The lights of Paris

If the facebook photos weren't already a dead give away, I made it to Paris Saturday. My foot hurt a little throughout the day, but I ignored it and trudged on like a champ. By the end of the day, everything else hurt too, so the pain balanced itself out. The day began around 7 when Amanda and I ran to the train station. The train ride there, the ride back 9 that evening and a brief hour repose for lunch were the only breaks we had during the day. The goal was to cover as much ground and drink as many Starbucks holiday themed beverages as humanly possible. A jolt of caffeine and our overwhelming excitement pushed us further than I expected. We power shopped our way through seven districts and we took the Metro just a single time.
Wen we arrived, I got a latte in my hand as quickly as I could. I've only tromped around that city once before, but I knew exactly where the nearest Yuppiebucks was. (EVEN THOUGH there are about have a jillion of them in that city, I honestly did know exactly where I was going. Straight out of Montparnesse for three blocks and then a sharp right-- see? No coincidence.) Much to my dismay, there weren't any peppermint mochas, gingerbread lattes or pumpkin spice or egg nog frappacrappawhatevers. French Starbucks had these praline jobs, cherry grinotte mochas and crème brûlée lattes. I had myself a mediocre cherry mocha. If it wasn't the caffeine that kept me moving all day, it was probably the sugar. The barista used SO MANY flavor syrups.

It was my first time seeing Notre Dame, the Louvre, The Seine, Shakespeare and Company or any of the other museums. I just felt so lucky to be there.

The Champs-Élysées was unfortunately a nightmare. This I should have foreseen. I had no problems moving on the Avenue during my last trip to Paris, but I guess I still should have known that your right to personal space and ease in walking are not possible when you're on the Champs-Élysées. There was some sort of Winter Wonderland festival going on and vendors selling just about everything packed in along both sides. It took about a half hour to get to the actual shopping district just because there were so many people. People would just abruptly stop walking or decide to play baby rodeo with their infants in the middle of the walkway. HM, maybe THAT's why Parisians hate tourists. The lights WERE beautiful, though and we left soon after they were turned on.

Here's some photos from our day

As of today, I have just 12 days left in France. A friend told me to "stop counting," but I feel like I have to so that this fact actually starts to sink in, or so that I push myself harder to make sure I get the most out of these next two (ish) weeks. At the moment, it's a storm of exams and last minute assignments. I even conveniently overlooked the fact that Columbia needs yet, another essay from me, so I've been pushing myself to get that cranked out. But everything will slow down soon-- the application deadline is Monday at Midnight, New York City time and by Wednesday next week, I'll be done with everything. I won't even have to go to school after that, just get my things in order before it's time to jet out. I don't want to wish away my time in France, but I know I will just feel so relieved when everything just comes to a stop. Just a few more days of stress and then it's home for the holidays.