first friday

Before I start talking about my first friday in paris I want to mention that I'm writing this blog entry using my blackberry in the middle of my school's courtyard waiting for dorene to get out of class. If this isn't blog dedication I don't know what is.

So on friday our program took us to versailles. When we got there I asked one of our program directors, gabriel, the same guy that set us up in our apartment to take a picture with me. He's one of those people who makes you laugh without even trying. His smile is funny, his laugh is funny, the way he talks and what he says to me is funny. Just trust me, he's funny. So dorene made me take a picture with him. Just looking at the picture makes me smile.

So me and my friends melinda, brittany, katie and dorene went around the palace part of versailles taking a few touristic photos or so. We had audio tours that we gave up on about three rooms in. If you ever go, save your money and don't get the audio tour.

Of course me and dorene did our pose every chance we had. Both outside the palace and a few times in the hall of mirrors.

After touring the palace and waiting in a long line for the bathroom we were ready for lunch. We went down to the garden area and got paninis to go and then found a little bench in the middle of the maze of bushes to eat.

After lunch we set out on our 5 hour venture. We walked to marie antoinettes guest house I think? Or maybe it was her actual house I'm not sure. It was cute.

Behind this house there was "the temple of love." I don't know why it was called that or what its significance was but we were bored and decided to have a mini photo shoot there.

Then we walked to the commoners village marie antoinette had built for her. She had wanted a fake small village built where she could pretend she was a commoner. Apparently they even had real commoners come and pretend along with her so that she could feel normal. I thought the "commoner" houses were beautiful. I would live in a commoner's house any day.

Around this fake little town area there was a pond full of the most disgusting fish ever. They had all somehow stuck their head out of the water as if they needed to bring their head out to breathe. I don't know what they were doing exactly but we were all super grossed out, but of course I took a picture to show everyone later.

After we walked through the fake town we saw a random farm full of animals. We saw chickens, bunnies, goats, sheep, donkeys, roosters, and turkeys.

On our way back towards the main general garden area we made a few random stops along the way. There were a lot of pretty gardens, random buildings and lakes everywhere. Once we got back to the main area we laid out on the grass and enjoyed the clear blue sky and sun. I couldn't believe how hot and perfect the weather was for it being the end of september. I kept telling all my friends how I couldn't believe how nice it was out. I'm pretty sure it got annoying after all but seriously you wouldn't have believed the perfect weather either.

On the way back to the RER (the metro/train you take to versailles) I saw a mcdonalds and decided it was time for a snack/dinner. I ordered a happy meal. I chose a "croq mcdo", the mcdonalds version of a croque monsieur, fries, pineapple (you also have a choice of a fruit in french happy meals) and a coke light. My meal was amazing. Dorene ordered a crumble mcflurry with caramel. I had a bite and have been craving it ever since. Best mcflurry, hands down. I guess the champs elysee mcdo is the only one with boring mix ins.

Another cool thing I noticed at mcdo this time was, if you order a meal, you have a choice of picking beer as your drink! They serve 1664, a french beer. Unfortunately my happy meal didn't come with that option.
At night we went out to bastille, this place with a street full of bars. We ended up at an americanish styled bar. Me and dorene knew that the metro closed at 1:20am but everyone else said it closed at 2. We asked the bartender, and he even said it closed at 2. Well we got to the metro around 1:30 to realize that me and dorene were right. It took forever to hail a cab and our apartment was literally on the other side of paris. During our 20 euro cab right I kept thinking how the metro is going to screw us over tomorrow night. 24 hours later I found out how.