HOME!!!

So, after 5 months in Paris, I am finally home!!!

The last week was AMAZING! After finishing all my work, I got to play with Nikki and just hang out and eat and enjoy Paris. Finally, VACATION!!!

Friday, Nikki and I met for lunch at Erwan's restaurant in the 16th, Zebra Square. Lunch turned into four hours of amazing food and hanging out with le chef. Champagne, foie gras, yummy soft-boiled eggs with mushrooms, shrimp dumplings, and sashimi! Of course, followed by the most AMAZING sundae! I tend to steer clear of strawberry sauce (I am a chocolate girl!), but Erwan's strawberry sauce was to die for! Essentially amazing strawberry jam, cooked down and then mixed with fresh strawberries, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and too much whipped cream... YUM! We were full for the next twelve hours, but it was great! After "lunch", which ended around 6:30, we went to Galeries Lafayette/Zara/H&M to find Nikki some work clothes. Most of the stores close at 8pm so we were a little short on time, but it was so fun. We were too full to do anything else, so we called it an early night. Many more adventures to squeeze in for our last few days!

Saturday started with a trip to Giverny. It's SO gorgeous, even in the rain. We weren't there for very long (you can thank awkward weekend train schedules and a delayed bus for that), but we made the most of it! Back in Paris, of course we SHOPPED! We explored Printemps, the fabulous department store right next to Galeries Lafayette that is MUCH less popular than Galeries because it is not a tourist attraction. Well lit, spacious, with maps for each floor telling you where you could find each designer... genius! We went to Pink Flamingo in the Marais for pizza. We had passed this place so many times before, and were curious because the restaurant includes a gutted VW van that is parked out front and seats 6 people at a cute little table. Chic/edgy pizza, mmm! The pizza was great, and when we were done, we went to Harry's New York Bar to meet Erwan and Geraldine. The walls are covered in American university pennants. The Columbia one is particularly old (brown and brown instead of blue and white!) so we made plans to return to Paris with a new, pretty pennant for them to hang! Around two, we decided to head home. However, due to the HUGE amount of tourists in Paris for Roland Garros (C'mon Nadal!), we spent an hour waiting before finally finding a cab. No worries, we weren't meeting until 2:30 on Sunday!

Sunday, we met Soso in the Marais for lunch, then wandered to shop a little and enjoy my last full day in Paris. I got some awesome headphones and a present for my host mom, and was happy to see Soso one more time. After a very welcome afternoon nap, we went to Café le Baron for dinner and drinks, and had these amazing cocktails called Canon Balls: Champagne, vodka, crème de framboise (raspberry), and crème de fraise (strawberry). SO GOOD! And the food was great, too! It was sad to say goodbye after dinner, but I was definitely ready to come home!

On Monday, I headed to Charles de Gaulle at around 10am. By 11:15 I was in line to check my bags, however they were overweight. While trying to get at least one bag to be under the weight limit, the zipper on one of my bags broke, so I had to have it wrapped in plastic so it could go on the plane! With the crisis averted, I checked in and made it to the gate. The flight was alright, rather long but I got some reading done and watched Julie and Julia, and was so excited to get home! Once I got my bags and got through Customs, I saw my parents and someone I didn't recognize hiding behind a "Welcome Home Jaimie!" sign with balloons... It was JP! Because Monday was Memorial Day, he had driven to MA to meet me at the airport! Once we got home, I found Manuel in the kitchen making homemade macaroni and cheese, and preparing for a huge bbq with the Whalens. What a great welcome home party!!! I was exhausted, so when JP left to drive home, I basically got right in bed. I'm not totally over my jet-lag yet, but I'm working on it!

Thanks for following my France adventures! I hope you had as much fun reading as I had experiencing it!!!

Gros Bisous,
Jaimie

Madrid!

After a pre-historic setback, I finally made it to Madrid (with a lot of help from my dad!) on Tuesday, April 20th. 5 days late, but I was there!


Immediately after getting off the airplane, I met my mom and Natalie for paella. Mmmmm... Welcome to Spain! After dinner, we went back to the apartment, watched some Glee, and got some rest. We had a lot of touring to do!

Wednesday began with the changing of the guards at the Palace. We walked through the gardens to the Egyptian Temple, which was given to Spain by the Egyptian government.




We took the funicular across a HUGE park (7 square miles!) that used to be the palace hunting grounds. After a VERY long walk with very few signs, we finally made it to the zoo! Our feet were a little worn out, but we discovered something that Americans have yet to figure out: you can rent golf carts to drive around the Madrid Zoo! One look from Natalie, and we were off on our very own safari.







After the zoo, we went to Mercado San Miguel to get food for dinner. The market is AMAZING! All sorts of tapas, counters where you can sit to have a snack while you're shopping, bright colors, fresh fruit... sensory overload! We got some Jamon Iberico and a few types of Spanish cheeses, bread, tomatoes, and delicious desserts. Who needs to go out to a restaurant when you have this market nearby?






On Thursday, we went to the Museo del Prado and the Reina Sofia. We saw an awesome mime/statue guy on our way, definitely one of the best I've ever seen! At the Prado, we went on a scavenger hunt trying to find the most visited paintings in the museum. Our map seemed to be wrong, so we spent way more time wandering than we had expected, but saw some fantastic art! The Reina Sofia was even better. After a lunch break, we made our way into the building (which is absolutely gorgeous) and had our fill of surrealism! We saw Guernica, which is way bigger than I thought (I'm used to the Mona Lisa being deceivingly small...), and tons of Dalì. They have a great garden in the courtyard, so we took advantage of the beautiful weather before grabbing an ice cream and heading back to the apartment to get ready for dinner.





To celebrate our last night, we had AMAZING tapas for dinner! Three kinds of Spanish meats, tomato and avocado salad, shrimp bruschetta, delicious anchovies, potato omelet, asparagus and egg bruschetta... I'm still amazed that we ate it all!



The next morning, we went looking for shoes for Natalie (WHAT? Natalie wants to go shoe shopping?!), then made our way to the airport. My mom and Natalie left a few hours before I did, so I wandered around the airport, got some lunch, and found a few English magazines. Back in Paris, I re-packed and went to bed early, because on Saturday morning I was off to Charles De Gaulle to pick up JP!

I wish I could have spent more time in Spain, and I can't wait to have the chance to go back. I want to spend more time in Madrid and visit Barcelona, there's so much to see and so many cool things to do! Thankfully the volcano didn't cancel my trip!

Gros Bisous,
Jaimie