sara, annie and I were christmas shopping the other day at all of the big department stores. before this, I hadn’t quite realized my weakness for overpriced touristy knick knacks disguised as nicer gifts. I am normally able to pass the men on the street without so much as a glance. but get me in a bustling store with a beautiful enormous christmas tree in the center, christmas music playing loudly over the speakers and the hustle and bustle of christmas shoppers and I lose all ability to say no. there were bins of painted wooden cars, yo-yos, magnets, coffee mugs, and just about every book about paris--all the things nobody actually wants and yet I was like a small child in the chic cheap parisian version of santa’s workshop. I’m realizing now that maybe it’s because I could actually use a credit card here that I felt so excited.

regardless, upon seeing this small snow globe my heart practically melted. I turned it upside down and watched the snow cover the city I’ve fallen so in love with. and as it sat in my hands I had one of those moments-- a moment we’ve become all too familiar with. (it’s been a super sentimental time for us!) I thought about how perfect this would be as a christmas decoration and how each year when I pulled it out of the attic I would remember one of the best years of my life spent in paris. these past few months haven’t only been about the thrill of sightseeing and learning about french culture. and they certainly haven’t merely pertained to taking care of children. I looked at the two girls by my side who have given me more joy than I even imagined possible before I moved here. and suddenly I was crying, and the three of us were in a huge embrace in the gift section of galleries lafayette... causing a scene, per usual. so I obviously had to buy the thing. 

I have met two friends who have been both my residential and financial backbone, opening their doors to host me every weekend in the city, though they’ve assured me if they had it their way I’d be there every night. I’d like to think we’re a combination of everything perfect in life, but if I’m being honest we are all huge messes living in a post college alter reality. but if there is one thing I am certain is that I can depend on these two for anything, the good or the bad-- like friday night when at 3 am annie realized she left her keys at work and was locked out of her house with a dead phone, there is no hesitation to take a taxi to sara’s, even if that means we will be sleeping five people to a twin bed. in whatever we do, I constantly find myself entertained, humored and happy and we have definitely become the annoying girls on the metro, on the street, in bars, at restaurants, who think everything being said is the funniest thing ever. 

two weekends ago we were literally inseparable. we stayed in friday night and cooked dinner, watched christmas movies and spent the night spooning one another on annie’s futon. we went to an amazing pizza place for dinner to celebrate our first saturday night with just the three of us. sunday in church we belted christmas carols together and ooed and awed over the adorable children in the pageant. and after brunch we were dying laughing imitating the phrases we commonly overuse and realized we have adopted one another’s sayings like our own. we got sad dreading the day we don’t live in the same city together and have since decided we’re going to have to buy a vacation home in the south of france together. 

you go abroad with visions of meeting the perfect group of people- the ones who are willing to stay out dancing till almost dawn but are also going to set an alarm and wake up for the flea market the next day, but it doesn’t always work out... I was a lucky one.