It's a Wonderful Life

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Day 85

The days are just are not slowing down. I can't believe all that I have done and all that I am still planning to do before I leave. So here I go...

Ally and I planned to meet Trisha and Sutton at 10 at the Grand Palais to try to get into the Monet exhibit again. Ally was not ready on time, so I left and I gave her the phone. I got to Grand Palais a little after ten and I couldn't find anyone. The guy who worked there said that the line would be 4 hours. I decided that it was just not that worth it to me. So I left. I dont even know our phone number so I couldnt even tell Ally. So I just figured I would do the stuff that I wanted to do anyways.

I went to Rue de Rivoli to pick up some of my last souvenoirs that I had not bought yet. Then I took little stop in the Louvre. I had seen the Mona Lisa in passing, but I always said I would come back later to really see it. Finally today I went. It was cool to be that close. I had some one take a picture of me. (I'm a mess, but at least I have the picture!)

After that I went to the Pantheon. I hadn't been yet and I wanted to just see it. It was really beautiful. I am glad that I went. One of the coolest things was the crypt. Rousseau and Voltaire are buried there apparently and I thought that was cool. It was a huge crypt.

On the metro I had a tender mercy, that made me very aware that the lord is aware of me and is also aware of all of his children and their needs. I have tried to think of ways to help the homeless people here that does not involve giving them money. For a few weeks I would have little clementines in my bag that I would give away. Last week I bought some big wool socks, because I saw a man with no socks or shoes. I decided that next time I saw this I would be prepared! So I gave those to a man on Sunday. The last thing that I had was a pair of little mittens. I saw them on the Champs-Elysees for five euros. They would fit a child who is about three or four. I saw them and I knew I had to buy them. I rarely see children with beggars, but occasionally there will be a gypsy woman with a child. I worry about giving them money ecause I heard they drug their children to make them look sick or other things, but I also wanted to be able to help a child and a mother in need. So I bought the gloves. They have been in my purse now for a little over a week. I have been praying that I would be able to find the little child that needed these gloves. it seems silly, but I know that some one needed them and I wanted to find them. I had even gone looking in places where I had previously seen women begging with a child.

Today as I rode home on the ten, a gypsy woman got on the metro. She had a child in a bjorn on the front of her and it was not an infant. This girl was at least three. She was bigger than Porter and here was this woman a head shorter than me carrying this child, begging for money on the metro. She announced to the metro her story and asked for money. As she did I remembered the gloves in the bottom of my purse. I took them out and as she came to me I handed them to her. At first she didn't know what they were so I told her in French that they were gloves. Realization came to her eyes and she very genuinely said merci. She handed them to her daughter and moved through the rest of the car. While she waited for the metro to stop at the next station, she put the gloves on the little girl's hands. The little girl was smiling and looked happy to have something that was hers.

As they got off, I couldn't hold back the tears form my eyes as I realized that the Lord had answered my prayers. I had wanted so badly to find a mother and child in need of something little, so that I could show them that someone cared about them, and the Lord put them right on my metro. This was one of my favorite experiences that I have had in these three months abroad.

I was headed home because I had to make some pies! Michael's high school teacher thought that he would like a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and they don't really make them here, so she sent all the ingredients that we couldn't get here with my mom and I made a pie for Mook. She brought enough for two, so I also made one for my host family for our last dinner with them.

After I put the second pie in the oven, my dad skyped me and told me that he had just tried to call me on the cell phone and ally said I wasnt there. It was perfect! My dad called Ally and asked her where she was and what her plan was. Everyone was meeting out at Chateau de Vincenne to take pictures by these huge, white block letters that say Paris.

So after my pie came out of the oven I hurried over to the other side of paris and found all the girls! I am so glad I didn't miss that, because that is one thing I have really wanted to do. All the missionaries do it and it is just a fun picture to have. I finally found some of the girls and we all met up and headed over to the letters. We took some fun pictures.

After there were six of us, Berit, Shae, Sutton, Trisha, Ally and me, that wanted to go out to la Defense to a Christmas market. La defense is on the opposite end of Paris, so off we went again. I am pretty sure it could not have been colder when we got off the RER. The Christmas market was fun though. It was mostly just shopping and little random booths. I think those are really fun. We got some hot chocolate that was so good and chocolaty.

After we were completely frozen we headed home. Ally and I had our final diner with the Deveranes tonight. We really do have so much fun with this family and it was amazing to me that we understand each other so well. I usually know what is going on and even when they talk at their normal speed I understand. I think it is because I am use to them and I know them, so I can usually guess. We had muscles, because Madame Devarane had asked me if i liked them and I said no, but then the truth came out that I had acutally never tried them before. I ended up liking them. We also had little microwavable french fries that were so good! I wish we had those in the states.

We had my pumkin pie for dessert and it was funny because they had never had anything like it. Aude said she had never had a pie that you keep in the fridge before and I was trying to explain what the really name was in French, but none of them had even had anything like it. It was fun to see them experience something totally new that is so normal for me. I don't think they loved, but they did eat it!

That is it for me today. I have another huge day tomorrow, so I am going to go to bed! I hope I have enough energy for everything tomorrow. I am exhausted. I feel so old.

Rue de Rivoli

Louvre

Me and Mona!!

This is the huge apple store my the Louvre. My computer got a new hard drive here!

Christmas by at the Louvre

Pantheon

I know its blurry, but I'm at the Pantheon

The Crypt

Rousseau

Voltaire

You can see the Eiffel Tower when you come out of the Pantheon.

La Sorbonne

Cluny metro stop

BYU Apartment, where Madame lives

Thats how we get in!

Making pies

Chateau de Vincenne

Have I mentioned it is snowing here? Its really cold.

These are the cool letters!

ME!!!

Ally and Me

La Defense

Me at the Grand Arch at la Defense

Me at the Christmas market

The Grand Arch

Here is our dinner table.

That's my spot!

My first time eating muscles.

Bernard Deverane

Caroline and Aude

Day 84

So much is going on in these last few days. It is going to be so hard to keep up, but some of the best moments are also happening. I guess I will just start with the day. I got ready and had breakfast. I realized that I don't really take pictures of the normal things in my life so I tried to do a day in the life of Brittany by just capturing the little things, but I forgot about half way through the day.

For breakfast we have cereal and pain au lait which are just little roll things. I usually have one with nutella and one with honey. I have started to favor the nutella, but at he beginning I was all about the honey.

Madame Deverane sets out breakfast every night before bed, so we come down to this every morning.

One honey and one Nutella!

Next we head off to the metro. We leave our house and walk to the Jean Jaures Metro station on line 10. We have several options at this pint we can get off at La Motte-Piquet and take the 8 to Concord and then the 1 to Hotel de Ville OR we can take the 10 to Odeon and then the 4 to Chatalet. So many options.

This is the point that I stopped taking pictures of my "day in the life" so I guess I will just go on with the post : ) Okay so I went to the institute and was ready for my last final of the semseter. So funny because our religion teacher who is French, showed up a half hour late. that is so typical hehe So we took the final. I did fine and I was free! So that was wonderful.

After I went down and we practiced a musical number that we were doing for our last devotional. Michael was around the whole time, so I was constantly having random small conversations with him. I will miss that a ton! I went to this amazing pasta place for lunch! So good. I had spinach ravioli and pesto. This place is on the same block as the church and I just discovered it yesterday. I am sad!

We had our last devotional and it was a musical devotional. Kind of cliche, but we do have a lot of talented singers and piano players in our group. We had a solo, a duet, a small group number and a big group number. In between all we had little scriptures or spiritual thoughts.

Right in the middle of one girl telling a story, Michael signaled me to come outside from the window. This was weird, because we normally don't bother each other while we are living our separately lives here. If our paths cross then we talk, but if not we just see each other later. And Michael is always so patient so it was weird that he wanted me to come out. I was kind of worried, but I just went outside to see him.

I asked him waht was wrong and he said nothing. He asked me if Mom and Dad had sent out his address to everyone to send Christmas cards. I said they had and then he asked me if I could tell them to send another one telling people to just send it to the mission home. I asked why and he told me that the Mission President had just talked to him and asked him to be an AP(Assistant to the President), and he is moving out to there next Wednesday. I was so happy for him. That is such an honor, especially since he is such a young missionary. He will be great at it! He was overwhelmed, but he will be great.

Of course I cried about al of this, because I am leaving and he is leaving and our time together is gone and our lives are moving on once again. I had been holding back the tears for days on everything. I had told myself that after finals, I could have a breakdown and cry, but noth until then. So hearing all this from Michael triggered it.

I went back into devotional and Spence and Berit sang a beautiful duet to "I Need Thee Every Hour." It brought more tears to my eyes for so many more reasons. Then we came to the closing hymn and of course some one that it would be a good idea to sing "God Be With You Til We Meet Again." I don't know who that was, but that is just a bad call. We were singing it is french, which makes it even more sad because it was the last hymn we would get to sing in French, and I love that. I did not sing one word of that song. I started crying throught the intro and then as the song started, it was a silent, shaking sob. Ally had gone to play the piano so I was just siting by myself. Shae scooted over and I just tucked my head into her shoulder and cried. It was nice to get all of that out! After that we broke and decided to meet back in and hour and a half.

There is a 15 year old girl whose dad is the dean of French studies at BYU, who was visiting for a few days. She is on her way home from an student exchange and spent a few days in Paris. She wanted to see the Latin quarter, so Ally and I went over there with her. It was fun to just be roaming around Paris, enjoying all the places I know so well!

We went back to the Institute and we all were going to go to Chateau de Vincenne, but it was dark and we wanted to go when it was light outside, so we decided to just go to Champs-Elyesse. It is freezing here and I was not in the mood to be out in the cold forever, so I ditched. I was talking to Taylor as we had walked to the metro station, so we just decided we would go on a date! We went shopping for all of my last minute souvenirs and gifts and we went to Star-bucks!!! It was so warm! We just sat and talked and it was really fun to get to know him better, even though I know him pretty well already : )

I got home just in time for dinner with our host family. We had a really good curry, fish, and vegetable mixture (not quite sure how else to describe it), but it was good. After that we prepared for the coldest night in Paris!

Spencer is going home in the morning, so it is our last night all together. As a group we climbed the Eiffel Tower at night. Before we left, Ally and I decided that we would not be cold, so we put on all the clothes we possibly could. I wore an undershirt, a tank top, a short sleeve short, a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, a wool coat, and my trench-coat. I have a scarf and two hats. I wore long undies, my jeans and two pairs of knee high socks with my tennis. I put my gloves on and I was set. I have to say, I was hardly cold the whole night.

Ally and I took the bus and got there around 9:30. The plan was to meet at the top so up we went. We realized we had forgot our tickets at home, so we had to buy new ones. That was slightly annoying but more just funny. We took the elevator all the way up and for the most part everyone was getting up there at the same time. We all just took pictures and laughed and smiled and hugged and all that stuff. We really love each other so much! We wanted to have a dance party, so Spencehad his little Ipod that plays music, but we could barely hear it. That did not stop us. We heard about the first five seconds of "Dynamite" and then we sang it from there! We are crazy ad we have so much fun!

Best part was when Berit wanted to record a video of us for some creative thing she is doing. She started taping and we were suppose to say, "Paris 2010." As soon as all of us had shouted it, the Eiffel Tower began to twinkle. It was exactly 11:00pm and on the hour it starts to sparkle! So awesome! As you can imagine, we were all quite enthused and we jumped and yelled. What a fun memory.

Then the Eiffel Tower people herded us down to the bottom. We took a picture of the whole group at the bottom of the Effiel Tower. We all said our good-byes and we parted ways, the Paris people and le Vesinet people. The six girls that live out where we live went back to spot across the Seine fromt he Effiel Tower and took pictures of the places where we ad to spen the night in October one night while we waited for the metro to open. We missed the last one home that night. So many fun memories here!