La troisième semaine

Again, this week had some chill times just watching movies on the couch, but also some amazing times.

Last Saturday, I went to watch Aimy dance and came back to read a bit and watch TV. I also bought a device that allows me to transfer photos from the SD card in the camera onto my phone which is super helpful. Sunday I watched the Titanic for the first time. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but *spoiler* Jack's death was no where near as sad as I thought it would be. Too over rated :/ . The rest of the week up until Friday consisted of me reading 3 books, watching TV, listening to everyone speak, watching Frozen in french (which was strange because none of the songs were in English either!) and shopping.

On Tuesday we went to a shopping centre that had a shop called Primark and wow. Overall, everything is pretty cheap but good quality. It has all the clothes, shoes, makeup, linen etc. you could think of so as you can imagine, we spent a while in there...altogether that day we spent 5 hours shopping - amazing! I did buy some boots, a beanie and Cookie Monster pj's. That night we went to Christine and Fred's house for dinner which was cool. I met their 3 grandchildren and had great fun playing with the youngest like I play with my own little cousins, and playing the other two in Fooseball (which I am absolutely terrible in). I skyped my friends (Dana, Jade, Hannah, Annalise and Zoe) that night as well and that was cool to catch up with them! Not much has changed - they are still the same crazy people I left (except for Annalise because I hadn't seen her for about a year and just as I leave, she comes back to NZ!)

Wednesday we went shopping again and I bought two cheap necklaces. I haven't bought many clothes yet because in January is wen everything goes down to about 50% off...definitely waiting until then! I also made a Facebook group chat with my NZ friends and Aimy's friends and it is pretty cool for them to know my friends and vice versa. It consists of Aimy, me, Alexandre, Coline, Dana, Hannah, Hannah, Jade, Leilou, Maureen, Théo, Yanis and Zoe so with this group of people, it is pretty crazy!

And finally, Friday. This was the day we visited the Sacré-Cœur and wow, it was spectacular!

The day was quite foggy however we could still see a lot of Paris. Inside with the stained glass and painted roof was absolutely amazing. Even though I am not religious, I could feel the power and belief people have and have had expressed there in the past. The detail of the paintings were so intricate and the stained glass was beautiful. Once we had been inside and walked around the Sacré-Cœur, we walked up to the top part to see all around. 300 stairs that were in a tiny circular tower later, we reached the top. Even though I knew it couldn't last forever, it was hard not to feel claustrophobic in it! The view at the top was worth it though.

Due to the fog we couldn't see absolutely everything but the view was still pretty spectacular. We walked around the top, took a couple of photos (maybe a few more, hard to say) and wandered back down the stairs. We then walked around a couple of the streets with the markets because the part of Paris we were in was the "Artistic" part. Some of the art they were selling was amazing! Every 10m it was likely we would be stopped by someone asking if we wanted a drawing done of us or to buy something they were selling. The only thing we bought was a crepe with Nutella because they are great.

I definitely enjoyed this week (today especially) and cannot believe it is two sleeps until Christmas! Time has certainly gone very quickly, I have been here for three weeks already. I can notice a difference in my understanding of the language (I can understand some parts) and in my head I am translating more and more English sentences into French. For only three weeks here, I think I have improved a lot and can't wait to continue learning!