This post is being written in a cafe. How Parisian of me.

I learned something really important about myself this week. That being, if you put a basket full of fresh bread in front of me, I will absolutely eat the whole thing.

Now that I've confessed that, I will tell you about the last few days of my orientation.

Wednesday, February 6th:

My group met at the Louvre Wednesday morning. I could spend forever in there, I kid you not. Actually, our tour guide told us that if you were to spend a minute in front of every piece of art, for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, it would take over 10 years to see everything in the Louvre. How ridiculous is that?! If I suddenly go missing for 10 years, you'll know where to find me.

After that, we grabbed some lunch, mine being a 3 cheese tart with potato and caramelized onions (as shown to the right) and then headed off to look at some amazing and historically significant churches. My favorite was the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont (the link is in French, sorry) dedicated to Sainte-Genevieve. Unlike any of the other churches I'd seen, this one had no artificial lights on, and the only light entering the building was the sunlight shining through the stained glass. Absolutely magnificent.

We then paid a visit to the Grande Mosquee de Paris and had some delicious Moroccan mint tea! Aaaaaand that night I had dinner at 10:30pm.

Thursday, February 7th:

I cannot even...

Thursday was perhaps the most satisfying day for my tummy so far. To start, we went to the Quartier du Marais in which the Jewish neighborhood of Paris resides! We ate at L'as du Falafel which is a well known falafel place there (and for good reason), which as stated on the sign, is recommended by Lenny Kravitz. Just saying. Needless to say, their falafel was AMAZING, and I was extremely sad after I'd devoured it all. But I told my tummy not to worry because I'd be back very soon.

We continued walking around le Marais, and ended up looking at numerous private mansions in the area. Then it got really cold and we called it a day. But my new friend, Jordyn and I had been discussing our shared love for French food when she told me she'd never had a macaroon. We had no choice but to find some and eat them. Thus, we went macaroon hunting and found ourselves at a cute place with a very large selection of macaroons. Jordyn and I plan on becoming regulars here due to obvious reasons. (The same reasons which are slowly beginning to make me fat...)

Pistachio, Apricot/Ginger, and Caramel macaroons.

Jordyn :)

The crazy part about all of this is that Jordyn and I are both juniors at Arcadia, have taken multiple French classes, have many mutual friends, and yet have never seen each other. It's bizarre. So we spent about 2 hours at this cafe gossiping about people we knew and how ridiculously small this world is. All the while nomming on macaroons, naturally.

Oh, and guess what time I had dinner that night? Yep, 10:50pm. I do not understand. But okay. It was yummy nonetheless.

Friday, February 8th: 

Yesterday was our last day of orientation, sadly, but we went out with a bang. We went to the beautiful Palace of Versailles! 2 years ago, when we went, we stupidly went on a Monday when the palace is closed to the public...We ended up spending the day in the gardens which was fantastic, but it was a shame. Yesterday, however, we got a guided tour of the inside of the palace :) I have been learning so much about the history of France, and all of its hidden treasures. It has been such a privilege having such a wonderful tour guide this whole week as well, who has been able to share with us all of those details you didn't think you needed to know, but like you actually do. Like who cheated on who, and who was secretly gay, and who got to watch the king go to the bathroom in the morning, and why it was a privilege to keep the king's shaven foot skin. No lie. This woman is full of not-so-useless knowledge like that. And she's super legit. She's given tours to Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley (who is apparently world's biggest asshole), the Lakers, Henry Kissinger, Bill Gates..... Bill Gates. Like, okay. Anyway here are some pictures of Versailles for ya:

I then spent the evening out with some friends, Sebastian and Melissa. We went to Le Tavern de Cluny for dinner and some drinks and it was tres amusant! :D Oh, and if y'all haven't tried Stella with grenadine then you haven't lived. Just gonna throw that one out there.

Then there's today. This morning I joined Ariane, Yves, and their friend Fatima for breakfast. They showed me two things: 1. How to make a candle out of an orange, which is BRILLIANT. And 2. The right way to eat your baguette in the morning; which is to put butter and jam on it, and then dip it into your cafe au lait. I'm never not eating this for breakfast. (Once again, this is why I will be coming back to the states twice the size I am now).

And here I sit in the cafe around the corner from my apartment, drinking espresso (because I accidentally ordered un cafe which is not actually coffee, it's espresso.....) and of course blogging. This was my very beautiful and tasty as well as tiny and very expensive lunch I just finished:

I think I'm going clubbing tonight? I'm not sure. We'll see. That should be interesting. But for now, I must close my computer and go exploring. Au revoir for now!

Xoxo