16 Paris/Amsterdam

After my parents left Tours, I missed them so much I went up to Paris to hang out with them for a night! They graciously put me up in a cool oooold hotel and I showed them around la Sainte Chappelle on Ile-de-la-cité (the church that houses the crown of thorns and is so beautiful inside it would convert a satanist to Roman Catholicism [like a really rigorous order of it] especially if that satanist were a XIII century peasant who lived in shit and muck and little thatch cottages)

I then met up with my friend Shannon, who is studying in Morocco because she is crazy cool and actually speaks Arabic well. She was meeting friends in Paris but got in a day early, so we explored the city and hung out When the other girls from Dson showed up, we made some french friends and hung out with them (one was an extraordinarily bad rapper), and then I crashed at the girls’ airbnb (because they are all awesome generous people who get airbnbs with a comfy couch). The next day we went and saw sacré cœur (the airbnb was in montmartre. Super nice place–I have only had positive experiences with airbnbs, this place left a bottle of wine for us as a present!)
and other stuff, got lunch where I would in Paris at a little cafe and ate in the Luxembourg gardens–I love Tours, but Paris is just awesome.

That afternoon I went to Gare du Nord and hopped on a train with Danny and Sylvie/Janet/“Sylvia” who were both coming straight from Tours through Paris and now continuing on (with me) to AMSTERDAM!!!!!!

We were meeting now-president-elect-of-sigep Grant “thinks he’s real-real” McClure (AKA bam-bam), pictured above, as well as other wonderful Davidson folks. We stayed in a nice hostel (although it may have given me an eye infection. Bummer) and found a fun coffee shop nearby called the Bulldog, which also had a bar upstairs for evenings.
We went to the Heineken Brewery which was fun but can’t beat Guiness’s in Dublin. Saturday night was HALLOWEEN. President-elect Grant (expect a coup soon) and I went as Sexy Lumberjacks
It definitely felt like what I Dutch city would be in my head, but I was surprised by how much water there was–it’s kind of like northern europe’s version of Venice. Anyways, very fun weekend