“Austen in August” and Mansfield Park Part 1

Posted in Austen in August, Novels, The Classics Club by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

I am currently partaking in an online Jane Austen festival of sorts called “Austen in August” One of the main events is a Read-Along and group discussion of Mansfield Park. The “Austen in August” page featured on my blog will store each of my blog posts related to the event and read-along. Feel free to post your own comments or even to read along with us!

Mansfield Park Discussion Questions (Chapters 1-18)

Quick getting to know you Qs:

Was Mansfield Park the first Austen book you read? No
Is this the first time you’ve read Mansfield Park? Yep
How many other Austen books have you read? I have read, in order, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion
Will you read more of them/reread them? I am currently on a Jane Austen spree, so I am in the process of reading/re-reading all of them. Northanger Abbey is up next after I finish MP.
Do you or will you read Austen adaptations? I have not read any adaptations, although I have watched several, but I am totally open to reading some!

Responses to Mansfield Park:

What were your initial impressions of the story? Not just the characters and their respective situations, but also the style and tone – if you’ve read Austen before, do you find Mansfield Park to be very different in any significant ways? Of the three other Austen novels I have read (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Persuasion), I do notice some differences between them and MP, especially concerning the length of the plot summaries and dialogues. The discussions about the clergy between Edmund and Mary Crawford frankly bored me, and I do prefer the shorter and more concise dialogue Austen uses in her other novels.
Going more into the characters now, Mansfield Park‘s inhabitants are pretty universally considered Austen’s hardest to love. What was your response to them through the first half of this story? Do you feel for any of them? Hate any of them with a vehemence beyond that which you normally reserve for fictional characters? And if you try to look at them objectively, do you have any more sympathy (or disgust) with their actions and behavior? I have never read MP before and up until a little over a week ago the most I knew about it was from watching The Jane Austen Book Club. Since I decided to participate in this read-along, however, I’ve discovered how disliked both MP and Fanny Price are, and while I can understand the reasons for that, I do have to disagree (see next question). Yes, the secondary characters are obnoxiously childish and selfish, but after reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, no character, and I mean NONE, can annoy, anger, or frustrate me more than Dolores Umbridge. And even Lydia Bennet is more ridiculous than Maria and Julia, although perhaps not as mean-spirited as Mrs. Norris.
Fanny is often considered to be a very milquetoast, frustratingly passive heroine. Do you agree with this perception of her? Do you find yourself making excuses for her or holding things against her? Or do you feel that Fanny is underestimated as a character? Consider the scene in the Rushworth’s park, as Fanny sits for hours, waiting to be noticed again, while everyone around her seeks their own amusement. Maybe it’s because everyone else in the (real) world seems to dislike Fanny, or maybe it’s because I can relate to her/liken myself to her (gosh, I hope not TOO much!), but I really do sympathize with Fanny and even like her the best out of all the other characters. Although, is that really hard to do? I feel that she is a tiny bit misunderstood: she isn’t able to always make her own decisions, but, due to her personality and the constant belittlement from her extended family, she feels she has to please everyone even when her own will suffers.
“The Play” and preparation for it is one of the most telling and pivotal scenes in Mansfield Park – discuss your reaction to the entire Lover’s Vows storyline: what it brings to light in the characters, what changes and ruptures it causes among them, things that amused or irritated you, etc. Did your feelings about any of the characters change as a result of The Play? How did you feel about Fanny during this whole incident? Would you have liked to see the play – and its aftermath – without the intrusion of the returning Lord Bertram? I found myself reacting in similar ways as Fanny during the play rehearsals: amusing myself in the selfishness and ridiculousness of all the characters involved. Between Julia and Maria not-so-subtly fighting over the affections of Henry Crawford, or Mr. Rushmore’s obsession with his stage time, I believe the rehearsal and preparation for the play is more entertaining than the actual play would have been. Although, right now (I stopped at the end of chapter 18) I find myself worried over Lord Bertram’s reaction, not for the other characters, but mainly for Fanny since she had finally and unwittingly given in to reading lines.
Many of the relationships we’ve been introduced to so far are very contentious: Maria and Julia, sometimes Tom and Edmund, Mrs Norris and everybody. And in fact, the story starts with a rift in the family. What do you make of the “friendships” and family dynamics in the story, and of the changes wrought by the entrance of the Crawfords? Everyone is selfish, even Edmund and Fanny at times (not wanting to help out with the play–was her motive due to embarassment or values?). At one point Mary and Mrs. Grant are discussing Henry’s relationship with Maria, and instead of being concerned for Maria’s reputation and engagement (they don’t have the slightest problem reprimanding her behind her back, however), they are entirely concerned about Henry’s happiness. This upset me since they both know Henry to be a flirt, and instead of reprimanding his actions they try and spare his feelings or possible broken heart.
Is there anything else you’d like to talk about from Volume One? Here’s an example of why I sympathize with Fanny: How would any girl feel about having to play audience while her crush and competition confess love for one another, even if it is just rehearsal for a play? We all know that this play is more than just an act…

5Aug2013

Greater Things Are Yet To Come: Connect 2013

Posted in Faith, Travel by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Last month, Matt and I were blessed to be able to attend an annual SfC (Students for Christ) conference in Germany called Connect. Before I write anything else, let me just say that our lives were changed. I have been to two other types of conferences before (Clarity and SALT) and neither one had that much impact on my life. The conference is aptly named Connect because that’s all I did: I connected with God and I connected with people.

On our way to Germany!

Let me start with how I connected with people. Now normally I am rather introverted around new people, especially in large group gatherings when I don’t have any close friends nearby. Before we even packed for Connect, though, I had started praying for God to help me really meet and get to know people. I did not want to spend any time hiding out in my room or only staying around the group I came with, and God radically answered my prayers because at every meal, in every workshop and meeting, and in-between every service, I sat with, talked with, played sports with, and generally spent time with people I had never met before arriving in Germany. And it was INCREDIBLE. I made some sincere relationships with missionaries and students from all across Europe and I am already looking forward to meeting up with them again next summer!

A FEW of us getting excited about playing Ultimate Frisbee (there were at least 20 other people playing with us as well)!

Connecting with God was obviously something I was expecting to experience, yet I was surprised at how HE continued to connect with ME after leaving the conference (I’m still amazed at how surprising God can be–He’s ALWAYS doing the unexpected in my life). The biggest “take home” I got from Connect was the desire to be a prayer warrior. This wasn’t even a desire I realized had been developing in my heart until after I was almost home, yet when I think back on all the different services, I see a common theme of prayer emerging.

The last morning worship was led by the children’s ministry!

One speaker really touched my heart as he shared his passion for ministering to peoples in Afghanistan, and how it is essential for a ministry to have a prayer network. Before listening to him speak, I knew nothing about Afghanistan, besides the media-induced stereotypes that had influenced me to dislike it. Now, I know in what areas to be praying for Afghanistan, its peoples, and it’s missionaries…but more than that, I now have a desire to pray for those things.

Prayer for the Nations

One night was spent praying for the nations, and I experienced something I still don’t understand. There were flags from every country represented at the conference spread across the meeting room floor: flags from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas. We were encouraged to first pray for the countries we were currently living in, and so I began praying for France but all along I had this desire to go pray for the U.S. When I finally walked over to my country’s flag, I was overcome with intense emotion and I began weeping before I could even sit down. I still don’t understand why, but I experienced the same emotions with a few other countries as well.

Me–before the prayer time–posing with the American flag.

On the last day we broke off into our individual countries and talked about our personal experiences with God and with others during the conference, and then we discussed our plans for the coming school year. One thing I was really excited about is a potential SfC France retreat, when the different SfC groups across France will get together–we have groups in Paris, Grenoble, Toulouse, and Marseille.

The French teams–with a few absent.

Silly pose!

Overall I am extremely grateful to have attended Connect. It was incredibly hard for me to say goodbye to all the friends we had made during our week and a half there, but as I said before, God has continued to speak to me about my trip. He has influenced me to pray fervently for all the students and missionaries I connected with, and I have decided to make a prayer map to encourage me to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Our American friend (currently living in Germany) Taylor whom we hit it off with the very first night at Connect!

Our Spanish friend Carolina! We laughed so much with her!

A large group shot of most of the students on the last night.

I can’t wait to go back next summer!!!!

10Jun2013

May in Grenoble, or “Why is it still winter?”

Posted in France by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Well, I recently wrote about why I didn’t enjoy April here, because of the cold, windy, and rainy weather. It turns out that May was exactly the same, only weirder, because we also had snow and hail. In May.

Fresh snow on May 25th, and this isn’t even that high!

More snow…

But now it is June and, even though it has been raining nearly every evening, we officially have warm weather! And our back yard was finished last week: the dirt was leveled, they put in some stairs as well as dividing fences between each apartment, and now the grass is starting to spring up, so soon Solo will be able to play around out there. And it won’t matter how early he wants to go pee in the morning, I’ll just have to open the door. Last week we even had our first cook-out of the year!

Instagram picture of our homemade burgers and sweet potato fries!

Last month we also went on a camping trip with Remix to celebrate one of the many holidays/long weekends they have here in France. I have been wanting to go camping for months now, and the weather actually stayed decent, even if it there was a light shower.

At this camping trip Matt happened to be the only French person there! Most of Remix is made up of internationals, like Stephie (intern from Germany), Dora (student from Hungary), and Bethany (XA pastor visiting from Ohio).

Solo loves camping too!

On the camping trip we had a Croquet tournament. Yes, I get excited about things like that, and especially since I came from behind (twice) and got 2nd overall! And also, I’m proud of things like that. I haven’t played croquet in over ten years, and even back then I was horrible. But it’s a fun yard game to play and Matt and I are looking to buy a croquet set of our own to play at the park or at his parents’ house this summer.

This was the first wicket and this is where everyone passed me while I failed miserably to make it through. But I had my comeback eventually.

More croquet…

Artsy shot…

Matt played, too, when he wasn’t keeping Solo from chasing after the balls.

Besides our exciting croquet tournament, we also went on a hike which was lovely. We made it to this local museum where I swear The Sound of Music could have been filmed.

I just feel like running towards the camera…

And again… Also, this was next to a museum for a monastery, how fitting.

: )

Cave “exploring”

And this was priceless:

This must be Darth Vader’s summer mountain house.

So now it’s June and our summer is full with lots of fun activities, the biggest one being that we’re spending 10 days in Germany for an SFC (Students for Christ) conference! More on that next month.

26Apr2013

Why I Don’t Like April

Posted in France by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

In my last post, I talked about how last weekend Matt and I wanted to go hiking and maybe do some “crafts” for the home. Well…it rained. All week it was sunny and hot and then the weekend rolls around and it’s cold, foggy, and rainy outside. And today I wake up to a light drizzle again! This time it’s supposed to rain most of next week, too. The weather app on my phone is looking bleak…

But Matt tells me this is how April is here. A random cycle of hot sunny days, foggy rainy ones, and snow! Yay. I live for the few days that feel like spring…but at least there are flowers everywhere! Except for that tree I loved. It’s full of leaves now.

Some things we’ve been up to lately: I’m still babysitting my 19-month old niece and she has entered the “No” phase! But overall she’s a good baby, and she tells you exactly what she wants so it’s not so bad! She has also started telling Solo to stay, assieds (sit), and au pied (heel)! She has even told her dad to stay!!! Also, we saw Iron Man 3 the other night (IN ENGLISH!) and I loved it. You Americans will have to go see it next week!

So, to make up for this yucky weather, I’m going to post a “glamour shoot” I did with Solo two weeks ago. Enjoy!

He really dislikes being in the sun, so this was him posing under a tree, with some leaf stuck in his teeth.

Our mountain pup “in the meadow”

Fun fact: there are two soccer fields at this park (you can see the more professional one in the back), and Solo is terrified of the games…something about the whistling and all of the people yelling and running around. I’m sure Matt has something to do with this since he, too, hates soccer…

And this is his “Ok, no more pictures!” pose

Love this view!

Not a cloud in the sky…

15Apr2013

Life in St. Ismier!

Posted in France, Married Life by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

So…I’m horrible at blogging, or at least I’m horrible at keeping up with it. I know it’s been 2 months since my last post, but FINALLY, here are some pictures from our new apartment (disclaimer: Solo photo bombed most of these pictures):

Let’s start with the terrace! There’s not much out there, but I absolutely love being able to read outside and put the laundry out to dry (it’s funny how I used to hate when my dad made us hang out laundry outside when I was younger…now I prefer it). And I know Solo loves laying out there, too.

I just love being able to keep these doors open all day! It will look even lovelier outside once the grass is put it.

Our little camping chairs… When we have the money, we’re going to buy a wooden table and chairs to stick out here for summer barbecues!!

Our neighbors on the other side of the terrace also have a dog, and he likes to bark and get Solo riled up.

And this is our view! Of course it will look much prettier after they install the grass, but it’s already MUCH better than the view from our last apartment (and it’s also much quieter out here too!)

Next, the kitchen:

I love the lights under the cabinets, but they get HOT! I’ve burned myself a couple of times while trying to turn them off.

The messier side of our kitchen, with the bag of recyclables I still need to take out. Also featured is artwork from our 18-month-old niece.

The living room:

I have been longing for a red couch for years! I was unbelievably excited when Matt brought this one home, and it came with an ottoman that we can store all of our DVDs in.

Our entertainment center is currently working as a shelf, until we’re able to afford a TV. And for anyone wondering, I did have my tea and chocolate right after taking these photos.

Solo insisted on being apart of this picture. This is part of our living room/entry way. Fun fact: those two wicker chairs, which we plan on painting this weekend, belonged to Matt’s great-grandmother! We pretty much placed make-shift pillows on them, ha!

Another view of the hallway. I just love Solo’s creepiness here…

The entryway, featuring a hopeful puppy: “Are ya gonna take me out now?!”

The bathroom:

Although it’s hard to tell in these pictures, our bathroom is pretty large. And it’s “American-styled,” meaning the toilet is with the shower. And yes, there are Mickey/Minnie accents in every single room.

I just love that our bathroom airs out after every shower. Our last bathroom had no ventilation, so it smelled like a humid locker room all the time (but more like a ladies locker room as opposed to a football team’s).

This is Solo’s corner. He literally whined at me because he wasn’t in the pictures, so I had to snap this one to satisfy him.

And lastly, our bedroom. I still have some decorative things to put up on the wall above the bed, but I’ll save that for another time:

Our bedroom is very spacious, also, but it was hard to show that with the pictures. Here’s the view from our bedroom door.

The bedroom and some of Matt’s clothes. When we first moved in he had all of his shirts hanging up on that rack and early one morning, just after he left for work, the entire thing fell on top of me in my sleep. Now all of his shirts are in the closet with my clothes…
And before anyone starts freaking out, yes that is a baby crib and changing table. It’s for when I babysit my niece, not for our baby that we didn’t tell you about (there’s no baby on the way!).

Of course Solo had to get into this picture, too. And, while I was uploading these pictures from the bedroom, Matt came home, grabbed a drink, and then proceeded to spill it on the bed while he was sitting next to me. So, it’s back to the flowery comforter…

And here is the view from our bedroom window:

It’s not the best view of the mountains, but I’ll take it! And look at that treeeeee! Those cherry blossom trees are all over our neighborhood.

Yes, that is a ski station!

I’ve already told Matt that one day we will have a nice, large yard and these trees in front of every window!

We still have some things to do around here, like paint our coffee table and our two wicker chairs, and hopefully, now that it is officially spring, the grass will be put in soon!!! I am incredibly excited about that, and about grilling hamburgers and eating on our future patio furniture. My mom sent me some herb seeds so sometime this week I will also be planting those! I have always wanted a little garden, and now I’m finally going to do it!

Can’t wait to start growing these!

So Spring is my favorite season, although in 6 months I will be saying the same thing about Autumn. But it is SO NICE to be able to have the windows and doors open all day, to be able to hear the birds singing and see flowers everywhere, and it is also nice to not have to wear a jacket 24/7! In Florida spring lasts maybe 2 weeks, and then it’s full on summer until Thanksgiving; but here we actually have 3 months of each season!

Later this week, I will post some more springtime photos. And I promise when I say “later this week” I do mean this week and not two months from now =P

11Feb2013

Updates, Updates, Updates!

Posted in France, Married Life by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

I never posted about New Years Eve, even though I had written up nearly an entire post, but now it just seems too late to post it. HOWEVER, I have some exciting news: WE ARE MOVING! No, not back to the U.S. (not yet, at least). We’re moving to a bigger apartment in a nearby town called Saint Ismier.

We have been really blessed by our current apartment in La Tronche. Matt found it within a week of moving back to France. It was brand new, completely furnished, and in a really nice location. We are in tram or walking distance to everything we need, which was perfect before we had a car. And we live right along the river (plus for Solo) which has a gorgeous view of the mountains (plus for everyone!). Unfortunately, we feel we have outgrown this little studio apartment. While having a dog is a big part of that, I feel that even if it was just the two of us we would still feel the same. It has become a pain having to roll up and pull a cover over our bed every-single-day. It takes “making the bed” to a whole new level. And our new apartment has a small yard so no more having to get dressed and bundled up to take Solo to the park every morning (you can’t just walk out in pajamas here in France…).

So our new place! Here are all the details:

It has a kitchen, living/dining area, separate bedroom, hall closet, and an “American style” bathroom (I call it that because the shower and the toilet are together. Usually over here they are separate).
THERE IS A DISHWASHER! I hate washing dishes. Matt usually does them because he likes to, but if there are any dirty dishes hanging out in the kitchen I feel like the whole place is a disaster zone. So with a dishwasher I shouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.
As I already said, there is a small yard and a nice sized terrace, which is covered.
The apartment is completely brand new. They are still doing construction on the outside buildings, and they haven’t put the grass in the yards yet.
Although we will no longer live within walking distance of Grenoble/the trams, there are plenty of buses around.
There is a grocery store (and a boulangerie) just around the corner, and that’s even better than here because right now I have to walk/ride the tram for 30 minutes to get to the store.
We get the keys on February 20th! I know it’s pretty soon; we found out a few weeks ago but I am just now getting around to blogging and telling everyone about it.

And here are some pictures! The ones from the agency aren’t very good quality but you get the idea.

The kitchen! It comes with a stove/oven and a dishwasher (it’s the small “cabinet” on the far left). Matt’s parents are giving us their old refrigerator too, which will go against the wall on the left.

The front of the apartment. There’s the front door and the hallway, the bathroom door is on the far left, and then you can see most of the living/dining space.

Bedroom picture 1: it’s pretty big! About half the size of our current studio apartment.

Bedroom picture 2: the window…pretty self-explanatory.

Bedroom picture 3: featuring my adorable niece!

Bathroom! There is also a lot of space in front of where the toilet is, and I love the brown tiles (it’s one of our favorite colors).

Another bathroom picture, so you can see the sink area.

A view of the living area and terrace. I am really excited about that door and the yard, and pretty much everything else here too!

A view of the back of the apartment from the yard. They have not yet put the grass in, probably because it’s winter. I’m hoping it will be there in the spring, though.

View of the left side of our yard. If you can make out that white thing near the bottom left of the picture, that’s about where the yard will end. They are going to install some dividing fences soon.

Sorry for the over exposure, but here is a view of the other side of our yard. If you can make out those baby trees, that’s where the other divider fence will be. So it’s a nice little yard!!

And, lastly, here is a view from our building. Like I said they are still doing construction. Everything is brand new!

I will definitely be posting more pictures and apartment updates within the next few weeks, once we’re settled and all. We are so thankful for all that God has provided us with and we are really excited about moving!

18Jan2013

Christmas in France

Posted in France, Holidays, Married Life by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

I know this post is a little overdue, but Matt finally started his new job so I have actually been a bit busy getting back into the routine of things and recovering from all the traveling we did last month. But here is how our Christmas went!

Literally 2 days (more like 36 hours) after getting home from our trip to Disney, we were off to spend a week in St. Sorlin with Matt’s family and with our sister-in-law’s family. Depending on how you celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas in the States, Christmas in France is pretty different. Normally, Matt’s family opens their presents on the 24th (my family does it late Christmas morning), but because some of us didn’t arrive until almost 9pm that night, we waited until the 25th. Instead we ate lots of French finger foods (veggies and small pieces of toast with olives, charcuterie, salmon, and foie gras…not my favorite things) and then played a gag gift exchange game that is sort of like Telephone, but you alternate between writing a sentence and drawing a picture to pass on. It was a lot of fun and since there were 11 of us playing, things were pretty crazy. We voted at the end for “best” gag gift, and the one Matt and I picked out won! It was hideous. The two gifts we got placed second, and we kept them because I love them!

Christmas Eve treats

Christmas ice cream logs

Ok, the top is a deer head magnet, and we hung the ugly ornament around the deer’s antlers. It is currently, and proudly, hanging on our fridge!

We didn’t get to bed until around 1am and then–thanks to our 1-year-old niece–we were up before 6:30…yay! By 8am everyone was up and ready to start opening presents, which took up half of the tiny cabin space. My family, since there are only 5 of us, each take turns opening a present so that everyone can see. I prefer that way, or else I miss out on people’s gifts and reactions and it feels like half the fun is gone! But since there were so many of us, we only went one time around opening one present each and then it was noise and paper everywhere. Matt says that’s how they usually do things, but we take at least 45 minutes to open everything.

Christmas with 12 people = tons of presents!

Some of our gifts: Matt finally got his 3DS that he’d been wanting all year and I got a Monet puzzle with a roll-up matt, a gift card for new clothes (which I desperately need!), some movies, and a snowglobe/music box that Matt bought be from Disney. It plays “I See the Light” from Tangled, which was the song Matt and I danced to at our wedding.

And he forgot about his other presents after he opened this one…

Our niece pushing around the Tigger toy we got her in her brand new stroller! So cute.

It snowed in St. Sorlin, but not nearly as much as in Bourg d’Oisans a month ago, and it was pretty warm so it started turning into slush…but Solo still had a lot of fun! We went sleigh riding, which Solo does not like. Something about us speeding away from him gets him all worked up! We also went skiing a little, and I picked it back up more than I thought I would.

After our week at St. Sorlin we went to visit Matt’s uncle’s family in Gap, where we also went skiing and I had a blast! We went up to where there weren’t many people and where the snow was great and it was the best time I have had while skiing so far. The first couple of times were no fun, but this time was great.

Gorgeous! (Photo credit goes to Matt)

It was hard being away from my family for Christmas, that was the most difficult thing for me, especially since I haven’t seen them since May. But next year we are already planning on being in the States for Christmas! Hope you all had a wonderful time with your families, celebrating your own traditions and having fun spending time with loved ones!

Our 2nd Christmas together!

22Dec2012

DISNEYLAND!!!!!

Posted in France, Married Life, Travel by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Some of you may know, but for our 1st anniversary and Christmas, my parents paid for us to stay at Disneyland Paris for 3 days!! We’re both really big Disney geeks and I hadn’t been to this park yet so I was very excited to see it. It’s not as big as Walt Disney World, but there are some unique attractions there that I absolutely loved. So brace yourselves because this will probably be my longest blog yet (but there will be lots of pictures, too!).

So Paris is about 6 hours north of where we live, which is A LOT of driving time for natives here. In the U.S. 6 hours is nothing. It took 5 hours just to get from FSU to my home in Palm Bay, and I would visit just for the weekends. Taking the train would have been the more time reasonable option, but it is SUPER expensive to take the train: so driving it was! We left just before 7am and arrived at our hotel at 12:30pm. We stayed at a western-themed hotel called Hotel Cheyenne, and it wasn’t bad actually. It hasn’t been renovated in a while, but nothing was falling apart or anything. One of my favorite things about the resorts here in Paris is that they had breakfast that you had to make reservations for, so this actually made us get up early enough to make Extra Magic Hours at 8am. But every night we were so exhausted, we were sleeping by 10:30 at the latest. We stayed in the Kidani Village at Animal Kingdom Lodge when we went to WDW for our honeymoon, but they don’t have breakfast since it’s one of the villas.

You can sort of make out the Christmas decorations.

The parks closed between 6 and 7pm the days we were there, so that gave us about 2 and a half days in the park total. The first day we spent at Disneyland Park, which is just like Magic Kingdom except Tomorrowland is called Discoveryland and they have Sleeping Beauty’s castle instead of Cinderella’s. It rained most of the time we were there but not too hard and Disney is still fun even in the rain. It wasn’t as packed at WDW is at this time of year, so we were able to do our favorite rides multiple times (like Buzz, which we did 5 times!). The castle is gorgeous. It’s smaller but I think it’s prettier than Cinderella’s castle.

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland Paris

Here is a list of some of the most memorable moments for me:

– Stitch Live! I didn’t want to talk about this one first, but it was my favorite thing and I can’t hold back! For those of you who have been to Turtle Talk with Crush at EPCOT, this is basically the same thing except with Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. He talks to adults as much as he talks to the kids, and he picked on me and Matt while we were there! It was hilarious–first he told me I was pretty and then when he found out I’m married he said, “Stand up, Maggie’s husband,” and made Matt get up and fight for me. But Stitch won because Matt couldn’t make two arms pop out from his sides haha. Then Stitch said, “Maggie and Stitch for-ever,” and later when he was leaving he stuck his tongue out at Matt and said that he loved me! It was so much fun, I love those type of attractions.

Not a good picture but the only one I had of Lilo & Stitch was from the cars parade.

– Crush’s Coaster This was their Finding Nemo ride and it was a lot like Space Mountain. First you ride by Nemo and some friends and then you go through the boat with the sharks before you shoot out into the EAC, which is all dark and you twist around in your turtle shell. It was a lot of fun and definitely one of the biggest attractions.

We sat in the back both times that we rode this ride.

– RC Racer This is basically a pirate ship ride but with the race car from Toy Story. I usually hate those rides but this time you’re harnessed in so you don’t move around as much. Even in the rain it was fun!

This was so much fun! We even sat in the front row the second time.

– Sleeping Beauty’s Castle you can actually go into the castle where they tell the story of Sleeping beauty with stained glass and tapestry. They also have a dragon’s lair in the dungeon where you can see Maleficent.

Stained glass windows inside the castle.

The Sleeping Beauty tapestry had lights that twinkled and faded away!

– Star Tours it’s the original ride which was nice to experience again even though the new one in Orlando is incredible.

On our way to Endor!

– It’s a Small World this ride was amazing. It’s newer so it’s prettier and they had it Christmas themed as well. The good thing about Disneyland Paris is that everything is very colorful because it rains a lot here, especially in the wintertime.

Colorful even at nighttime!

– Pirates of the Caribbean this is Matt’s favorite ride and it’s better than the one in Orlando because they have two drops and it goes through the Blue Lagoon restaurant which we were able to eat lunch at on Wednesday. There’s no Jack Sparrow cameo, but they have him at a character spot nearby.

I just love the look he makes here.

Matt and Captain Hook.

– Disney Dreams light show this doesn’t compete with Wishes, but it was amazing in its own way. They are not allowed to do a lot of fireworks here (because the Parisians don’t like it), so they do a mixture with fireworks and a water/light show similar to Fantasmic. It was really nice to see because they do a lot of different songs that they don’t do at WDW, like songs from Hunchback of Notre Dame, Princess and the Frog, Mary Poppins, etc. And Peter Pan and Tinker Bell are the main characters for the park so Pan’s shadow was all over the place. We watched it twice but left while it was starting Thursday night.

It’s blurry, but this is when they were prelighting the castle before the show started.

I loved the twinkling stars all over the place.

During “I’ve Got Friends On the Other Side” – there were gears turning everywhere.

Not the best picture but I really like the fireworks here.

It’s the 20th Anniversary of Disneyland Paris this year.

All in all it was a magical trip and even the downsides (like the awful smelling popcorn that I won’t even write about) were overwhelmed by the fun things (like crepes and being flirted on by Stitch). It was a great vacation and we already started planning our next trip!

Minnie was there for Extra Magic Hours! I loved her dress.

Matt and I in the teacups.

10Dec2012

Retreat Weekend in Bourg d’Oisans!!

Posted in Faith, France, Travel by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

Matt and I are blessed to be apart of a student ministry here in Grenoble called Remix. It’s similar to Chi Alpha (the student group we were apart of in the U.S.), but quite different at the same time because it’s in France. This past weekend we went on a leadership retreat about an hour away in Bourg d’Oisans where we began planning and discussing upcoming events. The most significant thing for me, however, was the time we took at the end of the retreat to encourage and pray for each other. It was moving and interesting because not everyone knows one another very well, but that didn’t keep us from lifting each other up.

During one of the women’s retreats I went to while I was in Chi Alpha we had a night of encouragement too, but there were around 25 of us total, so you can imagine the tear-fest we had!

While we were in Bourg d’Oisans we also got to PLAY IN THE SNOW! And there was tons of it. I’ve been skiing before but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much snow in my life. We’ve been so excited for Solo to be able to play in the snow, because we were absolutely certain that he would love it. And we were right! He played for hours and hours outside by himself, and the best part was that since he couldn’t dig or play in the bushes, he didn’t get dirty. The snow would stick to him in little balls, though, but he would lick them off of himself!

I was all excited about taking pictures but after the first 60 or so I realized that I had somehow set my picture size to SMALL. Like 640×360 pixels small. I was really upset because I had taken some nice photos, but I took a lot more later to make up for it :)

Here are some of the best pictures from this weekend, both small and large (I only took pictures outside):

This is what it looked like before we played in the snow.

His bright blue eyes make this picture perfect!

Solo leading, like always. He actually wasn’t too fond of people riding the sled. When Matt and I went together he ran behind us and barked the whole way.

Me!

Matt after he made a bunch of snow fall of a tree--onto himself ;)

Matt after he made a bunch of snow fall off a tree–onto himself ;)

Herbal Essences Commercial?

Snow puppy!

This was Solo’s stash of firewood…

I love that you can see the curves of the mountains so perfectly!

Beautiful drive home :)

1Dec2012

Discovering Grenoble: K fée des Jeux (Game Cafe)

Posted in France by Maggie @ macarons & paperbacks

So one thing I learned about Matt shortly before we started dating was that he is OBSESSED with games; board games to be exact. Now before I met him, my concept of a board game was Monopoly, Sorry, Life (bleck), Parcheesi, etc. But since knowing Matt, I have discovered that there was this entire world of board games I had no idea about, like Settlers of Catan and World Without End (my personal favorite). On the weekends we spend a lot of time playing board games with friends and family, and it’s a great way to spend time with people.

Earlier this year, we noticed that there was a game cafe in town and Matt has always wanted to go with our good friend Sam. It’s called K fée des Jeux; the French K sounds like “ca” as in cat. This week we finally got an opportunity to try it out, and I honestly have to say it wasn’t my favorite place ever. I had a lot of fun playing games, don’t get me wrong. But the cafe also serves food and drinks and the food was not very good in my opinion. It was really cold the night we went so I just ordered some pea soup…but it tasted more like not-quite-finished baby purée. But the drinks were really good. I got something called “Dragon’s Blood” that was basically a blend of blackberry, raspberry, and orange sirop (for those who don’t know, sirop is basically a highly concentrated flavor that you add to water for a nice drink; it can be fruit, citrus, mint, or even cola flavored), and later we all got hot chocolate with whip cream that really hit the spot.

We had time to play two games, a simple pirate game that wasn’t too entertaining, and a co-op game called Pandemic which was really fun. The basis of Pandemic is that there are 4 epidemics spreading across majors cities in the world and, as a team, every player helps to find the remedy and cure the infected cities. I’ve never played a co-op board game like that and it was nice not having to be extremely competitive with one another. Plus, those types of games are a great team-building activity.

All in all it was a fun experience, but the fact that you have to pay to play the games, plus each person has to buy a food or drink item every hour, made it a little disappointing to me. But Matt really enjoyed it and I’m sure we’ll go back in the future. This time, no pea soup for me!

An instagram collage of our trip to K fée des Jeux.

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Discovering Grenoble: K fée des Jeux (Game Cafe)