Day 15

The main event of the day was art class with Bernie(the art guy). I have to say for not being an art appreciator at all, this class is so awesome! I am thinking that it is the teacher and a little bit of the fact that instead of looking at a power point, we are examining the actual pieces of art.

We went to the Cluny museum, which is half ruins of ancient Roman baths and half and old monastery of the Cluny order. I learned a lot, but I am a little worried about internalizing it and being able to remember and spit it back out.

Ally stayed at home in bed all day, which stinks for her. I think she is getting better, which is good because we have to be at the BYU apartment at 8h00 tomorrow morning to get on a bus heading for Normandy. There is a strike tomorrow so it will be super hard to get around the city. Half our group lives further out so they are coming in to spend the night at another Etap Hotel haha fun for them!

We had dinner with our host family again tonight. I understood a lot more than I use to I realized. It seems like often I don't understand, but that is better than almost always! We had grapefruit for our first course, carrots, green beans and some type of cow meat that looked a lot like pork loin. No idea what that is. For the third course we had our cheese! I LOVE it! I have my favorites and they are mild and boring, but so good. For desert I had a banana and everybody else had a peach. Good dinner.

We are planning to get up around 6h00 to get out by 7h00. Madame (thats what I call our director, although I guess there are a lot of madames here) says that they leave at 8h00 even if people aren't there, so we are going to be early. I probably wont post tomorrow so when I get back I will have a huge Day 16/17. Au revoir!

The Cluny monastery part

The ancient Roman baths-built in the 100's!

Bernie! Isn't he like a typical art dude?

Vaulted ceiling in the small private chapel at the Cluny.

A Reliquary

The Lady with the Unicorn

Day 14

Well today was a better day. I got some things done and was able to see some great sights. Not much to write about but quite a few pictures.

I went to the laundry mat for the first time today. I paid an arm and a leg to do one load! But it was nice to be out. I got some reading done for my art class and chatted with a few French people.

Allyson and I went to devotional, which is just our little group having a spiritual thought. It was okay today, but most the time I just feel like everyone is just so long winded and we are wasting time we could be doing things!

I got to see Michael though so that was good. He had a leadership training at the church, which is where we meet for devotional. I didn't get to meet his new companion, but I'm sure I will soon.

Ally and I had a little pizza lunch just a few blocks from the institute. We were at the restaurant for a little over an hour. It is so funny how they spend so long at meal times here.

After we met the group to go up to the top of the Effiel Tower together. We walked the first two stories(which are actually about 300 steps a level) and rode up to the top. It was really fun to do! While we were at the top I got a phone call from my dad. It was so funny to me because he has only called me one other time on my cell phone here and of all the times to call, he called when I was at the very top of the Eiffel Tower! I think he thought it was pretty cool.

We rode home on the bus today, which was actually awesome. Apparently tourist really don't take the bus so it is just a ton of Parisians, mostly older people(I am guessing they don't want to do all the stairs on the metro. While we waited at the bus stop a lady started telling us (in French) all about a museum we should visit. She gave us a big booklet that she had gotten there and explained all about the things we should see there.

This bus is awesome because it basically drives by EVERYTHING! It drives right by the Louvre, Tuileries, Petit Palais, Grand Palais, The Eiffel Tower, Place de la Concorde, on Champs-Elysee, much more, and you are along the Seine almost the whole way! Needless to say, we are going to be bus people a lot of the time.

We had dinner with our family tonight which was fun. We had salad with a really good homemade dressing. It was just oil, vinegar, and dijon mustard. Next we had chicken and rice. Then our cheese course. Then chocolate crepes for dessert! Love it!

Well Ally has been sick the last few days and she got a lot worse tonight, so it looks like I'll be doing a solo day tomorrow. We leave for Normandy on Thursday morning so I hope she gets better quickly!

Me at Pizza

The stairs

The elevator to the very top(after the 600+ stairs)

Most of our group was in this elevator.

Spencer, Berit and Ally at the top

Me at the very top

I see the moon, the moon sees me, the moon sees somebody I want to see....

Day 13

This is actually a well suited title for the day. I learned today that there are bad days even in Paris (just as in Australia) Thirteen really isn't a nice number.

There was no particular reason that it was a bad day. K well maybe a few. First thing I slept in until 10ish, which I always feel bad about because our host mom is up. I feel like she probably just thinks we are stupid lazy Americans. One of the first things she told me was that her husband has to get up at 6:30 and I was yelling until 1:00 in the morning. I was skyping my parents until late and I do have a tendency to talk loudly, but I didnt know that anyone could hear me. She was nice about it, but I was embarrassed so that was no fun.

At noon we headed for class to get there and find out that it had been moved to 10 that morning. He announced last week in class but both Ally and I forgot about it. So again I felt stupid and I missed a lot of material.

So we decided to find lunch and just hang out until our class at four. We found a subway which was nice! We had coupons so we both got lunch for 6.50 euros! That is so cheap compared to usual.

The day got better from there I guess. We walked and found this cute fountain. That was nice until some creeper guy kept reading what we were writing in our notebooks about different stuff we had done over the time we were here. So we left. We walked and found this amazing church-Eglise St. Eustache. I think it might be one of my favorite ones, however my camera decided that after 35 pictures that its stick was full. Is it? No the computer says it is empty, but I can't take anymore pictures so I was really happy about that!

We had Civilization class, which is not my fav because our teacher is scatterbrained and it really seems to be mostly a waste of time. We had dinner together at the BYU apartment where our director lives. Then I headed over to FHE with the members and the missionaries at the institute building. That was fun to be there, but the lesson was al in french and once again I felt stupid. It seemed to be the trend of the day.

After the lesson the senior missionary decided that the game would be speed-dating. My absolute favorite game...NOT! Instead I talked to Michael and Elder Maxwell. That was fun. they make me laugh. Now I am at home and want to sleep for a few days.

Michael's new companion comes tomorrow and Michael is at the church all day doing leadership training so I will probably run into him. I am going to his baptism on Saturday and I am excited to be able to go and support him! Well that's it for today. Hopefully Day 14/Tuesday will be a good day.

Me at subway-I was really happy about an american restaurant today

Ally at Subway

Fountain by the Centre de Pompidou

Gardens in between the fountain and the eglise

Eglise Saint Eustache-my favorite church so far.

Day 12

Today was a great day. We got up semi-early because we had to meet the ward in Paris at 8h30 to take the train out to Versailles for stake conference. I didn't mind because that meant that I got to spend an hour with Mook!! I sat by him and Elder Gardner on the train. Right as the train was about to leave, who else showed up but our wonderful investigator Esteban!

It was fun to get to know him a little bit better even though neither of us could understand each other to well. Michael translated all of our jokes back and fourth to each other. I got to tell Michael about how one of my best friends Sister Jenae Brett is doing her outbound from temple square in the San Jose mission. I also told him how there is a missionary in the San Jose mission that is visa waiting and will soon be in France. He is companions with Elder Gallette, who was a French elder serving in San Jose that Michael became friends with. It was so fun to have missionary's experiences cross over into our lives.

When we got to stake conference I also got to meet Michael's mission president and his wife. Ally's parents are serving a mission in Riverside CA right now and they were in the MTC at the same time as the Staehlis. So we talked with her for a little bit. She seems really nice and when I told her I was Elder Helvey's sister she said that she could tell because of my smile. I dont know if its true, but almost everyone has said that we look alike.

During the conference Elder Maxwell, Michael's zone leader, was doing half of the English translation. All the English speakers had headsets and Elder Maxwell was in a sound box in the top of the theater. It was so funny to hear him translate. Most the time he is pretty good at it with few hesitations, but the last speaker just about killed him. According to a few of the elders it was a really good talk, but he was using ornate language, which made it very difficult to translate. Most of the time Elder Maxwell was just umming into the mic. Finally he says under his breathe, "You've got to be kidding me..." and then the other translating missionary took over. All of the BYU students were having such a fun time listening to him. I gave him a hard time after the meeting. So fun to see that he stills struggles sometimes with the language.

Another fun moment was after the conference I went to talk to Michael, who was sitting about twenty rows behind me. He was talking to an elder and as I waited to talk to Mook, I realized I knew him. I said to him, "I know you." Then I looked at his name tag and it was Elder Scoville! Michael's second comp, who he loved. Of course I got excited that I was meeting him and told him how much Michael loved being with him. They were so cute together! They could have been brothers the way they acted towards each other. Both were trying to convince me that the other one was the best guy ever. It was so fun. I guess Elder Scoville is the assistant to the mission president now so Michael told me that. When he said that Elder Scoville brushed his shoulder off like he was super cool and then hit Michael saying something like "what the heck?" I guess he doesnt like to be introduced by his title lol He seemed super down to earth and like an awesome guy. Of course I asked him when he was going home and he said December 17th. Elder Gardner nudged me and gave me a face, but Scoville and Michael didn't see. I just laughed.

After that, I saw another sister missionary that I totally recognized, but I could not place her. I went over to her and said, as I seem to say a lot, "I know you." She asked if I went to BYU-I and I said that I use to. I was trying to think of what class I had met her and we realized we sat next to each other last summer in our adolescent development class. She was a super sweet girl and one of the few people I even talked to at BYU-I. We chatted for a minute or two and she told me how nice it was to see a familiar face. She has only been out a few weeks.

The ward was suppose to have a picnic after the conference, but no one really knew what was going on. A few of the missionaries were going to go, including Michael and Elder Gardner. They didn't have food so I told Michael I could accidentally buy some for him. At first he said no, but as I walked about he called after me and motioned me to come back. He decided that as long as I was breaking the Sabbath he might as well get some food out of it too. So I bought him and Elder Gardner sandwiches.

It ended up that there really wasn't an organized picnic and the missionaries decided it would be best for them to head back. I told Michael that I would see him tomorrow and off he went to the train. It is so fun to hang out with him. He has some really exciting news, but he told me that I couldn't tell it, because he never has anything exciting in his letters any more because I spoil it. So you will just have to wait till the morning to find out his awesome news!

Tonight we had dinner with our family. Highlight of the meal I told them that the Monterey Bay Aquarium was close to my man instead of telling them it was close to my house. They laughed at me for quite awhile. It was pretty funny, but I felt dumb lol

That sums up the day. I am so excited to read Michael's letter tomorrow to get his take on the week and so that I can talk to everyone about his news! Mom and Dad you will think it is cool. I'm getting ready for another week of classes. Even in Paris sunday nights aren't really fun...

Mook at the train station talking to some members and other missionaries

Elder Helvey and Elder Scoville

Chateau of Versailles

Versailles

Day 11

Today was a wonderful day! Ally didn't feel super well when she woke up so we decided we would just chill at the house. We had the best intentions of going to a park at least and doing some of our reading for classes, but that didn't happen either. I think I ended up sleeping most of the day.

We just kind of re-grouped today. Updated blogs, facebook, and other random stuff. We are most likely going to watch a movie tonight that we bought yesterday. We are quite excited about just relaxing today. I read a little bit of my book and I have to say I have really enjoyed the day.

I thought I might as well give you a tour of the house, seeing as I have nothing else to post today. So here it is:

We(Ally) made fish sticks for an early dinner.

They turned out great! lol

Our front door. We go in the big one on the right.

I was standing across the street when I took this but this is the street if you go right(which we do every morning to the metro)

and this is the street if you go left.

Entry way as you walk in the door.

View as you walk in from the entry way.

Dining room and Bobby(the little dog that hates us)

Door to the hallway leading to the breakfast area.

The right side of the breakfast area (even though this is where we eat all our meals)

and the left side.

The right side of the kitchen

and the left side of the kitchen.

As you walk up the stairs and you look left this is what you see. My is the one with the door open. There are five bedrooms upstairs and one bathroom. My host family has five daughters so I bet this was a perfect house for them.

Here is the famous bathtub/shower. Notice how it really isn't a shower at all. If you look closely you can see the little shower head and hose rapped around the faucet. This will be one of the few reasons I will be excited to be back in the states. :)

The sinks are on the left and the mirror has an excellent view of my chest and stomach, not even my chin. Ally says she has to bend over too so I dont feel that bad.

And here is my room. Slightly messy, but at least you know I'm living here!