I'm sorry for taking so long to blog but yes, I am finally in Paris.
Before I write the long overdue post, let me describe to you the "Nutella & Go" snack that I am eating. It is just like Yan Yans that use asians eat, except the sticks are smaller and the chocolate dip cup goes deeper. Oh yes, a dream come true! Nutella is really amazing here. It is so tasty. The French actually eat chocolate with everything! Chocolate bread, chocolate with bread, chocolate inside of cereal, and even chocolate yaourt (yogurt)...what!? Amazing.
Now let me tell you about my journey here. My aunt and uncle bought me a ticket to board the TGV which is the bullet train that knocks off three hours of driving time to get me to Paris in just two hours. It was a very short and chill ride...but after was just craziness. After the train arrived in Paris, I had asked a man to help me get my luggage off the second shelf. He did help me, but he did laugh at me when I spoke my broken French. Did it sound that ridiculous? Uh, confidence booster...not. So I take my bags and get onto the metro, which my uncle also bought me a ticket for. (They really babied me, huh?) Now, everyone had bags because everyone takes the train and metro to travel but mine was especially huge and I am kinda especially small. Mind you, there are also steps...long cases of steps, in which I had to one-by-one drag my luggage down, and even worse, one-by-one drag my luggage up. By the time I was sitting and waiting for my metro to come so I could get on, I was so sweaty that my bangs were sticking to my forehead. After one stop, I got off the metro and had to go through the exit. The exit's in France are not those windmill looking, twirling bars. They are like two doors that look like the double-doored saloons, except they were metal and electronically controlled. I was trying to exit, pushing my fat, fat, fat bag through the exit and I made it. But then I forgot about the duffel that was on the opposite arm and the metal door closes on my bag and it gets stuck. I pull and pull and I am just too weak for anything to budge. The man behind me tries to help me but also fails and then he starts to get very annoyed. I gesture to him that he should put his ticket in and then pull it out so the door will open and magically it does. He just pushes through without finishing helping me and walks away. At that point, I'm laughing to myself. This is so ridiculously hard! Anyways, I have to leave the metro station and pull my luggage up and out of the steps. I already encountered two mean French men, I wasn't about to ask someone else to help me carry my luggage up the steps. So I one-by-one pull my luggage up. Five people pass me by and no one helps. Then finally, this sweet, sweet French girl comes and gestures to me to help. I say "Okay! Thank you so much!!!" And then when we got to the top, she also helped show me where my school was. For about ten minutes I had to drag my luggage down the street to get to my school. This is my first time walking alone on the streets of Paris and I was so scared but at the same time I was so tired. I would walk really, really fast to get to the school and then stop for a quick five seconds to readjust my duffel on my shoulder and then go again. It was a sad sight to see. I wish I could've video recorded all of this for you guys, haha! But, I finally made it to school............and my arms were about to fall off.
After making it to school, I saw a friend named Suhz that I met at orientation back at Irvine and she was so kind to take me to the dorms! I wasn't able to settle in really because I am leaving for Homestay on Sunday. (This time I will take a taxi!!!!!) That night, we were free to do anything we wanted so we found a bridge over our dorm and walked down the path. After we just explored what stores were around us and then had pizza at Le Pizzeria de Coq, owned by an Egyptian man named Joseph, who spoke great English and was so good to us!
The next morning, we had orientation. After we ate at a cafe near by called Faubourg Cafe, I believe. I tried Le Croque Monsieur which is a ham and cheese melt. Personally, it was yummy, but a little too much cheese for my liking. France has about 360 different kinds of cheeses. But I can't handle too much cheese. It's like nookee heh. Anyways, after we headed towards Le Tour Eiffel and it was so amazing! Before I got here, I couldn't really understand why Paris was the City of Love and Beauty because the streets are just dirty, the people are mean, the weather is so fickle, and blah blah blah. But going to the Eiffel Tower changed everything. To begin with, the couples here are so madly in love with each other. You can tell by the way they look into each other's eyes and how they are so captured by each other. It's quite a delightful sight to see. Not when they get too PDA though. PDA is like not a bad thing here at all. Also, everything around the Eiffel Tower is seriously beautiful! La Seine, the boats, the statues, the buildings. I don't know what the building across the Eiffel Tower is but I will find out! We walked around the Eiffel Tower for a long time, had dinner, then finally saw the Eiffel Tower light up. It was seriously so magical that I almost cried. Good thing it was dark because otherwise you could tell! I was choking up and I was like, wow, I am really here. I am really here in front of the Eiffel Tower. I mean, I'm already a sucker for romantic, cutesy, beautiful things, but this really blew me away. It even sparkles!!!!!!!!!!! (The pictures truly can't capture what I really saw in front of my eyes, but I hope you can tell that it's pretty amazing). Next time, my friends and I are going to go without a camera so we don't get so caught up taking pictures but we can just bask in it's beauty and wonder. Hooha!
I definitely went to bed feeling so blessed to be given the opportunity to be here in Paris, France. I am not going to lie, not every single moment of the trip is amazing because it's hard to adjust myself. Everyday I am pushed to my limits and I'm challenged to figure this whole thing out. But yes, God has placed me for a reason. And that reason I will love to live out.
I will end with a verse that my good friends David & Matthew (Hehe, inside joke) gave me a great reminder of:
"PS: I forgot to add, a little tip from a good friend of ours, Matthew (7:13-14): 'Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.'"
Heck yeah!!! I can't wait for more adventures!
Coming up:
-Chinatown for pho and boba (hopefully?) Hehe, can't resist...
-The Notre Dame
-Paris Fleamarkets
-Beaucoup plus!
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