Kira comes to Visit!!

Madrid, Rouen, Paris!!!
My European Core of Favorite Cities!!!

So, Kira came to visit!!! and it was the MOST WONDERFUL visit! It was the very best treat in the whole world, one that I'd been looking forward to since I even first arrived in Europe. I took the train from Rouen to meet Kira at the airport in Paris right as she got off the plane! We went to meet her friend Lauren... she goes to UCSB (Santa Barbara), studied in Madrid, and spent the whole weekend with us traveling around... and she's fabulous too so it was great!! That day we hung around the airport and caught up before catching our evening flight to Madrid AKA my favorite place in Europe!
Once we got to Madrid, we met our friend Alex from Cal Poly who we stayed with... about half the time due to some problems with his Mamma (senora). But he was still really nice to let us stay with him and his roommates were fun too all studying from the US. That night we went to a Turkish Sangria Bar to meet up with a whole bunch of friends! It was just a few blocks from where Kira lived last semseter, so I'd actually been there before. Nick Manuele (we went through all of Europe with him) and Travis (stayed with him last time in Madrid) who are both Deltasigs from SLO and Owe and Jeal- Kira's friends studying in England who she'd met in Madrid. Complicated I guess, but it was such a blast to catch up with so many friends from all over the world in my most favorite place !
We had a fun time in the center of SOL which is the very center of Madrid and the most fun area to be. There is of course the bear statue, a symbol of Madrid, and they had also put up a giant wire christmas tree. It wouldn't be lit up until December but it got us all excited for the holidays.
The next day we had Cien Montaditos which has euro bocadillos for the most part (euro Sandwiches) with all of Alex's friends, some were from SLO too. Then we met up with Mollie and discovered the simple most amazing thing that McDonald's ever created (and maybe the only amazing thing...) but it is a shot of Espresso in a swirl of soft freeze ice cream. Unbelievable!! We went twice in Madrid and at one point I'll quote Julie saying, "can we just hurry up and get to McDonalds!" Not something you hear everyday! By the way, McDonalds in Europe is so luxurious for some reason with giant couches and really sleek designs. Its odd! But thats the only time we had McDonalds really (ever). We ended up leaving Alex's place and stayed in hostel with all our friends which was definitely worth it. We went to the Rostro (my favorite market place in Europe) which I remembered exactly from when I went to Madrid in the spring. We'd hit up all our favorite shopping too that day! Oh and of course, we ate at El Tigre, where you get free and delicious tapas!! And to top it off, we saw Nueva Luna (new Moon) the Twilight series movie which I am unashamed to admit that I love... though I love the books more than the movies. We had a grande ole time in Madrid and were really sad to see Jeal and Owe leave because they're SO much fun to be around!!!! But they had to pull some strings to leave class in England, so it was lucky that we even got to see them to begin with!


The next day we flew into Paris. We were supposed to meet Nick Bedell and Tim Koning (Brothers in Deltasig who live in San Francisco) at a certain time, but we missed the RER out of the airport and were bummed that we weren't going to catch them! But by some glimpse of fate, we walked into them after getting off the escalator in the GIANT Gare du Nord. Seriously a great moment! We all ran and gave huuuuge hugs before heading to a local brasserie for a typical 3 course French meal. We all had Le Plat du Jour and enjoyed the goofy waiter trying to speak English. After that, Lauren stayed in Paris, Kira, Julie and I headed back to Rouen.
When I woke up the next day, I was apparently really sick... So I went to the doctors and got some medicine. But Kira and I were still able to wander around Rouen, do some shopping, see the cathedrals, have a typical Croc Monseiur (like reverse grilled cheese sandwhich, very typical French lunch) and coffee, and of course, see the spot where Joan of Arc was burned. In front of this spot, I wanted to take a picture pretending to burn, but we both decided that would be extremely sac-religious and probably would feel guilty afterwards. So we refrained and just enjoyed beautiful picturesque Rouen. That night Kira was able to meet all the people from our program in the common room (common room party) which was lucky because I'm pretty sure they closed the common room indefinitely after this night due to the noise/mess. The housing administration usually closes the common room and threatens the international students, but we haven't seen the inside of the room since late November... and I don't think we will :(



Then we headed into Paris again to meet Nick, Tim, and Lauren for Thanksgiving Dinner! It was quite the experience. Nick and Tim scouted out this place called Route 66 by the Bastille which boasted an American Thanksgiving Dinner. The things on the menu were sort of like a Chilli's only way less delicious looking. The dinner was pretty funny. We first got a glass of wine with a dash of strawberry syrup- I took one sip and passed on it. Then we got a "Waldorf" Salad, but the only thing that was waldorf about it was the nuts and the chicken. Other than that, the salad dressing with thick mayonnaise. Pretty weird stuff. The main course was a giant turkey leg, stuffing made out of hamburger meat, sweet potato puree, a baby corn cob, and a dollop of cranberries. It wasn't terrible at all, but definitely NOT your typical thanksgiving meal. The dessert and coffee were actually delicious- a pear cobbler thing, but that's not too American Thanksgiving in my head. Still, we had an amazing time alltogether for the holiday and I couldn't have been happier to spend it in Paris with so many people I love.
That night, Kira and I headed straight to Em J's apartment to see another girl we love! We stayed with her all weekend, wandering around Paris. I was still recovering from my little cold So I took it easy all weekend. We went to the Champs Elysees which was insane! They have beautiful Christmas Decorations up the entire street and a Christmas Market and little children's amusement park with Christmas Rides and everything. The street was magical with the fading lights and icicle patterns. We had some yummy soup a l'oignon (called French Onion Soup outside of France) in a small brasserie, ate baguettes in the apartment, and chatted. Kira's old French Flatmate, Bertrand, from Madrid came in from London to spend the weekend with us and visit Kira. It was fun to catch up with him too since I hadn't seen him since visiting Madrid in March. Overall, it was a great experience in Paris and I'm getting excited just to think that I'm on my way to Paris in just a few short days for MORRRE Christmas experiences. On Sunday, Kira left to head back to Washington DC, and as always, I was sad to see her go. But even now as Im writing this, I get to see her in a few short weeks!! I'm so happy that she got to come and visit at all... as always it makes me happy just to see my very best friend! :)