things like this, yes

today was grand. that is probably getting old, but honestly, everyday is grand. and i have high hopes for the future too. today we met at the Cluny museum to explore a little medieval art and architecture for our art and architecture class. (makes sense, no?). we started out by getting a glimpse of some real real old roman ruins, their bath houses to be exact. bath houses were the major social gathering back in that day (about 100 CE/AD) and in the bath houses there were several rooms. people met to talk politics, gossip, and of course, to bathe. those romans were all about science and the latest and greatest in medicine so they had all these theories about changing your body temperature and healing yourself. so there were hot baths, warm baths, and freezing cold baths. the room where the cold baths is the only one still in tact, but we got to go inside and literally look up at a 1900 year old roof. wow. wow. wow. we also spent a while analyzing some columns and i was pretty proud of myself because some of my instincts were actually right. (for instance i randomly guessed that this symbol on one capital was a zodiac symbol and it was, what are the chances?!!)

my favorite part of the museum had to be the 'la dame a la licorne' tapestries. they are these giant tapestries from the 1400s that are just unbelievably intricate. look them up! they were absolutely beautiful and we thoroughly analyzed their meaning too, so if you have any questions, i've got your back. our professor bernie is a super intellect and just loves finding the meaning behind art. he digs deep! and he always says 'things likes this, yes?' and i like it.

enough about that. emily and i headed home after the museum and went on another monday shopping trip and stopped at a little bakery for some french treats. yum. at about 6:00 we decided to start heading for FHE back in Paris and on our way to the stop i realized i didn't have my little metro ticket that we have to use today (because last week ended and the month of february hasn't started yet). we went back and searched everywhere. nothing. emily asked if i just wanted to stay home and i decided it would be worth it to just buy a new ticket. i had this feeling that i should keep an eye out in case it had fallen on the ground, so as we walked to the station i picked up about five dirty/gross tickets to no avail. i had almost lost hope when we got right by the turn stiles and i decided to give it one last try. i picked up a random one from the floor and who knows if it was mine or not, but it sure looked like mine and it sure worked like mine. thank you thank you. i must be doing something right! i figured there must be a reason i was going to FHE tonight. we got up to the stop and waited ten minutes for the train (unusual). then we waited another ten minutes. then we said if a train didn't show up in the next five minutes we were going home (we would already be about 20 minutes late for fhe) but sure enough a train showed up and we got on, but the doors would not close. we waited five minutes. we waited another minute. we gave those doors one more minute or else we were leaving. they closed and we were finally on our way at about 6:55. nice.

fhe was a blast. the last half of the lesson was about baptism and then we played a silly getting to know you game and ate treats. they had popcorn, yum, and these crackers with peanut butter. i was so excited because i have been seriously missing peanut butter! i socialized with a bunch of french young adultes in the stake and then here is my exciting news: i had a little run in with an elder who works in the mission office and he dialed up a certain elder i know and i got to talk to Elder Helvey!!! It was crazy to hear his voice. the missionary then got my number (funny situation) so that Michael could contact me in the future. how fun, i am glad i made it to fhe!

that was a lot of information! enjoy the pictures.

daily door.

brown boots only, please

jamie, allison and i

i'm quite partial to roman brick.

brown boots at the bath house

dont look at us! were in the bath house!

can't lie, i was pretty pumped about my outfit today.

a little french braid in france

glad i can still get away with an old stand by.

gorgeous ceilings in the monk's private chapel,

this is a palm tree vault

some artistic shots:

yes please

my artistic shot secret: (don't tell anyone, its super doofy) sometimes when you are the one behind the camera you can take all kinds of fun artistic shots, but then none of them have you in it. so sometimes you have to say 'ummm, hey, would you mind just taking an artsy picture real quick of me pretending to take some notes? thanks.' and then voila. haha this method was used for both of the 'artsy' shots pictured above. the shots pictured below are just a little extra treat. when we got home from fhe it was freezing cold still, so we decided to warm up with some of the hot chocolate mix we bought today. brilliant idea. nutella toast dipped in h.c.? heaven! and nannick's cute little mugs just make hot chocolate that much better.

late night mug shot

the ultimate late night snack. hot chocolate and nutella toast.

step count:12208. yippee.