Adventures of Dwee: June 2013

I really am terrible at this blogging thing. I always think I have time right before I go to bed, but no-- I'm usually just passing out immediately as soon as I hit the sack. So, here I am, sitting in the garden of my host family's house in the suburbs of Toulouse (Ramonville, it's called). Trying to take the time out to journal, or else I will forget all the wonderful things that I did and experienced here. Hopefully it can be done in a few posts thematically, before I head off to the land of pit latrines and bucket showers (Africa, I didn't know I would be back so soon, haha).

What happened in between my last "real" post and right now? Well, for one, I finished my first year of medical school at UIC. Perhaps I will save the gruesome details of that for another day, but dang, it feels good to be a quarter of the way done. My first year of living in Chicago was fantastic, aside from the whole school business. The winter was quite mild (yay for beginner midwesterners!) and spring was great. Too bad I am not there for the majority of the summer, since I am traveling right now. But I think 3 weeks of summer in Chicago will suffice, seeing as I will be there for the next 3 years. Ok, more on that later...

Francy fancy pants. I don't have enough money to do fancy pants stuff all the time, but France is definitely a place where splurging is almost necessary. Since I was going to be here for a month long medical student exchange, I decided to leave a few days early and start my trip off in Paris before heading down to Toulouse (which is in the south western region, Languedoc to be precise!) for my research project. Met up with my dear Hopkins friend, Saba, for our jaunt across Paris and down to the small towns around the Mediterranean coast of France. I thought I had it all planned out, haha, but it was so nerve wracking just trying to meet up with Saba at the airport in Paris. Charles De Gaulle I HATE YOU. Worst freaking airport in the Europe-- I can't say in the world, since I've been to worse ones (namely, Africa heh). It was partly my fault that we couldn't meet up at the designated spot since well, it didn't exist. I don't know how people picked other people up from the airport in the days before cell phones. I mean, I had one, it just wasn't activated yet. And Saba, coming from Egypt, didn't have a working cell phone either. It was a game of waiting, and missed encounters and arguing with the info desk lady to try and get her to do a PA announcement thingy so we could find each other in the airport. I swear, if this is what losing a child in the supermarket is like, no... it can't be. It's gotta be WAY worse. But we finally find each other and make it into Paris in one frazzled piece.

We stayed in the Marais arrondissement again, at the same place that me and Jessica stayed at the last time I was in Paris. I love that little apartment, it's just so convenient. And it was nice to see the things that I missed last time I was there... I made sure to bring my running shoes this time so that I would not have any knee problems... so what if I looked like a tourist haha. Saba had been to Paris a number of years back, so we did some obligatory sight seeing, just to brush up, but mainly it was a time to catch up on what we were doing with our lives and enjoy being a Parisienne without doing all the requisite tourist trap attractions. I made a point to schedule in the Sacre Coeur Basilica though, since I wasn't able to go last time because of my bum knee. Although it was raining, we had a great view of Paris by starting from the top of the Montmartre instead of doing the normal walk up to the cathedral and back down. Popped by the Moulin Rouge too... but it wasn't as spectacular as I thought it would be... since the original one burned down this one just seems so much less... authentic.

We wandered around the Seine and walked through the Luxembourg and Tuileres gardens, before stopping by the Louvre for a quick photo op. Definitely made sure we did all the food stops too-- Pierre Hermes macarons, Angelina hot chocolate, which we ate (not drank, it was so dang thick) sitting in the Tuileries garden, admiring the view of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower across the river... I introduced Saba to confit de canard and steak frites, as well as traditional viennoiserie pastries for breakfast. And we did crepes! YUM. Obligatory hehehe. I also went back to Marais to get the falafel sandwich that is so mouthwateringly delicious. Paris was a bit of a blur, perhaps it was the second time around... but here are some highlights of what we saw.