Sundays are the Best Days.

I love Sundays in Paris. Even though they make my head hurt because I'm concentrating so hard on understanding the meeting (three hours in french with various accents is a struggle sometimes), it's a wonderful feeling to know that the gospel is the same all over the world.

After our first day of church, we went to Notre Dame because it's about two blocks from the church building (i know, right?).  The inside of Notre Dame is magical. I wanted to sing "God help the Outcasts" the entire time; however, mass was going on, so I couldn't do that #disappointment.

After, we wandered up the left bank to discover the Sorbonne and the Latin quarter, which, deceptively means Latin as in the language, and not Latin as in Latin-American; that was confusing for an Arizona girl like me. Regardless, it is a beautiful part of Paris, and full of a history of things like revolts, angry students, professor/student affairs, etc. Very French. Not to mention that there was an accordion player in the place de Sorbonne- can you get more French? 

We proceeded up the road to the Pantheon, got sad that we couldn't go in since it cost money and it was a Sunday, then marveled at the beauty of the building and the crazy ceilings. I have this new love for ceilings so I'm going to have to have an album of just ceilings in my iPhoto soon. 

 We concluded our wanderings at the Luxembourg gardens, basking in the sun and watching all the adorable French children push their boats around the fountain while some nonadorable French 7 year-old tried to wreck all the ships with his electric boat. Those electric boat people, they think they're sooo cool.

Aren't my friends cute? Anyway. We finished the day off with a welcome fireside at the bishop's house, which was beautiful. He thoroughly convinced me to come back to Paris and live. Sold in one minute. We also were fed delicious salads and treats including CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES which essentially, do not exist in Paris. This is a problem because they are only my very favorite dessert in the entire world. I'm a girl of simple pleasures, and chocolate chip cookies are one of them. 

You could say Sundays in Paris are lovely. 

Love always,

Ems

Friendship

There is much to be said for friendship. There is much to be said for finding new friendship and relishing in it. There is also so much to be said for strengthening old friendships that never seem to fade, no matter the things it's been through. In my time at college, I've realized how vital that feeling of friendship is to me, and more recently, I've realized how incredibly lucky I am to be surrounded by the friends, both old and new, that I have.

We had some friends over for dinner yesterday, and it was lovely to sit around the table and talk about all sorts of things; the feeling of friendship was almost palpable in our apartment, and in that moment, I was so incredibly happy. Then again today,  I sat in the library with a friend and my heart was full of a different happiness that I haven't felt for a while; a feeling of camaraderie and laughter that seemed to fill every part of my soul. When I came home to the roommates that I love, I was once again filled with that happiness, knowing they were ready and willing to listen to any exasperations or excitements that had happened today- I was just as eager to hear of their days. And as I went about the duties of the day, a dear, dear friend called me for advice, and I felt that we were both strengthened and uplifted by the conversation that ensued.

Knowing that you have people who truly care for you is an amazing blessing. It's incredible to see how friends reach out to you without even knowing how much you needed that hug or  that five minute phone call. I hope beyond all hope that I'm as good a friend to those I love as they are to me.

Love always,
Ems

Name Tagged.

Yesterday, my friends, I finally got my name tag.

It was a happy day indeed! Mickey brought them to us at Disney university so that just added to the magic that is the Disney College Program. 

Honestly, these past two days have been amazing. I can't even express how happy I am that I chose to come down to Florida to do this program. There are lots of hard things about it, mainly being so far away from family and the hours that I'm going to be working, but Disney World is so magical. Everything about it makes me want to skip everywhere and I get to spend my entire summer here. What else could I ask for? 

Yesterday after our Traditions hooha we went into The Magic Kingdom for a fabulous afternoon. We spent the rest of our day there and hit every major ride. We are seriously pros at this Disney amusement park thing. Best part of the day? There were two. 

One: getting stuck on Splash mountain for about 45 minutes. Luckily, we weren't stuck on a hill. Man that would have been the worst. 

Two: Talking to our little Canadian friends who were standing behind us in Space Mountain. It was a fine day indeed. If it hadn't been creepy I would have gotten a picture with them but that would have been creepy. 

Also, I was asked to time the line for Space Mountain and so they handed me this fancy red plastic thingy that I had to take through the line. I almost lost it while playing the games that they have in the waiting line of Space Mountain (they are awesome! Who needs a fast pass when you can play games while you wait?!) so that would have been disastrous. Happy to say, I safely got it to the ride loader and they were able to update the wait time. 

 I really love Winnie the Pooh. He's such a classic.

 Below are our two Disney World Novices. Kyle (in the back) had never been to a Disney park at all and Andy hadn't been to Disney World and so they called their parents on the ferry ride home (uh ya, hello, magical) and I just had to take a picture because they were both so ecstatic about how great the day had been.

Training starts on Sunday then it's off to the races with work. 

Regardless, life is great. 

Love always,

Ems

First Day of School- BYU style.

I'm about to buy a hundred dollar online French program (thanks mom and dad) for my French class so I thought before I got frustrated by how much money these darn textbook people are making off all us college students, I'd blog about the first day.

Here are our first day outfits! And no, we did not mean to match... We're just such good friends that it happened.

Other exciting news is that we have plants, and they're named. After fictional characters. Yes. I'll tell you how this came about. You see, we wanted plants for our room to make it feel more homey so Becca's Omi, the very wonderful grandma that she is, brought us three plants. Now, obviously the plants have personalities so it was only a matter of figuring out their personalities and naming them. And then..... finding "Hello my name is...." name tags. So, when we walked into our ward social tonight and saw that our bishop had "Hello my name is..." tags, we jumped in happiness and asked him if we could have three name tags to name our plants. He kindly obliged us, while wearing his Converse All-Stars (which gained him 20 cool points). Needless to say, we love our bishop, and our plants, and our bishop's wife who heard our plant story and had a plant story of our own to tell us. So, I introduce to you tonight, (from left to right) Heathcliff, Javert, and Mr. Collins.

Obviously, Heathcliff is the wild one, Javert the strong one, and Mr. Collins the weakling that we're not sure will survive very long. We love our literature.

In other exciting news, Alex sneaked caffeinated DP onto campus today. We love her.
Looking unsuspicious....

 Inside the BYU bag... So heathen.

And, Becca's aunt brought us a First Day of School package- from the Sweet Tooth Fairy. I haven't tasted anything yet but it sure looks delicious. And greatness of the day, the second counselor of our bishopric knows the owner! Very exciting. 

And here is the most exciting news- I'm not kidding. In our ward social, we played speed dating. As we went around, Becca and I were partners (because there are twice as many girls in our ward as boys- boo) and we got to a boy named Seann. We asked him his favorite chick-flick and he said.... PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. It is possible. And if he were taller, I'd be in love. But guys, it's possible: men can like Pride and Prejudice.

And that warms my heart.

Love always,
Ems

School.

Well, school starts tomorrow. Becca and I are heading to sleep soon because we are super scared slash just tired from the day. We had a wonderful Sunday, by the way, filled with walking around campus and attending our new ward (which we love) and hanging out with our new, wonderful friends named Jacob and Eric during open hall hours. It was a good day. Here are some pictures to prove it to you.

A corner of my desk. Random, I know.

Lindsey, Becca, and Jacob enjoying peaches and Uno.

Alex and I are bad at photos on the front camera.... 

Caroline, Eric, and Lindsey 

The Uno game that lasted an hour... Yes, an hour.

Becca and her tiger picture from an undisclosed location. (She did not steal it from our hallway....)

Let me tell you something, this college thing is wonderful. And BYU, I can't even express how amazing it is- from the beautiful grounds to the friendly people, there is really no comparison. I'm beyond words of gratitude for the opportunity I have to be here at college and I hope to be able to soak it all up.

Maybe one day Becca and I will do a vlog... that sounds exciting.

Love always,
Ems

ps thank Anson Crum for making me post more regularly.... we're exchanging pictures of our college life and it's making me actually document my life. Three cheers for Anson!