i am officially in love with lisa.

If you have talked with me in the past 48 hours, you would know that me having a travel crisis is the understatement of my "abroad" life. Lisa was my savior.

Lisa was here since Tuesday as part of her London study abroad program. I have not spoken to Lisa with my own voice since April during finals week last Winter semester where we both hadn't been to England yet, and she was jealous of me because I was going within a matter of days, and I was jealous of her because I knew I would be jealous of her later, when my program was over. We were on the same freshman floor. I like Lisa because I knew that even though we really didn't "hang out" freshman year, and I think I saw her maybe three times last year, I knew it would be fun to hang out with her in Paris, that there would not be a gap in the conversation, and that it was quite probable that we would have a splendid time. Because I like her.

When I found out at the Musée D'Orsay that she loves Monet, I took her here: Except for before that, we had to revamp at Angelina with some hot chocolate.



We had each of the waterlily rooms to ourselves for about a whole two minutes. It was wonderful. After walking near the Seine, and a trip into Shakespeare and Co., we went up to the top of Notre Dame, which I haven't done yet, which was beautiful, because the sky was clear and the sun was beautiful and orange, and Lisa has a thing for sunsets. Along with hair and fabric in paintings, shadows, not liking things that other people like just to be contrary, and not making things awkward because they don't need to be.


Lisa working her magic. And my wonderful framing skills. Look at Lisa's ear in the top left corner. It's my favorite part.

view:



And our conversation jumped between our friends, study abroads, my study abroad to England and how it is similar/different from hers, Rachel Ashby, going on missions, the fact that everyone we know is getting married, Rachel Ashby, England, literature, being nerds, hot chocolate, how I am kind of scared of Monet's waterlilies because you can't actually understand them from up close, and that you understand them better when you are closer to the panel you are not looking at, Rachely Ashby, and no horizons in the waterlilies paintings, and England, and London, and Paris, and the tube and the metro, and beautiful gardens, and gaudy English decor and beautiful, whimsical french decor, and attractive people in Paris, Rachely Ashby, and saying "lovely," and how Paris is emotional and passionate, and how London is intellectual and loves memory, about giving directions in a British accents, my incompetence in speaking French, good crepe prices, the city versus the country, study abroad group dynamics, about being friends with lots of different people, and how Lisa admitted that even though everyone loves Paris and therefore she was playing hard to get, Paris won. Which made me so very happy. Lisa, I think I kind of felt like that too before I came on study abroad here. I was fully ready to never let myself love Paris because somehow that might take away from how much I love England. And now all I can say is what every person says, and you say "thank you for being so vague": they're different. And I love both of them.

don't you feel as though these could almost be parts of a temple? I think church should definitely consider building in the gothic style.

I thought I was so funny taking these:

Lisa, I am so happy that I got to see you today and spend the day with you. You made me feel so much better. And I really needed that.

julie, i tried to think of another title that would catch your interest, and i could not.

This is why I love Paris parks on Sundays:












Aren't they they sweetest?

Chartres last thursday.

adam doing what he does best...

liz and angela doing what they do best.

marc doing what he does best...

and cami doing what she does best.

Tati

isn't she so pretty?

A good friend of mine sent me an essay of his where the opening image is of him and a friend sprinting across the intersection/roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe.

If you have been there, and if you have watched traffic from the top of the arc,

you know how ridiculous the traffic is, because basically cars just enter the intersection, and slowly every car inches out of the way of each other, and things clear up and meanwhile, motorcycles and mopeds weave in and out through all of the cars, inches from bumpers and tiny mistakes and death. And if you didn't know that, now you do.

There is a pedestrian tunnel, everyone. Please take the tunnel, for your own safety.

I really didn't think I could yell that across the intersection at Tati and her cool half Morrocan, half American, fluent in French friend Sophi. So, instead I pulled out my camera.

Tati is here for a week, and the last time I saw her was for my sister Cami's farewell in March in Eugene. It was so strange to see her in Paris, but so good. It's weird that it felt like a piece of Eugene in Paris, but really, she doesn't live in Eugene anymore, so really she is a piece of Munich visiting me, but really a part of my family visiting me too. We spent Christmas together last year, we have the same onesie my mom bought for all of us, we went to the holiday market together.

It's so weird because she was such a part of my family for a whole nine months, she knew all of the Eugene gossip, became part of our ward and our family, knew what was happening with all of my sisters, and now she is living in an apartment going to school in Munich, and we hear from her every once in a while. She is doing well, studying German history and English, and she just got a job at a men's chic clothing store. Sophi wanted to go shopping at H&M and Zara, so with the millions of places to choose from where the stores are located, of course I chose to go to the huge stores on the Grands Boulevard, which is right next to the Opera house, a famous street for shopping, and a really beautiful area, especially now that Christmas decorations are just beginning to appear. So obviously, I told them we had to get off at the stop, "Grands Boulevards." Woops! Big mistake. We were about four stops away from the area I was really trying to get to. Good thing I live here in Paris. How dumb. I was so embarrassed. And their feet were so tired from having visited the Musée D'Orsay in the morning. So I felt so stupid, but, we made it there, and hopefully I will be able to redeem myself tomorrow when we get to see each other again.

This week has been a bit difficult, because I bought tickets to go to GREECE (one of my life goals, see right side of my blog list at the bottom...) and remembered that I do not have limitless funds, even though it feels like that whenever I buy something. Especially something expensive. It is hard to remember to be careful with money, and sometimes for me it takes days to remember how to really entertain myself without having to spend money. It's ridiculous. But then, it only takes one large purchase to remember how exciting it is to buy something new.

So, thank you Tati for helping me remember how fun it is to roam the streets without having to spend money! Also, because of Greece, I told her I didn't think I would be able to take a trip to Munich to visit her, and she was so sad, and so was I. We both agreed that I should just petition Sir Troy and his immense generosity...

My roommate Cami took the most beautiful pictures of her favorite foods for her photo project (these pictures are so beautiful they make me want to die), and I was inspired to do my own little still life shoot. Here are my favorite beautiful old books of Madame's:

and just to give you some context, some furniture:

She was out of town this weekend, so we finally finished watching Anne of Avonlea in the front room.

forgive me for reliving things from last year...

place des vosges

I just realized that it is halloween tomorrow a couple of hours ago. Needless to say, the whole preparation part of halloween has totally passed my by, and I realized how much of the season I have missed! Only today when I was in Place des Vosges (an old square where among other people, Victor Hugo used to live) and saw beautiful fall leaves, and some yellow trees and some barren trees, and heard a wonderful street violinist playing Bach, or some kind of baroque composer, and felt the coldness creep on to my hands and my face, as I looked at a fountain, did I almost start crying with the beauty of the whole thing, and realize how much I really like fall, and how I am quite sad that I don't get to dress up this year and go dancing.

I suppose I could, there are probably plenty of clubs here that I could put on a costume and go dancing, but it would probably not be very funny, and I would probably just get grossed out. I got pretty grossed out last year because although I expected all of the slutty girls, there were so many boys who were not wearing pants. And I was in Provo. And it was gross.

I took a nap tonight because I have been so tired the past couple of days. I think it was just that one art history midterm that sucked away all of my energy. After I woke up from my nap, I all of the sudden remembered that there is a particular fall smell that I have not smelled here. Somehow mixed with pumpkin and leather and cold air and apples and dead leaves. And I remembered a little over a year ago when I was in Oregon, and my sister Cami and my cousin Kate and I went in search for our favorite apple orchard in Eugene that grew probably twenty different kinds of apples. We drove around, listening to fall music, and enjoying being away from school and responsibilities, and the only stress included making all of my mother's most delicious recipes for my sister Jess' mission farewell open house. It ended up that the crazy man who owned our favorite orchard, chopped down all of his trees at the end of the previous season. Who does that? Anyway, we found another orchard, where the apples weren't the type my mom needed for enormous caramel apples dripping with chocolate and caramel and nuts and coconut, but it was smaller and organic, and we bought a lot of apples from her, and walked through her orchard and felt the crisp, cool air, and smelled her small wooden shed where she stored apples and dust and we bought delicious delicious apple cider. The rich, dark apple cider that tastes like you're drinking apples. And then we drove away from her small little shed and old orchard, and big random items made of old wood, like huge wheels and other things that just build up when you have huge plots of land and generations of build-up.

I was also a dog for halloween last year. Possibly my favorite costume of all time. Definitely the most fun. I just got to do one of my favorite things--pretend like Ellie.

These things include sniffing, barking, whining, huffing, nuzzling, and shaking my leg while being scratched on my stomach that I covered with a round piece of white paper. I put my hair really high on my head like ears, and wore mittens for paws. I also colored half of my face brown with one of my markers. I scrubbed my face the next day with soap, and it still didn't come off. Only with using about half of Heidi's bottle of make-up remover did it come off. But I was so proud of myself for finding an animal that I could be and bypass the whole disgusting animal-turned-sexy costume. No one ever dresses up like a sexy dog. But really, right? I think if I dressed up this year, I would be a pidgeon. Not quite sure how, but definitely one with a limp and a messed up foot, and stepped on, and just pecking and eating all over the place. Both my sisters Lauren and Cami were dressed up as nerds. They were funny. I think my family is way too good at acting like nerds. But each in our own, uniquely awkward way.

And I miss massive amounts of candy. I can't figure out a way to get massive amounts of candy here without buying it. Last year, we had a halloween dance for our ward, where I dressed up as a tree with tons of leaves all over myself, and then Heidi and I both stole enormous bowls of candy. We figured it was okay because our other roommate Katie was the activities director so it was basically her candy anyway, right? It was gone the next day. And I miss carving pumpkins with my mom, who ended up carving pumpkins by herself last year because Rachel was so busy. I carved pumpkins about two weeks before halloween last year because an apartment of boys invited our apartment over to carve pumpkins. I took a picture of Sara Smith's face and printed it out and carved that on to my pumpkin. Before halloween even arrived, we took the screen out of our window in the living room so Sara could throw her rotting pumpkin out the window. A few days later, I held her pillow out that window, threatening to drop it if she didn't stop sabotaging me while I showered--aka pouring ice and water on me, forcing me to scream, "yes, Sara! You are the Alpha!" and then turning out the light before relocking the door with a butter knife behind her and laughing like a creeper.

That's all. I am just thinking about last year. But today was a beautiful day as well. Just no free candy tomorrow.

Happy Halloween!