WARNING: WILD GINGER LOOSE IN FRANCE @avainparis-blog - Tumblr Blog

Really good week

This is the first week I have felt at home here in Caen, and it feels GREAT. This is also the first week I have really pushed myself to get out and meet new people. I went to all my classes. My classmates and I are all starting to get to know each other and be able to speak enough French to make jokes. Some classes we are all just laughing the whole time. I also got an A+ on my first exam! I discovered a new grocery store that is like five minutes from my dorm which is SO nice. It makes getting food not such a big deal. I used to always make one trip once a week and it would take so long and it was this huge store called Carrefour (european version of walmart), but it can be super overwhelming there because it is so big. This new carrefour is smaller, easier to navigate, and has stuff more catered towards students. I finally found and an equivalent to ramen noodles! I started a new tradition with some of my girl friends to get pastries every Friday :) I also am feeling a lot closer to my American friends. Shout out to my neighbor Xandy for exploring new places with me, and inspiring to get out on my own to bars to talk to French people and not be too scared to talk to them. Also, Xandy is also really good at playing the acoustic guitar and singing. It really starts my saturday mornings off right waking up to calming acoustics. He also introduced me to a new French friend, Phillip! Phillip is super cool and french, but is studying languages so he knows English really well. I found a place to go hiking that will be super beautiful to visit. It didn't workout today, but we are planning for next weekend! So be ready for some awesome pictures of the Foret de Grimbosq. Instead we went to a really awesome park that is just a five minute walk from our dorms. It's amazing the things that can be just down the road and around the corner. haha Anyways I had a really awesome week and wanted to share it with you guys :)

#caen #france #studiesabroad #studentlifeinfrance #valleedesjardins

Some of the people I met while in Italy...and Nana a.k.a. the best cat in the whole world.

Randomly adding videos from my Flip camera that my awesome little sister gave me! Paris, again.

Don't Worry

So I posted a video about Rome, but I deleted it because I was super awkward and surprisingly I like to write about it more! On my last day in Rome, Chiara (My friend that was so nice to let me stay with her) asked me what my favorite part of Rome was and I thought about it for a minute and replied "The people." I say this because in my two months in France I haven't really felt at home, but I was in Rome for one week and felt completely at home. Every Italian has a way to make you feel so welcomed and like they have known you forever, very similar to the southern hospitality that I have become accustomed to, growing up in the south. Chiara's mom would cook for me, some days a whole meal just for me. Chiara would walk me around to all the monuments and share my excitement even though I know she has seen these same monuments for years. All of Chiara's friends would go out with me even though they had school the next day and order drinks for me and give me a good time. Gianlucca drove me on my first motorcycle/scooter/vespa around Rome and to St. Peter's church. Somehow I felt closer to these people with whom I could barely speak with than the people I spent the last two months with in France with. I felt apart of something and I could not be more thankful. It was not only the people I met, but just the Italians in general. One night Chiara, Vanessa(Chiara's wild best-friend who was always scheming ways to sneak out), and I were looking for my bank in Rome and we went into a pizzeria to ask the guy behind the counter where it was within five minutes the whole restaurant of about 15 people or so were arguing and trying to help us find the bank. It was such a funny and warming memory. If I could take away anything from the Italian people it's "Don't Worry" I was told this by so many Italians, ones that only knew a few words in English somehow knew "Don't Worry". If anyone knows me they know I'm the biggest worry wart and about have a heart attack if something messes up. So now anytime something starts messing up I just try to remember the Italians saying "Don't Worry" because in the end everything does end up okay.

Video from Paris: Outside the Louvre

Homesick

Soooo my homesickness is really kicking in so if anyone wants to send me random pictures or funny videos, or anything that will bring a smile to my face, PLEASE. I do get lonely sooo if you also just wanna say hey that is also welcomed by all! Thanks everybody!

Trouble in Paradise?

I have come across a few things that are troubling during my stay in Caen so far. Some of which I can't do anything about, and some that I could fix with a little help. Although I'm living the life in another country..I still am a college student trying to save money for travel for the short time I am here. Also there are many things like Peanut Butter that are not sold here. My wonderful uncle Robbie gave me the idea of creating an amazon wish list. For other students studying abroad this can be really helpful! I usually feel bad asking for things, but I have to admit the items on the list would make things a lot easier and you can get your favorite goodies from home that you are unable to get here! This way you can also let your family know what you need without having to personally ask them all the time. They can also pick and choose what they would want to send to you so it is more of a surprise. Surprises are always fun for everyone. My number one? Is a travel messenger designed for tablets. I always carry an over the shoulder purse, but I have found my Ipad sticks out of them or they break very easily. This is a huge problem especially when traveling because there are a lot of pick pockets and I have to hang on to it for dear life. Anyways here's my wish list and my address if you want to help a girl out.

http://amzn.com/w/NS04KY2SOJR2

Musée Rodin can't wait to re-visit you in the spring.

#musee rodin #thethinker #le penseur #rodin

Fashion in Paris.

#fashion #paris #galarieslafayette

Part 1 of Day Two

Paris Mall. (Galaries Lafeyette)

Lunch.

Opera House.

Random cool building.

Self explanatory.

Paris Day One Pictures

I'm so sorry for the delay of Paris pictures. I had a couple of days of no wifi, school, and it is exhausting trying to learn another language! and pictures are a lot of work. But here is my day one in Paris including some pictures of our apartment, the views of the street we were on, the meal we made(kendal and elaine made while I waited), and of the Eiffel Tower!

Kendal and Elaine in front of the entrance to our building.

Plants in the courtyard thing of our building.

The staircase. We were on the top floor!

The sunset and street view from our metro stop that was right around the corner.

The place we shopped at on night one.

An example of why being a girl is fun. Lingerie shopping in Paris.

Good ole home cookin'

My very first glimpse of the eiffel tower.

Goofy selfie with the Eiffel Tower.

Sunday in Paris

Sunday we woke up bright and early again! Maybe more early and less bright. I was def. feeling the ciders and white russian, but it was also a very exciting day! becauseeeee it was the first Sunday of the month and all the museums are free! So we started at the Louvre! I had been waiting to go to this museum it seems like for so long, but when we got there we had an hour and a half wait to get in so I found myself waiting more. Luckily Alli is a chatty cathy and talked the whole time which made it go by a little faster. We got in just in time to miss the rain too! The museum was HUGE. Apparently it takes like 75 years to get through if you look at every piece for thirty second, and I was in there for two hours so I barely scratched the surface. The building itself is a work of art, and every art piece there is just amazing. My favorite paintings and sculptures were of naked women just because they present them in such a beautiful, elegant, and classy way that makes you feel the same way about your own body. I feel like I gained a higher sense of my self worth. I felt really lucky to be there. It was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip thus far. I also just went solo and walked around listening to my music and looking at what I wanted. It was nice to get away from the group for a while. The Louvre is a must visit if you are ever in Paris. After this we went to the Musee Rodin. It was rainy that day and most of his sculptures are in the gardens. So it was very muddy and they were also doing construction so the main hotel exhibit was closed off. I could tell that this was definitely a place to visit in the spring because everything would bloom and construction would be done. It was beautiful in a dark and rainy way, but it would definitely would be presented a lot better in the spring. I think we went in it's off season, but I'm definitely planning to go back in the spring I feel like it will be worth the wait. I did really like his sculptures just because they had so portrayed so much emotion and all of the hands and feet were really big compared to other parts of the body. After this we went and found chipotle. It was so nice to eat at an American restaurant made me feel more normal and at home. We went back to the apartment and cleaned up and then left to go back to Caen again!

Lost in Paris

Well I wasn't really lost but I was by myself with no phone or Ipad or any form of communication for hours. It started when we were leaving Montmartre and I was feeling tired and wanted to get out of the cold, and the rest of the group wanted to go do more touristing and I was just pretty much over it for the day. So we dropped off our stuff and went to go get Crepes from a little bitty corner store/stand up the street from our apartment. I got another nutella one. I'm obsessed with them. Anyways, so Elaine had two sets of keys one had the electronic one that opened the door to the apartment building and the other set had a non-electronic key that the landlord said we were able to use to get into the building and then a key to unlock the apartment. So Elaine gave me the non electronic building key and the one to the apartment. They headed toward the eiffel tower and were gonna text me what pub they were going to afterwards and I would meet them there. So I went to the building. Once I got there the key was able to fit in the door, but wouldn't turn at all. I tried and tried and it wouldn't budge. Since we were just going to get crepes I only brought my wallet with me so I couldn't call them or anything. I sprinted to try and catch up with them but they were no where to be found. I tried not to freak out and decided to just go to the bar up the road and maybe wait for a couple hours and go check to see if they were there yet. So I just kept drinking my ciders and this creepy guy kept trying to talk to me, and I was just trying to be short and not engage in any conversation. I instead talked to this little old man named Ben or Benedict who was just drinking a glass of wine. We didn't talk much just a few words on where we were from and things of that nature, but he warned me to be careful in this city and kept calling me lady which was cute. The creepy guy had left about 20 min before and so I went to go check if my friends were at the apartment and I walked outside and there he was I tried to ignore him when he tried talking to me and walk up the street, but he started to follow me on the opposite sidewalk and thats when I literally sprinted back to the bar and luckily never saw him again. Ben and I talked a few more minutes and then he left. When he left he kissed my hand and called me mademoiselle, he was such a little old french man. After he left I kinda started freaking out about getting in touch with the group so eventually I broke down and cried to the bartender. He let me borrow his phone and I got ahold of Elaine! Thank goodness! They met me at the bar just before 12 am which was Brooke's birthday! Kendall had gotten lost and then found too so she bought us all shots. We all also ordered some drinks. I got a white russian and it was the best one I had ever had! Definitely going to be my drink of the semester. Anyways we celebrated and talked and had a great time! It was the perfect ending to a long day in Paris.

Day two in Paris

We got an early start leaving the house at 8:30 in the morning and going to a Starbucks for coffee and their wifi since it's nearly impossible to find in France and when you do it is usually super slow or constantly disconnects. We then met our other two friends Alli and Brooke. Then the shopping commenced. We started in a shopping mall type thing where they charged you one euro for the bathroom. (weird) and then we went to the Galaries Lafeyette. It was BEAUTIFUL. When I said that I thought Au Printemps was like the gates of heaven well this one was heaven. The ceiling was like a work of art. I can't even explain, but the second floor was just like high fashion everywhere. I was walking around and taking pictures like it was a museum. The third floor was a little less expensive aka you could get a cute crop top for 200 dollars. The fourth floor was affordable and you could find cheaper stuff if you looked. We shopped on this floor for a while. Then we went and ate lunch at a nearby cafe/restaurant. It was SO good. I got rotisserie chicken and it came with fries and a tomato with herbs on top. I LOVE the tomatoes in France. They are all high quality. Then we met up with a friend of a friend of Elaine's who lived in Paris and he helped us navigate through the metros to the places we wanted to go and took all of our pictures. So he was super awesome! We saw the opera house, and then the Louvre. We took a lot of pictures there. It started to get really cold and rainy at this point so we hopped back on the metro and went to a cafe where some of the major scenes of the movie Amelie were filmed. It was in the red-light district so we got to see Moulin Rouge! and had to walk down a strip that was filled with non stop sex shops. They seemed never ending, but then we finally got to the cafe and out of the rain. You could tell this cafe was super old because it had a big crack in the ceiling like it might cave in any minute and the lights would go out every 10 minutes, but it was really cute. We went to MontMartre after which is the highest point in Paris and really overrated because you couldn't even see the Eiffel Tower. But after that we headed back to drop off our shopping bags and then I ended up getting stranded but I will leave that little adventure for the next post since this one was already long enough!

Day 1 in Paris

I left Friday after my two morning classes with my friends Elaine and Kendall aka Robin from How I met your mother. We took the train and I took a nap of course. We arrived in Paris around 3PM and quickly made our way to the beautiful starbucks that we haven't seen in about a month. Then we made our way to the apartment that Elaine's host family hooked us up with for super cheap. That way we didn't have to stay in a hostel which can be dangerous. The apartment was really small, but super cute and cozy! annddd we could see the Eiffel Tower from our metro stop! so we were super close to it. We were feeling super girly and fab so we decided to go lingerie shopping as soon as we got there. We went to Au Printemps which is kinda like a Belk on steroids. The mens was in a separate building and was 7 floors, and the womens store was 11 floors. When I walked in it was like I saw the gates of heaven. The lingerie had its own whole floor. There were a wide range of prices some cheap and some crazy expensive like the 2000 dollar lacy nightgown I touched(like omg). I was too intimidated to try it on though probably because I'm super awkward and have terrible luck and would probably rip it as soon as I got in a fitting room. After two hours there we went back to our apartment stopping to pick up some rasberry cider and cheese. We got back and Kendall made us dinner. It was so nice to have a home cooked meal! We drank cider and wine, and talked about music and boys. It was the funnest. After dinner we went to go see the eiffel tower! It was probably one of the most magical moments of my life. I felt like a little kid going to Disney World for the first time. I was honestly kind of scared it would be one of those overrated tourist attractions, but it was everything it is hyped up to be. It was stunning lit up at night and every night on the hour it will start sparkling for a few minutes! After many pictures and selfies we headed back and got a good nights sleep since we had a big day of shopping and touristing the next day!

No good very bad day.

So today I had one of my classic Ava days today, which is when everything that could go wrong..does in fact go wrong. I could tell you all about it, but it would make for another long and rambling blog. The point is I survived it! annnnnddd without crying or yelling at someone! It might be because after I discovered the coffee vending machines were down this morning(such a tragedy) I was forced to go to the cafe that happens to be right next to the building that all my classes are in, and for the second time I order a coffee and somehow I end up with two coffees, but I think I figured out the mystery of why they keep giving me two. I always say "du cafe" and I think they think I'm saying "deux cafe" which is two. lol but I guess you can never have too much coffee. and More coffee=happier and less stressed Ava. But I'm going to go now, one because my hands are shaking from all the caffeine making it hard to type, and two because I am going to Paris for the first time tomorrow! Sooo I have much to do! Be expecting a lot of pictures and blogging on Monday!

Cool Doors

A week before I left I went out to eat with my wonderful uncles, Robbie and Travis. On the drive back Robbie pointed out an old door on this abandoned building and made a comment that it was "Cool" and I made fun of him. Well, on my little Sunday adventure I saw a lot of "Cool" doors and so I dedicate this post to Robbie Arrington...sorry for making fun of you.

(Not a door, but part of really cool gate)

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WARNING: WILD GINGER LOOSE IN FRANCE