PAREE!!!

This weekend I went to Paris. Every weekend is better than the one before. Its amazing. I cant even believe I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to do this for a semester, its literally a 4 month vacation. I had a little bit later flight, 10am on friday and it was sooo nice being able to sleep in a little later. It made such a big difference not being tired the whole weekend. Grace was on my flight which was nice, and together we figured out how to take the train to the metro from the airport. I went with her to their hostel, they were staying in the Latin Quarter. It was sooo cute! There was a small outdoor market right when we got off the metro and their hostel was on the cutest street with a million cute stores, bakeries, crepe places, cheese shops, and little cafes. We met up with Sam and their other friend from IU and we had lunch. I ordered a cheese plate because it was a kind of expensive place. It was amazing with 4 different cheeses. Bad news was i realized I forgot my lactaid pills ahahaha. After lunch I got a cab to meet up with Haley and her roommate Delaney, who also goes to michigan. I met them at the Bastille at a cafe. We got crepes with nutella that were unbelievable. We ate them as we walked back to their dorm. Haley had told me her place was shitty and in the ghetto, but i thought the area was really cute, it was just kind of far from a lot of the main things so we had to metro everywhere. Her dorm is pretty small, and there are four of them in one room. Two of them were gone for the weekend but I still slept on the air mattress haley bought for me and it took up the entire floor haha. So i felt kind of bad imposing for three nights because they have such little space. But it was sooooo much fun being with haley and going around paris with her. After I dropped my stuff off we took the metro to the Lourve. I actually remembered so much from when I was there with mom and the frederich's in 9th grade, so it was fun reminisicng and remembering some of the places. I also liked that I had done all the touristy stuff so I could experience paris more like an abroad student there or even a local and do more things off the regular track. So we didnt go inside the Lourve but walked from their through the Tuilleries and to the farris wheel. It was a GORGEOUS day out! It was like 65 degrees and sunny, and Haley and them said it was the nicest day theyve seen, so I got really lucky. I expected it to be freezing there and it wasnt that bad at all, all weekend. Haley and I went on the farris wheel and the sun was setting and it was so beautiful. We could see the Eiffel Tower with the sun setting behind it, and the Champs Elysee, and the Arch de Triumph, and the Tuilleries and the Lourve. It was so beautiful. After we walked around the area right to the right of the Tuilleries and Lourve, which had really cute shopping and cafes. We went into the Channel store. Then Delaney, whos mom had lived in paris for 10 years and her sister studies abroad there for a year (she was so good at french so its so lucky/nice haley has her to get her around and say everything cause haley doesnt know any french haha) got invited by a family friend to come over for Shabbat dinner that night. She had heard the son was really attractive, and he said she could bring friends so we decided to go. We did not know what to expect but I was so excited because you can go out to dinner anywhere in the world, but this was a once in a life time experience and so cool we got the opportunity to go to a local's house for dinner. Their apartment was in the 16th arrondessment, which is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Paris. They lived in the Penthouse and their place was soo cute, and you could see the Eiffel Tower from their balconey. The mom and dad were sooo nice and the son, was veryyyy attractive, and Jewish! I wanted haley to date him. They were sooo nice to us. They spoke perfect english, and were asking us all about what we were doing abroad and it was so nice for them to invite complete strangers into their house. We had wine and olives and sat by the fire while other people arrived. Literally everyone was beautiful. Other guys and girls came and they were most around 21 or 22, which is like my age, but they seemed soooo much older. They all had jobs already. In France, you go straight to law school or grad school from high school. Some of them were already tax lawyers, and just a year older than me! It was so interesting getting to talk to them and hear about their schools and jobs and lives in Paris. They were all so trendy and chic and it was just the epitome of a beautiful Parisian night. The dinner was also AMAZING. Good meat, which I have been missing, and then veggies and cheese and then the best dessert ever, oh and challa! Everyone in paris smokes cigarettes, literally everyone, and they all smoked at the dinner table, which was kinda gross but made it that more Parisian. They would speak english and french and I loved just listening to them talk. After one of the guys, Martin made us go out with them, we were so confused we were just in a cab with him haha. From the cab I got to see the Eiffel tower as it was all light up and sparkling. He took us to this club off the Champs Elysee. Everyone was literally dressed soooo cute. Everyone is paris was beautiful and dressed amazingly. We were all tired and not really in the mood for a club, but we went in anyways and there were not many people inside and it seemed like a younger club. So we left Martin at the "tween club" and went home. The next day we went to the Maraii, which is the jewish quarter. I lovedddddd this area. It had the cutest streets filled with cute cafes, nice restaurants, really nice shops, and then a lot of jewish shops and fallafel places. The three of us ate at a cafe called Le Philisophe. Haley and I got salads and they were amazing! And the bread was incredible too. After we got muffins at this muffin shop that looked so good. I got a chocolate chip banana one and it was so good. The food was so amazing all weekend. Then we went to the Louise Vuttoin exhibit that was at a museum in the Maraii. It was soo cool, we saw all the trunks that was originally only what they made. Then Delaney went home and Haley and I went to Saint Germain. We walked around the main street and then off to some sides streets which were really cute, and we got big macaroons. They were good, soooo sugary. We went home and rested for a while, and were going to meet up with my roommates for dinner, but it never worked out, and we were all just hungry so we ended up going to an Italian restaurant right down the street from Haleys because they told me it was good and not expensive, but everything in Paris was pretty expensive. At least the pasta was really good. I bought haley and Delaney a bottle of champagne and we drank it in their room as we got ready to go out. We had all heard that the best club in Paris was called Le Cab so we wanted to go. It was in the coolest location, and then you went underground to get to the club. It was really cool and we were the only americans there! We might some random people from germany and Greece. Haley made out with this really cute guy from Cypress named Yiannis Papageorghui which has been a source of lasting entertainment. Mom, don’t tell Robin, although im sure haley will tell her because she thinks she now has aids because she is the biggest germaphobe ever. It was so funny and he was so cute! Now he wants to take her on a date but she wont. It was such a funny night. When we wanted to leave though it was impossible to find a cab that was available. We walked around for an hour at 4am trying to get a cab, and walked all the way to a hotel and they were rude to us about getting a cab. Those were the only downsides to Paris are that it was so hard to get a cab, and some of the people were SO RUDE. So the stereotype is true. But Delaney spoke amazing French and they were still rude to us. The next day we went back to the Maraii to go to this famous falafel place called Las Du Falafel. There was a huge line to get it to go, but we got lucky and got  table inside right away. It was literally the best thing ive ever eaten.  Haley says she goes all the time and Im sooo jealous. I also met my friend Julia from Berkeley whose in Pi Phi and studying abroad in Paris. They had been planning to get falafel too so it worked out. After we walked around the maraii and went shopping. Haley and I got matching evil eye bracelets. Then Haley and I went to the Musee D’Orsey. I had never been there and it was unbelievable. We spent a long time there but we could have spent all day. They have so many famous works in their, and I recognized a bunch from the one art history class I took sophomore year. We saw the famous Manet painting Olympia and other works by Renoir, Degas, Monet, Pissaro and others. Then we walked down the Champs Elysee which was so beautiful, and went to the famous bakery and restaurant called Laduree. They are famous for their macaroons. We got a table and the inside of this place was emacculate. It looked like an old French house. It was such a beautiful atmosphere, and we got 3 vanilla macaroons each which literally melt in your mouth they are so delicious. We shopped a little on the Champs, then walked to the Arch de Triumph. Then went back to Haleys, and decided to just go to dinner in the Bastille instead of a nice French restaurant because I didn’t want to spend money and we were tired, and she lives far some most good places. We went to this random places that looked interesting because it had a picture of a waffle with tomato and mozzarella on it. It was like a health food place, and also looked like they were known for frozen yogurt with fruit on it. Everything looked really good. We got the tomoato mozz waffle which also had cream cheese and came with a salad and it was so weird but so good. It was the best weekend. I loved being with haley and exploring the city. There is sooo much more I wanted to do, so im kind of thinking about going back after my program ends or something, and it will be nice in the spring.