Exam in Paris: An Excuse for Another Disneyland Trip!

Sorry for taking so long to post this. I was actually back in Bethesda, MD for two weeks for a CE course, but now I'm back home and just now getting to this blog.

For the last few months, I've told myself that I'm going to apply for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) residency through the Navy this upcoming spring/summer. With that, I have to take, and do decently well, on this exam called the CBSE (Comprehensive Basic Sciences Exam). It's a shortened version of the USMLE Step 1 exam medical students take during their second year of medical school.

Now, I'm about seven years removed from taking any basic sciences, so I spent many months preparing for this test. I registered for the February exam back in early October, and the only testing centers that offered the test on the entire continent of Europe were in Paris and Amsterdam. Katie and I have an upcoming trip to Amsterdam planned for April, so we decided to book for Paris and couple it with another trip to Disney!

So while I spent the last six months studying for this exam, Katie and the dogs enjoyed our early spring weather in the yard so I had a quiet house to myself to cram as much medical knowledge in my brain as possible!

Kammala Restaurant

The week before the exam, Katie and I went to Kammala for dinner to use the gift certificate Mom had bought us for Katie's birthday in September! This gift certificate came in the form of a set menu, where we enjoyed a few of our favorite dishes, in addition to a couple of new dishes we hadn't tried before. Each dish had a wine pairing, which made for a great night!

Katie called this our early celebration for me completing that exam, while I reminded her it really was her birthday gift from my parents. Either way, Kammala never disappoints and the date night was dearly needed after so much focus on studying!

Friday, February 7: Studying to Paris

The week leading up to the exam was like any other week, besides the early mornings studying before work, and spending four hours every evening to cram last-minute. Fortunately, my department head let me leave early on Friday afternoon so that Katie and I could make our 2:55 pm flight to Paris.

Paris Orly Airport

We landed in Paris at 5:25 pm and immediately jumped on the train to check into our hotel.

Sonny’s Pizza

After checking in at Absolute Hotel, we grabbed dinner at Sonny's Pizza just a short walk up the street. Now, it was time to call it an early night!

Saturday, February 8: CBSE Test & Disney Village

Boulangerie Lina

The morning of the exam has finally arrived. As we exited the hotel to begin our walk towards the testing center, we made a pit stop at a nearby bakery to fuel up on coffee and pastries.

Jecid Testing Center

Just a 20-minute walk down the street from our hotel was the Jecid Testing Center. I arrived nearly 45 minutes before my scheduled start time at 10:00 am and was able to begin early.

The CBSE test was comprised of four 50-question sections, each taking an hour and 15 minutes each. I used the entirety of my time and my brain was completely fried afterwards. This was easily the most difficult exam I've ever taken! While I left feeling less than confident, Katie's sister, Kelly, reminded me that if I felt confident then I probably bombed it. Realistically, I just hope to get a competitive-enough score for my application later this spring.

Sejours et Affaires Residence Hoteliere Rive Gauche

Immediately following the exam, I met Katie waiting outside for me in the courtyard! Test done, now it's time to celebrate at DISNEY!

We immediately jumped on the nearest metro and began the hour-long journey east of Paris to our hotel near Disneyland. Around 4:00 pm, we dropped our bags and made our way to Disney Village!

Five Guys & Disney Village

After staring at the map and trying to figure out where we wanted to eat, Five Guys immediately caught my eye! Katie let me pick the famous American joint as a final reward for making it through that test! We each got a burger and shared some fries, a soda, and an Oreo peanut butter milkshake.

Now that we were stuffed, it was time to walk around Disney Village. We spent the next couple of hours wandering the stores. As we were perusing, we noticed cast members were wearing lanyards decked out in pins for trading!

When we were here last April with Mom and Dad, we saw absolutely no pin trading happening at the parks. Katie and I had packed our huge pin trading book on that trip, and since we assumed there would be little-to-no pin trading again, Katie only brought 10 pins to trade.

The cast members were not only pin trading, they were even trading the huge pins that they were selling in the stores for $10+! Easy to say, Katie and I were going to be disappointed to only have brought 10 pins! We walked through all of Disney Village and left with six giant Disneyland Paris pins to add to our collection- and we still have two full days in the park ahead of us!

Sunday, February 9: Disneyland Paris

The next morning we made the 20-minute walk from our hotel to the entry of Disneyland Paris, where we transformed from 30-year-old adults back into 10-year-olds with freedom in the Most Magical Place on Earth!

We entered the park right at opening and immediately started our morning with classic rides like Hyperspace Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril.

Restaurant Agrabah Café

One thing Katie and I complained about during our last trip to Disneyland was the lack of good counter-service food options. This time around, Katie made us lunch reservations at table-service restaurants for both days in each of the parks. At 1:00 pm we made it to our lunch reservation at Restaurant Agrabah Cafe where we enjoyed a delicious Moroccan lunch! This definitely beat a counter-service restaurant because the food was amazing and it was nice to relax our legs in the warmth.

Immediately after lunch, we made our way to the back of the park to Fantasyland to ride It's a Small World. Within Fantasyland was a small Christmas market with numerous stalls set up. Of course I had to grab a mulled wine! I was slightly disappointed when I discovered that Disney wasn't selling a unique Christmas market mug like many of the other markets Katie and I have visited. They need to step up their European Christmas Market game; Disney could sell a ton of collectible mulled wine mugs!

As we headed back towards Mainstreet USA to find a place for the 5:00 pm parade, we walked through Sleeping Beauty's Castle to check out Maleficent in dragon-form!

Disney Stars on Parade

At 5:00 pm we enjoyed Disney Stars on Parade where we got to see all of our favorite Disney characters. Katie knows how to time a shot pretty quickly with her phone camera, while I had to endure women holding phones over my shoulder and right in my face to try and attempt similar pictures. Some people just don't understand personal space.

Disney Tales of Magic

After a few more hours of rides, it was finally time for Disney Tales of Magic, an amazing drone and fireworks show! Immediately following the show, Katie and I were wiped out from a packed day, so it was time to head back to the hotel to rest up before another exciting day tomorrow.

Check out this video clip of the show! Katie did her best to try and get videos around all of the parents putting their kids on their shoulders in the middle of the street! I will say, it was cool to be farther back from the castle, where we could see the same castle projections on the Main Street buildings too!

Monday, February 10: Walt Disney Studios Park

The following morning we were back in line at 9:30 am for Paris's other park, Walt Disney Studios! First thing this morning, we headed straight towards Avengers Campus where we rode Spider-Man WEB Adventure and Avengers Assemble: Flight Force. Web slinging sure does count as an arm workout, while Flight Force is the Avengers version of Rockin'Roller Coaster at Disney World! Both are excellent rides!

PYM Kitchen

At 12:00 pm it was time for our lunch reservation at PYM Kitchen, themed after Marvel's Ant-Man. At this restaurant, the PYM particle has been used to shrink some food options, while making others giant-sized; just like how Ant Man shrinks and grows in the films. The restaurant served giant sandwiches, tiny burgers, drinks in beakers, and salt & pepper in test tubes. This was an awesome restaurant and Katie and I loved the theme!

Immediately after lunch, it was time to hit the rest of the major attractions in Walt Disney Studios: The Hollywood Tower of Terror, Crush's Coaster, and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. Before heading back over to Disneyland Paris, we made sure to ride our favorite ride of the two parks, Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, one more time!

The weather has held off up to this point...it was supposed to start raining at noon and instead started sprinkling as we left Flight Force at 3:30 pm. A few extra dry hours were nice, considering it rained our entire visit with Mom and Dad last April.

Around 3:30 pm we made our way back to Disneyland Paris to ride Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain. A little drizzle is bearable, but by the time we entered the outside queue for Buzz Lightyear's Laser Blast it was full on raining. Our wool coats absorbed all the water and we were quite miserable by the time we actually got on the ride.

Seeing that the weather was only going to get worse, we decided to end our day a little early, heading back to the train station around 6:30 pm, but not before doing some more pin trading in the shops on Main Street USA.

Exhausted, at 7:00 pm we were on the train towards our hotel near the Paris Orly Airport.

Hotel ibis Budget Paris Coeur d'Orly Airport

After an hour and a half train ride, we finally made it to our hotel, exhausted and hungry. Fortunately, Katie and I have similar cravings after a long train ride, shivering wet, so I ordered us Domino's delivery to the hotel while we took turns showering and watching our pizza tracker. After our late-night dinner, it was time for bed!

February 11: Homeward Bound

We were up very early the next morning to make our 6:05 am flight back to Sevilla. We made it back home around 10:00 am where we were greeted by the always precious Hugo and Reynolds!

Thanks for tuning along on our second journey to Disneyland Paris. We'll be sure to keep everyone posted on the oral surgery application process this summer! Say a prayer for us!

Santé!

Bryan