The end of this, I mean.
This is getting crazy. It's at the point where I'm sitting in French class, and my teachers are passing out fliers for the upcoming UF in Paris trip this summer. I'm not even done documenting this one.
We're at Thursday. I leave Sunday. We can get through this, folks.
OK. So, a few of us decided to head to the Eiffel Tower Thursday to go up the top. Our farewell dinner was Friday, and the majority of us (myself included) were leaving Saturday morning, so it was now or never.
We get there, and we waited...oh whoops.
I forgot we had the last day of class that day. I'll talk about that first. So this was the day we had our final exam in the French art class. Pierre also told us to bring food to class, so we could all have a picnic afterward.
And me, well. I purposely got to class early, so I would have time to go to that bakery in Châtelet I told you all about—the one with the heavenly bread.
Of course, it wasn't open. Vive la France.
Anyways, I was desperate at that point, so I started searching for the nearest open bakery. I kept walking. And walking. And I walked some more. I eventually found some place and randomly bought this type of bread baguette thing that had chocolate chips.
Now to head back.
Only fitting on my last day of class, much like my first, I was once again lost.
I don't think I was in Châtelet anymore (wayyyy cooler than not being in Kansas anymore).
I wasn't too worried. Thanks to the beautiful invention known as the metro, I wouldn't be lost forever. I just didn't want to be late. I mean, I was on my way to take my final exam.
The plan: find a metro. You're never lost if you find a metro—ever.
It took me a while, but I found one. I got back to Châtelet and headed over to the API building.
I'm pretty sure they were waiting on me.
Oops.
I can't remember if anyone else was later than me (I hope so), but eventually we took the exam. It was cool—French art and stuff.
So the food afterward tho.
My bread was the freaking truth. Almost worth that ridiculous trek, but some other girls had the same kind from another bakery and it tasted even better than mine (granted it already tasted amazing).
People brought other stuff, but I'll tell you all what our teacher, Pierre, brought. He thought it would be cool if we had a picnic with French food but we ended up not having time to hop on the metro to some parc (UF class was next) so we had the picnic in class.
Anyways, I thought it was funny he suggested it would be a French picnic but then went and brought Coca Cola. His defense? It had a French name written on the bottle. You know, the same marketing thing I told you guys about when I was in Italy.
He brought some other superrr French stuff on top of that, tho. Some type of duck liver spread (was it paté?)
He also brought saucisson. One of the girls in the group made the mistake of comparing it to salami, and he looked disgusted. Haha. It's way better than salami, according to Pierre.
Agreed. That's an insult to saucisson. Anyways, we ate, enjoyed our last moments as his students and even got a class picture.
Pierre's in the middle with that green belt I told you guys about—he does tend to blend in even though he's the tallest and our instructor.
We went to a museum for the UF class—Le Musée Carnavalet if this itinerary's correct. After that, a group of us headed to la Tour Eiffel. As we waited in line, an update came in—the very top would be closed. Suddenly we had a decision to make. Is it worth it? Still go for it?
We did. And then we hoped it would reopen by the time we made it up there. We waited in line—being in Paris always makes anything more fun to do, even waiting in line. Shockingly, we spotted a little boy in FSU garb. Yuck.
After going through the line, buying our tickets and waiting some more, we proceeded to go into the largest elevator I've ever been in in my life.
We got to the sort of half way point-ish.
And it was beautiful. You could look out and see all of Paris before you. Lizette, who has a killer sense of direction even pointed out the area her host family's place is in. We stayed at the lower level for a little while, taking pictures, taking in the view.
The very top finally opened up, and me, Lizette, and Emily decided to go for it.
We knew we had to.
Who knew if we'd ever get this chance again?
I don't know if you've ever been to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The view seems a lot like the view from the middle, but there's one thing that just completely floors you.
At the very top, there's a little inside spot that tells you how far away you are from all (or at least most I guess) the different countries of the world.
It's amazing. *Kanye voice* you, know, like off 808s and Heartbreak? OK I'm done.
In other news, they also sell overly-priced Champagne at the top.
People are all over the place trying to take pictures, naturally. When you find a spot at the edge, rejoice. And take in the view. Take in the moment. Take in Paris.
OK, I'm done with the anaphora—I'll wrap this up. So we eventually had to leave. And we were in a rush.
We spent the next hour or so on a hunt to find the karaoke bar one of the guys from the group planned for everyone to go to. Cool place. It was empty. Seriously, like five or six other people were there besides us.
And then there were the performances—My personal favorite was Lizette as Shakira and Getro as Wyclef Jean in "Hips Don't Lie."
But what still makes me laugh the most was after karaoke. I was on my way home. I was alone. And it was on the metro...
P.S. OK, I guess I wasn't done with the anaphora.
P.S.S.
Yes, the ellipsis implies there is more to come. It's a funny story. It's a study abroad story.
P.S.S.S.
Crazy pic midway up la Tour Eiffel. If you don't think Emily (red and beige skirt) is the most awesome thing about this picture, you're wrong.
P.S.S.S.S.
TOP OF LA TOUR EIFFEL
Started from the bottom...
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