Castle Walls

Living behind these castle walls isn't as empty as Christina and TI say it is. It is actually pretty amazing.

This weekend I got to go on a surprise vacation with the family. Now they didn't spring the vacation on me from out of no where [that wasn't the surprise]. I knew that we were going somewhere, I just didn't know exactly where... and no one was willing  to tell me.

So on Saturday morning we had packed up our stuff and set off for.... somewhere. Our first stop was at a site where an organization is rebuilding a Medieval Castle. They try to use [most] historic methods for building, and similar materials. There were booths showing off how certain materials are forged (i.e metal, string, stone carving, etc). You could also, obviously, check out the castle itself. While it wasn't built completely, it was still quite a site to see.

Castle is still in the building process. They hope to finish by 2025 or something like that.

This staircase reminds me of the LOTR scene where Legolas slides down the staircase all badass. 

We then went to a quarry. I have never been, and I just found it fascinating (even if it was freezing cold). I am too lazy get copy all the pictures that my host mom took, so instead you'll have to suffer through crappy iPhone picture quality. 

The girls putting on a show

Lastly we went to our hotel. Which wasn't in fact a hotel, but a freakin castle! With a mote and everything! It's a castle that's from the 13th century (I think), and has passed down through the family. They have remade it into a bed and breakfast. Although we also had a delicious dinner there as well. It was magical. I want to go back. Heck, I want to live there. 

Yeah... magical. 

We came back pretty early on the Sunday so I headed off to meet some friends in a near-by city. There was a market on where I bought some cool stuff. And then we walked through a forest. All I could think about was how amazing it was to experience a real autumn here. I loved it so much. Autumn is definitely my favourite season, it just makes me so happy. 

Reliving the good ol' days

And by that I mean going out on a weeknight. Yes yes, in university almost every day was a drinking day, but your energy kind of dwindles down when you are working with kids on a daily basis.

So I had my usual Tuesday French lesson. These are going well. Fairly simple. I feel like I have learned more from Duolingo than these 3 french lessons I've already had. But it is really nice to practice conversational french in the class. 

Oh and I've had another encounter with my mortal enemy: the giant hairy, dozen eyed, monstrosity that is la grosse araignée. For god sakes, are these people farming them??? As I was just peacefully enjoying my day in the kitchen, eating my breakfast, the damn thing has the nerve to run across the living room and hide under the couch! Face me you beast! No wait, don't face me, cause I will run away like scared little child. 

So back to my story:

After my class my host mom drove me to the train station and I made my way into the city of lights, or the city that doesn't really smell very nice as I have now noticed. 

I met up with a friend, we got wine, and got our class on. We had some plans that had fallen through so we made some even better plans to hang out with another friend, drink more wine, and hang out by the river. Really now, doesn't that just sound like the best night in Paris? And we didn't get harassed by scary Parisian men this time! It's just a win, win situation. 

The next day we woke up at the crack of dawn, or what the time it feels like when you've had 2 bottles of wine the previous night. We went to the market where my friend grabbed stuff for her host family, we enjoyed some delicious crepes, and some kind of ethnic things that looked like samosas. All of which was delicious. 

I then headed over to meet another friend at the Opera. It was really interesting. Seeing the stage though made me miss performing so much. Just let me get on a stage for at least a minute so I could feel what it is like to have the lights on you, to get lost in the music, and to smile to no one in particular while having an amazing time. 

Then of course we got food and coffee while enjoying a beautiful view of Paris of a top some cool looking mall. 

Explore Euriday

I've just been exploring for most of this time.
My first stop was the Fontainebleau castle which was so cool! Every time I walk through these castles I like to pretend that I am a princess running through these halls in all my skirts. Yeah, I am becoming a princess when I grow up.

The day after that I visited Paris to meet up with some friends and eat the best falafel ever, as well as ice cream. It seems like I mostly go to Paris for the food, clearly I am here to lose weight. 

On Saturday we set off to Versailles. We drove there which didn't take very long, but finding parking was quite difficult (still nothing compares to Paris with its, literal, bumper to bumper parking. You simply bump the car in front of you and behind you, to make room for your own car). Versailles has another beautiful castle (although I prefer the Fontainebleau castle. It feels more real, more relatable, and had way less tourists). 

And lastly to end the weekend with a bang, we went to Disneyland. Although not going to lie, we were exhausted! But Disney was fun, unfortunately the Paris one does not have very many rides. You can tell it is mostly for little kids who love Princes and Princesses, rather than going on rides. 

Yes we even went on the carousel. And then Space Moutanin... 3 times... in a row... 

One Night in Paris.

This past weekend was pretty amazing, but let me first start off with my adventure this morning.

I woke up as usual, drove Leo to school, as usual, and started making my breakfast. As I was finishing cooking my delicious breakfast eggs, I went to place the dirty dishes in the sink. To my horror I found THIS:

If anyone knows me, or has experienced my reactions when spiders appear, I freak out. I have a pretty severe arachnophobia. And to find such a huge one so close in proximity!!! Well for the rest of the day I avoided the kitchen. I sat in my room, until I had to leave for my french class, with the door closed (you never know, it might makes it was upstairs, and into my room... the closed door will stop him). 

Anyways, Let's move this picture a little further up so I don't have to see it anymore. 

Ok... better. This is France not Australia... 

So this weekend I spent my free time in beautiful Paris. 

On the Friday night I headed out with the family. My host mom bought us tickets for a play. Or as I will later find out... a one man show. It was pretty cool though. I understood some things! I'd do a little happy dance in my head every time I heard a phrase I would understand it. And then linger on it, repeating it to myself to make sure I can later incorporate it in my everyday french interactions. 

Contrary to what some believed would happen, no I did not fall asleep. 

The next day I..... WENT SHOPPING. It was exhilarating. I sent many snapchats. I was very excited. And I bought 2 bags of stuff, shoes and a coat included. That is it. No more shopping... (lol #jks). 

I then went to meet a friend in Paris to go exploring. We mostly walked around as we didn't have much time to actually visit a place. It was still quit a lot of fun. I changed my pants in a Mcdonalds bathroom (I started off wearing jeans... bad idea). 

I then met up another friend with whom I went to a place called "Frog" for drinks and food. And then got wine and champagne (for 8 euros all together!!), to well... be classy and stuff. 

I lied and said I could open corked bottles... I tried... I couldn't. But we did manage to open it together. 

The Eiffel Tower is beautiful at night! 

We had a pretty awesome time at a bar called "Cafe Oz". And for some crazy reason I decided to get Jagger bombs.. Like WTF. I hate Redbull. I don't know what happened in my mind there. I then got frustrated at a waitress for not understand my awesome french when I was asking for "un l'eau! - [a the water]". We then ran into some interesting Parisian men.... or pigs I should call them. Guys in Canada will cat call, yell shit at you, but will NEVER touch you. But Paris is a completely different story. They will grab you, if you give them the chance. It can get a little scary. 

The next day we woke up with a pretty awesome sauce hangover. Thanks to 4 euro wine and champagne. We headed over to Chipotle (cause we're cool as shit) for a breakfast burrito, which was so worth the long detour/walk. 

Later I met up with another friend to explore some more of Paris. We saw many tombs of famous people that day... including 3 Napoleons. Yes.. 3. I did not know that there were three, but now I do. 

Finished the day by sitting by the river. 

FOMO is now just literally MO

*for those of you who are not familiar with the term (as I found out some people are not) FOMO = Fear Of Missing Out.

Now I don't even care about FOMO. Talk french, I don't care. But when it involved shit that I have to know, or things that have to do with my day and duties... are you kidding me! That's were I am a bit annoyed. Like how is it more important that a 9 and 6-year old know exactly what should be happening (not only because they speak french and can understand the dialect, but because they are directly told) but the 23-year-old who's duty it is to look after the kids can be left in the dark... I don't see the point of the 9 and 6-year old knowing exactly what is going on... I'd like to see them drive themselves to school.

I like how sometimes I find things out because I am already half way through doing it, or I am told "Allez"... And then people are surprised when I ask "sorry, where are we going/ what are we doing?"

Ughh.. Maybe I am just so miserable because I am sick. Like actually I have some kind of cold. I blame it on stress, but I don't know if there is such a thing as a "stress cold". Well I just invented it! I just want a little getaway somewhere. Well I do have a Netherlands trip coming up... but that's in October.. that's a bit too far. I need one now, to re-energize and get my sanity back. Or just something to perk me up. And stop freaking crying to my friends and family back home. Again I've only been like this, this week. And most of the people I complain to blame it on me feeling like utter crap... they may have a point. Well we shall see how things go. I am going to go take a nap now. Or watch proposals or some other sad shit that makes me cry... why do I do this to myself!

I've got these Feelings for you [Paris]

I got to spend 2 full days in Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday. I explored, I met such awesome people (even I am impressed with my luck), and I walked a lot.

My first day I met up with my German friend. Well met up almost more than an hour late, thanks to my awesome not-so-french parking skills. Heres the gist: I arrived at the parking lot of the train station only to see that it is extremely packed. Like if you try to venture inside you'll probably be bumping cars. Parking lines don't mean anything in France, people will park everywhere, including the curb, and in the middle of the parking lot - like actually they make an extra row in between the designed parking on the sides. So I gave up on my dream of bumper to bumper parallel parking and decided to park on the street (along with some other wise drivers). Turns out we were all not so wise, as at the end of the day all of us had parking tickets...

Anyways so I missed the train, but fortunately was able to hunt down my friend. We visited the Saint Chapelle first, which is a church, and then we ventured into a legislature building that wasn't a touristy area at all, there were people working and security everywhere. So we left pretty quickly realizing how much we stand out in our casual clothes and most of the workers wearing robes and suites.

My friend then had to leave to pick up her kids, while I decided to go to Montmartre to visit the Sacre Coeur.  Little did I know that this area of Paris is a "preferably-dont-be-alone-in", so I got harassed by a group of guys right before going up the stairs of the Sacre Coeur. Even worst, today I saw a news article saying that on Wednesday a police officer was attacked by these scammers who stand outside of Sacre Coeur! Some people can just go fuck themselves. So anyways after being groped by one of these guys, my mood wasn't necessarily in a great touristy, explory mood, but I made it all the way here so I forced myself to explore the church. I am glad I did. I met a friendly 50-year-old New Yorker travel who was very nice to me, and we talked about some other nice places in Paris and about his travels. I bet he didn't get fondled by the fucking pigs. 

The next day I went back to Paris to meet another au pair. Fortunately for me he has been in France for longer than I, and he speaks french. 

Our first, and impressive, stop was the Abercrombie and Fitch at the Champs-Elysees (forget the accents). First you walk through this huge golden gate, into a hedge maze. Then as you approach the store there this half naked "model" whom you can take pictures with. Then once you enter the store it is dark, except for the lights above the merchandise and everything looks gold. Don't forget the perfume they spray through the vent system. 

Continuing down the road we saw a street performer....

And then climbed the Arche de Triumphe. 

And then climbed up the Notre Dam. I pretty much got my exercise for the week climbing all these stairs and walking around Paris.