Paris.

I know that everybody knows that Paris in the Springtime is something special, but I think you really have to be there to fully realize it. Both of my other trips to the city have been during the winter, and though wonderful, they were also cold and gray. We were lucky enough to arrive into Paris with blue skies and t-shirt weather. Since we had all been before our days weren't rushed and we meandered around the city on a continuous search for twist cones. We picnicked and laid out and just enjoyed relaxing which is something you forget about after countless 'MUST SIGHTSEE' trips.

The Parisians probably think it's incredibly tacky but I am in love with the Eiffel tower light show. We were strolling by the Seine and stopped to snap a picture of the tower from afar when it burst into the show, surprising all of us. Although it went off while we were climbing it in February, seeing it from afar is a completely different experience. Being up close is a total shock to the senses. It combines with the surrounding city, lit up for the night and almost overwhelms you.

From the Seine it's more of a sparkle.

My favorite is when you look just to the left or right of it and let it slip out of focus and it's more like a diamond catching the light or the sun hitting the water. I don't know, for some reason it gave me a sense of perspective. Sometimes you just have to move yourself out of a situation and look at it from a different place. It's really easy to panic about study abroad ending, or coming up to the beginning of senior year, or all the unexpected things that roll your way but I guess one thing I've realized from this whole experience is that things always tend to work out. You miss your flight, you make new friends and have the best tapas of your life, you have a bad night and your nouveau amis talk you through, and even though people leave, you find ways to keep them close or ways to get through it.

Tomorrow Lauren, Coder and Jackie leave early for Amsterdam and Vicky doesn't get in until seven, which makes it my first day exploring a town on my own. As much as it probably won't feel right to picnic alone, I think it will also make me wish I'd taken a little time to travel by myself...except for the lack of jumping pics. We'll see, we'll see. Regardless, I'm so excited to see Vicky and explore three new places together...Amsterdam, Turkey and Greece.

I guess I have a big butt.

My mission all spring long has been to find a cute, wild European bathing suit and I had almost given up until this afternoon. We were in Cassis, saying goodbye after a dip in the med and what did we run into but a shop with said suits. Unfortunately all they had on display were larges, so I asked a saleswoman in broken French if they had any smalls. What she did next needed no translation. She pointed to my butt, raised her eyebrows and said, petit??

I. Kid. You. Not.

I awkwardly shrugged while she shook her head and rummaged through a pile of suits off to the side while my friends cackled with glee in the background. She found my small and I tried it on, only to discover that the pockets puffed out and it was indeed too tight on my crepe fed butt. She came back to check on me and could not contain her giddiness at my suit that did not fit. When she had finally composed herself she said she would go fetch me a medium. I tried it on and it fit much better. She saw my approval, raised her eyebrow again and said...

Large!

I looked, and sure enough the tag had a big 'L' on it, and she positively beamed. I went back to change out of my new suit and I was later informed by my friends that she pointed to my butt once again and giggled to herself as I entered the changing room. She continued to smile as I purchased the suit and I managed to make it two steps out the door before bursting out in uncontrollable laughter.

I'd take a picture of my new suit but my backside probably wouldn't fit in the frame.

Haha, what a day, what a day.

Last Day of Teaching

So it was my last day of teaching the French kiddies on Monday and as much as I dreaded walking to that school every Monday it's also a little sad to be done. For the last class, we were of course sans a lesson plan as usual and we decided to have the kids draw their families. In a hilarious turn of events they ended up drawing pictures of my teaching partner and I. This sassy little one named Anouk came up to me, ordered me to stand still, and demanded a 'rouge' marker to color in my nose. I told her that I had gotten 'beaucoup de soleil' over the weekend and she popped her hip and said 'moi aussi'. Haha! I totally got dissed by a six year old French girl.

The pictures turned out great, most of them showed Danielle and I in castles (hmm?) with hearts around us, and in a couple of them we were pooping. Ok, I laughed, a lot...I never promised to be a mature teacher. With 10 minutes left and nothing to do I saw that they had music sheets on their desk and told them to sing for us. It turned out to be the best moment of my life when they one by one stood up and joined into the circus tune that went a little bit like this, 'Blim Blim, Bloum, Bloum, Tra la la la Lere' and went on to talk about French clowns and such. Even the little badass with the rat tail that said his name was 'toilette' in the beginning of the semester was singing along and it was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. That was until the little girl that told me I was sunburnt gave me bisous to say goodbye. Oh the French. I'll miss those little punks!

Real updates on life coming soon.

Things are ending and I'm not sure how I feel about it.