Since I’ve been home, I’ve been sleeping a lot. For some reason, this trip across the pond hit me harder than usual. I’ve just been dragging. 

Other than sleeping, my week was filled with a migraine (probably influenced by the jet lag), lots of laundry, and lots of face timing with Paige. The International Program at FSU has had many activities planned for them…first they did a walking tour of the neighborhood where Cité Université is located. They learned about the facilities on the campus (like a dining hall where she eats true French meals for about 3€ – such as roast duck!) It actually costs more for her to do a load of laundry (3.50€) than to eat! 

She’s made a group of friends (funnily enough, one of the girls she knew years ago when she used to do rhythmic gymnastics. Another is friends with one of her good friends who moved to Minnesota. She’s friends with her in Minnesota and they just happened to run into each other in Paris. It’s truly a small world.) Paige and her friends have been exploring and walking all over Paris and enjoying the fact that they can drink the fine French wine legally. 

They’ve hung out at Champs dès Mars, they celebrated when France beat Iceland in the Euro, they went on a Seine dinner cruise, went to a comedy show, and she has a cooking class today and they tour Chartres this weekend. That’s just this week. Oh yeah…and she has her French classes too! 

Happiness is locating the coffee machine in the dormitory!

Happiness is also yummy gelato on a beautiful Parisian day!

Making a simple dessert in cooking class. 

When I was in Paris, Paige and I had a cassoulet one day for lunch that was so good. I was determined to try to recreate it when I got home – even though it’s in the upper 90’s here and probably not the best time of year to undertake an all day cooking/baking dish. Still, I tried, and it turned out pretty great. If only I could also manage to produce a crusty, French baguette to go with it…