PICTURES!

This is Hotel de Ville with the skating rink in front of it.


Yes those are rats hanging in the window. This is also the same shop shown on Ratatouille, just in case you were wondering if really existed.


These poster are all over and they are disgusting, there are a few prego women on it. Lucky a lot of them have been torn down by random Frenchies who don't like them either.


My cousin Sydney decided she wanted to be in the picture with Notre Dame in the background.

I was so excited to get some pictures of the Eiffel Tower at sunset!

I think this is now one of my best ones

View from the center

There are carousels all over Paris this one just looked cool with the sunsetting, and the car just had to in it.

I took as many pictures as I could while I was walking by it.

This is the view from the other side on the terrace of a building I remember the name for.

If you look through the bottom of the Eiffel Tower on the other side is the military school, occasionally they will have marches, but I have yet to see one.

I like it ok

Eiffel Tower again

I think the French police are hilarious because most of them wear shin guards!

I went ice skating with my cousins in front of Hotel de Ville. The roof of the building sparkles all night long.

It is amazing if you look in the trees there are a bunch of lights! These lights are all over town hanging across streets.

While we were walking in the rain we discovered the French stock market.

I like to take pictures when people least expect it!

Here is the Palyais Royal with is across from the Louvre museum.

This is one of the entrances to the metro...I thought it looked pretty nifty!

I couldn't understand why this restaurant didn't sound appetizing

Just in case you can't read the name of the restaurant it is les deux magotts!

Grant and Claire in front of Abbaye Saint-Germain

I don't know who gets to sit in this seat but whoever they are they are pretty dang lucky!

As you can tell by this picture lions are mean...this is also a sculpture that is part of a fountain that doesn't run in the winter.

This would be the half of the church that is not under construction the other side wasn't worth taking a picture of.

Here is a picture of Grant walking towards this fountain, very intriguing.

This is a ballsy statue which you can't help but notice when you walk past it.

Paris Walks

It has been an amazing experience so far in France. I really enjoy the delicious bread or baguette as they like to call them here. On Mondays we all meet at the church where our classes are and we have a little devotional, followed by our classes. Later that evening we go over to the director's house which just happens to be my uncle and we have dinner.

At our hostesses apartment we get breakfast every morning and dinner 3 times a week. The dinners are like a project, we attempt to figure out what she is talking about and try to respond properly in French. Most of the time we are unable to find the correct words to say. Thankfully our French class will be starting next week and will help me with my French. On Sunday she fed us smoked salmon, and for those for you who know me know that I hate sea food (the only exception to this is the occasional tuna from the can, other than it never happens). So of course I can not be mean and not eat it so I take a little and choke it down, it was the most disgusting thing ever (if you don't count the young women's activity FEAR FACTOR and I had to drink a blend of water, sherbet ice cream and oysters-but when I drank this I got a prize, with this dinner there was no reward just the bad taste left in my mouth).

One of the classes I am taking is Paris walks and basically we choose a preplanned walk from a book to help us become more acquainted with Paris and the sights it has to offer.

These are supposed to be oil rigs there is another bunch of them located at the other end of this walk, but it is actually a fountain. Also if you are wondering what is behind the oil rigs, there is a huge graveyard.

On the walk we see the Grand Arch not to be confused with the Arc de Triomphe

Here is another picture of the same arch, just at a different angle.

I thought that this sculpture was pretty interesting, because who really needs a large thumb? I guess the French do.

This is another sculpture that is right in front of a large mall.

There were a lot of signs for the Wall Street Institute which helps the French how to speak English.

This was supposed to be another fountain but I assume it isn't active in winter.

If you look back during the walk, far in the distance you can see the Arc de Triomphe

This is my cousin Kate, we were on our way to see the Eiffel Tower.

Here is my official first picture of the Eiffel Tower.

This is the fountain that was in front of the Grand Arch but now we are looking at it from the other side (behind the statue).

Just in case you were worried there is a lady fitness in France. It was a relief to me to find out they had it.

All the buildings in France are shaped differently, it is amazing how many designs they came up with.

This is Grant another student in the program. While we were on this walk it was raining pretty heavily, so he decided to try and escape the rain by hiding in a phone booth.

Once again these are supposed to represent the oil rigs but this time it is part of a fountain!

This poster of George Washington wearing an Obama '09 hat is everywhere in France, along with many articles about Obama.

I believe that this is the best picture I have taken of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe some other time I will try and take a better on if I can :]

I have some more pictures to put on here but I am trying to catch up, eventually I will take a picture of the place I am staying and the other things I have seen so far.

A bientot!

At first glance

These are some of the pictures I took the first two days in Paris.On all the newsstands there are pictures of George Washington wearing a Obama '08 cap or a poster of Will Smith promoting the movie Hancock
This is the pompidou which is a museum right across from where my classes will be.

These are my cousins Kate and Andrew

This time my cousin Claire is in the picture, she is here for study abroad also the other two are here because their dad is running the program.

This is a random tower that I do not know the name of, but it looked nice!

In Paris the main level is not 1 it is 0 so the basement is considered level -1 and if you are on the 4th floor it is actually 5 floors up.

This is the view we had from the hotel we stayed in the first night.

This is what we saw across the street

This is the shower in the hotel room it was a seaparate little area in the room.

The bathroom at the hotel was tiny and the thing on the wall is the button to flush the toilet.

This is me and my cousin Claire on our awesome bunkbeds at the hotel.

I'm super tired

Sorry for the lack of pictures I am not quite over my jet lag...I have taken some pictures but when I went to post them I started feeling really tired so tomorrow after church I will post all of the pictures I have so far. Oh and I got here fine with no delays but my luggage hasn't made it yet. If you ever want to figure out what time it is in Paris subtract 4 hours from the current time in Utah and switch am to pm or pm to am.

Pictures Finally

BARBIE
Owen kept on asking Hayley what she wanted for Christmas and then he would say "I know a barbie!" So here is the barbie Hayley got from Owen! Paiger

This is Owen playing at the aquarium in Sandy. Even though it is small it is still pretty fun to go to.

Paige kept on playing the piano and then clapping after. It was so cute.

Paige climbing around at the aquarium

HAIR CUP (that is what Owen calls it)
Don't mind my fatty face, apparently I need to lose some weight!
My bangs are pulled back in this one

Well this is going to be my last post before Paris. I fly out this Thursday and get to sit on a plane for only 11 hours. I will attempt to put pictures on every day I am there and let you know what is going on.

LAME

How lame am I...if you scroll down a little there is a map that shows every location my blog is viewed from...and here is the kicker nobody looks at my blog! I feel super special. The answer to the question "should I make my blog private?" is heck no because nobody reads it.

I have meant to put some of my pictures on here but I am too lazy to get them off of my computer to the family computer (we are still trying to work out the kinks with our wireless internet). Over the last few weeks I have been working and last week I got a hair cut...pictures will come eventually.

I leave a week from Thursday!