que sera, sera.: we'll always have paris

so, starting where i left off. as we were sitting sipping on french onion soup, a group of five pretty darn good looking men were sitting next to us. we were obviously american because we had USA written all over us, and the easy conversation starter was "rough loss huh?" after that, we were talking for the next hour and a half. they learned all of our names and where we were from and we did the same. there was yves, peter, richard, toby, and one more but he had a girlfriend from home so, he doesn't count anyway. they drove from switzerland to paris for the weekend and were the friendliest people i've met in europe thus far. i honestly wanted to marry each one of them. oh, and they were all fluent in english. and german. and french. and chinese. since being here i have become pissed at america for not making us learn more languages. in some countries in europe, you can't graduate high school unless you're fluent in THREE languages. THREE. i've been working on spanish for six years and i'm still not fluent. talking to people that are from other countries, yet speak your language perfectly, makes me feel so inadequate sometimes. however, long story short we had to catch the metro home at 130 so we couldn't continue our romantic flirtation but it was a great way to end the evening.

saturday morning me and shan got up early and went to find the eiffel tower in the day time (cause we had tickets to go to the top that night.) i will never forget the feeling i got when i turned the corner and saw this enormous monument staring me in the face. i may or may not have almost started crying. i know it sounds dumb, but i really didn't realize how big it was! we got some great photos and stared into the distance for a solid 7 minutes, but then we had to rush to catch a train to versailles for the day. me and kim decided to pay for a tour because i honestly am so much more interested in things when i know the history behind them. #nerdygirlproblems. our tour guide once again was fab. we started outside the incredible palace and spent almost two whole hours in the gardens of versailles, learning everything about louis XIV and XVI. oh, and marie antoinette of course. that part of french of history is officially my favorite. after the tour was over me and kim went inside the palace to see it in all its glory. i have never seen so much marble and so much gold in one place. and the hall of mirrors was by far the coolest part of the palace for me. it was where the treaty of versailles was signed, just casually ending the first world war. ain't no thang.

after our day in versailles was over, we hopped back on the 40 minute train to paris where i met up with molly and the gehls to get an authentic french dinner. it was the best idea we've ever had to get fondue. not only have i never had fondue before, but i have never had wonderful french fondue before either. i had french onion soup round 2 to start and then we got four cheese with bread, potatoes, and steak strips to dip in it. oh, and i had a snail right out of the shell. i can check "eat french escargot in paris" off the bucket list. after dinner we headed over to the eiffel tower to see it all lit up! again, my breath was literally taken away (as nauseatingly cheesy as that sounds) because it was just as amazing as i expected it to be. the view from the top was frightening at first, cause i'm not the biggest fan of heights, but i have never seen the world from that high up before. i didn't even take many pictures because i knew that they wouldn't do the view any justice. believe it or not, we spent almost two hours gawking on top of that tower. but i think it was the only way i would have wanted to spend my last night in paris.

i know that you're wondering how i survived not going out for an entire weekend. my response is that i will make up for it this weekend in madrid, which i have slowly realized has a nightlife unlike the rest of europe.

other exciting news:

i booked my flights to brussels and amsterdam for my two remaining trips this semester.
my mom sent me a package that i finally received today! even though i'll see her on sunday.
i got to spend my night last night drinking sangria with michaela instead of doing my homework and i want her to come back to madrid.
i finally bought new black tights.
its sunny!