of look.) He kept giving all the things that he didn't want, like his plain yogurt and his orange juice from breakfast and the packet with earphones and stuff. It was funny. lol.

After checking into the hotel an getting something to eat, we boarded the Metro for L'arc de Triomphe. Following some picture taking and resting underneath the gigantic arch, we boarded another train for the Eiffel Tower. It was beautiful! Although, I wish there weren't so many people. I think I'd enjoy it a whole lot better if there weren't thousands of people milling about beneath it. The park Champs de Mars was very beautiful too, allowing a place for Paris and Brittney to take a nap while I wrote and watched pigeons strutting around and kids playing in the sprinklers.

Then it was back on the Metro for another ride to the hotel. After a nap and shower, we went to dinner at a nearby restaurant, where I got embarrassed because of the loudness of our group. lol. Americans really are so loud! The food was really good, though. I tried duck for the first time ever, and was really surprised when it tasted more like beef than chicken. I also had the most delicious coeur fondant du chocolat. So rich, and totally to die for! Now it's off to bed. Meeting the host family tomorrow!

Oh, can I just mention that the hotel Etap is horrible? The WC is 3 1/2 feet square and the shower, though bigger, has no room for you to put anything you don't want to get wet! It's all shower in that room! And the doors on both don't actually close, they just loosely shut, so if you lean against them they open. And the shower doesn't get warm, it gets cold or hot. And the sink is on the opposite end of the room, instead of being by the shower and toilet. And the funny thing about the room is that it has a double bed and then a (twin sized) bunk bed on top. They aren't very comfortable beds, but I have a feelings Paris and I will both sleep just fine. :)

(So...I forgot to get the USB cord for my camera from my sister, and my computer doesn't recognize the memory card, so I don't think I'll be able to post pictures until I get home...)

Paris Blog

Hey, everyone! This blog is to keep everyone posted on what's going on in my life while I'm in France. I'm not sure how often I'll have time to post on it, but probably every other day or so. Hopefully once a week I'll be able to post pictures and stuff (or link to my Facebook page).

Paris m'attend!