The Last Time I Saw Paris (p1)

I'm convinced Paris was a dream.

But then I close my eyes and think real hard, and then it comes to me. The taste of the crepe, and the chocolate croissant,  and the steak and fries, and then I remember...yep. I did that.

And here is some proof if you don't believe me, and some proof for myself when that memory of the taste slowly fades away.


We arrived in Paris after a little scare due to a missed flight, but all is well when you're stuck in London of all places. Hard life right?

I LOVED Paris. The food, the places, the beauty, all of it. I loved it. Totally and completely worth the sleepless night in the London train station.

Plus we had Jonathan's uncle as a tour guide. He's been living in Paris for work for the last year and a half so we got the literal best of Paris. Best routes, best food, and best sites. Couldn't ask for more right?

Now in no particular order.

Uncle Steve's "Apartment"

It felt like straight out of the Madeline Book

The view

 To the Louvre!

I always say, if you're going to fall into a fountain, it might as well be the one surrounding the Louvre ;)

Call me naive  but I had NO idea the Louvre was that ENTIRE place. I always saw pictures of the shiny triangle, but never anything else. Well to all those as naive as I, the Louvre is comprised of all the buildings in the below picture. Artwork and sculptures on every wall. AKA you can never see all of the Louvre in a day, or probably a week...

Also, we went to the Louvre on a day it was closed so we could see the grounds. Best idea ever. We were practically alone.

 But we did find dear ol Mona and many others

And when one goes to the Louvre, they must stop for hot chocolate and eclairs at Angelina's. Word to the wise, I couldn't drink more than half of that cup and I never think things are "too rich"

And of course the Arc de Triomphe.

And the stairs to the top

And the view from the top

And one of the greatest lunches at the most quint little ivy covered house before Sacre Coeur

Sacre Coeur, one of my favorites! And one of the pick-pockets favorites

Freedom, beauty, truth, and love. So amazed to see the site of my favorite movie
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.- Moulin Rouge

The beautiful Notre Dame

And the gargoyles are just as cool as the movie

My FAVORITE treat was from this little chocolate shop, Maison Georges Larnicol. I don't even know what it was called but it was a small round, almost mini cinnamon roll style, yummy treat in almost any flavor. Caramel was probably my favorite. I would probably do anything to have another one of those...

 St. Chapelle is right next to Notre Dame, and so incredibly beautiful. All of the walls are this stained glass and it was quite a sight to see.

Les Invalides 

Napoleon's "tomb". I like to refer to it as Santa's Marble Sleigh...

The Orangerie Museum

Some Van Gogh at Musee d'Orsay

My Worst Nightmare

(Paris to come later. First I have to get this out)

I graduated the other day. So that's pretty cool, BYU class of 2013!

I also felt like I was graduating high school again because my get-up looked oddly familiar...

So 4 years of college down and now on to bigger and better things. More college.


And today I taught my first class at BYU.

And I say "taught" in the loosest sense.

Because I really didn't teach.

I mumbled
And stumbled
And fought back tears.

NOT the way to start my teaching career.

Let me back up for a second.

For those that don't know I start my Master's program in Sociology at BYU this coming fall.
Graduate students are able to teach undergraduate courses (especially during the spring and summer semester when the actual professors do not want to teach)

Since I am hoping to teach college for a profession one day, I jumped at this opportunity.

Now I am trying so so hard to not let my one bad teaching experience make me question my whole life plan...

I thought I was ready to teach today.

I used my whole run yesterday mentally running through my clever self introduction and class introduction.

I used this last week preparing my powerpoint, funny youtube clips, and crackin all my jokes to myself.

I show up in class today to find that the computer was down.

WHAT?!

I really could not imagine anything worse happening to me.

In fact, NOTHING worse could have happened.

My powerpoint, youtube clips, and syllabus overview were DOWN THE DRAIN.

Also down the drain? My entire lecture.

Because it ALL relied on the computer.

So I stood up in front of that class. Held back my tears. And tried to hide the pure fear that was running through my body.

Without that computer I had literally nothing.

And it showed.

This might sound dramatic, and maybe tomorrow i'll agree.

But in that moment, when all of my preparation was insufficient, and I was standing in front of that class, already with the odds against me as a young, female, not even graduate student, without a thought in my head except fear- well it was my nightmare.

A literal nightmare.

Can I wake up now?