I'm done with finals! Sweet! I think I did pretty ok on all of them too. Except for my final in Management in Dietetics. That was a little rougher. I felt like it was one of those tests where you were playing 'guess what the teacher is thinking.' Oh well. It was still fine. Matthew is almost done. Just one more test in a few minutes, as soon as he's done reading his daily dose of espn.com and KU sports and everything else in the world of college sports. And then we're on our way back to Minnesota! Nathan (3 year old brother) has been pretty excited for us to come. Every time I talk to him on the phone, he says, "Steph guess what?! Matthew's commminngggg!!" haha. Apparently he says that around the house a lot too. It's not that he's not excited for me to come, I think he's just remembering this summer, when I said that a lot before Matthew came up. Crazy how long little kids remember stuff.
Just so it's on the record, we did another try at sugar cookies the other day, and it was a fantastic success. Regardez:
They're so pretty!
Please note that the top right man cookie is a missionary (its my little missionary brother - go Jonathan!) and the bottom right man - his arm was NOT broken off by my mouth, its just in a sling. :)
In other news, Matthew and I played Epic Duels last night, and I beat him! Anyone who knows how Matthew somehow wins every single game he plays knows that this is not a small feat. I was very excited. Especially since the last time that me and him played just the two of us, he absolutely killed me.
Monday night Matthew and I went up to Temple Square. It was the first time for both of us, seeing the lights, and boy was it pretty! I really was amazed at how well everything was lit, and the variety of nativities and decorations and everything. One especially impressive thing was how some huge trees had lights on every single branch, all the way up to the top!
This is a tree!
Of course, the temple is fantastic. We did a session there a couple weeks ago with Janae and Matthew's mom, and the inside of the temple is soo incredibly gorgeous. Even more amazing than the pictures, which is quite a feat, because the pictures are fantastic.
LOVE temples
Paper bag decoration things. They had "peace" and "joy" and other related things like that cut out of the bags in tons of different languages. Guess which language I'm by???
Sidenote: Sometimes I want to get married again. Still to Matthew :). It was just so exciting and happy and I just want to dress up and look pretty and have all of my family around and take pictures.
This past weekend has been fantastic. Last day of classes on Thursday, and reading days on Friday and Saturday. Did we study? Psht, no. On Saturday, I was feeling especially in the Christmas spirit, aka, the lets-make-Christmas-sugar-cookies spirit. This relatively simple task turned into a relatively long process. First we realized we didn't have enough eggs. Then we realized that we didn't have any cookie cutters. If you're making Christmas sugar cookies, they have to be in shapes. I believe that it is scientifically proven that it tastes better that way.
So we go to Smiths to get eggs and look for cookie cutters. Smiths happens to have a whole aisle full of Christmas delights. It was so incredibly exciting. Decorations, candy, plates, giant stuffed elephants, wrapping paper, candles, lots of fun stuff. Also, cookie cutters. Incredibly overpriced cookie cutters! We weren't so excited about spending $3 per cookie cutter, sooo we didn't get any. We did buy my favorite kind of candy (Cadbury thingers, the crispy chocolate thingers), as well as a little thing of chips, and this deal where you get a frying pan, bacon, eggs, orange juice and bread for $10.
Still on the search for cookie cutters, we went over to Walmart. Not a cookie cutter to be found in that store. Also not to be found: any employees to ask about cookie cutters. We did use our Walmart gift card from our wedding to buy some corelle plates (up to this point we've just owned plastic plates. They totally work, but for some things, actual plates just seem to work better) and Spiderman 2 (for $5!).
Still searching for cookie cutters, we stopped at a dollar store. Nul. Then went back to Smith's and bought two of the overpriced cookie cutters. Success! (sort of)
Back at home, we make the cookie dough, and it went fantastically. Then we placed it gently in the refrigerator it for a couple of hours to make it easier to roll out. We've done this at home all the time, but I never realized that taking it out of the bowl and putting saran wrap directly around the dough was such an essential part of the process. We thought saran wrap across the top of the bowl would be enough. Not so. Yes, dried out cookie dough. So sad. It had turned crumbly enough that cookie cutter shapes were entirely out of the question. We just had to squish the dough together and form kinda ugly balls on the sheet.
Oh, and then, we both got hit super hard by the napstick last night, and so we woke up this morning, realized we had left the cookies on the cookie sheet... and were now rather hard.
Sigh. Oh well.
That whole big process to make cute and happy shapes, and then it didn't even happen. It was a lot of fun though. Aaannd, we'll probably try again tomorrow.
Matthew's mom came out to Utah, and she brought with her and gave to us Matthew's fisher price Nativity scene. We were both very excited to get this. While Matthew was still at work one night, I got too excited to wait, so I took everything out and set it up on the floor. I arranged everything very nicely, traditionally, and left it there for Matthew to see. This is a picture of what it looked like:
Nice, right?
The next day, I walk into the living room, and see Matthew on the ground facing the Nativity. He turns to me and says "the animals can't be by the baby." Here's what he had done:
Ok so In'n'Out just came to Provo. I've never been there before, but personally, I think that all the crazy hype is just a little ridiculous. Matthew and I drove past it today, and even after a few weeks after opening, there was a HUGE line through the drive through. SO long! And they had workers going from car to car taking people's orders to speed up the process. Really, is it that good? I doubt it. It's just a burger joint. With good burgers, yes, but still... burger joint. I have decided to dislike it on principal.
I just took the GRE. I was pleasantly surprised at a decent score, despite feeling like I didn't know that much, and doing almost no test preparation (2 hours? 3 hours maybe?). I also thought that the rules at the testing center were pretty stringent. I couldn't have anything in my pockets when I went into the testing room, and if I wore a hoodie or something in, I had to keep wearing it, I couldn't ever take it off. I feel like I did very well on my two essays I had to write.
This week has been so crazy. Before Thanksgiving break I felt like oh yeah, there's a bunch of stuff due now, but after Thanksgiving it will be smooth sailing. Not so. Came back and realized oh yeah, there's actually so much left. Lots of big projects and final papers.
I think it might be a good idea to invest in a humidifier. It is dry! I am going through chapstick at epic proportions. My clothes are all clinging to me. My hair is flying everywhere. I keep getting shocked when I kiss Matthew. And I can see sparks when I move blankets and clothes around.
I really enjoy reading cookbooks. I don't usually have the time or the money (for special ingredients) to make a ton of stuff, but I love food, so I love oohing and ahing over recipes. Cookbooks with plentiful amounts of pictures are far superior to cookbooks with just a smattering of images.
Whelp, I saw a neurologist about 2 weeks ago, she referred me to another neurologist who does sleep tests, and after lots of monkey business and hemena-hemena-hemena, I have an appointment for the sleep test where they hook me up to all sorts of stuff and look at lots of... stuff. When is the appointment? January 11. A whole month out. I understand that if they can't fit me in before, then they can't fit me in. But by that point, I'll have been doing all this shaking and seizure whosits and whatnots for a whole 4 months! And who knows if this test will give any answers? (The only guarantee is it won't be cheap.) Just a liittttttttttttttle frustrating.
So, long story short, we don't have a working TV. The long story is we have a TV, and we have a DVD player, but we don't have all the cords and gizmos and hookups and attachments and converters and whatever else to make it all work (and we don't want to pay to buy them). So we put a frameless picture of Jesus in front of the TV, and it's basically a nice decoration in our living room. We still watch movies - just on the computer.
It's one of those ah-ha moments when you re-realize that its actually really nice not having television. I definitely can still find ways to waste time, but at least its not in front of the tube. It's nice that I feel like we have the spirit in our house, which can at least be partially attributed to the lack of commercials and sitcoms and lots of TV in general.
I won't really be complaining when we're somewhere where we do have working television, all I'm saying is that the side effects are really pleasant.
Here's the summary of our list of things we're grateful for:
Garbage men - seriously, think of what the world would be like without them
Jesus Christ - seriously, think of what the world would be like without him
Snow
The smell of and after rain
The beauty of the earth
Fantastic parents
Temples
Eternal marriage
Nice in-laws
Medical technology
Clouds and beautiful sunsets
Refrigerators
Indoor plumbing and hot water
Yogurt and Ice cream
And this year, we're especially grateful to have each other
And Matthew's quote of the day: "You know what I'm not thankful for? Construction paper. The way it feels on your fingers and everything... just thinking of it makes me shiver!
Whelp, it has arrived. My extraneous movement and fidgeting, as my brother likes to call it (i.e. the shaking and convulsion episodes I wrote about earlier) have gotten bad enough and frequent enough, and have been happening during the day enough, that Matthew and I decided to temporarily self-revoke my driving privileges.
My French self esteem really got a big boost today. I went in to a meeting with my French professor to discuss the topic of my final paper for the class.
Several times she told me that "tu ecris si bien."
That's basically one of the happiest things a French student can hear: "You write very well."
And then she went on to expound on how and why I write well.
It really was SUCH a gratifying experience. The little (or not so little) French fanatic that lives inside of me was doing backflips and cartwheels.
I never thought I would say those words. But truly, I really am getting better. This isn't to say it doesn't still sometimes happen, but overall, I am doing a whole lot better being on top of things, and not leaving things until the last minute.
Here's another story about my crazy brother. I actually happen to love him a lot. But he's still crazy. He's super duper into music, and so he carries around tuning forks with him so that he can always get a good pitch. So, the night that he was out here, right before entering the MTC, he was telling us about the best way to get a crazy tickle from the vibrations of the tuning fork. Curious? As you should be.
Strike the tuning fork again your hand or your leg, to get it vibrating. Then, carefully put the fork against your eyelashes. You are in for the tickle of your life!
During conference, Elder Packer gave a talk and suggested that people have a personal delete button. My goof-ball of a brother, Jonathan, thought ah-hah! and ran straight out to the old computer that doesn't work anymore, and pulled off the delete button, and tied it with a balloon around his arm.
He liked that so much that he took off the Ctrl and Alt button too, and now he has one tied around his leg, and the other around his chest. Just be careful that you don't press Ctrl + Alt+ Del two times in a row. That could result in system failure in Jonathan (ah!)
I've noticed that some people's blogs I read have a sidebar that has funny quotes from their kids. Well, I don't have any kids yet, but I do have a husband:
"I don't want to go to school. I want to stay here and make muffins with you."
"I like climbing around on the Y. It makes me feel like a mountain goat."
"You know what would be nice? If you were a minority."
So, Halloween was fantastic. We had a super lazy morning until 2pm, and then I had a lazy afternoon while Matthew took a test. Oh! We also made biscuits with bacon, eggs and cheese. So good.
Apparently, it was a beautiful day, so we decided to go hike the Y.
Fact: It really was so gorgeous.
Fact: I am not in awesome shape. That hike may or may not have been fairly taxing on my legs.
We really did have a good time hiking, and sitting on the Y and admiring the view.
Also, while sitting on the Y, we decided that during the break between winter semester and spring semester, we are going to take a trip down to Southern Utah, and go to Zion's National Park. It's gonna happen. I'm really excited.
That evening we went to Lindon and took our niece and nephews Erica, David, Ben and Evan trick or treating. We also watched a little bit of football, ate some chicken alfredo pasta, ate some candy, helped Mike and Laura make applesauce and ate some hot applesauce. They even sent us home with a jar! I wish I could have seen my little brother Nathan go trick or treating, because I think that would have been hilarious. But still, an awesome halloween.
We had a really good time with BYU homecoming last weekend.
We had Emma, Nicole and Jen-Jen (sp?) over Friday night. We took them to the playground at Kiwanis park. It's probably my favorite playground ever. Then we ate ice cream, and played farkle. They slept on camping cots in our living room. Saturday we got up pretty early to go to College Gameday, here in Provo! woot.
Nicole and Emma came with us. We took Jen to where Heather and Doug were staying. Before we left our apartment, Matthew or one of the girls had the brilliant idea to make some Y balloon hats for them to make to wear at College Gameday.
There were a lot of people there.
Then, we took the girls to their races, and watched Jen, Grant, Emma and Nicole race. It was great.
At this point, Matthew and I went to play flag football (ok, only Matthew played) with the ward. The Hogges all went to the Homecoming Parade, and I was excited to hear that everyone loved their balloon hats.
That afternoon we all went to this one restaurant called PizzaPie, that had a pizza and pasta buffet. Fact: not very expensive, and so good. They had cookie dough dessert pizza! Oddly enough, I think this restaurant even showed up in my dream last night...
We persuaded Mike to let us come help him at Sconecutter's at the football game. This was great! We helped him for half the game (they ran out of food at halftime), we got into the stadium for free, and then got to watch the rest of the game wandering from portal to portal. Too bad the game was pretty depressing to watch. But we still had a really good time.
Today in one of my dietetics classes we talked about how lots of people don't know exactly what a dietitian is, or what the credentials are, or anything like that. As a future dietitian, I am taking it upon myself to spread the word.
An RD is a registered dietitian. Hopefully in the near future you will see something like this:
Stephanie ..., RD.
That will be such a happy day.
A dietitian is a food and nutrition expert that works to treat and prevent disease.
Here are some areas where dietitians work (provided from the BYU Dietetic program website):
Management dietitians work in healthcare institutions, schools, universities, and industry. They are responsible for personnel management, menu planning, budgeting, and purchasing. Management dietitians increasingly play a key role wherever food is served.
Clinical dietitians are a vital part of the medical team in hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, health maintenance organizations, and other health-care facilities. They provide medical nutrition therapy to help speed patients' recovery and lay the groundwork for long-term health. Some dietitians choose a particular area of practice, such as diabetes, pediatrics, or nutrition support.
Community dietitians work in public and home health agencies, and in government-funded programs that feed and counsel families, the elderly, pregnant women, children and disabled individuals. Wherever proper nutrition can help improve quality of life, they reach out to the public to teach, monitor and advise.
Educator dietitians work in colleges, universities, and community or technical schools, teaching future doctors, nurses, dietitians, and dietetic technicians the sophisticated science of foods, nutrition, and dietetics.
Research dietitians work in government agencies, food and pharmaceutical companies, and in major universities and medical centers. They conduct or direct experiments to answer critical nutrition questions, and make dietary recommendations for the public.
Consultants work full or part-time as management, clinical, or community dietitians, usually under contract with a healthcare facility or in their own private practice. They perform nutrition screening, assessment, and counseling. They consult regarding disease management, weight loss, sports nutrition, wellness, and foodservice management.
Business dietitians work in food and nutrition related industries. They work in product development, sales, marketing, advertising, public relations, purchasing, and in many other capacities that enable companies to satisfy consumers' growing interest in nutrition.
This is who we are. This is what we do. Tell your friends!
One of my best friends, Kate, wrote this on her blog the other day, and I found it so amusing, I'm reposting:
If for no other reason than the following, walking to school is highly recommended. The other day, on my way home from a long day of school, my iPod died. Broken Heart. Fortunately, I was able to be inspired! Listening to other people's passing conversations is equally as entertaining as listening to my favorite tunes. Here is what I learned:
Humans get cataracts and have to have surgery to remedy this malfunction of the human body. Nothing new there. The conversation--remember I was not actually invited to this conversation so some of the details might be fuzzy--continued in a direction I was not expecting. Eagles, with the same structure of the eye as humans, ALSO get cataracts. For humans, it is an inconvenience that makes us get surgery or glasses or contacts (Contacts are still a mystery to me). For Eagles, their eyes are their main resource for life. Without clear vision, they can't see the prey they are chasing. Bushes and squirrels start looking the same and that only leads to damaged bushes, starving eagles, and an overpopulation of squirrels. In comes technology! We are now, in an effort to save our eagle population, giving eagles the same surgery that humans have been getting for years on their cataracts. Survival of the fittest my eye! (eye...get it?) Darwin did not see this one coming!!
Police Beat for October 21 (in the Daily Universe)
Tue, 10/20/2009 - 20:11
Explosives
Oct. 15 A fire alarm in Helaman Halls was tripped. Firecrackers had been ignited in the 2200 hall of the building. Heat from the firecrackers scorched the carpets and set off the alarms. Students were questioned but the perpetrator was not identified.
Oct. 16 A resident of Heritage Halls called the police claiming she heard gunshots outside her apartment. Officers arrived and found remnants of two dry ice bombs.
Oct. 16 Dry ice bomb remnants were found in the Marriott pedestrian tunnel. Police say this has become a recurring problem that usually takes place on Thursday nights. Police warn that the penalty for this offense is a second-degree felony.
Oct. 18 At 12:30 a.m. an officer heard fireworks in the vicinity of Helaman Halls. Witnesses reported a white Honda driving through the parking lot, and fireworks being thrown out of its windows. The officer was unable to locate the vehicle.
Suspicious Behaviour
Oct. 10 A man was riding a bike near the WSC late at night while wearing sunglasses. Students found it suspicious that the man was wearing glasses at night and called the police. Officers could not locate the suspect.
Oct. 13 A suspicious man was reported outside Heritage Halls. A male was standing outside Young Hall at 2 a.m. when officers arrived. The male turned out to be a resident of Young Hall who said he was “just enjoying the night.”
Oct. 17 A suspicious man was sighted by the Tanner building at 8 p.m. The caller reported the man suspicious because he was dressed in all black. Officers were unable to find the black-clothed man.
Trespassing
Oct. 11 Several female students left their apartment for 30 minutes to attend ward prayer. When they returned to their apartment, they found a severed elk head on their kitchen table. The suspects could not be identified and the elk was disposed of at the materials handling building.
Twice in two days I have been sitting somewhere on campus, not doing anything but waiting and people watching and thinking, and some passerby asks me if I'm ok....hmm...
Our water is out. This really impacts a lot of things: teeth brushing, face washing, showering, bathroom going, water drinking, dish doing, juice making...
Although, we did make some juice last night, which is good, or we'd be really be in trouble.
I'm a die hard facebook stalker when it comes to looking at people's wedding and engagement pictures. I love them, and I will go to great lengths to find random people with such pictures posted. So, in light of that, I am including a link to all of MY wedding photos in this post. This is different from the link to the photographer's blog that had about 20 pictures on it. This link has LOTS, and I mean LOTS.
I really get a kick out of reading what students write on assignments. Some of my favorites include "I'm not sure I trust the nutrition information on government websites like the FDA because there are rumors of government conspiracy," or "I need to eat less calories, because I get a lot of mine from the sun" or "I ate 3 adult carrots last night."
I'm soooo stoked for next week. I'm feeling energized just thinking about it. Here's why:
The dietetics faculty and many students are going to a big food and nutrition conference in denver, and they'll be gone until Wednesday night. (I decided not to go because it was going to cost me quite a bit of money)Which means, no dietetic classes for three days! That's the bulk of my schedule, and all my morning classes.
My first test of the semester is this week, its open note and on blackboard.
Next week, my French professor will be out of town, so, in addition to no dietetics classes the first part of the week, no French classes at all!
So, let's just say that this week has been just a bit frustrating. Let's start with today. Today Matthew went with me to the doctor, and the doctor ordered an EEG for me. An EEG, or electroencephalography, measures brain waves and activity. It's going to be an interesting test, I think. It's on Tuesday at 8:40am, and I have to go in sleep deprived. So they told me that Monday night I should go to bed at midnight and wake up at 4am, and stay awake until after the test is over. yikes.
Why am I getting an EEG? Well about 2 weeks ago, while I would be trying to fall asleep, my body would twitch every so often. More than just the random leg spasm things that happen sometimes. It wasn't too bad.
But then it started getting more frequent, many times a night, and getting more intense, where it felt like my body was spasming or convulsing for a second. But it usually just lasted a second.
It's just been getting worse. I'm at the point now where a couple times a night I full out shake and convulse and hyperventilate for 30-45 seconds sometimes, and I can't control it, and I spasm very frequently. My body feels all on edge, and tense. I try to breathe slowly and relax, let my body settle down, but it only helps for a few minutes. Then I spasm or convulse or whatever you want to call it again.
This usually just happens at night, when we're going to bed, or lying down watching a movie. But lately its started to happen occasionally during the day. There has been several nights when the only way I've been able to fall asleep is after Matthew has given me a priesthood blessing. Which can I say, it is so nice to that I have Matthew, and don't have to deal with this with roommates. Roommates aren't so prone to hold you and take care of you and wake up in the middle of the night to calm you when it happens and help you get anything you need.
So, uh yeah. It's been making me get less sleep this week, and I can't really control what's going on. So it's a little frustrating. Kinda crazy eh? So, we'll see what happens on Tuesday...
We got our first bill for utilities today. Thank goodness we only have to pay for electricity, so it really wasn't a horrible bill. Pretty reasonable, actually. However, we noticed that our final bill was a bit higher than the charge for the actual electricity used. huh?
Turns out, we have to pay a $3 "Customer Service Charge." What?!? Since when is customer service something we pay a fee for? Isn't that something that should be inherent in every American company?
I'm also rather confused about when this supposed customer service took place. Maybe when we called them to ask how to switch the bill to our name? I guess that was a $3 question...
However, no matter how the bill was accrued, I would say it's more along the lines of a Customer Disservice Charge.
One of my dietetics this semester is the Nutritional Assessment Lab. We do a lot of really cool stuff in this lab - so far we've done height and weight measurements, BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratios, skinfold measurements, body composition measurements, bone density, blood glucose, hematocrit, hemoglobin, and... other stuff. And what makes this lab super interesting is that we get to find out all this information for ourselves.
Last week I found out that I have very high bone density. This is relieving; I've actually wondered if I have rather low bone density for my age. I feel like all growing up I didn't really drink much milk, because we always had powdered milk at my house (which I really extremely don't care for). However, I did eat a ton of cheese, so I guess I got enough calcium from that.
This past week we did a lab that required a lot of finger pricking for blood glucose, hematocrit (measures the percent of blood that is red blood cells) and hemoglobin. I was kinda laughing to myself after this lab. For me, pricking myself two or three times and getting drops of blood was no big deal, I do it all the time, and I know how to get blood. However, when people came back from the lab into the conference room were we finish our reports, I heard a lot of people saying stuff like "I feel like a pincushion" and "that was so hard!" and other things along those lines. Now I know that it was easy for me because I'm used to it, and if I wasn't I'm sure it would be more challenging too. But it still made me smile.
Also, I found out last week that I am 25% fat. It blows my mind sometimes how much fat women need to have to be able to do important stuff like have babies. Did you know that, generally speaking, you need to have between 17-20% body fat to even menstruate? (Am I allowed to talk about stuff like this on a blog...?)
August 14, 2009 was absolutely perfect. The temple is definitely the place to be married - nothing could have been more awesome than kneeling across the alter with Matthew, being sealed to him. Here are a few of the pictures from the day, some of my favorites:
Classes are going all right. Matthew's taking geography, a bunch of physics, weather, astronomy, doctrine and covenants.
I'm taking dance, french literature, and a bunch of dietetics classes (management in dietetics, teaching methods in dietetics, community nutrition, community nutrition fieldwork, nutritional assessment lab...)
One thing I really like about dietetics. The senior class has 29 people in it - its a pretty small major. We all have the same classes at the same time with the same professor. Really, none of the dietetics classes are offered at different times, everyone is always together. All of our classes are always in the same classroom, too. It's actually really fun. We always tend to sit in generally the same spot. I feel like my classmates have become my friends. Group projects - usually something that I dread in other classes - are great in dietetics, because everyone always puts in a lot of effort, and we're all on the same page, and we know each other. It's a good time.
I'm not feeling too overwhelmed yet. I'm trying to do as much work in advance right now, before the middle and end of the semester when things really get crazy. Another thing I like about my classes this semester: instead of being exam-based, like most classes, they have very minimal amounts of exams, and the emphasis is put on projects. I much prefer that. I feel like I learn better doing projects, and although projects generally require a lot of work, they tend to be a little less stressful (or at least not the same kind of stress) than tests.
I mentioned almost all my classes are in the same classroom - I pretty much living in the Eyring (one of the buildings on campus). As a physics major, almost all of Matthew's classes are in the Eyring too. It makes it so convenient to spend time together, even during a hectic school day. We meet up for a few minutes in between classes, or when we have breaks. It's great.
We were thinking about going camping in the mountains, but then decided what we really felt like doing was camping in the living room! Remember the forts/tents you used to make with chairs and tables and blankets when you were younger? That is exactly what we did.
After getting back from France (our official honeymoon) and before school starts I still count as part of the honeymoon. So here's a few other happy things to mention:
We took Matthew's mom down to the Sculpture Garden where Matthew proposed. Here we are! (But now we're married!) And on our drive to Kansas from Minnesota:
So, for wedding presents, we got a ton of gift cards. A couple of them were to Bed, Bath and Beyond. Neither Matthew nor I had ever been in this store, and there's some nice stuff, but holy cow its expensive. So we were there this past Monday, getting some things, spending our gift cards, and after getting the things that we needed, we realized that we had about $20 left on our gift card. We didn't have anything left that we needed to buy, and it was just a matter of something that we wanted to buy. So we decided on the...
Matthew and I had the BEST honeymoon ever. We spent 5-6 days in Paris! It was so great. Here's what we did:
Tuesday 8/18: Got on a plane to Paris. We enjoyed expanding our repertoire of movies thanks to in-flight movie feature.
Wednesday 8/19: We landed and took the RER into Paris. Met up with one of my best friends, Kate, who was doing an internship in Paris (the one I was supposed to do). She bought us falafel, and we talked for a while. Kate's so great. We walked around Parc Monceau, one of my favorite parks in Paris, which was really close to my apartment when I lived there. Extreme jetlag eventually got the better of us, and we crashed and took a nap for a bit. We felt more refreshed when we woke up, so we went out and bought a baguette and cheese (yes!) and some other stuffs at a little street market grocery store and headed down to the Eiffel tower. We didn't actually go up it that night, but we walked around it, and under it. Matthew was very impressed by it, and how big it was. We found some grass up by Trocadero, and ate our food in the presence of the lighted and sparkling tour eiffel. Thursday 8/20: We slept in super duper late this morning (thank you jetlag!). Then we walked around the outside of le Centre Pompidou, a modern-y sort of building built "inside out". Anyway, you get the idea. The multi-colored building on the street is Pompidou. All the colors mean something - as in the blue pipes are AC units, etc. (I just made that up. I don't know specifically what colors are for what, just an example.) It's a pretty sweet building, that houses some pretty crazy modern art. Le Centre Pompidou is really close to a crepe stand that my friends and I used to frequent on a daily basis when we were there on study abroad. We made friends with all the Egyptian-y guys who worked there and made us crepes. They also happen to make the best crepes around. So of course we went there to get our crepes. And whadaya know, the same guy was still working there, and he remembered me! In fact, he remembered all of us girls who would go there. And we had a nice chat while he made our crepes. It really was so happy. Later, we walked over to one of the islands on the Seine, where Sainte Chapelle is. I've heard awesome things about this church, but never actually was able to go inside. It was gorgeous! The entire church, all the walls, from almost floor to vaulted ceiling were stained glass. Each of the 14 windows of glass represented a certain book or event (the atonement) from the Bible. We had fun trying to pick out different scenes on the glass. We then headed to Rue de Rivoli, one of the main big streets in Paris, with awesome shopping. We spent a bit of time doing some shopping, mostly at H&M and Etam. We then headed down to my old neighborhood. I showed Matthew where I used to live, where I used to shop, and told him all of the stories I could think of. :) My street. We walked around for a long time, and since it was quite late at this point, stopped at a restaurant for some dinner. I've gotta say, we both agreed the potatoes we ate were probably the best we've ever had. ever.
We headed to the Arc de Triomphe, and walked around the base, and then sat on the base for a while, before heading home.
Sitting on the base of l'Arc de Triomphe
Friday 8/21: When we finally got up (around noon) on Friday, we headed out to the Louvre. Before we actually went inside, we ate lunch against the walls of the Louvre. Ok, we didn't eat ALL of this for lunch, but this was the type of stuff (it you can see it...) of what we carried around, and ate pretty much all the time. It was GREAT!
Le Louvre
We really enjoyed some of the signs that were posted in and around the Louvre:
No walking on water!
No yelling in Egyptian!
Matthew really liked the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa of course: And I've thought, and Matthew agrees, that some of the coolest art is just the architecture of the building itself: After spending a few hours in the Louvre, we went to a nearby cafe/teashop called Angelina. It has amazing hot chocolate, that's more like melted chocolate than anything else. It's a pretty steep price, but so worth it. We walked by briefly L'Opera Garnier. This is the opera house that the Phantom of the Opera is based off of. A lot of the shots in the movie highly resemble the inside of the opera. This is one of my favorite places in Paris. It's gorgeous! We headed back over to the Eiffel Tower. We grabbed a baguette at a bakery (we paid for it too) which we both agreed was the epitomy of good baguette. Crusty, but not too hard on the outside, soft on the inside, and really good flavor. We walked down the Champs de Mars, the green park area in front of the Eiffel Tower, and then climbed up, and saw the last bits of the sunset from the top.
On the Eiffel. It was beautiful.
Saturday 8/22: This morning first thing we stocked up on lots of food to take back to the states with us. Our stash included a lot of nutella, petit ecolier cookies, brioche tranchee, chocolate, and the best kind of apricot jam I've ever had. We headed over to the Arc de Triomphe (which was within walking distance of our hotel) and then walked down the Champs Elysees, the biggest and most famous street in Paris. Lots of really ritzy stores are found on les Champs. We went inside a perfume store and smelled a bunch of different kinds until we got kinda woozy, then went inside the virgin mobile store and listened to music, went briefly in the disney store, ate lunch, walked some more, and then headed to the Rodin museum. Rodin is a famous scupltor who did also famous works like the Thinker, or the Kiss. It's one of my favorite museums in Paris.
Matthew thinking with the Thinker.
Since we were rather close, and just like it, we decided to walk by the Eiffel Tower again. Then we went back to Rue de Rivoli, finished some shopping, went to a bunch of food places and got baguettes, pastries, water, and macaroons.
Sunday 8/23: We went to French church this morning! It was a lot of fun. I suppose Matthew didn't really understand anything, but he said he liked it too. That afternoon/evening, we went to Parc Monceau again. We sat on a bench and people watched for a while. And then we walked around ourselves. (I know its super blurry, for some reason, when they were taking the picture, it just wouldn't get un-blurry. But you can still tell that its absolutely beautiful.)
We headed over to Notre Dame, and had a lot of fun looking at and analyzing and interpreting all of the different little scultpures on the outside of Notre Dame. Everything is a symbol. It's very fun.
Gargoyles!
We stopped by Sacre Coeur, but since it was late, we couldn't get up close.
Monday 8/24: We basically had time in the morning to stop at a bakery and get a baguette for my dad, and then go to the airport to barely be on time to our plane, and then in Chicago, barely make our plane to Minneapolis. But we got home.
Paris was so amazing, again. It was absolutely fantastic to be there with Matthew, who I love so much, and show him and be surrounded in the language and all the things and all the places that are so beautiful to me. It was perfect.
Thursday 8/20:
Anyway, you get the idea. The multi-colored building on the street is Pompidou. All the colors mean something - as in the blue pipes are AC units, etc. (I just made that up. I don't know specifically what colors are for what, just an example.) It's a pretty sweet building, that houses some pretty crazy modern art.
We then headed to Rue de Rivoli, one of the main big streets in Paris, with awesome shopping. We spent a bit of time doing some shopping, mostly at H&M and Etam.
My street.
I've gotta say, we both agreed the potatoes we ate were probably the best we've ever had. ever.
Sitting on the base of l'Arc de Triomphe
Ok, we didn't eat ALL of this for lunch, but this was the type of stuff (it you can see it...) of what we carried around, and ate pretty much all the time. It was GREAT!
Le Louvre
No walking on water!
No yelling in Egyptian!
And I've thought, and Matthew agrees, that some of the coolest art is just the architecture of the building itself:
After spending a few hours in the Louvre, we went to a nearby cafe/teashop called Angelina. It has amazing hot chocolate, that's more like melted chocolate than anything else. It's a pretty steep price, but so worth it.
We headed back over to the Eiffel Tower. We grabbed a baguette at a bakery (we paid for it too) which we both agreed was the epitomy of good baguette. Crusty, but not too hard on the outside, soft on the inside, and really good flavor.
On the Eiffel. It was beautiful.
Matthew thinking with the Thinker.
Then we went back to Rue de Rivoli, finished some shopping, went to a bunch of food places and got baguettes, pastries, water, and macaroons.
And then we walked around ourselves.
(I know its super blurry, for some reason, when they were taking the picture, it just wouldn't get un-blurry. But you can still tell that its absolutely beautiful.)
Gargoyles!