Hier: Désolé que c'est en retard!

This is my entry from yesterday. Sorry it's late! Blogger wasn't working properly, so I couldn't post. But here it is:

Nightmares.

They kept me from sleeping a lot last night. I’m pretty sure it was the first time a nightmare has woken me up since I was like 11. They weren’t even that believable! My puppy, Philippe, died in one and I woke up super upset. But the setting was in some obscure Armageddon-esque world. I don’t know. It was a bizarre night with a lot of tossing and turning.

Thankfully, the day got MUCH better. It was probably the most fun I’ve had in Paris since being here! I almost missed breakfast this morning due to my lack of sleep making me miss my alarm. Madame came and “tock tocked” on my door to tell me I had 15 minutes to eat at 9:15am. I’d rather have not eaten and slept more but it’s her house! I downed some orange juice, but I really wasn’t that hungry. I came upstairs, showered, and got ready for the day. I also finished some homework, which was nice!

Amy and I headed to the station around noon so that we could get to the director’s apartment by 1:00pm. Oh! I definitely saw a woman peeing in the metro station today. WEIRDEST THING EVER. And disgusting. Anyways, we were kind of late, but we made it in time to get the assignments. M. Olivier assigned different groups to get different food for our picnic and it was SO fun! We all ran around Rue Cler to find food. There was a fruit group, juice/dessert group, cheese group, ham group, baguette group, and a salad group. I was in the cheese group and we went to the Fromagerie on Rue Cler with the CUTEST couple working there. They were so nice to us! We told them that we were having a picnic for 26 people and that we needed all of the cheeses on our list. They gave us advice on which were the best and talked with us about what we’re in Paris for. We also got some delicious saucisson for the sandwiches. Good choice, Toni! Once the lady rang us up, the total was 76 euro. That’s over $100!!!! Have any of you ever spent more than $100 on CHEESE?!?! That was definitely a first.

On our way back to the apartment, we got distracted by a Leader Price and had to go in. They have really decent prices on otherwise expensive things, so I got some treats for my siblings. After our pit stop, it was back to the apartment to meet with the group.

We packed all of the food into bags and everyone helped carry stuff to the lawns in front of the Eiffel Tower. I had no idea the apartment was that close to it! It was only a 5-minute (or less) walk! We found the perfect spot and set out the blankets. M. Oliver bought the most AMAZING desserts for everyone. Since they were super fragile and would melt in the sun, we had to eat dessert first. I picked the most AMAZING chocolate dessert I’ve ever eaten in my life. Seriously, it was beautiful. It had edible gold leafing on it too!

I definitely thought that the covering on the side was a thin piece of chocolate, but it was actually plastic. Oops.

We had SO much food! I haven’t been that full in a VERY long time. After eating our bodyweight in delicious French goodies, we all laid out on our blankets and just basked in the sun and talked. Some slept, but most of us just enjoyed each other’s company. It was a beautiful day!

It started getting late, so we took one last group picture (M. Olivier took it on his nice camera, so I don’t have it yet) and started cleaning up. We attempted to do a giant pyramid in front of the Eiffel Tower with our whole group (25 people), but failed miserably. It was fun to try though!

After walking back to the apartment and putting stuff away, a group of us decided to try and go to Saint-Chapelle cathedral. I’d never really heard much about it but it’s supposed to be beautiful on the inside! We got into the first gate with our “magic cards” (BYU student art/museum cards), made it through security, and got to the gate to meet the RUDEST woman ever. She refused to let us in! It was very aggravating. She insisted that the chapel was closed but the other guys let us in and said we’d be fine. It was so dumb! But we’ll just have to go back another time.

Cathedral-less, we decided that it was too late to do anything else. We had dinner at 8:30pm, so the Croissy group headed back home. Madame was busy fixing dinner when we walked in, so I came upstairs and (you guessed it) took a nap. Why am I always so tired?!?!

Dinner was...difficult tonight. I majorly struggled to eat it. When Amy and I came downstairs to the table, Madame set out this huge casserole COVERED with mushrooms, green beans, and other vegetables. Amy just looked at me and mouthed, “I’m sorry!” BUT, being a good guest, I ate it. And I accepted seconds. And thirds. I said a lot of prayers hoping I wouldn’t gag and drank a lot of water in between bites. I guess it wasn’t that horrible, I just wasn’t feeling the veggies today! Dessert made up for it. We had this delicious applesauce with cinnamon. It kind of had the consistency of baby food but it was SO good! Definitely a good ending to the day!

Mckenna and I bought our tickets to Brussels today! They were more expensive than we wanted them to be, but it’s cheaper than flying back from the states. That’s our logic anyway. We’re way excited!!!! Tomorrow is Versailles day. Half of the group decided not to go tonight, so we’ll see who shows up at the meeting point tomorrow. Apparently there’s a massive RER strike too, so the Line A that we’d need to take to get into the city is running slower than usual. So...we’re taking the bus at 8:00am! Hopefully everything works out okay and we can get to the chateau! I’m sure it’ll be another adventure. J Bonne nuit à tous!