Canaries, Jardins, and a Bon Voyage

*You can click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.

Today was fairly eventful. I woke up and did the weekly cleaning in my apartment. The benefit of a 20m2 studio is that it only takes a maximum of an hour to do a good cleaning. Afterwards I had to go to H&M to exchange a dress for a size bigger. I bought it a couple of months ago, but just recently tried it on. It's fine only I have limited arm movement when wearing it. I went to the one on Rue de Rennes. They had the size I needed and I took it to the register. However, things aren't so easy here in France. It's been too long. Impossible. Whether they still have the product in-store, it doesn't matter. I was slightly furious.

I knew that Jasmin, Elisa, and Adriana were having a relaxed day, so I headed to the 5th arrondissement. I took the metro from Sainte-Placide to Cardinal Lemoine. They weren't there. I called and they told me to meet them at this Moroccan restaurant. It was about a mile away, but a good walk. They had just gotten tea, so we sat and talked for about twenty minutes. Canaries flew around all over the place. I love canaries, don't get me wrong, but I was so distracted. They would come and sit by me or land on our table. Strange.

Across the street from the restaurant was the Jardin des Plantes, so we strolled through. It was beautiful! The museum was the first thing we saw. I do not yet know the history of this, but plan to do a little studying. It's a large garden, but doesn't have art quite like Jardin de Luxembourg. They have some exotic flowers that I have never seen. I was so fascinated. After taking so many pictures while I've been here, I've realized that I can't get enough of bees and butterflies buzzing around flowers.

We came to the end of the flowers and saw this massive dragon made out of recycled goods; plastic bottles and aluminum cans. I am not sure of the meaning of why it's a dragon, but nevertheless, it's pretty cool. I want to meet the person that thought "Hey I am going to build a big dragon out of plastic bottles and aluminum cans and put it in the Jardin des Plantes." Now that's an out-of-the-box thinker!

We continued our walk around and saw park benches, a monkey, fox, and panda. Right in the middle is a zoo of sorts. I didn't investigate enough to find out exactly what it was. The greenhouses here are amongst the largest I've ever seen.

We stumbled upon this gazeebo at the top of this hill. It over looked the garden and parts of Paris. There was such a cool breeze coming through and we enjoyed it for about thirty minutes. We didn't talk much, we just sat there.

Adriana and Elisa

"I love my baby."

We headed back to Elisa's flat. Jasmin and I were starving so we went to Champion. I saw a cantelope and drooled. I found the biggest one and then made my way to the nuts shelf. We waited in line for about thirty minutes, no lie. Stores are always packed on Saturdays since a good majority of them are closed on Sundays. When we got back, I cut my melon and ate it all in it's entirety. Afterwards, I resembled the melon that I ate.

Our good friend Crosby is leaving on Monday back to California, so friends were throwing him a going-away party. I hopped on the metro to Port de Choisy, which is the very southeast of Paris. It was so good to see everyone in one room. I stayed in the kitchen most of the time talking. I met some great people. There was a girl from Denver that I talked to for most of the time, along with this guy from London. It was my first Londoner that I have met in Paris. He asked if I could do an English accent. I told him that my cousin and I have done English accents since we were five years old. He was impressed. Then he did his best attempt at accents of all the areas of England - Liverpool, Birmingham (the funniest of them all), and Wales. I also had great talks with Anne, Gabi and Celine's sister. She leaves for Nantes on Monday to go back to university. Oh how she will be missed! After this year, she plans to do her internship, either in Paris or abroad. I've made it my mission to find her something in Dallas. She told her mother and Gabi this news and their reactions went something like this, "TEXAS, you want to go to TEXAS?" Hmmm, that sure sounds like a challenge to me.

The party was great. We sent Crosby off in fashion. We prayed over him and his next steps - going to California, then to Israel. He will be missed and Hillsong won't be the same.