Today was one of the best days of my life. After spending almost two weeks in Paris exploring, sight seeing, learning, and trying to become accustomed to the way of life in France, I was beginning to feel exhausted. Sydney and I had been racing to fit in everything that we wanted to do in Paris over the past two weeks, just in case we decided to venture elsewhere for our free days in Europe. However, a pleasant surpise awaited us. On our long and tired trip home from Versailles on Tuesday evening, we were eager to get back to the hotel and lay down after a long and sunburnt day of walking through a hot and crowded garden and palace. Versailles was so beuatiful and we were so entranced by it that we were stubborn to the thought of anyhting that evening topping our daytime experience. However, as out hurting feet were reaching the crosswalk outside the hotel, we saw someone dressed in an American Flag sweater and started laughing to eachother because all week we had tried so hard to fit into Parisian street style. As we approached the girl in the sweater, it tunred out to be out best friend surpising us for our free days! Our plans of wanting to leave the city quickly left our minds as we we were eager to spend as much time as we could showing our friend what he have learned so far about the city and our favorite spots. The thought of being on vacation in Paris with my two college best friends was so surreal. Truly a childhood dream come true. That night, we got her up to speed about what we had learned about Paris culture over dinner and then found ourselves talking, laughing, and planning our next two days in her hotel room until what felt like the sun came up. I was so happy to see her face, I was not even thinking about the fact that the next two free days in Paris would be two of the most well spent days of my life.

After getting a late start to the day in order to let caroline catch up on some sleep after her long flight, we were finally out of the house at around 1 pm. This was not an ideal start to the two short days we got to spend with her, but we were still quite optomistic. Caroline wanted desperately to take a picture in front of the Louvre where it looks like she was poking the top of the triangle structure. Although we wanred her about how they treat most toursists, she had absolutetly no shame about looking like one. She said she just wanted to enjoy the views around her and make her experience special without caring what other people thought, even if that meant she looked like a tourist. I thought that was a beuatiful way to go about the experience. We made our way over on the metro, first stopping for the classic jambon fromage et beurre baguettes that Sydney and I have been so obsessed with since arriving in Paris. We walked through the Louvre Gardens, snapping way too many photos and soaking up the beuatiful sun that was ever so kind to come out for Caroline. We showed her some of our favorite spots from the week before including one of the little ponds that always has ducks in it, the carousel, and a little cafe we got one of the best charcutterie boards at. It was very interesting to see the difference of the Gardens on a sunny day compared the chilly and rainy day we spent there just a week prior. After leaving the tour of the Louvre last Wednesday, Sydney and I walked through the gardens in the pouring rain. It was so empty and peaceful in there that we did not even care that we were getting soaked. It felt just as magical to be in the Gardens with both of my best friends in the sun as it did when it was empty and raining.

From the Louvre Gardens, you can see The Eiffel Tower and L’Arc de Triomphe, both of which Sydney and I had already seen but were eager to act as a tour guide for our friend. The Arc looked like a closer walk from the garden, so with no help from google maps, we decided to hit the ground running and just see if we could make it there by ourselves and enjoy the journey. As we thought we were getting closer, it seemed it would be almost impossible to get to from where we were because of all of the construction going on for the Olympics. The Eiffel Tower was still in sight so we detoured towards there. As we approached, Caroline kept saying things like, “Oh my gosh! It’s literally ginormous! I can’t believe it’s brown and not silver!” Sydney and I were laughing to each other because we had the same exact reactions just a week earlier. We played toursit once again, snapping way too many pictures in front of the tower but also being cautious towards toursist scams.

After out first two tourist stops, we were ravenous. We decided to take Caroline to a resreaunt that we fell in love with on one of the first days here in Paris, La Petit Cafe in the Latin Quarter. They have the best “Italian Burger,” which has pesto, gorganzola, tomatoes and arugula on it. It is truly a chef’s kiss. After scarfing down our burgers and losing track of time, we realized we were gong to be late for the Seine Cruise we booked earlier that day. We started booking it down backroads to get there in time. We ultimately came in like wrecking balls right as the boat was leaving. This, however, was a blessing in disguise. we stumbled upon such a cute park that people our age were sitting with their friends and just enjoying life. We decided to grab some desert and join them. We sat there for hours and people wtached. As we broke down to each other what we were seeing and what at what life looks like across the Atlantic Ocean, we couldnt help but notice everyone was truly just living in the moment and for themselves. There seemed to be less tension in this park compared to one in America. It was cleaner and had a more vibrant feel to it. People were just minding their business, no judgement, not caring what other people think, and not a single person on their phone. It was all an array of people just truly living in the moment and it was an incredible sight to see.

After about an hour filled with serenity laying in the park, our last bucket list item for the day was for Caroline to see L’Arc De Triomph. We walked over there and took picture in front of it as the sun was setting. We met a group of kids our age from Montreal, Canada. They were just passing through for a couple days to visit Paris on what they call “holiday.” They explained to us how they thought French people were quite rude and since although they spoke fluent French, because of their canadian accent, the Parisians would speak to them in English anyways. I thought it was interesting and comforting to know that it is not just Americans who struggle here with the languange barrier. We ended the day with seeing the Eiffel Tower twinkle.

It was a blessing to be able to shre this experience with my two best friends and it is something I will hold with me and cherish for the rest of my life. I am going to bring home with me to the states a new foudn aoprciation for slowing down to be in the moment, away from technology and people who judge to truly just be myself and live life with no limits. I admire the daily life of the Parisian from what I have seen and although two weeks is short compared to a lifetome. this short trip helped me to grow tremedously in my life path. I learned more about life on this trip than I feel I have in the past year in the classroom, – and I study the human body. It is is so refreshing to see just how many different aspects of life there are and that no matter what, life goes on.