le 1er de janvier

Today I arrived at the Charles de Gualle airport around 9:45 and Jessie and the Frenchies - Laetitia and Julie - greeted me at the gate. It felt surreal with all four of us together again in the same spot. Julie drives a golden Twingo:

It's fantastic and they are everywhere in France. We drove to Laetitia's parents' apartment and had lunch there. I only slept 45 minutes on the flight so I was exhausted but the Frenchies were real nazis about not taking a nap. Later that afternoon we saw Avatar. I heard many good things about the film but I felt like there was too much hype, but after seeing it I understand what the big deal was all about. It was sooooo good, the animation is like nothing you have ever seen before, definitely splurge and see the movie in 3D, it's definitely worth it. Later that night we had dinner at Constance's apartment. Constance's boyfriend's friend is a certified pyromaniac and works with fireworks, he taught us this little trick:

1) Take a piece of a cotton ball and squish it between your fingers

2) Take a lighter and hold it near the cotton ball

3) ...et voilà, it vanishes into thin air!

Laetitia, moi, Constanc'es boyfriend Nicolas, Constance, Jessie, pyro dude, Julie

After dinner we tried doing origami. This was the first page of the booklet and this particular folding was considered "easy" but it took us almost 2 hours to figure it out. It was the most frustrating thing in the world.

Almost there...

SO CLOSE!!!

We were really angered that the final product was really stupid.

Here I wanted the Frenchies to demonstrate how much pain, frustration, impatience and perseverance went into making these dumb Poppy flowers....but I don't think they really got what I was conveying.....also at this point it was 2:15 a.m. so nothing was really making any sense:

Here they are with their lovely tulips.