#my french work is already multiple days late but I'm getting a french tutor come Friday

[buysomecheese]

Got >:( the beginnings of a sore throat >:(( during the busiest week of this month >:(((

[ashtonsunshine]

Carmo's Paris Adventures - Day 5

St. Germain et trois croissants

We woke up a little late today. Four mornings late, my mother still kept waking me up by opening the blinds. I told her not to do that because it hurts my eyes but I guess she thinks I'm lying like she always does, so I guess I had to suffer, yet again.

We had breakfast and I ate my second croissant of the vacation. However, they were not proper French croissants. They were those the supermarket sell by the bunch that I can buy in the exact same supermarket in Portugal. I wanted a proper French bakery croissant, damn it! Coming to France and not having a proper croissant is criminal!

After breakfast, we ate a crêpe with nutella, almonds, vanilla icecream and whipped cream. As we ate, my mother kept talking about me coming to work here, even after my relatives said multiple times that they themselves were happy that their children were not living here because Paris is too dangerous and not worth it and after me, my dad and those same relatives saying that you need to know how to speak French here otherwise you're not gonna make it. She kept saying You could start working somewhere and maybe then find a job in your area... and I told her, for the millionth time, How am I gonna find a job in communications in France without speaking French? and obviously she goes If you really wanted, you could already know how to speak French. What about those people who emmigrate without knowing the language?. She simply doesn't want to understand the situation. She thinks it's easy to come here, find a job and live like we do in Portugal. Where would I work without knowing French? Cleaning? In a restaurant kitchen? In a warehouse? My English skills are worthless here. Yesterday  we walked past a school and she said that my sister could do some English tutoring here. How is she gonna tutor English to French kids if she doesn't speak French?! Do you know what she answered? I'm tell you what she answered: With will power. Like, are you serious right now?! Also, where would I live? With my dad? In his studio?And have no privacy? Does she want me to ride on public transport for hours every morning and every night and be robbed, or worse, raped? I had to listen to this shit every day since Saturday and I'm gonna keep on hearing it for the next days...

When we finished eating, we headed off to St. Germain. Yes, the St. Germain of the Paris St. Germain football team. 

There's a castle there called Chateaux-Neuf which was transformed into the Museum of National Antiques. It's very pretty. It's not a flashy castle. It's honestly very modest-looking for a castle.

It was being worked on on the outside to clean the stone. As you can see on the picture, the right tower is cleaner that the rest.

Next we walked a bit on the castle gardens. Better saying, never-ending gardens. This is just the beginning, right in front of the castle. Beyond those trees, there's an extremely long walking avenue with forest on both sides that goes forever.

This is the overview from the castle gardens. You can see the top of the Eiffel tower on the right side of those tall buildings.

After that, we went to visit the city centre.

And finally I ate a proper croissant from a proper bakery! 10 times better than those of the supermarket! It was crisper on the outside, and it melted in my mouth. So delicious! I didn't take a picture because I was too busy eating it.

Then, we headed off to the airport. The traffic to exit St. Germain was terrible. Plus, it was 30°C and I had the sun hitting me directly in the car. I was waiting for us to make a turn so the sun would shift sides but we didn't, so I moved seats to the other side to cool off a little. Thankfully, the traffic diluted as soon as we entered the highway.

We stopped at McDonald's to have a snack and I ate a pain du chocolate and had an English breakfast tea. Great tea, I might say. Strong with a dry aftertaste. Right up my alley.

At the airport, we checked how much out suitcase weighed. 11kg. It could only transport 10kg so we had to take out the two packages of powered sugar from the suitcase into the backpack. After that, we went through the first baggage check to see if the backpacks fit in the Ryanair box thingy. We knew they would because we did that in Porto but we kinda had to squeeze them a bit.

Next was the security check. I was speaking basic French with the security people and I don't know how I did it but I did and that's what matters. Guess what happened next. Yep, the goddamn metal detector beeped on me. I had nothing metal on me. I was wearing exactly the same thing I did when I went through security check in Portugal and there the detector didn't beep on me. I wasn't even wearing a wired bra. The security lady told me to step forward and checked my hands with the scanner. She only checked my hands and my sneakers for some reason. Then, the other security man asked me which backpack was mine and asked me if I was well. I said I was very well. He checked my bag with the scanner too. He scanned it on the outside and he scanned it on the inside, and, obviously, there was nothing dangerous in there. I still don't know why I beeped, how I managed to keep it together and speak French to the security people. That was... stressful.

As we were up in the clouds, I had a window seat and throughout the whole flight all I saw was clouds. It was beautiful. We flew by this massive, and when I say massive I mean covering-the-horizon-all-the-way-from-land-to-the-airplane massive column of clouds. It was fascinating. By the time we were descending, I could see the red burning sun shining its last rays of light from behind the clouds the sea horizon and it was the best welcome back I could get.