Italy-Present

So I really apologize for not updating this. I decided I am going to change my blog into a journal when I get home, so not only do I need to step it up for you mom, but for myself! 

Since Italy, not too much has happened though. Let's see, last week, I went on a lot of runs (to make up for Italy,) and taught with the missionaries a lot! Which has been seriously the best experiences I have had here. Soeur Herway and Soeur Adams are the two sisters that I taught with last week, but they got a new sister because of transfers, so they are in a threesome with Soeur Ernst. I love having soeur Ernst with us because she is from Mexico so she only speaks Spanish and French, so it forces us all to speak french to each other instead of english. The sisters have been giving me things to teach too! And Melissa, the investigator is french, so french is really coming along! Last week I taught about the celestial kingdom and faith, the first principle of the gospel, and today I talked about enduring to the end. I love teaching Melissa. She is so amazing and progressing so much, I can't wait for her baptismal date, that we set TODAY... March 22nd! Here is a picture of us... left to right: Soeur Ernst, Soeur Adams, MELISSA, Me, Soeur Herway. 

Last week we did the Latin Quartier walk for our paris walks class and it was so cool! Definitely my favorite quartier/arrondissement of Paris so far. It is so classic Paris, little cobblestone streets, cute Parisien's, little cafes, and just the smell, feel and sound of it is 'Paris'. I also went on a great run last week through the Latin quartier, to Notre Dame back past the Louvre, along the Seine, by the Musee d'Orsay, les Invalides, around the Champs de Mars and the Eiffel tower. Definitely beats the Rexius trail and the DAC. I love Paris, did you know??

Last wed. our fine arts class took a trip to Rouen, which is about an hour train ride west of Paris. It was cool! Our art teacher took it up a notch, good news. We spent sometime in the Rouen museum and saw some early Impressionism art so a lot of Monet originals, which were amazing! Then we had lunch at this cute cafe, that was really french and yummy! After that we walked to the Rouen cathedrale and our art teacher was talking about architecture again...none of our favorites. At lunch we all made a pact no one was allowed to ask questions, just write them down and google them at home. She tends to speak for 20 minutes on things that can be expressed in 3, so we keep our questions to a minimum..best way to learn right?;)

And then this past saturday we played soccer with the elders again, and two sisters came which was fun! I love the missionaries here, they are so funny! And Kathy and Warren, Christopher is a LEGEND here. (I'm addressing you two because I'm sure Christopher does not check this regularly;) I mean it's always my proudest moments whenever I say I am related to the "Barnes" but the elders here were about to bow down and worship me when I said I was related to Elder Christopher Barnes... and they have never even met him! The chinese-speaking elders were all talking about what an amazing missionary Christopher was and how great he was at chinese. Again, none of these missionaries even know him, but have heard of him and look up to him so much! One of them, (this is cute,) said he wrote his mom to have her look Christopher up at BYU so she could send him Christopher's address so he could contact him! He said he remembered Christopher from the MTC, I don't think he was this elders teacher, but he said he knew Christopher worked there. Anyways, I was so proud to be a Barnes, (more than usual) this day! YAY Christopher...rockstar.

SO then that night we went back to hang out with the elders we play soccer with and played pong and made and ate burritos. It was a lot of fun! It reminded me of playing around the world ping pong tournaments downstairs at the Barnes house--GOOD memories:) Good thing it never got competitive either;) 

Elder Oaks came to speak to the youth this past Sunday in Versailles! It was the best experience. Our church ends at 12:30, and Oaks didn't speak until 7 pm, but because it takes about three hours to get to and from church, and we wanted to get good seats, (front row to be exact), so we just hung out at the church all day. Me and the three girls. It was so worth it. Elder Oaks and his wife are so adorable, and so phenomenal, it was amazing. Highlight of the trip hands down.

After that we got home at 10 pm, Madame had left us food out for dinner, which was a little interesting.. we had this cold salmon crap cake thing that was different tasting but looked beautiful and then this potatoe, ham, cheese, pie thing, that was stinky, but I ate it. Then cheese and bread and flan for dessert. I'm getting more and more used to french cheeses....

Yesterday I ran from the institute after world religions to the patterson's and we all just hung out there like we normally do. But then Patterson's 16-year old son, (who plays soccer with us and the missionaries) and I went down to the eiffel tower to kick the ball around. We got kicked off the grass, so we played on a cement soccer court and played a pick-up game with a couple of kids. It was really cool. The whole time we were talking about how we couldnt believe we were dribbling, then we look up and hello Eiffel tower a foot from my face. Our team dominated, even though our goalie was just puffing away like a chimney the whole time--but it was hilarious. He reminded me of Danny Zuko from Grease. It's cool because anyone can play, like there was a little boy on my team who was probably Erik's age, just coming home from school, in his jeans and a polo shirt and we're all just playing a casual game of soccer. I don't think they had ever seen a girl play soccer before so they were like freaking out when they saw I was a decent player-- my chain smoker goalie kept saying "how are you a girl but you play like a boy??" Moment of fame.

And today other than teaching with the sisters I didn't do much other than run, read and take a nap. Everyone in our group is sick. In fact one girl has mono and she had to go home on saturday! :( I couldn't believe it.. I feel so bad for her. Luckily I never really hung out with her, and even if I did, we all calculated it that we wouldn't be showing symptoms until the last week we are here, so no raining on this parade:) ...for now.

Well I think I am pretty much all updated! Tomorrow we are going to the Louvre for art class, then the Loire Valley trip thurs-sat. Then my birthday on Sunday! I'm already prepared for the BEST birthday ever.... CAN'T WAIT! :) :) 

l'Italie!!!

So two weekends ago our professor let us go with a group and travel. Initially he said we could only go somewhere in France, had to be by train, and we could leave no earlier than Friday. Well.... me and five other girls got him to let us go to Italy, by plane and leave wednesday afternoon. Good girls tend to get what they want :) So I was so happy! 

Wednesday after Caitlin's class we left the Institute for the airport to Milan! We were running a little late, and got on the plane just in time for the last boarding call. This dumb French girl wouldn't let us past without our tickets, but we couldn't get our tickets until we were on the other side of the terminal aand I couldn't communicate my frustration very well in French, (probably somewhat a blessing on her behalf) sooo we were a little rushed, but it was okay. Let's just say that pretty much set the tone for the rest of the trip.. our motto in Italy tended to be "just play dumb american" --we played it very well, most of the time without even trying.

So I of course slept the whole plane ride and there was some INTENSE turbulence that woke me up as we were landing. Seriously the whole plane was shrieking. It was so funny. And kinda scary, but more funny than anything. So we got of the plane and it was such beautiful weather! And it lasted the whole trip--we were SO thrilled. As we were walking off the plane we also realized that a. we had no idea where we were staying (we made reservations at the cheapest hostel) but had noo clue how to get there b. that no one in italy speaks a word of english. c. that we did not speak a word of italian. But it was all part of the experience.

We found a bus that took us to the center of Milan and got on that. I fell asleep on the bus, again. So we got to the Milano center and went to go find where to buy tickets for our train ride to Venice. We tried buying them online but it was asking for all this weird stuff like our tax refund numbers or something? I don't even know.. so we just took our chances and hoped we could buy them there...but of course we already paid for our hotel in Venice. Ha. Now that I look back on it, seriously what were we thinking?? So funny how everything just happened to work out. We communicated for about 20 minutes with the guy who was selling train tickets making sure that it was the right train, etc.. he was getting pretty frustrated because we couldn't stop laughing and then having second thoughts about buying the tickets because of the huge language barrier and the high probability of us buying a plane ticket to barcelona or something... Here is what we looked like 95 percent of the trip..... LOST.From there we took 6 trams, 2 metros and walked a couple miles to find our hostel. Oh, and at every block we showed italian strangers our address to see if they knew where our hotel was. (oh and it was a rule from patterson not to show anyone our address..) So after three hours, we found hotel greco! Really not too bad of a place. The guy at the front desk was dreamy italian with a cute pug so naturally he won us all over. We were all starved at that point, so he told us of a good pizzaria to go to. Italian pizza mmm. Not going to lie though, I think Michael has turned me off pizza for life, so I wish he would have been there to enjoy it even more for me, but it was still really good:) 

So we came back to the hostel, hung out for a bit, then went to bed early.Friday morning we woke up and ate large croutons for breakfast. It was hilarious, the guy at the front desk was like "normally we give you croissants, but I ate all of them" haha. So we set off for our first day in Milan! He gave us a map of all the cool places we would want to go (fashion districts, obviously). We took the tram to the Cathedrale Duomo, which I know nothing about other than the fact that it's really spiky and gothicy. (I'm learning so much in my art class, can you tell?) But we went to the top of it and it was so beautiful! Such blue clear sky, sun was out, it was amazing! I had missed sunshine and clear skies. After that we walked around the shops then went and found a cafe for lunch. All of us basically got gnochhi pesto wich was D for Dank, meaning good;) and made really good friends with our waiter. haha, notice a trend in my blogs.. food and boys. ha, shameless. He kept saying "you want menu? no problem" "anything for you beautiful, no problem" so funny. He spoke the most english of anyone else we encountered.

After that we went to search for Leonoardo DaVinci's "Last Supper" painting. On our way we stopped by an old medieval cathedrale thing, and saw a cool fountain and saw it as a great photo opp. Well as we were being ridiculous and taking pictures, Japanese tourists, swarmed us and started taking pictures of us haha. Seriously one minute we were smiling and jumping off the ridge of the fountain, the next asians are pointing, cracking up and taking pictures. Soon enough they wanted to be IN the pictures and even more crowds of people stopped, stared and took pictures. We caused a scene, but it was hilarious. Definitely won over the Japanese. YES. You can see for yourself...

So we figured out the night before we arrived that we needed to make reservations to see the "last supper" painting months in advance AND that it costed like 15 euros AND that you can hardly even see it because of the poor preservation or paint or something, but we were all prepared to just show up and play the dumb american card ... didn't work this time:( Bummer.. but I guess it did save some money. Then we just cruised the streets of Italy a little more, oh and had our first gelatto. So good. I thought of Michael again because I got coconut and I remembered how a year ago this Valentine's day I was running all over center street in 

Provo to find Jess's favorite coconut gelato haha. I missed Michael a lot this trip! I'm sure he doesn't even know I have a blog.... haha oblivious little endearing rat.

So we made our way back to the hotel, for yes, more food. Pizza again! We stopped by this Pizza place on the same street as where we were staying because it was really cheap (and Italy was burning a huge unanticipated hole in our pockets) and we tried to order Pizza but of course, not a word of english was spoken. I have the most hilarious video of my friend Marissa trying to communicate with the guy. Then we called our friend at the front desk at the hotel hoping he could translate and give the guy our order but obviously that didn't work.. It was so funny! If I can upload videos on here, I will try and post it. Worth a watch, maybe you had to be there? But seriously the whole trip we were just laughing at eachother and smiling the entire time. So much fun.

Came back to the hotel, gave our guy our order, then he called the pizza place, had it delivered and we ate in our rooms. We also went and got a whole bunch of Italian chocolate and ate that after the Pizza... I don't want to talk about it ok? Let's say I consumed more calories in Italy than I did all Fall semester.

The next morning we woke up at 5:30 to catch our 8 am train to Venice! The train was a lot of fun! Of course there was assigned seating but of course we got out of it because of the dumb americana flag we waved, so it was fun sitting all together, sleeping, reading, eating of course and laughing. 

So we got off the 2-hour train to beautiful Venice! It was such great weather, our spirits were soaring, first time we could take off our jackets since we have been in Europe. Then we walk out of the train platform and already there is the most amazing, (the best way to describe Venice is honestly, romantic) view. We were also so grateful that people around us were speaking english and looking like even bigger tourists than us! There were so many people, so we didn't stick out very much, even though we were taking so many pictures, being really loud and using the word "obsessed" in every single sentence. Here's a picture of what I saw right outside the train station...unbelievable. 

After that we went to find the bus that would take us to our hotel. We didn't stay on the island of Venice because it was about double the money a night, but we were a 10 minute bus ride away from the island so it worked out perfectly. Transportation in Europe, (for the most part) is so convenient! And the place we stayed at too was a lot nicer than expected. I guess we got the rooms when they had a special promotion online, because it's actually where Yao Ming stayed on his honeymoon. haha, I only know that because he has a shrine like right about the check-in counter. So dad, of course, I thought of you! 

We dropped our stuff off in our rooms and went to lunch to a cute little sit down restaurant right next door. I tried my first calzone. A lot better than the United States. haha, shocker. But it was so good. And of course I ate the whole thing. Oh and it was the size of my head... no big deal. 

Then we went back into Venice and used the map the concierge gave us with all the cool stuff to do. Luckily it was early afternoon, so we had all day to explore. We went to the St. Marks cathedrale, another church, got more gelato (yum) made friends with some cute italianis and other students studying abroad, and pretty much just got lost in the cute little streets. The best part is just the water taxi that takes you everywhere. What a cool city--a boat is your transportation to and from work and school. Do these people realize this life they are living?? We loved it, and yes, took many pictures. I love Venice, and I love how there are no cars, such a cute, romantic, beautiful city. We played all day, walked a lot, window shopped, got terribly lost then came back to the hotel. Traveling kind of takes it out of you, (in a good way.)

We came home, we were all so tired, but of course I was the only one who fell asleep. We were all hanging out in Marissa and Jessica's room, (that ended up being my room because of the China stench in my room, and I couldn't handle it, so singapore Marissa came to the rescue and swapped me:) and I fell asleep on her leg, middle of convo. I think I might be narcaleptic. Seriously, I can pass out so easily, it's embarrassing sometimes. Marissa made a facebook album of me sleeping (haha, sounds creepy) and VERY unflattering, but it's an accurate portrayal of what happens to me when I am on the metro, on the plane, reading a book, listening to music, or just very tired. 

They woke me up and we went to dinner... seriously we ate so much in Italy!! I did damage control the week we got back, but it was worth it. But this meal was terrible, it was this Indian-Italian restaurant, so dirty. And these 50 year old working men bought us a round of fries, haha a. gross. and b. so not only do we have america stamped on our forehead but obviously mormon innocence as well. But I'm okay with the second;) So that was gross, but at least we could laugh about it.

Saturday morning we got an earlier start again, because we were leaving that night, so we had a lot to fit in! We took the water taxi to Murano, which is an island next to Venice, famous for it's glass blowing. It was so neat! We were able to see a live demonstration of this guy making glass and it was awesome. Of course we took a picture with him after. The gift shop was a lot cooler too now that I knew how hard glass was to make, so I have a much greater appreciation:) We walked around Murano for a while, and really all there is to see are the millions of different glass shops with the same stuff, but it was still really cool. It was beautiful weather again so it was fun to aimlessly walk the streets. Oh and did I mention it was Valentine's day!! (Lucky Valentine's day couple on a gondola ride... so pretty!!)

We were laughing the whole time how it was us six girls in one of the most romantic cities, on valentines day of all days. So we wanted to take a picture of all the cute couples we saw on gondola's and what not but decided it would be kind of creepy. But don't think I wasn't seriously considering it...good thing my camera died.

We came back to Venice, and another surprise was that one of the worlds largest carnivals took place starting that weekend! Looks like we planned this thing right, unintentionally. It was like a mini-Mardi Gras slash halloween, and not very mini. Everyone was dressed up in 18, 19th century clothes and I even saw some spidermans, spongebobs and other costumes... So I don't know if they even know what they are celebrating, but it was cool! Everyone was pretty tossed at 10 am, which made it even more hilarious. A couple of us got our face painted (cool thing to do, obviously) so we fit right in and even joined in on a couple of parades. It was a lot of fun, and fun to be a part of! I can't believe the coincidence. 

Then we had our last meal, late lunch at this cute little restaurant in a secluded alley. Of course it was couples galore, and all of us had face painting or masks on... little embarrassing, haha, but they served us anyway! We all got our last pasta dose in, and honestly, I started feeling sick of carbs. Never thought I would have that feeling, so it was great! But of course gelato is dairy so we got our last gelato after and headed for the airport:) Bottom line: Venice is sweet, and we had a total BLAST.

It took us a while to find how to actually get to the airport, and of course we were running late once again, but we made it to the bus stop, got on, hurried to find the ticket line, to find out our plane got delayed by THREE hours. I actually wasn't too bummed because it was the first mishap and I'm so glad it happened on our way home rather than to Venice. So I slept almost the whole time in the terminal, read, listened to music and played cards. Our face paint got itchy too and we decided we didn't want to land in Paris with colored faces so we washed that off too. 

So we got into Charles de Gaulle a little after midnight, which I thought nothing of, but obviously should have because we found out after waiting 30 mins at the metro in the cold that metros stop running at midnight. Lame. So we had to take a taxi to le Vesinet, which ended up being 25 dollars a person, so not too terrible, just a bummer. But we were so tired and ready to be home, the taxi driver probably just picked his price. 

It was a good feeling to be "home." I love how Paris feels like home to me. It really does. And even though Italy was so GREAT and we all had the time of our lives--nothing even compares to Paris. Really, I love it, greatest city ever. I feel so comfortable here, and I love that I know the language! I just got such a great appreciation for French and France while I was away and it felt so good to come "home." I never want to leave....

mecredi a vendredi

Wednesday was fine arts day, YAY! I wish i could actually be excited to tell you about all the things i learned, but im pretty sure we went to the most boring section of the Louvre, told in the boringest way.. since thats a word.. but if it were a word, it would describe our teacher perfectly. She kind of just reads from her notes the whole time, which I would gladly take a copy of so i can bypass the sound of her voice. Ok I am complaining, I need to stop. I'm sure she makes a great mom or something:) So that was very very long, but after the girls and I walked outside the Louvre over the seine, through cobblestone streets and just perused until dinner.Boudemange, (my mommy) couldnt eat with us cuz she was just pimping in paris, but she made spinach with white fish. I was so happy. Really bland, so caitlin and I put the salsa she had brought for her over it.. we have used so much of the salsa actually.. hopefully that's not rude to be eating the gift she got her, but she clearly has no idea it's purpose, so we use it for eggs and just about everything..

Yesterday was a productive day! We got an earlier start, did a walk in la defense, which is sooo industrialized. You would have no idea you were still in Paris. Skyscrapers up the ying yang.. I actually didn't like it at all. I prefer the cultured architecture and small narrow streets and cute little old men with baguettes:) But it was neat to see the transition to modern day style. It was a short walk, but fun with the girls, as always;)

Then the best part!!!! We went to the Rodin museum! It was sooo cool! I remember going there with Michael and how much we loved it! Which is soo weird to think about now considering it is a really sexual museum, but yeah. By far one of the highlights of the trip so far. I definitely want to go back when gardens are in bloom... hopefully I can catch a bit of Spring before I leave... but yeah, LOVE the rodin museum.
After that we went to the Patterson's and were probably there for five hours. I love hanging out there, so much fun! I love how we can just drop in, and so does all the other students. I got a good nap in while everyone watched the office... i figured i would catch up with michael, erik and debbers when i get home:) then as they watched ever after, (lazy day obviously) I read this book im obsessed with called "A New Earth" ... really insightful, all about awakening to life purpose through consciousness and detaching from our ego. It's so cool. After that was Institute, then home. Good day:)And today I was all stoked on going teaching with the missionaries, but unfortunately it got called off because Kalu's aunt (the investigator and my new bff) had to go to work or something, and wanted to meet all of us. So it got rescheduled till Tuesday. Then I did my case study online.. which is the last step for my application to PR. I wish I could tell you I rocked it, but I really didn't. Long story short, I'm sure it will do, (2.5 hours is shorter than it seems) and I'm just glad the head pr guy at byu still accepted it after firefox closed down on me and so I wasn't able to submit it. Then I ran, took some pants to get hemmed......... lil sketch about that........ and now I'm here. Tomorrow morning I'm going to play soccer at our versailles ward then some girls are hosting a breakfast at the Patterson's then I think we're all going to go see a movie. So looks like a fun saturday:) Well, it's only 10 pm and i think im going to bed soon. So happy to be tired this early! And yeah, that's about it for now. Love you all. Pray for you and think of you daily:) bisous.

CHARTRES

On Saturday we made our first day trip to Chartres. It was really cool, and actually one of the colder days of my life. But my fault, I don't think I was paying attention when Patterson told us to bundle. Soo Meggers froze just a tad, but it was okay:)
The day started by waking up at 5:30am and taking the TGV.. which was about an hour long, so obviously I passed out before the train even took off. Once we got there, we went to Mac Donalds to get some warmth, then to the Cathedrale, which is called "Notre Dame a Chartres." Really beautiful. We had a fascinating tour guide. He was this cute old man with an English accent who has studied this church for 51 years!!!! So crazy. He went into detail about six stain glass inside the church, one was about Jesus' geneology, then his life, then his atonement. The others were about Noah's arc, the virgin Mary, Joseph of Egypt... and I think that's it. The church is the oldest medieval church in all of Europe and it has a Mary relic of a piece of silk, so it was a huge pilgrimmage site back in the day. Basically, just a really interesting day, and I learned so much!So sunday, great day. I talked to the sister missionaries and I am going teaching with them on Friday. I can't wait! We are teaching this girl from Zimbabwe, who I met at church. Her name is Kalu, and we apparently really hit it off because she has called me about 11 times since church. She's really cute. She's 17 years old and lives here with her aunt. I don't think she has many friends, (hence the phone calls,) but I'm sure we'll become good friends:) Although, I never would have guessed english was her first language because a. I asked her how long she had been speaking english and she looked at me like I was an idiot then said her whole life, and b. I cannot understand a single word that comes out of that girls mouth. I just laugh when she laughs and say "yeah" and nod when her voice goes up at the end of sentence like a question... soo this relationship could be difficult now that i come to think of it.

So obviously I'm super stoked to go teaching with the sisters and teaching the first lesson! Little bummed it's not in french, but I'm sure there will be many more opportunities:) Then sunday night...superbowl! Yeah. I'm such a hardcore football fan now for going over to the Pattersons and midnight and staying up until 4! haa... I actually have no idea why I went over there because the whole time I was working on a world religions presentation I gave on the following day, buuut fun attempt at the football americain atmosphere I guess...

Yesterday, I was a little out of it, because of the no sleep, and I slept on my professors couch... (yeah no one spread that) then my presentation was a bit of a joke, but I learned a lot about John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff..good guys. ha. obviously. Then Cait and I went home to shower and get cleaned up from our overnight, then back over to Patterson's for dinner and FHE. it took us an hour and a half to get into Paris last night! There was an accident on the metro or something so everything was backed up.. it was soo annoying. But a little hilarious cuz we were literally jam packed and spooning with smelly frenchman, we couldnt stop laughing, we were like crying once we got off. Love her.

Finally today. So no school for me, yay:) Slept in, hotmail wasn't working, so a little bit of morning frustration, but went for a run and cooled off:) Great run today... sorry this is getting annoying to hear. Just assume everyday I'm going for a great run k? But I went for a longer run today so Cait and I missed yoga at the church.. I was kinda bummed. (some girls planned a yoga work out) After that, we just aimlessly wandered Paris. Our new favorite thing to do is close our eyes and just point on a place on the map and go there and browse. So we kiiinda did that today, but got a little sidetracked;) But I also had to be back so I could skype the PR comms department for my over-the-phone interview. It went well though, ask debbers for details Ters;) So we just ate and we had fish! White fish! I'm loving all the protein I'm eating these days.. seriously lifts my spirits so much more than carb overload. (I bought two dozen eggs the other day and plan on finishing them this week... mmm:)

So I think I'm all caught up. I'm still really happy, loving everything, but missing so many people:) A bientot!