Yet another weekend in Paris Part 1

Hullo, everyone!

Here is the promised update on my life!

1. Paris weekend
Friday the 10th I hopped on a train headed for Paris. Met James (a friend from Whitworth who was awarded a Fulbright to teach in Germany) near the Eiffel Tower. We ended up going over to Mia's house boat for the night because she was really sick and the family was gone, so she didn't want to be alone. We got a little lost but found it eventually :)

The next day James and I visited the Arc de Triomphe, the Paris Opera House, and the Eiffel Tower. Voici some photos:

We then visited the Orangerie museum - Where we both got in free thanks to our European student IDs. It is a great museum. Not too big and overwhelming (like the Louvre) but not in any way insignificant either. The Orangerie houses Monet's largest works - the famous Water Lilies project. There are two circular rooms dedicated to his massive water lily paintings. The museum also has a lovely collection of Cezanne, Renoir, and Picasso, just to name a few.

After the museum we stopped into Angelina's for some world famous Hot Chocolate. Yum. We made it just in time too - they stopped accepting people only a couple minutes after we arrived. We had to rush out of there still nursing the coco-coma, though, as they closed the salon at 7. I suggested we stop by the Louvre to see it at night. We crossed the street into the completely empty Tuilerie Gardens, because I though that would be a nicer walk to the Louvre than along the street. Turns out this was not the best idea. We walked all the way through the gardens only to find the gates at the end by the Louvre padlocked. Oops. We decided to walk along the road side where there are plenty of entrances. All of them, including the one through which we entered, were pad locked. The long, vertical, pointy-ended bars of the gates looked awfully tall. Probably because they were about 10 ft. Anyway. I started to think about how to get silly American tourists out of locked gardens in the middle of Paris at night. We started walking a little faster in the opposite direction. We saw a car by the entrance by Place de la Concorde and an opening in the gate about 3 ft wide. Not going to lie. We started to run a bit. Said bonsoir to the confused looking man on our way out and escaped! Still walked over to the Louvre and then went over to the Rue des Canettes for some great dinner of Tarte Flambee and pretty good beer

Rest of the weekend and some other fun tidbits to come soon! :)

Happy Birthday, Oregon.

Did you know that Oregon has more ghost towns than any other state AND is the only state to have an official state nut? Its the hazelnut. AKA Filbert. I once mini-road-tripped with some friends from Portland to Sisters and back. During our return, we stopped at a state park (one of many) and decided to explore. Walking through the beautiful park, we stumbled upon a Filbert Grove (or at least that is was the sign said). None of my friends knew what a filbert was. They weren't from Oregon. We know what filberts are. (At least, in general).

(Picture of the Filbert Grove)

(Update on my fun Paris weekend coming soon!)

The Euro Freeze

I don't know if any of you have been keeping up on this, but Europe is pretty cold right now. In Ukraine over 100 people (mostly - but not all - homeless) have died due to the severe weather. If you don't believe me, here is some pretty cool photographic evidence. (Cool. Cold. See what I did there?)

You know how I bought an electric kettle last week? Well, I actually took it into bed one night after I had heated up some water. That is how cold it was in my room. That night I also spent 9 minutes trying to tape a towel to my window with 4-euro scotch tape, and 13 minutes figuring out how to close the flue in the weird chimney thing. I also figured out (after considerable fiddling) that the heater in my bathroom DOES work. Huzzah! So I asked to make sure it was safe, and then turned it on high. And even though it looks very rickety and smells kind of dangerous, I am grateful for the heeeeeat it provides.

Also the cold I though went away has come back with a vengeance, worse than before, and will not leave.

Lu's birthday party went pretty well. Although at first I was terrified out of my mind. While waiting for everyone to get there, the kids were running EVERYWHERE in this tiny house, and SCREAMING even after many a warning from the parents to be quieter. It was really really reallllly overwhelming. But soon after we got some structured activities going and that helped. Kind of.
I did my english teaching game, and it turned out fine. At the end of the day, despite feeling very tired, I actually felt good about the whole thing.

Sunday I was going to meet Svetlana (another au pair) and go see a movie. However, due to the snow, I waited 35 minutes for a bus that never showed up. We decided to pick a cafe in the middle and have a drink and a chat. I was also able to get a picture of me by the Joan of Arc Church with all the snow.

Yesterday the girls and I made a snowman after school. He looked pretty good, if I do say so myself.

At the end of February Mia and I are going to Vienna and Budapest. I feel stupid now, having chosen locations further north (aka COLDER) but I am still quit excited! And this weekend I get see James and Mia in Paris. It will be fun, cold weather be damned!