La Vie en Rose

Coucou! Greetings from PARIS. Oui. Paris.

I have been in France for fifteen days and I leave tomorrow. This trip has gone by absurdly fast and I honestly am really sad that I will eventually have to leave this place and at the same time I am excited to once again experiences the comforts of home. One thing that I am really dreading is going to not only school but also lacrosse practice THE DAY AFTER I GET BACK. And did I mention I will get home late at night? Did I mention the 5 hour time difference? Oh I didn't? Yeah so there's that...

So what have I done in France you ask? For starters, Eat. Eat a lot. Basically 90% of my food intake has been bread and nutella. I love both, but even for me it is becoming a little bit absurd.

I feel like this represents my time in France perfectly. (I took this photo as a French woman was yelling at me "NO PHOTOS". I agreed with her, and ran out of the store.) Literally this country is obsessed with their bread, cheese, and wine. But hey, why not?

 

I have had so many different amazing French desserts. This country knows how to bake. Like I can't even. Crepes are amazing and literally so easy to find in France. I find it funny that there are literally so many cafes and boulangeries in France.Tonight (my last night!) someone in their family went to a bakery and literally got every kind of dessert they had. I had an amazing cheesecake with berry topping and this berry mouse/cake. SO GOOD. Some of my other favorite desserts have been macarons (which I ate sitting on the steps of the Opera), and the macarons filled with ice cream that I got at a restaurant with my corres, her sister, and my French mom. Also, something that I love in France is that they have these refrigerated creme brulee in little glass containers that you can buy. (Kind of like how you can buy jell-o in america). I have had, well let's see..... 6 of them here?

And literally I am so happy that I went out on a limb and ate a falafel. We went to the Marais district just to go to L'As Du Falafel, the "best place for falafels". I really had no idea what to expect, but now I am obsessed with them and I have been researching where to find them at home!

Every morning and practically every afternoon, my corres Hannah and I eat a baguette with nutella or occasionally jam and butter. When I get back to the good old US of A, I think I will try to do this more often. I will definitely try to buy more bread from bakeries and less bread from the grocery store. I know that some of the bread we have in America is just as good as the bread in France, but its just not as convenient. However, I definitely will try to make this a priority.

SO many people told me that I needed to try the best ice cream in Paris, from a place called Berthillon. One of my chaperones lived in France for about a year so she knew that she had to take the whole group. We really were all so excited, and it was amazing! I had salted caramel and vanilla in a cone and I wish I had gotten more! So amazing. A great memory.

My host family was so amazing to me in so many ways. I cannot express my gratitude enough. My corres let me sleep in her room for 2 weeks, while she either slept in her brother's bed (when he was away on a class trip) or shared her older sister's bed. They made all of their meals vegetarian. They only had a small meat side dish twice. TWICE. I cannot believe how good their homemade food was, either. Literally tonight we had this great radish and potato soup, french cheese, and later caprese salad. For lunch it was this absolutely amazing Oriental dish that was made from carrots, raisins, onions, and apricots. Literally their whole family are amazing cooks.

One of the most random things that happened to me here in France was that I met someone from my state the first day in France at Mont St. Michel. He said, "Hey UVA", as I was walking, because I was wearing my camo UVA hat. Turns out he goes to VMI (right near Washington and Lee), and is in the middle of studying abroad. I love when things like that happen.Its such a small world!

Yesterday was our last time riding the metro as a group, two days ago was the last tour we took! Today I took my final bus and metro ride I am so sad this is all coming to an end I don't even know what to do with myself. I really need to finish packing, but all I want to do is reminisce about my amazing and exhausting time in this country. I am crying because I don't want it to end. Now all that I can do is be thankful that I was able to go to this country and meet the people I did. 

Bisous,

Kelsey "Kelsea" (my new name according to Starbucks in the quartier latin)


P.S. In the upcoming days I will try to share more pictures and thoughts about my trip.