Day 6: One more reason why i belong in Paris :)

H&M.

Today, we went shopping for souvenirs and little things for us. :) It was quite lovely, we walked by some of the most expensive boutiques in the world, and it was nice to just look (not.) We walked by the hotel that Lady Di left the night she died, it was EXTREMELY fancy. (The Ritz, for those of you who don't know) Once we passed all the expensive boutiques, we finally got to normal people stores! :) My favorite brown bag from H&M officially broke, so thankfully there was another H&M down the block, so i bought a new bag, jeje (it was a necessity!!), along with a pair of flats. (i couldn't resist, they were calling my name and only ten euros!) I love H&M, too bad it is like NON-EXISTENT in Miami. :/ and you can't even shop online... :'(

Besides the bag and shoes, i bought a few souvenirs for friends and family, and a few more posters for myself. :) That was pretty much my last day in Paris, simply shopping. I'm really going to miss Paris, im getting kind of sad just talking about leaving. BUT...

Tomorrow I'm off to London bright and early. :) Very excited to meet the queen and john's family again. :)

Ok, im off to pack.. :'(

OH WAIT! I couldnt leave paris without buying Vogue and Elle. jeje :)

Day 4 & 5:Live Like French Royalty

Once again i have fallen behind in my posts, its just that we always get home late and i am way too tired to go online and organize pictures and what not. So here I am, writing on the weirdest keyboard i have yet to write on (its french, and i am sure that john would enjoy it ;]) *anyways, back to paris. Yesterday, i felt very much at home because we visited the palace of versailles :) home sweet home!

Today, we went to the Louvre, which was absolutely amazing. I saw La Joconde (Mona Lisa) it was pretty cool. :) you have to stand like 10 feet away from it, and its behind a bullet proof glass and has 3 security guards on each side! talk about protection. I really wanted to see the girl with the pearl earring, but the guy said it was not in the Louvre, it was somewhere in Holland! :/ But they did have a poster of it, so i bought that instead :) BUT they did have Hammurabi's Code (the original) which was cool, it reminded me of summer painting at school. They also had the painting that i had to copy onto the school walls for the french revolution, which i thought was soo cool. I told my uncle that i painted that and he was like SERIOUSLY?! JUST LIKE THAT?! and i said obviously it did not come out like the original! but its pretty decent :D

So, no pictures for this post, sorry guys. My camera is charging. :/ What im planning is having a post of just my favorite pictures of the trip :) so look out for it :D

Day 2 and 3: Nutella and Banana Crepes, YUM!

Yes, i am combining 2 days into one post! Its just that i was falling behind on my days:posts ratio so i decided to cheat a little! :D

Day 2 was an interesting day. We started off with the modern part of Paris (La Defense, it's like the wall street of paris)

It's the only part of Paris where you are allowed to build tall buildings and skyscrapers. It was beautiful. The guy who came up with it wanted to build an arc like the Arc de Triomphe, but he wanted it in line with it and Champs-Elysees. Directly in line. And it just so happens that it falls in line with the Louvre as well. In La Defense, there is this tiny little man-mad pond where if you looked one way, it was Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe and the other way was the Grande Arche.

After La Defense, we decided to go shopping, but since it was Easter Sunday, EVERYTHING was closed :'( Instead, we went to Montmartre, where La Vie Boheme was born. Also the home of the Basilica of The Sacre Coeur

Back in WWII, Hitler wanted to invade France (well he did, but, anyways) so of course since Montmartre is the highest point in Paris (since it's flat), he decided to attack it. He ordered for 13 bombs to fall on and around The Basilica and Montmartre, and all 13 exploded, but not one did any damage to the people or the buildings!! (how cool!) *On Montmartre is the painters quarter, so we had dinner there and all the painters were so cute. Picture Paris in the movies, take out the eiffel tower and VOILA! the painters plaza.

I saw a crepe stand and i was quite hungry, so i bought a nutella and of course, banana crepe which was fantabulous! Our restaurant for dinner was very typical french and the waiters were dressed up in funny outfits, but i was upset because they didn't let us take a picture. They said they were too busy. which they were, but a picture takes 2 seconds.*Once we finished with dinner, we went to the red light district of Paris to see the Moulin Rouge, the walk to the Moulin Rouge was interesting and i decided not to take pictures because it was a little too XXX for me :). To get into the Moulin Rouge is 150 euros (minimum!) Thats almost $300!!


Day 3 was not to bad, quite relaxing actually. We started off with a stroll/nap/picnic in one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen, the park of Luxembourg, which was built by queen Maria de' Medici, who was exiled from Italy, became depressed, and built a "tiny" (NAT) palace with a "tiny garden," which today is known as the park. It's so peacuful, the birds are always chirping and there are play sailboats on the lake and fountains and statues EVERYWHERE! Picture the most beautiful park ever, with people reading on the grass and REAL grass, and that is this park :)






After the park, we headed off on foot to Notre Dame (at this point my camera died, so i saved battery life for 1 picture in notre dame, so no pics of the beautiful walk there :'( ) But Notre Dame looks just like it does in the movies, only 5,ooo tourists and much bigger in person.
Looking up at it makes you feel like an ant :/ But it was gorgeous. After dinner, i saw yet another crepe stand and said why not? So once again, i bought another crepe with nutella and banana. YUMMM!!!

J'aime Paris :)

5 reasons why i belong in Paris (NOT Miami)

1)Beautiful Views/buildings/people everywhere you go.

2)Great Food!

3)PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

4)Appreciation for good fashion.

5)Cheese. (need i say more?)

All Paris needs is John and my life will be complete. <3 (and maybe a few good friends as well. Oh wait! And Charley because everyone has a dog here!)

Day 1:French soft-serve.

So, my first day in Paris was busy, busy, busy. And i shall start from the begining, so basically in chronological order. :) First, we had a typical french breakfast at the convent, baguette with butter and jam ( i had an egg because bread just wasnt enough). FRESH french bread. <3>

After breakfast, we headed off to catch the bus to Champs-Elysees, which was close to the Grand <-- Palais and the Petit Palais. (pictures pictures pictures!) Both were absolutely beautiful (Both were built as an exhibition hall) A block down the 2 palais' we walked across the beautiful bridge of Alexander III of Russia, Pont Alexander III. From there is one of the most spectacular views in Paris (the first picture on top was taken there) We walked across the bridge to Hotel Des Invalides, which was built by Louis XIV as a place to rest for his war veterans. There, we went to the chapel and saw Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb. (from the back of course because we weren't going to pay 8 euros to see a tomb :/)

By the time we got out of the tomb/chapel, it was 11:30 and we were invited to lunch at 12:00 by the head priest of the house back at the convent. Lunch was cute :) thats the only word to describe it. All the priests and friars were so old :D the average age was from 70-97! jinkees!

Post lunch, we met up with our friends again at the Eiffel Tower. The line was UBER long! While i waited, i bought some french twist soft-serve, which i must say is much better than american. We planned to go all the way to the top but apparently the top level was closed due to renovations of the elevator. There was a line for everything! Even to get off the Eiffel Tower. Afterward, we took a stroll down a park and came to the spot where princess diana's car crashed. It was very very sad. On top of the tunnel, people wrote all sorts of notes in all different languages, and reading all of them gave me this feeling of... i don't know. It was eerie, and i have to admit i did get a bit sad.

At that point, our stomachs were wombling louder than ever, so we looked for dinner. We walked out of 2 cafe's because the first was too expensive and the second was closing in 10 minutes! Finally we found this cute little restaurant and decided to eat there. It was about 9:30, and we quickly back to the eiffel tower to see the light show that goes on every hour (at night of course) on the hour. It was quite lovely <3 style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSWVhJpY2tOBr6U4n7cm8CSv8LStt59jX34EX6Bv0etWknEeVrFWW8YfAdBTYp30RxccADpinlSptQjUvbofebP3fRLoJvk_g7S4f8d5Mmwiy3n26JtEG6NC7Q2mlygfWebbXBcoeggqx_/s200/IMG_1208.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323947594363851810" border="0"> Finally, a stroll through Champs-Elysees on our way back to the convent :)

P.S.- I know I am a day behind, but Im busy exploring Paris :)

P.S.S.- The skittles here taste different:/

When in Paris, do as the Romans...?

Our first day here was pretty cool. I got to wear my new coat, although it is a bit big on me it doesnt matter :) As soon as we walked out to Rue des Champ Elysees, my camera decides to die.... RIP camera, no charger for me in paris. :( So here we are, walking down one of the most beautiful streets in the world, and i don't have a camera. I was pretty bummed the whole way down the "rue" (street in french) then to top it all off, we eat pizza? My first meal in paris and we eat pizza? I could have gone to Rome for that. I didn't order anything because i wasn't hungry either way. We had haagen dazs afterward and that cheered me up because i got to order in french. :)
Then my uncle pulls out a miracle!
He says:"there is an electronic store 2 blocks down"
Me:*jaw drops*
Uncle:"Let's go"
(20 minutes later)
Me:*walks out with a camera charger*

yes. :)

Well, that was my first day, hope you are enjoying my trip as much as i am. No pictures just yet, but tomorrow for sure!

Au Revoir

frogs eveywhere!

i thought it was a cute picture :)

(ignore the french suck part, except for john)

Bonjour!

I just woke up IN PARIS! Talk about a beautiful city, many tourists, but hey, its Paris! The plane ride was about 7 hours long :/ UGH! ;) It was friday when we arrived and there is 6 hour time difference. JET LAG! I watched House M.D. (they played the season that is currently on tv back home, i saw the episode with the man holding house hostage, the emancipated 16yr old and the body trainer lady) When we first got off the plane, we had to wait for my uncle to come and pick us up and he took almost 2 hours because the metro is not working, but he made it and we had to take the bus (which also took forever to arrive!! I also got my first smell of a stinky frenchmen. UGH!) The bus ride in itself was really long but i got to see the city and all its wonders :D

IM SO EXCITED!!!!

The convent where i am staying at (yes my uncle is a priest but don't judge a book by its cover! he is quite young and tons of fun to be around) is absolutely gorgeous. I felt like Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame walking up to the convent doors, but don't let the building deceive you, it is quite modern with electronic keys and sliding doors and wi-fi and what not :) I get my own room and it is actually pretty nice. The only if-y thing is that we have to share a bathroom with the whole hallway, but its only us and some other priests visiting i believe (and nuns) but no big deal! It's like dorm life with no studies! This is like my ULTIMATE test for my french II class, forget the final!

No pictures just yet, because all I've done is sleep and shower. I FORGOT MY CAMERA CHARGER!!!

I'm off to walk around in PARIS! Ill post back with more pictures later.

Au revoir ;)

Bonsoir

I'm off to Paris tomorrow with my new coat. 

I'm Excited :)

Twitter :)

So i kept hearing all this talk about twitter and "do you tweet?" and demi moore with her twitter account, so i decided to open one for myself :) On twitter i am catagarcia, so if you have one look me up => Also i might open a facebook account, so if i do i shall let you know ;)


So the scariest feeling i think is being pulled over by the police at night when you have a clean record. Let's say its around 11:00 o'clock, you just got off work, you accidentally make a wrong turn on to a dirt road, and as you start to leave, you see the red, white, and blue light start to flash.

oh no.

The officer is rude to you, curses at you a couple of times saying what the eff are you doing here, and all you can do is shake because you have never been in such a situation... you start to cry...

then you wake up and realize it was just a bad dream! *phew*

or was it...? (muajaja)

Ma Famille

is here from Colombia and it's their first time in Miami. We took them out to Lincoln Road and treated them to some pizza rustica. yumm! It was quite a scene because they looked like tourists amazed at everything here. One of the waiters there had a rainbow of weave in her hair and they could NOT believe that she did that. My cousin and i counted 8 colors. 8! either way i got some great shots of them :)
priceless

Spring Break :)

So now that I am on Spring Break i actually have time to update my blog. What a lovely feeling :)