so i'm behind. obvi.

so basically. i am so behind on blogging. i know. l'oops.

i also decided that to make myself feel less bad about catching up. i will choose not to focus on chronological order.

for anyone who cares. posts including my parents came first. they came the week after abby. followed by a week of jared. followed by a week on my own. and now we are here. HI.

one. the reason i am most likely choosing to blog now, is because i have a paper due. joy.

lets start with the parental units coming to paris. they arrived on wednesday morning, i went to class all day, boo, and met them for dinner. my mom, along with every tourist in paris, had her rick steves guidebook under arm. as well as 25 walks in paris. interesting point. she had recently purchased an new uber chic (czech out the multilingualism) bag. it was cross body. and teeny. ie did not hold ANY books. ie we left them numerous places. but got them all back.

while the p-unit was stationed in paris i stayed with them. duh. and we took two day trips. and i attended almost all my classes. woo. i know. so impressive.

day trip numero uno was to reims. champagne. YUM. we went on a tour of a little champagne cellar and of course tried some of their champagne. then of course my mom bought something for EVERYONE and their mom. duh. memories. we walked around the small town, guided of course, by rick steves. ate lunch, explored the ville. and trained it back to paris that night.

the next day we woke up at the CRACK of dawn. kind of. to catch our 8:01 train to bruges? brugges? whatever. the place where colin farrell did that movie "in _________". we walked all around. rick steves informed us they were famous for chocolate. then told us which ones were the best chocolate makers. i would like to know how i get that job upon graduation. "go to this city, and test all the chocolate shops, then tell us which are the top 5". we went to a microbrewery. we saw the windmills. the trip was a success.

side note: reims is in france, while brug(g)es is in belgium. i have traveled on the train between european countries several times and never needed my passport, always had it. they never check. if its within the EU i guess its lax. however. as i stated before (scroll up) i was staying avec mes parents. and i had left my passport at my house. wah. letmetellyou. where we decided to stay, and where i live. SO FAR AWAY. so night after we get back from reims i sprint home. legit. attempt to catch rer. too slow. sprint back to regular metro. meet parents like 1 hour and 45 mins later with passport. ooph.

i just keep thinking, why did i bother, they wont check. we get to belgium. passport never checked. spend whole day there. come back. halfway through train home our tickets are checked. no problemo. hold. "i need to see hayley sharfin's passport". both my parents had theirs with them in the room, it was not issue for them to bring theirs. i had to run back to get mine. MINE WAS THE ONLY ONE CHECKED. can you imagine. my name was on all the tickets cause i bought them. so they needed to see... only mine? once again i don't ask questions anymore. but like. TG i went and got it. for real.

my mom had clearly done research for her trip to paris. even though my parents had been to paris numerous times, there were always things to explore and see. and duh. rick steves was ready and willing to point them out. one was rue cler. a small street near my school that APPARENTLY is the epitome of paris (quote rick steves). who knew. and this cafe, cafe du marche, is the epicenter of rue cler. who knew. definitely not me amelia and hannah. who eat there... 3 times a week. interesting. so we went there, and my parents experienced a "true parisian street".

in addition, my mom had found a restaurant called le hide. we kept pronouncing it le heed. turns out its le hide. interesting. haha. we made a reservation at this small teeny restaurant, and here my parents met dana. please note my parents liked the place so much we went back their last night. and pretty much every email/phone call from my mom proceeded to conclude with: you and jared should go there.

regardless. it was super good. and a super good deal. and the staff was very nice. so yes. i recommend it to anyone. and yes. you need reservations.

the night we went with dana, dana and my dad ordered identically. the waitress informed us she was studying abroad in canada. in ottawa. for those you that don't know. my dad works in ottawa. cue my mom. listing of tons of things this french girl should do in ottawa. one. her first language is french. so she is probably catching half of this. two. she has no pen and paper. but its the thought that counts. she then informed us she didn't like cold. i then was confused as to why she chose ottawa. interesting.

regardless. dinner is going well. everyone is getting along. wine is good. food is good. company is good. we're chillin'. conversing with table next to us. chillin'. something smells like burn. i sniffle. comment. sniffle. that's so strange. it really smells like burn. i do a quick look around. the couple behind us has left. and one of them has effortlessly tossed their napkin on the table. onto the tea-light candle. it is now burning. AH.

i get up. i smother it. ish. it is mostly just blackened and smoking. AH. my dad jumps up to tell the man behind the bar. and french comes out.

like what. YOU ORDERED IN ENGLISH. your first language is english. in times of emergency you are to use your first language. but he does it. the bartender responds "oh, i understand" and that is that. a few minutes later, he clears the charred napkin. no rush. its all good. people, this is france. we are chill here. near fires are just that. near. no need to react.

in.ter.est.ing.