food and fashion=ma vie. duhs.

[stole this from annie.]

last last thursday, after my french 457 class, we decided to do ourselves a little shopping.

but not without going to hure, the bakery of bakeries, first.

 [umm, this roll had apple and camembert cheese in it. pretty much blew my mind and changed my life forever. and now i desperately<--literally took me about ten tries to figure out how to spell it correctly, you're welcome, want to try making an apple pie with camembert cheese in it. don't hate, it's amazing.]

[a piece of alsacienne<--there's a red squiggly line underneath and i just don't give a dang, tart. it tasted a lot like yummy apple pie with almonds on top. so yeah, it was basically amazing.]

as you can see, i totally scored. seriously, i could not have been more proud of my random choices [the worker yelled at me to order basically the second i walked into the store].

we went and walked around, doing some window shopping. i've been looking for the perfect pair of two similar but different types of shoes. everybody is wearing them here and i've been in love with them, even before i came out here. okay, not in love, more like in like. but i'm in a better place now and i'm ready to commit and start a relationship with them.

[found here. they don't look super cute in this picture, and these aren't even the specific ones i want. just the style. oh gosh, i love them.]

[found here. again, a much cuter version of these, but this kind of idea. also, no studs in the front. that's tacky.]

yup. i'm in love and i don't care who knows it. and i want them both. so yeah, we'll see how that all goes down the the michelle paris fund. i must consult my budgeter [non-existant, yikes] first, of course.

after looking in a few shops, we had no such luck. actually, it was more like we went shopping for a few hours, and everybody else found things they loved, and i had no such luck. it sucked. so discouraging. i was so very discouraged. and what else to cheer me up then to go to a little place by the tuileries called smooth and cake :] me and sam spotted this place about a month ago, and have been dying to try it because they have smoothies, which basically, nobody has heard of in this country because they aren't made anywhere. and i hardly every crave smoothies, but i'm also a firm believer in "you want what you can't have". unfortunately.

 [milk, tart orange juice, strawberries, and pineapple sherbet.]

[gosh, i look tired.] 

after that, we went over to the tuileries gardens and sat by a fountain where they had boats that you could rent and push around with sticks. it was so adorable! we stalked a little boy playing with his boat as well. 

 [both pictures stolen from sam. thanks sam!]

annie had told us of this really cool shoe store out by where she lives, so me and tiff decided to finally come out and check it out [i was dying to see if they had a good pair of either of my shoes that i want]. when we got out there, we looked at the store, and they had a cute version of the flat boots that i want, but not in the color that i wanted, and in my size. LAME. i was definitely saddened by this fact. we walked a little more down the street and found another shoe store, where i proceeded to find the most adorable pair of the flat chukka's ever. 

they were kind of a dark tan with some brown-ish coloring in some places to look worn, and they were suede. only problem was that they were 85 euro. yiiiikes. the other pair i had been looking at were 40 euro, but not the best quality, and not even in the color/size i wanted. and the 85 euro ones were absolutely perfect! but i didn't want to impulse buy them, so i decided to wait on them, and if i couldn't get them off my mind for awhile, i would go back and carpe the shoes. all in good time...

we hurried back for dinner with our host mom, which was an unusual combination...

[so yeah, this is basically a hot dog, some tortellini, some hummus, a scone with raisins, and mustard. what the h are you feeding me, madame percin?]

so she switched from a hamburger to a hot dog. the food's fine, don't get me wrong. and yes, it keeps me alive and i am happy. its just very interesting how her mind must think when she puts together dinner combinations. "oh my gosh, you know what would go so well with this hot dog? a raisin scone! and maybe some hummus!". don't really know what classification of food this is, but we'll just call it "grandma biasi" style aka whip up whatever random crap you have.

and for dessert, the beloved dark chocolate-like snack pack pudding cup:]

[the tiniest spoon of my life. maybe she's trying to control my portion sizes? who knows.]

all in all, i will find the perfect pairs of those shoes. i'm on a mission. also, i will work up the courage to tell my host lady i like other meats than ones that you barbeque. we shall see, i guess.

michelle, the thief.

[amber, anna, and me. oh, and i stole this from anna, whoops.]

i will not think of exactly how far behind i am in blogging. i will not. 

all i have to say is that this has been on crazy week of traveling, where all time that could've been spent blogging was actually used on: watching friend's episodes, eating chocolate, signing up for classes, and talking with good friends. so i don't regret it. but yikes, is it bothering my ocd more than anything? yes, it is.

moving on [finally]..

last last wednesday [october 12th. yikes.], i went to my art history class aka i finally got to turn in my paper that i've been miniscule-ly [this is a word because i say it is.] obsessing over. such a relief to have that done [SPOILER ALERT: i got an A. boom babies.]

i know i've already talked about how much i love this class and the teacher, but i can't stress it enough. and for some reason, i keep forgetting that i'm actually looking at the real art pieces. maybe i think i'm not good or big enough to look at the real stuff? i don't know, i'm not going to try to psychologically break that down right now, i just don't have the time [<--me pretending to be all stressed and stuff].

[oh, you know, just the ol' ball and chain of a classroom that some people like to call the louvre. it's whatevs.]

and to celebrate, i'm sure you know where we ended up after class:

 [el super burrito]

i always get this burrito. it's just too darn good! and sometimes i wish i was not hungry enough to just get the tacos, but i'm just not that kind of girl. why get those dainty tacos when you can gorge on a burrito full of pork, guac, sour cream, lettuce, salsa, and cheddar cheese? my thoughts exactly.

and of course, we gotta have our amorino's ["gotta have my pops!"]. this was a different location, and as you can see, they piled on that gelato.

after that, we decided to walk around this one random street [i don't remember the name of it, but it doesn't matter and you'll see why soon] with all these shops that i was able to find no clothes that i liked. not even really nice ones to look at. thanks for wasting my time, random street. i award you no recollection on my part.
anyways, after that epic failure of a street [i'm just bitter, i'm sure it was....pretty or something.], we decided to do a paris walk. the walk was over kind of by the opera house, but really took us down by the place du vendome, where we saw the ritz which costs 8000 euro a night [never. NE-VER. i know that all things are relative, but i'd rather spend that money on some freakin' good traveling/food/clothes. so good riddance, ritz.].

[stole this from my friend sam. this is tiff, sam, annie, me, and kelly in front of the opera house.]

[took this from kelly. the picture's a little blurry, but you get the idea. this is tiff, annie, anna, kelly, riley, et moi.]

[the actual monument for place du vendome. is it sad that i only love it for the color?] 

after that, we walked down a way, heading to rue de rivoli, and stopped to look inside a very cool church on the way.

[these are actually my pictures. please, hold your applause.]

pretty sure i've seen about a million and one churches, and they never cease to amaze me on the insides. why the heck do we have to have the same cookie-cutter buildings back in the states? tell me why.

anyways, the day ended with a hamburger patty from my host mom. i didn't take a picture because i'm pretty sure a. you guys already know what one looks like because it is SO AMERICAN AND NOT EVEN FRENCH, and b. because i've already posted a gazillion pictures of them. so use your imagination. and if that fails, just go back a couple posts.

happy birthday mister president.

[all the other kids with the paris, france kicks, you better run, better run, outrun my gun.]

last last tuesday was kind of a bummer of a day. why? 

because it was just trashed with school and hw. 

what kind of day in paris is that? 

a lame one. 

kidding, homework is fine. it’s just not one of those types of activities you want to be doing in paris, you know?

anyways, so i woke up and went to class [french 457] and then huré after where i proceeded to change my life by ordering a religieuse. 

basically, it’s an éclair in the shape of a snowman, filled with literal chocolate heaven. i’m serious, the angels were calling my name as i was eating. so happy i took a chance and tried it! 

oh, and i got one of those delicious ham and cheese rolls as well. 

[up close and personal. these things are just my favesies.]

after that, i worked on my essay for fine arts for a little while and then went to my french class. 

yeah, my french class.

 we all know how that went down. 

one funny thing though was that we were supposed to pick a famous person that has already died and describe them to practice the imparfait and passé compose tenses. i chose marilyn monroe, naturally, because i know soooo much about her [i’m lying through my teeth right now<--who even says that?]. anyways, i was dying laughing [get used to me laughing at my own jokes, it’s pretty normal when it comes to me.] because for one of them, i said “elle a chanté ‘bon anniversaire monsieur président’“. don’t ask me why i’m so funny, i don’t have an answer for you. just the way God made me. 

anyways, after class, i came home and worked on my paper some more [i’m such a studious student.] and then we had dinner with our host mom. 

naturally i was starving since it was like 9 by the time we ate, but she made us potatoes and our best friend, a hamburger patty with tomato sauce on it. 

[note: this is not my personal serving plate, this is the entire pan. now stop your judgin'.]

well that’s normal. sometimes, i just feel like she slops together the weirdest combinations. i mean, they’re good, don’t get me wrong. but wtf, can we get some normal food up in hurrr? yeeesh, thank you. i’m kidding, it’s food and I’m happy. 

cheese all night.

[can i live here? seriously though, can i?]

last last monday, i woke up and found a note on my floor from tiff saying that she, quote on quote, decided to sleep in since it was still her birthday in america. 

yep, tiffany ann barton, ladies and gentlemen. 

i thought it was kinda funny. 

but i was also happy to have a monday buddy because i usually just chill at home work out crazily all afternoon long. we decided to go to the louvre because we had a paper for fine arts that was due on wednesday that we hadn’t started [yikes].

[chouette.]

 i still need to go to the louvre on a day that i’m not pressed for time/wanting to race to rice and beans after class because i feel like i haven’t gotten to just wander around aimlessly [without aim]. that’s still on my to-do list. we looked at our painting, which was mantegna’s zan zeno crucifixion. 

[love this painting. but enough to write a three page paper on it? that's debatable.]

we went to check it out more in detail [because we can. for free. no big deal.] and then hurry home to work some more before dinner with the lee’s. the lee’s are our study abroad director’s family, and they decided to have small groups over for dinner every monday. 

our group was tiff, hailey, me, and sam. 

what a group!

and we had an interesting dinner: melted cheese.

[here's the baby machine. okay, actually it's the machine that melts the cheese, but same diff, right?]

 CHEESE ALL NIGHT!<--i yelled this when daryl asked me to turn off the machine that you put the slices of cheese into to get melted. it was one of those things that you can randomly remember and laugh at.

[isn't that the coolest broccoli ever?]

 anyways, they had lots of things to put the melted cheese on top of like baked potatoes, sliced ham, pickled onions, broccoli, and gherkins. it definitely was interesting, but good. not my most favorite meal in the world, but it was still good. pas mal, you know? after that, it was cookie time for michelle. 

[me in my natural habitat.]

[sam wishes she could have some of these cookies. too bad they're all miiine.]

mmmmm i ate this wanted to eat this whole plate, but i let everybody else have a turn first before i dove in chose one. 

and now for the cream: we played nertz after dinner. nertz is this extremely intense [for some aka me] card game. i haven’t played it since freshman year of college, where me and my friends would literally play it every night because we got so addicted to it. let me tell ya, i was getting’ feisty [and by feisty, i mean name calling and maybe some yelling]. i gotta remember that game for when i go back home because man, do i love it. all in all, it was just a way fun night. it felt good to be with a family that spoke american and knew what we were going through and it was just comfortable. the lee’s are way nice and i just love them.

and last, but not least, me and tiff ended the night with a little eiffel tower twinkling. you know, since it’s right by our house and all, we can go whenever we want. i’m really gonna miss having that thing in our backyard. it’ll be weird to exchange that for some mountains or whatever.

tiffykin's big ol' veingt et un

[sam, kelly, me, tiff, annie. it's not gonna get any prettier than this, so love it while it lasts.]

last last sunday was tiff’s 21^st birthday! 

we, of course, stayed up til midnight the night before, where i wished her happy birthday and give her a celebratory high five, because nothing says "happy birthday!" like slapping somebody's hand?

we woke up, went to church [ummm, maybe a little late], and came home for lunch with our host mom, and she happened to invite her parents to it as well, and manu and her other son [whose name is unbeknownst to me right now aka I don’t remember]. 

 [raisin bread with goat cheese and figs on top. note: i'm a new big fan of figs. i believe they're one of the most over-looked fruits in the world. fact: 67% of statistics are made up on the spot. in other words, i don't know what i'm talking about, but i am in love with figs now. so that's all that matters.]

 [cantelope, how i've missed youuuu.]

[chicken, broccoli, squash, and potatoes. stop it!]

it was all fancy and formal feeling with the different courses and the delicious chocolate cake at the end.

 for some reason, this cake was soooo good! probably because it was rich and not super sweet, which is just how i looove it.

[kinda reminded me a little of texas sheet cake....but better.]

after that, we had to flee because one of our chinese friends had apparently given us tickets to the chinese opera for tiff’s birthday. yeah, the chinese opera. we had no idea what that would be like [isn’t opera a bit confusing already?], but we knew it’d be a fun experience. anyways, we hop on the metro and head over to the building where it was at. we got a little lost on the way, but then we just saw a few flocks of asians and decided to follow them [you think i’m kidding, but i’m so not]. 

once we got there, we watched what the other people were doing in order to get in, because we had no idea, and they just handed them their tickets and walked in. so we walk right up and give them our tickets…..and they say something to us in chinese. this is where everything started going downhill. we, of course, can’t speak chinese. they’re trying to ask us how we got our tickets. we couldn’t remember how to say our chinese friend’s name [yikes]. they tell us the tickets are only for one person. it was a disaster. anyways, we finally convince them to let tiff go in, and i just decided to go home and take a nap. 

no more than 20 minutes after i get home, tiff get’s home and says that pretty much, it was the craziest experience of her life. she walked in and it was basically a press conference with all these chinese people and it was for some political party or something. not exactly a chinese ballet. she’s determined they were all communists plotting on how to take over the world, but we don’t really have evidenciary support for that one since everything was in chinese. pretty funny though. 

later that night, we went to a missionary concert back at the church that the stake was putting on. basically, all the girls wanted to go because we’re all in love with elder dick. he’s a really good singer and has a really nice…..personality, and a cute…..heart. 

here’s him singing:

it’s one of my favorite things trying to impersonate his vibrato at about fifteen seconds into the video [when he goes all high and loud]. 

sad news though: we found out that day he was getting transferred. but don’t worry, we’ve all already friend requested him on facebook. that’ll be a nice surprise for him to come home to. 

moving on. 

so after the concert, tiff wanted to go out for thai for her birthday, and we were going to go to this place called livingstone, but it was closed [laaaame], so instead, we went back to suan thai [that place me and tiff went to awhile back and shared the green coconut curry and spring rolls with the mint leaves that I loved]. i decided to try something new, which is really hard for me to do because when i fall in love with something, i fall hard. that goes for everything boys, so WATCH OUT. 

haha oh gosh, i’m kidding. 

okay, anyways, so i decided to get the thai ribs, i wanna call them...? i think they were marinated in the same kind of sauce that you dip the spring rolls in/the sauce you pour over your bun sai gon [sp? i know i’m not spelling it right, but i know that’s how you pronounce it]. 

 [get in my belly right now.]

[kelly giving me one of those bedroom eye looks as always.]

[sam and kelly.]

i was definitely not disappointed, and am even tempted to get them the next time i go [there i go again on my head over heels-ness]. i guess we’ll see. and of course, we had to end the night with some gelato from your friendly neighborhood amorino’s. 

[annie is too cute in the back.]

the sad part was that tiff didn’t even want any. 

so we weren’t even getting it for “her birthday”. 

just for sheer fattiness. 

oh well, you win some and you lose some.

[let it be known that whilst eating amorino's, you're always a winner. that is all.]

that one time we watched angus, thongs, and perfect snogging.

our lady's [host mom] internet sucks.

the other night, it just self-destructed [like my cord] and she's basically saying she's going to cancel the service. oh, but don't worry, she showed us where the nearby mcdonald's was so we can still get our internet/over-priced soft drink fix. because mcdonald's is where class resides in this wonderful city of paris [i. am. kidding.]. yeah, if you can't tell, i am less than happy about the situation. bottom line: i hate technology. i really wish that we were all built with our own personal routers/electronic chargers that were flawless. when i make my own world, you bet your bottom dollar that'll be a priority for moi.

anyways, i'm going to do my best to blog as much as possible in the next day or two to catch up. let's see how this goes [facebook/blog stalking, degage<--basically french for "get the hello away from me".].

so last last saturday, it was our study abroad "fete du automne" that our friend bynn put on for everybody. it was absolutely delightful! we were all invited to dress up in our fancies [and by that, i mean tea party dresses, pearls, hats, the whole shebang] and come for some appetizers, chocolat chaud, and a movie. everyone was way excited because we don't all get to get together as much with school and everyone's weekend plans all being different. plus, we all wanted an excuse to dress up, duh.

 [shelbey in the kitchen. i loved helping assemble the food!]

 [i found youuuu, miss new booty.]

 [tiff's surprise birthday cake.]

 [me and annie. yes, i know her eyes are closing, but i look good. well, good enough.]

 [i don't have any words for this one.]

 [shout-out to the lovely brynn for coming up with the party!]

 [my favorite ever vegetable soup, bread, chicken on skewers, and raspberries with whipp-ed<--as my host mom would say it, cream]

[this might look like hot chocolate, but actually, it's a huge spoonful of salted caramel, a piece of brownies, some fresh raspberry syrup, a squirt from the bottom of the barrel of the hot chocolate so it was extra chocolate-y, and whipp-ed cream. you better believe it was the best dang thing ever. EVER. and totally worth the sugar coma i went in right after i kinda finished the whole thing.]

after the food, we watched "angus, thongs, and perfect snogging". i am buying this movie when i return home! so funny, and so fun to watch with everyone. riley basically has it inscribed in her dna and has been raving about it the whole trip, so when her mom sent it to her [no joke], we HAD to watch it. basically, it made me very boy hungry. yup yup yup, i'm saying that out loud. maybe it's because i feel like i'm going to an all girls school? seriously though boys, when i get back, watch out ;] totally joking daddy.

the party was so much fun, and i can't wait until the next one :]