Only a few days more

Aaron will be here in 2 ½ days and that is the best part of this whole trip! I am so ready to be done with school and to spend time with the love of my life who I haven’t seen in over a month! I get to ride in the bubbles up to the Bastille and enjoy the sunset with him, take him to Annecy, one of my favorite places, and we get to go stomp around Paris for 4 ½ days together! So now if I can get this paper done for my civ class for my jerk of a teacher, I’ll be good. But here I am avoiding it at all costs!

Last weekend Annie and I had quite the adventure. It started off with missing our first connecting train and having to pay 20 euro more for another trip and getting in 2 hours later. Not my favorite moment. When we finally make it there, it’s dark and all we can really notice is the Ferris wheel (to which we make a note to ride tomorrow) and we go out to eat. And somehow the two times I’ve tried to get steak, it has been absolutely disgusting! This time it was charred and I had to soak it in ketchup just so I could swallow it and not starve. I also had some caramel something or other that should’ve been good was certifiably the nastiest thing I’ve ever tasted! So all in all not my best day. The next day we spent at the beach and even though I thought I was diligent about sunscreen I burned like a lobster. The Mediterranean was wonderful though. It was so warm! We would get in and swim and then lay out and take a nap (no wonder I burned). That night we ate dinner on the quay and watched some street performers. We had the most wonderful time strolling along browsing all the street vendors, buying fun souvenirs, and getting feathers put in my hair. When it got dark we rode the Ferris wheel. It was all lit up and the city was all lit up, it was a beautiful site! The next day was spent on the beach as well but it wasn’t the same with the feeling of having to go home. The trip was long and arduous and I was exhausted by the time I got home.

Last Thursday I got to go to my favorite place Nice Cream Lab to learn how to make macarons! It was super fun! It was really cool because I did lots of research this past spring because I was going to make some for a project, so I knew all the steps. We had an awesome teacher! He showed us exactly how to make them and had us help. He had really neat tricks that I can also use for when I frost cupcakes because you pipe out macarons. We helped him make lemon and walnut macarons. While those were setting up we made the cream for the middle. He had us try all kinds, vanilla, pistachio, chocolate, white chocolate etc etc. He pulled out some raspberry, pistachio, and vanilla macarons and had us put the middles into those to take home. Then I got to take a photo of the recipe! That little store is so awesome! Great ice cream, great macarons! After that I met up with Annie and her friend Emily. We got smoothies and chilled at the park. Then we met up with our other friend Maddie and went and had some delicious Mexican food! Oh I love me some good Mexican food! It’s great that your own two feet get you everywhere because we got to walk along the river to get to the restaurant.

On Monday we had Grenoble tacos. Grenoble tacos are pulled meat, fries, and a garlic cheese sauce wrapped up in a tortilla. It’s ridiculously good. Yesterday I went and had feta ravioli (Grenoble specialty) which was divine with fresh pressed apple and peach juice!

I had a presentation in class on Tuesday on the Pays de la Loire region, found out Jules Verne was born there. I think I did pretty well. She only corrected me on 2 things. It really is quite nerve-wracking not knowing our grade. Not having a syllabus, not knowing how they grade or when, or only having a class for 2 weeks and you’ve done 2 assignments, I really have no idea how it’s gonna work out.

I went to a patisserie tasting yesterday and was so excited only to be disappointed. I was hoping for pastries and tarts and got weird walnuts! It definitely wasn’t my favorite! I will need to go get a tart, especially before I go! Today my friends and I got some lunch and took it up to the Bastille. We chilled up on the mountain taking selfies with a selfie stick (Surah!), in the rain, taking a moment to just enjoy that we’re in France. I have my diner d’adieu tomorrow and then Friday I pack up and Saturday Aaron is here!