First of all. You should listen to this song while you read this post. It may or may not enhance your reading experience. You're welcome.
So I had a great time in Paris. It was a really short trip - I arrived about 10am on Sunday and left around 9pm Monday - but it was great. Sunday morning, I was able to figure out the time change issue- (which by the way, I was wrong. Y'all haven't had daylight savings time, so now we're only 5 hours apart. So wild.) - and made it to Paris sans problème. I got off my train and looped the train station three times looking for Bonnie and when I finally saw her, I let out a huge sigh of relief. It was so fantastic to see her. I hadn't seen anyone from home since being here and it was just surreal. We kept saying how weird it was to be in Paris...and to be seeing each other there. Rome has been treating Bonnie well and I loved catching up and hearing about all of her traveling and Roman adventures.
We made our way to Shakespeare and Company, the famous English bookstore next to Notre Dame and perused. I loved it, because I haven't really found a good (English) bookstore here in Lille, aside from the library. We then did a little window shopping and then went to my favorite restaurant street in all of Paris. It's super touristy, but I love it. We ate at a random restaurant, but spent about 2 hours there, just chatting and catching up. I loved it. Brittany, my little in Phi Mu, sent me a package a while back and in it she put two letters for me to give to Bonnie, one from her and one from Colleen, my greatgrandlittle. Sorority lineage crash course real quick - Brittany is my little, Bonnie is her little (aka my grandlittle), and Colleen is Bonnie's little (aka my greatgrandlittle), aka my FAMILY. Bonnie didn't know the letters were coming and the look on her face was precious.
We walked over to the Louvre after lunch and took a picture with "Flat Colleen". I assume y'all have heard of Flat Stanley. Well, Colleen made one for Bonnie. Flat Colleen has been all over Europe - even to the Vatican!
I was trying to explain to my roommate what Bonnie and I did, but we really didn't do much besides walk around. It was actually a lot of fun though, because we just got to chat and walk around and see everything. We had both done all of the touristy things in Paris, so it was just nice to explore my former stomping grounds. It was nice to not have to run from tourist stop to tourist stop, and to just walk around with no real direction.
Bonnie and I parted ways around 5pm and I went to meet up with Russell. I studied abroad with him in Tours. Here's a refresher - a picture of me, Monica, and Russell at Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire Valley, summer of 2009.
We all look a tad different now. Here's us three at graduation (with Monica's mom and brother).
Anyways, I met up with him and went to drop my stuff off at his apartment. He lives in a great studio in the Marais. There's ton of stuff to do around where he lives and it's just in a great location. He really lucked out with housing. Again, we just sort of hung out on Sunday night and chatted and got caught up on each others' lives. It was a lot of fun hearing how grad school in France was and I liked telling him all about Lille. He had class on Monday from around 1-6pm, so we chilled some in the morning. And by chilled, I mean we went to Starbucks. It was the first Starbucks I'd had since mid-September, and let me tell you, it was glorieux. Parfait. Magnifique. Incroyable. Basically, it was amazing. I didn't go crazy or anything, I stuck with my regular order - grande coffee.
After Russell went to class, I just walked around. It sounds so mundane, but it was actually great. I had no agenda, so I could just walk around and take everything in. It was really fun to walk by places where I'd spent so much time just a couple years ago. It was great seeing things that had stayed the same, but it was interesting to see when things had changed. Paris is absolutely my favorite city in the world. There's just a je ne sais quoi to it. It's magical, even during the day.
Of course I made my way over to the Eiffel Tower, but since I was alone, I was in charge of taking pictures of myself in front of the tower. Oh goodness, y'all. I never realized how short my arms were, so it was for sure a strug. The first few photos were extremely comical, but I ended up with a few good ones.
Gosh. Paris, je t'aime.
I know I've been raving about how wonderful Paris is, but being in Paris for that short amount of time, really made me realize how glad I am that I'm living in Lille. I definitely considered requesting Paris as my teaching assignment, but I think it's good to live in a new city. Life is so different in Lille. It feels more like the real world and a real city than Paris. Maybe it's because there are so few tourists and less monuments, but it just feels real. It feels like I'm discovering what real French life is like. It reminds me a lot of my experience in Tours a few years ago. Lille is definitely bigger and has more going on that in Tours, but that's beside the point. Going to Paris really made me appreciate where I am right now. It's a bit hard to explain. I'd heard before that life outside of Paris was so different, and I guess I hadn't really understood it, but now I feel like I get it. Anyways, there's a good chance that this paragraph makes no sense, so I apologize. All I'm saying is that I like Lille a lot, and I'm really happy I was placed here. Ask me again in a couple of months when it gets colder and rainier, and it may be a different story.
Anyways, I'm off to do my WAY overdue laundry. Oops.
Jenn is coming tomorrow and then Thursday is Amsterdam!
Luv,
Sarah
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