Palo Alto never changes

Seriously. It's comforting and annoying at the same time. I haven't been home that long (most of my time back from France has been spent in Tahoe), but I'm already bored and antsy. Hence the lack of posts.

It's nice to see people, of course. I always miss the people. Just never the setting as much as I thought I would. I always get really nostalgic for the routine I have here during my last couple stressful weeks of the semester, but then as soon as I fall back into it, I'm bored and grumpy.

Also, Verizon sucks. Trying to claim insurance/get a phone with a working memory card is such a bitch.

In Tahoe

And I forgot how much fun snowboarding is! I hopped on yesterday because Kris convinced me too, and it all came rushing back.

I keep having weird culture shock moments -- like why is my coffee so big, what language should I be speaking, etc. etc.

I don't know what to do with this blog now. We'll see.

La fin

Thursday, it was raining and miserable, but I still went to Pere Lachaise cemetary, one of my few remaining Parisian landmarks. A lot of famous people are buried there. I had some serious trouble finding a lot of the graves, but it was a pretty cemetery and I did manage to find some important ones:

Jim Morrison: Apparently people used to have sex on his grave and smoke joints and drink to honor him, so it's gated off now. 

Chopin:

Oscar Wilde: It's like a thing to kiss his grave and stuff. I did it with the lipgloss I had, but I felt awk cause I was alone and it was gross a little. But I can say that I did it!

Proust:

I failed to find Moliere, Edith Piaf, Felix Faure, and some others. But whatever. That cemetery is confusing.

That night I met Anne at Laduree for one last time. I made the mistake of taking Advil on an empty stomach, and I was in so much pain. I felt like someone was vacuuming my insides. I decided to eat, and that helped, haha. Unfortunately the bar, where we were planning on getting our fancy cocktails, was closed for a private party. Just our luck. So we sat for dinner, but we had to settle with the simpler cocktail menu. 

Then we went to a goodbye party one of the NYU people was hosting. They live in an amazing apartment, with really awesome decorations. It was nice to have one last hurrah. Anne brought a really nice bottle of wine her dad had left, and we drank it straight out of the bottle because we had no cups. Classy.

Around 1:30am, after I had gotten a really drunk Liz in a cab back to our apartment, Anne and I went to Social Club. We tried not to pay for coatcheck, but the lady ran after us. We danced for awhile though, the DJ was really good.

After some serious troubles getting a cab home, I made it to bed by 5am. 

The next day, Friday, I packed some more, and then met Anne at the Grande Epicerie to buy gifts and stuff. They had amazing Christmas chocolates and candy there, of course.

I got yelled at for taking photos, so I stopped.

Then we went to the Eiffel Tower. We were planning on ice-skating on the first floor, and then going up to the top, since we hadn't been all semester. Turns out...the Eiffel Tower staff was on strike!! Typical. At that point it was 2:30pm, and they kept saying they would reopen in an hour. But they never did, and we were really cold, and apparently the top was closed anyways because of ice/wind, so we gave up. We took pictures in front of it.

And then got some vin chaud to heat up at a cafe.

Then we went back to Laduree, to finally have our fancy macaron cocktails. It was worth the wait. 

Le Bel Air: Pear and apple vodka cocktail with green apple macaron :)

And lastly, we met Maya, Tahra, and their friends for our final dinner and drinks. I had one of the best salade chevre chauds I'd had all semester, and we said our last goodbyes. Anne and I also got some very necessary street crepes, and then went home to finish packing. 

When we left it was seriously snowing. Not windy and miserable, just tons and tons of huge, perfect flakes.

What am I doing here?

I can't believe I'm home.

What an amazing semester.

Also I got sooooooo lucky, so many horror stories right now of people coming back from other NYU abroad sites. Stupid Europe.

Leaving Paris...

My flight to JFK is at 1:30pm Paris time, and then I have a connection to SFO at 7pm New York time. I get in to SFO around 11pm. AH.

I can't believe this semester is oooooooooooooooooooooover.

Last few days were pretty awesome, updates to come.

Of course they don't do pizza in Paris

Yesterday I basically woke up, studied, and went to school to go to my last Sociology class and take my last serious final. I got really annoyed at my Soc teacher over his grading...not that big of a deal in the long run but it was really frustrating and I thought I deserved a better grade in the class considering I did so well on the final and he changed the grading system at the last minute.

But thankfully my last final went well.  We had to memorize 3 minute long answers to 3 different questions, with questions from the prof after. Very intimidating.

This afternoon, Anne and I met for lunch. We were trying to go to a restaurant I'd read about. We got to the address...and it was basically just an apartment building. We were so confused. There was nothing like it nearby. I thought maybe I'd remembered the address wrong, but when I went back to check it later, I was right. Wtf. We were disappointed, but ended up having a standard French lunch at a cafe. Nothing wrong with that.

Then I took my last final, which was also just oral. I had to talk to my prof about Freaks and Geeks and my plans for vacation and stuff. Totally easy.

Tonight was a soiree hosted by NYU to celebrate the end of our Adv Convo class. We had worked on short films all semester, in English and French, with French students. Despite the frustration of trying to get all the technical details right, the finished products were pretty cute. We watched all of them, and then after there was cider (which was pretty shitty) and awesome hors d'oeuvres. When we saw the boxes, I predicted that there would be pizza, but of COURSE they don't do that in Paris. Instead it was artful meats, cheese, veggies, and fish, and tons of pastries. It was beautifully arranged and so French. NYU in NY would never do anything like that.

Death by sugar

After not being able to sleep until 3 last night, I woke up at 11 and met Anne near the Louvre at 1. On my walk to meet her, I ran across these really cool Christmas decorations along Rue Richelieu. They were all recycled soda bottles, and every business either hung up arrangements as ornaments or put trees in their windows, and their were decorations all over the street and hung from the buildings. It was really cool, I didn't even notice they were bottles at first.

Anne and I went to Angelina, a famous tea room/restaurant/bakery in Paris known for having the best hot chocolate in France. It truly lived up to it's name. It was so dark and thick -- once it started to cool down a bit, it was basically just chocolate. And they brought fresh whipped cream on the side (just cream, no sugar) to add as much as you want. It was better than the hot chocolate in Belgium because it was less creamy/as creamy as you wanted it to be. Just pure, dark, sugary chocolate. Heaven. 

We also got pastries, which may have been a bad idea in retrospect. Obviously they were to die for, but by the end of our meal my heart was pounding so much from all the sugar. I felt sick, but it was sooooo delicious. I had the Tartlette Eva, a pastry with raspberry dark chocolate and custard filling, and topped with cream, shortbread, fruit, and gold flecks. I sadly couldn't finish it...

After I went to Jardin de Luxembourg, one of the last Parisian landmarks I haven't been to. I kept meaning to go there when the weather was warm, but I never made it over to see all the plants/flowers in full bloom. It was still beautiful in the late afternoon light though. Plus it was nice to walk off all that dessert. 

Right before I went to yoga tonight, I got an e-mail saying my yoga studio in New York had to close my favorite location (Bikram Yoga Manhattan -- Greenwich Village). It was so convenient, right on 6th Ave, and a lovely studio with a small patio and windows overlooking 6th Ave. I'm so sad!! 

Blah, last serious final tomorrow... (I have one on Wednesday that I can't/am not going to study for)