Roommate's Wedding!

So my cute little roommate from Paris got married yesterday!


Doesn't she look great?


Her husband is so nice, and they have similar senses of humor. Its really cute to see them interact. And not in the over the top cheesy way either.


Awww!

I also got to see two of my other friends from Paris and we all had a great chat. I ended up staying the entire time at the reception. Normally, I stay for about half an hour and then run. (normally its the home wards that I know no one in and there is no point to staying) I also didn't have any other place to be. It was a lot of fun.

Macaron Day

Thursday was Macaron day at Pierre Hermé. Pierre Hermé, we have decided, has the best macarons in Paris. They cost about 1,5 Euros a piece. Macarons are two little cookies with some kind of creme in the center. A little like Oreos, but with soft cookies instead of hard, and about a hundred times better. You can pick which kind you would like, from simple flavors like chocolate, pistachio, and lemon, to slightly more exotic like rose and olive oil with vanilla to really different like cream cheese, orange and passion-fruit (that one is quite good).


On Macaron Day, Pierre Hermé gave away free macarons!! You could get three free and then if you donated to help the orphans, they gave you a special red one (I think it was mostly red with chocolate on the inside). Considering four macarons would normally cost about six euros, which is nine dollars, we went and got some. It was definitely worth waiting in line for forty minutes.

Learning curve

I think that being in a singles ward has spoiled me. I still look at adults as if they know more than I do. But after twenty years as a member and many years of higher education, I am slowly becoming aware that I can't expect everyone to do a perfect job in their calling. In our program we are singing for a single adult conference, with some of the single adults. Last night we had a rehearsal with all of us for the first time. It took two and a half hours. I expected there to be good time management and I expected the director to know how to run a choir. I was disappointed. But after much reflection, I came to the realization that I can't always expect people to be good at everything and sometimes my job is just to support them in their calling, even if I could do a better job. Not that I would want the job. But I need to learn to be a little more forgiving, because I've had far too much training in classroom management, and that's really what the problem was I think

March comes in like a lion

You know that saying? Well, it never made much sense to me, but now it does. In France they call it La Giboulée de Mars. Pretty much, when you get up in the morning, you have no idea what the weather is going to be like. That is because it constantly changes. If there is a twenty percent chance of rain, you will feel rain drops, in between two sections of absolutely beautiful sunshine. Right now, there is sunshine streaming in my window as I get ready to leave for the day. However, there will be at least two or three times today where clouds cover the sun and the rain comes down.
Happened yesterday. We went to the Eiffle Tower because the weather was just gorgeous. By the time we got there, it was cloudy and the wind was blowing. I felt a few little drops on my head before we made it to the entrance. It was a little windy climbing up, but once up, you couldn't stay still for too long, it was too cold. So. Always wear your coat and scarf.

Marais 2

And its back to the swamps!! This was actually one of my favorite sections of town. There were so many cool things!! Here are a couple of highlights.

Jewish Synagogue



Hector Guimard, art nouveau designer. I love his work! He designed the Jewish Synagogue (his wife was Jewish)



Plaque on an elementary school in the Jewish section


Replica of an 18th Century room in the Cognac-Jay museum


The Cognac-Jay museum is totally dedicated to items from the 18th Century. It was really cool. There were several rooms set up to look like they would have at that time period and porcelain miniatures and paintings. It was really cool, and really cheap.

An Unexpected Phenomenon

So I put on my jeans this morning, and realized that I looked like someone on those ads for weight lose. I could pull my pants much further away from my stomach than expected. I had to tighten my belt two extra holes today. With my other pants, its really only been one, which isn't that big, but now its two. I had not planned to lose weight, I didn't feel I really needed to. But apparently I have.

My secret, eat almost nothing because 1) the French apparently only have toast for breakfast, 2) French don't eat unless they are actually sitting down at a restaurant, they never eat while on the go 3) I really can't afford to eat as much as I did in the States. Being, I'm not working/earning any money and basically spending my life savings to be here. Deuxieme part of my secret, walk everywhere. No, I really mean everywhere. Fifteen minutes to the train station, ten minutes from the train station to school, everyday, plus two to three hour walks three to four times a week, not to mention the twenty minute walk to church.

I'm trying to decide if I should buy a pair of pants just so I can say 'look how skinny I once was' or if I should just continue to tighten my belt because I'll gain it all back when I come home.

Napoleon's Tomb

Napoleon's Tomb on the outside



The tomb itself


Which I think is funny because Napoleon was cremated, so why does he need a tomb that big?
I planned on loading more pics from Les Invalides, which houses the military museum, but my computer stopped responding. Seriously though, Napoleon's tomb was really cool. It used to be a chapel, and then they changed it to a monument for Napoleon and several of his relatives and generals. It was very pretty.

Theatre, always theatre

Well, I haven't posted in a week and I'm trying to decide if I've really done anything of note in that time period. I was sick over the weekend, so pretty much just stayed in bed, and then I was working on a paper, memorizing a scene, taking a test, and seeing a play. I've realized my camera really doesn't like it when you don't use the flash, especially if its in a special setting. Which makes it kind of difficult to take pictures insidesany building because everything is so old, you aren't supposed to use your flash. So a lot of my pictures are either grainy, blurry or both.
We went to see L'École des femmes last night (School For Wives). It was hilarious. Good news was I read the play first. That was what I've been doing all my work on so far. The lead actor was just fantastic. He could really turn a phrase, and his body language was great.


And the theatre was beautiful!! It was one of those really old theatres that has great acoustics, none of the actors had mikes. We don't get enough of that in the states. I was taught that you shouldn't need a mike, you should be able to project well enough to fill the theatre, so I quite enjoyed that. The only problem was, I am guessing, that it was one of those theatres that was built when you went to the theater to be seen and not to see the show. So sitting on the side made viewing the stage a little difficult, and I felt sorry for the people behind us because we were all leaning forward.

I have been working on getting some of my homework out of the way so that I can focus on doing the things that I want. I've been doing all right at it, but I think its time to figure out what things I really want to see on this trip so that I make sure I do them. The good news is most of the walks we do take us to cool places, and that is really my favorite part. Its fun to just walk around Paris and relax.