Day 45, 2 Days 'Til Spain!

Today. Was. EPIC.  Or at least that's how Amy described it.  Basically, I was close to convincing myself that I could live without doing the last few items on my Paris Last Chance to-do list because I kinda had already done them.  But then, last night, I read a blog post from a BYU study abroad kid and took it as a challenge to do just as well/one-up 'im.  Well, thanks to my good friends Agenor and Amy who acquiesced to my desires, today was one of the best. Days. EVER of this trip.  :)

Just to recap the morning, I'll say that I woke up late, got ready, hung up my wet but clean clothes, arrived to class half an hour late, made it through, ate lunch with Erin and two other girls, unsuccessfully tried to make my Eurail train reservation between Granada and Sevilla (with the help of one of those two girls to translate the German for me), and then walked in the direction of the LDS church building.  I arrived in the vicinity an hour early, so I passed the time by looking in a souvenir shop and happening upon the Saint Merry chapel, where I spent a half hour looking at the architecture, artwork, and writings.  I love the hidden treasures here!

By this point, it was almost rendezvous time to get some genuine cheesecake.  Gabby, a girl I met at FHE on Monday, came on time, but Agenor was late, as I expected, so we chilled with the missionaries who were recovering after a whirlwind of transfers.  Agenor arrived just in time to say good-bye to that trunky missionary I met and wrote about four weeks ago, and then Agenor, Gabby, and I were off to get ourselves some cheesecakey goodness!  While there, Amy found us.  Soon thereafter, Gabby had to leave and the rest of us decided to continue what was to become an evening of adventures.  We dropped off our stuff in the LDS Visitor's Center, went to Notre Dame and participated/sang in a real mass there, enjoyed the Seine, went to the Gardens of Luxembourg, booked it back to the Visitor's Center before it closed, ate dinner (a kebab for me, thank you very much!), ate some crepes grace a Amy (Nutella and banana, baby!), took pictures of the sunset over the Seine, met a Mexican family as we walked to the Eiffel Tower, and took pictures of the Eiffel Tower as it sparkled in the solitude of the river bank far away from the hoards of tourists! 

To sum, my desires were to fully see the interior of Notre Dame, go one last time to the Luxembourg Gardens, and see the entire Eiffel Tower sparkle in all its glory, the last of which I needed to do with friends so as to stay safe in the dark of the night.  Even though the weather threatened to storm, the air was actually pleasantly cool and the gray clouds overhead made for fabulously saturated colors, especially in the Gardens!  Thanks to my wonderful friends, I was able to fulfill my goals and even surpass them.  And I got to use all three of my languages!

And as the Mexican family said, "God bless you!"  He sure has blessed me today, and I know he has blessed you as well.