Douze

Again, to go with the theme of the weekend, this number is not Italian (it would be dodici), but French. So I don't know how to pronounce it. All I learned how to say in French was "my name is jacky," "thank you," "please," and "I don't speak French."

Anyways, this past weekend was SO MUCH FUN. It was so great to see my friends and France is a really cool country and overall it was just fabulous beyond words.

My friend Molly that is studying in Florence came to Rome on Wednesday night and Thursday morning we flew to Paris. On the way to the airport, there was another suitcase miracle known as the metro miracle. My silly little suitcase handle is broken and will usually not go down, causing problems while traveling, espcially when I get on a plane because it has to go on a seperate luggage thing. Anyways, somehow it magically went down on the way to the airport and it was miraculous. THe same thing happened in Greece at the airport and that was the Greek miracle. Once I got off the plane, it got stuck again and I looked like a retard trying to load it on the bus. Anyways, our plane was delayed and then we have to ride a bus into actual Paris, so we don't get there until 5 or so. But my amazing suitemate and dad, Katrina, was there waiting for us and it was really funny because we hugged and got stuck on each other's jewelry. That night we had a weird French sandwich (it was good though) and went to see the Eiffel Tower. It was SOO cool at night! I really wasn't expecting it to be so amazing, but it was just so cool to sit and stare at. AND, as an added bonus, it sparkles every hour for like, 10 minutes! It was so nice to sit and stare at the Eiffel Tower with some of my best friends. Then we ate a chocolate crepe, which has been one of my best European purchases...so delicous.




The next day we made lunch for ourselves and then wandered around Paris. We admired Notre Dame, which was crazy crowded because it was Good Friday and listened to a jazz band play "Georgia On My Mind" on the street. We also went to the Arc de Triumph, which is HUGE and then to the Lourve, which is HUGE times 1000. I still can't believe how ridiculously huge that place was! Molly and I got chewed up and spit out. It is free for students on Friday nights, so we just wandered around for an hour or so. Somehow we got stuck in the Italian art section and it took a long time to escape. We wanted to see the Mona Lisa, because that is what you are supposed to do when you go to the Lourve, but then the Italian painting section trapped us inside. It's all nice and everything, but we wanted to see something different since we had both seen our fair share of Italian art. Anyways, we finally escape somehow and meet Katrina back at the metro. By the way, the Paris metro system is INSANE. Rome has 2 lines, Paris has 14. 14! But it was nice because we could pretty much go anywhere on it. That night we had a quick McDonalds dinner (I had a Chicken Mystic, wouldn't recommend it) and then went to a club that was a boat on the Siene (sin) River, so that was pretty cool. Next day we eat a more traditional French lunch and then hop on the train for 5 hours to Cannes to see Carter. Carter's parents were leaving that night but we had dinner with them and they bought us an amazing crepe dinner. Crepes are fabulous, let me just say for the record. We were all really tired, so we went to bed in our creepy little room we rented on Carter's campus.

Easter Sunday (Buona Pacqua!) we laid on the beach pretty much all day (don't worry, we said a little prayer and thanked God for the beautiful weather) and enjoyed a fabulous fondue dinner. And we went to this bar that had a band playing and they made fun of me on the mic, for everyone to hear, when I requested Belinda Carlisle. I was not big fans of them. Cannes was a lot of fun and really pretty. And we got to see where they have the red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival. It is also where Carter will be strutting her stuff with Jake Gyllenhal, haha.

So then Monday we are back on the train, this time for like 9 hours. It was a little too much train time, but we met some nice people, so we survived. We finally got to Florence, where Molly's roommate in Florence and our friend (my mom) from school, Blakely was there waiting with a really fabulous dinner on the table. We walked around and got gelato afterwards. It was kind of strange to be back in Florence. That was where I spent the first 3 weeks of the trip and it was weird to be back, 1. because it wasn't FREEZING and 2. because I am just so used to Rome and its craziness now...Florence is a different kind of crazy. But it was nice too. And it was so unbelievably wonderful to be with my friends. Unfortuantely, I had to go back to Rome the next day and go to class...but it was nice to be back in Rome Sweet Rome as well. AND-I had a TrenItalia miracle! I was worried about struggling with my suitcase by myself on the train, but somehow the handle went down again. Of course, it wouldn't when I got on the metro, but I take what I can get. Anyways, my Roman roomies were here waiting, as were the two research papers I have yet to write. So I'm going to get on that so I can have fun with Katrina when she comes here tomorrow. Ciao ciao!