HOLA!!!

so we have arrived in spain....it was quite the journey but here we are.

we missed our flight.
they lost our bags.
they wouldnt pay us for our lost bags.
they wouldnt deliver our bags so we had to skip out on siteseeing to go BACK to the airport.
and then my suitcase was kinda broken and rachels was impossible to carry.

merde.

haha whatevs we had fun in madrid even without the museums and bullring being open and then of course new years was insanity! we went to Plaza Sol and celebrated with thousands of other people stuffing out faces with grapes and champagne!

today we took the most miserable train ever (you know in movies where people ride those miserable looking trains in southeast asia where they are getting thrown around in the cars?....well that was us only in europe!) The train seriously felt like it was going to just come apart at any moment and we would be left in the barren spanish countryside.

Now we are in valencia and excited for a busy day of siteseeing and a crazy night out!

bring on the tapas and sangria por favor!

You'll make the scene like you always do

so back in lynchburg! WEEEEEIRD!

I am missing the metro hardcore right now because I hate driving to get anywhere and also that even in a car it takes me 15-20 mins to get anywhere I wanna go.

Lynchburg does have its perks though........uh wait. oh yeah La Caretta. the end.


tonight is miss bomans birthday extravaganza so that means some good times with good people.

oh and courtney called me today! woohoo!!! I miss my chouchous!

yes the suburbs make me cry....

so im home.

the last week in Paris was beyond amazing and i love all the kids I met there and will miss them dearly! Luckily anna will be around in the spring!

My last night in Paris we celebrated with champagne for our bartenders at Chez Justine and then I returned home around 230 am to begin packing....needless to say i didnt sleep that night and then had to travel all day friday starting with a 7am metro trip to CDG. Then it was a long day on an airplane with on and off sleeping then another long drive back to lynchburg.

Returning home and knowing i needed to stay up i grabbed coffee with ryan and finally hit the bed around 1230 (6am to me). This jet lag is NO good and has been throwing me off like crazy! I was a basket case yesterday and everything sent me into tears. (including when i looked out my plane window into the DC suburbs and realized I wasnt in paris anymore)

Finally, yesterday was the annual christmas get together at my place and it was wonderful. Good food, good strawberry wine and of course good company!

Its nice to be home but I am beyond excited to get back to europe....i just want a drama free week, is that so much to ask?? oh yeah i guess so!

Joyeux Noel!!!

il etait une fois......

the hands arent quite right but whatev!

hehehe

thats total bollocks!

watch out london....here we come!

So after the stress of a lifetime it turns out I don't have to get a visa after all...What a mess!
So london is a go and im super excited....saturday night at the bar anna and i decided to tell everyone we were british...and it worked! A real brit (some guy from Kent) actually believed us so we were pretty proud of ourselves.


I am SO excited!!

and super sad about leaving paris...if i can even leave that is since there is an airline greve starting the 20th of december and my flight its the 22nd!!!! YIKES!

awkward turtle....struggling for life...then dying....SORRY COURTNEY!

oh mon dieu! soooo fun weekend yet again!

Thursday I chilled out at home to just take a break and get ready for another long weekend.

Friday we were going to do a dinner party at anna's which sadly didnt work out but we ended up hitting up a few bars around my neighborhood anyway....we tried out a new place called Pop In and it was like a frat party, only with eurotrash music (oh AND the postal service which made me super happy!) , there were so many people and the bar has two stories like a house party so it was rather entertaining. After a few hours in the smoky abyss we decided to move the party to Charbonne....we made the walk up (and by walk i mean mosey at the slowest pace EVER!) Then john goes oh wait...i dont think i have my phone. Way to go McG.....hes so chill though and didnt really worry about it where as I would be freaking out and panicking. Around 3 we called it a night and headed home ready for a fun saturday!

Saturday I met courtney and we crossed a few more things off our "to do in paris" lists. We checked out Napoleons tomb at Invalides (the thing is MASSIVE) and then we went to the Musée de l'Orangerie to see Monet's Waterlilies....absolutely breathtaking... afterwards we went downstairs just to see what they had and I actually found my favorite Monet^^! I found a postcard of it when we visited Giverny and fell in love and of course as soon as we walk in the room I was ecstatic! After many more renoirs, cezannes, and picassos we headed off to do some shopping!

*side note * Les Halles on a saturday = BAD IDEA!

Last night was glorious! We finally got our Moules at a cute cafe in Montmartre and afterwards headed to the bastille to try out some hookah. Afterwards was a little oberkampf action and an interesting night.

Today was a lot of sleeping and now i guess a lot of working on this rapport.

oh btw i STILL dont have a visa for the UK....maybe i wont be in london afterall!

bisous mes chous chous!

the chaud, chocolat chaud, cafe....chaud...haha

so the title is in reference to our awesome train driver on sunday morning. As we were leaving and he told us about the offerings in the beverage car thats what happened....we all enjoyed a little laugh.

SOOOOOO fun weekend.

Friday was another dinner party chez Janelle et Francesca. As usual it was lots of fun and lots of craziness. Afterwards was a night in Oberkampf...bien sur....and a very late (or early since my roomate was leaving when i arrived) return home after getting courtney on the metro.
*Anna and I had lots of fun with our tights that night *

Saturday, after about 3 hrs of sleep, I met courtney for some American style breakfast *3pm mind you* and then we were off to ice skating!!! Every year they set up a rink at Hotel de Ville and it opened on Sat so of course we had to check it out....lots of fun even though I was exhausted and had lost my voice the night before....way to go me.


Then sunday was finally the long awaited trip to strasbourg for the Marche de Noel!
I was still super exhausted but it was amazing! As usual the trip centered around making sure we ATE everything we had been waiting for. Soooo we consumed : Vin chaud (mulled wine) see pic, pain d'epices (gingerbread) other pic, bretzels both salty and sugary, some crazy german noodle things, soup a l'onion, tarte flambee (like a thin pizza), Chocolat chaud, Jus de pomme, macaroons and reisling. Needless to say at the end of the day we were about to pop!
Oh and while waiting for our train john and I found a completely flat soccer ball which we decided to play with for a while....at which time i lost my camera and john got beaten by a girl. the end.

Last night was FINALLY minus the bear and it was rather odd. There were about 30 people total in the venue and it was super awk....i think the band was also kinda weirded out by it cause there was no encore and not a crazy long set....i didnt even get my absinthe party (and the song is ABOUT paris) whatever it was still a FABULOUS show and I even got a cute shirt with a seagull on it :)

Tonight we saw The Golden Compass....sucks to be you americans who have to wait for it to come out there! it was very good and quite pretty :)

only two more days till another exciting weekend filled with dinner parties, dancing and my lovelies!

BISOUS!