Our first guest

One of the things I enjoyed a lot last year was having people come and stay with us, or just meeting with friends for a short while. It's so nice to see a friendly face, catch up, etc. After I had class, Aaron met up with me near the Pompidou and we biked to meet his friend Paul, who showed us his really cool block fighting game that I was terrible at and Aaron beat Paul only 2 times out of probably 20 tries.

 After we returned home, Will came over (he's in town on business) so that we could all hang out. The boys went for some drinks across the street at the cafe in front of the Odeon theater while Trixie and I wrote more postcards and watched the season finale of OITNB. When the guys came back, Will called his family via skype so the kids could see Trixie (see how she's ready for her camera close up?!) The kids can't wait to meet her (they're coming to stay 2 nights next weekend) and they're so sweet and innocent that we had them ask Trixie questions and she nodded (prompted by Aaron and a treat of course) which they could not believe.

I took Trixie to the Jardin de Luxembourg to get her daily park walk in and the weather was absolutely stunning, as if it were a picture. Check it out. I wish everyday could be this nice. I'm glad the rain is gone.

First Day of School

 It's raining today! Not a shower day, but a full blown monsoon day. So rainy that I had to take the subway back home from school. But weather is touchy in Paris around this time of year (I always forget that May is still cold and everyone wears decorative scarfs) I went to Lutece, talked a bit with my old teachers and they put me in B1, which was clearly too hard for me. I tried my best! For lunch I headed over to Les Halles because I could do some window shopping out of the rain and eat QUICK! I got this supreme burger and holy hell, it was tasty. The French know how to make stuff (even fast food) taste good. It was covered in French mustard, so it was nice and spicy.

 After heading home, I bought some post cards and stamps. I remembered the vocabulary word so I felt all smart and French, asking the kiosk men if they sold them. I went to the post and had a conversation with the lady that sold them to me and she complimented me on my pronunciation.

Stamps: timbres

 I hurried home, started writing out my post cards (nieces, nephews, bffs, etc.) and since it was still raining "come use cache qui pis" (like a cow that's pissing) Trixie and I took a nap while watching an episode of Orange is the New Black. I woke up just in time for ballet class (the weather was finally nicer) so I biked over and was so happy to see M. Lazarelli teaching. I always laugh a lot in his class and he even said that my leaps were very good (I'm hoping to improve my jumps so that when I return to the states and start aerials again, I can help my partner out)

 Biking home was legit magical. The sky looked like orange sherbet and cotton candy, as I pedaled past Notre Dame the bells tolled as if to welcome me, the Parisians were all out in their sexy "I'm not trying but I'm really trying" fashion, and the Seine was clear. BTW, here's a photo of our apartment building. Aaron is in one of our 5 windows. It's a huge apartment and it suits us. Aaron was using a hot plate to make dinner which meant that we had to eat slowly and in courses (very French) because our stove doesn't really work and we have no microwave.

 We went out as a family for drinks around the corner and went for a long walk to tire Trixie out. She's way more cuddly here in France. Maybe because she gets way more tired? We live in a 5 story walk up. (The things I take for granted back home)

Oh and this is one of my favorite things in my neighborhood. It's a candy stand that is outside the movie theater EVERYDAY! They weigh your candy, and they have EVERYTHING!

Marshmallow: guimauve

One last thing; we have been getting the most crazy lightning storms. I tried taking photos on burst to try and capture the light and only after about 10 minutes of hanging out the window does Aaron tell me that it's not possible with my camera. This is the closest I got. The sky looks decent, but it's actually after midnight in this picture and the lightning JUST struck.

Damn you, National Holidays

There is no reason for this picture. I just find the pig in it absolutely adorable. And stupid. He's smiling like he's in a hot tub. (It's not a hot tub, piggie!)

I had so many plans for today; i.e. go to school, take ballet, grocery store, etc. I tried calling Lutece first thing in the morning. After 15 minutes of trying to call them and not getting anyone to pick up the phone, I looked it up online and lo and behold, it's another National Holiday. Aaron and I always get burned in France for their holidays. When do people work here?! So scratch school. We then went out for breakfast bread, and since we don't have anything like jam or butter, decided to go to the store first. Alas, store is closed until 10 AM. Ugh! France, you're killing us. We ended up getting croissants because you can eat them sans anything. Took them home, ate, then took Trix out for her park time while I did a run in the jardin. I mapped the run and apparently, I did 4 miles in 38 minutes. I'm going to try and keep track of my progress and see if I improve.

After my run, I biked over to the Hotel de Ville's BHV store and bought a new fan for the apartment since the one provided for is shit. BTW....

Fan: ventilateur
Matches: allemenettes

I love that whenever I go out, I see something amazing like the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, or any of the amazing architecture. I wish NY was older. I also went to the store to buy matches because our stove is gas and we had 4 matches to our name tonight. (Sadly we learned that our stove is just shit and we are now in discussions over whether we should buy a hot plate for the rest of our month here or if we should just eat out a lot)

After our quick dinner, we went to see "Edge of Tomorrow" a sci fi movie. Guess who joined us? Ron Howard! Yes, THE Ron Howard. I actually recognized his voice outside the theater as he passed me to buy tickets. After the movie, Aaron asked him "what did you think? What's your professional opinion?" And they talked for about 30 seconds about sci fi and how much he liked the film. I added in quick that I don't like aliens as they are scary. He agreed, saying that these aliens were indeed scary.

An Encore of Paris

 We're back! Oh Paris, we couldn't stay away. We're here for an entire month this year (only 1 as I keep saying) but we;re trying a new arrondissement (the 6th, left bank) for a different feel and for new haunts and memories. We are literally across the street from the Odeon Theater. This is literally from the front door. I wonder if I'll see Cyrano de Bergerac while we're here (I know the story). I was told by our host that we should go on the rooftop bar and see the neighborhood at night. (Don't you love the weathervane with its N,S,E, and O?!)

 We did a lot of exploring today, checking out the Jardin de Luxembourg which is about a 3 minute walk from our house. Trixie is allowed in 1 section of the park which isn't the part right next to us but if we have a half hour free, she'll get her park in. I will be doing runs in this park. Maybe everyday (It all depends on how many croissants I eat)

 We also explored towards the center of the city and we did Notre Dame to be polite. I was exhausted at this point because we'd only just arrived that morning. But we had to trudge on.

 To stay awake, we started walking around just to walk. A quick stop to the flower and bird market woke me up. I am thinking of getting a small plant while I'm here so I have flowers in the apartment. I momentarily forgot that the word for:

peony: pivoine
hydrangea: hortensia

 It was a Sunday AND a national holiday, so almost nothing is open today. Barely any bakeries (I can't seem to find one less than 5 minutes from my house).

 The Seine was looking gorgeous today and we made it a point to go and sit for a few minutes at the spot where Aaron proposed. It was very nice to sit and look at the moving water, and reminisce in the past 6 years (Aaron liked to remind me how hard they've been, kidding)

 For dinner, we ate at Le Comptoir, a place that we'd been told to eat at LAST year. It had amazing reviews on yelp, so we were excited. I got my first kir royale of the trip! Certainly not the last!

The meal was underwhelming. Maybe it's because the wait staff rushes you which is SO un-French! Maybe it's that we live in NYC and have amazing food. Maybe it's that we just had a bad dish? Who knows. All I DO know is that my oeufs mayonnaise was really "ouefs moutarde". Sad face!

A Lovely Night

 Whew, the whole day went by so fast. We had last minute things to do like filming Lainey and myself carrying our dresses into the apartment, the boys picking up their tuxes, doing our last lesson, etc. In our last class, we learned how to do reverse turns which turned Ben from an ok dancer to a legit waltzer. I was so impressed. I really floated around the corners of the room. We were pretty stoked to get to this ball after class. Lainey and I returned to the flat to get ready while the boys horsed around in the living room. While putting on our dresses, my zipper broke (perfect for reality tv right?!) and Lainey had to sew me into the dress. Thank god I brought sewing materials right? This made us really late for call time. I kept calling Marcus into the room to film what we were doing and Ben had to make me eggs so I could eat something while being sewn in. I am sure that footage will look pretty ridiculous! Once I was sewn in, we put on our masks and did the "reveal" of dates. The boys had shaved their faces and were wearing their penguin suits. Everyone looked very sexy indeed. We were considered VIP so we got to enter the ball early and take some pictures before anyone got there. Here I am with Ben.

This is the only shot I have with our masks on. We look like a team though. The boys commented on how nice our masks were and how ordinary the other ladies' masks were, which made us feel even more special. The ball was very regal and we couldn't see ANY of it because we were so short. We drank some champagne and I know the camera crew got footage so we'll just have to wait to see everything. We participated in the Quadrille which is a line dance, but in ball gowns. It gets faster each time and we were pretty much screaming because we didn't know which way to go. But it was great fun! 

 And here we are post mask. We didn't get to waltz nearly as much as we had hoped. The floor was SO crowded and pretty much everything we learned had to be minimized. Literally, people were purposefully running into other people. Pretend there's no floor craft. Ben was very nice in making sure I was safe, and we both played traffic cop. We even danced some lindy and balboa, though to very random songs.

Most famous chocolate cake, waltz, and driving Jonathan nuts

This morning we woke up, did some waltzing practice in the apartment, and even critiqued the other couple. We even "judged" them with Olympic ratings. Lainey and Jonathan didn't even give us anything above a 7! We then went as a group to cafe Sacher, a famous place for the world's most famous chocolate cake. I was a little wary as it is a tourist trap, but I am an elitist and didn't want to miss out on this. I had read that some found the cake to be overrated and dry, but I was pleasantly surprised and even happy. We discussed how it WASN'T too dry. Yeah, torte!

 We also got some Bohemian pancakes with plums! Everyone shared at the table. We also got special coffee drinks because Vienna has a rich history with coffee (ok, I got hot chocolate)

 We then headed to St. Stephen's cathedral to climb the tower (over 300 steps and I counted them all which annoyed Jonathan so he punched me in the neck) and then into the cathedral. I think it's sad but I don't think we've been in another church this whole trip. How odd for a  trip to Europe.

The roof is the most iconic thing about this church and is the symbol of Vienna. After the church, we went to our first private lesson for waltz and the teacher was amazing. Since we all already had dance training, we could focus on technique, like taking bigger steps, the ladies pushing back to the men like a conversation, and frame work.

After the lesson, we bugged Lainey about going back to the sausage man, had dinner, did recaps (Jonathan with me, Lainey with Ben so we could talk about each others' partners) rehearsals (MUCH BETTER) and Friends marathon! We're all exhausted but so excited about tomorrow night!

Messing up lines and first Waltz class

This morning we were given a choice; wake up early and leave to see the Summer Palace by 8 Am, or meet with the group at 9:30 in town. Since I don't know when I'll be in Vienna again, I got up early. Ben did his intro at the summer palace. It was nice to go early, but again, it was a sight we saw only from the outside. Once he finished and we did our walking segment, we hopped back on the tram to the city center to do my intro….

with Mozart. Since I had told Jonathan that I am a pianist, I really wanted to speak about how Vienna is the capital of music. I kept screwing up my lines and it was really frustrating to me. Almost the point of sending cast members off set just because I didn't want pressure to be good….I always feel like I take the longest time to finish my segments, and Marcus always has to reassure me that I take the shortest time. He DID however have to yell at me once to get me out of my funk. He gets me! We did lunch, then headed over to an ice rink. But it wasn't an ordinary rink as it was more of a track with many different labyrinth pathways. Jonathan surprised us all when he showed off his finesse on the ice. Ben couldn't really participate as it hurt his feet. 

We also passed this bizarre horse headed accordion player. He was really good….and wearing a horse mask. Class was easy, but beneficial for us all. We learned about basic positioning and half turns. I already started to feel like a princess, though dancing with Ben is a little more difficult than dancing with Jonathan due to height. It's nothing I can't work with though. 

On the way home, a sausage vendor who we have seen for 2 days, came out of his "sausage box" and gave Lainey a rose. Jonathan said that accepting a rose is like accepting a proposal. We teased her the whole way home. 

And we were so happy tonight during our friends marathon when we finally stacked Jonathan! We bolted out of slumber and said 'who put spinach on the couch?!'