Time Flies, Lows, and Highs

I kind of hate myself for the rhyme in the title but I’m going to blame my foggy head for the bad judgment. Last week was crazy busy and I haven’t had a chance to brain dump for a bit, so that’s what you’re getting today. Cool?

Time flies

Last week went so quickly. First, it was Monday and I was starting a new class, and then it was Halloween, All Saints’ Day (no class but lots of work), the busiest Thursday ever, Friday when I wasn’t home for almost 14 hours, and then the Saturday where I wasn’t home for 16 hours.

And I’m almost halfway done with my study abroad. Technically, I’m over halfway done with class days, just not with the time total. Whaaaaat.

Lows

All that craziness last week means that my sleep deprivation has just been compounding for about two weeks. I crashed hard on Sunday. It started off an okay day despite waking up with a nasty stuffy nose; I got laundry and meal prepping done before 1pm, but then I didn’t want to do anything.

I was so exhausted I didn’t want to leave my bed, but it would’ve been good for my mental health to go somewhere. I fixed some travel arrangements that got messed up and looked at how much I’ve spent since I’ve been here, which isn’t too bad, but I emotionally ate a lot of chocolate and fruit anyway, and when I dragged myself to do my French homework, it wasn’t posted.

I emailed my teacher and she responded she’d put it up by 7pm. It was due yesterday. In every world, I want to be done with my Monday homework before 7pm on Sunday night. But okay.

I was also planning to go to a yoga class around 6:15 Sunday evening, and it should have been easy to use public transit to get there, but the metro system locked me out (this happens occasionally, apparently… it’s happened to me twice in the last week), so I took an Uber. I was late. I also couldn’t find the studio despite being at the address, so I need to call and ask for some clarification so that doesn’t happen again. In the moment, I sat on the floor of an empty building and cried because I was tired and sick and frustrated and only 50%* of security guards/service employees here speak English.

Since I was near a mall that is open on Sundays and has groceries, I walked there to get nail polish and cottage cheese and chicken and a few to-go salads (thank you, Marks & Spencer, for existing in Paris). 

When I was feeling pretty good, but ready to go home, I headed downstairs to the metro station and discovered after about 10 minutes that all the trains to go back to my dorm were delayed, and it didn’t say how long. So, after I sent a complain-y text to my mom, she told me to get an Uber, and I tried to do that. It was incredibly difficult, because about four streets encircle the mall that are pedestrian-only. All that to say that two Uber drivers canceled the trip, I wandered out toward the real streets, and it took the third one about twenty minutes to get to me. What would’ve been a 15-minute trip with non-delayed trains took over an hour. There were more tears, and then I had to write my French assignment and eat when I got home, right around 9pm… which meant I didn’t feel properly sleepy until nearly midnight. Let’s just say I didn’t catch up on sleep that night, and I very seriously considered not going to class yesterday.

*Made up statistic

Highs

Okay, I promise. Negativity is mostly over now. I wanted to be able to write this Sunday, but homework took late-night precedence.

Last week, my grandparents were here! They went on a river cruise and had a couple days in Paris at the end of the trip. So, after civ, French, and French conversation session on Thursday, I came back to my room for an hour or so to throw together my class presentation for Friday and make myself look presentable before heading to Paradis Latin for dinner and a show.

I mostly stayed for dinner and a half hour of the show because I did have a presentation to finish/give and a long day on Friday, but it was awesome to see them and get a yummy dinner (aperitif + salad + salmon + apple tart). I thought they were leaving on Friday morning, but it turned out that they weren’t leaving till Saturday morning, so I offered myself up for a Friday night dinner, too. We tentatively planned to do it, but left it a little in the air because I didn’t know exactly when I’d get back from Versailles.

So, yeah, Friday after my class presentation (wanna talk about Pascal’s Pensées? I know it all…ish), we went to Versailles. It’s huge and pretty, and much like with Blois and Chambord, I’d rather have spent the day in the gardens than in the castle. But we did get a little over an hour in the gardens after our tour before it got too dark.

{I will never understand, no matter how many times I hear it, that royals liked to be surrounded by people when they fell asleep and woke up.}

After that, we all hopped back on a train to the Cité. Sort of. It was a full evening train, so we got split up and no one really knew where to get off because we were all assuming the others knew. Fortunately, I realized that before we got to the right station and figure out where to get off. And then I headed off to meet my grandparents for dinner again, this time at L’Atelier des Compères.

It was so, so nice to see them again and in a quieter setting where we could chat.

We started with chilled grilled vegetables layered with pesto and mozzarella and smoked salmon.

We all ordered filet mignon with roasted potatoes and mushrooms.

And then they had Grand Marnier soufflés for dessert, while I had chocolate lava cake. No picture of the lava, but I promise it was there.

It was such a good meal with such lovely company, and I’m so glad I was able to see them again. Totally made my day.

On Saturday, I spent the day in London and met up with Tanvi, who I’ve “know” through Instagram. It was awesome to meet her and talk about life and careers and eat yummy brunch food.

Social media can be a pretty cool tool for connection, y’all. 

I filled the rest of my day there at a Harry Potter exhibition at the British Library, where I took a lot of pictures I apparently wasn’t supposed to take (I got called out by an employee as I took a picture at the end…), wandering around the Victoria and Albert Museum, and stopping by Piccadilly Circus.

I was honestly pretty excited to chill on the train ride back to Paris because I was so tired. I love love love London, though. 

Assorted random thoughts

We have class five days this week, plus conversation session and a late play on Thursday and a tour of the Conciergie on Friday. No rest here. I’m going nowhere this weekend, though. I mean, probably places in Paris, but not traveling. You know.

Part of my Sunday meltdown it totally related to the fact that I’m almost done with school and who knows what I’m doing for the next few months. It would have been a bigger breakdown if I didn’t have a job lined up. Another part was that it’s a weird feeling to be in a place where you don’t really understand most of what’s going on around you.

My French midterm is next week. The same day as my civ final. Fun. But then it’s a four-day weekend. If you need me then, I’ll be in Switzerland.

It makes no sense, but I so want go shopping. I’ve been online shopping/browsing like crazy. I miss having a larger wardrobe and more shoes and more space.

Trader Joe’s and Target and Whole Foods are so not overrated. America got those right.

Leon is a super yummy healthier fast-casual chain that America should totally import/Britain should export.

I just discovered a pimple inside my ear. What the hell?

I’m gonna go cycling now. I’ll try to get you a day-in-the-study-abroad-life up tomorrow. 🙂

Your turn:

What’s a low and a high from your recent life?

What’s your favorite store?