I'm happy'er than a tornado in a trailer park!

You can take the girl out of Texas, but you can't take Texas out of the girl. Europe knows that Texas is a big deal. We do have a lot of pride that shines around the world. And were a pretty big chuck of land.

People I meet in Paris hear that I'm from Texas and images like cowboys and guns instantly pop into their minds. Sometimes they are shocked by the way that I talk because I don't have a very thick accent like they expect a girl from Texas would have.  I also have only ridden a horse maybe 3 times in my life. So when it comes to Texas Stereotypes, I only fulfill like 2 of them. Im loud and I listen to Country  music. But just for the French, I fulfilled another stereotype.

I keep telling myself to not spend money unless I absolutely have to. I HAD TO. And I am beyond satisfied with my purchase. I try really hard to blend in the the Parisians because I don't want to stand out as the tourist or the American. That could be dangerous, but this was an exception. I found a vintage store called Tilt Vintage with a lot of reasonably priced stuff, and they had a bunch of cowboy boots! All of them were in pretty good shape and cheap. Heres the store:

 Paige trying on some shoes!

 and me trying on an AWESOME Christmas Unicorn sweater. And yeah, I ended up buying it. Also, Paige and I both bought ourselves real leather, great condition cowboy boots for dirt cheap. Mine for sure would cost around 200 to 300 in the states, so I felt obligated to buy them. I'm extremely satisfied with them too!

 

Yep, were awesome.

I got a lovely surprise on my way to church yesterday while I was wearing my new boots. A bunch of horses invaded the city! It was like a parade! they were advertising for the "Salon Du Cheval" starting in the beginning of December. It's a Trade show of horses from around the world. It was amazing seeing so many horses go by that for some reason I teared up. It was just so beautiful. (I know, I'm lame) It was a reminder that I'm in the beautiful city of Paris with Beautiful things happening all the time!

Heres a rather boring video of horses going by. But at lease you get to see the surrounding area of Paris and the Eiffel Tower. This if right down the street from the church I've been going to.

Thanksgiving with a new family. Thankful for what I get to experience.

I didn't think that missing Thanksgiving with my family would hit me very hard because I know it's just a day with good food and a house full of family members. No big deal, right? I can't decide what is worse. Celebrating Thanksgiving without my family or the feeling that my entire family and all my friends are celebrating without me. It wasn't till I woke up with a "It's Thanksgiving!" attitude and put a dress on that I realized it was a "get all dressed up with no place to go" situation. But thankfully, I did have a place to go. Us Americans stick together and eat together! So we skipped school (because hellooo its a holiday) and spent all morning cooking like normal Americans. My Thanksgiving turned out very warm and loving like all Thanksgivings are. I bundled up a few ingredients for cooking and went to a friends house. An American girl from class was given permission to bring friends over to her host families house for Thanksgiving lunch. Most host families don't want their au pair to bring guest over, but her host family is American. They understand the importance of Thanksgiving. It's just as important as Christmas. It's almost a religious holiday since we take it so seriously. The food is always the best, and I always said that Thanksgiving was my favorite holiday.

We spent hours in the kitchen cooking, listening to music, and talking. We made turkey( just escalopes of turkey. we would have to hunt for our own turkey if we wanted a whole one), green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, and candied yams. I ate my plate full of food so fast and got seconds! Everyone agreed that the stuffing and the candied yams were the two best. They were all homemade and pretty dang good.

Cathy!!!

I love see people I know! Cathy, who is in Prague for the semester, came to Paris for a few days! She came in Thursday night and I just happen to not work that day, so I picked her up from the airport!

For dinner that night, We found a small restaurant at the Latin Quarter that was extremely good! 

 Found this picture online. It was called La Braserade.

Cathy, Me, and Cathy's friend Amanda ate Onion Soup first. It was very good and very French!

 I had Rotisserie Chicken with Green Beans! Cathy explained to me the typical food in Czech Republic. They hardly eat vegetables. She said "a side of green beans? what is that?" because people in czech eat very unhealthy. Good thing I didn't au pair there. I would come home with health problems. I like vegetables. 

 For dessert, I had THE BEST ice cream I have ever had. Like for real! it was to die for. 

 

The three of us exploring the Latin Quater!

I also got a chance to take them to see the Moulin Rouge and eat Creme Brulees at Cafe des deux Moulins. On the way there, we got on the metro with these guys. They were very entertaining.

The view of Paris from on top!

My big moment of going up the Eiffel tower was excepted to be less emotional than I had always anticipated it to be because the glamor of the tower has died down from seeing it almost every day. But I still cried once I got off the elevator.

 About to get on the elevator

Going up!

Almost there!

View from the middle of the eiffel tower

I was crying at this point. It hit me that I was on the eiffel tower.

La Seine

Trocadero

Champs de Mars

Looking up from where I was.

After that, we paid the extra few euros to go to the VERY TOP of the tower

Going up further!

It actually took forever to get up.

Champs de Mars again

There were many posters with history on them about the tower. Mr. Eiffel lived on the tower!

Trocadero again

Me and Molly!

So it was freezing cold and windy. That kind of made our trip short. I would have normally wanted to stay longer. I know for sure that I want to go again at night when it's not as cold. I feel that I need to see everything in Paris during the day and at night. Night time here is a whole new world.

Our next adventure was to climb the Notre Dame! that too had an amazing view.

 There were 400 stairs to climb. I could have died.

 My favorite gargoyle!

 Look an orbe! 

The famous bell! I touched it!

 looking to the east and you can see the Eiffel Tower

 So many tall building so you know that the Notre Dame is super tall

 so pretty!

The next adventure was on a feris wheel! There is a feris wheel for the holiday season at the end of the Champs- Elysees between Place de la Concorde and the Louvre Museum. This feris wheel is pretty much in the middle of all of Paris so you can see everything!

 From far away

Molly and I on the feris wheel!

La Champs-Elysees and l'Arc de Triomphe.

 La Tour Eiffel when it's foggy

 La madeline on the middle left, Opera toward the middle right, and Sacre-Coeur in the distance.