A day in the life...: Versailles

It's past 11pm in Paris and it's been beyond a long day for me and a very long week and so with that, the title for this post has been chosen based off of exactly what I did today. ha. I FINALLY went to Versailles.
I am so extremely exhausted and beyond coo-coo at this point so I apologize in advance for typos or repetition of my days events, but I am enjoying writing blogs as it is a form of release for me and just enough people (hi Alicia) are saying they enjoy hearing about what I am doing (thank you, it means a lot) so I guess I shall keep on keeping on.
AND, i have pictures! lots of them! I will only post a few on the blog so look on my facebook page for more.

I want to start by saying that God answers prayer like none other! As ya'll have read and maybe read between the lines, this past week has been HARD! Maybe I did not show that as much in my posts because I am trying to show the more positive and exciting things going on in my life currently, but man, this transition has NOT been easy in any way. And I did not expect it to be, but it has definitely been a lot more than I ever could have imagined. With that being said, the last 10ish days have been some of the longest, hardest, most exhausting mentally and physically, days of my life. They have also been some of the most rewarding! I will go on the record to say that I am still not "home sick" except occassionally for comforts such as DR PEPPER and I have NOT had a breakdown yet. (so proud of myself for that) But our GOd is one awesome God who loves each and every one of us more than we will ever know and He has been showing that to me through His provision daily. He has provided me with an amazing family to live with, He has provided me with some great friends already, patience (which everyone knows I lack on a daily basis so that is a prayer answered itself), a church, and He has kept me safe and out of harms way each and every time I have ventured from the place I live. And today, I truely feel He showed me such an amazing day! What an amazing God I serve!

Today was the first day, since I arrived, that the entire day has been great! From start to finish. And I needed it! I have spent this week learning how to survive on my own, branch out and become more confident and shameless in learning and speaking French, making new friends, attending a new church, learning the metro and the streets of Paris, etc, and TODAY was the day when I could breathe and just enjoy it all, stress free! My friend and I were able to make our way to Versailles today. For those of you who don't know or just don't remember, Versailles was the home to Louis the 14th (i believe). And that's all the background info I can give you right now but maybe later I will research it a little more, haha, because it's very interesting. It's a huge chateau that semi resembles the Louvre but on a smaller scale (not really actually but lets go with it haha) and has a backyard like none ive ever seen before. I think the gardens of Versailles were the size of a small town, no lie! And I, being the 16 year old that I am mistaken for on a regular basis, had so much fun playing! I met my friend at Saint-Lazare (pronounced Saaaaant ---short a,...sort of like sont) I'm learning to correctly pronounce French words! So anyways, we met at Saint Lazare and headed to the station Invalides to catch the RER (the RER are trains that travel to the suburbs of Paris, different from the metro) to Versailles. It was about a 20-30 minute train ride and then a maybe 5 minute walk, not bad at all. And it only cost 6 euros round trip! Once we arrived I started taking pictures like a tourist, hello, my name is Kara and while I now reside in Paris, I have not officially taken on my duties and am still in tourist mind set so please pardon my excessive picture taking today. Kindly, me! haha. My friend is from Paris so he speaks French and I greatly appreciate his presence as it has helped me tremulously since I arrived here and today was no exception. I'm learning, but there are quite a few places in Paris where if you are a student, under 26 or are a resident of France, you can get in free. Earlier in the week when i attended the YSL exhibit at Petit Palais I received a student discount for being under 26 and today I was able to enter Versailles (the chateau) for free because I am a french student, thanks to my Visa and carrying my Passport on me! woo hoo!!! And this saved me a lot of money as Versailles costs somewhere around 15 euros to enter. Let me just give you my opinion, the chateau was not worth 15 euros. For people who truely enjoy chateaus and know a lot about the french history than that would be worth it, but for me, I was more excited about the gardens and the beautiful weather and my picnic! haha. We quickly walked through the chateau enjoying ourselves but not for too long. Even walking fast though it took us about 1.5 hours. We visited the hall of mirrors and King Louis 14th's bedroom and all that fun stuff. THEN we headed outside. I can't even begin to describe to you the beauty of the gardens, I really hope that one day each and every one you have the opportunity to visit yourselves as its just magnificent. Once we entered outside I was like a giddy little kid on Christmas morning. We eventually found some grass suitable for eating our picnic lunch and enjoyed ourselves. There isnt' a whole lot grass designated for people sit or stand or touch for that matter as its mostly gardens so finding a place to sit can be a bit difficult if you are picky. Anyways, lunch was amazing, but I have yet to not enjoy a meal here so that was no surprise to me. I did however find out that tortilla chips exist in Paris along with the salsa and guacamole I discovered yesterday so now we have a winning combo and I think I can survive! lol. After lunch we walked around and people watched, one of my all time favorite things to do. I have learned that in France since you can't really make eye contact with the people here, they just don't like it, and staring isn't really nice in any country, that if I wear my sunglasses no one notices that I'm looking at them and it makes people watching that much easier. That and people don't really understand english as often so I can talk freely and laugh freely and not worry about being overheard, haha. Free entertainment has become one of my all time favorite things to enjoy here! Why watch tv when you can watch people?!

I am putting a paragraph where there doesn't need to be one but i think your eyes need a break so there, i gave you one. I really would LOVE to ride a bike around the gardens of Versailles one of these days as it is so incredibly huge and you just can't do it all by feet, it takes too long I would assume! And great excercise, right? We went to go check out renting a bike, yea, no! 6 euros for half an hour...no thanks! So we went to see how much a boat would cost and we could row around the lake for a little, no, even more expensive, out of the question. Then we checked out how much a train ride on the petit train was and it was not too bad but the train was petit as the name clearly stated and we weren't much in the mood for being squashed into petit train so we gave up and went to people watch and act like tourists (or maybe I did) some more. I'm pretty sure I don't know how long I was there today because I didn't really watch the clock... arrived maybe around 11 and left around 6pm. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we brought a bottle of wine...2.65 euros for a pretty good tasting red wine and we drank it all! The classy way...without cups of coarse! And we forgot a bottle opener so thankfully a kind waiter at one of the super expensive restaurants in the gardens let us borrow his. I love being able to drink wine in the public parc thing they have going here in France, it rocks! haha. Wine, Versailles, picnic lunch, people watching and doing it all with a new friend...such a great day if i do say so myself! Thank you, Lord!

I was invited to attend this gathering called a language exchange, by another friend I have made here in Paris, and it was this evening, so we left early evening to head back to Paris to attend that. Oh bAAAAAACKKKK UP a bit, on our way to the train station I stumbled across my first "mexican" restaurant, or was it Tex-Mex. Regardless, the menu was whimpy and the prices were sort of high. My friend has told me that any mexican food you find around Paris is usually expensive as it is not common. Bummer. I guess I will learn to cook it often then! So we headed back into Paris to meet up wtih my friend for this language exchange. We arrived in Paris with some time to spare so I decided we go to the Eiffel Tour, why not? I was enjoying a day of being a tourist and so that was the perfect place to go next on my journey for the day. And we could rest on the grass infront of the Eiffel Tower and wait. It started to rain a little by the time we arrived and we needed to head on to our next destination anyways so I took pictures like a good tourists and then we left. Oh, but I did, however, find a few apartments that I would love to live at. How would you like to walk out your front door and onto the parc of the eiffel tower? No big deal! I have decided that the people who live there have got to be married, which means they have to got to procreate, which means they have got to have kids, which means someone needs a nanny and here I am to save the day! My new dream! lol. I will clean your clothes by hand, spit shine your shoes, and even work for free, if only i can live with you! Please let me know before next year, that would be ideal. Best regards, ME! :-) I was always told the sky is the limit, right?

Along the way to the language exchange I learned about Trocodero. Well, technically I still don't know exactly which it is, I have a bunch of research to do in the coming week, but I know you can take good pictures of the Eiffel tower from it. And that there are quite a few steps to get to the top of it. And that there are tons of illegals selling cheap souvenirs the whole way there. Ok, enough.

Arrived at the language exchange and fully enjoyed myself. Did not take pictures but it was a nice atmosphere. It was at a, what seemed to be really nice, hostel that is square in teh middle of a really nice area...I wouldn't mind living there either! I'm sure someone has kids around there that need to be taught english and looked after, right? Free, people love free! I think I will attend this language exchange again as it was a nice small group of people who come together to either practice their french or english, depending on what language you need to work on. I was very intimidated to go at first becuase I thought it would be a huge crowd and you'd be put on the spot to show your stuff but it was quite the opposite. It was about 7 or 8 people who sat around chatting about various topics for about two hours. I met a few more cool new people and then had to head out as this needed to conclude my very long, very fun but very exhausting 2nd Friday living in Paris, France. The next meeting is on Sunday after church picnic so hopefully I'll be able to attend then! :-)

My train ride home was a wreck though. My family still has to come pick me up from the train station and I am failing at doing it in a timely manner. They asked me to be at the train station around 10pm and I sadly arrived at 10:30 at a complete different one than usual. Oh kara! I feel so bad and so helpless having to depend on my host family to get to and from the train station and when I don't know how to work the trains yet or how to know when the train leaves or arrives, it leaves me arriving late and feeling horrible for them having to come pick me up so late! I am not joking when I say I hate Paris in August for their lack of buses running! grrrr! Oh well, I guess this year I will not be spending too many evenings out late, that is for sure!

All in all, it was a fabulous day that has now turned into two as it is now after midnight my time! I'm so glad to be able to share my experiences, good or bad, with you and know that you still love and support me through it all! I am very blessed for so many reasons and I thank you all for reading and caring and loving me! It is one of the reasons that I have been able to make it through this first week of living in a foreign country and its one of the reasons that i miss my beloved country so much.
I will say a few more things: as i post pictures, please forgive the UGLY clouds that are in the distance! All day today the clouds were horribly dark and for no good reason. Any time it tried to rain it failed, it would only sprinkle for a matter of 5 minutes and then stop and the sun would poke his head out again, but nonetheless, my pictures are borderline ugly thanks to the dark clouds. I guess that means I will ahve to go again on a prettier cloud day, oh durn!
Also, I am very thankful for my friend who went with me today! I thuroughly enjoyed his company and I was able to laugh and joke around as if I were hanging out with one of my besties or family from home and that made the day all that much better. It's friendships like that when you know you are good!
And lastly, I am so tired I can't even remember waht else I was going to type!

Here are a few pictures to keep you coming back for more... tomrrow I will do a post of only pictures so be excited!

Goodnight and hope you all have a great weekend! I'm hoping its uneventful and relaxing and I'm looking forward to more bonding time with the kids and worshipping in Paris on Sunday! yay for catching up on some much needed rest and research! lol. LOVE YOU PEOPLE TO THE MOON AND BACK!!!!