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Enjoy my detailed journal entries from each of the stories in the episodes, plus see real photos from our personal experience.
Wednesday, March 13th
“Today was a normal day, all the way up till around 4:00. I organized for everyone to get together at the apartment for
JAMES’ BIRTHDAY!!
Of course we’re going out on a Wednesday! Annie got him a brownie cake with candles and it was really cute. We sang happy birthday to him and he was so surprised it was adorable. At this point we have all had a few glasses of wine and are doing great. We head out to a local bar called Le Cristal where they have very cheap beer. Not a lot of people were there except this really cute bartender (important for later stories) and a few other loners. This meant we had room to dance & that also means we could song request! Anya asked for them to play THOTIANA, an anthem of our generation. This is also the same night that yours truly decided to fall through the ‘mind the gap’ gap in the metro. If it weren’t for the strangers on the metro, I probably wouldn’t have one of my legs right now. But overall a very good night. An update on my bruised leg coming soon. “
James’s 21st birthday My leg injuries after it went in the gap
Saturday, April 6th
“I’M SO HUNGRY. I had two pieces of bread and strawberries for breakfast and I’m not sure how I’m surviving. Good thing it’s Anya’s birthday and we made brunch reservations! I got this gross pasta and ended up eating the whole thing because my body NEEDED food. Lunch was long and interesting and made good friends with James’ friend Isaac. After lunch, we went to a franprix where I bought a bag of mini twix (that I shared with everyone) and a baguette with boursin cheese that I split with Analise. We took all this to the river where we sat, ate, and relaxed for hours. After all that, we headed to the apartment to collect ourselves before the nights activities. I took a quick nap on the floor of the dining room watching iCarly on my laptop, and was woken up by analise bringing me tomato soup and grilled cheese! A TRUE MOMMA. We all started getting ready and eventually we were. Analise and I realized we were out of snacks and wine and so we went down to the franprix on the corner. On the way there, these 3 old men followed Analise and I while simultaneously cat calling us… in FRENCH. They yelled ‘Combien Madame’ like WHAT!? I’M NOT A PROSTITUTE. I was floored. We grabbed our things from the store and went back to the apartment as quickly as possible to meet everyone else for the evening”
Wednesday, April 10th
“Made it back to class today! Go us. In class our prof gave us an essay to do and my whole row wrote the prompt wrong. Boo. So we had to take a new one home and write the correct thing. Next order of business, DINNER. My Mac & Cheese finally came in the mail today!! So I’m eating good tonight. I watched some tv and ate the entire box plus a little leftover Valentine’s Day chocolate from Annie. My stomach was SO angry with me. I just didn’t know how angry. Later, Analise and I went and met everyone at this dope bar called LAVOMATIC where you have to climb through a washer to get in! So as soon as we get to the line to wait to get in, my stomach started getting really, really angry. I started getting the sweats and I KNEW I needed a toilet or I was going to soil myself. I ran to one of the toilet chambers Paris has on the street corners, you know the ones that wash themselves. I made Anya go with me. I got in and for the next 10 minutes all my insides we just cleaned out. I got to a comfortable state and ran back to not get left out of the bar. We finally got in and it was this tiny loft! The drinks were expensive so I settled for the $11.00 strawberry daiquiri. We left after about an hour, but overall was a super fun night. “
Picture from the outside of Lavomatic Bar The actual bowl of Mac & Cheese
The self-cleaning toilet chambers in Paris
Sunday ,March 17th
“Happy St. Patrick’s Day! All of us ladies woke up early this morning and made mimosas. Very chic. We also all got pizza and played Scream-Go-Hero, the phone game we just discovered. It’s the ULTIMATE PHONE GAME. To play the game, you have to YELL. I cried laughing for so long that I got abs. Everyone ended up loving it and I think we all played for like 2 hours. We were having a great day already! We girls all waited till James and William showed up to really get ready for the day’s festivities. It took us forever to decide what green clothes we wanted to wear. James brought his guitar and played songs for us. We also turned on the speaker and jammed out to High School Musical, Hannah Montana, and Justin Beiber! We were having the most insane day already. Still getting ready/ dancing and singing and we get a loud knock on our front door. At that moment, I knew everything was about to come crashing down with our crazy neighbor lady. Everyone hid in the apartment and we turned the music off. Annie and I answered the door, and by this time the old hag had rang the doorbell at least 3 times then resorted to slamming her fists into the door. We opened it, and this woman has brought an arsenal of people with her. She brought the couple from upstairs too… As soon as the door was open the old woman is YELLING. They ask us, “What the hell are you doing? Why don’t you speak French? Why are you here!” I was dumbfounded!! The audacity!! I’m trying to learn your language and you culture. All I learned that day is how freaking rude the French can be. The old woman was so upset about the noise asking us if we had been moving furniture all day or something. We tried to calmly explain to them that it was St. Patrick’s Day and that it is a popular holiday where we live. They tried to argue with us and tell us that we were celebrating it 2 days late! Annie and I instantly pipped up saying, “EXCUSE ME, NO. LOOK AT OUR GREEN. WE KNOW OUR HOLIDAYS MA’AM MARCH 17TH AND UHHH THAT’S TODAY.” The old woman points her hand at me and says “I have already told you to shut up before and I will tell you right now. Shut up, shut up, shut up!” I almost brought up her yaking, pea sized, rat of a dog, but I have more class than that. Annie steps in and apologizes over and over again just trying to make peace. But the woman persists, threatening to talk to the people who can basically deport us. At this point, the old woman’s entourage is over all the drama. I’m glad they were being level headed about it. They must have told the old woman to let it go because after they left we didn’t hear anything about it ever again. So what she thought was going to be her ammo, ended up being our saving grace. “
“Finally, we were out for the night, minded all the gaps (PTSD), and made it to the bar district. I believe it was the Marais. This is when we learned to what extent that the French don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. In the bar we realized everyone was either Irish or American! We picked the bar with the cheapest green beer & they also handed out a ton of free large green beards! Annie met this old man there that added her on Facebook. He offered to take her shopping on the champs for nothing more than friendship! What a nice old man. After that bar most people went home, but me, Anya, and William stayed out and went to our favorite club for awhile, Duplex. Everything was fine until we tried to leave Duplex. We realized we were cutting it really close to missing the last metro of the night SO WE STARTED SPRINTING. I think we went around almost the entire circumference of the Arc de Triomphe before we found the metro entrance. Here we go, time to make it (I’m thinking). MY DUMBA** SLIPS down the stairs, but simultaneously finds a cool St. Patrick’s Day hat! I stood up, put it on, and we RAN. I was running a steady 4.5 – 40 time through that metro station, which just happened to be the biggest one in all of Paris. We missed it. By like, 30 seconds. We walked out the metro, before we got locked in with the homeless people. Next option was the bus. We circled the Arc again. You see, the goddess of cardinal direction (me) couldn’t help because 1. Alcohol 2. Dead cellular device. That left William to navigate because Anya’s phone was dead too. Eventually, we gave up on public transportation and stuck with an uber. That pretty much says everything about the insanity that was Paris, for us. “
St. Patrick’s Day with our green beers, beards, Riley (left) & Olivia (right)
and also featuring Annie’s old rich man enjoying St. Patrick’s Day
Rachels Favorite Memory:
Charcuterie boards from our first day Our first cheers, cheers to a great semester
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