Paris (and summer in Finland)

For all of those who have prayed, hoped and wished for warm weather to make its way to Finland, thank you, it has. Now if we could work on a little AC up in here, that’d be really cool (no pun intended). I am so thankful for and loving all this warm weather and sunshine that we’ve been getting, really I am. Everyone is happy, people are out and about and picnics are happening all over the city. It’s the best. But when it’s 80+ outside and you have to be inside, with no AC, well let’s just say if it weren’t for the mosquitos I’d be sleeping in the forest. When the wind blows our door closed, I sprint to prop it back open to prevent an immediate pool of sweat and suffocation. I have my fly swatter (thanks mom) ready at all times in case one of those annoying creatures tries to sneak their way through the open windows and doors. But I know that sooner than I care to admit the chilling winds will be back again and open windows won’t even be an option, so I’m going to turn that fan on high and keep reminding myself that it’s better than frozen eyelashes.

So a little over a month ago we took a trip to Paris for a week with Scott’s parents. I’m going to blame the fact that I’m just now writing about it on the mere three weeks that I’ve spent in Joensuu since the beginning of June AND my little motivation to do anything that involves my legs sticking to a chair while staring at a computer. Yep, that’s my excuse. My idea of Paris was pretty much the same one that is portrayed on TV. Beautiful, wonderful, romantic…just about everything perfect squished into one city. There’s so much hype around the city that I thought there was no way it could live up to my (and many people’s) expectations. But as cliché as it sounds, I did kind of fall just a little bit in love with the city. The museums, churches and Eiffel Tower are all amazing, but what I really loved was the everyday kind of stuff. Like the millions of cafés lining every street, filled with people enjoying the weather and good company. And the parks, or just dots of green, for people to bring their picnics of baguettes, cheese and a bottle of wine (yes, that actually happens in real life). Oh, and all the buildings. I just couldn’t get enough of the white-grayish old buildings that give the city it’s relaxed, romantic feel. It also didn’t hurt that we had near perfect weather the entire time we were there, which really makes everything better. I don’t know what it is about the city. You can do nothing except sit at a café and people-watch, and at the end of the day you still feel like you’ve had a pretty solid day. But that’s what’s so great about it.