I'm home.

This morning I woke up pretty early at Jovanni and Kirstie's apartment, and hobbled my way back to my place with feet that felt like they were going to fall off. I was back at around 8 o'clock and rested until I headed down to spend the morning with my French family at 10:30. This weekend is a special weekend for France known as la Journee du Patrimoine. It is a weekend where a lot of places that are not usually open to the public, open their doors and let people tour them. Beatrice invited me to go with her and Matthieu and Solene to the Ministere des Outre-Mer, which is the place where all of the French Territories are regulated (or something along those lines), places like, St. Bart and Martinique. We went on a little tour of the place, which I found quite interesting. The building was beautiful, as are most things in Paris.

One of the biggest things that excited me today, was when Beatrice was speaking to me. She kept switching between French and English (I'm not sure that if it was on purpose), and it was amazing how my brain adjusted to the language and I could understand it automatically either way. Strangely, there were points where I looked back in hindsight, and couldn't remember whether she had spoken to me in English or French. I feel like that was a major breakthrough. I'm still apprehensive to respond in French, but the comprehension is improving immensely. After the tour, Beatrice showed me this adorable neighborhood that was hidden behind an enormous wall.

This little neighborhood was completely hidden behind enormous walls. My French family is pictured here.

We returned to the apartment a little after 1 and went our separate ways. I really enjoyed spending the morning with the family. When I got home, I took a much needed nap and then met up with Mikayla around 4 o'clock to attempt to get myself a cell phone and then have lunch together. We discovered a great shopping area close to my house, which I am thrilled about. Unfortunately, today was Saturday so everything was super crowded. There was even a long line at the cell phone store, so I decided to return on a weekday and get my cell phone later. We then went to Franprix and got simple sandwiches, chocolate, and bottles of water. We decided to treat ourselves to Starbucks (the first one I've had here, because they're so expensive). From there, we walked to this lovely park that Beatrice pointed out to me. It's not tourist-filled like the Champs de Mars, but it has a great view of les Invalides. Mikayla and I hung out there for quite some time and chatted. It was a beautiful afternoon.

When I got home, I heard the sound of bongo drums coming from across the street at the Champs de Mars and into my apartment windows. I told Mikayla to come back and explore what was going on with me. So I made us some pasta and we headed down to investigate. Turns out, there were two separate groups of people who just decided to play drums and guitars for fun. We sat on the lawn and ate our pasta while enjoying the music and the sparkling Eiffel Tower.

The two of us headed back up to my apartment around 9:30 or 10 and hung out for a few minutes, and then decided to meet up with Jared and get gelato. We ate our gelato by Notre Dame and then decided to call it a night and head back to our apartments. I am really starting to get into the groove of things and it's really beginning to feel like home.