Fam!

So I know I've been gone for a while, but I have a perfectly good excuse. My family came to visit me. Even though it was freezing, it gave me an excuse to see things, eat good food and perhaps more importantly, make an effort to slack off this quarter. I leave in only a little over a week, so it's about time that I stop worrying about classes and start crossing things off my list. The first picture was taken in Montmartre. There is a beautiful view of the city from the top of the hill and a lot of cute little restaurants in the neighborhood. We had our typical meal (started with a sweet vermouth for me, a delicious tradition that I picked up in Barcelona, thanks Debby). Meanwhile the couple next to us was demolishing a huge block of cheese that was being slowly melted in what looked like a medieval torture device (death by cheese, mmmm). The second picture was taken at the big flea market just outside the city (literally, I was using my city by arrondisment map, and its just one street off the page). Despite the cold, it was still a sight to see. It was like a slum, housing wildly ecclectic collectors. The highlight of the trip was visiting a restaurant in the flea market that featured 24/7, very loud music. This is normally the kind of thing that neither my mother nor I can stand (she's worst than I am though, at least I don't walk around plugging my ears in noisy places). However, it was warm and there, so we went inside. My mom managed to not go crazy, but the same could not be said for the waitresses there, especially ours. She went around giving every little thing to each table before taking our order. We thought she was angry at us (we were laughing at her quite a bit), but when she came over she was like a sweet grandma who was clearly so frazzled she had tumbled off her rocker. The last picture was taken at an old traditional restaurant that our friend Yves took us to. They had Indian style toilets and excellent food. There isn't much of a story about it, I just think I look like a ninja in the picture, so I included it.
I promise I will write about my tour of Europe next time. Sorry for the long pause.
Love,
Violet

P.S. Doug is also here. It's awesome.