I'm not sure who Thomas Gold Appleton is but I hope he's right! I have lots to say about my time in Paris, but I should rewind a bit and talk about Thanksgiving.
Wednesday morning, Kaitlyn and I ventured out to Tesco (the Walmart of Ireland) to buy groceries for the house and for our feast the next day. We were sincerely disappointed when we couldn't find several Thanksgiving essentials, the worst being pumpkin puree. I had been dreaming about my pumpkin cheesecake for almost a month, so you can imagine how sad I was when we couldn't find it! Later that day, Erin went out to a specialty store and found all of the things that we couldn't find! I was SO excited! That night we made some preliminary dishes to ease the work of the following morning. We made all the pies and a few other things. I stayed up that night until about 5 in the morning due to an unexpected and pleasant Skype call. (The time difference is so obnoxious!) So I woke up on Thanksgiving morning after only about four hours of sleep, but all of the energy in the world! I was so pumped to get in the kitchen and bake away! Us Americans stayed here and cooked and the Europeans went on a visit. We started drinking wine around three in the afternoon while we finished making our meal. Unfortunately I hadn't eaten much all day because I was cooking and snacking. By the time dinner rolled around at half five, all of us Americans were feeling pretty relaxed! :) The dinner turned out really well and it was so much fun to share the experience with Jose, Lennart, and Lisa who have never had a Thanksgiving dinner before. It was also Sr. Mary Fox's birthday and I think she enjoyed the day as well. I had plans to watch Christmas Vacation with my housemates and then talk to my family on Skype that night at 11, but because of the combination of lack of sleep, drinking generous amounts of wine, and lots of food made me so sleepy! I sent a message to my family saying I was sorry but I needed to go to bed! (It was around half ten at this point.) I woke up the next morning feeling crappy and I panicked about the fact that I ditched my family for a food coma! Jamie sent me a message saying that they waited for me and I never showed, so they apparently didn't get my message. I felt (and still feel) so bad! But besides the embarrassment of going to bed so early and missing my family, the day was a success! Being away from home during the holidays isn't easy, but having good people to spend them with is comforting.
The next day we all recovered from the day before. :) In the morning, we decorated the house for Christmas and wrote Christmas cards for the members. Later that night we went to the Swords house to decorate it as well and prepare for guests. In a few weeks we will be having a kids group that will consist of all new children members! I am very excited to have variety, and a little nervous to be in a group of kids I don't know. We had an open house for the new children and their parents, and we were each assigned a child and parent to show around the house. My girl didn't show up, so I spent the evening hanging out with Liam. Liam is the five year old brother of one of our new members, Phillip. He was quietly playing in the corner when I came up and sat next to him. Let me try to describe the cuteness of this kid, although I feel I won't even come close. He is blond haired, blue-eyed with glasses. He wore his school uniform of navy and white and little red converse! He took to me right away as I asked him about the dinosaurs he was playing with. We had so much fun with the dinosaurs. He had them fight with each other and he asked me what they were fighting about and I told him they were probably fighting over a girl dinosaur. He laughed at that and told me there were no girl dinosaurs. When I told him there had to be girl dinosaurs he looked at Lennart (the closest boy) and asked him. Lennart told him there were mommy dinosaurs and daddy dinosaurs and baby dinosaurs. He was so fascinated by that! When he was done with the dinos he picked up a toy gun and started shooting imaginary bad guys. When a few other volunteers started shooting back at him he jumped in front of me to protect me from the gun shot! When Khadija (my supervisor) told him to shoot me, he paused and then shot her instead! It was SO funny! When it was time to go, Liam was very sad to say goodbye, but the sadness melted quickly with a promise from mom of McDonald's. He turned around and lifted his arms up as high as they could go as an invitation for a hug. I couldn't resist how adorable that was, and even though maybe it's not prudent to hug a strange child, I gave in! I am so sad that Liam can't be a part of the next kids group!
We got home around half ten and tried to unwind for a bit. Lennart, Kaitlyn, Erin and I were headed to the airport the next morning at half four! None of us went to bed at a reasonable hour and boy did we pay for it. I woke up weighing the options of staying in bed or actually going to Paris. :P Paris won by a hair and I slowly made my way out of my bed and eventually out of the house. Our flight was delayed by an hour, but we weren't aware of that until we were already in line to board. So we stood there for an hour, and desperately wished we had known that was going to happen before we got out of bed! When we made it to the airport in France, Gabriele had been waiting there for an hour. It was soooo good to see him! We've all missed having him in the house. The shuttle to take us to Paris was outside waiting for us, and we all got our tickets and hopped on. Erin has been to Paris a few times already so she was accustomed to the way of the metro. I booked the hostel, but she got the information from me and then printed out maps. I also gave the name of the hostel to Gabriele. When Erin said, ok this is the way we go to get to the Young and Happy Hostel, Gabriele looked confused and told us that I gave him a different name. I sided with Erin and chalked it up to Gabriele being a spacey, Italian man. (No, offense.) We got to the Young and Happy Hostel (three metro rides later) and the guy behind the counter had no record of my reservation. We all groaned, with the exception of Gabriele who couldn't have looked smugger (not sure if that's a word, but it's exactly what he was!) I swallowed my pride and admitted defeat and tried to dodge dirty looks from my housemates who were being tactful about my annoying mistake. We made it across town and finally into the right hostel. The guy behind the counter told me that he gave away our reserved room with six beds and put us into a room with four beds. There are five of us! I wanted to jump across the counter and smack the guy! He told me we could either put one of us in another room or put a mattress on the floor. I decided that the latter was better and I offered to take the floor. Problem solved. We dropped off our bags and made our way out into the city.
As I walked the streets of Paris I got this overwhelming feeling of felicity (I've been reading too much Jane Austen. But isn't that a good word??) I feel like God sprinkled tiny parts of my heart in different countries when I was born and every time I visit a new place I find that missing piece! Our first destination was Notre Dame. I can't even describe how cool it is to be right there in the square looking up at the huge bell towers and intricate carvings in the stone. Gabriele and I sang some songs from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, to the embarrassment of the others. Couldn't be helped, really. We walked through the inside of the cathedral, which was beautiful, but not as impressive as the outside. After a sufficient amount of time by the church, we walked to the Latin Quarter where we were to meet our tour guide for a free tour of the city. It was four in the afternoon, getting gloomy, and raining a bit. This didn't do any damage to the big goofy smile I had on my face the entire weekend. Our tour guide was entertaining and cute. He's from England and his girlfriend is from Paris, so he moved here to be with her. He took us all over and told us several good stories, although none are really blog-worthy. We went to get some food at a market and settled in at our hostel. When I got ready for bed I realized that I had no blanket. So I went down and asked the lady at the counter and she told me she'd bring me one up in an hour. I was too tired to be mad, so I moped all the way up the three flights of stairs to my room and waited. She never came, so I went to sleep, on a mattress on the floor in the fetal position by the heater. Very pathetic! We slept in until 10 the next morning, which was a very good idea! We were energized and ready to go out and see more of the city! Our first stop was the Louvre, which we spent three hours in. We were told that if we wanted to see every piece in the Louvre for 30 seconds each, it would take 64 days without breaks for eating or sleeping! Isn't that insane!? So we saw as much as we could. I got to see the Mona Lisa, which was in a room filled of huge wall sized paintings. This of course made the Mona Lisa look tiny, but it was still cool to see! The Wedding of Cana is also quite famous and it was on the opposite side of the room. I also really enjoyed a painted that depicted the entire Passion of Christ. Luckily we were able to take photographs, so check out my Facebook in the future if you're interested! After the Louvre, we wandered down the Seine and over to the Arc de Triomphe. Gabriele went to the top, and us girls walked down the Champs Elysees. (I can't believe I just said that! So cool!) At the end of the busy street there was a Christmas market with lots of cool gifts and yummy smelling food. We broke down and bought chocolate pastries. Afterwards, we headed over to the Eiffle Tower to see the light show they have every night this year to celebrate its 120th anniversary. We were all starving at this point and after a lot of walking and arguing we settled on a cute little place near our hostel. I had delicious halibut and rice. Mmmm... We went home and went to bed, feeling full and happy.
The next morning started much earlier at eight. We had our breakfast and left Lele behind to sleep more. :P We went to the Eiffle Tower again so that Lennart could go up and we could take pictures. Then us girls went to L'Opera Garnier, which is the famous opera house in Paris that The Phantom of the Opera was set. It was SO cool! We only had to pay four euro to see inside. Unfortunately, the auditorium was closed, but we got to see the grand staircase (Masquerade!), halls, and foyer, which was absolutely stunning! We left to meet the boys at the Basilique du Sacre Coeur. It was on a huge hill with lots of stairs, but it was totally worth it to see the church and the view it looked out on. After some time there, we had a nice lunch, in which I had French onion soup. It was so delicious! We walked around the Montmatre area (where Amelie was filmed) and wandered to the red-light district where the Moulin Rouge is. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, the Moulin Rouge, that is. When we had our fill of that area (it didn't take long) we went to the Latin Quarter again and stopped at a cafe for coffee. An hour and a cup of coffee later, we sadly made our way to our hostel to pick up our bags and go to the airport.
We arrived at the Dublin airport at 11pm and ran through the place like they do in Home Alone (later Erin sang "Run, Run Rudolph") to make it to the half eleven bus home. We got there at 11:25 feeling so happy...until we realized the bus actually left at 11:15! So we pathetically made it over to the taxi area and passed our missed bus on the way home. :P
Today has been very lazy for a working day. The cleaners came yesterday, so all we had to do was have a meeting and prepare for the group tomorrow. I'm gonna leave now to watch Christmas Vacation with Lisa who missed it on Thanksgiving as well. In the words of Clark Griswald: "We're gonna have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap danced with Danny effing Kaye!" :)
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