facing the cold

it's almost impossible to remember how cold it really was those first few weeks. i am so grateful i went winter semester, because the weather got progressively warmer, not colder! we had one of the nicest springs paris had seen in years, but it was awfully cold when i first arrived!

memories of colder days

 thank heavens for hats and scarves!

 and black coats.

 so cold!

 classy cold protection

 scarves

frosty run?

 our best protection from the cold:

hot chocolate and nutella toast

warm mittens

 and of course, that fire safety blanket.

that kept me warm those cold winter nights.

and was the epitome of design and class.

i'm so glad it got warm!

and the winner is....

thank you thank you to all who voted.

i received comments, emails, facebook messages and texts with a lot of great guesses.

some underestimated. some (way) overestimated. some estimated.

want to know the grand total?

i took

12,339 photos.

that means i took about

1,122

pictures a week and

148

pictures a day.

that is pretty awesome.

that means you haven't even seen HALF of them.

but let's get to the good stuff.

i took 12,339 photos

which means the winner of the kinder is...

(drumroll please)

Megan Tall

with her guess of 12,893!

that is four out of five numbers correct.

so congrats meg. 

a fabulous prize will be coming your way.

but that's not all.

i want to give out two more prizes.

 the best guess

goes to

Grace Hart

with her guess of 100,050.

thanks for having that much faith in me grace.

and

the price is right guess

(you know, you can't go over. think 'one dollar, bob.')

goes to

'SB'

with her guess of 10,214.

guess it is safe to say my family knows me best!

your prizes will be sent off shortly!

and just for fun...

lowest guess goes to Johnathon - 6,007

three guesses in the 8000s - Allie, Ben and Kj

three guesses in the 9000s - Katie Mary B and Sam

two in the 13000s (almost winners!) - Kelly and Mary T

closest guesses - Richard 10,038 and Kim 10,050

playmill girls think big - nans 14,752 and chobs 15,600

40% guessed numbers ending in 0

which means 60% took their chance with randoms

and Megan won.

thanks again to all.

i'll keep posting pictures and occasional updates so you can get a better feel of all those twelve thousand.

bisous!

keep it coming!

joyeuses paques! happy easter!
thanks to all those who have sent in a guess,
and to those who haven't, you still have time!
keep the guesses coming!

a little easter decor in germany

 i brought home some german egg dye

can't wait to try it today!

 and don't forget, it's kinder on the line!

wait, is she really doing a giveaway?

yes. yes i am.

mads in france is doing a giveaway.

just for kicks.

here's the deal: 

i took a lot of pictures. and when i say a lot, i mean a lot.

so i want YOU to guess just how many pictures you think i took.

whoever gets closest will recieve some kinder (my favorite thing) of their own. shipped to you personally, from me.

i love kinder.

 how 'bout you?

 i love kinder,

you should too!

i'll even throw in a little extra surprise gift too. so get guessing. comment it, facebook me, send me your guess in a text, in an email... just remember, i took a LOT of pictures! you have until midnight of tuesday next week. guess away!

p.s. if you already know, please, don't ruin it for the rest us. 

p.p.s. this is so silly, but i figured, why not. i'll give it a try.

p.p.p.s. a hint: if you go back to say about... march 12th, it might help you out

thanks for guessing!

theo

 this is theo

 theo is nannick's grandson

a typical french twenty something year old

and pretty much became our annoying but nonetheless lovable 

french little brother

 the kind that likes to tease us for our poor accents

bother us to no end when we are trying to get our homework done

and attempt to teach us french swear words that emily and i just ignored...

yet, like i said

annoying but lovable

 and sometimes when he would actually decide to help us with the dishes

or try his hand at making cookies

 we shared a lot of good laughs

 and we definitely would not have passed our french conversation class without him!

 so doofy faces and all

theo is just a lovable kid.

the reason theo comes to mind today is because when i told him that i was going home and getting my wisdom teeth, or mes dents de sagesse, out he gave me a full re-enaction of his experience in that realm. complete with some of the craziest shclack shlacking sound effects i have ever heard. it is funny how different the sounds french and american people make to describe things. i can't say i heard any schlack schacking, but i did think of good ole theo. miss that kid!

a new adventure.

its funny how leaving the country makes your life a whole lot more interesting.

but just because i am no longer living abroad in a sort of dream land that almost seems like it didn't really exist doesn't mean i can't still have adventures everyday. (excuse that run-on sentence!)

and so i've decided to continue capturing those adventures in a new place,

madsinreallife.blogspot.com

tune in if you'd like, i have yet to discover where it will take me.

as for mads in france, i'll keep posting here. memories, pictures, stories, highlights. i'm not ready to forget about france yet. so check in here, check in there. dream land, real life. always adventures.

a soap story

click on that big if you can. you probably can't tell, but that blue soap there in the middle has a very special name. no it's not cotton candy or blue raspberry scented (although they did have a cotton candy, or barb a papa, scent) this one is a little bit, well, sultry-er. this soap is apparently "viens a moi" scented, which in english means "come to me". i thought that was hilarious, but sadly, i actually didn't find the smell all that impressive. but hey, to each his own. if anyone needs some apparently alluring soap, head to nice. you'll find just the thing.

squeaky clean

 hats off!

 french friends.

a souvenir

in french the word 'souvenir' as a verb means to remember, and as a noun it means a memory.

now you know where we get that word from. makes sense, doesn't it?

i can't bring myself to not post just yet, silly i know, so today i just wanted to post a little souvenir.

a memory of colder and well, french-ier days.

ice skating at the hotel de ville. 

miss it.

new years resolution

don't worry, i'm not quite done posting yet! before i left for france i celebrated the new year with my dear fam, and naturally i made some 

new years resolutions. 

one of these resolutions was this: look cute every day of paris. this would mean that i would have to make a concerted effort to look cute every single day, a total of 83 days. and so, in order to document this little resolution, i took a picture of myself everyday, self timer style, and captured my daily outfit. for the most part there are no repeats, which took some serious creativity. i thought i would compile them all just for fun, some days were definitely better than others, and some were definitely crazier than others. did i fulfill my resolution? i guess you can be the judge of that!