exploration day #1

my plan for this morning was to wake up at around 9:00 and head over to Hillsong Paris Church, to see what it's like. well...because i was awake until so late last night, i overslept...which is unfortunate. but at the same time, i realize that i have a few more months here. so, there are more opportunities to not do the same.

but yeah...i woke up to tom calling my phone at 11:30, asking me if we were going to meet. (the church is a block away from where he's living)

but i got to the Anvers station to meet fiona, krystina, and tom about an hour after that. and we walked up to the top of the Montmartre, and went inside the Sacre Coeur...and walked around a lot of the Montmartre area aimlessly. it was really nice! i love Montmartre. if i could afford it, i would choose to live in this area in a heartbeat over any other part of Paris. my photos may not do it justice, since it was freezing and kinda' gloomy outside...but it really is fantastic there.

probably the best view of all of Paris

basilique du sacre-coeur!

i really liked this band! i should've bought their cd. :(

we had lunch at some random restaurant, walked down the street through red-light-district area, walked around the entire Montmartre cemetery before finally finding the entrance & then walking around the inside of it, etc.

we (tom and i) had a good laugh at this

we're doing the can-can, if you can't tell.

befriending one of the many stray cats

...bad idea.

it didn't want to let go! the cat was obsessed with tom. haha.

"die? rather die!" (both verbs mean "to die." i don't get it)

then, we took the métro to the city center, where we went to this extremely busy, tiny boutique called Free P Star. the girls enjoyed it, while tom and i stood outside waiting for the them...in the Marais. if you don't know why that was awkward for us...then you should google it.

this place was packed with people! so hectic.

we had some espresso at a cafe afterwards, and then went to fiona's place. then we took the métro again to the Eiffel Tower area...found some bread, a bottle of wine, and went to sit in the park right next to the Eiffel Tower. we spent a good few hours there...trying to open a wine bottle without a bottle opener. we tried many different things, but eventually just decided to hit it against a metal lightpost and broke the end off of it. it was weird, but it worked.

we also met a friend of tom's from back home, chloe. she's here in Paris too, with another study abroad program...and she's AMAZING at French. practically fluent. we also met her friend, sarah, who is studying here as well. they're both very nice and fun and outgoing. i hope we'll hang out with them more.

i know this looks bad, but trust me...it wasn't.

now, i'm back at home...hanging out with michael, candace, and alex. (who just returned from his weekend trip to amsterdam) tomorrow is the first day of school...and it's already sorta' late. so, that is all for now.

- ready to start french classes again