Whoo-hoo! I'm back and ready to share more adventures, more funny stories, and a lot (A LOT) more pictures. Let me start out by saying that I'm sorry I've gotten so behind on writing everything down--it's just that with all the new things going on every single day, there's hardly time for a break. But today I have one, so I'll be tearing through this blog post as fast as I can! Don't expect to be able to read this whole thing in less than an hour, though.
CUE INTENSE TYPING GIF:
I was not expecting Jim Carrey's presence to be such a theme on my blog. This is the third time he's been on here. Weird . . .
Anyway. Moving on!!!
So picking up where we left off in my last blog, Thursday, October 6th, was the day that Hannah, Kambria, Taylor and I left for London!
Aww, don't we look so adorable together? Me and Hannah were already in dresses in preparation to go see Les Mis, which would be that night. (Also, while Kambria and Taylor brought suitcases, we opted to wear backpacks instead. Remember that--it'll be important later.) Our flight was to take off at 4:50, and since we had a little lag time after we got to the airport, Hannah and I found this little piano and took turns playing it:
That girl has mad piano skillz, btw. Listening to her play cleansed my soul.
Anyway, after a little while they called our flight and we lined up to check out. This was where something exciting happened, something that's never happened to me before: instead of putting us through that little tunnel thingie to get on the plane, we were directed down the stairs and outside in order to get on the plane! And we were all so giddy and excited for the trip that I was able to take some pretty awesome photos.
Kambria is such a photogenic babe it's not even funny.
Anyway, once we got on the plane things continued to be unlike I was used to--instead of sitting in our assigned seats on the plane, we totally just moved around to sit wherever we wanted to, because there were probably 20 people tops on that plane. It was weeeeird, but also really cool, because I got to sit next to Kambria and we talked about family and life and boys and hair. We literally didn't stop talking from the moment the plane took off until it landed an hour later--with the exception of this short video I took when the view out the plane window was just Too Good:
Anyway, it was so fun to get to know her a little bit better. She is so cool. All of the girls in this group are--and they're so awesome and pretty that it was a bit hard for me not to feel like an awkward dweeb in comparison. But they are really nice too and made me feel very welcome!
After getting off the plane, we hightailed it for the train into London, because we needed to get to the Queen's Theatre in time for Les Mis! Hannah and I split off from Kambria and Taylor, who needed to drop off their luggage, and for two girls in a great big city full of ways to get lost, we actually did a pretty good job of getting where we were supposed to be. We still had to run for it, but we made it to the theatre about 15 minutes before the show was supposed to start.
This was what the view from my seat looked like:
Ho. Ly. COW.
Les Mis was absolutely unbelievable. I have no words to describe how amazing it was. The sets were mind-bogglingly cool, the orchestra was spot-on, the singers--the singers!!! The guy who played Javert legit had one of the best voices I have ever heard. 'Stars' was an absolute showstopper--everybody in the audience was legitimately cheering at the end. Everyone else was amazing too!
Here's us being cute after the show:
Les Mis is a loooong show, so it was like 10:30 by the time we got out and we were STARVING. Luckily, Chinatown was literally right across the street from the theatre:
We went and ate at a Chinese buffet, which was absolutely delicious, but unfortunately by that point it was getting pretty late and we needed to head over to the subway and hop on the train out of town, because the lady we were staying with (a kind-of sort-of relative of Hannah's--married her uncle, then they got divorced and she got remarried but was still good friends with the family) lives an hour out from London. On the way back, though, we did happen to see something that I thought my sister Kara would like to see:
The photo is blurry, but the theatre looked really, really cool--all these neat twisting vines and stuff over the title made it look very spooky and Hogwarts-y!
It took us a loooong time on the train to get where we were going. It was pretty late when we finally made it to the house, so I just kind of pulled one of these:
The next day dawned--well, not bright and early, but it did dawn. I realized that the view from my window was absolutely gorgeous--this giant expanse of green meadows with a bunch of cows off in the distance. It was so English I probably could have cried.
Anyway, we had to get going for the day. I met Hannah's former aunt, Rachelle, and her new husband, Graham, who is British. They have a very pretty house, but more importantly they were very nice people. They had offered to take us into town and go around London with us, so we hopped in the car and headed on our merry way. (I should say that 'we' is actually Hannah and me, since Kambria and Taylor had gone back into town earlier that day.) We drove along through the beautiful English countryside and I basically could not stop staring out the window. It's really really pretty--a totally different kind of pretty from France. Everything living is a ridiculously vibrant green. Check it out:
They don't even have sprinkler systems most of the time because it rains so much. Craaazy.
Also, apparently this area is really famous for their deer. I was on the wrong side of the car to get a pic, but there were huge herds of deer just chilling in the middle of wide-open, grassy plains like it was no big deal. Graham told us that every year one of the princes (I think Prince Harry but I could be wrong?) comes here to do a deer hunt, which is, once again, extremely English.
It took us about an hour to drive from our little village into London itself, and I really liked listening to Graham talk about all the things we saw along the way. His accent is really awesome, but more than that, a lot of the things he would tell us were just so interesting! For instance, this might seem kind of random as something to latch onto, but he told us that in Great Britain, McDonald's is seen as a pretty cool place to go eat--more so when he was younger, but still today as well. I thought this was hilarious because in the U.S. there's such a negative stigma against it, so much so that when you see somebody walking around with McDonald's you just kinda go . . . oh. (I say this has somebody who has eaten at Mickey D's many, many times, btw--there's just some kind of prejudice we have against it, which is probably at least partially justified.) Anyway, here in England that's not really a thing. McDonald's is much cooler here than in the States.
We drove and drove and drove, and at nearly 1:00 in the afternoon, finally made it to our designated meeting spot so we could meet Kambria and Taylor.
We hopped on one of those double-decker tour buses:
Took a group selfie:
And headed on our merry way!
Apologies in advance for the quality of my photos from Friday--I fell asleep so fast that I forgot to plug my phone in to charge, so it had to stay home and charge during the day and I took pics with my cute lil' camera.
The tour bus was really fun to ride on. We rode in the back at first, and listened to the audioguide as it explained the sights we were passing. There was soooo much cool stuff to see!
Which only made me want to watch Sherlock again. When will that show return from hiatus . . . the eternal question.
Moving on!
We got off the tour bus after a little while because we were all Starving, and headed into this little place called Pret a Manger (French for ready to eat), and grabbed some food.
I got me some falafel, a chocolate croissant, and hot chocolate. It was much-needed, and very delicious.
(Side note, tho: that croissant was reaaaaally flaky. And I was wearing black pants. So I spent like five minutes brushing all the croissant-flakes off. :))
We then got back on another tour bus. Can I just take this moment to say that I love how overtly British everything here is??
That sounds dumb, I know. I'm not talking about the fact that Big Ben is here, or that the people have British accents, or that the Union Jack is basically everywhere you look like some kind of freakish flag version of the Elf on the Shelf. There are tiny, nuanced little ways that reminded me that where I am is different from America, mostly in the signs and things I saw everywhere. Like this advertisement for a burger joint:
I would also like to submit that, while I find London's architecture and setup unique and interesting, I am actually In Love with Paris' aesthetic. This is evidenced by the fact that I basically imploded with excitement upon seeing this Paris-esque building:
I was only able to take this one picture on the inside, because then some lady saw me and was just like, 'no photos, please.' Which I thought was dumb, but I put my camera away anyway.
After St. Paul's, we kind of just walked around for a little bit! We found the Tower Bridge, which looks like this:
And took some more group photos!
My favorite one, though, is probably this one:
. . . I don't believe it . . . I'm in a photo on the Tower Bridge!
Ahh, Mike Wazowski. I always knew that deep down inside, he and I were one and the same.
Anyway, check out the views from this bridge!
We kept walking around, went to a little galleria and looked at souvenirs, and eventually ended up at an Urban Outfitters to do a little shopping, because the other gals wanted to get all dressed up fancy for dinner that night! I'd left my dress at the house, but Kambria was nice enough to lend me her dress, so off we went to find good food!
And find it we did--but not until after we had a bit of a snag in the subway. We were confused about where to get off, so we didn't start to move until the alarm had sounded and the doors were starting to close. Hannah, Kambria, and Taylor made it through just before the doors closed; I, alas, did not.
Never fear, though! I just got off at the next stop and changed directions to head back over. While waiting for the next available train, I took a selfie.
Anyway, we found a cute little Italian restaurant that did pizza and pasta and kebabs and stuff, and sat ourselves down to try it out!
As well as what is probably my favorite picture of me during the trip:
My hair! It looks so magical.
Anyway, they went on to Buckingham Palace, but I was a wimp because I'd been carrying my backpack (which had all my clothes and my laptop in it) around all day, so I told them I'd meet them at the airport. I navigated the subway system and made it back to the airport.
The rest of the way home was pretty uneventful--I was so grateful I got to spend time with these nice girls, and we had fun talking about all sorts of different things. Each one of them is really really cool and smart.
However, there were a couple little mess-ups to end the trip, which culminated in an absolutely mortifying story.
So to set the scene: I'm still wearing the dress that Kambria lent me. She accidentally forgot my clothes at her hotel, so she was having a friend mail them to us, which was fine--it just meant that I had to wear the dress home. When I arrived in my little town after travelling for so long, it was about 11 pm. I walked down the road toward my house, and went to open the tall gate to the housing area.
It did not open. It was locked.
Instantly, of course, my mind started racing in many different directions. What was I supposed to do? I didn't have a key to deal with a locked gate! I only had keys for the doors to the house. Could I call someone? But no--my French cell phone and my smart phone were both dead. My laptop was dead too. I considered throwing rocks at Cassidy's window so that she would come down and get me, but even if I'd been able to throw with that much accuracy, her window was on the wrong side of the house for that to even be a possibility. And I couldn't shout to get her to come down, either--the police would most definitely respond to the noise complaint of a crazy girl shouting at a house, and I had a feeling they would be more likely to put me in a nice cozy cell than unlock the gate for me.
I couldn't go through the rails of the gate, either--they were too small for even me to fit through them.
At this point, of course, I kind of started hyperventilating. After the embarrassment of getting fined in the subway earlier that day, I wasn't sure if I could handle being found sleeping outside the next morning--not to mention that that sounded like the most unsafe thing I could possibly do. Around this time when my desperation was at its peak, I finally realized that there was no way around it--I would have to find a way to crawl over the fence.
Now to give you a sense of the stakes here, this is what the fence looks like:
Whatever. It doesn't matter! I got inside safely!!
And that was the way that our London trip ended--for me, at least! It was an adventure, with some high points and a couple low ones, too, but all in all I was glad I got to spend it with a group of such great, positive girls!
Normally this would be the spot where I'd end a blog, but because I've still got so much to cover (and I really can't leave it unwritten because I'm going to be too busy this week) this is going to be Very Long!
Continuing on, on Monday Maddie introduced me and Larissa to this Chinese place that makes their noodles from scratch right in the restaurant. I took a picture, but I don't know if you can really see it:
There's reflections on the window, and it's blurry, but there's a guy in there making noodles. It was really cool to watch.
Oh, and the soup itself was delicious, too:
I am still having food flashbacks about it. Sooo goood.
Anyway, as per the norm we visited the Louvre for Art History, this time to talk about . . . Baroque art, I think? There were a lot of gigantic portraits on the list for today, but I didn't really take photos of them because most of them involved naked people. Here is a pretty ceiling instead:
And one of the coolest sculptures I've ever seen, what the heck:
Anyway, since I was filming so much I didn't really take pictures on Thursday, so there you go.
Friday was exciting because it was the day of going to visit my Dad's mission! I went with my awesome friend Kate, and we stayed with the Gros family, a couple that my dad baptized while he was on his mission.
We took a train out to Valenciennes, which is a town right at the tippity-tip northeast corner of France--like, nearly in Belgium.
Sœur Gros picked us up from the train station and took us to her house, where we met her husband Frere Gros, their seven cats, and two dogs. They have kids, too, but they're all grown up and moved out now.
Let me just say, first and foremost, that the Gros are some of the nicest people I think I've ever met. They were so kind and wanted to talk to us about everything, and they were very patient with us. However, there was a problem, and while it probably didn't bother them as much as it bothered me, it was this: there was a huge language barrier.
Like, I haven't really talked about it a lot on this blog, but . . . I'm really insecure about my French abilities. Like, really really insecure. I feel like I'm still able to learn stuff in class, but when I'm confronted by real-life French speakers who aren't slowing anything down to help me understand, I just panic. I'm sure that's not a unique feeling, but it is a frustrating one. Anyway, it bothered me more here than it has before because the Gros speak very, very little English.
Which is honestly fine, nothing against them--but I just could not make myself make sense speaking French this weekend. I tried so hard, so many different times, but when I was in the middle of being places with them, all I could manage were enthusiastic nods and little unintelligible noises. Like, I could totally understand what they were saying to me, but when it came to actually speaking my mouth short-circuited and I made all kinds of mistakes--partly because I was nervous, but also because I was frustrated that there were so many things I wanted to say to them, but couldn't because my language skills were insufficient.
Basically I felt like Elder Calhoun the whole time.
So yeah, it was frustrating and hard for me, but overall it was still an overwhelmingly positive experience to be with them. For instance, the first night me and Kate were there, we went with the Gros to a Friday night Church meeting, where all the adults had meetings and then there were also seminary and institute classes. We were there for two and a half hours and everybody spoke French, which was cool even though it made my head hurt, but the thing that I really loved about it was when we first got there and Sœur Gros introduced me as the daughter of the missionary who had baptized her. Most people were surprised and happy, of course--but my favorite person was the Relief Society President. When Sœur Gros told her who I was, her eyes got huge and she just pulled me into this giant hug, and said, "Oh, I love you!"
It was probably the sweetest thing that's ever happened to me. She was so kind and just kept repeating how grateful she was and how much she loved me, somebody she had never even met before. It was such a cool experience!
Anyway, we had dinner with them after the meetings (a pretty late dinner, even for French people) and I got to let them Skype with my dad so he could see them! That was absolutely incredible. Their faces lit up, and they had so much fun talking to him. I was grinning the whole time.
That was the end of the first day--I didn't take any pictures, sorry. In lieu of photos of me, take a look at my dad when he was a missionary(he's the one with the scarf):
Quel petit missionaire mignon!
Anyway, the next day there were plenty of pics!
We saw some places around Valenciennes, like the Place des Armes and the Hotel de Ville:
Valenciennes is also famous for their lacework, which we saw examples of in this little tourism shop:
Frere Gros also took random candid photos of us throughout the day, which I thought was funny. Here's one of me and Kate and Sœur Gros:
After more walking around, we went to Sœur Gros' mother's house and had lunch with her, and then returned home for a hot second to decide where to go next. Ultimately,
we decided to visit Tournay, which is a little town just a half an hour away in Belgium!
We went up inside this super-cool belfry and saw awesome views of the town, which was distinctly different from the French towns we'd seen--check out the cool orange roofs and the stair-step design on the building facades!
Took a group selfie:
And headed on our merry way!
Apologies in advance for the quality of my photos from Friday--I fell asleep so fast that I forgot to plug my phone in to charge, so it had to stay home and charge during the day and I took pics with my cute lil' camera.
The tour bus was really fun to ride on. We rode in the back at first, and listened to the audioguide as it explained the sights we were passing. There was soooo much cool stuff to see!
This isn't a very good photo, but apparently this archway, called Marble Arch, was originally intended for Buckhingham Palace. But Queen Victoria didn't like it, so she deliberately had a carriage built that was too big to fit through it. Now that is some next-level petty.
We also drove past Real Life Baker Street, which was awesome.
Which only made me want to watch Sherlock again. When will that show return from hiatus . . . the eternal question.
Moving on!
We got off the tour bus after a little while because we were all Starving, and headed into this little place called Pret a Manger (French for ready to eat), and grabbed some food.
I got me some falafel, a chocolate croissant, and hot chocolate. It was much-needed, and very delicious.
(Side note, tho: that croissant was reaaaaally flaky. And I was wearing black pants. So I spent like five minutes brushing all the croissant-flakes off. :))
We then got back on another tour bus. Can I just take this moment to say that I love how overtly British everything here is??
That sounds dumb, I know. I'm not talking about the fact that Big Ben is here, or that the people have British accents, or that the Union Jack is basically everywhere you look like some kind of freakish flag version of the Elf on the Shelf. There are tiny, nuanced little ways that reminded me that where I am is different from America, mostly in the signs and things I saw everywhere. Like this advertisement for a burger joint:
Hmm, yes, let's eat some proper hamburgers, yes, quite.
Also this water bottle:
Read that description all the way to the end. I don't even know what that means.
And lastly, this traffic notification:
That is definitely the first time I've ever heard anyone refer to midnight as M-night. It also might be the most redundant attempt to shorten a word I've ever seen. You literally only got rid of one character by doing that! And you didn't even change the number of syllables in the word! Why???
Anyway, we also passed Trafalgar Square, which was huge and really cool to look at. I kinda felt bad that we weren't able to get out and actually look at every single thing we passed, but hey--when you only have a day and a half in London, you can't do everything.
I would also like to submit that, while I find London's architecture and setup unique and interesting, I am actually In Love with Paris' aesthetic. This is evidenced by the fact that I basically imploded with excitement upon seeing this Paris-esque building:
Not only does this building fit my preferred aesthetic, it's actually pretty historically important. It's called the Langham Hotel, and apparently it was here that Oscar Wilde decided to write The Picture of Dorian Gray. Cool.
We also ran into THIS sneaky little guy:
Big Ben is actually quite a bit smaller than I imagined him. Which is totally fine, but it just surprised me a little bit. Still pretty, still pretty!
A little while after this point, Taylor, Kambria, Hannah and I decided that now would be a good time to hop off the bus and look around a bit. A lot of places, such as Big Ben, had already closed, so we couldn't go inside. But we went to St. Paul's Cathedral instead, and that was not a mistake, let me tell you!
I was only able to take this one picture on the inside, because then some lady saw me and was just like, 'no photos, please.' Which I thought was dumb, but I put my camera away anyway.
After St. Paul's, we kind of just walked around for a little bit! We found the Tower Bridge, which looks like this:
And took some more group photos!
My favorite one, though, is probably this one:
. . . I don't believe it . . . I'm in a photo on the Tower Bridge!
Ahh, Mike Wazowski. I always knew that deep down inside, he and I were one and the same.
Anyway, check out the views from this bridge!
We kept walking around, went to a little galleria and looked at souvenirs, and eventually ended up at an Urban Outfitters to do a little shopping, because the other gals wanted to get all dressed up fancy for dinner that night! I'd left my dress at the house, but Kambria was nice enough to lend me her dress, so off we went to find good food!
And find it we did--but not until after we had a bit of a snag in the subway. We were confused about where to get off, so we didn't start to move until the alarm had sounded and the doors were starting to close. Hannah, Kambria, and Taylor made it through just before the doors closed; I, alas, did not.
Never fear, though! I just got off at the next stop and changed directions to head back over. While waiting for the next available train, I took a selfie.
Oh, also I forgot to mention it, but all day I was wearing Hannah's super-cute hat, which she was nice enough to lend me because my roots were getting greasy my ears were cold. Thank you, Hannah!
Anyway, we found a cute little Italian restaurant that did pizza and pasta and kebabs and stuff, and sat ourselves down to try it out!
This was what came to the table for me. Holy cow, it was absolutely delicious. Me and Hannah got picked up by Rachelle and Graham after dinner, and we went home, thus ending our first (and last) full day in London.
Oh, also (and this is important) I was still wearing Kambria's dress. I left the clothes I'd worn during the day with her, in the hotel room that she and Taylor were staying in in London. She had my only pair of pants, so I just wore the dress into town the next day when we went to meet up with them.
However, due to a number of circumstances, it took a while to connect up with Kambria and Taylor, during which time me and Hannah had a bit of a . . . run-in . . . with the subway authorities. We were in a big hurry and needed to top up our oyster cards, but we did a Bad Thing and went through the gate without paying and the subway ppl caught us and (rightfully) told us that what we'd done was worth a 40 pound fine. We were both absolutely mortified--we paid and then very very quickly walked away.
Shortly thereafter, I split off from Hannah while she went to go find the other girls because I was so so embarrassed about that. Obviously I didn't know it was such a big deal, but chalk that up to me being a stupid tourist. Anyway, I spent about twenty minutes crying into my McDonald's strawberry lemonade, then felt better. The other girls were near Westminster Abbey, while I was across the river near the London Eye. It didn't take long for us to meet back up. And when we did, it was time for more Cute Group Photos!
My hair! It looks so magical.
Anyway, they went on to Buckingham Palace, but I was a wimp because I'd been carrying my backpack (which had all my clothes and my laptop in it) around all day, so I told them I'd meet them at the airport. I navigated the subway system and made it back to the airport.
The rest of the way home was pretty uneventful--I was so grateful I got to spend time with these nice girls, and we had fun talking about all sorts of different things. Each one of them is really really cool and smart.
However, there were a couple little mess-ups to end the trip, which culminated in an absolutely mortifying story.
So to set the scene: I'm still wearing the dress that Kambria lent me. She accidentally forgot my clothes at her hotel, so she was having a friend mail them to us, which was fine--it just meant that I had to wear the dress home. When I arrived in my little town after travelling for so long, it was about 11 pm. I walked down the road toward my house, and went to open the tall gate to the housing area.
It did not open. It was locked.
Instantly, of course, my mind started racing in many different directions. What was I supposed to do? I didn't have a key to deal with a locked gate! I only had keys for the doors to the house. Could I call someone? But no--my French cell phone and my smart phone were both dead. My laptop was dead too. I considered throwing rocks at Cassidy's window so that she would come down and get me, but even if I'd been able to throw with that much accuracy, her window was on the wrong side of the house for that to even be a possibility. And I couldn't shout to get her to come down, either--the police would most definitely respond to the noise complaint of a crazy girl shouting at a house, and I had a feeling they would be more likely to put me in a nice cozy cell than unlock the gate for me.
I couldn't go through the rails of the gate, either--they were too small for even me to fit through them.
At this point, of course, I kind of started hyperventilating. After the embarrassment of getting fined in the subway earlier that day, I wasn't sure if I could handle being found sleeping outside the next morning--not to mention that that sounded like the most unsafe thing I could possibly do. Around this time when my desperation was at its peak, I finally realized that there was no way around it--I would have to find a way to crawl over the fence.
Now to give you a sense of the stakes here, this is what the fence looks like:
(It's the one on the left side of the road.) It has a high, thick hedge running all alongside it, except for at the edge, where our yard meets with another one--which you can see here.
Anyway, whatever the scale looks like to you guys, suffice it to say that it was clear that hoisting myself up the fence and simply climbing over was not going to be an easy feat--especially when you factor in the fact that I was wearing a dress, one that didn't even belong to me and was a bit short around my knees, and on top of that wearing a very heavy backpack.
Then I saw this:
There was a little power box just the right size for a smol person to climb on top of and use as a point of entry! I was so happy at my luck that I almost didn't think as I mounted it, took my backpack off and tried to lower it as gently as possible to the ground on the other side of the fence, and hoisted my skirt up to step on top of the fence.
At this moment, however, a car drove by, slowing down as it passed me. Suddenly I realized what, exactly, I was doing. I was in the middle of climbing over the fence late at night . . . in a relatively short dress. As that car drove by the only thoughts running through my head were, either I'm about to get arrested for breaking and entering or for indecent exposure in a public place.
Neither of those things happened, thankfully. The car drove on by and let me be. I waited for a while to make sure no more cars were coming by, then (this time holding my skirt strategically to try to avoid flashing anybody who might be walking down the street) I started to climb again. I stepped on the top of the fence, steadied myself with the branch of a tree next to the fence, shimmied over and grabbed the stone column that connected the fence to the little wall-thing, sat on the wall, and dropped down into the garden like a ninja.
meh, except it wasn't really like that, it was more like:
And that was the way that our London trip ended--for me, at least! It was an adventure, with some high points and a couple low ones, too, but all in all I was glad I got to spend it with a group of such great, positive girls!
Normally this would be the spot where I'd end a blog, but because I've still got so much to cover (and I really can't leave it unwritten because I'm going to be too busy this week) this is going to be Very Long!
Continuing on, on Monday Maddie introduced me and Larissa to this Chinese place that makes their noodles from scratch right in the restaurant. I took a picture, but I don't know if you can really see it:
There's reflections on the window, and it's blurry, but there's a guy in there making noodles. It was really cool to watch.
Oh, and the soup itself was delicious, too:
I am still having food flashbacks about it. Sooo goood.
Anyway, as per the norm we visited the Louvre for Art History, this time to talk about . . . Baroque art, I think? There were a lot of gigantic portraits on the list for today, but I didn't really take photos of them because most of them involved naked people. Here is a pretty ceiling instead:
You might not find this that exciting, but Hannah and I were just staring at the sculpture of the woman's veil, how transparent and light it looks even though it's made out of freaking STONE, like . . . how . . .
Anyway, it reminded me of that scene from the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice where they're looking at all the statues and there's one statue that, like this, has a veil carved out of stone. It is absolutely mind-boggling to me that things like this exist. I don't understand how it's done, but I love it. Moving on.
Tuesday was largely uneventful. I didn't really go out after class; I had to stay home and prep for the midterm in our religion class on Wednesday. But I did pop out in search of some food for lunch, and I found the cutest little bakery with the most adorable statue in front of it:
I got pain au chocolat from there, and it was most definitely the best pain au chocolat I've had so far here. It was so warm, and the bread was so flaky, and the chocolate was all melted . . . no joke here, I actually cried a little bit eating it, it was that good.
The next day I went into class feeling nervous about the religion test, but it wasn't actually that bad--especially since Brother Euvrard was so nice that he brought us pre-test chocolate! It was delicious, and so cute:
How can you be nervous about taking a test when you have such beautiful, delicious chocolate to comfort you? Yum. (And yes, btw, that first one is designed to look like corn. Sooo cute.)
Thursday was my sister Mina's birthday!!! And since I love her a lot, like, a hecka lot, I decided to make her a special birthday video, taking her around Paris with me. You can watch it too, if you want:
Anyway, since I was filming so much I didn't really take pictures on Thursday, so there you go.
Friday was exciting because it was the day of going to visit my Dad's mission! I went with my awesome friend Kate, and we stayed with the Gros family, a couple that my dad baptized while he was on his mission.
We took a train out to Valenciennes, which is a town right at the tippity-tip northeast corner of France--like, nearly in Belgium.
Sœur Gros picked us up from the train station and took us to her house, where we met her husband Frere Gros, their seven cats, and two dogs. They have kids, too, but they're all grown up and moved out now.
Let me just say, first and foremost, that the Gros are some of the nicest people I think I've ever met. They were so kind and wanted to talk to us about everything, and they were very patient with us. However, there was a problem, and while it probably didn't bother them as much as it bothered me, it was this: there was a huge language barrier.
Like, I haven't really talked about it a lot on this blog, but . . . I'm really insecure about my French abilities. Like, really really insecure. I feel like I'm still able to learn stuff in class, but when I'm confronted by real-life French speakers who aren't slowing anything down to help me understand, I just panic. I'm sure that's not a unique feeling, but it is a frustrating one. Anyway, it bothered me more here than it has before because the Gros speak very, very little English.
Which is honestly fine, nothing against them--but I just could not make myself make sense speaking French this weekend. I tried so hard, so many different times, but when I was in the middle of being places with them, all I could manage were enthusiastic nods and little unintelligible noises. Like, I could totally understand what they were saying to me, but when it came to actually speaking my mouth short-circuited and I made all kinds of mistakes--partly because I was nervous, but also because I was frustrated that there were so many things I wanted to say to them, but couldn't because my language skills were insufficient.
Basically I felt like Elder Calhoun the whole time.
So yeah, it was frustrating and hard for me, but overall it was still an overwhelmingly positive experience to be with them. For instance, the first night me and Kate were there, we went with the Gros to a Friday night Church meeting, where all the adults had meetings and then there were also seminary and institute classes. We were there for two and a half hours and everybody spoke French, which was cool even though it made my head hurt, but the thing that I really loved about it was when we first got there and Sœur Gros introduced me as the daughter of the missionary who had baptized her. Most people were surprised and happy, of course--but my favorite person was the Relief Society President. When Sœur Gros told her who I was, her eyes got huge and she just pulled me into this giant hug, and said, "Oh, I love you!"
It was probably the sweetest thing that's ever happened to me. She was so kind and just kept repeating how grateful she was and how much she loved me, somebody she had never even met before. It was such a cool experience!
Anyway, we had dinner with them after the meetings (a pretty late dinner, even for French people) and I got to let them Skype with my dad so he could see them! That was absolutely incredible. Their faces lit up, and they had so much fun talking to him. I was grinning the whole time.
That was the end of the first day--I didn't take any pictures, sorry. In lieu of photos of me, take a look at my dad when he was a missionary(he's the one with the scarf):
Quel petit missionaire mignon!
Anyway, the next day there were plenty of pics!
We saw some places around Valenciennes, like the Place des Armes and the Hotel de Ville:
And then--this part was really surreal--Sœur Gros pointed to the building in the picture below and said, "See those red windows? That's where your Dad lived on his mission!"
Like, holy cow, wow. I've heard my dad tell stories about his mission literally for as long as I can remember. Never in a million years did I think I would get to be in the same places he'd been in, and walk down the same streets he walked. It was craaazy.
We walked around a lot--Valenciennes is a town that is pretty well-known, in these parts at least, for its sculptures and statue work. Here's Sœur Gros' favorite statue:
Frere Gros also took random candid photos of us throughout the day, which I thought was funny. Here's one of me and Kate and Sœur Gros:
After more walking around, we went to Sœur Gros' mother's house and had lunch with her, and then returned home for a hot second to decide where to go next. Ultimately,
we decided to visit Tournay, which is a little town just a half an hour away in Belgium!
We went up inside this super-cool belfry and saw awesome views of the town, which was distinctly different from the French towns we'd seen--check out the cool orange roofs and the stair-step design on the building facades!
After we came down, in this little square we saw a bunch of shops selling food, and I saw this sign:
That's actually the first time I've seen Barbe a Papa in Europe!
(For those of you who are confused: Barbe a Papa is the French name for cotton candy. It literally means 'Daddy's beard,' which I have always found extremely disgusting. But anyway, there you go.)
We also got Belgian waffles:
And Belgian chocolate:
Because, as Sœur Gros said, "When you are in Belgium, you buy Belgian chocolate. That is just the rule."
Shortly after that, we had to return home and pack up our stuff to go home. I was so sad to leave the Gros, even though I'd only known them for one day--partly because there was so much I wished I could say to them and wasn't able to. I basically ended up just thanking them over and over again for their kindness, hoping that it would get the message across that I really did mean it. Sœur Gros was so funny and nice--she told both me and Kate, "Come back any time, it's not far from Paris! Bring your boyfriends, bring your parents or your grandparents, bring your own kids someday!" And I seriously cried like half the train ride home because they were so sweet, and I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see them again.
Anyway, that's getting a bit too heavy. Here's Kate and me in front of a cow.
Anyway, last funny story before I end: when we were in the Gros' car driving back from Tournay, Frere Gros turned on the radio, and there was an American song playing. Now, as I've already mentioned, the Gros speak very little English, so it totally didn't phase them when the song used some extremely strong expletives. Me and Kate were sitting in the back of the car a little traumatized, though--luckily that only happened with one song.
Another song that came on the radio in the Gros' car while we were driving back from Tournay is going to be our French song for the day: "Jimmy," by Cats on Trees, featuring Calogero. I found it really interesting that this song was partly in English and partly in French. Anyway, here it is (ignore the weird music video)
Anyway, anybody who's taken the time to read through this whole crazy long thing is super awesome. See you next time, and remember--if you're trying to crawl over the fence to your host family's house in the middle of the night, make sure you're not wearing a dress.
