Just a SLIGHT disaster, LoL

So, I was brave enough to hit the streets of Paris solo last night. I was so nervous getting on the RER and the metro by myself that you could probably spot my scared self from a mile away. I was ok once I got my ticket. The guy selling tickets knew I was having trouble with my French, so he made me practice with him! Haha. It was great, until I couldn't figure out how to get on the RER. Thank goodness most everyone speaks English.

So I managed to get on and off the RER and onto the Metro, with PLENTY of help, but once I got off, that is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT STORY. As I'm wandering around the streets of Paris asking people, "Parlez-vous Anglais?!", I'm thinking to myself: "What the HELL did I get myself into. I think I'm crazy." Then out of nowhere, appears my destination: The James Joyce Pub! WooHoo, Thank you, JESUS! I was going to meet some classmates of mine, only I showed up about 40 minutes late, because I got lost and I think I also lost my mind for a second, too (Woops!)

I thought the Pub was the perfect little spot to sit out and enjoy a drink, especially after my RER/Metro fiasco. But NOOOOOOOOOO, it wasn't good enough for the European boys (might I add who are slightly rude, but OK, I can handle it). So of course, they want to go elsewhere, so we get on the damn Metro, again, and walk around for about an hour or so (because the boys, who are like a million feet tall by the way, decide they are hungry).  Found some interesting sights along the way, which totally compensated for...the other stuff.

So the lovely gentlemen from Brazil pictured on the left, were extremely polite. I promised to cook them a MEAN gumbo:) And to my right, well you can see how happy he looks to be in the picture. (By the way, I was later told that the one who brings the camera is the unpopular one. Well Mr.: until YOU are paying me to take some pictures, SHUT IT :] )

Also found this very talented gentleman outside of a pub...somewhere:

Eventually the boys decided on a pub that was good enough for them, called Tennessee. Just a little American satisfaction for me :)

By the time we got back on the Metro and I managed to find my way to the RER, guess what?? IT WAS CLOSED.  So, I'm standing around La Defense by myself, (not a very safe thing to do and was thankfully fussed later for it). Good thing Mr. Ron gave me his daughter's cell phone to bring with me and good thing he called! I managed to find a taxi, which just so happened to be a Mercedes. OK Paris, points for you. So after a 40 euro taxi ride home and an extremely difficult time explaining my destination to the taxi driver who didn't speak English, I finally made it. YES! But it wasn't my fault I was late, it was the boys :)

So lesson learned. Don't trust the European boys. Haha.

After finally making it to bed and sleeping most of the night, this is what I woke up to:

One of the 2 recent additions to the Simeral family...

And maybe half of the other one.

(These pictures especially go out to Sunnie Diaz, Victoria Chiasson, and Emily Pizzolatto, my wonderful feline friendly femme fatales- try saying it 5 times quickly, haha)





But who can be mad at such cute little things?! Not me! So, all in all it was a very interesting night and a mostly lovely morning, after a few bottles of water and some Aleve.

Side note: Don't take shots with Tabasco, and don't let the European boys persuade you into taking them either. With oysters, YES; Bloody Marys, YES (which they make here, YAY!); Shots with tabasco, NO THANK YOU!

It seems to be a BEAUTIFUL Saturday in St. Germain-En Laye, so that is all for now!

À plus tard,

Kristen