yesterday was so fun! one of ashley’s high school friends came into town named matt and so we took him all around. we first went over to montparnasse and got some lunch. there was also a little market thing going on and so i got some gifts (get excited!). they had everything from clothes to paintings. and there was a terrific little jazz band playing in the train station!! so cute!
so then we traveled to montemart to see the sacre ceure again. i loved it so i was all for it!! we get all the way up there (this time taking the elevator to the ground level instead of those ridiculous make-you-want-to-die spiral stairs) and have to wait on the boys from our group to show up. so they finally get there and we head uphill to see the church. it was strangely hot (the hottest it has been since we have been here) so it wasnt a very fun walk. but we made it and matt and i went inside. everyone else had seen it already so they just laid on the grass listening to the musicians on the steps of the church. inside, once again, is wonderful!! there was even a service going on so that was interesting to witness. i think this church is my favorite just because it is so precious!
so then we sat on the grass outside for a while and listened to the music. it is so funny how everyone plays american stuff!! the guys we listened to were from spain and they played quite a few american songs. so after that we got up and went to the little touristy stores that are all over the place and shopped for a bit. then me and one of the baylor boys (josh) saw this guy with a table and it was like street gambling. he had 3 little round black things with a white dot under one of them and you had to choose which one the white dot was under. he switched them pretty fast, and you had to be at a good angle to see. this one lady lost at least 100 euros. josh and i tried to guess just for fun, but we were not going to bet any money on it. no way. our other baylor friends were not as fortunate though. they saw another guy down the street and decided to try their luck… not smart. this guy was worse than the one josh and i saw because he would switch them all around, and then when he was finished and you go to reach for your money to place a bet, he turned it again! sneaky!! ashely lost i think 40 euros, matt lost 60, and kevin maybe lost 40 too. they might have won 1 hand, but i think they felt pretty stuid after that. so after that we went back home. we were getting hungry and we needed to get ready for the festival of music. they had been setting up stages all over the city so we knew it was going to be a big deal, but i had no idea how big…
ok. i had no idea what do expect for this music festival… it was CRAZY!!! people were absolutely EVERYWHERE!! resturants were open late (i saw countless numbers of mcdonalds bags) and the metro ran all night. there were just bands on all these little random side streets and it was so fun!! we heard everything from jazz to the police. most of them were good, but there was 1 or 2 that couldn’t even keep the crowd for 5 mins. oh man, i really can not stress enough how many people were on the streets of paris last night!!!! cars were backed up in traffic, people were all over the sidewalks, and the police were ready with tear gas in case something broke out…yeah they weren’t going to play around. people were even jumping into the fountains! some clothed, some not. and the metro stations were packed!!
we walked for sooo long trying to find bands and it was harder than i thought it was going to be. we found maybe 5 or 6 bands the entire night. the last one we found was in a cafe though, and so we all danced and it was so fun!! matt even asked me to swing dance! it was getting late though, and ashley had to catch a train somewhere early this morning, so we headed back home. on the way though, a girl passed me and said, “i have those shoes.” and i said, “target?” and then they freaked out because we were american. then they asked where we were from, and they were from texas too! in fact, they had just graduated from baylor a few years ago! small world!
so we headed home after that and luckily we didnt have to wait too long for the metro! it was fun, but a little too wild for me i think. definately something i never thought i would see while studying in paris!
