je ne sais pas

Last weekend I went to Paris, and it was absolutely wonderful. I think it might be my favorite city in the entire world. I started thinking that maybe I should have been studying French all along instead of Spanish, because so many things that I love are French - ballet, Les Miserables, Madeline, Beauty & the Beast, my grandma. Although, in the interest of not eating my weight in food, Spain was probably a better choice. In Paris there is an adorable bakery on every corner and I feel like we stopped at almost every one to have crepes, tarts, chocolate croissants, etc.

We packed so much into three days that I don't have space to explain it all, but some of the highlights were Sacre Coeur, Montimartre, falafel in the Jewish District, running around the Louvre at night (little known fact: students get in free on friday nights!), and Shakespeare and Co. Shakespeare and Co. is a tiny, old, famous bookstore that I absolutely love. I went back two days in a row - once to look around and the second time just to sit and read.

My 3 greatest accomplishments while in Paris were...

1. Taking the metro EVERYWHERE (usually for free, because we took a hint from French kids and hopped the stalls)

2. Getting free margaritas, because we spoke Spanish

3. Meeting up with my friends Mary and Morgan from high school! I love them, and I love seeing familiar faces in a foreign country, and I love Mary's tiny Parisian apartment.

free margaritas with the owner

it's march already?

Although I can't believe that it is already March and that the first month and a half of my stay here has come and gone, I know that the next two months are about to go by even faster. Starting last weekend I have a trip just about every other week - - first stop, Barcelona.

We started our trip to Barcelona with a five hour bus ride which was one of my favorite parts. This doesn't say anything negative about Barcelona, just that I love driving, especially through the Spanish countryside. Once we got to Barcelona we had dinner at FresCo, a restaurant with the most amazing and extensive salad bar ever (especially compared to the ice berg lettuce and oddly squishy tomatoes in the dorm cafeteria.) That night we went out to a bar called Chupitos aka "Shots." My favorites were the Harry Potter shot which had sparklers coming out of it, the Boyscout shot where you roast a marshmellow on the bar and dip it in your drink, and the Finding Nemo shot where you find Nemo in whip cream before taking the shot.

The next day we went to the Picasso museum (it was in a series of old apartments and we learned that "as a child he painted like an adult and as an adult like a child") and walked around the streets crowded with people and colored with street performers and artists. The most impressive aspect of Barecelona, however, were the works of Gaudi. He was an artist/architect who's whimsical creations look like they're straight out of Candyland or Whoville. His most impressive designs were the Sagrada Familia (not your typical cathedral) and a park that could have come straight out of a little kid's imagination.

dear food why must you taste so good?

I went to Barcelona this weekend, which deserves to be blogged about, but I don't have the energy for that, so instead here is what Britt and I just did on a normal night in Spain ...

We have been wasting time for the past hour or so waiting until 10:30 when we planned a gelato "study" break. 10:30 just rolled around and we ran downstairs where we were met with freezing rain. We thought this might be a sign that we have already gained so much weight on this trip that we should not shove more desserts into out stomachs, but that didn't stop us. We ran in the rain without hoods and some how got mildly loss on the 7 min trek we now know so well (sign 2 that we should probably turn back). Finally we got to the gelato shop - it was closed, almost as though someone were telling us, "You're packin on the pounds, go back while you can." But no. We ran to McDonalds where they were out of Oreo McFlurrys, but that didn't stop us either. We got Kit-Kat flavored, because at this point nothing could keep us from late night binging.

After all was said and done we decided the freezing rain, loss of memory in the dark streets, a closed shop, and the wrong flavor were worth it. So worth it that we split a large fry too. We've realized that love handles are the price one has to pay for living in Europe for 3 months ... so maybe tomorrow we'll start eating healthy again?