As I was running late yesterday and didn’t particularly want to do that again, I left for school about fifteen minutes earlier. Little did I know that it wouldn’t matter in the slightest…

So, off I go, happily running super early and on time. I get to the station with the last switch and merrily hop down to the train. I can see that it is already here, so I jump aboard with a smile. Then, the doors start to close, then stop, then shake, then open, then shake, then shut, then snap back open. Because of this door fiasco we had to evacuate the train for security purposes. I was still running early, and we had to wait for the next train, so that wasn’t a problem. It became a problem when the next train wouldn’t show up, not for fifteen minutes. There is no other way to get to school, so I along with the rest of the commuters stood around looking annoyed.

Finally, at 8:29 (one minute to get the station, run to school, get dressed, and get sat down–wasn’t going to happen) a train showed up. We all got on and it chugged its way to the station. At 8:40, I was dressed and ready to go to class. I had to tell the management why I was late, and they were all very friendly about it. I was one of three people who were late due to this idiocy.

In today’s demonstration, we watched as Chef made macarons and things covered with almonds. For the past few days, everything has been made of, coated with, and tasted of almonds. It is beginning to drive me crazy. I don’t particularly mind almonds, but I don’t really care for them. Of course, the things that we are going to make in Practical tomorrow, aren’t the lovely macarons, but rather, the almond covered almond cookies. For one of the macarons, Chef made it look like a heart, then we all had to say, “Awww…” as if it had been the most adorable thing we’d ever seen.

So, I came home and wrote myself a list of things that I needed to buy. One of those things was stamps. So, I took myself to the post office in the Louvre to buy them. They were lovely, pink hearts for Valentine’s day.

From the Louvre, I went to the St. Paul Metro stop so that I could go to a store called Thanksgiving. This is an American grocery store in the middle of Paris! I of course, got a little bit lost and turned around at first, so I went the wrong way for a while, but it didn’t matter much. It’s such a lovely place. I read that it is the oldest part of Paris, and Napoleon didn’t renovate it, so it still looks like it did long ago. It is a very pretty place indeed. There was this store called Mode de Derriere, which, literally means, Butt Fashion, but was here a play on words meaning Clothes of Yesterday. It was a neat store with all sorts of clothing you would expect Hollywood stars to have worn in the 1950s.

Then, as I walked around, I managed to lose the stamps that I had bought, but not the postcards. I was rather annoyed, but my annoyance disappeared when I entered the Thanksgiving shop. It was a small store, but rather amazing. Everywhere there were things from America, things that I haven’t seen for weeks like Kool-Aid and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Chocolate Chips and real Mexican chips and potato peelers and brownie mixes and measuring spoons and so many other magical things. And Cheerios! The downside to this store is one to be expected. It is very expensive. For example the box of Cheerios was twelve euros. That is too much. I bought a few things and then left.

I had purchased a bag of chocolate chips to make cookies, never realizing how difficult it would be to find all of the ingredients. Vanilla extract doesn’t exist here, brown sugar doesn’t pack, baking soda isn’t a conceived notion. At the Monoprix, I bought the items that I thought would work. So, when I make cookies tomorrow, hopefully everything will turn out fine.

For dinner, I made chicken alfredo following the recipe from my favorite restaurant, Alfredo’s di Roma. Turned out perfect, but I ate way too much!

Then I went to bed.