Friday, November 28, 2014

#4

Happy late Thanksgiving!

3 days shy of being here for 8 weeks (again- what?!) And I've done a lousy job of blogging about it!
Let's see, since the end of October I've:
-Spent Halloween weekend at Disneyland Paris - so fun!
-Spent several weekends in Paris- visited some interesting exhibits, danced late into the night, and sought out Canadian sports bars to watch the Saint's games, because obviously.
-Discovered a pub in Senlis with weekly karaoke nights that are so..so..very...French.
-Finally visited the Senlis cathedral and a fantastic museum here (housed in a former Episcopal palace!) The history of this place is astounding- it was founded by the Romans in the 3rd century. Third. Century. I can barely wrap my mind around that. Later on, it was a royal city for several centuries and there are still pieces of the royal palace standing today.
-Received my carte bancaire! This is essentially just a debit card like back home, but I feel so very official now. After multiple instances of using it incorrectly and being on the receiving end of some very annoyed looks from cashiers- I think I've got the hang of it now.
-During the Festival de Dance a Senlis, I attended a show and saw performances by dancers from a variety of companies, including l'Opera de Paris. As always, the ballet pas de deuxs were my favorite- gorgeous costuming and perfect pointe work from the ballerina.
-Made some friends! From all over the world- in fact, I've yet to meet another American here.
-Visited Parc Asterix, which was amazing and I spent most of the day upside down or high in the sky on rollarcoasters.
-Finally FINALLY moved on from my ancient Iphone 4 to a beautiful golden Iphone 6- it's been a little over a week and I am still completely smitten. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to me! France sure didn't make it easy. 3 days of multiple locations and always -always- more documents needed- but so worth it. So excited to be able to capture and share better quality pictures of my adventures here!


Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and it was bittersweet. So thankful for the opportunity to be living a dream in France, but man was it hard being away from my family. Knowing they were all together laughing and enjoying each other, while I'm across the globe in a country where it's just "Thursday"- definitely made me homesick, but more importantly- made me that much more excited to be going home in less than 3 weeks for a 3 week long holiday visit!

And just in time to hype up my holiday spirit- tomorrow I'm headed to Strasbourg a.k.a "The Capitol of Christmas"! I've always wanted to visit a real Christmas market, and last year Strasbourg was voted the Best Christmas Market in Europe. Also on the agenda: Saverne and Colmar. Basically those elaborate holiday decor villages your grandma sets up for Christmas, but life size.
So excited, I can't wait to post pictures!




xoxo