Three Days-o-Fun

All my days in Paris are fun (except for when I make the occasional depressed blog post, and even then it’s not so bad), but the past three days have been ESPECIALLY fun.

Thursday morning I had my first test, which wasn’t totally awesome, but I think I did well. But Thursday NIGHT I went out to celebrate Taylor’s 21st birthday. We went to her favorite bar, and GUESS WHAT?! The bartender graduated four years ago from the greatest school on the planet, the University of Texas at Austin! He grew up in Austin, so we had plenty to talk about. Don’t get me wrong: there wasn’t a love connection (I’m pretty sure I could never have a love connection with a bartender), but it was REALLY refreshing to talk to someone who knew something about the land that I love (Texas).

(I like parentheses.)

I called it a night pretty early since I was far away from my apartment and the metros start to shut down shortly after midnight, but it really was a good time.

Then FRIDAY I went to Giverny in Normandie! It was SUCH a blast. That’s where Claude Monet lived and was inspired to paint his magnificent oeuvres, and believe it or not, his glorious scenic paintings pale in comparison to the actual living beauty in the gardens there. I took pictures, but WOW, I wish you could have been there.

See pictures of Giverny: (Copy and Paste the URL)

http://utexas.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092981&l=c5391&id=7908530


We also saw a museum of American art, and as much as I love museums, I was pretty tired by that point. It was an action-packed excursion from 8:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

But the day didn’t end there! It was Katie Ramsey’s birthday, so Anna Ziemer, Katie and I went to have a picnic on a grassy knoll next to the Seine. Anna and I had gotten Katie a chocolate cake, and together we ate the whole thing! Yikes.

I’d like to think we walked it off afterwards though. We strolled through the city for hours just taking it all in, even stumbling upon a music festival. Anna and I swing danced for a minute, because we’re both pretty awesome.

See pictures from Katie’s birthday night: (Copy and Paste the URL)

http://utexas.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2092977&l=cac59&id=7908530

We wanted to see a movie, but it was late and there were no more showings. We all decided to rendezvous the next day (Saturday) for a shopping marathon-slash-movie extravaganza.

So today we met at the Paris Opera House at noon and began to squander away our fortunes. I bought two dresses, a tank top, some accessories, and some little gifts for family and stuff.

Oh, we also ate at McDonalds (on weekends I’m allowing myself to do American stuff), which all three of us agreed is better here than it is in the U.S. No offense, America! I still love you more.

Afterwards we saw Sophia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette.” It was a little surreal, because we were watching a movie about France, filmed with English-speaking actors, subtitled in French, and the movie was surprisingly very pro- the French monarchy, which the French people detest. The movie made the proletariat look like a buncha whiney babies, which may go over well stateside, but it’s doubtful that the message will resonate here…

But anyway, many funs were had.

Thank you for reading! I know this was a long one. Y’all are great. :-)

Missing you,

Kate