Pi Phi tries Escargot

Having your friends from home visit you while studying abroad has to be one of the best times had. ever. Although there were ups and downs of all sorts I'm glad to report that myself, Hannah, and Shalyn made it out alive. But lets rewind.

Classes started last week. Mind you, every single one of my classes is three hours long. Although there is "une pause" for fifteen minutes about half way through, I am finally grateful that U of I classes are only 50 minutes. The area where my school is, all of a stones throw from St. Sulpice Church and the Luxembourg Gardens, is amazing, and its giving me a chance to really explore. Everything is old, in a good way, and whether or not you know it, it has some interesting historical fact to offer - the more time I spend here the more I love it. Any who, classes are really easy, meaning no homework and no stress - c'est superbe.

The home stay is arguably getting better every single day. The more I talk to other people who are also with les families d'accueil I'm learning how nice I've got it - dishes, laundry, and coffee is all done for me! Along with getting to play with a dog everyday, I'd say I've got it made.

I digress - Hannah and Shalyn landed in France on Friday but with very little planning on our parts as where to meet up once they wound their ways into the city. Hannah and I were to meet at Porte Maillot around 1 and luckily enough found each other rather easily. (Keep in mind we don't have phones were we can call each other and just be like 'Oh hey! you're in Paris, where ya at?') We proceed to grab some lunch and head towards our "meeting place" with shay. Considering I had just facebook messaged Miss Wismer only a few hours prior, throwing a name of a metro stop at her, I'm surprised we ever found her at all. After walking around in the frigid weather for a solid two hours, in circles, asking for directions several times, and looking like Americans more than once, we logged onto WiFi and surprising had a message from Shay saying she was sitting at a McDonalds (eating a croissant and nice and warm..) Our frozen selves made it to the correct Macdo eventually (she had gotten off at a different metro stop after taking the wrong train to the suburbs, then back to Paris - but she made it eventually!) and reunited LPP.

We proceeded to do what was the most logical idea - buy wine. It was great to catch up with friends and sip some vino. Even though it was not our smartest idea to stay out until the metro re-opened, we (practically) made it, and Saturday we filled our day hitting 7 of some of Paris's most renowned sites: l'ard de triomphe, champs elysees, tour eiffel, notre dame, le louvre, et moulin rouge. I've lost track of how many metro transfers we had to make (along with Hannah getting stopped by French police at one of them asking for her ticket which she threw away resulting in a 30euro fine - still super sorry Hannah! Hope that crepe made up for it a little!) but it was enough to make anyone never want to take public transportation ever again.

Exhausted we slumped to the closest restaurant and ordered some hot wine and escargot. Yum! Who knew something iconically deemed "gross" would be so tasty? We mustered enough energy to make it home and convince ourselves that it was a good idea to go out, even when Shay had a 7AM flight. Needless to say we went back to the bar where we made friends with the bartenders the night before, my iphone got stolen (perhaps lost, I'm hoping its only lost at least), we shoved Shay into a cab around 5, and Hannah missed her later flight but did manage to navigate her way to Orly to grab a different plane back home.

 I don't know about my friends, but I'm still exhausted from this weekend, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Heading to Dublin this weekend with almost the rest of U of I to celebrate a little Illini tradition.

Until next time -