sometimes you have to eat thai for dinner twice in a row. eeees for fun.

[paris holds the key to my heart. and it's gelato. good thing it's italian....whoops.]

last friday night rocked my socks.
pretty much katy perry style, but ix-nay on the half-naked man in my ed-bay.
sadly.
keeeeeeedding!......
moving on.
last friday morning though, i woke up feeling way tired. maybe it was the fact that i actually got to sleep in for once? or that it had basically been gogogo again the whole week. 

me and sam had agreed to go running after we woke up. we planned on meeting at "the carousel by the eiffel tower". well, good thing there's about a million carousels by the eiffel tower and i ended up running back and forth between the two that i thought she would assume we'd meet at. and running stairs as well. turns out she just got lost and was running late. needless to say we when started our actual run, i was basically already runned out. so i let sam run circles around me.

we decided to meet back up in a couple hours at the tuileries gardens. we met at this huge fountain that has chairs all around it and just sat and read for a couple hours [good ol' ladies paradise that i still haven't finished. cool thing was was that it mentioned the tuileries gardens in the part i was reading, which was honestly a little trippy.]. oh, and by read for a couple hours, i basically mean we stalked hot half-naked men running with our cameras. they're running, not us running after them. or maybe i'm lying. 

 [made me wish i had some bread with me. i haven't been ducking in years!]

[me and sam sittin' by the fountain. i don't think my face has ever looked more square than it does in this picture. i've got like, johnny bravo face. and i thought i'd become more round coming to paris...]

after we decided we were tired of "reading" [more like sam wouldn't let me read anymore. and my hungry stomach as well.], we decided to go in search of some indian food because hailey was really wanting some and that sounded bomb to me as well. we wanted to stay in the area, so we consulted a nearby hotel front desk [yes, we are so posh] and were recommended this place that was "just down the road" or so they said. it ended up being a little while away, and was leading us through this amazing asian town with really yummy looking restaurants, but we were firm to trying to find "ghandi" which ended up being non-existant. cool, fancy hotel front desk man, cool. so from there, we decided to head over to the area where the lds institute is, because there's a lot of supposed indian restaurants there.

by supposed, i mean there were hardly any. randomly, we decided on thai again because we were starving [yeah, when you hardly eat anything all day, don't wait til 9 at night to eat dinner. desperation=cloudy thinking.] it was a little annoying because the restaurant we ate at was under-staffed, so it took foreverrrrrrrrr to get our food. and when i'm starving, i get grumpy. fast. no beuno.
so we decided to take asian pictures to pump up the party. because naturally, that's what you do while you're waiting for your thai food to be done. standard.

 [i look like drew barrymore/annie stucki<--haha totally kidding annie. but seriously, i look like drew. blechhh.]

[sammie so happy? it would seem so.]

 [freakin' hailey got her food before everyone. but lucky for me, she shared some. mmm spring rolls avec lettuce take 2? yes please.]

then finally the food came. and of course, mine was the last to come. figures.

[i got the coconut curry with chicken. don't ask me why it's yellow.....i'm used to it being green. and honestly, i think the color threw me off a little. like, it was good......but i just have this feeling it would've been better if it was green. is that weird? kinda like when you get mint ice cream and it's white and not as good? things just need to always be green, i guess.]

after that, we went down to amorino's for some gelato, and daaaaaang gina, it was good. seriously. i got coconut, nutella, and carmello and just died from happiness. i know i'll be going back asap [uhhhh right now?]. we did run into some girls from the study abroad at gelato who were all going to the discothèque [clubbing], but some of them wanted to go watch the eiffel tower twinkle, so we went with them.

background on twinkle: every night starting at a time unbeknownst to me at this moment, but after that, every hour on the hour, the eiffel tower lights will twinkle for a supposed ten minutes straight [only did it for five for us. can you say jipped? i sure can. jipped.] i can't believe i live right by the eiffel tower and i still hadn't seen this yet. it was the most gorgeous thing ever. made me feel like christmas morning inside.

[me and annie underneath the tower mid-twinkle. did you know that underneath doesn't have a "k" after the "r"? why did i think it did? spell check just corrected me. what the heck?]

[the city of lights where a rose is a rose! funniest line from that song.]

[i know this is sideways-ish, but i just wanted to share the beauty of the twinkle.]

alright friends, honored guests, this girl's got school in the morning. and hopefully after, me and tiff are gonna try and find the paris fashion runway show tents. if i get a glimpse of a designer, i just might pee my pants. okay, let's be honest, i already did pee my pants. keeeeedding.
or am i?
................
i am.

the day that i sucked at picking food. what the hay?

[this looks like smashed soda can. and it is. but it's also a rock....pause for effect.....i know.]

thursday, we had french 457 again, which was fine. lucky for me, the teacher is one of those that gets on a tangent and ends up rambling for the whole class and we don't get to the reading assignment, that i may or may not have completed [i'm in paris, duh]. that was basically my only class that day, besides french 211 [my french conversation class], but we only met for like ten minutes, so all was well in the world.

when class got out, my friend annie showed me where this supposed yummy bakery was, and right off the bat, i saw the almond croissants. anyone who knows me [or at least my family] knows i freakin' love almond croissants with all my heart. there was this place called cielo's in santa monica that i would get an almond croissant from every saturday without fail. so i've got some high expectations of these babies, and lemme tell you, i was extremely disappointed. to the point where i wanted to cry, it was that disgusting. but i'm not giving up yet! i'm convinced there's got to be a least one amazing almond croissant place here in paris.

["never judge a book by it's cover" doesn't even begin to describe this crappy piece of absjkfbaksf.]

after, we had the missionaries show us where the post office was, which was honestly a little awkward, but whatevs. and lucky for us, it was right smack dab in a mall. with an h&m. now, i didn't reeally wanna shop there, because i prefer to mostly just buy things that are paris-based, but i love at least looking around. and don't worry, i only got socks [over the knee, yeah buddyyyy].

after that, me and sam were starving, so we stopped at a crepe cart for some food. but i didn't really feel like a crepe [i don't really see what the big deal is about those things. i mean, yeah, they're good.....but not amazing. it's basically like a tortilla! i don't know.] soooo....i got a hot dog. what michelle? you're in france and you got a freakin' hot dog? yes, that's me and i did. but it's not your typical hot dog.

[it's a hot dog on a french baguette and then smothered in cheese that's baked. if that doesn't sound good, then you're a scrooge.]

[sam and me. back when we were excited to eat our dogs.]

the sad thing was that it completely sucked. i mean, it wasn't the nastiest thing in the world, but it wasn't amazing. and i live for amazing food. maybe it was the fact that it was sitting on display and the man grabbed it with his bare hands and microwaved it right in front of me? probably. i know, why did i even trust it? i thought i'd do him a solid and give the little guy the benefit of the doubt, but silly me. silly silly me. i guess i should also not mention that sam found a hair in her when she was almost done with it. ohhhh the shame.
and then i got some baklava. ohhhh yes i did.

[sad thing was was that it sucked even more than the hot dog, if that's even possible. i didn't even know baklava could taste that bad. and i even got it in the jewish community! what the hay? i guess i gotta ask the locals which place is the best, because apparently i'm not good at picking them. you can imagine how much my day was ruined by now after all the crappy food i had eaten.]

after lunch, we all decided to hit up the bhv, which is short for bazar de l'hotel de ville. it's basically this really big department store with all women's clothing and accessories. and on the bottom floor, there's a bricolage, which is kinda like a home depot...? yeah i know, it was random to me too. but anyways, we looked around there for awhile, and then me and tiff decided to go do a little more vintage shopping. 

we went to this store called "the hippie market", which had some really fun clothes. i promised myself that i could only buy something that i either really needed [don't laugh, i mean things like a wallet since i forgot mine back in america and have been using the pocket in my purse to hold my cash and it's starting to get ridiculous.] or something that i really loved and couldn't see my life without it. naturally, i found two things,  but it was after i literally scourged [that's a word, right?] the entire store, so i'm pretty proud that i didn't end up walking out with 50 things.

 [adorable wallet that i found while looking around in the big chest of scarves. and luckily, tiff didn't let me not get it, because now i'm freakin' in love with it!]

[legit german army-ish hat that's both navy and black, which i loooove together.]

after that, we decided to officially go inside the pompidou and check it out. and seriously, it was the coolest museum ever. lots of variety and depth.

[going up the outside escalator to the exhibit. anybody else think my head looks like a bobble-head's head on my body? or is it just me?]

[mine and tiff's own take on modern art. that, and her hand shook when she took the camera. but we'll go with the first one. A for effort.]

[check out the booty on that blondie! tiff, i mean.]

[this wall was super cool. if you stared at it long enough, the blue lines started vibrating. i don't know if that was part of the exhibit, but i like to push these things out of their limits.]

[interesting.......]

[i don't know if this is supposed to be perverted, but i like it. maybe that means something....]

[fence. freak that's cool.]

[okay, adorable.]

and then, we hit up suan thai. it was this thai restaurant that tiff had been to before with her mom and some friends, and said we had to try it. and i'm always down for some thai, so i said "boom baby". not really though. it was a little pricey, so we decided to split an appetizer, an entree, and a side.
they served water with mint leaves in it, which was amazingly refreshing.

 [our complimentary appetizer. mmmm it was way good. kinda like lettuce wraps...but....without the lettuce....yeah, so not lettuce wraps.]

 [spring rolls. they really made me miss home and going to sunny's because they had the lettuce that you wrap them up in and stuff. it was interesting because it came with mint leaves, which totally made the flavor pop. i loooooved it.]

[we decided on coconut green curry, which was definitely a good choice. it was spicy and light. kinda reminded me of mao's from back in santa monica, but was actually spicy. or maybe it was the rice that was spicy...]

all in all, even though most of the day's food sucked [i love how i let the food decide how my day's gonna pan out], dinner saved the day. big time. and so did my purchases. and so did the fact that i'm in freakin' paris. because i am. so suck it. suckers. okay, i'm done.

paris is so exciting, alriiiight??!

[in front of the pompidou museum. there's always these chalk drawings that people do and this week, there was one that looked like a hole in the sidewalk. i thought this old man pretending to fall in while posing for his picture was pretty hilarious, so i got in there and paparazzi'd it up. of course.]

last wednesday started off with my art history class.
i'm very excited for this class this semester because we're going to be having class in many of the well-known museums, such as le louvre, musée d'orsay, and one of my favorites, the pompidou. i'm not typically a huge art fanatic, but i'm always up for museums, especially when they've got the originals. and they're gorgeous on the outside.

anyways, while we were in class, our teacher asked us what we've noticed about europe that's different than america. i said that they don't have any mexican food here, because we've been on the hunt for a good place and haven't seen anything. little did we know that our professor was our guardian angel in disguise, because he suggested this place that happens to be just down the street from us called "rice and beans". just  the title got me excited, because i didn't want no fancy mexican food. i wanted it dirty, people. the best kind. i could hardly seriously pay attention the rest of class because i was so psyched!

we took off for rice and beans and found it pretty easily. it was so cute too! from the outside, it looks pretty normal, but it's got a lot of character when you go inside, namely a lot of piñatas, pictures, and this large collage window that we sat by.

[no, i did no get my hair cut by my ears again like kindergarten, those are just my bangs. all is well still. also, the lighting is weird in this picture because we were sitting by this giant pink lamp light.]

we got some guacamole and chips for the table, just because we were all craving some.

[way good. way way good, mmmmm baby. also, there are hands all over because we were obsessed with it and i could hardly get everyone to stop eating so i could snap a picture. the things i do for the blog.]

[the "el super" burrito: rice, black beans, cheddar cheese, guac, salsa, lettuce, and pork. all for about 8 euros. so freakin' good. it reminded me of chipotle, but more authentic. so maybe not like chipotle at all. and it was verrrry filling. as in i was good after the first half of it, but it was so delicious that i finished that baby off. i'm not ashamed. you would've done the same thing in my position.]

[me and morning. dang that pink light that's messing with all my photos.]

[dear rice and beans, i love you oh so much. you are my new absolute favorite mehicano place. and as tribute, i promise to eat you a million times before i go back to the states. decision made.]

let's just say that wednesdays are now "rice and beans" wednesdays. and we pretty much have to talk ourselves from going there every day. sometimes you just need some food from home, and sometimes, the idea of another sandwich makes you want to eat your own arm instead. nahh, it's not that bad, but i just love me some variety. and eeeespices.

after lunch, we decided to walk down to berthillon for some ice cream. berthillon is known for having really fresh and delicious ice cream. i've heard a lot of good things about it, both in the states and here, so i was psyched.

 

[and ummm, on the way, i fell in love with this sweater that was in the window. 30 euros, and suuuper soft because of the cashmere. it's pink and has all this perfume bottles with lace on some and silk on others, and kinda baggy like a dress. i'll probably wear it with black leggings/jeans. classic and simple.]

anyways, berthillon...i was a little confused when i was ordering, because i thought i was ordering strawberry and white chocolate, but it was actually strawberry and coconut. and holy crap, was it amazing. the strawberry literally tasted and looked like strawberry freezer jam. like super sweet and pure and rich. and the coconut......don't even get me started. you know those one mexican ice cream popsicles that have the coconut shavings in them? yeah. it was just like that. i died, to say the least.

 [trying really hard not to laugh my butt off.]

[whoops, didn't work.]

the reason why we were dying laughing was because right after we got our ice cream, i guess there was this group of english people that were being all loud and annoying and obnoxious, and all the sudden, this reaally loud french guy comes by them and yells "paris is so exciiiiting, alright?!?" with his hands in the air and then he'd walk a little bit more and turn around and scream it again and then a little more and scream it again. oh my gosh, i couldn't breathe, i was laughing so hard. the video's on my facebook if you wanna see it, and i suggest you do. we all walked down the road, looking at shops, and randomly laughing and quoting the loud french guy. 

[just can't get enough of these buildings. i'm addicted and i just can't get enough. i just can't get enough.]

when we got back in the area, me, sam, and tiff decided to shop a little bit more. we went to this store called oysho, that kinda reminds me of victoria's secret, except it's definitely cuter and classier. i just got some leg warmers and socks since i've been cold in the mornings and late at night in my room.

[annnnd i can wear these with my new sweater. double score, people.]

me and tiff decided to keep on shopping [we caught the bug.....or at least i did.], but wanted to do some quality "only paris" type of shopping, or in other words, the blessed vintage/antique shops. i'm a HUGE fan of these, because you can always find the coolest things for way cheap, and they're legit vintage too, which is such a big seller for me for some reason. what can i say, i like old stuff. we went to a couple and i managed to get away without seriously damaging my bank account [only 25 euros. win for michelle.] 

i got:

 [15 euro. i'd love to burberry it up and put some fur on the cuffs of the sleeves, but we'll see how that goes.]

[this legitimate thick army shirt for 10 euro. i was so excited when i saw it because me and my sister maria were looking everywhere for them about a year ago because she wanted one, and it got me hooked, and now i've finally found my own. and i wanna splatter some white paint on it and get some cool army patches/brooches to put on there. can't wait!]

all in all, it's safe to say the day was a huge success. new favorite restaurant/ice cream place, new favorite thrift stores, new crafts to do, new laughs, and now i'm getting cheesy....cut.

back to school to prove to my dad that i'm not a fool.

[tiff posing for a picture. this picture cracks me up every time. what a model citizen she looks like.]

last tuesday was my official first day of school here in paris. i was pretty stoked about it guys. probably more than i would be in provo. actually duh, yeah. 

 [this is what school does to us. also, shout-out to my sister maria for letting me bring her hat with me to paris. funny story, i've got the same one and couldn't find it, but i reeeaally wanted to bring it. and she was nice enough to oblige.]

[tiffany, hailey, moi, holly, and maddie. one big happy family.]

my first class was french 457R, which is french for a french culture/civilization/architecture class. daryl teaches it...and it's pretty funny because he's pretty passionate about the topics and gets all loud and big and it takes everything in me to keep a straight face. but it seems like it'll be a cool class, other than all the freakin' reading we have to do/research paper we'll have to eventually do. bleeechhhh. he did recommend a nearby falafel place for us all to try after class, which of course, i was so down for. i basically should've grown up in lebanon/greece because i love falafel. it's like french fries for me....as are many other things.

[l'as du fallafel= ace of falafel. not "ass"<--i used quotes, it's okay, the church is still true. also, from left to right: kristine, shelbey, sam, tiff, me, maddie, and hailey. we iz fans.]

get ready for this next picture, because it just might ruin your day. even though it made mine, plus my life.

[hooooo man, was it good. it's got a couple different kinds of cabbage on it, plus cucumbers, tomatoes, grilled eggplant, cucumber/yogurt sauce, and spicy sauce. all that in a fluffy white flour pita=magic in my mouth. and it was only five euro, which is pretty dang good. and it keeps you full all day long. so yeah, it's basically my new home. just call me michelle dl'asdufallafeltrup. okay, don't really call me that.]

oh, and this shop was right in the middle of the jewish community over here. and lemme just tell you, i basically died and went to heaven when i saw shops displaying huge batches baklava and challah bread. maria, you would die. DIE. and lucky me, it's steps away from my school, so i can always take a "bathroom break" and run down to my new personal heaven. so freakin' excited.

after we gorged ourselves, we decided we should also indulge in some delicious chocolat chaud [hot chocolate] and went to the famous angelina's for some. everybody over here raves that it's the place to go, so of course we had to try it.

[i got the chocolat maroccain, which was perfect because it was really dark and bitter and rich and creamy, and then you put a dollop of fresh whipped cream and just melt away on a cloud. a chocolate cloud. no jokes here.]

me and tiff got the same, and then sam and holly tried the white hot chocolate. i tried some of theirs, and it was pas mal, but pretty sweet. which isn't a bad thing, but i like my chocolate really dark and rich.

[can't you just see how my pinky's aching to be out? i shoulda let it. dang my un-sophisticated self. and the place was so cute and proper, i couldn't help but drool all over it. i felt so fancy with piano music playing as i sipped my hot chocolate. i just loved it, and i can't stress that enough. made me wanna go back to my tea party days, but instead of ramen noodle broth, i'd definitely use hot chocolate this time.]

after that, i left all the girls to go to l'institut catholique for my french 201 class. first off, it was my first time being all by myself in paris/france/different country. and it might sound stupid, but it was way cool. i had my ipod on, of course, and just strutted my stuff over to the metro. call me a dork, but i loved it. i did not love my french class though...

it was 3 hours long, and really wasn't that bad, but we had to take a placement test [on the first day, whaaaa??!] which me and my friend kelly were stressin' way bad over. anyone who knows me knows i hate tests. i'm terrible at them, i second guess myself, and i usually end up bombing them, regardless of how much i study. so naturally i was pretty nervous for this one, seeing as how it had been four months since i'd last studied french, plus i was told that if you didn't do that well on it, they would move you back down to 102, which i did NOT want because i've already taken it. i think i ended up doing okay, but it was a little bit of a wake-up call. a good wake up call, you could say.

after class, i met up with tiffany, samantha, and hailey and we all went to the monoprix for some grocery shopping and returning my stupid 40 euro blow dryer that i had accidently [as in i thought it was the 20 euro one, but ended up being the wrong one, not "oh whoops, how did this get here?". i'm not THAT much of a compulsive shopper, people. sheesh.] bought the night before and wanted to exchange.

background on monoprix's: they're basically like a super walmart/target with both food and clothes and appliances and stuff like that, but way nicer. like, i wanna buy a lot of the clothes there. is that sad? they really are cute and look nice! like gap nice, not rodeo drive nice. but still. moving on...

[i don't know if you can really understand exactly how big this twix bar was. and i don't know if you can really understand exactly how tempted i was to buy this right then and there on the spot. who cares how much it costs, it's awesome! but then i had to remind myself that we have twix in the states, and it's french stuff i should be blowing my money on. but still.....i just might have to buy it. c'mon 10 + 2 gratuits, what a steal. and it might even be 12x2, which is 24....OKAY TOTALLY GETTING IT.]

after that, we came home and madame fed us dinner. i would've taken a picture, but manu made fun of me the day before because i looked like a chinese tourist with my camera glued to my hand. plus, it was in my room, and i was not about to get off my butt to take a picture. the food though...it was interesting, but pretty good. ham [as in deli-meat ham, not thanksgiving ham] and a baked potato and that fancy famous mustard i talked about earlier. when all combined in one bite, it was delicious. i'll definitely do that again when i get back to the states....if i ever actually buy potatoes. and deli-meat ham. and let's get real, mustard. i'm a condiment-buying virgin. 

and for dessert, ice cream sundaes with hot home-made chocolate sauce and nuts. made me all happy and giddy inside. food just makes me so dang happy! in a healthy-ish way, mentally. i know you're not supposed to live to eat, but let's be honest, my life is at least half-based around food. good food though. and i'm totally happy with that.