Day 26

What a wonderful day! Everything came together beautifully, and I had an unforgettable adventure, courtesy of gift tickets from the Canadian to Disneyland Paris!

It's so beautiful...pictures don't to this justice!

So, the Canadian won tickets to Disneyland at her work (she works for a very well-known yogurt company), but she couldn't use the tickets, so she was kind enough to give them to me! I didn't want to go by myself, so I got in touch with Nadine, and we spent a perfect day in a perfect place.

We didn't miss each other at the train station like last time, so it was absolutely wonderful to be able to catch up with someone I haven't seen in two years! The reunion was kind of funny & kind of fitting, since the last time we saw each other was here in Paris two years ago. But, we met, got her RER ticket, and boarded the train to Disneyland!

We started our day of Disney adventure in Disneyland Park. I didn't know this before, but Nadine wasn't a huge roller coaster fan, which threw a wrench into my plan a little bit (French vocab moment: roller coaster --> montagnes russes). However, she was a very good sport & rode her very first roller coaster, Space Mountain: Mission 2! I don't know why she didn't like coasters before, but after that one, she was so excited that she called her mom back home to tell her! After Space Mountain, she wanted to recover a bit, so we moved on from Discoveryland to Fantasyland. In Fantasyland, we rode It's a Small World & the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups. After the Tea Cups, we moved on to Adventureland, where we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, and then we decided to take a lunch break.

It's so...steampunk!

Welcome to Fantasyland :]

There's so much going on in this picture, I don't know where to start...

Yargh! Ahoy! Avast! ... That's all I've got.

We ate at the Hakuna Matata Cafe, both ordering a formula menu of a kebab sandwich (think gyro), Hakuna fries, a drink, and ice cream. After lunch, Nadine decided that she wanted to try the Indiana Jones & the Temple of Peril ride, so we got fast passes and wandered through the house from "The Swiss Family Robinson," letting our lunch settle. By the time we finished with the tree house, we used our fast passes & rode the Indiana Jones coaster, which was a really short ride, actually. Nadine asked me when it finished if that was all for that ride (which was funny, given that she didn't like roller coasters earlier that day!).

Oooh...the Temple of Peril!

After Indiana Jones, we switched parks, going to Walt Disney Studios Park, which is much smaller than the main park, but also less crowded, which was nice. The only two coasters that we wanted to ride in Walt Disney Studios were the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster & Crush's Coaster, which I think is a new ride based on the character (of the same name) from Finding Nemo. Hindsight being what it is, we should've gotten fast passes for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and gone to do Crush's Coaster, but hindsight is always 20-20.

Welcome to Walt Disney Studios!

It's the same statue as the one in Florida!

Easily one of the best coasters in the park.

So, without hindsight to aid us, we went with Rock 'n' Roller Coaster first, and it was really a great coaster. After we finished that one, we went to find Crush's Coaster, but the wait was 65 minutes! We didn't have enough time to wait for that ride, sadly, but we did find Mickey Mouse nearby and got our pictures with him, so it worked out well in the end, and it was an absolutely perfect day with a wonderful friend.

Who doesn't love Mickey Mouse?

Days 21-24

So, there's a lot I need to catch you up on!

Since my last post, I:
- got up early enough to see the sunrise
- survived my long day of language classes (9-11, 11:15-1:15, no breaks!)
- finished my first week at the language school
- finally bought some school supplies (I still need to find a few small things)
- met a fellow Maconite studying in Paris
- made pizza for Pizza Friday night with the kids
- was invited to (& attended!) an excellent dinner at the apartment of a friend's friend
- have been enjoying the 72° & sunny weather (I've soaked up quite a bit of sunshine
as of late)
- think I'm allergic to something in the park
- have been given tickets to Disneyland Paris (can't wait to finally catch up with Nadine!)
- got my Navigo card (no more single tickets! The host father said I'm becoming a local)
- discovered a website where I can watch the latest episodes of American tv shows (Hello, Glee & Big Bang Theory!)
- found out that there's going to be a public transportation strike on Tuesday the 12th
- discovered that the kids here in France have just discovered Silly Bands
- plan on going to the Paris Auto Show tomorrow (watch for pictures of pretty, schmancy cars!)

Day 17

An easy riddle: What starts out sunny, but ends in rain? My day in Paris, that's what.

I woke up this morning to sunshine streaming in my window, which is something I haven't experienced much since I've been here. I had my now normal breakfast (bread, jam, hot tea), checked my e-mail, and then headed out to pay for my first term of language courses! I went ahead and paid in full, which allowed me to receive a letter saying that I am meeting the number of hours required for my green card! Basically, this means that my "vacation" time in Paris is ending, and I'll officially be a "legal alien" in this country. What a wonderful start to the day. After receiving my letter, I wandered around the outside of the Palais Garnier (a beautiful venue for operas/plays/ballets) in search of the Galleries Lafayette. The Galleries Lafayette is a huge, sprawling mass of buildings (it takes up 3 Paris blocks!), full of every imaginable thing. One building is specifically for homewares, one building is specifically for men's fashion, and one building is completely devoted to women's fashion. The building devoted to women's fashion has an absolutely stunning stained-glass dome that makes an atrium spanning 5 floors. Talk about grandeur.

After drooling over the Tiffany & Co. counter, I wandered amongst the handbags, looking longingly at all of the very nice, extremely expensive brands. After a while, I was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer excess of the store, so I left, but with all intentions of returning, since I had yet to see the entire floor devoted to shoes & boots. I hopped off the Metro a few stops before I normally do, and wandered around the very touristy, but bustling, Latin quarter, where I grabbed lunch to go. Today, it was a Greek "extra" pita (the extra means that they put fries on it), for a whopping 4.50 Euro. Out of habit, I ordered it from the same place that I did on my study abroad two years ago, and I only realized that after I had paid & wandered off towards the apartment.

Evidently, I took the long way back to the apartment, so by the time I finally returned, I put my feet up & read a little bit before picking up the kids. Somewhere between my arrival at the apartment & my departure an hour later, it began raining, & I wasn't about to sit in the cool, rainy weather at the park, so the kids played a Pokemon battle while I watched from the kitchen, enjoying a cup of hot tea.

Dinner for the kids tonight was pizza! I used a dough mix, rolled it out, topped it with tomato sauce, oregano, tomato slices, fresh mozzarella, & black olives. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, but I didn't eat b/c I was told by the Canadian (you remember, the former au pair for this family?) that staying in on a Friday night wasn't an option, so we went & had dinner. She had a blue steak (blue falls between raw & rare on the doneness scale) & mashed potatoes for dinner, & followed it with a chocolate mousse. I had duck breast w/ fingerling potatoes & a salad, & had a crème brûlée for dessert. And for all that deliciousness, I'm only out by 17 euro, which I think was a pretty good deal, given what I ordered.