I Have A Tummy Ache (Fall Break Part IV)

OKAY LAST ONE! I'll make it quick! I'll try my hardest! As always, so you don't get left in the dust here, I'll give you links to Parts I, II, and III.


Basically all you're missing on the Fall Break front is a lovely place where you can easily get shipped to a sugar coma.

Looks fancy, right?

The lovely Emily had told us about this a couple weeks before we left for Break, so we got our tickets ahead of time. Let me tell you, this was a nice Day After Disney recovery. This is one of (if not the) the largest chocolate festivals in the world. There's also a branch in New York City in November. So you know. If you're going to be up there for that, I would highly suggest going to see it.

We walked in and were TOTALLY overwhelmed. First of all, there were SO MANY STANDS. People were there to offer you chocolate literally everywhere. There were chocolate fountains, chocolate art, a fashion show, baking demonstrations, phallic chocolate; it literally had everything I could want and more. We tasted a lot of stuff and were a little caught up with eating and I didn't take SUPER many pictures. But I do have some!

This is insane. Like Food Network in person.

That fountain has Rome's fountains beat.

There's pineapple and banana in there. Healthy. Duh.

MACARON TOWER. And tree in the background.

The best thing I tasted there. It wasn't even chocolate.

So we spent a good three hours there navigating aisles of chocolate and goodness. We walked away with only a few purchases, lest we spend all of our money on chocolate. Because, really, who would do that? It should be noted the pictures were taken back in Rome. If there's any confusion.

Strawberry mousse filled chocolate thing.

I just think this is a funny picture.

SO MUCH FUN!

Macarons are the best. If you ever get in a fight with me, buy these and I'll forgive you in two seconds. We only have two left now, but they were SO FUN trying. You'll also like to know that Paul and I chose this specific booth to get them at based on the fact that they have a cerulean one. You can see the crumbs. 

One lesson that we learned here is that if you don't speak a language, you should probs just ask tell them, rather than standing there confused. This one lady called us out on it for having her "making wind at us." But ah well. We learned. She was also at a stand that made chocolate with olive oil instead of butter. It was tasty and better for you!

Wasabi covered chocolate...not so much.

So we had an early flight the next morning, so we wrapped up Paris with a walk down Avenue des Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe because we hadn't seen it yet.

WOULDN'T YOU KNOW? Joe Jonas was in town! Lots of chanting fans! So. We were in Paris with Joe Jonas. Aw. Yeah. ....?

Things have a knack of being crooked when I photograph them.

Naturally, we also went out to dinner that night. More free bread. Salmon. Duck. Potatoes. Fries. Rice. YUMMY.

SO MUCH FOOD.

The night ended with the crepe fairy delivering a banana and Nutella crepe to the most amazing person ever (Emily). Paul and I had one too. It was a lovely end to a break that was so great and wonderful. 

I hope you weren't too bored reading it. And regular posting will come back soon, I swear. Paul's birthday is on Saturday. So I've got prep work to do. But I promise I won't neglect you too badly.

The crepe fairy is AWESOME.

The Best Day of My Life (Fall Break Part III)

I know you're pumped, this is a day full of excitement. I decided to just get it posted faster rather than have you waiting. There's one more post. And then I'll be done. I promise. So, if you need a lot of reading material little refresher, check out Part I and Part II.


So, as I'm sure you'll find wonderful, this isn't going to be a huge wordy post. Because yesterday's was a little bit overwhelming. But here's the post that everybody (read: my sister) has been waiting for. After our lovely days in Paris, we boarded an RER train heading towards Chessy. There was something there that we couldn't wait to get to.

Disneyland Paris.

Now. First of all, let me brag and tell you how great it is to have somebody want to go to Disney with you. And let me follow that up by telling you I got a yes for Florida soon. SO YAY. We'll see if I have any money at all by the time I get back.

There are the men of the hour.

IT WAS SO GREAT. I kept proclaiming that it was the greatest day of my life. I loved every second of it. And I'm not going to go into super huge detail so let me know if you want more pictures. Oh, I have them. I'm also not going to focus on food because we had quick service meals all day, and a lot of places weren't open because it was the off season. Don't ask about fireworks for the same reason. However, that also meant the longest line we stood in was twenty-five minutes at the longest. AWWW YEAH.

First we went to the equivalent of MGM Hollywood Studios. It's called Walt Disney Studios. 

I suppose this is their huge hat.

RAT PATOOTIE.

Front row. Our first roller coaster. You know.

It's not as tall, but still fun to scream your head off.

This is a reproduction of our Roller Coaster Faces.

TOY STORY PLAYLAND.

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!

His first Mickey picture. :)

Mike n' Sully. 

LIVE AND IN PERSON. 

This is where you give the monsters power.

Yes. We for real screamed. The little boy next to me was jealous.

Original show! It was crazy in two languages!

WHAT'S THAT?

My french fry face.

And then. We went to the other side. And I nearly fainted about 4205945 times. Approximately.

I LOVE DISNEY.

I love pumpkins. Especially when they're shaped like my favorite mouse.

Thanks for loving Jasmine, Paris. :)

BAH. Kaitlyn's castle!!

This is the Phantom Manor for my bestest buddy. :)

The villains were out because it's Halloween!

Oh man. It's mini story time.

So, we were going happily along, enjoying our adventures. We decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain. It was the longest line we stood in, but I didn't mind! So we're going through the ride, screaming our heads off at not scary parts. (At the dark part. Just like my Dad. :)) Then we start going up the hill. And then we stop. And then a sad sounding announcement comes over the loudspeaker saying, "We're sorry but our magic can't continue at this time.." IT WAS SO SAD SOUNDING. So we walked down our first stuck roller coaster together. And traveled through the mountain. BEHIND THE SCENES DISNEY, WOO. I didn't take pictures to preserve the magic. But. Of course I do have two cool pictures that not many people can say they have.

Standing next to the train on the top of the mountain.

Aw yeah. Chillin.

Space Mountain. The weather looked daunting. But it didn't rain. :)

Which one of us looks tougher? We didn't get the Michelle treatment. :( Reference? Anybody?

The villain float in the parade!

GIRAFFES.

The princess float. <3

We asked Italian people to take this one!!

This a fake smile on my part. But I digress.

No Space Mountain fail.

It's very difficult to get a picture of this castle at night, apparently.

And that summed up our great day at Disney. We were sad to see it go. But it was so wonderful. 

Were our sad faces convincing?

So there's some pictures for you to look at. I hope you liked it. :)

One more post and we're out of Fall Break and back into my day to day life! CLING TO THIS WHILE YOU STILL CAN. I know I do.

SNEAK PEEK. 

FYI. It's a tad inappropriate for any of you reading this that see me in an angelic light. But it's mad funny if you think of it being in the midst of fancy chocolate in the middle of Paris. So can we set it aside and laugh? Yes.

Go on, laugh.

You Dropped Your Elephant, Sir. (Fall Break Part II)

If you missed part one, you've got two options. You can either scroll down a bit. OR. If you're lazy, you can click here. :)


So, you may recall that I left you with a picture of a certain tower that I've begun a love affair with. So I suppose you know now that we officially arrived in Paris. AND I LOVED IT.

One thing I did not love was that whole French pronunciation thing. Now, with my vast expertise in this area (read: none), I didn't realize how much like a baby I would sound when trying to get my point across. For example. We were strolling along to our hostel when a man holding a child dropped a stuffed elephant. Me, being the kind and loving person I am, wanted to alert them of this tragedy. So I proceed to point and make baby/orangutan noises when I realized I knew not a single word to say.

They retrieved the elephant and showered me with thanks. Which I responded to with a classy seal impersonation.

MOVING ON. We found our hostel, took our usual nap, and quickly realized that a lot of places are closed on Sunday (duh.) and finding food would be harder than we thought. So we stopped in to a chain called Hippopotamus because we I was getting really cranky. Nothing too fancy but it tasted oh so good in my empty belly. (And they spoke English.)

PINK FLAMINGO. Similar to a CocoFrost Smoothie.

Burger. And our first FRENCH fries.

Calmars? We assume calamari.

Bellies full, we realized that we had done a lot of walking and we were frustrated we didn't know any French. Now the rule for this trip was no frustrations, so we pushed on. And then stumbled upon the first second love of my life. I mean. I guess we didn't really stumble upon it. It's hard to miss.

The walk towards it was magical.

WE'RE IN PARIS!

Oh hey, didn't see you there.

Some girls from Minnesota took this. 

Now. If you know anything about the two of us, you know we have a thing for crepes. Naturally, we bought one from those touristy stands so we could celebrate right away.

Our crepe faces. Most attractive couple award. Bam.

And then we decided to sit at Champs de Mars and wait until it sparkled. And take more pictures. Just one more. 

BEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD.

That was the end of that night. Fast forward to breakfast. We ate bagels. From Morry's Bagels and Toasts. One with duck on it without knowing. (Freaking French.) The other one had guac on it. SO GOOD.

Oh Lordy, I missed bagels.

Here comes the story of how we made it to Emily's. BY THE WAY I SAW EMILY AND IT WAS GREAT. :D

Now. We had an address. So we lugged our suitcase to her place, only to realize we had no way of contacting her to let her know of our arrival. Luckily, the windows were being washed, so we snuck into the building. Then we realized we had no apartment number either. So Paul ran up one side of the stairs, to no avail. I went up the left side, only to find two Italian boys coming up the stairs and going into their apartment. I decided that it was completely rational to ask them if they knew my friend Emily. KEEP IN MIND MY FRENCH GENIUS. Let me tell you, it was an experience. It also did not produce results. Random lady walked up the stairs? PARLEZ-VOUS ANGLAIS? UH. ENGLISH? DO YOU KNOW MY FRIEND EMILY?! Wouldn't you know, this lady was on her way to the gynecologist's office and didn't even live in the building.

Who's the crazy foreigner now?

So we reluctantly left, but we couldn't give up. Seeing as our suitcase would be a HUGE hinderance. So we walked to the nearest hotel and begged them to let us use their computer. WOULDN'T YOU GUESS it wasn't working. So we frantically found another one and played the 'we're lost' card. Luckily, this nice man let us use his computer for free. I eagerly checked to see if her Facebook message contained a number. It didn't. So I sent a desperate message, praying we could find her somehow.

THEN. THE MAGICAL GREEN DOT OF ONLINE CHAT POPPED UP. I USED A FRENCH KEYBOARD AND COULDN'T FIND THE QUESTION MARK, SO EVERYTHING SOUNDED SUPER DEMANDING. But we did it.

I tell it really well in person. With the right pauses and dramatic emphasis.

This next part requires a soundtrack. Please play it. Please. DON'T LIE AND PRETEND YOU DIDN'T.

We did. And it was the most epic thing of my life since seeing the Eiffel Tower.

This was for you, Kaitlyn.

SUCH A BEAUTIFUL PLACE. And my great boyfriend let us go inside and it was so pretty and OH MY GOSH. I don't have pictures of the inside, because that would be ten more you had to look at. Oh well. (Note: If you haven't played the soundtrack yet. You suck and have officially ruined my fun.)

AW YEAH.

QUASI, YOU THERE?

Me pulling an Esmeralda for ya.

FIGURE IT OUT? It's Notre Dame. :D

Now. It seems this is a long blog post. So I'mma fast forward and stop at pictures. LOUVRE.

I took a picture of the little one because it's not as loved.

OH HEY.

I made him kiss a lion. I'm sure he loves me.

HEY CALIGULA. Thanks for getting me an A- on my Art History exam.

OH MY GOSH. We're going up.

I watch soccer from the bad seats.

ON TOP OF THE TOWER!

In case you wanted to know, this is what the tippy-top looks like.

Sigh. Magical. Amazing.

FOOD.

Salmon pasta. MMM.

Escargot. (You pronounce it ess-car-got-ssss)

DELICIOUS SNAIL FACES. (They were soooo good.)

CREPES. Know what black pudding is? We didn't.

LAMBN'FRIES.

CHICKENN'FRIES ACTION SHOT.

We also went lots of other places and wandered a lot, but I think you've had enough for now. If you stuck it out, thank you for staying with me. AND THANK YOU ESPECIALLY TO EMILY FOR BEING THE MOST AMAZING HOST IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.

Oh but I'm not done yet. Stay tuned.

Yes. I'm creepy. BUT HOW ADORABLE?

Love you, Kris. :)